Florida Museum of Natural History

While I worked a family day in Ocala a few Saturdays ago, Jason took the nippers to the Florida Museum of Natural History. He tells me they had a lot of fun comparing mammoth and mastodon teeth, looking at the artwork and sculptures outside, and playing on "hand-on" exibits. Our friends Mike and Jen happened to have the same plans for their daughter Erin Grace so they grouped together to tour the museum! Erin Grace and Elsie are in the same 2 year old class at A Child's Academy and they are good buddies! It was an afternoon full of fun learning for the wild ones!

School Days

Well I guess you could say Wil has experienced his first graduation! He started up at Flowers Montessori School about a month ago and is really doing well and soaking it up like a sponge! It was a little bittersweet leaving Elsie and all the wonderful teachers we have grown to love behind at A Childs Academy, but Wil still gets to see them as we drop off and pick up Elsie! Flowers is within walking distance to ACA and it is super convienient for us. He already has a nickname at his new school, "Dinosaur Boy!" Here are a few pictures Jason snapped up to commemorate Wil's graduation!

Wakulla Springs 5K Race

Wes and Kasey have only a few more days left in Crawfordville before they take the big step and move to Birmingham. For one last hurrah in their house Kasey hosted the family for a 5K run, picnic and birthday cakes for Gracie and Joe Joe. Kasey and I are like running twins so I was really looking forward to running with her and we made it our goal to cross the finish line together. She has been a good encouragement for my running and I can thank her for getting me into it and making it fun! Another reason this race was going to be fun was that Hester committed to running her very first 5K with us on this one! To motivate, I made t-shirts that said "Hollington Running Club." It was sweet to see Hester's excitement and nervous jitters and we were all proud of her! Running is becoming something that is tying a lot of people together and Kasey has a lot of good friends she regularly trains with. A lot of them have kids that run too so we put a good number of them in the 1 mile "fun run." That race started at 8 am and Justin Cardoza took home the 1st prize ribbon! He ran against his brother Jacob, Zac, Winter, Abbie, Justin, Cameron, Clara and Sierra. I took it upon myself to be Justin Hollington's drill sargeant and was proud to see him trot through the finish! Running the 5K, we had Corey, Karen, Melissa, Donny and his brothers, Kasey and I. Jason had to work this weekend so I was on my own with a 2 and 3 year old (Thanks Grandma Terry!!) Because I forgot Hester's t-shirt and was stressing last minute with sprinting back and forth to the car, sending Jenny after it-I think it really messed with my pre-race preparation! I picked up my bib probably 3 minutes before the race started! Better preparation will help me run better but Kasey was gracious to stick with me the entire race and we finished with a time of 26:12. Corey sprinted past us right at the finish and that was the extra push we needed to finish stronger! Every 5K I have done has been on my own, by myself so I enjoyed this one so much! And it was sweet to have Wil and Elsie cheering me on at the finish line in their double stroller! Our picnic was delicious and the water was refreshing. We packed it in around 1 and headed back to Kasey's for naps. Later that night we celebrated and early Gracie birthday and a belated Joe birthday. Birthday cake and ice cream! Kasey and I got up early Sunday for a quick run and then me and the nippers headed back home to Daddy!

Cinco De Camdo!

Becky and Kevin threw Camden an awesome 5th Birthday party with a Mexican theme. Cinco De Camdo was held at Cam's physical therapy clinic called Progressive Pediatrics. There were padded jungle gyms, indoor slides, monkey bars, different types of swings, sensory toys and mats to tumble on! We feasted on tacos and everyone enjoyed the cookie cake! A homeade gator pinata was tore into before Camden tore into the gifts! Happy Birthday to our favorite amigo Camden! Can't believe you are 5!!

Home is where the heart is!

Here are just a few random cute images of what we do around the house! In case you are curious, there is one picture of a deceased piney wood rooter I discovered on the side of the road not far from our creek. Other than that you'll see some good pictures of cute kids!

Sara's professional Hollington pics

I realized that I had not posted the pictures taken by my buddy Sara for us the weekend of the Medeivil festival when we had the Hollingtons over. Sara met us at Lake Alice and we took a few framable pictures of all of Terry's children. Hope you all enjoy these, we have looked at them so many times already!

Miami Mothers Day

Jason attended a weekend long CEU class offered in Miami which happened to be located very close to the beach! We decided to make a vacation of it and have some fun in South Beach! Friday we found a bunch of local parks and went park hopping! The kids are getting so big and athletic. It was fun watching them climb, slide and hang. Elsie watched the big girls at the monkey bars and before you knew it she was getting a little more adventurous-now she hangs on everything! Wil made friends at every park- I love how easy it is for kids to make friends with each other. We got so chummy at one park with a sweet little girl that we called it "Mary's park." Her father told us iguana come out during the day to sun and we should try to come back to see them. Saturday we hit the beach armed with our SPF! It was beautiful and the kids were very well behaved which comforted Daddy! We left on Mothers Day and I thought it was the best Mother's Day in a long time!