Our Day at Busch Gardens

On Friday I checked the girls out of school a little early and we spent the afternoon at Busch Gardens. Elaine, one of my best friends in the world, was here visiting and the last time she went to Busch Gardens was almost twenty years ago when I came down from Mobile to visit her and she took me there. So now it was my turn to take her. Thankfully, I have a friend that works at Busch Gardens and she had given me free passes for the day. The weather was beautiful, but pretty darned cold. Almost felt like winter. Both Elaine and I love to ride roller coasters, but we had to skip those on this day because I figured it would not be such a great idea to leave the girls alone so we could do that. I did talk them into riding "Cheeta Chase", which is supposedly a kiddie roller coaster. But by the looks on their faces, and the sounds coming out of Amelia during the ride, they did not agree with that statement. I don't think I will ever be able to talk them into riding another ride with me as long as we live. I found the whole thing very amusing, but needless to say, they did not. We did ride "Rhino Rally" which everyone enjoyed. It was a very nice day overall. There was the usual incident where I denied Hannah her God given right to buy a new toy every time she wants one, and that caused some very hurt feelings. But I stood my ground (yea, me!!) and she survived!!! And she has not even mentioned the toy since then. If I could just be consistant with this, my life would probably be so much more calm and less dramatic. I think the saying "Just Say No" applies to more than just drugs!


Was hoping to use this location for our Christmas card this year, but this is the best picture I could get! They love to make me beg for a decent Christmas picture every year, I think.

Here are my little monkeys "grooming" the big gorilla, (and each other) at Busch Gardens.

Posing with the Lion topiary outside the gates to Busch Gardens, and yes, it was cold enough for coats and gloves if you can believe that!

Dancin' in the Streets at Busch Gardens.

Ken, my friend that visited last week, sent me some of the pictures he took during our visits. I think they all turned out really nice and wanted to post them here for everyone to see. I wish I was as good as Ken at remembering to take my camera with me, and actually taking pictures when I do have it! I have missed some real "Kodak moments" over the years. And not only that, I need to work at getting them off the camera and onto the computer in a more timely manner as well. In the photos of Ken and Mary and the girls, you would never guess they had only met an hour or so earlier. Hannah and Amelia both look like they have known them both all their lives!!

Just wanted to share a picture with everyone of my friend, Rango. He is the adult male Bornean orangutan here at Lowry Park Zoo. He just celebrated his 34th birthday on Dec. 4. He is the oldest male Bornean orang in captivity in an AZA facility. He is normally very reserved and keeps to himself on exhibit, but we had a little party for his birthday and he was right down front, eagerly awaiting his gifts! He seemed to know he was the man of the hour. After opening the presents we had wrapped for him, he retired to his usual resting spot to spend a little time admiring the birthday card the kids from the ZooSchool had made for him.

As usual it has been awhile since my last posting. I have been so busy with work and shuttling the girls back and forth from here to Orlando every weekend. But I have had a very nice week this week, and it promises to continue to be a very nice week. I had a great visit with a friend of mine from college. His name is Ken and we have known each other for about 20 years now! That just seems impossible. We have kept in touch over the years, more thanks to Ken's efforts, as I am always very slow to correspond with anyone. He married a couple of years ago and I had seen many photos of him with his wife, but had never had the pleasure of meeting her. Well, they had come to Florida to visit his sister in Naples and made the trip up to Tampa for the last part of their vacation. It was great to see Ken again (who has barely changed at all since college!) and to finally get to meet his wife, Mary. She is very nice and I really enjoyed getting to know her a little better. We got to go visit the penguins at the zoo, and she is a big fan of penguins. We got to go in the exhibit with them and hang out for a bit. I must admit I really enjoyed it too. Although I work right next door to them every day at the zoo, I never get over that way to see them. So it was neat for me as well to actually be in with them and to touch them and feel what their feathers really feel like. They are very cute and inquisitive, and quite fascinated with anything shiny like our keys and watches.
After our visit to the zoo on Monday, Ken and Mary came to Land O'Lakes tonight and took the girls and me to dinner. The girls were very excited to meet them, and to get to go out for dinner. We never get to do that anymore. They were their usual silly selves, but not too bad. I am sure both Mary and Ken were glad that it was a short visit, however!! If you are not around the girls all the time, then you can really only take them in small doses. They can be a bit overwhelming.
Tomorrow my friend Elaine is coming for a visit. I have not seen her in the last few years so I am very excited to have her here. Unfortunately she will not get to stay very long, but at least we will have a chance to hang out for a couple of days and catch up. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can do a little sightseeing while she is here. 20 years ago I remember visiting her when she lived in Dunedin and she brought me to Busch Gardens for the day. Now we have come full circle and I will be taking her this time. Another wonderful friend of mine that works at the park is going to give us free passes for the day. You know, when I am feeling down or lonely, I just need to think about all the friends I am so blessed to have and be thankful for their friendship and support. Things are not so bad after all.

