Halloween Happenings!

The weather man got it right --- it is a cold Halloween!  I was off today and tried to get some things done for the house.  I went to a flooring place and narrowed the hardwood down to a couple of options.  I got overwhelmed looking at tile so I went to a home consignment shop next door which was great!  I didn't buy anything, but I got some neat ideas and will definitely go back.

I picked the kids up at 3 and we came home to get ready for Halloween!  Katherine dressed up as Rapunzel and Luke was Bumblebee the Transformer.  Mom came over after work to see them in their costumes.  Some friends of ours invited us over to go trick-or-treating in their neighborhood and have supper.  It was so cold!  The men stayed at the house and grilled hotdogs while the moms walked the kids around the neighborhood.  This particular area is usually crazy busy with trick or treaters, but it was noticeably lighter this year.  Not sure if it was the weather keeping people in or the competition from local churches having indoor events.  The park had a huge pumpkin festival and the mall had indoor activities.  We hit several houses before the kids were too cold to go on.  The guys had supper ready when we got back.  It was fun hanging out and letting the kids play.  Everyone was exhausted and ready for bed by the time we left.

Finished Product!

They were so excited!

We were pretty pleased with how they turned out!

I only took one picture this morning....

I had to run up to the house this morning to take the plumbers some supplies.  So much has happened this week I couldn't believe it.  I got distracted when the plumbers got there and forgot to take any pictures.  The only one I got was the attic playroom.  The workers installed steps down into an attic off set and floored it so we can use that as storage.  It was a much larger area than I thought it would be which is great!  We need all the storage we can get. We will most likely keep all our seasonal decorations up there so we don't have to bring stuff up from the basement.  The old carpet, dining room hardwood and base layer of particle board has all been removed.  It's crazy what a difference that made.  Last week nothing happened at the house and this week it seems like it's been kicked in overdrive!

We finished up the kids pumpkins tonight!  They were so excited when they were all done and we lit them on the porch!  The weather forecast is calling for highs in the 50's tomorrow and lows in the 30's -- it is crazy how quickly the temperature can change this time of year!

Last Minute

Apparently to carve a pumpkin in our family you have to be shirtless!  We pretty much have waited until the last minute to carve the kids' pumpkins.  Katherine wanted to do Flick from Tinker Bell. Luke wanted to do a barn so we got Andrew to email us a template from a pumpkin he had done before.  We got Katherine's almost done and not a lot of progress on Luke's -- will have to do the rest of it tomorrow night!

Beautiful Day!

Luke is such a big helper!

Cutting the bushes down made a huge difference!

Today was unseasonably warm -- in the 80's! We took the opportunity to do a lot of work outside.  I have been wanting to cut the overgrown boxwoods down since we got started.  Paul cut them all down and we hauled the debris off in the Gator.  We raked a lot of leaves just for fun because we know there is a long way to go before they are all off the trees. It was such a great day we just wanted to take advantage of it!

Ready for Friday!

It has been a hectic week as usual, so we were glad when Friday rolled around!  Paul and went to the annual FCA banquet last night.  One of our friends' sister was honored as "Coach of the Year".  It was really cool to see what FCA is doing in public schools in middle Tennessee. It was also a good opportunity to catch up with some of our friends we had not seen in a while  We experienced another "first" last night.  It was the first time that the kids had a babysitter outside of a family member.  I know that is crazy since Luke is almost 7!  Mom is in Florida visiting Andrew and Mandi and Bill had a basketball clinic. We used a friend of the family so the kids were familiar with her.  They had a great time, but I could tell that were a little nervous before we left.  The played lots of games and built Legos so both kids were pretty happy.

I was off today since I work the weekend.  I did lots of errands -- emissions testing on my vehicle, renewing the tags, early voted, bought some beautiful pansies and ran by the house to check on everything.  I forgot to take any pictures though.  I picked the kids up at 3 and we came home a while before Luke's football practice.  After that we met Bill and Paul for supper at the local pizza place which was yummy.  The kids have been asking for a Friday movie night so we watched Elf when we got home.  Great way to kick off the weekend!

Back at It

Still Katherine's favorite part...dessert!

More progress on the porch

Since we had a very late night last night we didn't make it to the worship service this morning.  We woke up in time to get to Sunday School which is a good thing since we were teaching today!  It was Katherine's turn to pick where we ate lunch.  She picked Dairy Queen which is not my favorite, but that is why we take turns picking where we go.

