We recently took the kids to the state fair. I think it would have been cheaper to go to Disney. Jake & Jordan were addicted to all the carnival games & fun houses. We went to the pretty zoo and the exotic creatures exhibit. The kids got to pet a giraffe that looked as old as my grandmother (but they enjoyed it). Stevie & Joey went with us. We had a great day of riding rides, spending too much to pop balloons & fabolous people watching.

Triple J Video

PJ may be famous soon! They are trying to sell this tv show so it will become a series. This would be the pilot. As much as PJ hates to have his "stuff" broadcast on the internet, I think he is enjoying this one.

Jordan had her sixth b-day party at build-a-bear in the Florida mall. I gladly took cake, presents, etc to Orlando not to have a birthday party at the house - YEAH JORDAN!!!!! Everyone got to pick an animal to stuff, bath and dress. Jordan picked a Hannah Montana bear. When you squeeze it's paw it plays "the best of both world's". The kids got very creative with their animals. Christian made a cat dressed as a fisherman - how appropriate is that??? David made a Hockey player bunny rabbit - who would think of such except for a six year old. Jordan had a great time at her party and we even did a little shopping afterwards. Thanks to everyone for making it a great day!

Angels

We have a long running joke in our family that my sister and I have an army of Angels that protect us and our belongings, such as a key angel, wallet angel, cell phone angel, etc. These angels are quite busy with me and my sister. We lose things, forget where they are, hide things for safe keeping never to be found again. Our overworked angels tend to take vacations from time to time, like the time my key angel took some time off and I lost my car keys the night before the FL/Georgia game. I stayed up until 3 am with the Triple A man that had to make a replacement from scratch. Or who knows where the driver's license angel was when PJ and I drove Linda's car to New Orleans and had to fly home. Luckily (prior to 911) Delta let me on the plane with a combination of social security card, insurance card, Sam's Club card (it had a picture) and a very old id (with my maiden name) PJ still carries in his wallet to this day. The point of all this is that I believe my cell phone angel is on extended leave in Bermuda. I am currently on my third cell phone this year. My original phone I left in Nebraska and had to have it fedexed back to Florida. This phone met it's demise when I dropped it in the toilet in our hotel room at the National Championship game. The replacement phone is the one pictured below that I dropped on a rock in the parking lot of Gators Dockside in Highlands City two weeks later. Three days and two trips to the apple store in Orlando later, I have another new phone. Today is the one week mark and so far no mishaps but all I can say is I hope my angel has enjoyed her vacation but it's time TO GET BACK TO WORK!

Jake & I have been diligently working on the "Falcon". We are now on page 113 - over a third of the way there!!!! I was beginning to think that it would never resemble the famed star wars ship but as you can see we are headed in the right direction. We have been watching the Australian Open while working - Jake asked if there was an Australian closed??? If only I could look at things so logically. Now we are going to watch the Star Wars series starting with Episode IV. I can still remember watching it in the theater with my cousin Christy reading the words - A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away....

Ok I have decided that the lego company needs an overhaul. After another evening of watching tennis and putting together the Millennium Falcon I have come to the conclusion that the Lego company is a group that likes specials in torturing parents. Papa gave Jake the "falcon" as a b-day present, never mind the fact that is recommended for ages 16 and older. How hard can it be to put together a lego set??? Instead of making it harder to put the lego set together, they make it impossible to find the pieces. So if you or I were manufacturing a set with over 5000 pieces wouldn't you think that we would organize the pieces in some brilliant manner that would streamline the assembly process? That is too logical for Lego. The age recommendation really means that maybe a sixteen year old will have the patience to dig through 5000 pieces to find princess leia's hair (which by the way is not in the same bag as her body or her head which is in still another bag). Jake and I find ourselves jumping for joy and doing the happy dance when we find the dark gray corner piece that we have to have in order to move on to page 45 - I mean really dancing over finding the lego piece. So here is my question do I spend two days organizing the pieces by color and size to make the process more efficient or do I relish the time I am spending with my son and dance a little longer the next time we find our " needle (lego) in a haystack"

Jake and I have taken on building the biggest lego set ever made. Last night we started building the Millennium Falcon, it has over 5000 pieces. We made it to page 23 of the 300 page instruction manual. Today we our progress to us to page 40 - I think we will be at it for a while. We will keep you updated and definately post proud pictures of the finished product.