Our first Rally! But not our last!

Fulltime Families Sweetheart Soiree 2016 East Coast Winter Rally!

By the time the rally started both girls had already made some great new friends.

First step... Rally registration.

Then all the kids made their Valentine bags. I volunteered to help the 3-6 year old's make theirs.

Afterwards there was some outdoor fun and games for the young ones which I volunteered to help with too. You can take the mama out of daycare, but I guess you can't take the daycare away from the mama. We brought bowling and ladder ball to share and lots of families brought by balls, hoops, bean bag toss, ride on ponies, ring toss etc.

Later in the evening there was a meet and greet in the sac where the kids played more on their bikes, scooters and just ran around having fun playing. This was followed by a kids talent show. All organized by a couple of the families children.

The next morning it was off to Legoland for the day (I'll do a separate post later).

The third day started out with an all day swap table where you could donate items you didn't need any longer and take away things you wanted. We donated some laundry baskets, pictures and Wii light sabres and took home some Magnatiles and a couple games.

There was a parade of homes. A tour of other trailers, fifth wheels and motor homes. We saw many great storage and decorating ideas as well as learned tips from other families. The tour was great. (However we fell in love with one of the Fifth wheel layouts which led us to a massive hunt and RV shopping after the rally).

The teens all came together and watched the younger children so both parents could attend the tour. 

Next there was a Jr Entrepreneur show where the kids all set up tables with things to sell that they made or baked, or sold small toys. One girl did an excellent job at face painting. Sierra and Aayla both sold some pet shops and shopkins. Sierra saved her money but Aayla's burnt a hole in her pocket quickly.

 

Then there were some science experiments for the younger kids. The older teens were involved with other games like human size twister but I wasn't able to see any of that fun first hand.

Next up was the Valentines exchange. First everyone gave out their Valentines.

I read a cut paper story to the young ones before they went off to make Valentines to give to a local seniors home (thanks Darlene C for the photo I nabbed off facebook).

Now it was time for some adult fun! What's more fun then playing human hungry hippos??? Why watching it of course!

Saturday night was Pizza night and a Valentine dance. I learned one important thing about ordering pizza at the rally... when you order four pizzas you aren't getting four pieces of pizza! You are getting 4 boxes of pizza. We ate pizza for days!

Before the dance started there was a ceremony celebrating everyone's milestone on the road. We got a first rally button and I got a wall map and a gift certificate for volunteering to help with the young kids activities.

There was also a raffle with many, many different prizes. You got raffle tickets during the rally by being helpful. Everyone ended up with lots and lots of tickets.

Group photo of all the Fulltime families at the Rally.

Then it was time for the Valentine dance!

 

A huge thank you needs to go out to all these ladies for all your hard work and effort to pull these rallies off! This may have been our first rally but it won't be our last!

We are so happy that we attended. Not only did we have a fantastic time at the rally as a family, but we learned a lot, had so much fun, meet so many wonderful families and gained so many fabulous friends whom we know we will meet up with again somewhere down the road.

Want to know more about the fantabulous group...Fulltime families click on the logo below!

Fulltime Families Pre-RALLY Fun

We made it to the Fulltime Families Rally in Seffner, Florida at Lazy Days RV Park.

The Rally doesn't officially start until the 11th but there was plenty of pre-rally fun! This was our first rally and we didn't know what to expect, but we sure had a wonderful time. For the next rally we will come a bit earlier and stay a bit longer. Up until now the kids have been disappointed that we haven't seen many families in the camp grounds we have stayed in...they need not be sad any more...I'm just not sure how I will pull them away when its over.

Quite a few Rally attendees were on Rally alley in the back of the park. It was a bit tight with everyone having to park infront of their sites but I think that helped with everyone remembering to keep the speeds down.

Riding their jeep up to the pool

We basically took over the cul de sac in rally alley.

The children all had the freedom to roam, explore, play, meet new friends and create wonderful memories and lasting friendships.

There were lots of games played.

New friendships made...

Lots of bike riding. Aayla also is gaining some confidence on her bike. She even did a few tricks by lifting her feet off of the pedals and riding.

Both girls really enjoyed using another families Y Flicker scooters... something we will have to invest in as they had so much fun with these.

Little Miss YouTube!

Socializing for all the mom's and dad's.

A few teens hanging out too.

Fulltime Families Sweetheart Soiree Pre Rally Silly Photo

Of course there had to be some pool time too. If you look closely enough you may see their developing gills! Aayla's swimming abilities have really taken off. She is practically a fish now and we can barely get her away from the pools.

Lazy Days has a trolley that takes you over to their RV store. Aayla just wanted to go for a ride and she even got to ring the trolley bell but we didn't see Daniel Tiger.

As you can see the Rally hasn't even started yet but we are having a blast meeting so many wonderful fulltime families!

MOSI in Tampa, Florida

While at the Rally we had a couple days before the rally started and spent one day at MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry). Our entrance fees for MOSI were covered by reciprocal membership from Boonshoft so we got in for free...a savings of $95.60.

We were supposed to meet another family from the Rally here but we didn't confirm where exactly to meet. When we arrived, we didn't see them at the main entrance so we went straight to the Children's Science Center at MOSI hoping they would too but somehow we missed them.

 Daddy had to lay on the bed of nails before Sierra would try...

 Even after he did she was still a bit unsure but she gave it a try.

 Aayla's favourite part of any science centre or children's museum is always the restaurant/grocery store etc. They had very limited food available to play with.

The tug of war was a lot of fun.

 Some other pictures from the children's centre.

Then it was time to take a break and play on the playground.

 Here is their rope climbing/zip lining platform. We didn't try it as we didn't have the proper footwear on to try it out.

Back in we went to see the Dinosaurs in Motion exhibit. This by the way is a must see! It was extremely cool to be able to use the controls and move these big steal dinosaurs around as we learned about robotics.

Next we headed back inside the main building. Daddy rode the bike across the tight rope which was up on the second story. This freaked Sierra out a bit and couldn't even watch him go across.

The earthquake simulation was also not so great for her today. Too much sensory overload. The rest of us thought it was neat to "experience"an earthquake.

Aayla loved the wind tunnel.

I missed a picture of Sierra in this brain development display but Sierras comment when she came out was "man that brain was having a party in there"!

 Full size Operation game!

On our way out of the museum we took a ride in an automated car.

And then finished off the museum with the butterfly garden...but the flight encounter was closed so we couldn't go in with the butterflies.

 I loved the benches they had to sit and watch though.

If I am to be honest I was glad we got in free to MOSI as if I had paid almost $100 to go I would have been very disappointed. We loved the Dinosaurs in Motion exhibit but there was so much here that was way above our girls heads so we wouldn't have gotten our monies worth. There were a lot more exhibits geared towards older children.

Thank you Walmart of Lutz, Florida

Thank you Walmart for allowing us to spend the night in your parking lot. This location is in Lutz, Florida at 1575 Land O'Lakes Blvd.

 This location had a huge parking lot. The store was so far off in the picture I had to take a picture with the road sign in the background so you could make out the store name.

I use RV Parky to find possible Walmart locations to over night at when needed. I always call to confirm with the location to make sure the App's info is correct as being woken up at 3:00 am and being asked to move with young children does not seem like fun to me.

After a wonderful night here, surprisingly it wasn't too noisy being so busy and so close to the road; we are off to the Fulltime Families Rally...whoooo hoooo. We couldn't get the extra night at the rally so we are very thankful to Walmart for this over night stop.

Sierra coloured in rally poster...excuse the dirty wind shield