Pajama Monster

Now what would Christmas break be without a little craftin?? NO FUN that's what!!Well my niece found this super fun Pajama Eaters tutorial so of course we had to make it!! Since neither one of us are particularly good sewers we called in an expert, Grandma Fowler!!She made an example for us and then we gathered our supplies, she headed over with her machine and we got to work. I wasn't very good about taking pics at the beginning...sry!Here we have after we have attached the body and head to the mouth, which includes a zipper, and also added the eyes which we used Steam-a-Seam for.

Adding the lining...

Getting arms and legs all sewn up!

Here are our Pajama Eaters with the arms attached...not too bad!

Sewing on the legs, this was a little tricky, but not terrible. You just have to concentrate!

Here we all are with our complete Pajama Eaters!! I LOVE how they turned out and the kids can't wait to use them!

Thanks Grandma Fowler for your help and sewing expertice!

Watch out Pajamas...here we come!!

Want to make your own Pajama Monster, then head over to see Jodi and she'll show you the way! (And A LOT of other fun stuff too!!)

Boing!!

Going on vacation is always fun because you get to see new places meet new people and try new things. Another bonus for us was that we were with family who knew all the fun places to go!One of those places was BOING!

I am not going to lie, this place looked awesome, it is full of trampolines!! They even have Dodgeball...AWESOME! 

Barbara Manatee

The whole time we were in Florida the weather was SPECTACULAR!!! It was perfect, but toward the end it chilled only slightly...which was to our advantage.We decided on one of these days to take the kids to Tampa Electric to their free manatee viewing site. The manatee swim into the inlet when the water is below 68 degress. They have an online camera that you can control so we used that before we hit the road...in our preview there were a TON so we got ready and left! When we got there Emmah was excited...Jake not so much, but as we began to see some he joined in the excitement! We went out on the long dock and saw some there, then headed in after a bit.We then saw there was another viewing dock and thought we should head up there...when we got there you could see 50 or more of them...it was AWESOME!! There were baby ones and rather large ones as well.Here's a little video of our manatee fun:

This free slideshow design customized with Smilebox It was fun and free!! What an awesome experience!

Swim Time

My kids hit the pool the first day we arrived and pretty much every day we were there!! 

Swimming in the hot tub...although they really didn't have to!

I think what made this even better was the fact that it was December!!

Frosting

Now everybody knows that once you bake cookies you just have to decorate them...so of course we got out the frosting, sprinkles and went to town!! 

Tim "x" marks the spot!! Gotta love the Michigan cookie cutter!!

Emmah thinking closely about what to add next!

Pure concentration!!

Even the BIG kids got into it!

I have to say I love to decorate cookies...it's so much fun and I LOVE to what creative ideas will come out!

Oceans of fun!

Okay really it was the Gulf...yesterday we traveled a little southwest to stop and see my dad at his place. It was fun, since we didn't tell the kids where we were going just that Jill was leading us on an adventure. Jake knocked on the door and was a little shocked to see Grandpa...it was funny, he even jumped back!! After visiting awhile we headed to lunch at one our favorite spots, Sweet Tomatoes. We sooooo need to get one of these in Michigan. It's so YUMMY! Then we headed to Clearwater Beach so the kids could see the Gulf. It was fairly warm, but I didn't know how much swimming there would be....not sure why I questioned that. The minute we got suits on and headed for the water they were in!! They had fun jumping the waves, playing in the sand, collecting shells and just splashing! All in all, it was a nice day! Next on the agenda....cookies!!

This photo album personalized with Smilebox

Family Fun

Well the warm weather is here and we are enjoying every bit of it! The kids have been swimming everyday since we arrived and there is so much fun yet to be had. Our list of activities is long and we can't wait!

1. Legoland
2. Swimming
3. Disney Quest
4. Beach
5. Cookie Baking
6. Santa Visit

And of course some game time with family! The memories we will make will last a lifetime and we can't wait!!