Pensacola cupcakes and vacation home

I can't believe I forgot to post about the fabulous cupcakes we bought on our way out of Pensacola.  This was another place we found on our google search for gluten free places to eat.  Oh Snap Cupcakes offers regular (wheat flour) cupcakes along with vegan and gluten 'less' cupcakes.  It's really challenging to find good baked goods that are also gluten free.  These cupcakes were delicious.  I obviously didn't try the regular ones that the rest of the fam had, but I indulged in two, a red velvet and a chocolate raspberry.  They were divine!  Hubs got the Hot Mamma (it had coffee and cayenne pepper in it) which he said was really good, albeit slightly spicey.  C and S had lemon drop, S just had the frosting, her favourite part.  O got strawberry, M got Oreo and F got whopper, pictured in the middle below.  YUM YUM YUM

Here is my red velvet, I ate this for breakfast while we drove over the ocean for the first time, it so good, but not as good as the chocolate raspberry that I enjoyed with an starbucks iced caramel macchiatto in Tallahassee, Florida.

We didn't arrive at the vacation home until between 5 and 6 pm and we then needed to run out and buy some necessities, like bathroom products and FOOD.  It was late by the time we ate and settled in so we just headed to bed to sleep off some of the previous days travel exhaustion.

We all woke up relatively refreshed, lazed around and after lunch went out for some more supplies.  I learned that I don't ever want to set foot in a Florida Wa-Mart again.  I have never seen Wal-Mart SO busy, not even at Christmas time in NTX.  It was unbelievable,though I do believe that the People of Wal-Mart website could be solely kept going with the state of Florida.  I saw many photo ops today, I chose not to take any though.  Sorry. :)

When we finally made it home, we had burgers to go on the grill. The kids and I swam while the hubs got cookin'.  It almost felt like we were on vacation :)

Summer vacation!

It's been a long time coming and has required a LOT of planning but we are finally enjoying our Summer Vacation of 2012! 

Getting the house ready, the dog to the vet, 7 people packed and 1 hedgehog ready was no easy feat, but we did it and even made it to the highschool by 11:30am on the last day to pick up M in time to leave town.  Pretty impressive if I say so myself :)

First leg we were getting to Lafayette, Louisiana.  Originally we were trying to get to Alexandria, Louisiana but after calling the hotel to confirm rooms and try to make sure we had enough beds, we decided they were rude and we were opted to find a different place to stay.  It worked out better because we made it further on our first day then originally planned.  We ended up at Drury Inn, which was just fine and the kids liked the free evening buffet, while the adults liked the three free evening cocktails with check-in.  We stopped at O'Charleys for dinner (the buffet was not expansive at the hotel), food was fine, the servers were interesting and very friendly.  They did whisper about our gluten intolerance though but were very careful about cross contamination which I really appreciated.

The next morning we were up bright and early and on the road by around 9am, we were headed to New Orleans with a pit stop at Bibi's bakery in Lafayette.  It was a gluten free bakery we found online and decided to give it a try.  They had lots to offer and we all left with something yummy for the road.  The owner was very friendly too and is looking to expand, I hope he is able to!

New Orleans is an interesting city, fun to visit, but not really family friendly.  It reminds me a little of Vegas, but dirtier.  Everyone is trying to sell you something and it has a sketchy vibe.  First stop was Cafe Du Monde, a New Orleans Icon.  If you visit, you must go here, they have french style donuts (beignets)  and coffee.  It's very basic but delicious!

The last time we visited was during the month of November so we ordered hot cafe au laits with out beignets, this time it was hot so I ordered an iced one.  Still just as good!  Don't those beignets look delicious?



The boys waiting for their beignets

Soleil really liked the icing sugar on top the most

After Cafe Du Monde we went for a walk, J and I had a cocktail while walking down the street.   Seems so wrong to me, but anything goes in NOLA.  I forgot to take a picture of those, they were yummy.  I ordered a Louisiana Lemonade (lemonade, vodka and grenadine) and J ordered a Hurricane (vodka, rum and juice).  They were nice and refreshing since it was so hot and muggy.  The kids tried on some hats along the way.  Then we went to find somewhere to eat.  Not many family friendly places but we found something that was, uh mediocre. 

I forget the name of the restaurant, but they had a table available right way, which for a party of seven including an antsy toddler this was important.  J and O ordered the triple sampler which had crispy thin fried catfish, fried gator and fried boudin.  They both really liked the catfish and thought the alligator was pretty good, but neither were too keen on the boudin.  I tried a small taste of the boudin and I did not like it at all.  Guess it's a regional thing.