All the girls posing with the baby elephants.

The big girls on the train. Boy, was Allison having a good time!

Mike and Rachel. Since he could not take the requisite picture of himself, I took this one for him.

Comparing little hands to big ol' gorilla hands.

Even Amelia's hands are small next to this!

Amelia "being eaten" by a hippo!!!!!!!

Ok, now I have downloaded my pictures from our day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Tracy and I got several of the same pictures, but there are a few I have that are a little different. The girls had a really good time and were just exhausted by 7:00 p.m. They went to their grandparents house after we left, since they were staying with them on Sunday. They fell asleep as soon as they got there. They had to wake them up to feed them supper. That is the difference between Mommy and the grandparents... I would never have tried to wake them up for supper. I would have hoped and prayed they would stay asleep till morning!! I was pretty tired too, but had to drive back to Tampa and then get up and go to work early Sunday morning. I don't think I am ever going to get myself on a normal, predictable schedule. I don't think I could function if I actually got the recommended amount of sleep. I would just be silly with energy if I started getting enough rest. Wonder what that would be like....

So I am trying to keep up with Tracy on the blog. Allison and Leah have their school pictures posted, so I knew I needed to get Hannah and Amelia up on my blog. The pictures look a little washed out on here. Hannah looks so much older than just eight years old to me in her picture. Amelia reminds me of me in my kindergarten picture, except that I was wearing a "gorgeous" multi-colored, velvet dress. But our hair is frighteningly similar! If I can find that picture of me I will post it up so you can compare it for yourself. Not much new going on here. The girls are performing their own original musical scores for me at the moment, so I really need to get back to them. I am the official judge and they are asking for their scores. I wonder if they want the score of an unbiased judge, or the score of a loving Mommy?

Here are a couple of pictures that Amelia took. Looks to me like Otis was doing a pretty good impression of Steve!

Happy Halloween

So Halloween has come and gone. Now all that is left is about 2 weeks of saying "No, you cannot have any more candy today!!". The girls really had a good time Trick-or-Treating. Steve took them all around the neighborhood, and they each got about 2 lbs. of candy. And they got some pretty good stuff this year. Lots of candy bars and such. The more chocolate, the better, in my opinion. I stayed at the house and handed out goodies to all the ghouls and goblins. There were lots of kids this year. We ran out of candy just before we ran out of Trick-or-Treaters! Luckily we had Madagascar 2 posters to hand out, and most of the kids were pretty happy with those. Hannah and Amelia did not want to take their costumes off at the end of the night, and Hannah actually slept in hers! I did not get as many pictures as I had hoped, but I did get a few so I will add them on so you can see the girls all dressed up. Hope your Halloween was a fun and safe one, too.

Fall Festival pics

What a Great Idea This Was!!!

Amelia's pumpkin...the biggest one she could pick up by herself!

Hannah riding "Oreo" (she chose this name for him herself).

Amelia on her pony that she decided to call "Buttercup"

This morning we woke up to perfect weather, so we headed out to the Fall Festival at the local Methodist Church. We took Chloe (our next door neighbor/honorary Lefave) with us. The girls all had a great time doing crafts, playing games, riding ponies and getting buzzed on sugar and caffiene. One of the booths there was one where you could get your hair "painted". That was a very popular booth. I don't know who decided it would be a good idea to paint your hair, but I will bet that they have never had to scrub that stuff off of the car seats afterwards! While we were there we went to the Pumpkin Patch to pick out our halloween pumpkins. Of course Amelia wanted to biggest one there, but finally settled on one that she could actually pick up by herself. They had pumpkins of every size and a variety of colors. I guess I am a little behind the times, but I think it will take me a year or two to get used to the white pumpkins. There were also lots of "warty" pumpkins. Hannah decided she did not want a pumpkin with pimples, tho. Once all was said a done, a decision was reached and everyone, amazingly, left satisfied. Now all that is left is to decide how to carve it. Should it be cute, silly, or scary? I am sure they will change their minds many times between now and then.
Once we got home, I decided to take the rat cage apart and give it a good scrubbing, so the girls took the rats, Sally and Dumbo, for a walk. The rats actully seemed to really enjoy it! They did not mind the leash at all, and were very excited to explore every inch of the neighborhood they could. They were very hungry and exhausted when it was over. I'll bet we don't even hear the excercise wheel going in their cage tonight!! I added a few photos of the afternoon for you to see. Now all that is left is for the girls to get their baths so we can wash all that beautiful paint out of their hair before they fall asleep on my sheets. We are all tired, so maybe we can get to bed early tonight. That would be awesome!!

