Parks & Recreation – Nancy Tart: Writing for Life

Sister-Cousin Spring Camp

Sister-Cousin Spring Camp & Making Memories! #2023 #Family #Sister #Cousin #Blessings #Connections #SistersAndCousins #TartSpringBreak2023 #SpringBreak2023 #Friends #WateringFriendships #PurposefullyBuildingRelationships #FamilyAndFriends

March 27, 2023

Sister-Cousin Spring Camp

The week of Spring Break for our county was also the Spring Break week for one of my nieces!

While I had an adjusted work schedule because rec classes were taking the week off, Spring Break Camp at WGVG was in full swing and my also-on-break-college driver wanted to make her own “cousin camp” with fun trips, crazy baking escapades, and lots of memories made!

The girls spent time making crafts, dropping in to Spring Camp to do fun stuff, took at least one beach trip, at least two “mushroom park” trips (aka Trout Creek Park, where there is a mushroom you can swing from), chased the escapee bunny that they let loose quite a few times, used the big floor blocks to make several castles and rooms, baked all kinds of egg-free Anastasia-safe goodies (I got to taste some), Christina and Jaquline made unique suppers and lunches, Christina went to a Celtic Festival,

I love that Christina is making these amazing memories with her sisters, brother, and cousin! She doesn’t have many limits on where they can go – and just like we’ve always done, everywhere is usually “free” (aka just the cost of gas). Christina filled her few days of break with loads of “taxiing mom and gymnasts” back and forth (competitive team didn’t take off spring break). She also got to drop all the siblings and cousin at gym one day to spend a perfect day with her best friend – who was also home from college!

When I was watching Katy, Buddy, Becca, Charley, Stacy, Dorothy, and Mary doing special outings and making memories with my oldest girls, I dreamed of my older girls continuing with their siblings, cousins, and friends. There were memories like “Monster Truck Show outing,” shopping with aunts, Alligator Farm trips, “Special Day” outings, long walks to the ice cream shop, beach days, park days, camping nights, firepits and roasting marshmallow visits, and other just “visit” days.

Now I see my not-so-littles being purposeful in their connections to their friends, younger siblings, and cousins – continuing to water those friendships. It makes me so happy! (A few pictures included to enjoy)

Random faces at the Mushroom Park

Swinging Antics

These were their “look like yourself portraits” that crack me up! Christina perfectly captures each of their respective personalities in these funny pics!

…and they are always at the top of something or trying something daredevilish….

Each one is now looking forward to summer and the next trip(s) they get to do… even if it’s just friends and cousins over at the house playing with critters outside, swinging, reading, having a mega Frogger challenge, or the fifteenth Among Us game with every mobile device in the house, or the next life, monopoly, clue, or catan board game and resulting laughter! And food… my family does revolve most everything around cooking, eating, and cleaning up food (who really doesn’t?).

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Our Beach Morning

April 22, 2020

Our Beach Morning

On Saturday morning the beaches of St Johns County decided to open back for restricted times. No “gathering” though so we couldn’t take the baby shade tent which meant limited time for us due to not wanting baby burned. But we went!

Sunday at sunrise we gathered ourselves, tried to wake the more sluggish members of the family, and trouped to the beach. It was a gorgeous morning with nice steady surf and almost high tide when we arrived (well, arrived, changed Thea into her beach romper, let Lucas go potty, and walked over the ramp). There were dozens of surfers out and several fishermen with their coolers and pole stakes. Normal beach life. Actually, quite crowded for our experience, but then after the hurricanes the beaches are always full! Guess quarantine has the same effect as an extended hurricane on beach gatherings.

Thea was excited about the water today and ran out into ankle-deep water. It was cold enough to stop her. Lucas, though, wanted to go out where the surfers were! He couldn’t talk any of the big girls into going with him, so he would run into a wave, jump and land in a push up position half-floating and laugh heavy belly laughs. Tiny conch, mussels, clams, and assorted bivalve sea creatures were washed up under our feet by the thousands! Baby Thea loved them! She kept wiggling her toes and saying “tickle tickle!” The little critters ticked her toes as they burrowed back into the soft sand.

Lucas and Thea also waved and greeted everyone who passed. Anyone they noticed, they wanted to say hi to. Thea wanted to run to every other child and every dog she saw. One actually stopped to let her toddler greet Thea. Both babies were enthusiastic about seeing each other! It was so cute!

