Monday, October 31, 2011

Halloween

What a perfect night for trick or treating! The temperature was 70 degrees! Julie and Jay stopped by to bring us some chili and tick or treat some houses with little Braelyn (no longer baby Braelyn, since she's turned 4). The next door neighbor's grand daughter Veronica came with us the first lap around the houses. Jer and I took turns handing out candy or going with the kids.




We saw some of the neighborhood kids and posed with them.
After the sugar high, it was time for bed.My only complaint was that there wasn't as many trick or treaters as last year and we have a bag of candy left. I wish there was a "candy diet."

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Carving Pumpkins and Block Party

This weekend we carved pumpkins. We had been waiting until a couple days before Halloween, because last year all our pumpkins rotted. However, even this year the pumpkins without being carved had begun to go downhill. So we only carved two of our four pumpkins. Victoria wanted a Princess pumpkin and Jer wanted a Pirate pumpkin. The girls helped pull out the seeds and I made some roasted pumpkin seeds that turned out pretty good.
While Daddy was busy carving, the girls put on some music in their Barbie CD player. I don't know how they found this CD, but we ended up listening to Frank Sinatra. The girls danced in front of the fire place. On the one song "I Get a Kick Out of You", they took turns kicking each other in the butt.







the finished product

Later that day, we made Witch Hat cookies (Kebler Fudge cookies, Hershey's Kisses, and orange icing) for our block party. They did a great job.



We went to the block party after Bella's soccer game (where she scored 3 goals!) Since it was an out door party, Victoria decided she wanted to be a mummy- it was a warm costume. Bella was a Vampire Cheerleader, Daddy was Frankenstein, and Mommy was The Bride of Frankenstein. We had a great time at the block party. The kids ran around while the adults stood around talking and partaking in delicious food, like the shrimp Jambalaya.




Tuesday, October 25, 2011

October stuff

Victoria's Girl Scout troop went to a pumpkin farm. The girl's ran through a giant hay maze and bounced in a jump house. They learned a new game (kind of creepy, but suits the Halloween spirit) called Dead Man. It's where one person lies down in the middle of the bounce floor, while the others jump around him saying- dead man, dead man come alive, when I count to the number 5- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Then the player in the middle jumps up and with his eyes closed and tries to tag someone. Then the game repeats itself. They played this game for about half an hour and loved it. An interesting take on tag.
the hayride



While posing by the pumpkins, the girls bopped their heads together.



The girls chose their pumpkins and Victoria wanted to go sit under a special hiding spot that she eyed when we were walking to the car, so we played some games that they made up- passing pumpkins back and forth and just took it easy. When we got home Victoria decorated her girl pumpkin with Sharpie, sunglasses, and a white felt dress.

Jer and I got to have a night out on the town with other grown ups in style. We were picked up in a limousine (a first for me) and went appetizer hoping from restaurant to restaurant (my type of food:) It was so much FUN!

There was an unusual fog bank that rolled in one morning, so I took a picture of our spooky Halloween house.

A Boo Story- This year I was introduced to the term "Booing" a neighbor. I got "booed". Basically it means that someone leaves a treat on your doorstep and rings the doorbell and vanishes without being seen. The treat has a ghost picture along with it that says that you got "booed" and need to do the same thing to two of your neighbors/friends. Well the girls were so excited to do this to our friends. We loaded into the car with our treats and made it to the first house. It was dark outside and I drove the car. Victoria was suppose to take the treat to the doorstep, Bella was suppose to ring the doorbell, and they both were suppose to run back to the car (Mommy driving with with side panel door open for a fast get away). That was the plan, until Bella fell running up to the house and got a boo-boo (ironic) and I ran to get her, we dumped the loot and all ran to the car and drove a block away, while I tended to the Bella's hands. She's fine, just a couple of scratches. Our next house went more according to the plans. We even drove by it 5 minutes after ringing the doorbell to see if the treats had been taken in. The girls were so excited to see the treats gone. What a neat prank!


Thursday, October 20, 2011

Cheerleading

Yesterday was last day of a 6 week cheerleading class for the girls. They had fun learning some of the basic moves of a cheerleader- like the kicks, jumps, how to walk, and cheers. I had fun watching them. On the last day I let them wear their Halloween costumes- cheerleaders, one a Dallas Cowboy cheerleading one- Go Cowboys!



Sunday, October 16, 2011

Celina Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Celina Pumpkin Patch this Sunday. We were suppose to meet Bella's preschool class there, but it was so busy that it was impossible to find anyone until 5 minutes before we left (and we were there 2 hours). It is a half an hour drive to the middle of true Cowboy country with a giant pumpkin farm. The girls enjoyed feeding the animals, although it took awhile for them to get up the nerve to stick their hands in the fence and under the animals' mouths. When the animals fed, the girls where ecstatic, but couldn't contain the fact that their hands were sticky from animal slime.