We went to Gallatin and cleaned up from the hayride.  Mom came to help me strip the wallpaper in the kitchen.  Unfortunately, we made very little progress.  We worked on it for a couple of hours and barely made a dent in it.  I went to Sherwin Williams and bought a special chemical that supposedly made the paper come right off - wrong!  After trying everything we could think of without much success Paul suggested that we just replace the drywall -- how clever!  He said it will not cost that much and that was better than spending hours and hours trying to get the wallpaper off and damaging the walls.  So, I guess that is what we will do!

10 Years and Counting...

Getting ready!

Big helpers!

A wagon full of friends...

The kids had a great time playing in the hay!

Tonight marked our 10th year of hayrides!  The weather was perfect -- cool and crisp with bright blue skies.  The day was very hectic.  I had to go into work for a little bit to interview a candidate who lives out of state.  I hit the grocery after that to finish up the shopping for tonight.  I started the chili mid afternoon so it could simmer for a few hours -- I think that makes all the difference.

We had a great turnout tonight.  We had some new faces and some familiar ones.  It always amazes me how families multiply from year to year.  We had a couple of new additions from last year which is always fun.  Mom came which is always a big help.  She helped me get things set up.  All the kids had a great time playing together.  Even though we don't see some of these families very often the kids always have fun.

The last family left around 10. We did a little cleaning so we wouldn't have as much to do tomorrow. The kids were worn out and both were asleep in the car within a few minutes of us leaving.  I say it every year, but even though getting ready for the bonfire and hayride is a lot of work it is always worth it!  So many people come back year after year and as long as that is the case we will continue to host it!

Finally Friday!

Even though we were all "off" Monday this has been a long week!  I was so glad when Friday afternoon.  Luke had flag football practice tonight and we were late getting there since I was working. It was such a pretty night -- the sunset was gorgeous!  After practice Paul met us for a quick bite before we went to Sam's to get a lot of our supplies for our hayride tomorrow!  I must admit I feel very unprepared for our annual event.  In hindsight it probably wasn't the smartest idea to have the hayride the weekend after we got home from vacation!

Mid-Week Progress Check

The extension of the wall will look like it has always
been there when the drywall goes up.

More of the soffit is gone!

The new opening to the attic/playroom really
makes it look so much larger!

I asked Mom to pick the kids up from school today so Paul. and I could meet with a lady that is helping us at the house.  We are trying to get some final decisions about the exterior nailed down. Paul ended up getting caught in traffic and missed the appointment, but Joni and I were able to make some progress. I took some pictures while I was there.  A lot has been done this week already!

Taking Advantage

Picking "flowers" in the field

The kids have a new hiding spot!

Making very little progress on the wallpaper...

Since we drove home last night we took advantage of having the day off today to get some things done.  Paul arranged to meet several subs at the house for estimates.  The framers were there working so we were able to see a lot happening!  I worked on stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen which is not going to be an easy task at all! The kids were so great all day.  They spent an hour outside under a magnolia tree digging up dirt!

On The Road Again...

All smiles watching a movie

It was so nice to sleep in this morning.  We didn't have to be anywhere at a particular time so we took advantage of it. Once we were up we got packed up pretty quickly and decided to have breakfast at the resort before getting on the road.  It was sad to leave, but we had such a good trip we didn't even mind. Katherine wanted to take a picture with each of her stuffed animals she got.  We let each one of them pick something out that they could buy.  That kept the begging and pleading for something all the time to a minimum. Katherine picked a Mickey and Minnie stuffed animal and Luke picked, you guessed it, a Lego!

The kids were so good on the road.  They watched a couple of movies and entertained each other. We made excellent time and didn't hit much traffic at all. There was some outside of Atlanta but it cleared pretty quickly. The original plan was to stop in Atlanta for the night and head the rest of the way home tomorrow. Since the kids were doing so well we decided to just keep driving.  We can sleep in our own beds and sleep in tomorrow.  So, that is what we did.  We made it home about 10:30 which wasn't bad at all.

Disney, Day 4 - Back to Magic Kingdom!

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!

Action shot!

Pirate makeover

Mermaid makeover

Belle and Katherine

Before the makeovers

After...

Just hanging out with Olaf!

The Happiest Place on Earth, for sure!

