WEST COAST EASTER

We went to Naples on Saturday to have an early easter with the Cravens.

The easter bunny left a basket there for Joey and she spent most of the time out on the patio blowing bubbles or playing with Playdough.

Here, Grandma will show you how to do it.

Sally, Bob, Mark, Me, Uncle Tom, Teta Vesna, Grandpa, Grandma & Joey.

The Easter Bunny.

BEER FRIDGE INVASION

I am slowly taking over the beer fridge.

Usually, the whole bottom shelf would be different rows of beer.

Now half of it is COKE!

GIVE A PINT, LOOSE A POUND!

The blood centers are losing the PR war.

"Save a life."

Do the right thing.

They give out free T-shirts, a movie ticket if you're lucky...

They have missed their number one selling point.

My strategy would be this:

"Ladies, want to lose a pound THIS AFTERNOON? Give blood! Not only will you lose a pound RIGHT NOW, but your body burns extra calories over the next few days regenerating the blood you donated."

DOC & DOYLE JR.

Last weeekend we were going to do the easter egg hunt at Pinecrest Gardens.

Then we saw the 1 hour line wrapping, straight out of Disney World, wrapping around the entrance wall.

Instead, we played at the Greer Park.

The girls were as happy as could be and didn't know they'd missed something!

HAPPY EASTER

Joey has already had an easter egg hunt. She had one at school on Thursday.

The parents came and hid the eggs, the kids found them in a fraction of the time and then everyone ate.

Austin acts as Joey's "big brother" at school. Joey hasn't been pinched or bit or anything since the first month. (And trust me, there is a one of those kids in her class.)

Her handler takes care of it.

Joey's best friend at school is the red head next to her. That is Julian.

READING MATERIAL

Just one of the many ways we encourage reading around our house.

Yes, that is Twilight: Eclipse.

JESUS LOVES ME

Mark picked up Joey yesterday afternoon and took her with him to run some errands.

They were in the middle of Home Depot when Joey began to sing "Jesus Loves Me."

If you haven't heard about Uncle Jean's rendition of "Jesus Loves Me", call Mom-Mom.

BLUES, BREWS & BBQ

We went down to the Fruit & Spice Park in Homestead this past Sunday to check out the 1st Blues, Brews & BBQ festival.

The festival was a little underwhelming. The music was good, but there were only 2 kinds of beer, and one of them was Budweiser. I (or rather Mark) was expecting more variety and local or specialty beer when they used the word "BREW".

The BBQ was good, but there were only a few to choose from.

Joey had a blast, because Joey is going to have fun (make it, if she has too) wherever she goes.

She was obsessed with climbing the tree we picnicked under.

There was a petting zoo set up and she petted EVERYTHING! And she'll tell you about it to. (chicks, chickens, bunnies, turkeys, sheep, goats and pigs) I swear if she could of, she would have stolen one of those baby chickens.

She also rode the horse!

And they didn't just take her in a circle, they went along a path. She held on all by herself, no strap. His name was Chocolate Chip. She would let go with one hand occasionally and pet him and tell him he was a good horsey. She would also tell him to "watch out!" when branches would brush his shoulder. When she was done, she wanted to ride the other one. Daddy, I see a pony request in the near future!

POTTY TRAINING STINKS

There are things that Joey does well, and then there is potty training.

If I'm being fair, I guess we are having a normal, run-of-the-mill potty training experience.

Reading the books, It is supposed to take a while, with many accidents and with periods of regression after success.

But Joey has done everything else up to this point early, fast and well.

I'll be honest, it's a disappointment.

I'm not disappointed in her, but myself.

But I don't see anything else we could be doing differently, and she is doing well enough that I don't think we should do the "stop and try again in a few months" thing.

She just can't seem to tell us when she needs to go with enough advance warning.

But if you tell her to go potty every 45 minutes or so, she'll go on the potty.

She can give you a minute warning with poo poo, sometimes.

She was giving us a 30 second warning pee pee, with maybe a little dribble before she stops it.

