Disney Day #1

Despite the forecast of rain, it turned out to be a really nice day. It was overcast all day but with the breeze (windy at times) it kept the heat down and kept us cool. While we were watching the Jedi Training Academy show it did lightly sprinkle a bit, but it wasn't enough to even care about. It was barely spitting. The boys had a good view of the show once all the kids who were not picked to be on stage left. I guess if they weren't picked, then the parents didn't want to stay and watch? It was quite amusing when Darth Vader came out and it looked like he was looking our way, Logan backed away! LOL Ian backed away when he saw the Storm troopers. When I asked him why, he said he thought they may shoot him. He loved the show though.




It was more crowded than I thought it would be. I'm hoping tomorrow will be the travel day for most people. We've gone the past 2 Labor Days and it's been very low crowds so we're crossing our fingers for tomorrow. We didn't get to do the Toy Story ride. By the time we got there around 11ish, all the fastpasses were gone and the wait time was 80 minutes. Later in the day, the wait time was 110 minutes! Ouch. Even with the crowds, other shows weren't too bad. Dh and the boys saw Indiana Jones while I went to feed Bella (it's too loud at the show for her). Dh and Logan hopped on Star Tours which said 25min wait but they were in and out in probably 15-20. Logan and I went on the Tower of Terror (my fave ride!!!). The wait time said 30min and we were done way before that. We maybe waited 15min? So times were off but in a good way! The TOT was awesome as usual. I got to sit in the back and if you ever get to go, you must sit in the back row. I swear you get more airtime when you drop. It's the best!

We got to see the Pixar Block Party Bash and I wasn't all that impressed. I'd much rather see a parade with the floats going by slowly so I can see everything. This all bunches together and stops in sections of the parade line so you really only get to see one float in front of you. The others quickly pass you by before stopping in front of *their* crowd. It's hard to explain. You can kinda see what I mean by watching THIS. Here's a cute video of both of my boys dancing at the end though. I was surprised that Ian got up and danced.

Oh did you want to see more pictures? Of course I have them!

Look at these teeny little Crocs I tried on Bella. Aren't they adorable? They are the smallest size available and they are still way too big. She has little feet I guess. I didn't get them though. I was afraid she's just kick one off and poof- there goes $$.

From the Muppet store: I like this idea!


Can you read it?


Indiana Jones shop


Logan's "scared" face. LOL


I think they need to fire their mouse uhh...housekeepers.






Be back tomorrow with more Disney fun!

Labor Day Weekend

Busy, busy!

First, I hope all my New Orleans friends stay safe with Gustav on his way. Let's pray it fizzles out for you!! Let's also pray that Hanna fizzles too. No. more. hurricanes.

Today started out with dh having a computer job to do so he wasn't here all morning. I took all three kids to Costco to do some grocery shopping. Costco was a madhouse. On the weekends they have those little booths set up so you can get free samples of foods they carry. We're talking about mini-cups. At one booth they were giving out samples of ice cream. I don't know what kind it was because I couldn't get near the booth. You would think they were giving out $20 bills! There was a line of people blocking the aisle trying to get a mini cup of ice cream. Thank goodness the boys had no idea what was there. I was not about to stand in line for that.

We got home and the skies opened up. It was blowing! I backed in so I could stand under the overhang and water was still coming into my truck. My carpet got wet in a few places. Once dh got home, we just hung out for a while and then he took the boys up to our favorite pizza place to meet his buddy for dinner. He brought me home a whole pizza (I only asked for a slice!). Apparently Moe had made a mistake pizza so dh got a bargain on it. LOL He was proud of himself for getting said bargain and happier still that I liked sausage on pizza. It's not like he could have eaten it! ;)

Tomorrow we are headed to Disney-Hollywood Studios I think with possibly a stop at DTD in the afternoon. We'll see how the weather is and how hot/tired we are.

Monday I think we're going to the Magic Kingdom. This will be our third Labor Day at Disney. We aren't spending the night in Orlando though even though it would be easier. It will cost us less in gas just to drive plus we'd have to find someone to watch/feed our dog. I'm excited to go because we haven't been in a couple of months. *gasp* I must say, the economy is pissing me off. We aren't able to do a vacation at all this year. :( Oh well... I know we're better off than many so I count my blessings and move on.

Happy Labor Day!!

Man...uh... woman...uh... thing overboard!

I've mentioned it before but Legos and specifically the Lego people are a big thing in our house. My dining room table is usually covered in Legos. This is what I found the other day....

