Magic Kingdom...where dreams come true (Day 1)

We drove about 6 hours on Monday, and then stopped for the night (in hindsight we should have let the kids fall asleep and keep driving).  That meant 3 long hours of driving in the morning, and we were so anxious to get there that we went straight to Magic Kingdom.  Both kids were tall enough to do more rides than last time. Gage was REALLY excited that he was tall enough to drive on the Speedway in Tomorrowland.  Can you tell from his face that he was happy?  He drove Mommy all over the place, and finally smashed into Daddy & Savannah's car, which was just ahead of us.

 They turned around, and I managed to snap a great shot of them peeking between the seats of their go-cart.

 We all love the Buzz Lightyear ride too, where you get to shoot lasers at targets that are all over the ride.  The ride was fun...but when we walked outside, guess who was there?.....

 BUZZ LIGHTYEAR himself!!! Whoo hooo!!  The line to see him wasn't too bad, so we queued up, but then...Buzz waved and went away.  They told us that he would be back in a few minutes because he just needed to have his batteries changed. Daddy could not tolerate the thought of standing in line waiting, so we sent him off on some errands to keep him busy. They were both really excited to meet Buzz :-) 

 And the big event of the day, was that Gage was big enough to ride Goofy's Barnstormers Rollercoaster!  Last year, this was Savannah's favorite ride. She and Daddy rode it about 100 times last year.  Gage went on his first ride and promptly pronounced "That was AWESOME" as he pumped his fist into the air. Savannah still loves the Barnstormer, but this year, she was tall enough for some of the big rollercoasters, and let me just say...she is a junky!! 

Happy Halloween!

 We bought gigantic pumpkins this year -- they were so big that Savannah had to sit on the floor to scoop the seeds out because they were too tall for her at the table!  We rocked out to a little Monster Mash and Flying Purple People Eater music while carving.

 Gage wanted - of course - spiderman. Daddy looked unconvinced that I'd pull it off, but agreed that it turned out great!  Savannah went back and forth between a cat, a princess, and then finally chose Frankenstein. Gage was tired and not really interested in the whole carving process (again). He did exclaim "Miderman. Awesome" when he saw it. Maybe next year he'll help us scoop and carve.

Lunch at Savannah's school

One thing I adore about Savannah's school is that we can go to have lunch with Savannah and her class - any day we want!  When I got to school and walked into the office, guess who was in there? Savannah? In trouble, you ask? No way! She was there because she had done such a good job in reading and writing that day that her teacher said she could go to the office to read some of her work to Mrs. Judy (the school secretary) and get a sticker. She was reading something she had just written "The children ride the school bus." 

This is the first time that I have taken Gage.  He loved bringing his superhero lunchbox like a big boy. Savannah always gets so excited that she can't contain herself in line as her class walks to lunch. In fact, she usually hugs me 100 times during lunch and gets tears in her eyes because she's so excited. Sometimes her teacher tells her that she can go ahead of the class and walk me to the lunchroom. This time, Gage got into line and walked just like the big kids.  I love that the kids all chat with me and kids constantly appear next to me asking if I will please open this or that (yogurt, chips, milk, etc.).  I love having the chance to have lunch there :-)

mucky mud

It's hard to believe that it's almost November, the leaves are falling, and we have a recently planted fall garden!  Our summer garden was a disgrace. The heat -which is intolerable to me - is also intolerable to the GARDEN!! This fall we have cabbage, lettuce, arugula, herbs, broccoli, and kale, growing. Gage is always happy to help me when it involves spraying the hose, and especially when he can make mud. I told him it looked like he had poop on his finger and he said "yeahhhhhhhhhhh" (with great satisfaction in his voice).

Halloween packages are arriving!

We opened the door to the garage and found a big box from Grandma & Grandpa Rapp. It could only be one thing at this time of year. Halloween goodies!  We tried to wait for Daddy to come home, but at 6:20 it was too much to bear, so we started without him.  Gage got a Hulk costume and proclaimed
"THIS IS AWESOME" (he later hulked out on Daddy). Let me tell you...he really went all out on Daddy.  They wrestle most nights, but I think wearing the Hulk costume made him feel extra strong!