But that was before her UTI (Urinary Tract Infection).

Now she is having more pee-pee accidents, I'm sure a side effect from her experience.

M&M's work.

Self dependence works. (She did much better once she could do it herself, pull her clothes up and down.)

Underwear work. (She does better in underwear then pull-ups)

All we can do is solider on in the fight against the potty.

RIDE FOR KIDS

The Craven-Meyers family were the Champion Fundraisers this year.

We brought in a little over $6,000.

We also brought 9 & 1/2 volunteers.

The whole event, that day, raised a little over $66,000!

Thank you all who helped us get there and thanks for caring about the kids.

Check out our supporters on my fundraising page. (I know it only says $5,750, but Dad threw in some cash at the last minute like he always does.)

Mandatory stupid picture is above. (Promising the above picture is the only way I can get the boys to take a real picture)

Joey even got to sneak in a little practice when Kaki wasn't looking.

MOVIE LINES

"Who are you and how did you find me?"

Joey does movie lines.

But the thing is, it's not something we've taught her.

If Mark were teaching her movie lines, they would be something like:

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

or

"I am serious, and don't call me surely."

But Joey has just decided to quote certain movie lines. And they aren't part of the songs (she really knows her songs.)

The first quote is the one that Joey quotes from Tangled. And she wags her little finger at you and has a dire look on her face when she does it.

She also quotes Tarzan.

(clears her throat, then places her fingers pointedly towards her chest) "I'm Jane."

(Then she places her palm on Daddy's chest) "You Tarzan".

MOM-MOM PRECIOUS

Joey: "I want to see Mom-Mom Precious."

Mommy: (smiling) "Is Mom-Mom precious?"

Joey: "No, Joey is precious."

Mommy: "Does Mom-Mom call you precious?"

Joey: "Yeah. Go see Mom-Mom Precious please?"

LAND OF PAINTED CAVES STINKS!

I had really been looking forward for the last book in Jean Auel's CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR to come out.

Although the 2nd through 5th books weren't 1/2 as a good as the first, they were still good and more importantly, continued the story of Ayla, whom I couldn't get enough of.

I was hugely disgusted and disappointed by this last book.

So many loose ends left loose.

No real summary.

So much repetition of story points we already know.

Nothing really new to add to Ayla's character.

Even recycling plot points from earlier books.

SPOILER ALERT!

How many painted caves do we really need a description of?

What was the point of telling us about the earthquake, about a 1/4 of the way through, if nothing came of it? It reminded me of a 5th grader doing an essay and "fluffing" it.

What happens to Brukeval? Madroman? Marona?

What about the visions alluded to Ayla having another boy?

Why, if children are so important to her, did we not see more interaction between Ayla and Jonayla? Yes, I know, Ayla was training. But still, I expected to see Jonayla taught the Clan language, the medicines, all of Ayla's knowledge.

Why, oh WHY, did she have to use the same trick from book 3 to bring Jondalar and Ayla together again? I wanted to see some character growth on Jondalar. Make him have to do deal with his emotions and set things right between them. In book 3, he left, and it was Ayla that ran after him. It was cheating to have him "call" her back from the spirit world and then that makes everything okay between them. I believe that Jonayla's and Wolf's love for Ayla could have brought her back.

This is not a weekly sitcom that has to bring up to date new watcher of things that have already happened. If someone is reading the 6th book, without ever reading the other 5, they are an idiot. The amount of time Ms. Auel spent reminding us of things that had already happened is ridiculous. And, she even went over it multiple times IN THIS BOOK!

Shouldn't Wolf die soon? You don't really expect to get more than 12 or 13 years out of most big dogs, I can't imagine more for a wolf. I wanted to see her deal with that.

There was a complete lack of story editing.

It was a horrible way to end a beautiful series.

I don't know what she was thinking, but Jean Auel has let me down terribly.

I found myself skimming though many parts of the books, looking for the next set of quotation marks.