I ordered a salad after the server told me there is pretty much nothing gluten free on their menu, except for salads and the honey mustard dressing.  So I ordered a salad and subbed the honey mustard dressing, it of course came out with the poppy seed dressing but I ate it anyway.   I had a bad afternoon of dealing with a sore stomach, I suspect from the salad dressing :/  So if you are gluten free, NOLA is not the place for you.   The restaurant was entertaining for S, she enjoyed stabbing daddy in the heart with the sword that was holding her burger together :)

A beautiful view in New Orleans

The hubs and I

walking around was exhausting for Soleil, she crashed pretty much right away.

Next stop was a Griswoldy activity.  At one of the rest stops in Mississipi there is a Lunar Lander replica so we had to stop to see it.

Even Mars Bar came out for a visit, some tourist stopped and tried to pet her, it was kind of funny when Mars Bar puffed up and poked her :)

Next stop was Gulf Port, Mississipi and a giant rocking chair.  I'm not kidding, it was giant!

We had one more touristy stop to make, it was to Lambert's Cafe in Alabama.  We originally saw this place on Food Network (I think) and knew we had to visit.  It was a really fun place.  I would visit again for sure.  J and S didn't bother ordering food, we saw how big the servings were and thought it would be excessive.  I am frustrated that I didn't take more pictures, I only have a few so it looks like we will have to visit again sometime so I can get more. 

One table had a giant menu to order from LOL

This is M's salad, this picture doesn't do it justice, it was HUGE.  The bread bowl was big enough to be a hat!

We made it to Pensacola that night and spent the entire following day driving.  We are now in Orlando FL and will be here for a quite a while.  Tomorrow is Harry Potter world at Universal Studios.  We are a little bit excited.





Teens and dances

I just wanted to share some pics of my oldest two before the latest teen dance get together they went to. 

Happy Easter!

I have to admit, Easter is not my favourite holiday.  We kind of wish we'd never started the tradition with the kids, but here we are and we'd feel really guilty if we stopped now.  So we continue, I am just not terribly enthusiastic about this particular holiday.  I always procrastinate on planning and didn't even buy the food for Easter lunch/dinner until Saturday afternoon! 

We pretty much stick to the same menu, chocolate and coffee for breakfast and baked ham, scalloped potatoes and roasted asparagus for lunch/dinner.  This year I made hot cross buns, they weren't quite as good as the one's I had back home in Australia but the flavour was there and they reminded me of home *sigh*

They were good slightly warmed in the microwave and slathered with butter.  M gave me to idea to warm them up, my daughter has good ideas!

Easter eve the kids get all the plastic eggs ready for the Easter Bunny to fill and hide while they are sleeping, we count them so we know how many to find the next day.  This year we got 100 out, 20 for each kid, it ended up being 25 for each kid since M didn't want to find any.  She chose to help S instead.  It worked out okay  for her since some had peanut butter chocolates in them, F doesn't like them (my boy :) ) and gave them to her!  They also leave out carrots for the Easter Bunny, to provide him with sustenance to keep going :)  Unfortunately S fell asleep and the big kids were at a friends glow in the dark egg hunt party so I just have pics of F and C.

C woke up at 7:30ish I think, I told him and F that they had to wait for S to wake up, she woke up about 30 mins later.  So we woke up the big kids and got to the baskets pronto! 

M showed S her basket.  S wasted no time downing some chocolate!

Owen checking out his stash.  The EB delivered Zombieland and Scream to his basket along with a LOT of candy!

A book that C found in his basket

She goes for the nice chocolate first!

F enjoyed the 'glo worms'.  The tweezers glowed so he used these for some other gummy lollies he got too.

Buh-bye chocolate bunny!

Campbell got an Angry Birds spring game.  It's cute, has different challenges and levels like the app

Here is a pic of F's basket.  He got some chalk, bubbles, games, a pinwheel and a calendar.  He liked his pinwheel the most.

After some chocolate indulgence the hunt was on.  I have lots of pics of S doing the hunt and one blurry one of F.  The big kids were too fast which is why I only have one blurry pic to share.

See how blurry, he wouldn't slow down LOL

After the egg hunt we decorated some eggs

While they waited for some real food the younger two went out to play with their new bubbles.  We had some storms early in the day so it was a wet mess outside.

I hope you had a great Easter!