We have had quite a week...and I realize it is Monday, but the week since last Monday has been overly full of fun and a sort of pleasant craziness. Starting with this RV, which the station rented to do a 2nd week of fund drive by broadcasting live in all their listening areas, which now number EIGHT! We drove up to Clewiston on Wednesday - took Mako along - and tagged along behind the RV for a few days.
One of Rob's friends sometimes volunteers for the station and his family is friends with our family and this is us all having a big picnic near Clewiston.
Wednesday evening we spent the night in LaBelle, which is a relatively small town, and we ate at Flora and Ella's and they also allowed us to park the RV behind their restaurant and plug into their electicity. There were 10 of us that night and the plan was for the girls to sleep in the RV and the guys who camp in a tent behind the RV, but...
It was EXTREMELY humid that night and as they were putting up the tent, Rob and his friend decided that sleeping outside was not going to work, so they went off to find a hotel to put the girls in so they could have the RV. Only they didn't tell use where they were going, Caleb and his friends were bouncing off the walls with excitement in the RV, and finally all the kids fell asleep just before they called us to tell us we would be sleeping at the LaBelle Motel, which is one of those squatty C-shaped roadside motels where you park right next to your door. We transported the kids - 2 managing to stay asleep thoughtout the move. The hotel was, ahem, a dive, but we made it through the night. Caleb was one of the kids who stayed asleep and I had really built up him sleeping in a tent before we got there, so when we woke up the next morning, he asked, "Why am I here?"
The next day was a total washout and our friends decided to go back to Miami, but the kids had had so much fun. That night there were only 5 of us and we all slept in the RV, which was pretty uncomfortable, but I guess better than sleeping on the ground and staying the next night meant we got to have donuts from Bennetts in Ft. Myers, so that pretty much made up for having to share a fold out bed with a 14 month old who somehow managed to take up 3/4 of the space.
Ok, so we came home Friday (Rob got home late Friday night) - the RV trip was a sudden thing because the first fund drive needed some follow up and we had already scheduled to have our famous Rob & Leah's Annual Christmas Clambake the next night! And I had made gingerbread dough for a gingerbread house more than a month earlier, so I was making a gingerbread house even with 2 nights averaging 6 hours of sleep on uncomfortable beds, oh yes, I was.
And I thought, ooo, I'll use Egg Beaters egg whites so we can eat it eventually (although personally, I don't have much a problem with eating raw eggs in dough or icing), and I will let the world know - THIS WAS A BAD IDEA. The Egg Beaters did not immitate egg whites in the sort of icing you need for a gingerbread house. I mean, look at my sad house with candy slipping off the front. I coudln't even get these tiny candies to stay in place.
And I had to use just piles of icing to hold the house together. The roof looks nice because I iced it before I attached and let it dry, but the icicles were a wreck, I was so disappointed with the result.
Look at how the candy cane just slid down to the bottom! It looks sleepy! But I made a few gingerbread men out of the scraps (2 whole men and a few more with missing arms or legs) and they tasted really really good!And bless his heart, Caleb was so impressed!
So that night, we all slept really hard!
And then we had the Clambake! We had 13 guests, which was just about perfect (that is I just barely had enough chairs, although I can't personally remember sitting down.)
We had 3 games and a craft. The craft was the reindeer hand and foot ornaments, they went over really well - we had 7 kids total.
And we played a fun game called Pass the Present, which is sort of like hot potato, except you have a small gift wrapped in several layers of paper and it is passed around, when the music stops, the person holding it can remove a layer and whoever opens it at the end gets to keep the gift.
It was great because it was fun for the kids and the adults and the two babies - Annalise and her friend Stephanie got to play in the paper in the middle fo the circle.
We use so much sidewalk chalk these days!
Otherwise, Caleb LOVES the new game he got as a gift in Ohio. It is an elephant shaped fan that blows little butterflies into the air and he catches them with a net. He likes to play it alone, with me, with his friends, even with Annalise. And it's pretty self contained - he can set it all back up, but he needs me to hold the trunk up to get him started again.
And Annalise has become fascinated with bellybuttons. She is more than happy to show hers off or find yours. So watch out Grandma and Grandpa!
Did I mention how hard we've all slept since we've been home?
Me and my girlie :) I can't wait until she starts really talking, she is going to have so many silly fun things to say!