DOWN ON THE FARM

While we were on the west coast of Florida, riding at Croom, we were invited to see the M&B PRODUCTS Farm. We deliver their milk and juice to the schools.

Joey was so excited to meet a cow. I was fascinated at how Green they were. I knew some of it, but it is different to see it in action. They are so efficient and have just thought about everything when it comes to saving energy or their impact on the environment. I was truly impressed and it was really fun visit. We toured the fields where they grow the corn, the stables where the cows are kept, Where they keep and mix their food, and of course, got to see them getting milked.

Yes, behind Mark in the above picture is a big pile of shit. Well, only the fibrous left over pieces. The "good stuff" gets sprayed on to the fields as fertilizer.

MALICIOUS SCARY

I'm Malicious Scary

Curdle dairy (points to smile)

My hands are not cleanest ( holds up her hands)

Joey's favorite song from TANGLED is "I got a dream."

Above is her version of the first few lines:

I'm malicious, mean and scary.

My sneer could curdle dairy.

And violence wise, my hands are not the cleanest.

You should see with what enthusiasm she says sings the words "breaking femurs".

FOUR WHEELING FUN

Grandpa, Chris, Daddy, Mommy & Joey went ATV riding at Croom for Chris's birthday. (For those of you who are confused, a Craven birthday lasts a month. His pre birthday weekend was spent in the Keys. His post birthday weekend was at Croom.)

This was Joey's first time riding an ATV.

She loved it!

Grandpa ran out of gas and Joey & Mommy had to tow him back.

Nanny Nanny Boo Boo!

(Look at the smile on her face!)

She had her own chilax' chair.

Joey played the role of fire marshal general for Chris, our resident pyrotechnician.

She helped Mommy hunt for good marshmallow roasting sticks.

SMORES! YUMMY!

Craven Camping.

(Grandpa & Chris cheated. They installed murphey beds in the ATV trailer and slept inside, with the AC running.)

Croom is a beautiful forest.

PRACTICING

The Camaro still looks great, huh?

With close supervision, Joey pretends to drive Bullseye.

Won't be long before she is driving it to school just like Momma did!

PRINCESS PAGEANT

Look! I see Belle!

And there's Rapunzel!

IT'S BETTER WITH YOUR HANDS UP

JOEY'S 1ST ROLLER COASTER

JACOB & RENESMEE

http://www.businessinsider.com/twilight-spin-off-featuring-jacob-black-and-renesmee-in-the-works-2011-3

Below is from the above link:

It sounds like a cruel April Fool's Day joke for hardcore Twilight haters across the globe. But it's true. Stephenie Meyer, creator of the novel series which the popular films are based on, has hinted that she is writing a new Twilight spin-off series that will focus on Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) and his relationship with Renesmee (Mackenzie Foy), the daughter of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), whom Jacob 'imprints' upon at the time of birth, marking the newborn as his life mate (or life protector, however you want to look at it).

This new novel series will be written with the intent to turn it into a movie.

When Stephenie Meyer was recently asked about the aging process between the two characters of Jacob and Renesmee, whose story will unfold in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, the author had this to say.

"That is a question I'm reserving the right not to answer, because there is a chance I'll go back to their story."

This spin-off is in place, because Stephenie Meyer doesn't feel there is anything left to say with Bella and Edward.

"(Their) story's already been told, and I doubt I'll ever write another series based on (those) same characters."

The Jacob/Renesmee spin-off won't happen for awhile, as Stephenie Meyer is currently working on a Young Adult science fiction story. It is possible that enough time will pass between The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 and this potential new franchise that Mackenzie Foy will be old enough to act against Taylor Lautner in a romantic relationship. And who knows, the teen heartthrob may be in need of a career boost at that time.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/twilight-spin-off-featuring-jacob-black-and-renesmee-in-the-works-2011-3#ixzz1IgRRCHjO

SWINGING & FARTING

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwRrZwvfP-E

Above is the link to the video from Joey's birthday party titled: SWINGING & FARTING. For some reason, I can't share from Youtube anymore.