October Happenings

We played on the computer and apparently Todd joined the Red Hat Society.

We forced the kids to wash the minivan while Brian and I lounged around and ate bonbons.

Hayley quickly realized that manual labor is for the birds and instructed the men to go to work.

But then a random bouquet of balloons floated over from a nearby open house and Brian was flying solo on the whole minivan washing thing. So much for child labor!

And so much for me lounging and eating bonbons. Back to referee duty.

We did some driving.

Todd finally has overcome his fear of the Jeep. Not sure he's quite overcome his fear of his sister's driving.

We once again attended the Creaky Bones race. Hayley competed with her other 3 to 4 year old rivals in the 100 meter dash...



... and Brian successfully defended his third place age group finish in the 5k.

Todd and I spectated... and cheered. I had run 12 miles that morning so opted out of racing. Not sure what Todd's excuse was!

We visited the pumpkin patch.

But the kids were more interested in throwing bean bags at a piece of wood, so Brian picked out a nice pumpkin for carving.


The kids celebrated Halloween by dressing up as a princess and the toad/frog/frog prince (depending on his attitude for the day)! It took me awhile to convince Hayley that kissing the Todd(Toad) Prince would not turn her into a frog. Hopefully I have convinced her that kissing other boys will! ;-)
The kids showed off their costumes at a Halloween party and Trunk or Treating at their school.

And since bobbing for apples seems to have been replaced with the oh so healthy dangling dougnuts game, I at least got some good blackmail material for when the princess is 16.

We attended Boofest on Main Street, because we really thought the kids needed MORE candy.

Todd and Hayley met up with their good friends, Scooby and Shaggy...
... and Hayley showed us that it can be hard being a princess.

We wrapped the month up with some pumpkin carving...

... or rather, Daddy did some pumpkin carving...

... and we'll head out for some trick-or-treating in the neighborhood tonight. Phew!! Since when did Halloween become a month long occasion??

Here's some video of Hayley and her new obsession... singing... this particular song! She heard it on one of her computer games and "practicing" her song occupies many moments of her day!

Disney - Take 2

In case you didn't know, Preschool is stressful. So stressful in fact that after a month, we all needed a vacation. Ha, right! Whoever considers a Disney trip with two preschoolers as "vacation" must be completely crazy. But, we did have a good time and made some great family memories. We headed out to Orlando last Saturday and spent the day at Typhoon Lagoon. Both of the kids swimming skills have improved dramatically since our last visit to the water parks, so our trip was SO much fun. Hayley absolutely LOVED the slides and we felt more comfortable with her ability to do some of the bigger slides by herself.

This trip was pretty eye opening for me in terms of revealing the difference in our children's personalities. Hayley is hands down my dare devil, my child with no fear. Todd on the other hand... bless his little heart.

The kids were so excited to spend the day at Epcot.
We started the morning by taking a journey back in history. This of course, made Todd a bit nervous.
After surviving Spaceship Earth, we spent some time with Nemo. Todd was thrilled to see Nemo!
A soothing boat ride was ride up Todd's alley while Hayley and I waited for our turn to go on the super cool Soarin' ride.

The kids worked up a HUGE appetite and enjoyed lunch as much as the rides!


Todd getting ready to get his "Captain EO" on. Brian was really happy with me for talking him into sitting through Captain EO. Surprisingly, the kids thought it was the coolest show ever. Good 'ol Michael Jackson has a way...
After a few more rides, we returned to the condo to rest up. The flaw in our plan was thinking the kids would actually nap. I'll be darned if Hayley was going to give into a nap and she'd already convinced Todd that he didn't need one either. They were both adamant that they were "not tired." And so... we returned to Epcot for a 9pm fireworks show with our 2 and 4 year olds who had been awake since 6am that morning. Both kids told me over and over that they weren't tired. They danced around all evening and thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic Epcot fireworks show...

... and then did this before we'd even made it out of the park. (The Roberts' kids passed out in their strollers is along the lines of a total eclipse... it only happens once in a lifetime.)
The next morning we headed to Magic Kingdom. The kids battled Zurg.
This trip Todd was totally into driving the race cars.
And he tells us he enjoyed his first roller coaster ride, but me thinks this face tells a different story. As we climbed the first hill, I think Little T was having a bit of remorse!
Hayley more than made up for Todd's lack of adventure. She was biting at the chomp to have her first turn on Splash Mountain. And can you guess what her favorite ride of the whole trip was??

