Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 7 - last day

Our last day at the beach. We decided not to go anywhere but the beach!
All morning we spent there.

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 6 - Salvador Dalí Museum and Downtown St. Petersburg

Every day we tried to add something special to our trip. This day it was walking around downtown St Petersburg and visiting The Dali Museum.
At first I didn't want to go there, I thought my kids will be bored and won't be able to understand anything there. But after reading some comments online I changed my mind. Yes, Ashley was bored and Jeremy didn't care, but Emily liked it. You can get a kids tour called "Mr. Moustache". Tour designed especially for elementary-middle school aged kids. Only available in English.To go with the audio tour you get The hunt book. There are different riddles and questions and you have to figure out the answer. The tour was interesting and funny.

Jeremy is 9 months old!

My little baby is going to be a toddler soon. I am not ready for it yet.
He is 16.2 lb, which is 7kg 350g. But I will know for sure in a week when we go see our pediatrician and get some shots.
Jeremy is doing great at everything, you can't tell he was a preemie anymore.
He is sitting up by him self and not falling over.
He can stand and hold just with one hand.
Trying to crawl, but unsuccessful for now.
Still doesn't have any teeth, but I guess we will see one very soon.
Does not like baby food... 2-3 spoons is his limit. Only yogurt he can eat a little more, but even that can't finish a half of the box. He is fully breastfeed baby and all he wants is milk and mama. But he will eat my food just fine - small pieces of chicken, bread, broccoli - some of his favorites.
Starting to not like strangers and today even started crying when one lady tried to touch his hand.
Every time he sees me he opens his arm wanting to be picked up. Watching every step I do and gets fussy if I walk past him and not pick him up.
Very mamas little boy.
The nights are unchanged, still up every 2-2.5 hours to eat. We are lucky if we get 3+ hours, which doesn't happen very often.
                                                
                                                

Broccoli Casserole

My kids can eat this endlessly!  This recipe started as a Thanksgiving tradition and I have to make it at least 2-3 times per months because every one just likes it so much.
The original recipe came from Paula Deen, but we changed it a bit to our taste.

Rosemary - garlic roasted potatoes

      

Easy to make and very delicious.  We use this potatoes for a lot of different dishes.
                            

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 6 - Beach

Yes, beach every day, can't skip it! But Emily wasn't too happy that day - there was no waves, at all! So she couldn't ride her board, no matter how hard she tried. So it was time for just swimming and building a sand castle and water sliding! There was a giant water slide right on the beach so we went there. Ashley couldn't go, she was too short, but Emily went few times and loved it!

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 5 - LEGOLAND Florida

We couldn't miss it! Being only a little more then an hour away from it we decided to go. Plus we have annual passes and it was so worth it!

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 4 - Fort De Soto Park

This was a great place to visit!
If you interested in history of this park there is a great article on their county's main page. A lot of interesting facts and details about it -  Fort De Soto Historic Guide

Brief history if you didn't want to read from the link above. 

The park is made up of 5 island anchored by the main island, Mullet Key where the fort and main beaches are located. 

This park has few different sections and areas to visit. You can even do camping there. We explored 3 area - East beach, Fort and North Beach.

East Beach is a great area to come with small kids. Water is very calm and clean. Beach is the least
crowded and there is an incredible view of the Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 4 - Beach

Finally we got a sunny morning! No more clouds or rain.
Nice view from our balcony

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 3 - pier 60

Continuation to the previous post.

After the museum weather cleared up and we decided to check out the main pier in Clearwater Beach.  Parking there was a nightmare! We drove around the parking lot for 15 minutes trying to find a spot to park.
The Pier 60 was a nice area. Very specious and pretty. But I wouldn't come here to swim... Very crowded beach area.
There is a playground right on the beach, but also very crowded. There is no room for parents to sit, you have to watch your kids at all times because its open on all sides.

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 3 - Dunedin Fine Art Center

In the morning we woke up to see a very bad storm outside. High wind, heavy rain and not even a little clearing in the sky. It was a little disappointing, but nothing we can do.
We let the kids play for half a day and after lunch took them to the museum - Dunedin Fine Art Center. This is like a hidden treasure there.  Not many people, very inexpensive (we only paid $6 for all of us) and there are a lot of stuff for kids to do, especially  in a rainy day.

Books

We love books! Emily likes to read and I hope Ashley and Jeremy will too. On Sat we went to a sale to get some more classic books. Only book at the bottom was $2 and the rest only $1 !!! Can pass a classic story for this price. And last night Emily started reading The Robinson Crusoe book and like it so far!
Now I need to organize her book shelf and separate some books for early readers and just keep older ones for her.

Birds milk cake

This is one of my favorite Russian deserts! I always thought it will be very hard to make, but ended up not so bad. First try and still tasty :)
This is a souffle kind of cake.
I missed it so much. Kids loved it, even Jeremy got a chance to try it :)

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 2

Day 2 started early. All kids woke up around 8 am and were ready to go to the beach. Weather was still not so good. Not raining, but very cloudy and windy. Eventually it did rain.
In the morning the beach was all empty, just some occasional runners would pass by.
Waves were huge and we couldn't really swim, but kids still had fun jumping over them.
                                         

                                        

Clearwater Beach, Fl - day 1

We are back home now! One week went way faster then I expected, but then time always fly on vacations.
We rented 2 bedroom condo with a friend. I had my mom and 3 kids and she had her 3 kids. We stayed about 20 mins south of Clearwater beach - on the Treasure Island. Later I will write a little more detailed review of the island and the area together. Condo complex was - The Palms, will post more about it too. Right now about our first day.
Drive from Atlanta to Treasure Island is 7 hours according to google maps, but with 3 kids you can easily add 2 more hours. Even we only stopped 3 times, it still took additional 2.5 hours. Jeremy is still nursing often so it was hard to plan our days.
That day we left home early. Woke up at 4 and left at 5 am. We prefer to leave around that time or even earlier for any road trips. Yes it is harder on the parents, but much easier with the kids. All 3 of mine slept all the way till Florida boarder, which was 4 hours away. We stopped at the Welcome center, used bathrooms, walked around, I fed Jeremy and we had a small picnic breakfast. I packed everything with us.

First day of school 2015

I can't believe both of my babies are now at school. Nobody running around the house, screaming or playing. Just me and Jeremy, who is also bored with out his sisters. Emily was usually playing with him during the day.
My 2nd grader and Pre-K student.