Do you see the Lego person being left behind?


Apparently there are all sorts of characters on a pirate ship including Clone Troopers and knights.


Studying strategy?


Guess he needed a Lego size view.


I'm sure there were sound effects to go with this. You'll just have to imagine the Indiana Jones bullwhip snapping or the theme song being hummed. I hear it or the Star Wars theme all the time.

What the hell.....

Was I thinking? It's the end of hot-as-Hades August and I *walked* to go get Logan this afternoon pushing the double stroller. It's not a leisurely 5 minute walk- it's 1 mile. Not only is it hot as HELL but I had to push that stroller UP a few hills. O.M.G. I stunk by the time I got to school and even poor Bella was sweating. She had cute little sweat dots all over her little nose. I didn't bring any water so we were dying of thirst. (I just checked the weather and it's 95 degrees out!!!!!!! Somebody slap me.)

Halfway home, Logan was whining and crying because he had gnats flying around his face and he kept slapping himself. Then I heard from him, "I can't walk one. more. step." Oh the drama! We walk much longer at Disney but this isn't as much fun! Let me tell you, walking into our air conditioned house never felt so good. We all took a cool shower (it's so hot out that our water isn't even cold) when we got in. Logan has tumbling tonight and I know we'll both sweat it out again but I couldn't go there smelling like that. Yuck!!

Needless to say, unless something drastic happens, we won't be walking to school again until it cools off. And I mean, it better be in the 70s or below or REALLY low humidity.

Santa shops at Target?

Ian was playing with Legos this morning and I was once again informed that Logan wants 20 Lego "armies" and 20 "robots" for Christmas. Ian also added that Santa can go to Target to buy the armies and robots. By armies and robots, they are talking about Star Wars figures. These boys are obsessed with Lego people in general and Star Wars especially. If I could buy just sets of the people they would be ecstatic. I checked on Ebay for just figures and they go for a ridiculous amount of money. All that for bitty pieces of plastic- amazing.

Dear Neighbor,

Just because you live in a rental home does not give you permission to let the yard go to crap. Your grass is 2 foot tall. Please mow it. I see your car there every day. I see you walking around outside on your phone. Get off the phone and mow your damn grass. If you can't mow it, then hire someone to do it. Thank you.

Selling my Mei Tai

I'm just not using it like I had hoped I would so it's up for sale on thebabywearer.com if anyone is interested. HERE's what it looks like. Asking $70ppd.

Ugh!!

It's just been one of those days. It started this morning when I took Logan to school. I wanted to walk to school- he didn't want to so we drove. I found a parking spot up front, go to pull in and some lady is taking up both spaces! She's now in her car trying to back out but I'm in her way now. The way the spaces are angled, I can't just pull out (have to pull out onto the road) and keep going. I had to pull out, drive back across the tracks, do a U turn in the church parking lot and head back towards the school.

Got home and Ian is still whining about a popsicle! He wanted one this morning and dh told him to ask me. Uhhh no. You can not have a popsicle at 8am. Why didn't he tell him that? Then I heard more whining and more whining about various other things.

Went to pick up Logan and decided it was too damn hot to walk as we had to go to tumbling tonight and I didn't want to be sweaty/stinky. Now Ian's whining about not walking to school. Oh and I got bit by an ant waiting for school to let out.

Later on I sent the boys to clean up their room. I popped my head in and Ian is butt naked. He looks at me and says "I didn't peepee in my underwear." Yeah, that means he did. I sent him straight to the bathroom to sit and told Logan to keep cleaning. He's been having too many "accidents" lately and it's really getting on my nerves. He knows he has to go but he doesn't want to stop what he's doing and go. Now I hear from Logan that his floor is wet. Ugh!!! I wondered why all the shoes were neatly placed in matching pairs in a circular area of their room when I popped my head in. Now I know. Ian had put them there on top of where he had peed!!!! He was trying to hide it. So now I have to wipe up pee, wipe the shoes, spray Clorox disinfectant and dry it all while trying to make dinner because we have to leave for tumbling class in less than an hour. I was so mad!

Got dinner done, had the boys sit and eat, got Logan dressed for tumbling, called dh to see if I had to drop off Ian at his office, ate my dinner, fed Bella and when dh walked in, we walked out. Phew. Got to tumbling and the minimal air conditioning they have is apparently broken. It was broken last Thursday too so I thought to bring my Squeeze Breeze fan in to keep Bella cool and me as well. I was melting even with the fan! Logan looked like he been in a shower after he was done with class. It must have been 100 degrees in there.

