"May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favor..."

3 Years, 47 Weeks.


That line is familiar to those that know or have seen The Hunger Games, but this post is not a tribute [get it?  no pun intended] to the popular trilogy.

We did, however, manage to beat some odds and get pretty lucky with some prizes this week.

It's this time of the year when the city of Ocoee holds its annual Spring Fling for Ocoee residents, and we have attended it every year since our move here.  Not only do you get a free tree or plant (which I've added to the backyard each year), but there are a bunch of community service vendors, information, and educational activities for the kids.

One thing we always look forward to is the free helmets, as a service to the safety of the children of Ocoee.  Each year we get a new helmet upgrade courtesy of the city.  So we went and got our three, with Braelyn wanting to try and ride around the cones they had set up as a bike course.  So we had to fill out a waiver for her, which included receiving a raffle ticket for a drawing for a brand new bike!  Of course, Braelyn decided not to do the bike course once it was her turn, because there were some people watching and she got nervous, but also because the bike she was going to ride was too big.  At least, that was her excuse.

Anyway, later on in the afternoon we were present for the drawing as they were calling out ticket numbers.  Ours was 606928.  The first one they picked was 606926!  2 away!  We couldn't believe it.  But then, no one claimed the ticket.  So they picked another.  Same thing, no one had the ticket number.  Then they picked a third, which had the person's name "Zachary" on it.  We heard some whooping and yelling and saw this grandmother with a boy approach the announcer.  But then they checked her ticket number and it didn't match; her grandson's name was Zachary and she thought they had won!  So back to the drawing.  Next ticket called out:  606927!  1 away!  How crazy!  So we waited for someone to claim the bike, and...nothing.  No one stepped up with the ticket.  So the announcer reached in a 5th time, and pulled out ~ you guessed it ~ ticket # 606928!  We had won the bike!  I started hootin' and hollerin' while Braelyn and Tangie made a mad dash to the pickup table.  So what if it was a boy's bike.  We had won!

But then later there was another drawing for another bike.  This time, a girl's bike.  The winner was a lady with her tween son, who looked a little disappointed yet mustered up enough pride to get on the purple and orange bike and try to ride it.  So I made my way over to them and inquired if they would be open to trade, since we had something both parties would benefit from each other.  The mother was ecstatic, as was he, when I waved Tangie over to make the swap.  And in the end, I think we came out on top, as the girl's bike was priced at $180, compared to the boy's bike at $60.

She's been enjoying riding it up and down the street.

But that's not all.  Brae and I swung by Winter Garden to see the bike races they were having and I happened to fill out a form at one of the booths there, sponsored by a lawyer from Clearwater who specializes in cases dealing with cycling accidents.  Anyway, on Thursday I received a package from his law offices with a card saying I had won the raffle, along with a nice bike flashlight, which I priced at $40 on Amazon!  Awesome!

And to top it all off, it seems the Broncos are being heralded as the "winners in Free Agency", as we acquired 3 pro-bowlers to bolster our defense in 2014:  Safety TJ Ward from Cleveland, CB Aquib Talib from New England, and DE Demarcus Ware from Dallas.  Very exciting!

It seems the odds are in our favor.  At least, for now.

Here was our week:

Tangie came with us as we joined the Bergs and their homeschool group to LegoLand.

She wanted to dress up like Legos, hence the multi colored outfit.  Made sense after we got there.

Little brother loves to copy his big sister.

Mommy and Maddy riding the flying bike ride, 

with Jennifer and Kohl following behind.

On the water ride with Brae.

Mommy and her team on the firetruck race.

With the Grodack girls.

Again, these two!

Selfie with everyone there.

Waited 45 minutes in line for a 30 second safari ride.

At least they were all smiles.

That's because they played while the parents stood in line for them!

Enjoying the many playgrounds and slides in the park.

Maddy rides the joust.

Mommy chaperones all the kids!

He LOVED all the knight get ups!

And found a worthy nemesis!

