Staples

Staples. Could be many different things... a town in Minnesota, the name of an office supply company, necessary food items, or paper fasteners. But in Chase's case, it means short U-shaped wires used to secure two flaps of skin together. He did a front flip into the pool on Monday afternoon and whacked his head hard enough to split it open. He shed just a few tears right after hitting his head and then never cried again, even when the doc punched 5 staples in without any anesthetic. What a brave guy!!! Almost had to take him again last night when he sliced the bottom of his toe open, but a neighbor doctor took a look and said we'd be okay if we kept it covered with Neosporin and out of any germy places. We had to be out of the pool for the staples in his head anyway. PS - I kept these picture sizes small for the faint of heart!

Belleair Beach

Leah & Dan visit a family-owned condo every year in Belleair Beach and invitied us over for a couple days in June. Our family usually prefers the East Coast over the Gulf Coast, but Belleair Beach was beautiful and perfect for the kids. We made sandcastles, created aquariums in buckets with all the fish, crabs and sea slugs we caught with our nets, swam in the gulf & the pool, played games and enjoyed each others company. Many thanks to Dan, Leah, Mary Kathryn & Ross for a fun time! Can't wait to see you in New Smyrna!

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Ichetucknee River Trip

This was our second year going tubing down the Ichetucknee River with the Sams and their extended family. We had a great time tubing, picnicking, swimming and drinking with them and the Zollinger family and look forward to next year. Check out (the lengthy!) video montage...

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Lucky's Lake

There's this dermatologist named Lucky Meisenheimer who has been hosting "Lucky's Lake Swims" 6 days a week at his lake-front home in Orlando since 1989. I heard about Lucky's Lake (officially Lake Cane) many years ago from the Tri Junkies training group here in Celebration, but never made out there. I think it was a combination of the drive (about 20-25 minutes away), the time (6:30 am group swim start) and the distance (1K to cross the lake and swim back, which equates to ~.62 miles) that kept me from going. Well, after 8 years, I finally made it out there with a friend and completed my first 1K! First-timers get a patch, a bumper sticker, a sheet to log their crossings and a sharpie to sign their name on "the wall of fame" on his back patio. And every 25 crossings, you get a prize. I've gone twice now and did two crossings my second time. It's beautiful out there in the morning, watching the sunrise as you swim. And it's addicting. I plan to go again next week!

Lucky's house

Getting ready to swim

The backyard

Me signing a freshly-painted wall. Mine was the first name on it!

Ellen by the big wall

Mystery Night Zip Line

Sleeping in, being lazy, lounging at the pool, going on day-trips... it all gets in the way of my blogging! I'm not quite a month behind, but close. That's okay during the summer, right? Anyhow here are a few pictures of our Mystery Night group doing a zip-line safari at Forever Florida about an hour away from Celebration last month. The whole tour took about 3 hours and included an off-road open-air bus ride to our zip location, getting geared up, zipping across 8 platforms and 2 suspension brides about 5 stories high and then dining on bean burritos and beer in the middle of nowhere while mosquitos the size of quarters dined on our blood. Sounds fun, eh? It was an absolute blast in the heart of true Florida and is now considered a requirement if you come visit the Robbins family!

End of School Parties

The last couple weeks of school are pretty much a wash. There's a little bit of learning still going on, but mostly lots of fun. Each of the boys got to enjoy a limo ride with Dr. Kennedy and lunch at Flipper's Pizzeria as a reward for their fundraising efforts at the walk-a-thon. Thanks family and friends! They both had parties in their classes. Chase earned the Energizer Bunny Award from Miss Kram, which is not a surprise to us! Then they ended the year with a big carnival put on by the PTA. Now all I have to do is entertain them all summer!

Justin Crosses Over

Justin participated in the annual Crossover event for Cub Scouts where they actually cross over a bridge to symbolize moving from one rank to the next. He turned in his old yellow Wolf cap & neckerchief and received new blue ones, along with a Bear handbook detailing all the deliverables for next year. Each year's activities get more exciting. He'll be able to earn his Whittling Chip, which allows him to carry & use a pocketknife. Scary! There's also knot tying, building things, map & compass activities, camping, etc. It's nice to take a break over the summer, but we're looking forward to next year. Congratulations Justin!

Carly's Birthday continued...

Forgot to include the videos of her birthday songs. So cute!

Carly June Turns 2!

After 2 other family May birthdays and Mother's Day, it was finally Carly's turn to celebrate! We kicked off the festivities by enjoying a character breakfast at Disney's Grand Floridian Hotel, compliments of Joy and her daugheter Molly, who is 8 months younger than Carly. The food was great and the girls enjoyed their visit with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Mary Poppins. Neither of them cared for the Mad Hatter though!

We then celebrated by having Nami & Popi over for dinner, opening family presents and eating the cookie cake she won from Publix. She received lots of nice stuff, but her favorite was a set of plastic Yo Gabba Gabba figurines. She plays with them everyday!!!

We capped things off with a little (well, it was quite big actually) birthday party at the house with Carly's friends and their mommies. It was supposed to be a backyard sprinkler party, but with all the rain we had, we stayed indoors and played with all Carly's toys, balloons & ride-ons. After eating fruit, donuts & cupcakes the guests left happy & tired! Thanks to everyone for making Carly's birthday so special.

Dr. Kennedy Gets Slimed

The boys's school principal, Dr. Kennedy, agreed at the beginning of the school year to be "slimed" if the students raised over $12K in profit at the 7th Annual Walk-a-Thon. Well, they did... and he finally got slimed a couple weeks ago! The kids loved it and went crazy as two students held a big bucket of homemade green slime over his head. I was lucky enough to be a witness and captured this picture after the sliming was complete. What a good sport Dr. K is!!!

More Mud

Chase's last tball practice will go down in history as the funnest baseball practice ever I believe. It was slightly raining, so the kids & the field were a bit wet. After each inning, coach Bryce along with assistant coaches Jeff, Erec and Roger gave the kids permission for a "puddle break" instead of a drink break. The kids then proceeded to splash around in the biggest puddle on the field!!! And that's not even the best part. After practice was finished, they had sliding competitions to see who could slide the farthest in the muddle puddles. I had just as much fun watching as they did sliding! Thanks to all the coaches for a great season...