A little late...but...

Better late than never...here is Hall.oween!

The kids had a great time this Hall.oween. They ate dinner and then wanted to go trick.or.treating right away. It was hard to explain that we had to wait for people to turn on their lights and then we could go. Then we had a few issues with them wanting to only go with Hubby or myself. But...we got it worked out in the end!

He was super excited to wear his costume! I have a rule that we don't wear out costumes until the actual day. That way, they don't get ruined beforehand. But, after they can wear them whenever they want to. He wears this quite often :)
I was so excited that she still wanted to be a princess this year. I did not think I would get another year from her. I know she is growing up and will grow out of princesses one day. I am glad we don't have to grow up too fast yet!

Just about to go out...

At the last minute they wanted me to dress up....not too much to choose from! At least I had a shirt to make them happy....even though they did not listen to it! They did not give me their candy :)

It is hard to see...but Critter is soaked! He was so sweaty with the mask and the padded costume. Luckily he did not care too much!

This was actually the first year we carved pumpkins. We have always painted them in the past. I have slight issues digging out all the guts of the pumpkin. But, Hubby was home more this year....so he did it! :)

I LOVED Critter's face when he went to reach in. He decided it was not his cup of tea! :) What can I say, he looks like Hubby....but he is Momma's Boy!

The finished products. It was a really great (and busy) Fall. I can not believe that Thanksgiving is next week. I know there is so much I need to catch up on. I will get there at some point!

Our girl is growing up...

I have no idea how this child is 7. She has grown into such an amazing young lady. She is no longer a little girl...even though I do not want to admit that! She is still her fiesty, independent, strong-willed child. She has a mind of her own and is not afraid to use it. Yet, when she is scared or hurt...she still wants her momma. I can not complain about that! She is the light of my life. She made me a momma and I would not change a thing about her.

Happy Birthday sweet girl. We love you so much. You made us parents and we celebrate you everyday!

Last Day...

To best describe our trip....

This is how we found the kids when we woke up on Friday morning....

I have no idea how they were sleeping like that, but they were exhausted!
Saying by to the hotel...

We could not have asked for a more perfect vacation. It was beyond our expectations. The fact that we were able to surprise the kids with something like this was beyond awesome! After three days in the park....I am not ready to go back anytime soon! But, they are memories we will all cherish for a lifetime :)

Disney Day 3

I can not believe we were still standing by the time Thursday came around. We were exhausted! Luckily, we had scheduled a character breakfast that morning. It was so much fun and some great food :) After cold cereal for breakfast for days in the hotel room, it was nice to have hot food! :)

Pumpkin was super excited and awestruck to see Jasmine. She is one of her favorites and it was great that she was there. We had the choice to do the princess meal, but decided for Critter's sake we would do the other one. At least this time he got her autograph, but still would not take a picture with the princess!
They were both looking forward to this guy!

The nice thing about the last day was that we all just did the rides again that we wanted to. We didn't do a bunch of new stuff. But....they both wanted to see the Star.wars show again. Both really wanted to be picked to be Jedi/in/training. Pumpkin was excited, but shy. She was not picked...but Critter was...

He has a tendency to be a little shy, but was super excited. He took it very seriously and listed to what he was supposed to do.

Here he is waiting to fight....

The Dark/.Side! I think it was his favorite part of the trip. I know it is a memory that will last forever for me! :)

I realize since I have the camera so much, I don't have many pictures of myself with the kids. I want to make sure they know I was actually around for all these fun things when they were kids. I was courageous enough to have this child drive me around again! Man, she is going to need good driving lessons :)

This was the only day where we stayed late for a night show. I knew the kids would get way to tired early in the trip if we did it earlier. But, this way we got to do some more relaxing things in the evening.

Nothing better than a sword fight while waiting for a show :)

This is how he left the park that night. I don't know how Hubby carried him! It is hard enough to carry him when he helps hold on. He was passed out and he is HEAVY! He made it for the light show, but was passed out by the time we walked to the front of the park.

Disney Day 2

We did not get as early of a start on Day 2...which was nice! :) We got to the park right when it opened and got to go to the opening of Toon.town. It was really cute. They had a little ceremony w/all the characters. The kids loved it. Both really wanted to see Minnie....so we got in line to get her autograph.

Pumpkin knew she was going to this part of the park, so she wanted to wear her Minnie shirt. They were so excited.
As a surprise for her "birthday present" the girls went off and went to this boutique by the castle. They had options of hair, nails, makeup and of course the whole princess outfit. I had made the appointment for her with just the hair and makeup. I brought her Halloween.dress with me, but she did not want to wear it. That ended up being a good idea since it was almost 100 that day! As she sat in the chair her "Fairy.Godmother" did her hair and talked with her. She was excited but a little shy. I don't think she quite knew what to make of it...