Princess Maddy joins in the fun.

One of the last rides on a long day, the carousel.

How the dads felt.

Swung by the store to get a "small" souvenir, he immediately picks up two of the more expensive ones!

The group for dinner at Beef O'Brady's.

Home and out!

Early morning straight to play with Legos!

Brae helps with breakfast; still enjoying our fresh farm eggs!

Getting our helmets fitted.

Maddy chose a fun blue helmet.

The twins really wanted to do some jumping.

And then driving.

I can't believe she's only 12 years shy of getting her driver's license!

Here she looks like an accident-prone kid!

We celebrated Duncan's birthday with the adults (plus Colby) going out for Indian
leaving the kids with a sitter.   Afterwards the ladies went to the JBF consignment to
do some shopping while we headed back to Casa de Grodack for a movie, ironically,
Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Bike ride with Duncan and Jason.  51 mile tour of Seminole county.

Along with Duncan's 69 year old mother Elaine.  She did the entire ride too!

Maddy getting some ride time in.

Getting ready to go pick up big sister.

Braelyn started Soccer League at school this week.

She's faster than most of the boys there.  And quite adept with the soccer ball.
Here are some action shots on her second day.

Randoms:

I just don't see how that seems comfortable!

He really wanted to ride that ride...Um sir...what grade did you say you were again?

Brady was out during dinner so we lent Elaine our wagon so she could eat her food!

Sunrise greeting us as we set out for our early morning bike ride on Sunday.

Stats from our ride.  We biked a route bigger than Lake Apopka!

We found our freezer turned off, and unfortunately everything inside was ruined.  Upon investigating, turned out that the outlet wasn't working, yet all breakers and switches were on.  So I bought and replaced the outlet with a new one.  When that didn't work I was almost about to call the electrician to come and price gouge us on such a small issue, I found out that our sprinkler box in the garage wasn't working as well.  I called our neighbor who installed it 5 years ago for some help, and he came over to take a look at it.  He found a GFI outlet in the garage that had tripped, and after resetting it, both the sprinkler box and freezer outlet worked!  Which meant that I didn't really have to go through all that trouble of buying a new outlet, cutting the wires, rewiring, etc. etc.  I just keep telling myself I needed the practice.

Kohlden:

Lego man.

Sitting coy.

Hipster.  Next to the air conditioner.

Quotes:

• Eating supper at Beef O'Brady's, Kohl needed to use the bathroom, but the only stall was being used, so I stood him up in front of the lowest urinal and had him pee for the first time standing up.  His response after finishing:  "That was cool!"

• After watching Elsa use her magical powers to create an ice castle in the "Let It Go" video clip from Disney's Frozen:

          Maddy:  "When can we build our own ice castle?"

          Me:  "Oh, I don't know if we could ever build an ice castle like that."

          Maddy:  [sadly]  "I wish I could have ice in my hands...I wish I can."

• Apparently Kohlden wants everything Brae has, no matter what the color:

          Kohl:  "Can I have the princess cup?"

          Tangie:  "The princess cup isn't yours."

          Kohl:  "But Braelyn isn't here." 

          Maddy:  [chiming in to help] "But he saves princesses!"

• Brae heard a commercial jingle on the radio from All Seasons Pools:

          Jingle:  "If you have a backyard, we can put a pool in it."

          Brae:  [excited]  "They can put a pool in it!  I want them to put a 

                                     pool in it!!"

           Keep dreaming kid!

• Tangie was looking at the mail when Kohl stood up on the chair next to her:

          Tangie:  "Careful buddy."

          Kohl:  "Close your eyes.  I'm going to give you a present."

          Tangie:  "Ok, I like presents."

         Kohl proceeds to give Mommy a nice peck on the cheek.  He had 

         a big grin on his face.

         Tangie:  "Aww.  I love those types of presents.  And warm hugs too."

         Kohl:  "Me too."

Big sister reading the bedtime story.

Have a great weekend!