Now we're home, Bella is in bed, the boys are bathed and getting ready for bed and I still have to go grocery shopping. What a day!

5 months!

I have been so busy with Ebay auctions today, I didn't do my 5 month photo shoot with Bella. Of course I did get a few shots of her today. Here's one and hopefully a video from a week or so ago.

Today:


Logan putting on a show for Bella to make her laugh:

Smile!

No matter how overwhelming and stressful life is, they always makes me smile.

Thank you

Thank you for the comments so far. I'm so overwhelmed with all that I have put out for sale, I'm not sure I could do Ebay. There would be so much to photograph and document. When I say I have a lot of stuff, I mean I have 10 years worth of clothes of mine and at least 3 years worth of clothes from two boys. Those that know me, know how much I like to shop! ;) I don't have enough hangars for it all!

I do have a couple of bags of shoes and NWT outfits that I may Ebay. This stuff is just overwhelming my house right now so it has to go. I think dh may blow a gasket if our house doesn't get tidy soon!

Calgon, take me away!

Yard sales are for the birds!

Why did I say I wanted to do this?

This is what my living room looked like earlier today.


Good heavens! I've been sorting stuff all. day. long. We have tons of boys clothes! I have no idea how to price them though. Toys, cooking gear, flower arrangements, baskets, maternity and plus size clothes, vhs tapes, books, an owl, baby bottles, barely used breastpump with tons of unopened extras......ugh. If you've had a yard sale before, feel free to comment. How do I set up the baby clothes when I only have one long table? I hope to hang all the adult clothes. I have some blankets/old sheets I can use on the ground too.

Pricing?
Books- $0.50
Baby/toddler clothes- $0.50 or full outfits (2+pieces) $1.00
Maternity/plus size- $2.00ea
Toys- depends
Sound good? Too low/high?

I know I have readers- loyal, awesome in-real-life and 'net friends as well as strangers(still awesome if you're reading!). Hit me with all your greatest advice. Don't make me beg!

A long Ikea day

We finally made it to Ikea this weekend! Yay! We even took all 3 kids. The boys were really good for the most part. I think we were there for at least 4 hours including lunch. Bella was perfect. I wore her for the first half and after lunch I put her in the stroller. She even took a nap in it without a fuss.

Lunch over there was decent. The boys had mac & cheese with fruit and gobbled it all down. Dh had a veggie wrap and I had some chicken & fries. We all shared a slice of their apple cake with vanilla sauce. The cake was so-so. My chicken was really good though- tender and moist and the fries were seasoned. They have some yummy honey-mustard sauce too. On our way out we picked up some cinnamon rolls too. I just ate one- yumm!

We got a few things for Christmas gifts, a ladybug rattle/toy for Bella and this huge playmat for her. It's really nice. It has a baby proof mirror and some toys attached to it plus it's skid proof on the bottom. It's much larger than our little playmat and since she rolls all over the place I really wanted something bigger. We don't have nice soft carpet anymore. We also bought some new cutlery for the boys to use. I didn't see any plates for them though. I was hoping to find some sort of melamine type plate so I could stop using paper.

I found so much I want to get for us and Bella's room. They have really cool flower lamps for her bedroom and in a couple of years, I want to get her a toy kitchen and buy her these and these and these. They are all metal and can actually be used for cooking. I could easily furnish and decorate my entire house in Ikea stuff! I can't wait for ours to open! It will only be 25 minutes away versus 90 minutes away!

On our way home we hit a nasty storm. A lot of lightning and torrential rain. I could hardly see in front of me and we were going way below the speed limit. Thank goodness it was over in a few minutes. I hate driving in the rain! After hitting Mickey D's for dinner for the boys and Publix for subs for dh and I, we headed home. After putting Bella to bed, I went out to SuperTarget for some groceries so I'm just getting home once again. I started this blog probably 4 hours ago and I'm just getting around to finishing it. Phew! Busy, busy!

Tumbling update

Just wanted to update on Logan's tumbling class. He's doing so well. I'm so proud of him. Last night there were only three students so Logan basically got an hour long private lesson! The other 2 students were with Shea as they were older and had a higher skill level (you can see them in the background). Our coach, Torian, is so awesome with Logan though. Logan is really learning to listen better and take instructions. He's getting stronger and can hold himself up in a handstand against the mats on the wall. He's getting better at actual tumbling (rolling) and grabbing his knees to stand right up. His favorite thing to do though is a back flip. I was told once again that boys who cheer have an almost guaranteed scholarship to college so if I can help it these boys will cheer! LOL That's about the only way I'll be able to pay for them!

Here's a little video of him last night.

Shameless Mommy Brag

Skip this post completely if you don't want to ready my mommy brag!


I walked Logan into class today and his teacher told me she had asked the Gifted program teacher to come evaluate Logan. She noticed that he picked up a book at the media center the other day that was more advanced than kindergarten level and heard him reading it. She also mentioned she had started the testing they give each student to evaluate them and that by question #4, he was way ahead of her. She couldn't keep up with whatever it was she had to write. She told me it was the fastest test she had given and she can do these tests in her sleep. LOL Her son is in a gifted program so I'm more comfortable with her evaluation of him.

Now I'm not saying Logan will make it into the program although I hope he will. He may still need to work on his comprehension skills. I tested to get into the program when I was at that school and missed getting in by a few points or something like that. The class is only like 30? minutes a day too so he would still be with his classmates most of the time. I want him to keep learning without having to do the same things all over again in kindergarten that he did in Pre-K. Today for example, they were learning about the letter A. I know there are students in kindergarten who still need to learn their letters so I think this would be a good opportunity for him to push further.

So that's my mommy brag for the day- at least the school part of the day. I'll post about his tumbling accomplishments next. ;)

Fay, Fay, Go Away!

Enough already! How long can you possibly hang out in Florida? I know it's a great tourist state and who doesn't like to visit Disney and the beaches but you've really outworn your welcome. Go away already!

Here's the funny part of this storm. When all the schools were closed on Tuesday, we didn't get a drop of rain. It was barely even breezy. Today it's headed back across the state the opposite way and it's gloomy and spitting rain and windy as all get out. I walked outside this morning to put out the trash and I swear the mugginess took my breath away. I'm pretty used to Florida weather but this was just bad!

Could some of my northern friends please walk outside and blow some cooler air this way? I'm ready for fall!

I'm learning!

I may get the hang of this school thing soon. :)

I dropped Logan off this morning so early! I think if it happens again, we'll head to breakfast first. I learned today that siblings can eat free too (Debbie, can you verify this? I heard it about another school in our district that Amy sends her kids to). We usually eat breakfast at home. Even if he just gets a milk, it counts though!

I'm learning that parking out front and walking to get Logan gets me out so quickly. I'm home by 2:25. We do get there about 20-25min early but the kids don't seem to care. We hang out in the car for a few minutes before walking up to the front. Ian just roams around. It's far better than waiting in car line forever. I'm sure car line will calm down but for now this works and Logan is happy.

I learned today that I can go to lunch with Logan and bring Ian and Bella. Yay! I know of moms in other schools who do it but all schools are different so I asked about it. I'll have to make it a semi-regular occasion. Maybe when dh is on vacation he'll go with us- or just him alone. We can eat in the cafeteria or outside at the picnic tables.

I know this will be a year of learning- for both of us.

Updated!

I updated my blog roll this morning. I don't know if blogger is having issues or what but if you don't see your name, it could be that I was having "feed" problems. Blogger isn't detecting them or something like that. I don't really know what that means or why I can't add you. I'll try again later.

Back to School

And the cars are already speeding thru the school zones. Yes, I'm sure you'll be hearing about it a lot on my blog. Do they not see the big yellow-green or orange cones in the road? Maybe it's the big bright signs they are missing? I guess the kids walking on the sidewalk are all too little to see thru that huge SUV/van's windshield. No, that's not it. They are just MORONS. Stupid, stupid people in their own little world....

I did see my friend I was talking about on Monday. The one with the little girl in Logan's class. Well, she actually spotted me as she was driving by to drop off her dd and since it is a school zone and she had to go slow with traffic and all, she said hi. I know I'll see her on school grounds eventually! And if not, more than likely I'll see her at one of the holiday functions in our family.

I forgot to add, I didn't wake up until 6:46 this morning! OMG. Thanks dh!! I slept thru two flippin' alarms!!! He said he thought I was feeding Bella. She was with me but she had gotten up at like 5am so I had fallen back asleep with her next to me. When did he plan on waking me up? When I had 5 min left to go? Argh.

Attention Bloggers

Ahem...certain people who will remain nameless really need to update their blogs. You know who you are!!!

I know you could write something! How about starting with 1st day of school pics? hint, hint! And keep writing, I don't care how boring you think your life is, I want to read about it!