This is one of the only smiling pictures i got of her. I think that is because all of her crazy long hair is standing straight up. I really do not know how these ladies do this to the kids hair...

Our little princess! What you can not see in this picture is all the glitter! There was glitter for days! Her hair stayed like this until Thursday night. It would have stayed in longer, but she really needed it down for a bath :) She did not show it, but she was super excited...

Let's say that Daddy is teaching this kid to drive! She was a nut! But...she had fun :)

It was REALLY hot this day. This was right before we went to find a place to sit in the shade and wait for the parade.

First meltdown of the trip. His sister spilt his drink and he did not want Daddy's drink. When it is almost 100 and you are very tired, that would cause a meltdown! But, the parade started soonafter, so we were good!

She was seeing the first princesses of the parade. Even though she turned 7, she still loves her princesses! I will take it as long as i can! This is one of my favorite pictures of the trip. She just kept lighting up and I could never catch it. This was why we went, for these smiles and memories!

He loved it all too. He was mesmerized by it all.

We lucked out a few times as we were leaving the park. We kept seeing characters we had not met yet. It worked out perfectly! :)

Loved all the pumpkins and the decorations for Halloween! It made it even more fun! The kids loved looking for the special little places as well. We left the park pretty early on Day 2 and had a nice dinner and early bedtime! We all needed it....

Disney Day 1

We were able to keep the secret until we pulled up to the hotel. We were trying to get Pumpkin to read the signs, but she did not want to. The video camera in her face may have attributed to that! Then, Critter looks out the window and says..."That says Disney". The kids were in shock. It did not hit them we were actually there until we checked into the hotel.

The first pic when we got to the hotel lobby.
We woke up Tuesday morning to find Critter sleeping like this. We piled up lots of things on him to see if he woke up...he didn't! It was really hard to get the kids to sleep on Monday night, knowing they would get to go to Disneyland on Tuesday morning!

Our first ride...Dumbo!

First characters...Tinkerbelle :)

Hubby's parents came and surprised the kids as well. Luckily Nana likes the teacups...otherwise they would not have gone on them! It was great to see them have fun with a set of grandparents!

Critter loved the villans. The Queen of Hearts liked him too :)

For some reason, this is the smile he started giving when asking him to smile. Not sure why it started on this trip...but it is still cute!

We did so much the first day! We did both parks and were exhausted! But, that was the coolest day so I am glad we did so much when it was a little less hot. We thought we were going to escape the heat, but not so much! I never would have thought both kids would love roller coasters as much as they did. They were so great with listening and having fun!

Two more days to go...

The Beach...

We have been planning a family vacation since July. We told the kids we were going to go to San Diego....but really we were planning a Disneyland Vacation! So, off we went last week on our amazing adventure. I am still not quite sure how we pulled off a surprise on these two. They are pretty smart, but did not catch on. To help with the surprise, we drove to San Diego and had a great seafood lunch and headed to the beach.

It was the most perfect beach day! We could not have asked for anything better...except maybe if I had remembered a towel :)
The two of them just took off into the water....they loved it. I have never seen them have this much fun at the beach. Now we need to plan a vacation to go to San Diego!

The water was pretty darn cold though!

We found some seashells...

Dug holes in the wet sand and watch them fill back up with water...

We found a sand dollar still alive. It was the coolest thing I had seen in a long time! It freaked Pumpkin out a little bit, but it was awesome. Did you know they are dark purple when alive and turn white when they die?

Now, it was time to load up and head to the hotel. On the drive from San Diego to Disney...the kids did not ask where we were going, what we were doing, etc. It was strange! We realized on the way up that even though we normally discuss all vacation plans with them, this time we didn't and they did not ask! It was pretty cool.

Now, onto the Disney part :)

Critter's Name...

I have been trying to work with Critter on writing his name and letters. The kid is content as can be looking at books and being read to. Yet, we sort of by-passed the writing aspect of learning. So...we are trying now! He knows how to spell his name, but gets confused on what his letters look like. If you write it, he can copy it pretty well.

This was the first time he wrote his name where you could actually tell what his name is.

I had to take a picture of his with this though...since he wanted to give it to Nanny and Papa! Lucky them :( He was so proud of himself though. It was really cute. I just don't remember in our day to work on the simple things. He loves doing so many other things. He will get it one day. I am trying not to stress too much about it! We are getting there :)


Now that our bathroom project is almost done, I will hopefully be in this space more often. I have so many pictures and updates to put here. It will happen, at some point!