Way down upon the Weeki Wachee river...

This photo was taken on the pontoon boat on a river off of Lake Tarpon (basically in Dad and Dawn's backyard!) Silas and I were traveling alone, Kevin stayed home to hold down the fort and keep the animals from rioting.

On the Weeki Wachee river we were in canoes and kayaks and so we relied on Nicole to take the photos with her handy waterproof camera, and take photos she did... 277 of them, glorious!

http://flickr.com/gp/elawgrrl/zwC8v0

The rest of our trip to Florida was pretty fun too, although Silas did his whole jetlagged/homesick/101 degree fever/coughing all night/whine-y routine which has become the usual travel schedule. So we missed out on seeing lots of folks. But now that I've caught up on my missed sleep I'm already thinking about trying another trip... oh how quickly I forget the hard times when I look at the pictures of Silas enjoying his family in Florida!

moody boy in the pool

happy boy with Auntie Karen (aka Cookie) on the pontoon boat

some down home fun around the keyboard with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Tom at their quaint Florida cottage (aka Memaw's old house)

Papa lets Silas drive the pontoon boat on Lake Tarpon, he learned about the throttle this trip

Silas bestowed many hugs on Uncle Jeremy and Uncle J

Visiting Papa's baby chickens

Trying out "The World's Fastest Lawnmower" (says it right there on the front)

Good-bye hug for Nanny

Silas's dream come true: driving the forklift with Uncle J (they did doughnuts in the parking lot at the fish house)

Happy Third Birthday!

Well, after "Almost 3" must come 3. Silas had his big birthday party last weekend in our backyard. Thankfully, he got over his cold a couple days in advance, and we were all able to enjoy the mayhem. Having Papa in town while we were getting ready was great, since somebody was always able to entertain Si while the rest of us worked on preparations.

Silas wearing his new fish robe made by Christine.

Here, Silas is reading his birthday card from Eddy, while Zimry looks on. In the background you can see one of the two bean-bag tosses made by Zimry's dad Rudy.

This is Greta showing Silas a card; Greta is one week older than Si, and he spent most of her birthday party last week playing with a crane in the sandbox.

The kids are getting ready for their big birthday parade - note the face paint. Silas is a camel, and Gwen must be a kitty, or Janis Joplin.

Christine managed to get some video of the cake ceremony, but what you don't see later is my frantically cutting cake while 12 toddlers are on me like white on rice.


Here's a close-up of Christine's awesome cake.


We also had a birthday celebration at Silas's school on Tuesday. Here he's telling all of his friends what he did during his third year.

And then came the impromptu parade of birthday hugs...

After his birthday circle, Silas served blueberry-banana muffins to all of his friends.