We LOVE St. Augustine!

Box 402 revealed St. Augustine in our "Cha-Ching" envelope!

Benjamin and Lily both went with their 4th grade classes but,

 we had never been together as a family.

Having fun...

Exploring...

Finding amazing lines in nature!

The Fountain of Youth was the highlight of our trip.

We all drank from the spring and were "promised" eternal youth.

There is an active archaeological site there. 

The kids had a great time experiencing what real archaeologists do.

Watching the lighting of the cannon was extremely LOUD!! 

But really cool to watch.

There really were a lot of fun and educational activities here for every age.

And THIS is why we started P.O. Box 143! <3

My favorite picture from the day. 

A selfie with my teen. 

Like mother like daughter. :-)

It was all smiles from my monkeys.

Until they went to jail! 

Except Lily of course because she has a puppy. ;-p

And before we had dinner...we ate dessert first at this delicious cupcake shop!

And we used our new "hello" thank you notes.

The kids are getting creative with their cards now. 

I always wonder what they're writing.

Really looking forward to reading these treasures next year. 

Blueberries and GaGa Ball

On Wednesday, Box 402 options for our weekend of fun were either GaGa Ball (FREE!) or St. Augustine (Cha-Ching!). Although we really wanted to do both, St. Augustine just couldn't fit in to our time schedule. So we are delaying that a week and going to celebrate Mother's Day next weekend there! How fun! 

The weather was BEAUTIFUL this weekend and this morning we started the day out blueberry picking at Beck Brothers Blueberries.

There were tons of delicious berries on thousands of blueberry bushes around the farm.

Lily evaluated each one before she decided if it was worthy of "the bucket".

I think we sampled more than actually made it into the buckets. Breakfast off the bush. Yum!

I loved looking at all the colors and would love to take my art students out here to paint.

And here are our beauties.

Yup. Blueberry picking on a nice May morning in Orlando was just the way to start our day.

And when we got home how could we NOT make the biggest blueberry pie ever!

Delish!

Next it was on to GaGa ball. A GaGa ball pit isn't exactly something you pick up at the local Walmart and put together in a few minutes. So we had to improvise.

We racked our brains and finally decided the gazebo in the garden at our elementary school might work. It would definitely be a modified version of the game but the goal was fun and we were intent on having it.

Probably not as exciting as a real GaGa Ball game.

Especially since there were only four of us.

But it was competitive and got pretty intense between the kids.

 We finished off the day with a kickball game and walk through the neighborhood. 

Looking forward to next weekend's St. Augustine adventure!

Box 402 we love you! Two weekends of fun from one.

Box 402

We've added a few little things to P.O. Box 143

I found these great European travel themed tissues at Michaels.

And I couldn't pass up these note cards and stationary sets. They are a great reminder of our families ultimate goal for next summer...to travel to Paris to celebrate Gabriella's graduation!

The kids were so excited to open box 402 last night and see what 

weekend surprise plans we would have.

This time it was Benjamin's turn to open the box.

They love putting the key and turning it slowly.

Pulling out the envelopes is almost like pulling a present out from under the Christmas tree!

The girls got to open the envelopes this time.

Lily's "Cha-Ching" envelope had St. Augustine inside. 

What a great city! 

Full of awesome history.

Gabriella's "Free" envelope had GaGa Ball.

I had NO idea what GaGa Ball was!!

Apparently you need something like this.

And the game goes something like this.

We already have a pretty busy weekend. 

It will be interesting to see which activity we get to do from Box 402. 

But we are excited for either one!