 Savannah got a Monster High doll and has since made Mommy re-attach all of the stray hands legs and heads to the other MHs she has. They are so creepy looking, but she digs them.

 There was some candy, or course. And....the hit of the whole box was Gage's crazy Pluto is a skeleton suit who sings goofy spooky music and scoots around in a circle.  They have been catching him in their teeth as he scoots on the floor, and he suddenly appears dancing next to me throughout the day. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa!!!

Mummies!!

No, this was not their idea, it was Mommy, but they got a kick out of it and was well worth a roll and a half of toilet paper.  It didn't last long, however, the mummies ripped their wrappings to shreds within minutes. I'm lucky I was able to snap a few pictures!

The bus stop

 To make sure I don't forget Savannah's bus, I have a timer set on my phone to remind us to get her at the bus stop.  Gage hears that beeping and yells "I ready mama"! He was looking especially cool yesterday with his batman shades, batman shirt, a spiderman and a snack trap (minus the trap). At the moment the crepe myrtle trees are all dropping round seeds, so we pick them off the tree and drop them into the sewer drain cover (to feed the fishies). Who IS the very grown up looking boy?!

 

Mr. Bones

Savannah has been really interested in bones lately.  After mentioning this to Grammy one day, a box arrived in the mail. Adam opened it up and got the kids all riled up saying "GUYS YOU WON"T BELIEVE WHAT SOMEONE SENT US" and then made this skeleton jump out of the box.  Gage got scared until he realized that it was just a Halloween decoration. Savannah started dancing with it. She has been posing Mr Bones in various positions and then mimicking the position to see what her skeleton looks like when she does things. She has been giving him piggy back rides, sticking vampire teeth into his mouth, and talking about how she wishes she could see all the things that are inside his ribcage, like his lungs and heart. So, thank you Grammy, Mr. Bones is a big hit :-)

Oh...don't mind the giant hole in our kitchen ceiling -- we had a plumbing problem upstairs and ended up having to out the ceiling.  Sigh.

Fall Festivus (for the restofus)

Last month I was at a PTO meeting to plan the Savannah's school's fall festival.  They were looking for someone to be in charge of games and no one would volunteer, so I said I would do it. Little did I know that the fall festival draws over 1000 people each year, and it revolves around the games. Oh, and there are 49 games that would need to be inventoried, picked up and then returned, set up & then broken down, supplies bought for, prizes bought, volunteers assigned, volunteers instructed, signs made, hung, and taken down, etc etc etc. So...for the last few weekds I have spent a LOT of time at Savannah's school getting ready. Last Friday was the festival and it was a big success. I am still recovering!  The kids all had a blast on bouncy houses and riding crazy trains and trying their luck at all of Mommy's games.  The Cake Walk game got the best of Spiderman (aka Gage). We all stood on #s and walked while the music played. When the music stopped we jumped on the nearest #s and a winner was called -- the winner could pick any baked good from the table -- including cakes, cupcakes, etc.. That winner was not Gage, and he was not happy. He.Wanted.A.Cupcake. Badly. He was never able to "recover" so Daddy took him home and Savannah stayed with Mommy.  Savannah came home with a bag of prizes and shared with Gage. 

Here's a picture of us riding "the happy train" -- some guy owns this and brings it to all the festivals and fairs they have in the area. He basically plays that country song that says "roll tide roll" in it over and over and drives in circles in his allotted area. And at dark it lights up with crazy lights. It was the most popular activity at the festival.

Wrapping up our beach trip

And, what else did we do at the beach? A little of this and that, like swimming....

 ...and having lunch at the Hangout. Since it's off season, they did not have the waterballoon fights, bubble party, etc., but it's still a great spot :-)

... we played at the beach some more. And...this time, Gage loved being at the beach so we didn't have to restrict our beach time to a few hours at sunrise and sunset like we did last trip.  He kept begging us to go to the beach any time we were out...

 Savannah did a lot of sea shell collecting, and we got some really beautiful ones!

 we took some pictures of some beautiful kids..

 we brought super heroes to the beach, and then freaked out when we buried them in the sand and could not find them!

