Orlando here we come!

 This is what the city "Disney World" countdown looked like at the beginning of our drive to Orlando.  I was a little anxious about the ten hours we'd be in the car, so I thought it might help to have a visual of the places we were passing on the way.  When we got to one of the destinations, the kids took turns taking them down.  It really helped, especially the girls, to know the time was winding down as the cards got fewer and fewer.  The drive ended up being much more doable than I thought it would be - hooray!

Our first full day we spent at Hollywood Studios and we got to see some of our most favorite characters - Phineas and Ferb!!

These are our friends we hung out with the whole week.  Lily is the same age as Caleb and dislikes princesses as much as he does, and Abby is 5 1/2 and an expert on everything princess, so everyone had someone to bum around with.  Xander is 2 1/2 and is such a good sport when it comes to being a toddler at Disney - he was along for the ride and was such a good kid!  The Peays have soooo much Disney experience - they knew how to do everything well, from parking to fast passes!  They also made it possible for us to stay in a great resort condo with plenty of beds and a fantastic pool.  They are awesome!

This one's for Pete!

The first thing we did when we walked in to the park that morning was go sign up to do "Jedi Training".  We got a time slot for later in the afternoon, and we talked everyone into doing it.  Avery was the most anxious, but she agreed to at least do the training part...Here they are with all the other kids (about a dozen) their Jedi robes on, up on a stage, listening to the Jedi Master talk about how to use a light saber.

The Jedi Master was quite entertaining and had the parents and onlookers in the audience laughing at loud at times.  He would walk up to each kid and talk to them or about them as they swung their light saber around and smiled.

 

Then Darth Vader walked out and there were no more smiles, at least for Avery and Presley.  It was actually Presley who was in tears first and then a minute later, Avery was crying.  They were quickly escorted off the stage. The guy in black was pretty intimidating - huge and breathing his Darth Vader way...watch closely and you'll see Presley leaving the group in the background :(

Each kid got a turn to fight with him using the moves they had just learned with their weapon - way to go Caleb!  He even got a certificate afterward, proving he had stood his ground against Darth Vader.

This scene of the three little friends holding hands was one we saw often.  They even loved to hold hands while we pushed them in the strollers, which got pretty annoying and difficult at times.  Oh the joy of being five at Disney World - big enough to walk and small enough to still hitch a ride in the stroller when your legs get tired - no wonder the parents were more exhausted at the end of the day than they ever seemed to be!

We saw so many fun shows at Hollywood Studios that day.  Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, The Muppets, and an awesome car stunt performance, starring Lightning McQueen.  Caleb's most favorite ride was Star Tours - I think he did it four times!  He hated the Rockin' Roller Coaster and The Tower of Terror (although now he claims the Tower was a favorite - what??)   The girls enjoyed the Toy Story ride a lot.  It was a non-stop, fit everything in, first day!

Here we are posing in front of the famous Mickey hat - he wears it in "Fantasmic" which we saw that night before we left.  It's an impressive light and water show that is kind of patterned after the movie Fantasia and incorporates all the well-known Disney music and characters.  Here are the kids waiting for the show to start...

Go Mickey!

Dad's 40th!

I tried to make Aaron's 40th a little extra special so instead of just a day, he got surprises all week long.  I got him a ticket to see Batman on the IMAX screen during the day, I mowed the lawn that week (which definitely never happens any other time!) and the girls and I took him to lunch one day.  Then he and I did a zipline adventure one weekend to top it off...it was pretty fun, very pretty and mostly just a different kind of a date together :)

September 2012

September 2012 was a tan and freckled 7 year old with an enormous hole in his smile;

muggy, warm afternoons spent outside searching for and saving earthworms from rain puddles

squiggly baby salamanders held until mom insisted they had to be put down;

and homes for snail shells and roly poly bugs!

Happy 2012 school year - for everyone!

Happy start of 2nd grade to Caleb!

And look who gets to start preschool this year!

A couple weeks after preschool started, their new backpacks arrived in the mail and boy, were they in love!  The first few weeks they were both trying so hard to get used to everything that was new and different.  We had some hard moments, like on the first full day (which is only three hours) on the way home, Avery fell apart because "Presley was taking up all the things I wanted to tell you "  Needless to say, I have learned to be very careful about having them take turns when reporting on their day.  They do get to do show and share on the same day, which is awesome, but each day one of the kids takes a turn being the "special critter" for the day.  That person gets to help out with things, be the line leader, etc.  Well, Avery got to do it first out of the two of them and when I picked them up that day Presley was in tears, saying "they should have had us do it TOGETHER because we're sisters and friends".  What could I say to that??

Last beach day 2012

Mom decided we'd have one last beach hurrah before school started at the end of August...well, the kids were freezing in the morning, and when it warmed up a little in the afternoon, this is what the beach looked like.  It seemed everyone wanted a last hurrah at the beach, even if it wasn't ideal weather!

So instead of spending a whole lot of time in the water, we went shell collecting,

and explored the gift shop (even splurged a little on some trinkets).  There was a fisherman just outside the shop that had caught this enormous thing earlier in the day and he let us examine it.

And of course there's always the playing in the sand that can save any less than perfect day at the beach!

Boating!

Our neighbors, the Kolinski's, invited us to go boating with them a couple times this summer.  Jordan Lake is less than 30 minutes away - the beach is okay but the boating water is lovely! Here's Caleb and Will on the tube -

It took some getting used to it, but all three kids eventually got the hang of it and liked it (well, Avery almost liked it by the end of the summer I think).

Here's what Will could do by the end of the summer -

and Dad thought he could do it too!

The girls and I never did get too crazy...

unless dad was on the other tube!

Mom and dad got to show off their  water skiing and wake boarding...sure is fun for the moment, but we pay for it for days afterward!