Sean's 3rd Birthday!!

On Saturday we celebrated Sean's 3rd Birthday. The theme of the party was fighter jet airplanes, particular the F-22. Notice the large poster was actually signed by the Chief Test Pilot for the F-22. It seems either Dawn, David, or one of their friends knows just about everybody. Sean's flight suit was a little big for him but he can wear it for Halloween too. Jim and I drove up from Augusta on Friday the day before the party so Dawn and I could work on the Birthday Cake. Believe it or not it took us most of the day to complete it and Dawn already had the cake baked and frozen for us to use. We cut out all the pieces, which Dawn had drawn to scale, and iced it. The icing came from Publix. Little known fact: Publix, and probably other stores, will make up icing to any color you want and sell it to you. That helped a lot.

This is the cake!! Dawn molded the stars out of white chocolate. Notice the three candles on the back of the plane. We had a good time making it and the red, white, and blue colors look better than the grey and dark grey we did on our "dry run" in Ocala. (See earlier blog)
In keeping with the all American military theme the colors were, of course, red, white, and blue and we had mini hot dogs and hamburgers to eat. All the food was good but the hamburgers were great!!

Dawn also had a couple of things to keep the kids busy. The day before we prepared some small cakes with white icing melted and poured over them for the kids to decorate. Boy did they have fun and did such a good job!

Sean "decorating" his cake with all the other kids.

See what a good job they did....then they got to eat the cakes they decorated.

They also played a game called "Pin the Pilot on the Plane" Dawn had the picture that the F-22 Test Pilot had signed for Sean blown up and she used that to "pin the pilots" on.

This is Sean pinning his "Pilot" on the plane. Of course he could not win the prize because he was the Birthday Boy...and if you look closely he is also peeking.

Please notice that the kids did not pin just any Pilot on the Plane but each child had a picture of them selves to pin. You would think that this a sign that the mother has too much time on her hands.....but that is not true. I don't know where she finds the time to do all these things.

Not only did Dawn find time to help Sean with his cake...

She decorated one herself.

I know Sean will always remember his 3rd Birthday...at least until his 4th Birthday.

The Florida Manatee

We paid a visit to Sonny and Mercedes on Sunday and had a great lunch on the water. We were so glad that Jason was able to join us. Jason is in ROTC at the University of South Florida and plans to go active duty in the Army when he graduates next May. The Army will be lucky to have him as he has the highest grade point average in his class and has max'ed out the PT Test with a score of 300. Hooah!!

After lunch we took a ride to a spot where the discharge from a power plant causes the water to always be at about 80 degrees. Because the water is so warm it is a gathering spot for the Florida Manatees. The Florida manatee, Florida’s state marine mammal, is a large aquatic relative of the elephant. They are grayish brown in color and have thick, wrinkled skin on which there is often a growth of algae. They are actually so ugly that they are cute.

The Manatees breath by sticking their nose out of the water. Their nose is like a short elephant nose.

This shows the temperature of the water. about 80 degrees. Manatees love warm water.I hope you can see all the Manatees under the surface of the water. There were several hundred Manatees hanging around the power plant. It was so interesting.
This Manatee weights between 1,500 and 1,800 pounds. Look at all the barnacles on him!!