Meet Mulligan. He is our little foster kitty. Our neighbor found him in his car engine after he left from work and drove a bit while trying to figure out the strange noise he was hearing. Once he pulled over and began looking, he found this little guy. They really did not know how to take care of him, and he is a little dehydrated, but otherwise looks pretty good. He is a very sweet kitten. Luckily I have a friend that has a rescue organization, so she can help us place him in a good home. Hannah is having a great time playing "mommy" to him. She picked out the name from a story about a dog called "Mulligan Gets a Second Chance". We have had the talk that he will just be with us for a few days, but she has already cried about him leaving. But she has told me more than once that she wants to foster animals in need, so this is project no. 1. We will see how it goes. If anyone feels the need to adopt a really cute, loving kitten, look no further. We will deliver!!

Gosh, it has been a while since I posted anything on my blog. One of my friends from work, Angela, talked me into setting up an account on Facebook, so I have been playing around with that instead. I have gotten in touch with a couple of long lost friends through that account. Jane, it has been so much fun catching up with you!! I know you are writing to me only because you feel sorry for me, but anyway..... So the girls have picked out their costumes for Halloween. Hannah is going to be a "U.S. Diva", which is basically a really sparkly, groovy camouflage outfit with a nifty hat. I know what you are thinking, but it is what she wanted. And of course Amelia is going to be a princess. A snow princess to be exact. She has a long white dress with a "fur" hand warmer. We are now praying for an extreme cold front to move in by Halloween, or we might just spend the evening in the ER being treated for heat stroke. Don't really think we will snow for the princess. But one can hope. Of course they have worn the outfits numerous times already. Amelia has already dropped an entire plate of waffles and syrup on top of her dress. Luckily for all of us, it did not fall apart in the washing machine. If it had, she would have gone as the raggedy snow queen for Halloween. I think we will get our pumpkin either this Saturday, or Steve will take them to get one on Tuesday. He is usually the one to do the pumpkin buying and carving. I just see the pictures. But he is the "artsy" one, so he enjoys the actual carving of the pumpkin much more than I do. I will definitely have to post pictures of the girls carving the pumpkin, and all dressed in their costumes. Then the next day I can post pics of them in their sugar comas. And this year, with Steve living in Orlando, the girls might actually get to eat their own candy!!
I am signing up for a course to get my certification to teach in the state of Florida. There is a program called Teach and Inspire that seems like it will be a good fit for me, so hopefully by this time next year I can have that completed and already be teaching in a school near you. It will be a huge change from zoo work, but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and do what you have to do.
Ok, that is really all for now. I will be back sooner rather than later, I think. Until then, take care.

Playing catch-up

Well, I have not been doing very well keeping up with entries for my blog. The toad houses are done, and now Dimples seems to have found a new patio to hang out on, cuz we haven't seen him on ours lately. Maybe Otis just got to be too much for him. The weather has cooled in the evenings, so that may have something to do with it.
I have been so busy lately with the girls, work, trying to sell my car, etc. Daddy came down a couple of weeks ago and brought me a "new" car. It is a 2007 Chevy Cobalt. It is a cute little car that gets pretty good gas mileage, which we all know how important that is right now! Daddy only stayed a couple of days, but it was nice to have him here. The girls really enjoyed having Daddy Hawk come to their house for a change.
Steve has moved to Orlando. He starts his new job at Disney's Animal Kingdom tomorrow. I am not sure if he is "Mouse Material" but it will be a big relief for him just to be away from Lowry Park. Hannah and Amelia are very excited about the free Disney passes he will be getting! That has made them forget about everything else for the time being. Daddy is the greatest-at least until the new wears off!
Things have been a bit hard for me lately, dealing with all the changes in my life. I never expected to be facing life as a single parent, and that has been a tough pill to swallow. But I think the girls and I are going to be ok, and we are trying to get excited about the possibility of moving to a new neighborhood in a new town soon. I am currently scouring the internet for job possibilities in Jaksonville and Melbourne, since I have family in each of those cities to help me with the girls. Steve is still a hands on Dad, but he is not going to be around nearly as much as before, so I think I am going to have to cry "Uncle" and ask for help. It's been a bit hard on my pride and self-esteem, but as they say, "That which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". I should be pretty darn strong when I get through all of this. Right now I am just trying to figure out how people do this parenting thing on their own. Where do they find the time to get everything done?

And the saga continues... Here is poor Dimples after one of Otis' nightly trips outside. As you can see, things don't usually go his way. This scenario repeats itself night after night. And of course this is unacceptable to the girls. So in order to make Dimples' life somewhat more bearable living under the near constant assault from Otis, the girls have made toad houses for Dimples to live and hide in. Soon we will post pictures of the toad houses and hopefully of Dimples residing safely and comfortably in one of them. Maybe he will even get a new neighbor!!