Suddenly, a creature was on a shell on the high tide line where I was looking for shells – and I called Becky (seriously, she did Marine Biology, she knows all sea life) to find out what it was. “Oh my! It’s an anemone!” and she gathered it carefully and rescued it by putting it back in the water. After a few more live anemone discoveries and “oh my!” shrieks by Kimberly and Becky, Thea grabbed a random shell, yelped “oh my!” and raced back to the shallow waves to fling the shell into the water like a frisbee. It’s the thought that counts, right?

It was a short visit as Thea’s tender arms let us know it was time to leave (Each person has a limit that we figure out and we go in when the first “red flag of warning” lets us know we are about to get burnt.) About an hour and a half of rescuing sea life, collecting beautiful shells, watching Jaquline and Lucas build a sandcastle, watching Lucas bellyflop into each oncoming wave, seeing Thea no longer be scared of the crashing waves, and watching the beauty of the morning sun in the length of the spring day.

The beach always refreshes me. I love it. I can breathe! This morning felt like a worship service. Our church has been closed for 4 weeks but being in nature is close – everything, including the little mollusks, the variety and beauty of their shells, the glorious waves, the sweet-salty spray opening up my lungs, all of creation shouts God’s glory!

Each of thousands – maybe tens of thousands – of those tiny creatures were each magnificent in their own individual beauty. Just like us. Each of us are independently unique and individually beautiful in our uniqueness. I glanced in my memory at the surfers on the waves; all different, each individual with the common bond of a passion for the stoke of riding the waves. Each of us beachgoers; all different, each individual with the common bond of our enjoyment of the beautiful beach.

This is the beauty in creation. The exquisite beauty of each small piece. Tiny grains of sand that look like gemstones under the microscope. We are more precious than diamonds – knit together by God.

Thank you for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Atrina Serrata

April 20, 2020

Atrina Serrata

What in the Earth? Actually, in the oceans. It is the scientific name for the Sawtooth Penshell.

Becky discovered two of these perfect shells, each about 6 inches long, on the high tide line at our favorite St Johns County beach. On the ride home, Becky researched them and we learned all about their life, their predators, how they likely died (based on their skeletons aka shells), and how they are cooked.

Yes, these particular bivalves are a seafood with a taste and consistency “quite like a scallop” according to the articles Becky found.

We have a rule of never taking living shells for our collection (this particular beach time would have been a great harvest of beautiful specimens if not for that rule!) but Becky said that now when she is ever stranded on a desert island (been watching too much Gilligan’s Island, I guess), she will know one good item to eat.

Perfect specimens have full shells and these both are broken on the fan edges. The bumps are actually raised sharp points like spikes. Their texture is almost leathery for a shell, and when they are in the sun, they shine with an oil-like sheen.

Beautiful.

A lovely addition to our seashell bowl (we may need a bigger bowl)!

Hope you enjoyed this educational tidbit (and maybe you can find some Atrina Serrata skeletons yourself on the lovely Florida beaches)!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Beautiful Beach Day

March 31, 2020

Beautiful Beach Day

I know by the time this gets published, we aren’t going to be allowed on our beautiful beaches anymore due to what my teens tease the history books will call “the corona shutdown,” but don’t judge us.

Anyway, after making sure you understand that my one-month of disabled computer leading to very-very late posts is what causes this to be published way after it happened…

We LOVE our beach days (usually evenings, it is surface-of-the-sun Florida, even in February and March). This lovely day was a perfect, breezy, sunshine day. Our beach was “crowded” today (aka, more than just three groups as far as the eye could see). We actually happened to know both of our distant beach neighbors!

The girls took our boogie boards and caught the tiny waves. They grew to some nice ones and a few surfers started dotting the decent ones past the distant sandbar (if you see a dark dot in the distance, that is a surfer).

The teens buried each other together so that their legs were “eaten by the hungry hippo.”

Thea thought the water was too cold. After Mommy tried to get her wet a few times, she continually raced back up to Daddy, the shade tent, and Mommy’s chair.

In the background you see Kimberly in a deep hole, the other legs belong to part of the kid squad trying to fill that hole with water using sand buckets in a bucket line! We laughed so hard as they kept shrieking “the water’s going down!” after each bucketful of water got lost in the thirsty sands at the bottom.

There were some very funny teenager-talk jokes passing around during the sand sculpture time.

Besides enjoying hours with my family – my absolute favorite activity in the Earth, the beach allows me to breathe like I used to. I dunk my head in the salty water, rinse my sinuses and after a half-hour or so, I can breathe like before the mold allergy. I love the beach. This is why I live in Florida. I am a surfer in my soul. I managed one wave where Lucas baby-surfed on me (I bodysurfed and he was clinging on) but he has learned how to bodysurf on his own and Thea isn’t ready for that yet!

