Snowing during Spring Break!!

This morning we attended a time share sales presentation. Rhett and I are a little weird in the fact we kinda like going to these....any time we re on vacation and we get an offer we usually go! One day we will buy a timeshare of some sort, so we like to see what all the different companies offer....and we like the freebies so for 2 hours of our time today we got breakfast (the whole family ate) the kids got to play at the kids club and then we got 5 tickets to the indoor waterpark that we were planning to go to anyways (tickets cost 20 a piece...so thats a savings of $100) we also got a $25 gift card to TGIFridays, and two nights free at any of their hotels. It was a nice property, we're just not in the market! And of course you can buy timeshares through internet resellers for 10% of the price that they sell them at these presentations.

It has snowed on and off all day today, which is fabulous as far as the kids are concerned. We came back to our condo this afternoon and swam, we just popped popcorn and are just hanging out. It certainly has been nice to relax. Tomorrow we will spend the day at the indoor waterpark, which should be fun!

On Vacation!

YAY!! It's Spring Break. We left Lafayette on Friday around noon, drove to Meridian MS and hung out with my Dad for the evening, and yesterday we drove to Gatlinburg.  I haven't been here since I was 3 or so...and it sure has changed in 27 years...but we are enjoying it. We are staying up top the mountain, and where we are is very remote. It's nice to have peace and quiet with ammenity mayhem lying only 15 minutes away. Today we rode the sky tram up to the mountain top, walked around down town, did the skyview chairlift, swam at our resort, and now at around 6pm our kids are all in there pajamas and we enjoyed a "homecooked" pizza and salad dinner.

Beautiful Weather!

This was a week or so ago, feeding the ducks at the park! We are enjoying the beautiful weather!

Grandparents Day

Here's a pic of Aly with some of her classmates...she's right around the same age as all of them...just taller.

Here's a picture of my Dad better known as "PaPa" and Aly at Grandparent's day. An event that was enjoyed by both!

Busy, Busy

It's been a busy few weeks. I ve been teaching a few nights a week, as well as a full day during the week, as well as keeping up with school, kids etc. Last Friday it was Grandparents Day, my Dad came down and attended all of the events at Aly's school. The boys happened to be out of school for teacher inservice that same day so they all got some good "PaPa" time. I ll post pictures tomorrow from Grandparents Day and the last few weeks.

The weather has been fabulous, just a little rain here and there. The kids have all been in great moods, and it really has been just a good couple of weeks. Aly went for her first sleepover last night, and is of course excited about that. The boys in turn got a fun time with Dad all alone, and went to Home Depot for the kids clinic this morning and both built some pretty fierce race cars. Pictures coming soon!

We got some cool news from Idaho. Reece (Rhett's brother) adopted his two stepsons...so although we always viewed them as nephews...they now also carry the Theobald last name. So we are happy that those legal proceedings went the way Reece, Kelli and the kids wanted them to!

Thankful for Mardi Gras!

If you would have told me several years ago before we moved here that I would be thankful for Mardi Gras I would have laughed long and hard and told you that you were crazy. Here's my thinking on the matter... Any holiday which grants me three days of no school where time with your family is in encouraged is great in my book! Saturday we got up as a family a little early packed a picnic lunch and headed to the parade route we lucked into a parking spot that we could back the car into pop the hatch and "camp out" a few feet from the parade baracades. The kids played crazy eights, blew bubbles, and people watched until the parade began. Once the parade started it was raining beads, cups and stuffed animals. All three of the kiddo's were catching as fast as they could and loved every minute of it. We returned home around 3 in the afternoon, where everyone took naps. It was a fun day.
On Tuesday, Rhett had to work :( but the kids and I headed down to the parade route again found a great spot and hung out for the day. We had a picnic, the kids played hacky sack, drew with sidewalk chalk (which some fellow paradegoers so nicely shared) blew bubbles etc. Again once the parade started they had a blast, and were thankful for some great people around us that would catch and give to them, when one of them caught something there was always someone who gave them a high five and told them "good job". The day certainly was long (3 parades in one day) we got there around 8:15am and stayed til around 4pm.

I know public intoxication, and indecency sometimes abounds at such events, but we were quite lucky. Although we did see people drinking, none were doing so irresponsibly, no one was rude, it truly was a good community experience. Lafayette Mardi Gras seems to be laid back and perfect for families. We did observe a good number of police officers specifically walking the crowds looking for underage and out of control drinkers.

I have some cute pics of our trio that I will post in a little while. Today the boys are back in school and I am headed back tomorrow...but the little post Christmas break was quite a nice respit for our family.

School Events

All of the kids celebrated the Mardi Gras season at school as well. This was especially a welcome change for the boys, because at their previous school the principal ( who the kids liken to the principal in the movie Matilda) allowed no parties or celebrations for any events at school. So they were pumped that they got to make shoe box size mardi gras floats and pull them in their school parade. Ethan made a Ben 10 float and Aiden made a float with an elephant riding on it.


Aly had been doing activities for several weeks. They culminated their Mardi Gras season with the little girls (preK3, 4 and Kindergarteners) putting on a parade for the older girls. They walked through the gallery area of the school and were met by cheers and lots of "Throw me something Sister" from parents and other students, it was really cute, and fun for all.


I am thankful that all of the kids this year are in a school that embraces fun, and that they enjoy!