We had many more fun moments and the kids just really enjoyed the whole Disney experience this trip! These Florida kids just have no idea how spoiled they are living this close to The Mouse!

Boooohooooo more!!!

If I didn't know better, I'd think it was ME that was going back to school, because this week has just completely mentally and emotionally exhausted me! Hayley started Prekindergarten on Monday and Todd had his first day of two year old preschool today. Of course Todd handled his first independent adventure like it was no big deal. But it was absolutely bizarre for me to be walking out of the preschool completely empty handed. The entire morning I had this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach like I was forgetting something!

Hayley told me not to worry about Todd, that she'd "take care of him." I wasn't quite sure how to take that knowing Hayley! But Todd is already the cool kid since he's been hanging with the big kids for the past two years. I'm pretty sure he is convinced that he's really a PreK kid too. And I could tell he really felt like hot stuff sporting his new backpack, that only contained a change of pants for my big boy!

A summer of fun comes to an end

School starts tomorrow for Hayley and I have SO many mixed emotions about this! She'll be in VPK, which means she'll be at school EVERYday. Granted, just for a half day, but still every weekday. Little Todd will also be starting school for the first time and will attend on Tuesday and Thursday. He is THRILLED and seems to completely have his own class, his own independence, and his own backpack. So while I'm sad that I'm going to be ALONE for two mornings out of the week, I'm also pretty darn excited that I'm going to be ALONE for two mornings out of the week!! And how will I spend this ridiculous amount of child free time? Well first, I plan to go to the bathroom. BY MYSELF. Something I haven't done in four years. Then, I may just sit and enjoy the silence, the state of bliss that will be no one under the age of five questioning what we're going to have for lunch, what we're going to do the rest of the day, and whether or not I am lost. So after those initial ten minutes were I've accomplished a bathroom break and enjoyed five minutes of silence, I fully expect the sniveling to commence... I'll be ALONE! At least I've still got Chloe, who incidentally seems all too thrilled at the prospect of having 6 hours a week where there is no chance of teeny tiny fingers being stuck in her face.

We've had a fun summer though and both the kids have transformed into little water bugs. The pool has been a daily thing and Hayley is all over the big pool across the street from our house, much less our backyard pool. We again spent a lot of time in the jogging stroller, and Todd has developed his own training style with me. As I stopped for a drink of water the other morning, Hayley yelled at me to "keep running!" It was HOT out and I replied, "I'm dying." Todd said, "no, you IronMommy!" Clearly, while Hayley is still my drill sergeant, Todd takes more of a psychological approach to coaching!

And speaking of IronMommies, it certainly explains the lack of blogging. Our little group has been growing and we've spent the summer getting teams started in several different states. We even had an interview and article with our local paper. It's been a very exciting adventure and I'm looking forward to another winter of racing and yes, marathon training. After cutting back on miles this summer, I've realized that there is definite serenity that comes with marathon training. Somehow knowing you've got a 23 mile training run coming up just puts all of your other life problems into perspective. I'm looking forward to the stress relief!

California Girls...

...ain't got nothing on our Florida girl, but it was a very cute song for Hayley's 1st ballet show! We've spent the summer at a very low key ballet class and Hayley has had an absolute ball learning new moves and coming home to show them off to Daddy. While Todd and I watched on the sidelines each week, Todd picked up a couple of new moves too (much to Daddy's dismay). Next time you see Todd, just ask him to show you his tondue!

Before we left the house, Hayley told me she was not at all nervous about her performance.


Todd styled his hair in eager anticipation of seeing all the "honeys" in Hayley's dance class.


Hayley seemed completely at ease and not at all intimated by the packed house of anxious parents. She remembered all her moves and seemed to really enjoy performing in front of people.



She really enjoyed coming back out onto the dance floor at the end of the show to do her curtsey and take in all the audience applause!


And she was absolutely thrilled when Daddy presented his little ballerina with a bouquet of flowers! She told us that "this is the best night ever." A phrase she reserves for, well, pretty much every night! She's a VERY enthusiastic child!

You can watch Hayley's flower winning performance here: