a few disney pics...more later

We had a great time in Disney. I have yet to really go through my pictures to pull out the best ones, but here are a few. Above is our picture with the Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit. And below is a picture from Donald's Dance party during the Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom. Let me say, this was the BEST time to go to Disney. My kids had a blast (and so did all the adults!) I love this picture in particular because of Ansley's hand on Stephen's back. She instinctively put her hand up when he was a little nervous about dancing with Donald Duck. My little Dorothy and her friend the Lion.
I had a Scarecrow costume but it was about 20 degrees TOO HOT to put that sucker on, but Jamey and I did bring hats into the park for the Halloween Party. I was the scarecrow and Jamey was the tin man.
Here is Ansley hula hooping on Main Street.
And by midnight, they were done. They were fading about 11 that night, but we kept plugging along. Miraculously, we had not a single meltdown or tantrum the entire trip. I am really blessed with 2 great kids.
I will post more pictures soon.

Doing Hard Time...

Ansley's Fall Festival at her school was last Sat. It is a great little school that does so much for the kids there. One of the booths was a "jail" where you could pay to have someone arrested and then someone else could pay to bail them out. As soon as Ansley figured out what it was, she couldn't wait for Steve to get there so she could have him arrested.

She giggled and laughed as she plotted with her Daddy to have Steve arrested.....All was fine and dandy until we realized Stephen had absolutely no idea it was for fun. He saw his Grandad get handcuffed (albeit by a skinny little 14 year old) and Stephen lost it. He cried and sobbed, saying" Don't take my Grandad away to the jail." I think people started to think that perhaps Steve was carted off to jail on a regular basis!

And my children seem to have this inward connection of emotion and as soon as Ansley realized Stephen as upset, she started crying too. So the kids were crying while Steve was locked into the jail. Almost immediately a cute little teenage girl bailed him out and Stephen seemed to realize that it was NOT Mobile Metro Jail, we were able to continue our fun day at the fall festival. Whew - glad that we are not bailing Steve out of jail very much. My sweet little man just could not take it.

Here are a few pics of the criminal (notice Ansley's face in the 1st pic - NOT HAPPY) and then Ansley with her friends on the hay ride. Moods were much improved by that point.




PS - This time tomorrow we will be on our way to the Magic of Disney World! (But Shhhh, my kids don't know we are going) Have a great weekend!

Some of my favorite people...

Luke and Sara were in town this past weekend which was great b/c it was also my mom's birthday. It was a busy weekend but lots of fun. We miss seeing Luke and Sara now that they live in NC! They will not be back until Christmas.
In the pic below, Ansley is not, as you might think, smoking a cigar. She is chewing on some good old fashioned raw sugar cane. And loving it. Stephen, not so much. He spent 20 minutes spitting out minuscule peices of sugar cane after taking one small taste.
Ansley helped decorate my mom's birthday dessert with Aunt Sara.

Tv TIme

Jamey and I pretty particular about what we let our kids watch on tv. We watch the Disney Channel and lots and lots of PBS. Although lots of Ansley's friends have started watching things like Hannah Montana and ICarly, she doesn't. Not yet anyway. She has not asked to watch it and I have not offered. She is 5. There is plenty of time for that later. We don't watch Spongebob in our house either. I am certainly not saying all kids should not watch it - but it just doesn't fit in our house. Things like the phrase, "duh" and crude jokes will one day inevitably sneak into my kids world, I know, but for now, this is the system that works for our family.

That being said, Jamey and I were watching Criminal Minds the other night. Both our kids know that when mom and dad say "This is not a kids show" - they have to go play in their rooms or watch a video in my room. In all honesty, this may happen once a month as our TV pretty much is on football or HGTV. The clock read 8:57 so Criminal Minds had maybe 60 seconds of show left. In walks Stephen who looks up at the TV in time to a man shoot another man right in the chest from about 6 feet away. Great.
Stephen and Jamey looked at each other.
'That was a bad man." Stephen said.
"Yep", said Jamey.
"Him has a shootin' thing." said Stephen.
"Yep, he did." said Jamey.
"When I grow up, When I grow up, When I grow up" (At this point both Jamey and I are waiting to hear that when Stephen grows up he will have a shootin thing, BUT)

"When I grow up, I will be a daddy and wear big shoes and have a tall truck." And then he runs off to find his sister for a new game.

5K is tomorrow!!!Thanks for the encouraging notes!!

Countdown to 5K

This Saturday I will run my very first "race". I put the word race in quotes, b/c I am pretty sure I will be racing no one as I drag my butt across the finish line. Nonetheless, I will be there and I hope I can finish in a somewhat decent time for a girl who has never done this before.

We have been running and doing zumba at school for weeks so I hope I am ready.

Luke and Sara are coming in town and I was REALLY hoping Luke would run it with me - but he has another commitment. But there are about 7 or 8 or us from work doing it together so I hope we can encourage each other over the hills of Langam Park.

Stephen took a field trip with the lady who keeps him today. They went to the library for storytime and then to Chickfila - I can't wait to hear about his day when he gets home.

Last night, he threw his shoe in the truck while Jamey was driving. So when we got home, he had to go straight to bed. It was late anyway, so it really wasn't much of a consequence. But in his mind, we had sentenced him to a horrible fate. As he lay in his bed (fake) crying, he wouldloudly say, "I a punished boy!" Hilarious.

Happy Tuesday everyone!