Storm troopers...

I was thrilled when I found out that Nathan was going to be headed south to work a marathon that Publix was sponsoring in the same town where my sister Jamie lives. The girls and I headed south on Thursday evening. Nathan and I had a mid morning appointment with Mom Hawthorne's financial advisor and Jamie was going to watch the girls for me.

 Later that afternoon while Nathan worked I drove Taylor and Ashley over to Orlando for my brother Chad to look at Taylor's foot as a follow-up to a medical procedure she had performed a few weeks ago. It was nice getting to see Chad and Natalie, Chandler too. Chandler came home from school right about the same time we were leaving. Their home in Orlando is beautiful and it brought back memories of when we lived in Lake Mary and I worked off of Colonial Drive. When traffic on I-4 would get backed up I would cut those the quaintest neighborhoods, just like theirs, the type you would see in the movies having block parties and kids trick-or-treating. I shared my feelings with Natalie and she said that is exactly what her neighbors do.

In the evenings the girls stayed the night at Jamie and Jeremy's home while I was able to go out to eat with Nathan and stay with him at the hotel. Saturday morning Jamie and Jeremy met us in downtown for the kids to participate in the fun race. It was literally 30 seconds. Jamie and Jeremy misunderstood and thought the race was later than it was and barely made it on time.

By the time we got to the starting line we had missed the instructions and didn't realize they were going to be doing it in heats of age groups so all of our 7 children ranging in ages from 11 to 3 ran in the 5 and under age group. It was hilarious. After the race the kids enjoyed oranges from Uncle Nathan's sponsor tent, donuts from Duncan Donuts (another sponsor) and pizza too.

Later that day was Hayden's Star Wars birthday party!  The cousins had a blast and Jamie did an amazing job with all the games and decorations.  I wish I would have thought to take pictures before the kids devoured all of the treats!  The cupcakes were the best...Storm Troopers, which I think is a great way to describe our crazy kids!