Clean your rooms!

Piper had the day off from school on Tuesday for Veteran's Day. I thought it would be nice to get out of the house and do something fun, so I surprised the kids and took them to see Madagascar 2. The movie was pretty cute and the kids enjoyed dancing and singing along...we like to move it, move it!

When we got home I asked them to clean their rooms since it looked like tornadoes had ripped through them. There was a lot of moaning and groaning, but not a whole lot of cleaning. After asking/yelling for the 7,000 time I locked them in their rooms. The people that lived here before us must have had kids because they installed eyehook locks outside the kids doors...lol! The locking them in went over great, er not so much. After about an hour I heard Piper call me and ask me to come check her room. I walked in and found this...





I wish I had taken a before picture so you could fully appreciate how wrecked her room was. I love how when she cleans her room she has her little "stations" that she likes to make fancy. Don't you just love all of the blankets, nap mats, sleeping bags, etc. on her bed. I swear under the brightly colored 1970's sheet there is a shabby chic quilt that matches her room perfectly. Anyway, she was very proud of her accomplishment!



I realized that I hadn't heard much of anything from Dax's room for a while. I unhooked the lock and attempted to open the door. I didn't get very far and had to stick my head in to see why. This is what I found...



Not much was done in Dax's room...




I am kinda stumped on why he chose to fall asleep on the floor when his bead was relatively clear. Funny kid!

Sweet Maggie

Matt worked on a new painting this weekend for our friends new baby girl. Sweet baby Maggie was born on October 27th to her adoring parents. Like all babies she is loved beyond measure by all that know her and that includes her big sister, Jolie. Jolie was born premature in on July 7, 2007. She was too little to stay in this world, but she is in heaven watching over her mommy and daddy and her new baby sister. This was a special painting to us and we hope that Maggie and her parents love it as much as we do. We plan to present it this weekend.

The Right Stuff

On Sunday night I saw the New Kids on the Block with Amanda and they were AWESOME!! I was a huge NKOTB fan back in the day, but was never able to see them in concert...until now! Our seats were great! I was so excited when the lights went down and we saw this on the huge screens on the stage...




Oh.My.Gosh! I was beside myself with excitement. Forget the fact that I am a 27 year old married woman with children, I felt like I was 10 years old again! I was screaming and jumping up and down like a crazy person, but I was far from alone...



The highlight of the night was when the boys walked right by us and we were able to reach out and touch them!! AHHHH!!! I mean seriously...how cool is that? I was too excited to get my camera out, but trust me it was awesome! They played all the old favorites and some of their new stuff as well and they looked and sounded great. A childhood dream come true.

I heart Joey Mac!


I'll be lovin' you forever!


I am so happy I was able to go. I'm even happier I was able to go with my best friend! Thanks Amanda!

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell too!

In the month of October Disney has a Halloween party on certain nights at the Magic Kingdom. You buy a separate ticket and from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. you get to trick-or-treat throughout the park. People come in costume and the characters are also dressed up in costume. It sounds like a lot of fun and something we will probably do with the kids when they are older.

Anyway, the day we went the park was closing early for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Around 4:00 people started coming in for the party dressed in costume. I was pretty impressed with some of the cool costumes we saw and felt that some (adults) should leave dressing up to the kids. I'm just sayin'....

As we were leaving the park we passed by a couple dressed up as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. I pointed them out to Amanda and she started getting all excited. Turns out the guy dressed as Peter has a whole website devoted to his love for dressing up. The website was even recently featured on msn.com. Basically we were in the presence of celebraties! We decided we had to have our picture taken with the famous couple. Matt and Ian were horribly embarrassed and walked away and left us to get out picture on our own, luckily we found a nice stranger willing to take one for us.

So Amanda asked "Peter" if we could get a picture and although normally he doesn't allow pictures, he said okay for us. I think it's because we are so cute...lol! Here is our picture and if you would like to learn more about "Peter" check out his website here.