I pray to be able to continue to live near these amazing sandy tapestries of God’s wonderful design where I can feel refueled and whole. We packed up, watched the sunset, and trudged back to our van.

We left our sanctuary and returned to “real life.” I refused the radio and we listened and tried to sing-along to uplifting fun songs.

Are we in uncertain times? Yes, but nature always makes me remember that God is in control and my job is to do what I am able to and leave everything else that I can’t control in His hands.

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Upcoming Show 2019!

Come join us for fun!!

April 25, 2019

Upcoming Show: 2019!

It’s that time of year again!

April 27, 2019 is the fourth annual Family Fun Fest in Saint Augustine, Florida!

Check out this video (the smiling butterfly is my niece, Anastasia!) and “like” them on Facebook to keep in touch with updates!

Come join us for a wonderful day! I’ll be at a table with books, DVDbooks, Audio CDs, (some of the girls’ craft goods) and an activity center where children can make a complementary bookmark to take home!

My oldest two girls will be volunteering (probably gone all day and might drop in for water occasionally), Kimberly and Jaquline will be “on younger duty” in rotation (meaning they get to play with Anastasia, Jillian, and Lucas), and Jillian, Jaquline, and Kimberly will be rotating “salesgirls” at the table! Lucas and Thea will be entertaining others (most likely Grandma & and friends who stop by) and I’m sure Kimberly, Jaquline, Jillian, Lucas, and Anastasia will be familiar faces for everyone monitoring a child’s activity!

There will be an obstacle course to watch – many teams have already signed up, it is amazing!

There is other live entertainment, vendors, bounce houses, information booths, food trucks, and raffles! All of this will be supporting the Alpha Omega Charities!

Our table gives 50% of what we make plus usually, the girls give all of their “tip jar” money!

Come enjoy an awesome family fun day at Francis Field, downtown Saint Augustine, Florida on April 27, 2019 between 10am to 8pm! (We will be there all day, please find us and chat!) Oh yes, your kiddos will definately sleep well afterward!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later… (And see you on Saturday!)

~Nancy Tart

Gymnastics Party

“Parents Night Out” aka Gymnastics Party no child wanted to go home from!

January 22, 2019

Gymnastics Party!

My gym hosts a charity event once a month they call “Parent’s Night Out” – the kids participating call it “Gymnastics Party.”

Every third Saturday, or 4 or 5 hours, depending on the month (February and December are 5 hours), parents can drop their child(ren) off at WGV Gymnastics so they can enjoy a supervised gym party while the parents enjoy some alone time. Each event has a different theme: from Luau Night (September 21, 2019) to Superhero Night (July 20, 2019), Pirate and Princess Night (April 20, 2019) to Glow Mania (March 16, 2019) each event is sure to entertain!

The proceeds benefit the WGV Athletics Booster Club (a non-profit group whose primary purpose is to provide financial support for WGV gymnasts during their competitions).

The partiers loved the gym, fun games (“Night at the Museum,” “Alligator,” and “Freeze Dance” were the favorites!), a dance party, pizza, and encouraging camaraderie!

As our time came to a close, partiers tried various methods to pretend they didn’t have to go home – one of my nieces was stiffly sitting in her line after noticing mom. I whispered, “your mom is here,” and her reply was made without moving her mouth, “I know, I just wanted to pretend I didn’t see her yet.”

My teenager who wasn’t participating this time (she’d been babysitting for a family friend from about 6:30am & it was about 6pm when she arrived with Grandma) took a few pictures and videos of the cousins at the event:

JJ hung out with Grandma watching the older kids play.

Anastasia was very excited!

She got to jump on Tumble Track!

Isaac almost didn’t come out of the foam pit!

He spied Becky’s candy-striped leggings!

Sweet T standing in line – we found her most at the Tumble Track!

And a tiny video of Tory on Tumble Track doing her “twirls” – so cute!

My girls have decided to “come to work” with me every Parent’s Night Out since they had so much fun!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

The Exuberance of Life

“Look Mom!” and what else is Lucas excited about?

October 6, 2018

The Exuberance of Life

Today we had impromptu tennis. Christina and Becky rode their bikes to the park, Louis, the younger children, and I drove. It was a lovely day and since the “cooler than 90 degree” weather has them all excited, we have been outside most of the day.

Lucas was shouting songs in the backseat; periodically announcing “Stasia loves this one” or “Stasia said her Mommy has this!” or “this is one I like!” (Since Anastasia is not there to announce such things, Lucas must in her absence!)

