New Orleans Mini-trip

We had to improvise since Seth's grandmothers were not feeling well. Instead of spending some days with them, we spent two days in New Orleans. Last minute stop, got great last minute deal at a four start hotel in the French Quarter and was right across the street from the Aquarium. We also ate at several restaurants and had some yummy food!

Thanksgiving with Granny

We traveled all the way to Austin TX to spend Thanksgiving with Granny, Cara's grandmother. We also hoped to see both of Seth's grandmothers who live in Mississippi and Louisiana and were only 20-40 minutes away from our route, but unfortunately neither one was feeling well.

The girls all dressed up for Thanksgiving Day Dinner.

The great-grand-kids and Granny.

The meal was delicious! And we had an absolute wonderful time with Granny. Saw her for two whole days and also one afternoon/evening with Nick, Leslie, Cole, Finn and John and Gayle. 

Disney World on Veteran's Day Weekend

1. We went on a mini trip to Disney World over Veteran's Day Weekend to use up the last day on our 3-day passes that we purchased back in May when we spent time with Grammaw K at a timeshare in Orlando. We then extended all five of those passes to another full year of season passes for less than it would have cost us to pay for three single day tickets. Disney World here we come!!!

We stayed in Alligator Bayou 5-person rooms at Disney's Port Orleans Riverside resort. Very nice!

Intense ride on Buzz Lightyear.  Amy and I must have hit some super bonus target as we won by an extra 200,000 points! It wasn't even close! 

My favorite picture of the kids! 

Charles had to go to the bathroom, so missed one round on Splash Mountain and was suck with mom and Amy while dad and Ryan rode. While they were waiting Jesse from Toy Story came out to sign autographs. Charles stood in line thinking that Ryan would be able to join him by the time he got to the front of the line. Amy was in the stroller napping. No such luck. So he was quite embarrassed to be all by himself with Jesse. Lol!

 

Getting ready to go on Splash Mountain!

Waiting for the fireworks show to begin!

A little tired here.  This was the end of our second day spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We were waiting for Fantasmic to start. Amy was surprised when she got to see Pocahontas in the show.

Halloween 2013

Charles and Ryan wanted to be Steve and Creeper from Minecraft.  We purchased the heads and sword, but everything else was hand made.  In fact due to printer issues, we were still pasting and taping this together the night of! Their costumes got lots of comments but turned out not to be extremely practical, certainly not very safe (it was hard for them to see out of the masks!)

Ryan as the Creeper. He was supposed to have four legs but we ran out of time.

 Amy wanted to be Pocahontas! I found a Native American costume and wig and then improvised with making a necklace and decorating some of her shoes to match. She LOVED this costume!

Pumpkin Patch

 We took a family trip down the road to the pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin. I made the kids change into somewhat coordinating outfits so that I would get some nice pictures.  I think they turned out great!

Charles 9, Amy 3, Ryan 7

 Kids having fun!

 Aww!!!! I love this one!

Amy picking up one of many possible pumpkins.

And these two were the winners!

Ryan's 7th Birthday

 Ryan invited his friends to watch a kid movie, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, for his birthday party. He invited Patrick and the kids on his football team. We ended up with over 12 kids! Thankfully all we well behaved during the movie.

Ryan was excited, lol!

I made a giant cookie for his birthday. It turned out cute!

12 kids!!!!

I made goodie bags for the kids too. Found these popcorn boxes for $1.00 per pack of 10. Super cute!

Charles' Soccer Season

This is Charles' third year playing soccer. He was in the U-10 boys league this year which was so fun to watch. He had amazing coaches that really let the kids play as a team. There was no one star on the team, everyone contributed and as a result they went all the way to the championships!

Charles posing before going to his first game.

He's ready to go!

His team name was "the black sheep" lol! It was that or the penguins, hehe.

The whole team!

Charles' 9th Birthday

Charles' 9th birthday party! Had an Adventure Time themed party in our basement/backyard. Sleepover with 6 boys. Oh boy!!!

 I spent two days making the cake! It has six different rainbow layers inside! My first try at working with fondant. Tough! I can do the figures no problem, but rolling out and coating the cakes, super difficult.

As you can see, I had troubles with getting the fondant to lay/stick to the cake evenly.

Charles and Ryan both actually helped me mix the fondant colors. Was slightly messy task, but they had fun. We refrigerated the batches of colored fondant over night.

 Home made goodie bags filled with Adventure Time themed treats.

 Seth built a fire pit at the end of our yard for the boys to roast hot dogs and make smores.  Only problem is that we had a hard time finding firewood in August! Most of the wood that we could gather from our lot was wet.

 The boys watching Charles open his presents.

Amy liked helping too!

Ryan's opening pre-season football game

Ryan's first football game this year.  It was a special event held at Niceville High School Stadium, where Seth played.  Ryan is #7 with the white helmet. He played Defensive End and either Left/Right Guard and Quarterback.

Charles and Amy ready to cheer on Ryan at the game.

Ryan going out for the pre-game team meeting. The coach on the field was Ryan's primary practice coach.

Warm ups are over, time for a water break.

Lined up for the coin toss.

Ryan ready to tackle!

Ryan broke through the line and is looking for the ball!

The Defensive Line coach telling everyone to get down and in their stances.