Look who came to dinner....

Yesterday afternoon, a huge gator was sunbathing on the golf course at our friends Kathy and Marks, as it came nearer to dinner time he swam over to the house, he could either smell Maggie or decided he wanted to share a Filet Mignon. This fella came really close and at one point I wanted to get the kids out of the pool. It then came to a stand off, he was staring at Maggie and Maggie was stirring at him through the screen, it got quite tense. As the weather turned and the rain came he decided to go under the water and swim away.

Are we there yet.....

Maggie was worse than the kids this time on the way to Fort Myers, she was really good but got a bit bored the last 20 minutes of the trip, the drive is usually around 3 hours, it took just over 4 with the torrential weather we had to drive through. We didn't come the usual route of I4 - I 75 we came down the back roads, it was really spooky at 10pm at night. We are going to take that way back to see it in the day time. The kids freaked out when we passed Popash, its suppose to be a haunted school that you can still hear and see the children playing from the 1800's. Consequently John wants to stop there on the way back........!!!!!!

Rainy days......

I feel like I am living in Liverpool again, its rained here for 3 days non stop and its been windy, feel like we haven't seen the sun for weeks. The boys had Tuesday off school because of the storm and went back in yesterday. I haven't done too much just worked, I have to admit I am exhausted from watching the Olympics I have been staying up well past midnight every night which is way too late for me. The boys have been watching Little League World Series on TV and Sam is showing us how he is gonna hit when he is playing in the World Series, I love the confidence this kid has......... John has been making us laugh doing impressions, I think he is going to be in comedy he is so funny....... Looking forward now to our 5 days away to Fort Myers next week cant wait.

Tropical Storm Fay

Tropical Storm Fay was not as bad as we expected, but it is only 5pm we may see more of her tonight, its just like a windy day in Liverpool, I took a photo at 5pm today pretty dark but just rainy. We stayed home and watched the Olympics, Little League Baseball and played video games. Sam is now complaining he has Playstation thumb, I let the boys play tons of games today as its boring and what you gonna do when there is a storm outside. I cannot believe they kept the kids out of school today, it really was nothing to severe, although the weather channel says its going to be windy tonight. I will be up all night if anyone fancies a chat on msn I wont be sleeping tonight if its windy......... its the one element I really really hate the wind.

1st day of school....

1st day of school today, the boys were really excited, but not liking the uniform too much. Sam came out of school hot, he said he couldn't get used to being all smart and it was way to hot to be tucked in at the waist. The day was pretty quiet in the office too I think everyone was busy getting kids back to school and now we have tomorrow off as the Tropical Storm Fay approaches......

Championsgate Weekend

We had a great weekend spent at Championsgate with our friends. We hung out at the pool and went around the lazy river, and all the kids rode the slide. I rode it too and didn't realize how fast it goes. All the small kids were coming out the tube really slowly and it looked easy. I came down and came out like a rocket, I was all disorientated didn't know if I was up or down and lost my glasses, luckily my lovely son John was there to save me...LOL Next it was Keith's turn. We didn't tell him what the slide was like before he got on, we just said it was great......... we all waited for him at the bottom of the slide, you could hear him coming through the tube screaming like a girl all the way down, when he got to the end of the tube he fired out the end so fast it was incredible. We all laughed at him it was hilarious. We sat in the spa for a while then chilled out in the sun. It was so relaxing it was nice to just get away, looking forward now to our long weekend in Fort Myers next week...... First day of school tomorrow, I will post pics of the boys in their new school uniform, they cant wait to go back its been a long hot summer..... Sam is delighted he got his favorite teacher Mr Melrose.

The Bike....

The kids wanted to go and see Danny's new bike so on Sunday we went up to Lake Mary, he bought a custom motorcycle it was sweet. The boys were really impressed and spent a while looking at all the chrome, the mirrors, the seats and the paint job....... They didnt get to go for a ride as Danny only had one seat on it, I think when he gets the other seat they will have us back up there for a spin.......

Sunday chillin......

We have had internet issues I think all of Celebration has after the storm on Friday night so I am not sure if this is going to post or not. John had baseball practice on Saturday with the AAU team and then afterwards they had a pool party at the Coaches house. I didnt go to the baseball so there are no pictures, I went to a Silpada Jewelry party instead, which was fun. We spent Sunday hanging out with our friends up in Lake Mary, Danny and Tara, we went and hung out for the day and had the usual cannon ball competition. Danny obviously spends all day practicing look at his tan compared to John. They all had fun swimming in the pool for the afternoon and for Dinner we got a chinese take out and then went to Cold Stone for dessert. This is the last week for the kids to be off school, so this week is full of appts, Dentist, etc etc

Count down.........

The big count down is on for the return to school. The boys are bored now and are ready to go back. We didn't get a chance to get away during the summer, work ended up really busy, so we just chilled at the pool and hung out with friends, the boys always had their friends over to play games and hit some balls so that kept them happy. Uniform's are all bought and supplies are bought for Sam, 11 more sleeps......!!!! We are going down to Fort Myers the last weekend in August, I am so looking forward to it, we are going to be staying with Kathy and Mark our old neighbors from Liverpool we usually end up hiring a boat and spending the weekend on Sanibel Island, I need to buy a good book and a beach umbrella and you will know where to find me.....