We claim an open tennis court (okay, two, but that’s just because not all eight members of our team are great with their aim yet). Lucas has his own special racket and claims every ball that hits the net – the inaccuracies of learning kept Lucas entertained for over an hour!

At home, we’re now enjoying outside. Christina is texting the UCC team, Kimberly is running her scooter (kid powered), Jaquline is on her bike, and Jillian has a chicken – no, it’s a guinea pig. Lucas is driving his “Green car” (a 2^nd birthday gift from Grandma Joanne that has seen daily use except for one six-week stint while we waited for the replacement charger).

“Look, Mom, the pig-pig is driving!” Lucas has Custard contentedly chewing on grasses in his lap! (Custard is one of the 4-week-old Guinea Pigs.)

A few moments later…

“Look, Mom! The chicken is driving!” And Jillian is sitting next to Lucas with a different chicken (this one is the biggest of the young cockerels we have for sale) sitting on her lap.

A few moments later…

“Look out below!” followed by giggles. Lucas is driving the car under a rain of pinecones Jillian tossed in the air. He catches one in the empty passenger seat, laughs, picks it up, and throws in into the little tykes car (human-powered) as he passes it.

A second later…

“Mom! A train!” And Lucas is pushing his car, in reverse, with the little tykes car centered behind it, rolling along like it is the engine of a two-unit train.

Then he tries to join Kimberly and Jaquline’s soccer game while driving the car! “Kim! My car wants to play!”

He jumped out of the car when Jillian and Kimberly started with the foam football… “I love football!”

We should have such energy and exuberance toward everything in life! Lucas looks at everything as an adventure, challenge, or treat; as a gift. Life is a gift. Thank you, Jesus, for this amazing life and all the fun moments we experience in it!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Field Trip

What to do when your big sister’s college class has an amazing field trip? Double it as a homeschool nature exploration day!

September 12, 2018

Field Trip

Rebeccah’s first official school field trip happened recently. She got to go to the Guana River Dam with her Marine Biology class. She often jokes that she was inspired by Finding Nemo to be an orthodontic surgeon with a hobby in Marine Biology. For her Biology Major degree, she will need many sciences with labs, so this semester it was Marine Biology plus Lab. She loves animals and has a special love for aquatic creatures so Marine Biology is a double love.

We drove her up to the state park and since we were there, just walked around and explored the estuary. (The younger children got a field trip at the same time!) Kimberly took pictures because I had to keep both eyes and one hand on Lucas at all times.

We saw armies of crabs.

We found a tiny oyster.

We took a walk around the preserve. One of the brush-covered walkways hid dozens of golden orb spiders. Jaquline quoted, “if you look up, they’ll drop on you.” To which Jillian instantly laughed, “I’m looking down, Pooh!”

A lovely bird allowed Kimberly to get pretty close.

The view was gorgeous and we watched many fish!

Another lovely view.

Although we tried to stay out of the “way” of the class, we got cornered watching the armies of crabs. Kimberly snapped this picture to “prove” Rebeccah was at the estuary too. She hadn’t taken her shoes off yet, but when she loaded up in the van after the trip, she was covered mid-torso with water!

The Marine Biology class left some tiny minnows floundering and the girls made it their mission to find all of them and flick them back into the water so they could live. Most darted away. This one kept darting back to the edge as if saying “thank you!”

Jaquline showing off some shells.

Kimberly’s selfie.

Kimberly also got some video of our excursion. (Above, a crab & conch; below, the crab army)

It was a lovely day for a field trip. Thank you, Jesus, for the opportunity to be able to enjoy such natural wonders with my children!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Celebration: Disney Springs

How better to celebrate a long first day of college semester than to watch fireworks from three parks atop the Disney Springs parking garage?

August 22, 2018

Celebration: Disney Springs

We love to explore free parks and things to do. Like playing tourist in downtown Saint Augustine, visiting the beach, playing kickball or tennis at Treaty Park, or when Louis wants to “get out of Dodge,” exploring a bit farther away: Daytona Beach boardwalk, Jacksonville Landing, or Disney Springs.

This time he decided Disney Springs. If you don’t go hungry or bring some snacks and water bottles, you can spend hours listening to live music, exploring cool sights, taking boat or bus rides, and spend nothing. (Just the gas getting there, which for us is about $20.) We dream of being able to “do Disney” at the actual parks, which will happen someday, but for now, Disney Springs is what my kids mean when they say “Disneyworld.”

Once we touch the edge of Orlando and see all the tall buildings, the entertainment has begun! The girls and Lucas shout about seeing the tops of rides, “castles,” houses on top of big buildings, and roads going over us and under us!