The adventures of Otis and Dimples

This is Dimples the Toad. He has recently taken up residence in our backyard. He can be found on our patio each night eating all the bugs that are attracted to our porch light. Hannah and Amelia have taken quite a liking to him. It would seem he leads an idyllic life here, and for the most part he does. There is only one problem....
This is Otis. He is the arch nemesis of Dimples the Toad. Every night Dimples must run the gauntlet that is our patio in order to catch his fill of bugs and avoid the awful abuse inflicted on him by Otis. So far Otis is winning. But Dimples has us in his corner. The girls are determined that Otis is not going to drive Dimples away, and they are doing everything they can to make sure Dimples has a nice safe place to call home and to hide from Otis whenever Otis has to go outside. Stay tuned to see just how dedicated we have become to this cause. Seems we have a bit too much time on our hands!

Well, school is going well for Hannah and Amelia. Neither of them has had any homework yet, which has made Hannah very happy. I feel like it is really taking the teachers a long time to get into the swing of things, but do have to admit it makes things a little easier for me for now. Amelia seems to be enjoying school and they both love the fact that they get to ride the bus. I don't understand this since it means they have to be ready earlier in the morning and get home later in the afternoon than if I drove them, but as long as they don't mind I guess I shouldn't either! Amelia does leave her backpack on the bus every afternoon. Hopefully she will eventually decide to take a little responsibility and keep up with her stuff. She is just so excited to get off the bus and walk home with all the big kids. She thinks she is something else now. And the outfits she picks to wear each day....oh my gosh. I should take a picture every morning. She is so much her own person, not caring at all what anyone else thinks about her. Wish we were all like that.
Hannah and 2 of her friends have started a football team. They are having practice each afternoon on the field next door. Seems there is some kind of league in the neighborhood that I am unaware of, as she announced last night that they have a game next Monday against the Vikings. Can't wait for that. I know you all will be scanning the sports section of your Tuesday papers for the outcome. They gave Amelia a "cheerleader" outfit today to wear for the game. It is a long black witches outfit with a red scarf, and black high heeled boots. Can't wait to see this game. Sounds like it will be one to remember. I will keep you posted.

Well, we made it through our first day of school for the 2008-2009 school year. Amelia is now officially a Kindergarten student. She was a little nervous and a lot excited on her first day. She did great! Her biggest concern when we dropped her off in the morning was that she was going to have to leave her lunch box on the shelf in the hallway outside her classroom. She really wanted to keep it close by, just in case someone decided to help themselves to her lunch while she wasn't looking, I guess. But once I reassured her that it would be there when she needed it, she went right into the classroom, met her teacher, and got to work coloring the first picture of her academic career! Hannah has done all this before, so it was not really a big deal for her. She was more concerned about Amelia, as any big sister should be. She can be really protective of her sometimes. Guess she wants to make sure Amelia is going to be around for her to abuse and beat up on. Anyway, they both had a really good first day, then due to the potential for bad weather (Tropical Storm Fay), school was closed today. So tomorrow is their second day. I am interested to see how long it takes for the excitement to wear off for Amelia. Hannah is already saying how much she hates school and wishes summer lasted 5 years and school only one day. Ah, if only......

First day of School

Well, tomorrow is the first day of school for the 2008-2009 school year and my "baby" starts kindergarten!!! I cannot believe it. It seems like just yesterday Steve, Hannah and I were welcoming little Amelia into our familiy, and now we are sending her out into the great big world. I hope she is ready for it. Heck, for that matter, I hope the world is ready for her!! For those of you that know her, you know what I mean. Both of my girls are growing up way too fast for me. I look at them sometimes and can almost see the women they will be someday. That is both very exciting and scary. It seems like I spend every day trying to make sure they are prepared to handle all of the challenges life will throw their way, and then trying to think of every way possible to protect them from these same challenges. But they are both strong, smart girls. I know they will be ok. Just hope I am!!

I am going to take lots of pictures in the morning and hopefully will get some of them posted to the blog in the very near future. Amelia is so excited about starting school. Hopefully the enthusiasm will last well into the school year. It is all old hat to Hannah and she is already complaining about having to get up in the morning. She is her mother's daughter.

The Lefave's Zoo

This is my first attempt at "blogging". I have tried keeping a journal once, and that lasted only about 4 days. Hopefully I can be a bit more dedicated to this attempt. I don't have that much free time to spend on it, so I hope this is going to be easy to do. I have viewed a couple of other blogs and feel a little ashamed for not having nearly as many pictures of my children as everyone else! Guess I need to get busy with that. Lord knows they are always doing something worthy of preserving in pictures. I expect to have plenty of time to devote to this new hobby, as I should be a multi-millionaire as soon as they draw the Lotto numbers tonight. If that is the case, I will be "retiring" from my job ASAP. I can always volunteer if and when I get bored (and miss my animal friends too much!). Ok, now I am going to get started building my blog. Wish me luck!!