Turning 7!

November always starts with a bang around our house.  With Nicole's birthday falling in the beginning part of November, we are always busy.

We started out our birthday week with a trip to the zoo!

The medical study that Nicole is in, celebrates when the kids turn 7.  She officially becomes a Jr. Scientist.  As part of the Jr. Scientist program, she got to don her lab coat and "follow the trail" of the blood she gives - see what happens to it and how they study it.

When we finally got to celebrate with the family - she was in hog heaven being in the spotlight with her cousins.

At church, her birthday weekend also happened to fall when her sunday school class had a social in the gym.  The Skates were out and everyone got in on the action!

FINALLY, the big day!  We celebrated with a  birthday doughnut!

Nicole was so excited - after skating the day before, what she really wanted was a pair of skates so she could practice at home.

The next day we were able to get together with friends at a local park (where the play structures are art).

This is not really a part of her birthday - but the birthday girl has been having fun with American Heritage Girls.

Halloween

Happy Halloween!

October went out in a bang....
We participated in our churches Trunk-or-treat - we were an underwater dream.  Of course the girls were out of their element as a genie and a bag of skittles.

 I was a jellyfish!

 Megan and her friend Rachel rocked it out at another trunk...

 My favorite was the trunk that built a slingshot and recreated Angry Birds!

 Nicole's friend, Julia, popped over for a visit and helped pass out candy.

 Later that night - we went to a family costume party....  The Genie and Skittles were joined by The Tooth Fairy and Juan Valdez.

And Halloween wasn't even here yet.... we also participated in a service project and helped with the Halloween party at a local assisted living facility.

 This year - the girls were responsible for their pumpkins (OK, I helped some)...

Our crew from the hood....

Tampa continued.... family style!

It was fun to explore Tampa with just us girls... but we saved the most exciting outings to make sure Tom could be with us!

Our first day together we visited Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo.  (Here's my plug.... 50% off admission with a Zoo Atlanta membership - seriously, I should get commission)

I think we would all agree that one of our favorite parts of this zoo was the stingray pond.  You could buy some shrimp and hand feed the rays!

It was our first peek at a manatee.

 They had a safari to see the "big" animals.

 And what zoo is complete without a petting zoo.

 Personally, I loved their bat exhibit.  It was amazing to see Flying Foxes.

Day 2 - We just happened to be in the area at the same time that LEGOLAND had a homeschool day - so we drove on up towards Orlando to take advantage of that.

 We got there when it opened and closed it down.... I wish we had had more time in the construction zone - the girls loved building cars and flyers.

 We got a bit wet on one of the rides....

Family Day 3.... The experience we'd all been waiting for - Clearwater Marina and Aquarium.

This is not a true "aquarium" but is actually a hospital and treatment center.  We were so excited to get to see Winter (from Dolphin Tale) and Hope (Dolphin Tale 2).

 One of the turtles they rescued that had lost his back leg.

 Winter and Hope - playing....

 The boat from the movie

 We took a backstage tour - got to see the treatment center and hear about their efforts to save the sea turtles.  They receive hundreds of turtles a year and hope to give medical treatment and rehabilitate as many as possible so that they can be released back into the wild.

 They go to great lengths to keep the "releasable" turtles away from human contact as much as possible.  Some turtles are not able to be released and then they are introduced to human contact so that they can better care for them.

We would love to come back here one day so that we can go on some of the marine biologist boat trips.