Disney

I have so much to blog about, but I need to blog about Disney since it has been a week since we went!

We had such a great weekend. We left on Friday night and checked into the resort around 10:30. Check-in went smoothly and we headed up to our room to get the boys to bed. After we got the boys to bed the adults stayed up for a while but before too long we were all asleep.

We woke up Saturday and had delicious McDonald's for breakfast! YUM! The boys were thrilled with our view from the balcony. They wanted to know if the workers were going to be there soon. Good thing we have two little boys who love construction!



The boys spent a good part of the morning on the balcony surveying the work that needed to be done and trying to decide if they should go to work that day or not.



They opted to skip work and watch Pirates of the Caribbean instead. They wanted to get their "Argh" down before our trip to the Magic Kingdom the next day.



We had a nice, lazy Saturday. We put the boys in the giant jacuzzi tub, but when we turned on the jets they had quite the meltdown. They took naps and then we went down to the pool for a little bit. It was freezing!! We are after all Floridians and once it hits about 65 degrees I am pulling out sweaters. The boys played in the cool kiddie pool until their lips were blue and they were shivering. We went back to the room and warmed up and then headed to the playground to burn off some energy before bedtime. Ian and Amanda went on a date and Matt and I fed the boys dinner-macaroni and cheese without broccoli- and then attempted to put the boys to bed by 8:00 so they would be well rested for our big day. I say attempted because it took hours for them to fall asleep. Ian and Amanda came home with a delicious steak for Matt and I and some yummy desert as well.

We all woke up early on Sunday morning and headed to the Magic Kingdom. I am a disney nut and wanted to get there as early as possible. The park opened at 9:00 and Matt, Dax and I were there about 9:30. We rented a double stroller for the day for the boys to share. This stroller was amazing and the boys looked sooooo cute in there together.



The boys got to meet Pluto and have their picture taken. The line was really short and they were so good! Finn was pretty excited, Dax was a bit more reserved.





After Pluto we headed over to the town hall so we could get Dax a birthday button. The cast member that wrote his name on his button was from Japan and she wrote his name in Japanese on the back of his button. Pretty cool, hu? Dax only wore the button sporadically through out the day and for the most part it was on my purse strap, so a lot of people wished me a happy birthday that day. Do I look like a Dax? After getting our b-day button we had breakfast and by breakfast I mean pastries loaded with sugar and icing!

Matt's giant cinnamon roll!



Dax's french toast. He needed help finishing and Matt and I were only too happy to oblige.



I had a pain (pronounced pan) au chocolat (chocolate filled pastry). I thought it was pretty good but Matt was quick to point out it was nothing like the ones he enjoyed on his mission in France. Rub it in why don't ya?!



Now that we were full we were able to start our day. We headed over to Tomorrowland and went on our favorite ride...Buzz Lightyear. The ride is like an interactive video game where you have to use your laser gun to shot the bad guys and you rack on points. Matt beat all of us, but in my defense I was taking all the pictures.



From there we headed over to the raceway. Amanda and Dax challenged me and Finn to a race. They talked all kinds of trash talk but in the end Finn and I kicked their butts!




We went on the Teacups right after we ate churros and I was pretty sure I was going to puke. The boys loved it though, the little boys that is, the big boys refused to ride---sissy's!

mmm...churros...


Weeee


We had lunch at the Crystal Palace which has become a family favorite. While you dine on the great buffet, the Winnie the Pooh characters walk around and come to see each table. It's great! You get a chance to come in and sit down, eat and have face time with the characters. Finn has long been a fan of Piglet and was so excited to see his favorite character. Our waitress brought a cupcake and a card signed by Pooh and the gang. And did I mention how yummy the food was? I am still thinking about the pumpkin cheesecake.






After lunch we headed over to see Captain Jack. We walked right onto the ride and Dax loved pointing out all the places where Jack was hiding.

Like here...

and here...