I loved all the fall decorations

We had a busy day booked for our last day at the parks.  We had several fast passes including Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Buzz Lightyear (which we missed), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and a late lunch reservation at Be Our Guest.  We all loved the newest roller coaster - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  It is inside and outside.  You actually ride through a "mine" and see the dwarfs working and singing "hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go..:"  So fun!  Katherine didn't want to get on it, but once we rode it she loved it!  The wait for it was 90 minutes and we got on in less than 10 minutes with our Fast Pass - so worth it!  We also rode Aladdin's Magic Carpet, watched the Country Bear Jamboree and both kids got makeovers at The Pirates League.  That was a very cool experience.  Katherine picked to be made into a mermaid and Luke picked Captain Hook.  We just opted for the facial makeover and not purchasing the full fledged costume.  They loved it.  The lady doing Katherine's makeup spent such a long time with her -- it really was amazing how she did it.  She painted her nails, fixed her hair and did heavy make up, including "scales" on her face. Katherine was so good and barely said a word.

Luke had fun, too!  He got a bandanna, sword, sash, earring, eye patch and painted on eye brows, mustache and beard.  He thought he was something else!  After their makeovers were done they were taken into Captain Jack Sparrows treasure room and were able to pick a surprise out of the treasure chest.  Luke was presented with his pirate oath and pirate name.  It was so cool.  It was neat to experience that through their eyes -- it was all so real to them!

That ran over in time a little bit so we missed our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest.  They closed at 2:30 so they let us get in the "stand-by" line.  We were able to get in and I was so glad we did. Although we weren't really that hungry following the Chef Mickey's breakfast the "castle" was gorgeous!  It was considered a quick service meal and how it was set up was pretty amazing.  You ordered your meals at a kiosk and then chose one of three beautiful dining rooms.  By the time we picked a table in the "ball room", which was the exact replica of the ball room in the Beauty and the Beast movie, they were wheeling our meal out to us in this fun trolley.  We all pretty much had sandwiches but everything was so good!  I tried to get a good picture of the dining room, but the lighting was way too dim.

After lunch Paul and Luke went to ride Big Thunder Mountain railroad.  Katherine was too short for it so she and I stood in line for Enchanted Tales with Belle -- what a fun experience!  They let a certain number of guests in at one time and you can volunteer to participate in a play with Belle playing the different characters of the story - Mrs. Potts, Chip, the guards, horse, etc.  Even though Katherine didn't want to participate in the play she was able to meet Belle afterwards, get her picture taken with her and get a special gift.  That was probably one of my favorite experiences so far.

Luke had really been wanting to ride the race cars/ go karts so while he and Paul did that Katherine and I went in some shops in Tomorrow Land and went to The Incredibles Dance Party.  We have not seen that movie, but it was pretty fun seeing the characters dance with everyone. Katherine and I really got into it!  By the time we were done with that the boys were back from racing cars. We rode the People Mover all around Tomorrow land and that was pretty cool.  It was all about technology and everything that there is to do in that area of the park.  By that time, we had pretty much seen and done everything we wanted to do.  It was close to 6 o'clock so we decided to go back to the resort and relax and pack for the night.

I was able to finish watching the end of the Auburn/ Mississippi State game which we sadly lost. We had a bunch of snack credits left so instead of eating a meal for supper since we were still full from our big meals we went to the resort restaurant and got a snack for supper.  They boys decided to go the pool while Katherine and I went back to the room to watch football and play "makeover". She pretended to make me into a mermaid like she was.  It was quite the battle getting her to let me take her makeup off tonight, but she finally let me.

This has been one of our best family vacations  -- it purely was magical as they say!  I felt like we did everything we wanted to do and the kids did great for the most part. We came, we saw, we Disneyed!!!

Disney, Day 4 - Breakfast with Mickey!

Donald!!!

That's a big hug right there!

So excited for Chef Mickey!!!

Love the monorail

So silly!

Group photo!

 We had breakfast reservations this morning at Chef Mickey's which is at Disney's contemporary resort.  The best way to get there is by monorail so we took the bus to Magic Kingdom then caught the monorail to the resort.  This has probably been my favorite meal -- might be because I love breakfast food!  They had a huge buffet with everything you could possibly imagine on it -- egg dishes, fruit, pastries, meats, pancakes, waffles, you name it and it was on there!  We were in a small dining room which made it nice when meeting the characters.  The kids loved meeting Mickey, Minnie and the gang.  This really was a good experience.  The waiters at all the restaurants have been far beyond nice.  They are super patient with kids and especially good at working around the character meet and greets. The business of Disney is very intriguing to me.  It is super clean, incredibly efficient and so friendly.  Everyone is always smiling - from the ground crew and cleaning ladies to the chefs and people operating the rides.  Pretty amazing!  Now, back to Magic Kingdom for our final day to play!