Today, I went to Samantha's class to help during math time. The kids guessed the circumference of the pumpkin using yarn, and counted the number of seeds. After all the math we got to carve the pumpkins. The kids and I had such a fun time. It was great to meet the kids in Samantha's class. Now I have faces to put with names. This is a picture of Samantha's class and all the pumpkins.
Samantha, Justin, Parker, and Alex decided on a scary pumpkin. Happy Halloween to everyone!
Brandon is out of town until Friday afternoon. So yesterday after school we decided to carve our pumpkins for Halloween. Cole was very excited but lost interest quickly when his mean mother refused to let him play with a knife.
One of neighbors, Brooke, came over to help Samantha hallow out the pumpkins.
Everyone concentrating very hard on drawing the face. It could only be done with two kids watching Brandon's every move.
The church were Cole goes to school has a pumpkin patch. We decided to go check it out. They had a large assortment in various sizes and colors. Cole stayed very busy trying to pick up every pumpkin he saw. This is the only picture he let me take. We chose 2 to take with us to go with the most expensive pumpkin ever that we had bought at another patch.
Daddy and his little "punkin" in the pumpkin patch.
Daddy and his crew. We had the best trip to Disney. We made the most of our 4 days at the parks. Everyone was exhausted from seeing and doing so much during our stay.
We have just returned from a wonderful trip to Disney World. Everyone had such a great time. I asked Samantha what her favorite things were and she names just about everything she did. The picture above is from the first day as we were heading into Magic Kingdom on the tram. The kids were so excited to see everything.
As soon as we got through the gates we spotted Daisy Duck. As you can tell Cole is missing from the picture. He was so excited when he spotted her but did not want to go near her. As we were walking away from Daisy he started to cry even more. He didn't want to leave but he also didn't want to go to her. I guess he just wanted to stay and watch her from a safe distance.
The family shot in front of Cinderella's castle. Whenever Cole saw the castle anywhere in the park he would get excited and yell "Mommy, mommy... Cinderella castle!"
Jack Sparro from Pirates of the Caribbean chose Samantha for be an honorary pirate.
The family waiting to watch Phillomagic. Don't we look so cute in out 3D glasses. Cole wanted me to wear his glasses too. It was so good. Maggie, Samantha, and I sat in the front row. The girls were standing up trying to catch and grab things.
Samantha trying to get the sword out of the stone. No luck.
OH.... NO... Cole and Samantha have been eaten by Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo.
Samantha and I on Spaceship Earth at Epcot.
Cole finally went up to a few characters in the Epcot meet and greet. He went to Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, and Goofy all by himself. He needed Mom to introduce him to Mickey and Pluto.
What a pair!!!!! These two had a blast running around the carwash while the Dads and sisters rode crash test. Needless to say they got soaking wet. And had a great time getting that way!!
The two princesses! Samantha was wearing her Minnie Mouse ears and Snow White made a comment on how she and Minnie were good friends. Samantha thought that it was so cool that Minnie and Snow White were friends and that Snow White noticed her ears.
We tried to get a good picture but the kids were not interested. The only thing they were interested in was riding more rides, not Mom's photo ops.
Daddy and kiddies on Dumbo. Every time a ride Cole was on would be over he would say "One more time!"
Cole found 100 Acre Woods and Winnie the Pooh's house.
Our last night we went to the night parade and fireworks. Cole LOVED the parade. He sat in his stroller and danced to the music and pointed and yelled about everything he was seeing. Samantha loved when Tinkerbell fell over our heads to start the fireworks. We had a wonderful time. I am looking forward to taking Cole back when he is tall enough to ride the thrill rides... I know he will love them all. It was so fun to watch the magic of Disney through Samantha and Cole's eyes. It makes it worth the lines, heat, and money to see their eyes light up as they saw the castle for the first time and their expressions as they were trying to take it all in. It was a wonderful family vacation.
Saturday night Brandon and I kept Maggie and Harrison while Bethany and Brad celebrated their 9th anniversary. As always we enjoyed having the kids over. Here is a picture of Maggie and Samantha when we were leaving for church Sunday morning. They wanted to wear their hair the same way...
After church we met Brad and Bethany for lunch and decided to try and find a pumpkin patch in Conroe. The pumpkin patch wasn't what I expected but the kids enjoyed themselves all the same.
There weren't very many pumpkins to choose from but Samantha and Brandon managed to find what Samantha called "the perfect pumpkin." It better be for as much as it cost. Cole spend his time in the patch pushing the pumpkins over. He was very proud of himself. I am just thankful that he didn't manage to break any.
The kids put on a puppet show for the parents. They were not very happy that I made them stick their heads out for a picture. I was told that you are not supposed to see the people doing the show.
Here are the girls playing miniature golf. Harrison played too, but Cole was not interested. He found the petting zoo area. There were chickens, goats, a pig, a donkey, and Cole's favorite 3 Llamas.
There was also a little western town. The girls enjoyed the jail... hopefully not a sign of things to come.
Cole just enjoyed hanging out in the little western town. He stayed mostly in this position hanging out the window. The other three were swinging on a zip line. I think the zip line was a highlight for the girls. Cole's was probably the huge ball he found to kick around. We wonderful day playing together.
Harrison loves the powered sugar more than the "donuts."
Cole and Harrison playing with their balloon airplanes.
Buddies Sam and Harrison in Jackson Square.
The kids really enjoyed the rope bridge, but we were all frightened by the monkey in the orange shirt behind the kids.
Of course a highlight was the carousel.
On Wednesday, Mom and I wanted to go shopping in Ocean Springs. The kids were so good that we decided to treat them to some play time on the beach. Of course I did not bring swim suits. They certainly didn't care.... they had a blast!
It is amazing how much fun you can have with a couple of cups, plastic spoons, sand, and water.
Big Daddy teaching Samantha how to play the guitar.
Samantha and Cole love the beach. On Sunday, we went back to the beach... still no swim suits, but this time Big Daddy went. The kids loved playing in the sand and water.
Cole's diaper was loaded from all the water. So he took off his diaper and buried his junk in the sand.
Thanks Momma and Daddy for taking us in for a week. We had a wonderful time hanging with you. Samantha is thrilled to be back in school. The night before we left Mom and Dad's to head home Samantha asked me if her fever was gone because she was ready to go back to school. Bless her heart she didn't realize that we were at Honey's so long because we didn't have power.
Harrison was helping feed them, but everytime the ducks got a little food from him he would take off running. And Cole was only interested in swinging. He did not want anything to do with the ducks. He asked for some bread and ate it himself.
It was pretty watching the outer bands make their way to us. As the sun was setting bans of clouds started rolling in. Brandon and I talked about Pop (Les) and how much he would have loved being there watching this storm roll in. He loved to watch "weather." All the of neighbors were out watching the clouds and socializing. And all the kids in the cul-du-sac had a blast running around playing flashlight tag. We all knew what was in store for us but the beginning was beautiful.
After the sun set the clouds came faster and faster. We came inside around 9:30 and gave the kids a good bath (they were sooooo dirty.) About 30 minutes after we put them to bed (in our room) the winds really started to pick up. Cole and Brandon slept through the night as if nothing were happening. Samantha and I on the other hand didn't get much sleep. The lights went out around 1:30am and the wind whipped and howled for 15 hours. The eye wall passed over around 7:00am. By that time Cole and Brandon were up and that is when Samantha and I finally got a little sleep.
We were very lucky.... no damage. After Brandon spent the day at the house he was going stir crazy so we went to check on Brad and Bethany around 6pm. We found them safe and sound in their house with no damage too.
