Disney Day 1

The girls had NO idea we were going! Somehow we managed to keep it a secret for almost 5 months. When the big day arrived, we picked up Bug from preschool, and Leah from McGaughey at lunch time. After they finished eating we told them where we were going. It was anti-climactic. They kind of shrugged like "ok" but about ten minutes later they were bouncing off the walls with excitement. We made it to St. Louis airport and flew to Orlando without any trouble. The trip was off without a hitch.

My parents had rented a 7 bedroom, 7 bathroom house with a game room and a pool near Disney World. It ended up being perfect...their was plenty of space for us to spread out and not feel like we were on top of one another. Anyway, we arrived at the house around 9 PM. The kids were of course wound up, and finally went down to bed around 10:30. Leah and Macy shared a room with two twin beds. Colby, Kiersten and Hattie shared a room with two sets of bunk beds. Matt and Cynthia, Laura and Jeff and Mitch and I all had our own rooms with our own bathrooms with KING beds and we even had one bedroom to spare. 

Anyway, the next morning we were up at 7, had a good breakfast, everyone got ready and we rolled into Magic Kingdom just in time to see the parade at the beginning of the day. It was probably shortly after 9. The kids were a little shy at first but finally got out there to dance with the characters...the danced, but wouldn't get close enough for pictures. They saw Woody, Jessie, Donald Duck, Baloo the Bear and King Louie from the Jungle Book. Most of our dancing was with Jessie...she is pretty awesome .

Then we headed towards the rides. Being early November we didn't wait in lines for too long. We did the tea cups, race cars and Dumbo the flying elephant all pretty quickly. Matt, Macy and Papa did Space Mountain while the younger kids did the rocket rides, Lilo and Stich and the Monster's Inc Laugh Factory. We did It's a Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Ariels under the sea adventure, We all LOVED Mickey's Philhar-magic. It was a 3D show.

Later we headed to frontier land, and while  Jackson and Hattie napped in their strollers with Papa and Gigi close by, Matt, Cynthia, Macy, Leah and Colby went down Splash Mountain. From what I hear, Leah was terrified and shed a few tears. At the same time Mitch and I took Kiersten over to do the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Roller Coaster. Only we didn't tell Bug it was a roller coaster. Of course Mitch and I loved it. We squeezed her in between us. But when we got off the ride she declared "THAT WAS NOT THE BEST RIDE EVER! I'M NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN! DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING?!?!" I just laughed and laughed, but we may have scarred her for life. 

After the others finished Splash Mountain, they went on the Railroad Roller Coaster. Leah went along and then cried and cried. Mitch, Mom and I took the little ones to get some dinner. When the others joined us Leah said it was so fun! I was proud of her for sticking with it. I think Papa was teasing her quite a bit, but she did it!

After dinner we did the Pirates of the Carribean, and then Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride. Then we headed to Main Street. Matt, Cynthia, Gigi and Papa headed back to the house. Colby had fallen asleep in the stroller. But we found a spot and watched a "Frozen" themed show with Princess Anna and Queen Elsa, and she lit up the castle. We stuck around for the Electric Parade light show and then decided it was time for us to head home too. We had been at the Magic Kingdom for 12.5 hours by then, and it was truly magical!

Pumpkin Carving

Pumpkin Carving is just one of those things that Mitch loves to do. He does it with the girls every year. Even when Leah was just a few months old, he sat her in her exersaucer and carved a pumpkin with her. Then of course we put her in the pumpkin, ha! He's always all about picking the perfect pumpkins.

The weather was crazy warm...like 80 degrees. We took the pumpkins out to our yard. Which was a first. Leah and Kiersten got to work right away cleaning them out. Hattie wanted no part of it. We will just say she "supervised". After they were cleaned out Mitch sat on the deck and went to work. The girls both picked out what they wanted. Leah picked the ghost and Kiersten picked the Owl. I suppose next year Hattie will get to pick out a third pattern for a third pumpkin. It will take Mitch all day!!! Anyway, the girls were thrilled with how they turned out.

Boo and the Zoo, 2014!

 So the tradition continues! October proves to be such a busy time for us, year after year. But to be honest...I don't think I would have it any other way. The day will come when the girls don't care about going to the pumpkin patch, when they can't be bothered to dress up in costumes and certainly when they could care less about "BOO at the ZOO." So I plan to enjoy it while it lasts.

This was our third year attending Boo at the Zoo. And I think each year the girls love it more and more. It probably helps that we always go with friends. I tried to get Cynthia to bring Macy, Colby and Jackson up this year, but Jackson was fighting an ear infection and Matt was working so the timing just wasn't right. But that's okay because we were able to go with Denise, Camryn and Cayde. The girls hadn't played together in a few weeks so they were certainly excited to dress up and go to the zoo together. And they looked so cute too!

We started at our house and had pizza for dinner. Then we loaded up and headed to Scovill. We got compliments right off the bat for our Wizard of Oz themed costumes. I wish Mitch and I had done a tin man and a scarecrow, but I didn't want to spend the money for something we would wear for two hours. Oh well! Then before we even got started we ran into Henry Samples, one of Kiersten's classmates from last year.

The carved pumpkins are always a big hit. There are tons of them and they are always amazing. Of course, the girls loved OLAF. AFter we collected all of our treats, we jumped on the train. The girls did great and weren't too scared. It was a haunted house themed train ride, but they kept it pretty PG for the kids. It was just enough to get them excited but no one had nightmares, thankfully. I think we are already ready to do it again next year!

Grandkids!

These pictures have been in the works for quite some time! It's been two years since Gigi got her last Grandkids picture. We normally do one every Fall. But last Fall Jackson was itty-bitty brand new and Laura had just let everyone know that she was expecting so we figured we may as well wait. Well, these pictures were worth the wait. It was tough going there for a bit. Someone didn't want to cooperate (Colby James), but in the end we ended up getting the perfect shot. Mom loves them and says she has never seen Papa smile so much in a picture...its a keeper for sure. A big thanks to J&P Photography for being patient with our crew to capture theses beautiful images!

Firestation #1

Kiersten's preschool class had a field trip this week to the fire station. I wasn't sure how Mrs. Kurecki felt about younger siblings tagging along so I told her I could help but that Hattie would be in tow. She said no problem so we were excited to spend the day together. The Fire station did a wonderful job entertaining the kids. Apparently Fire Marshall Lyle is quite the entertainer. He started the morning with a ventriloquist show. The kids loved it! Then we moved out to the garage area...Sparky the Fire Dog came down the pole and took pictures with the kids. After that the kids all got to spray the hose. Hattie loved that part she sat watching each preschooler intently, taking their turn.

After that the kids got to slide down the practice pole. Kiersten said that was her favorite part. She loved it. Then we went back into the station house. Fire Marshall Lyle did a puppet show with Sparky and Elmo. Then he did a magic show. The kids ooh'ed and aah'ed. Hattie kept saying "Fun Day" so I think it was a hit. Bug loved having her little sister along and now I'm looking forward to helping with more field trips!