They are building what appears to be a 5-level overpass system on I4! The kids were trying to count how high it would be – they thought four, then realized we were already over two other lanes! (Yes, we get excited about crazy stuff like being on bridges, overpasses, and parking garages.)

Christina, Rebeccah, and Kimberly start telling stories of their one visit to Universal (Daddy’s birthday two years ago for Rock the Universe). They laugh over Kimberly falling asleep on Daddy’s shoulders during the last concert and marvel at the weird purple mountain that is the icon for the new Volcano Bay waterpark.

As usual, it’s one of the girls who reminds me that I have a camera!

Kimberly took pictures of her favorite “cove” in Disney Springs. This twist of sparkling water and beautiful plants fascinates Kimberly.

The beautiful “chess knight” fountain (the girls call it that because the horse heads remind them of chess pieces) is also Lucas’ favorite fountain.

Admiring the giant Lego statues is a must.

The giant water dragon was admired and discussed for almost fifteen minutes!

There’s Buzz and Woody from Toy Story (Kimberly loves that one).

Jillian and Lucas sat with the Lego Friends statues (and Lucas tried to do what he does to everyone else’s Lego creations, take them apart!).

We watched the Rain Forest Café’s Volcano explode with hot lava across the bay.

Kimberly’s favorite place to wander around is in the T-Rex eatery because she loves to jump when the robot dinosaurs move. All lit up, it looks like a Mayan temple from this angle.

Another fountain picture appears since Lucas loves all fountains.

We raced to the top of the parking garage (we always park at the top level) so we could watch the fireworks from Epcot and Magic Kingdom at the same time! A third park’s fireworks were a bit further in the distance, probably Disney Studios, but we weren’t sure.

We were going to stay to go watch the water parade on the Lagoon, but with everyone zonked from a long first day at college and the inability of the stroller to carry four people, we ended on the fireworks and journeyed home.

Yes, they all slept on the ride home, which made for some Mom and Daddy conversation time!

Thank you, Jesus, for our amazing life!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

July 8, 2018

Fireworks Over the Matanzas

Ask any of my kids what their favorite day is one answer will be… “Fourth of July!”

Why?

Because we always go downtown to watch the best fireworks show ever! (Okay, maybe I’m a little prejudiced because I live here, but I get a travel magazine and it listed our “Fireworks Over the Matanzas” as one of the top 5 annual fireworks shows!)

We make is a production! (Yes, that was not this year, but our longest “train!” because it included me – taking picture – and the buggy!)

(Jaquline at the Fireworks Over the Matanzas years ago – photo credit, my amazing friend, Stacy Moorehouse)

This was the first year we went without the baby buggy – took a foldable wagon instead. And yes, it doubled as Anastasia’s buggy from the van to downtown and Lucas’ back to the van.

We bring snacks, water (hydration, as Christina calls it – thank you, Civil Air Patrol), juice (Becky wanted juice to refill the water bottles this year), and lots of energy! The girls always make new friends at the bayfront.

This year a new friend family from Atlanta, Georgia shared their bag of glowsticks with the girls and Lucas! (This made them very excited! As you can see, Lucas made glasses to “see very far away.”) Even though Christina said she was “too big” for glowsticks, between Becky and Kimberly, they had her wearing one! (Kimberly has “a pirate earring” and Christina is covering her bracelet!)

Finally, after enjoying awesome music (before the city music came through the speakers, we could hear Evan D’s music from Harry’s! He’s a local artist I like to hear.), playing and talking with new friends, snacking on lots of fruit and sweet potato chips from Currie’s and Aldi’s, and having Aunt Becca join us, we got to the main event

The best fireworks show on the bayfront! (I can’t record more than about 22 seconds at a time on my camera, so we only caught a few snippets of the show, but it was amazing!)

We trudged home, (Lucas slept in the wagon, in a picture back up there^ somewhere) laughing, singing, and enjoying our family time! Oh, and yes, Lucas fell asleep during the fireworks! 🙂 I was so excited and even mentioned “this is the first year everyone is awake to see the fireworks!” haha! Then he was out.

Will we face huge crowds, packed potties, and no-see-ums again? Oh yes! And look forward to an amazing 6 hours or more next year at our special bayfront spot, making new friends and enjoying each others’ company!

We love the City of Saint Augustine’s Fireworks Over the Matanzas!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

Category: Parks & Recreation

Sister-Cousin Spring Camp

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Our Beach Morning

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Atrina Serrata

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Beautiful Beach Day

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Upcoming Show 2019!

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Gymnastics Party

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The Exuberance of Life

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Field Trip

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Celebration: Disney Springs

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Fireworks Over the Matanzas

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