December

We've had a super busy December, particularly since it seems that half of Hayley's PreK class was born in the month of December! We spent the first Saturday of the month at Hayley's BFF's birthday party at the uber popular, BounceU.

My adrenaline junkie daughter spent the entire 30 minutes we were in this Bounce room on this slide. Every time she'd go down, a look of complete terror would wash over her. She'd bounce right back up at the bottom just giggling and squealing with delight as she grabbed her sack and raced back up the steps.
While my other two children had a ball in the big bounce house.

Hayley went for a knockout with her BFF, TJ.

After a few punches they were ready for cake. Hayley was super happy to get to sit next to the birthday boy. Hayley and TJ have been in school together for their 3 and 4 year old class years. While they've always been super close, I'm told their relationship has really developed this year and TJ has made marriage plans for them.

The following morning, we met family for breakfast to celebrate Papa's birthday!

Last Saturday, we headed over to Orlando for a day at Sea World!

I gotta say, the Shamu show made Brian and I a tad nervous. The show was really different this year and the trainers didn't get in the water with the whales. The kids enjoyed it nonetheless.

We took the "Polar Express" to the North Pole. Hayley didn't waste anytime telling anyone she thought had an "in" with Santa exactly what she was looking for on Christmas morning.

The whole North Pole/Elf thing reminded Brian and I bit too much of this:

Hayley let Santa know that she expected Tinkerbelle fairies and a see-saw?? to be under the tree Christmas morning. And she also interpreted for Todd, that he expected Thomas the Train on Dec. 25th. I've tried to convince Hayley that a see-saw will not fit in Santa's sleigh, but she's not buying it.

We spent the rest of our day watching the dolphins, penguins, and trying to keep Hayley out of the stingray tank.

She's a comedian...

... at least to Todd. That Cookie the Cat sure is funny!

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!