Dads v Lads

We had a Dads v Lads game of baseball today, we met at the baseball field and played in the blazing heat. Sam also got to play which was great for him to play with the big kids he always enjoys that. Afterwards we hung out at the Kritikos house, the kids got to swim and Sandra made some fab Italian food. Later the boys all came back to our house to play Wii, after a couple of hours we decided to go and see Dark Knight Sam and I hadnt seen it. Fantastic movie, just waiting to see tonight when it comes to bedtime if the Joker freaked Sam out, Sam said he didnt and he only closed his eyes twice during the movie so we shall see...... !!!!!

Baseball Starts Again

We are all looking forward to baseball starting again and practice for the new AAU team started today, there are 4 boys from Celebration playing John, Noah, Matt and Zach. The team looks pretty good and I am sure they will all have tons of fun. Coach had them running a lot today, and John must have drunk about 10 bottles of water and also I am not looking forward to being on the bleachers in this heat it was hot today even tho there was a breeze. Sam and I sat underneath an umbrella but the sun still got my shoulders red. I am not sure what the team is going to be called Eagles I think but the coach said he would let us know. Roll on cooler days.........

Hangin' out with Friends

We hung out last night with the Kritikos family. The boys had a great time swimming and having fun. John and Sam stayed over the night so I am sure they were up till a late hour playing wii, that means they will both be exhausted today when they come home. The count down to going back to school is on, only 2 more weeks. School Uniforms are all sorted, supplies for Sam are all bought and put away. This summer break has gone so fast, I think its because Sam's baseball lasted for so long. The boys are not happy campers at the thought of wearing this uniform, I like it because I am used to it, the kids all look smart going to school. Lets see how long it lasts before the county changes it back again.

Blog Make Over.....

Ok, so you all know how I like change and get bored with stuff really easily, eg Sunglasses, Shoes, Bags, phones..........!!!! I decided to change my blog. After weeks of searching through other peoples blogs I decided to change the look of mine, and now I am totally undecided whether to change altogether to mac. I have a mac book and the blog facilities are way better than this blogspot stuff..... I have had this style blog for the day now and must admit I quite like it, and iweb is being way to complicated for me.... I will keep this and see how it goes.

Sunday Night Sleepover.....

Cooper, Sams friend came to stay over today, when he first came in to our house Misty his mom told us that Cooper isnt too good with dogs, he took a while to warm up to Maggie but once he did and he realised she was as soft as a brush he was lovin' her, look at him giving her some meat left over from dinner. Maggie is so good with kids, we should of called her NANA. We also had a huge storm tonight, Cooper was a bit nervous he doesn't like storms, so we closed all the shutters in the house and watched Benchwarmers, we turned the sound up so loud it was like being in the movies, he didn't even realise a pretty big storm was rolling through..... I love having the kids friends over to stay their topic of conversation is baseball baseball baseball, its so funny to listen to them. Cooper was on Sam's all star team and he was the teams big hitter and 3rd baseman.

Hangin at the pool....

Finally, the rains have stopped, for the time being anyway, and we are back at the pool, we went along with Stefano tonight Sams friend. They had good fun, wrestling and throwing a ball in the pool, we were the only ones there so they could splash and make as much noise as they liked. We stayed till about 9pm, when the mosquitos were coming out. Sam always gets eaten alive so we came home. Only 3 more weeks till they go back to school, where has the time gone......

Its 3pm......

Its 3pm, you can almost set your watch by it, the storms have been arriving in Orlando around about 3pm everyday. When we are set to go the pool we cant. These pictures are at 3pm today and its dark and the thunder is so loud you can feel the power off it shake the house, lightening is strong and the winds are blowing. The top picture is the water coming out of the drain pipe its raining so hard. Maggie isnt happy she is running around the house panting, she hates these storms. This is a long one its lasted about 25 minutes I hope we dont see anymore Catfish...... ewww

56 Years

Happy 56th Wedding Anniversary mum and dad, 56 years that is such a long time....... Congratulations we love you both....xxx

RIP Sammy the Siamese Fighting Fish......

So after weeks of hanging on and hanging on...... Sammy the Siamese Fighting Fish went to the big pond in the sky......!!!!
After 4 years of being in our family he played a big part in the lives of the Birchalls, every morning he used to jump out of his bowl to eat a pellet of food being dropped into him. He always swam around his bowl when you were around and always, Sammy was on the defensive and snarled at you when you looked at him, like he could take on you and all your friends. After all is said and done he was Sam's fish, and Sam is very upset tonight, although he doesn't look it in this photograph.

Raining FISH.......

We had massive storms in Celebration today, really torrential rains, John went out to get the mail and bumped into this bad boy, he must of washed up out of the drains.... he was ugly and was thrashing about, so we guided him back to the drain so he could get back to where he came from. None of us would touch it or pick it up so we had to get a lid off a box to help push him along.

Still smilin'....

The boys are still smilin'.... Sam had his friend Wyatt to stay over last night they were really good and went to bed at a reasonable hour. More than can be said from when Hector stayed and him and John stayed up till 5.15am playing wii.