Adventure Aquarium

Maddie and Jeff both had off for Martin Luther King Jr day, so we took advantage and decided to check an item off of our bucket list before we moved.  We heard great things about Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey. 

 

We set out as early as we could. Maddie had no clue where we were going. She kept guessing the whole way up. She has a love/hate relationship with surprises just like me. 

It took about two hours to get there. It was super cold. I think the temp was 17 degrees, but it was incredibly windy. We instantly had tears running down our faces. Jackson and I have been dealing with a sinus issues and he had snot rolling down his face. Who knows, maybe I did too. I waited outside to get tickets and let them get inside where it's warmer. It turns out it wasn't much warmer where they had to stand, but at least they didn't have to deal with the wind. 

We ate lunch and then started looking around. We started with the hippos. Maddie loved being right in front of them. 

I told her to give me the "ahhhh! He's going to eat me" pose. This is what I got! Haha we will have to work on that. 

It was really cool to walk through the shark tunnel that they had. 

Maddie got to touch baby shark. She loved it. We couldn't pull her away. 

She was so excited that she touched them and wanted to show daddy who was getting Jackson settled in to his stroller again. 

Little blue penguins 

It was just too much fun for him! Haha. 

This was in another touch zone. She got to touch several starfish and other things while we were there throughout the day. 

Sting rays! She got to touch several sting rays while we were there. She waited and waited until the giant one came around and she got to pet it. 

It finally came around. 

The aquarium was a great place for kids. It had a lot of hands on touching for animals. A nice play area. Lots of great information. 

We had a lot of fun. On our way home, we stopped at Cabelas and Cracker Barrel. The Kiddos were tired after a nice long, but fun day. 

This will be a day to remember. :) 

Until next time.. Have fun, be safe, and enjoy life. 

Lori 

My new hobby

For Christmas, I wanted to make my local friends their present. I came across the idea and loved it! I knew I had to do it. 

I made these and knew I wanted to make more and see if I could possibly sell them. I got feedback from friends and decided to give it a go. I got all of the items, made a few, posted it on the local pages, and sold 4 in one day. FOUR out of the 5 that I had and that was after a family friend asked me to make her one. I was so excited. Nothing was ruining my mood that day. I was too happy for that. Who knew something that I really enjoyed doing could sell. 

For a LSU loving family 

This is mine that is hanging in the living room. 

Right side of my wall. Don't worry. I have a picture to fill up the blank space, I just need to grab a bigger frame. 

After that, I ventured out with new fabric and bows. 

I am really enjoying this. Jeff has been a big helper with staining and cutting my wood for me. Its been cold and he's been a trooper with it all. 

It's such a good feeling to be back at crafting again. 

Until next time..  Have fun, be safe, and enjoy life. 

Lori 

Crafting lately

I used to craft quite often before kids. I would just sit down and a couple hours later I would have all of my crafting done. The ideas and mood to craft flowed easily. Now, I have to be in the mood and have a project all ready for me to go before I can actually sit down and do it. It's sad honestly. I haven't done much crafting because of it. 

Well, I wanted to make something for my friends. Something I would love to have and I know they would love just as much. I found the fabric cross on wood and knew I had to do it! I had so much fun with it. I had Jeff's help with these and I think they turned out amazing. 

My friends loved them. I couldn't wait to hang mine up in the wall. I knew I wanted to continue making them. So I have decided to start selling them. Let's hope other people love it as much as me. 

Another project I had been wanting to try was string art. Since Jeff took away my shelving and tv center on on the tv wall, I needed to fill up a bunch of space. We bought some cute decor, hung up my fabric cross, and my new project. My living room is birds and different pattern. So, my first string art was a bird on a blue board to tie in with my living room colors. I love how it turned out. I am doing Texas and Maryland next to represent the birth states of the kiddos. 

I am really excited. :) It feels so good to be crafting again. 

Until next time...  Have fun, be safe, and enjoy life! 

Lori

New Year's Eve

This New Year's Eve was a lot of fun! Last year, Maddie got to stay up and celebrate. This year, I made sure it was a little more special. She didn't really get to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas like we would have if she hadn't been sick. So, I planned a lot of different things to do to keep the fun alive and going until the new year arrived. I let the two of them pick appetizers that sounded good to them and made them. I had games prepared and Maddies special drink ready to go. I can say it was a big success in her eyes. :) 

We started out with crab crescent rolls, mini taco bites, black bean layer dip, pineapple and kielbasa bites, and blackberry and goat cheese bites. I also had a cheese plate out, as well.  All of it was so good! Most of them were my first time making again and I will without a doubt be making those again :) 

Maddie loved the blackberry and goat cheese crackers. It was topped with some honey and they are divine. Jeff really enjoyed the crab crescents the best. Personally, I couldn't choose. The blackberry goat cheese was really good because it was so fresh, but those crab crescents were amazing. 

After we ate, I pulled out some empty tissue boxes and belts and little plastic balls to play a minute to win it game. That was hilarious to watch. Maddie and Jeff went first. The point of the game was to get the ball(s) out of your tissue box which was sitting above your bottom. I recorded them, so unfortunately I don't have any pictures to share of that. But let me tell you, I will never forget this new year night. Maddie won the first round. The second round was me vs. Maddie. Somehow, with two balls in my box and one in hers, I beat her and had both of the balls out within seconds. I guess I have the right moves. Ha. Jeff went against me in the next round. He lost. He complained he was going to throw up. Maybe we shouldn't have played that game right after dinner. Haha. 

I had a few more minute to win it games kid version for us to play. Those were pretty funny to watch, too. There was a cookie game that they enjoyed. They each started with a cookie on their forehead. They had to get the cookie into their mouth without using their hands. I'm surprised I didn't have crumbs everywhere. Jeff eventually got his cookie in his mouth. 

We played Life after that. Maddie loves that game. It took longer than normal. Because we somehow kept getting low numbers when it was our turn to spin. It was still a fun time. 

We played a few rounds of dominoes which daddy smoked us on. We had the tv on, so occasionally we would watch the performances. 

We facetimed my parents and brother right before our New Years. We poured our special drink- Sprite, cherry grenadine, and cherries and cheered to the new year! Then we called it a night. Maddie was set to stay up longer though. 

Jackson did pretty good. He stayed up until 9 before he was done for. Luckily, he got the memo and we all slept in the next morning. 

Enjoy the pictures! 

This was her cookie eating game.

Our Life challenge 

Can't ring in the new year without our year glasses!! 

Countdown began 

Until next time... Have fun, be safe, and enjoy life! 

Lori