Nine Years A Floridian!

Apparently we've lived in Florida for nine years. That's like the epitome of 'time flies when you're having fun.' 

And every year on March 18, we celebrate our arrival in the state, because it's important to celebrate the life-changing moments, especially when they turn out as good as this has. Our plan is always to do something very Floridian, which since it's March is just about anything outside. (It's GORGEOUS here lately. It's kind of like Ohio summers, and I love it.) Today we headed out to Adventure Island. We haven't had Busch Gardens/Adventure Island passes in a few years, but there was a super good deal when you bought a fun card (admission for the rest of the year), the water park came free. Plus, I got my AAA discount. Now, the fun cards don't include any of the perks or parking, and for the boys that's just fine. (It was $80 a kid! What a deal!) But, Asa and I got the full passes for all the benefits, it's worth it in parking alone. The boys are thrilled, and while they did really want to go to Busch Garden's today, we decided against it since things are much busier around here with Spring Break (Pasco county is on break, I discovered this when I went to the store mid-day yesterday and there were people EVERYWHERE!) 

Anyway, the water is still cold by Florida standards, but you got used to it pretty fast, and we had lots of fun cliff jumping, water sliding, and such. 

And I got to use my new Hawaii towel! 

We always have a cookout on our Florida anniversary, and instead of naming our favorite part of the day (like we do every night), we name our favorite thing about living in Florida. 

And there's always a serious smores bar to follow. Today is actually Grover Cleveland's birthday (but we're celebrating tomorrow) and his favorite desert was Snicker-doodles, so we added some in as a nod to him since it is his official birthday today. 

I had a snicker doodle smore with strawberries, and it was AMAZING. 

Yesterday we celebrated Saint Patricks Day with some Irish inspired owl mail. 

Now, you'll see a lack of Peyton in the following pictures, we had some issues and he didn't get to partake. He's come around, but is grounded for a bit here. I felt terrible he missed out on the fun events because he didn't do his work like he was supposed to, but sometimes you have to be the bad guy (even if it totally sucks). 

Anyway, we powered ahead (changing out plans slightly and foregoing one half of Cleveland's birthday celebration). The STEM project this month was to build a leprechaun trap. 

Hayden built a jail type contraption. 

And Calib lured his in with a gold bed, before yanking the bed out.. 

and capturing the leprechaun. 

Of course they both had some to color and cut out. 

After they were down with their owl mail they had a scavenger hunt to find their pot of gold (or green). I just copied the hunt from pinterest. I didn't have to do anything but print it out and hide the clues. So, off they went. 

And the ended up with all kinds of green snacks. 

We're also growing some clovers and hoping to get a four-leaf one. I ordered this kit on Amazon, and it had all kinds of bad reviews because people were mad they didn't get four-leaf clover seeds (as if that were a thing). It's not like a special seed or something, it's just something that happens to some clovers. 

My family isn't a corned beef and cabbage kind of group, but we tried to stay festive with a green dinner. We had green grapes and pesto pasta with peas (not only festive, but alliteration too!) 

In other news, we've all filled out our brackets. Winner gets to pick somewhere for us all to go out to eat. 

Oh, and worth noting.. these two. Sophs and Dipper are just the best of buds. I love it. 

Next Up: I'll see you tomorrow for (Stephen) Grover Cleveland's Birthday!