Thomas Live!

Yesterday was a big day in the Heckman household. One that Payton has been looking forward to for almost 6 months. It was finally time for "Thomas Live!" a musical at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center where Thomas the Train (and his friends) perform live on stage. I must say, it was truly one of the best shows I've been to. That sounds embarrassing to say, but it was really cute! Of course most of my enjoyment came from watching Payton & his friend Michael react each time another train came out on stage. They were so excited! Overall, it was a wonderful experience and one that I highly recommend to any "Thomas lovers" out there!

I'm posting some pictures here from the show; most are self-explanatory except for the first one where they're eating ice cream (some ice cream vendor gave them ice cream "on the house" before the show)... just what the needed. :) Then the last couple pictures are of the boys picking up the confetti off the ground after the show. We were literally 6 rows from the front so they ran up after the show and gathered up all sorts of confetti. So much fun!!

More Thomas...

Had to post these two videos... they're priceless.

Hang tight through the first one, it gets dark at one point, but then comes back.

The second video is the final song they did and shows the big confetti explosion at the end. Every child's idea of fun!!!

4th of July in Georgia

I feel like we've been saying "thank you" so much in the past week, yet I still feel like I can't say it enough. Over the 4th of July weekend we were able to attend a much-anticipated reunion with some of my best-loved sorority sisters (we're nicknamed the "toolshed"... don't ask) on beautiful Lake Oconee in Georgia. The thank you's have been going to many people, but specifically, my parents who were nice enough to watch Payton for the 4 days we were gone. As you can imagine, that alone deserves a million thank you's! And then also we are so full of gratitude for our friends Paul & Amy, whose parents own the beautiful lake house where we stayed. Not only did they invite all of us to come stay, they spent weeks planning things, grocery shopping, fixing up the house for us, preparing things, and making sure we had a fantastic time while we were there. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of you!!!

Our days basically consisted of 8-10 hours of floating on rafts, boating in the lake, riding in tubes, laying out, and relaxing. The evenings consisted of laughing, laughing and more laughing. Seriously, my abs hurt after the weekend. I haven't laughed that hard in years. My girls are just the funniest group of women I know... and their husbands were just as funny if not more (the impressions of SNL skits, Borat, and pilates moves were enough to send anyone into a hysterical fit of laughter).

There's no way I could put into words the fun we had or the thankfulness we wish to express. So, I'll post a few of the 121 photos that we took this weekend and hopefully it will give you a small glimpse of the fun that was had. I love you toolshed girls!!!

Beach Vacation

Last week Payton and I were fortunate enough to be invited back to our good friends Rachel & Lilly's beach house. We had an absolute blast as usual, and the kids played from sun up to sun down. The weather was perfect and Payton was so sad when it was time to leave. Fortunately, we live in Florida, so many more trips to the beach will be in our future this summer! Thanks again Rachel for having us!!!

Random photos

I was going through my camera and found some funny, completely random photos that I wanted to share. These are in no particular order, but were taken over the past couple weeks...

Here is the crape myrtle in our front yard. It is in full-bloom, which is a sure sign of summertime!

And speaking of summer... the daily afternoon thunderstorms have begun. This stunning rainbow appeared over our neighbhorhood last week after a big storm and Payton thought it was a "beautiful painting from God."

Now that we don't have to rush off to school in the morning, Payton and I have had more time to relax and snuggle in our jammies. I savor these sweet moments with my rough & tumble boy!

And speaking of rough boy... when it was "Crazy Hair Day" at Vacation Bible School, he insisted on sporting a green "Ray-hawk". Everyone loved it!




Brian actually took this last photo and it was so cute, I had to post it! Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

Father's Day

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Father's Day. Payton had his mind made up weeks ago that he wanted to buy Brian shoes for Father's Day. I have no idea where he came up with it, but despite my attempts at encouraging him to choose something else, he was set on getting him shoes. Pretty cute if you ask me.

So, Brian got a nice new pair of shoes from Payton for Father's Day and I baked him his favorite peppermint pattie brownies that he loves so much. I only bake them on special occasion because they're not from a box mix, which means I have to bust out all my baking supplies and make them from scratch (they were so darn good, I must say!!).

To round out the perfect Father' Day weekend, Brian and Payton went golfing. This time, instead of just going to the driving range, they actually got a cart and golfed 9 holes! They both had a great time, but now all Payton wants to do is drive the cart.

So, I just want to end this post by saying how grateful I am that Payton has such an amazing father. Brian is so hands-on and truly takes great pride in his role as "father." God blessed us with an amazing man to lead our family and we are so very grateful for that. We love you Brian!!

1st Day of Summer Vacation

Okay, so technically today is not the 1st day of summer vacation, but it is the first Monday of summer break, so today we celebrated with a huge batch of chocolate chip pancakes and a lazy day of doing whatever Payton wanted to do all day long. So much fun!!!