After we got off the ride we were treated with a visit from Captain Jack himself. Dax was too shy to go up and join the other kids when they took the oath to be pirates under Captain Jack, but Finn was ready to accept the challenge and pledge to serve faithfully under Captain Sparrow.


We ended the day with the biggest, cuddliest Stitch we could find. Grandma and Grandad gave Dax money this year and told him to use it to get whatever he wanted at Disney. This was it...


The day was wonderful! The weather was perfect and the park was practically empty, I think the longest wait we had for any ride was no more than 10 minutes. That is pretty much a perfect day at Disney. Throw in some of your favorite people in the world and you really can't ask for more. I know this post is already full of picture and super long, but here are a few more of my favorites.

BFF's



A love like ours...



Our happy family, minus our fairy princess

Kassi tagged me and since it is raining and Matt is napping I thought this would be a good time to respond.

8 Favorite TV Shows
I really, really like T.V.
*Grey's Anatomy
*Chuck
*Gossip Girl
*90210
*Without a Trace
*Dexter
*How I Met Your Mother
*The Big Bang Theory

8 Favorite Restaurants
*Moe's
*Shell's
*Estella's
*P.F. Chang's
*Longhorn
*Ruby Tuesday's
*Chic-Fil-A
*Jaymer's BBQ

8 Things that happened yesterday
* I took Piper to Chuck E. Cheese for a birthday party
* We babysat Jace
* I blogged about Halloween
* made chicken and yellow rice for dinner
* vacuumed
* raided the kids halloween candy
* cuddled with Dax
* read Pippi Lonstocking to Piper

8 Things I'm looking forward to
* seeing New Kids on the Block tonight with Amanda
* the election being over
* having our family picture taken
* Thanksgiving with the Lancaster's
* having my mom living only 10 minutes away
* Novemberfest
* seeing Look Mexico on the 10th
* seeing Copeland with Matt and Miss Kelly on the 21st!!

8 Things I love about fall
* cooler weather
* fall decorations
* baking
* Thanksgiving
* Halloween
* sweaters
* pumpkins
* peppermint hot cocoa

8 Things on my wishlist
* having the kitchen and bathroom painted
* new tires for the van
* not getting sick this winter
* to lose my baby weight
* to get pregnant with a baby Mitchell
* a red kitchen aid mixer
* new glasses
* France with Matt

8 people I tag:
* Sarah T.
* Laura W.
* Caci
* Sara
* Liz
* Julie
* Heather
* Trevor

Happy Halloween!

We had a great halloween yesterday. Dax and I headed over to Finn's house while Piper was in school so we could make cupcakes for later. After that we picked Pi up from school and went to Target to get the supplies to make our mummy dogs for dinner. We battled traffic and headed home to pick up Daddy and go to Ian and Amanda's house. Amanda had goody bags for all the kids complete with silly string! She is such a good Aunt!!



We got the kids into costume and Matt took some awesome pictures!! We left the guys in charge of making dinner while the Mommy's walked the kids around the neighborhood. Everyone ohhed and ahhed over our little band of pirates. We came home and ate the yummy mummy dogs and looked over our loot. We..er I mean the kids, totally scored at one house and got full size candy bars. Sweet! After we had the kids settled we put them in PJ's, popped a movie in the playroom and then we played some Scattergories with Ian, Amanda, Carly and Jeremy. I trounced everyone.....sorry guys! We learned that Matt's hooby of choice is ninjaying. I am sure most of you are not surprised by that at all.

Here's the whole reason you tuned in...pictures!

Our band of Pirates


Arrrgh



Piper the Pirate




We think Dax kinda looked like Dopey the Pirate because of his ears. So stinkin' cute!!




Beside hanging out with the Lancaster's, we also got to trick or treat with Julie and her cute kids, Jake and Camden. Camden made a super cute Minnie Mouse and Jake was a pretty scary swamp monster. I don't have any pictures of Jake, but here is a cute one of Cammy Lamby.



Here is my favorite picture of the night. We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween with your little ghosts and goblins :)