Spring Break with Babushka

Sunset at Babushka's

My wonderful mother, babushka

Yuri (9)

Victor 7 (Veecha)

Evan 6 (Vanya)

We all had a great time on Spring Break as we traveled down to Sarasota, Florida to visit my mom, the famous babushka. Mostly we spent time at the pool and on the beach which the boys just LOVE. We got glow in the dark eggs to hunt for and the Easter bunny did find his way to Florida with the boys baskets.

Of course Babushka spoiled them to death with their favorite things and they played with a multitude of stuff she keeps on her porch to play with (and take apart and distribute pieces and get in to). They made houses out of the empty cardboard boxes, got all the beach towels and beach toys dumped out of their bins for props, put on hats, did puzzles, got out all markers and crayons to draw with etc. etc. etc.. They were in gadget heaven!

On Easter Sunday we drove to Tampa to be with my cousins and had a wonderful time. We attended their church in the morning and then went back to their house and had a full spread of food including leg of lamb and spiral cut ham. Yummy yummy. The cool thing was seeing all my cousins kids and ours playing together. That's what it's all about. The boys are still amazed by how many family members we have. I'm sure we are technically 2nd or 3rd or removed type cousins but it is all just the same. We are all just cousins. My grandmother was the youngest of 8 children and all of their grandchildren (me being one) now have their own children who are actually getting to spend some time together at holidays and such. I remember how fun that was in the summers growing up visiting family and I'm glad our boys have that too. Our older kids didn't get the benefit of having cousins their age so I'm glad these guys do. There was a pool in the backyard where most of the kids spent their time. Everyone got along great and we didn't even have to correct our kids for ANYTHING! It was a miraculous day. Thank you Jesus for the celebration of your resurrection. Leaving to go home, well that was another story. Tired and having a full day of excitement and food finally took it's toll and 3 little boys whined and cried as we got them into the car and buckled in. Once the movie came on however it only took about 5 minutes and they were out like a light, not to emerge or peep until we arrived back at babushkas where they went upstairs quietly and went right to sleep.
We also made our ritualistic journey to the aquarium to pet the sting rays and we also made a trip to Venice beach (about 20 minutes south) to hunt for sharks teeth. We found only about 10 but they were excited about it. My entrepreneur, Yuri, after seeing that there was a man selling sharks tooth necklaces asked if we could get some materials to make necklaces out of the ones we found so that he could come back and sell his too! He cracks me up. I'm glad he didn't see the seashell jewelry being sold near babushkas. She may have been out some seashells and he would have set up his own little sea shack on the beach! Rob took Yuri and Victor to a baseball game at Tropicana field to see the Devil Rays play the Orioles. Vanya opted to stay home with mama and babushka since spending 3 hours sitting down watching baseball starting at 7:30pm was not an attractive offer in his mind. They didn't get home until about midnight but had a good time. Yuri got into seeing the "real" baseball players and learning a bit about the game but for Victor it was all about the cotton candy and stadium noise. Vanya swam, colored eggs, hunted lizards, blew bubbles, and really enjoyed his alone time with mama and babushka. We let him stay up late too so he felt like he got a treat as well. papa brought home a cow bell for him that they distributed to the boys got at the game so he was a happy camper and was able to be happy hearing about the game from his brothers. Of course the debate about who had more fun went on for some time but it was nice that everyone enjoyed their time. There was also seashell finding, kite flying, sandcastle making, paddle ball, and grilling by the poolside so lots of fun was had by all!

Since we traveled fairly light it wasn't hard to pack up and we then made the long journey back home stopping over night and at the South of the Border area for a potty break, stretching of the legs and souvenir purchase. The boys were wonderful at helping to unpack and get things back in order so we went for ice cream afterwards.
Fun times!



A very blessed mama mama mama