And, we had an amazing and relaxing trip.  These.are.the.days.

Monkey business

We always stop at the zoo while in Gulf Shores, and were excited to do the Lemur animal encounter this time!!  We got to spend about a half hour with four 7 month old lemurs. They were crazy. They were swinging from ropes, jumping across the enclosure, and....they sat on our heads :-) 

 which was pretty fun, as you can see :-) . I hope Savannah will remember this, these animal encounters are such amazing, fun, and silly experiences!

We were warned to watch out if the lemurs got up in the rafters, because they tend to poop while up there. Well, Adam learned that first hand. He got pooped on!!!!  His head, neck, arm, leg --- covered!  The culprit is inspecting the poop stains here :-) We told Adam it was good luck, but he didn't really buy it!

 These guys were so soft it was incredible, and so playful.  I know Gage will probably not remember this, but he sure did enjoy it!

Good morning, beautiful beach!

We started our morning by bolting out to the beach to check for seashells.

 ...and we found a little tiny crab. We LOVE these little guys, especially because they don't pinch!

 Gage saw a flock of seagulls and took off running to try and catch a bird.

 he came back looking a little sad...don't let those birds get the best of you, buddy!

Ahh...the beach...we needed this

It has been a stressful couple of weeks around the Rapp household, so our beach weekend could not have come at a better time for us. We went to Gulf Shores again, but one of these days we need to try someplace else  (like Rosemary Beach, Destin, FL, etc.) as they are just a little further down the road.  We took Savannah out of school at lunchtime and hit the road. The minute we checked into the hotel (which Savannah told us smelled like "crab poop", and I have to agree with her), we hit the beach.

are you ready for some foooottballlll?

Saturday used to be "a rugby day" -- well, this week it was a football day.  There was a lot of running, falling, tackling, crying, laughing, and sweating!

after about 20 tackles I told Savannah to cool it.  She went off pouting. Gage started moping. He wanted MORE tackles. So, everyone got back in the action tackling...  and everyone was happy! Gage got so hot & sweaty that he came to me and told me he had a fever :-)

Riding the school bus

Before school started, Savannah decided that she wanted me to drive her to school rather than ride the school bus.  I agreed, because (a) she seems so little to be sending off on the school bus, and (b) her school is only a few miles away, so I figured dropping and picking her up would be easy.  I was wrong. There are 3 school zones in the 4 miles to school, and traffic is terrible. So it takes me 30 minutes to drive 4 miles. Two weeks ago she started telling me that she wants to ride the school bus.  The school is only K-2, so there are no "big" kids to worry about bullying the little kids. Also, her bus ride takes about 10-15 minutes. So, we signed her up for the bus. Daddy was home that first morning, so the whole family walked her to the bus stop. She was VERY excited about walking to the bus.

 and waiting at the bus stop (which is just on the otherside of our neighbor's house)...we worked on her remembering her bus #, which we made a rhyme for "118 don't be late"....

 ...and she was jumping up and down as the bus came over the hill.  Her bus drive (Mr. Tom) introduced himself and she climbed on. But, I have to say, she looked a little uncertain as she started walking down the aisle. The bus looked much more full than it does in the afternoon (when we see it drive by us as we wait in the pick-up lane at school).  So, I was curious to find out if she was happy about this bus riding decision or not....

...that afternoon when we asked how it was, she replied "I LOVE THE BUS!". She said she made a new friend already, she sat with a little girl who said "Hi Savannah", so she seemed so excited that the girl knew her name.  She also told me the most fun part is that the bus bumps along so she bounces on her seat with no seatbelt and she "even hit her head on the seat in front of her".  Exciting stuff!  So, now she is thrilled that she is a bus rider. Mommy is excited that I don't have to leave the house at 2:15 to pick her up at 2:45, and that I don't have to sit in that traffic every morning from 7:15 - 8:00!!  Instead, Gage & I just stroll down to the bus stop. He smooshes ants and throws rocks down the drain. It's only a matter of time before he loses a toy (like Lightening McQueen) down that drain adn it's gone FOREVER..mark my words.....