Life as a Brandtito

Cupcake Commander Nothing like a cupcake after a final victory?? (Let's be honest, any time is a good time for a cupcake) The girls finished up their first softball season last Thursday. We brought cupcakes for the team to celebrate! The girls won their final game  & many victory chants and chants of general awesomeness were shouted after the game. The girls team took second place overall (Aunt Mikey's team took First) but we missed the awards ceremony due to it being rescheduled the same day as their final Girl Scout meeting of the year. The girls chose GS's as they've had to miss out on several events due to softball games. They got a slew of new badges (yay for badges to sew...) and Annabelle is now an offical BROWNIE :)

The catches!      My bestie's birthday is at the end of May & John's is at the begining. What better way to celebrate getting older, than a Salt Water Fishing trip? We started this tradition last year, and it was even better this go round (not throwing up the whole trip really does a lot to pump up the enjoyment level). My 2 favorites + friends, open ocean, & the option to come home with a cooler of fresh fish...sounds like WINNING to me. Big Catch # 1       We didn't bring home as MANY fish this year, but I caught my 2 biggest fish ever!! It started out as a frustrating situation as since we were on a charter the majority of the people on board were strangers. A group who obviously knew the crew of the boat brought their own gear and bait to fish for Amberjack. The problem with that is that Amberjack are famous for weaving...and when you've got a billion lines in the water...weaving creates a major problem. The unsuspecting Amberjack must have

Fresh cut, ice cold watermelon & a swimming pool...Life just doesn't get much better.

Here's a few shots of the girls enjoying some swimming this afternoon in the bay with friends... Ready to Jump In  Lukey  Colin :) Lil Mermaids

Yes, all smart breakfasts include a brownie I took Annabelle for her special breakfast this morning & her choice was Chick Fil A. While I waited for our order, she stretched her legs with a little ballet dancing in the playground area.....demonstrating the main difference between her and Heaven. Annabelle revels in being a child while Heaven is eager to be 16. Oh what a difference a year makes. Annabelle topped off her Chick'n mini meal with a brownie. She assured me, it would definitely give her that little something extra she needed to show her test who's in charge. Heaven's teacher emailed me yesterday and said she did VERY well on the reading portion of her test. She takes her math portion today.

This morning I took Heaven to breakfast at Waffle House. We were supposed to be sharing.....she got this....and I got the waffle that came with it. She shares breakfast like I share cupcakes. Today she starts her DEA testing...which will measures her growth for the year & indicates whether or not she is ready for 3rd grade...is the BIG TEST for non FCAT takers. Heaven has her testing today and tommorrow while Annabelle will have hers on Thursday & Friday. I wanted to do something special for their first day of testing so tomorrow AB will get a special breakfast. John will take Gav for a special breakfast on Friday...just to be sure he's not left out. We are still waiting on Gavin's FCAT scores to come back. I'm hoping maybe we'll get them some time next week!!

There are 3 things you can always find an abundance of in the Brandt household...Love, Prayers, and Heinz ketchup. I was pleased as punch to see Annabelle douse her black eyed peas in ketchup as her seasoning of choice at dinner tonight. I grew up putting ketchup on EVERYTHING. Of course, I usually did this as a method to choke down whatever my mom cooked for dinner, however I'm sure this was not the case for Annabelle :) Now I am not a grocery snob, infact much to John's displeasure the majority of groceries in our home are the result of a deal of some sort. You wanted Coco Puffs? Oh well because Coco Crisps were BOGO and so close your eyes and pretend they're the same? Oh, you wanted a REAL lunchable? Well tough cookies because Smunchables (or whatever the official off-brand name for lunchables may be) were $10 for $10...and when you're talking circular ham and crackers, well there's really just not a big difference in quality. There are only 3 things I am

When I was little, I always imagined finding treasure...undiscovered Egyptian tombs filled with gold, shipwrecks carrying crates of diamonds from Africa, buried pirates booty with untold riches and jewels. Nothing was too grand for my imagination. In fact, for years and years I wanted to be an archaeologist. I mean, you get to travel the world while playing in dirt from sun up to sun down. I cannot fathom why more children do not dream of this career path. As part of Pensacola's 5 Flags Fiesta celebration, Bayview park hosted a free treasure hunt this weekend for those lucky enough to be 10 and under. I'm not gonna lie, I did consider tossing on some play clothes and donning pig tails in hopes of passing under the radar...but my maturity won out and I settled for responsible parent instead ::sigh:: So Saturday morning me, the girls & Ava-Relli loaded up to see what treasure we could round up. John and Gavin opted to spend Saturday at the ball fields (which sounds ju

Here are a few shots from the Mothers Day project we put together for the Moms this year... This is what happens when you try and rush a photo shoot with children to escape a rain shower (that never comes)....and then you rush them back to the car, and rush to leave the national seashore before the rain....and THEN you check the pictures you took. Sigh. Needless to say, we made a U turn.

Seriously, how can you not love these faces??? Happy Mothers Day to all you amazing Moms out there!!! I hope you all had a wonderful Mothers Day! I sure did :) John brought me breakfast in bed (which involved him researching how to make french toast via iPad while cooking...bonus points) and the mini's showered me with love and presents :) And if there's anything I know, it's that you can't go wrong with love & presents!! They got me an orchid (which I am going to take very good care of and NOT kill), a handmade calendar, a wonderfully over decorated cake, cards, and special silhouette pictures. I slept in gloriously late, and then went to Target...all by myself and just wandered the aisles. It was Heavenly. Gabe joined us for an afternoon at swimming at Nana's. All the kids are being brave diving board divers now...even Ava. The weather was perfect and I throughly enjoyed relaxing by the pool. Well...relaxing by the pool as much as possible with multipl

It has been a wonderfully rainy Saturday. We spent the majority of the day today holed up indoors in cozy clothes watching movies and trash TV. As a whole, it was blissful. Sure the kids were BORED ( I know, because they told me about 65 Bazillion times) but nothing beats a rainy afternoon movie marathon & an excuse to wear gym clothes all day long. Well...not much does anyway. Before the downpour started we ventured out to Art in the Park. Heaven was *so excited*. She loves art and was thrilled to have a chance to see "real" artwork and talk with some "real" artists ( I was a little offended she does not consider me a part of this "real" artist list...I mean, she's seen what I can do with some glitter glue). Mr. Eric Cobb was at the top of her list. He's been a Bestie of mine for years and is amazingly talented. If you're in the market for some palette knife artwork, you should check out his fabulousness  for yourself. Totally not the

Happy 33rd! Happy 33rd Birthday to my wonderful husband! In celebration of John's big day we headed to La Ha (somewhat kid's choice) with the fam. Who can resist a place where you are forced to wear an oversized hat while the staff sings a Birthday song you can't truly understand?? Not this family. Since I feel my husband deserves the best....and I have no problem admitting I am far from the best cook...I decided that a bakery cake was probably the way to go. John requested red velvet cake (even though I pushed for chocolate) & we opted to represent 33 as 3 candles & 3 candles to avoid covering the cake completely with candles....