Snakes and Tortoises and Gators Oh MY!

When box 403 was opened a surprise envelope was found.

And inside it were these tickets given to P.O. Box 143
from a wonderful person, Ms. Suzanne!

We have lived here for 8 years now and have never been to Gatorland.

There was SO much to see there we weren't sure which way to go first.

I was SO excited to find this 100 year old tortoise!

This tortoise was alive in 1915. 

Imagine what it's lived through.

Just look at that face! 

Lily found a new friend.

There is a lot of humor in the park shows and 

the signs helped keep that light hearted mood going throughout the park. 

I thought they were GREAT!

Gabriella worked on conquering her fear of snakes.

She was not to happy...

But, she still gave a smile for the camera.

We found this furry guy in the petting zoo.

Wonder what he was trying to say?

Looks like Gabriella may have a fear of goats too!

This miniature brahman bull was a cutie. 

We called her Norman!

And then put City Slickers on our list of movies to re-watch ASAP.

They don't call it Gatorland for nothing.

We watched gator wrestling for the first time.

Benjamin enjoyed the show.

There was a gator/crocodile jumping contest.

Watch the hand!

Later we headed out on the nature trail.

Tons of great photo ops.

We found some history which the kids thought was cool.

And we found animals in their natural environment.

Lots of them!!

 

It was a WONDERFUL outside day!

Gatorland exceeded our expectations and 

we would recommend it whole heartedly!

**No children were harmed during the making of the blog.**

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.