We played on a hay maze.



Roped some cows.



Took some pictures.





Fed some more animals (the girls' favorite part) and rode on a hayride.

Yee Haw!




It's Too Quiet

One afternoon after school, Austin came over to play with the girls. They were playing upstairs and I could hear them running from room to room. Then there was silence, so I went to investigate. This is what I found. Victoria was had posed Bella and Austin and was drawing their portraits.



Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Disney

We took a four day vacation to Disney World this October. Very FUN! Disney was decorated in Halloween decor. The first day we headed straight for the Magic Kingdom. We were thinking since we were there in Disney's off season, we would have less crowds, (kind of true.) There were no lines for the Flying Carpets with Aladdin or the Pirates of the Caribbean, however, the lines for Its a Small World and Peter Pan were at least 40 minutes! (so we didn't get to do them on that first day.) My favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad- a roller coaster for the whole family to ride. It was very fast, had cool Western scenery, had a couple of stomach dips, lasted at least 2 minutes long, and everyone had a smile on their face at the end of the ride.
We were able to see one of the parades and actually be in it. Bella wanted to dance in the street with the characters. We formed a long Congo line and danced around the float. We are about the forth or fifth people behind the man on stilts.
Victoria conquered her fear of meeting new characters by the end of the first day.



We went to Hollywood Studios later on that first day and played on the playground equipment of Honey I Shrunk the Kids- here's the kids jumping on the spiderweb.

We also went on the Star Wars ride and had dinner at the Brown Derby- it was okay, but I wouldn't recommend it for next time. I think we might have pushed it too hard on that first day- Bella was cranky toward the end and Victoria fell asleep at the dinner table.

That night we went to go see the Fantasmic, a firework and laser show about all the different Disney movies- pretty neat. Bella really enjoyed her Mickey Mouse Ice Cream.

The next day we went to Epcot- Jer's favorite theme park. The girl's really liked the Spaceship Earth ride (the one inside the giant silver ball- that transports you from the beginning of time to modern day) and the ride Soarin' (a ride that makes you feel like a bird flying past Redwood Trees that really smell.)

We also went to a character lunch at Epcot in the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall where we met all the princesses. The girls brought their dresses to wear.

Cinderella asked Victoria if she had a Prince Charming in her life. Her expression was priceless and we all cracked up.





In the afternoon, we went back to our hotel Saragotga and went swimming at one of their pools. It had a giant water slide that the girls were thrilled about. The water was freezing but the girls didn't mind.

My Little Mermaid in the hot tub.





On our walk home from the pool, Victoria started to have a major meltdown after seeing all the tiny lizards running across the Florida sidewalks. I didn't have the heart to tell here she had a giant lady bug in her hair.

That night we went back to Epcot and found a good seat to watch the firework show Illuminations.



About half an hour before the show was about to start it started to rain. I had brought ponchos for me and the kids to wear. Jer told me that he didn't want his poncho and that he knew it wouldn't rain, well... thankfully beer doesn't make you feel as cold.

It was a spectacular firework show- one I definitely recommend seeing.

The next day was awful. It rained the entire day. We were cold and wet the entire time. The lines at Magic Kingdom were insane still (crazy?) and the kids cried nonstop. We were not happy- this is the only picture I got with my camera because I didn't want to risk it getting wet. The one good thing that was I guess the highlight of the day was the German food, beer, and chicken dancing at Sommerfest.


On our last day we went to the Animal Kingdom. Jer is posing in front of the giant Tree of Life that has all the animals carved into it.


The rain finally stopped and the sun broke through the clouds just in time for our Kilimanjaro Safaris. ALL the animals came out! Here Victoria and Bella were amazed to see the ginormous hippos in the water. All the animals were 10 feet from our bus. We even got stopped for a couple of minutes when a giraffe refused to move from in front of our bus.



Later we went to Dinoland and rode the Dinosaur ride, a fast paced Time Rover that has you bouncing from dinosaur to frightful dinosaur in the dark. We also went to their playground called the Boneyard. We made dinosaurs roar to life by stepping on their foot prints and slid down the back of a dinosaur.



We had a magical time! (So corny, but true.) All in all, it was a wonderful trip, but we were a bit exhausted when we got home- I guess the mark of a good vacation.

Build A Bear

Lake Ray Roberts

Memorial Weekend 2009

Brothers Visit

Christmas '08

PA Vacation Slideshow