Corn Maze

October in Gainesville is filled with so many family events we can never run out of things to do. The kids and I visited a local farm yesterday that had a corn maze, a hay ride, a trampoline made out of hay, a tractor train made out of barrels, and the kids favorite, a corn box. They spent 75% of their time in the corn box. Also, there were several areas specifically designed for picture taking. Unfortunately my kids are getting a little annoyed at how often I ask to take their picture these days, and were not up to posing. These were the best pics I got from the day.

Character Breakfast

For our Disney getaway trip we spent the night at Nickelodeon Family Suites. The kids have really been into Dora and Diego recently and were very excited to see the walls of our hotel room painted with their favorite characters. The next morning, we ate breakfast with some of the Nickelodeon characters. The hotel was really slow, and we were one of only 3 families in the restaurant at the time, so we got to spend lots of quality time with each character. Ryan was a little confused about the wholoe thing and he kept asking me, "Why Dora not talking?"

Disney getaway

The kids and I got away for a day and a half to Disney this week. We all had a great time this time. Among the highlights of the day was riding the Indianapolis 500 ride. When we got settled into the car, the Disney employee tied a "magic towel" onto our car, so that after we had finished the race, the kids could switch places and tkae turns driving the car without having to get back in line. So cool! Ryan was absolutely ecstatic that he got to drive the car as we has been driving to drive mine every day for months now. He's very upset with me that I won't let him be the driver of the Tahoe. Another great moment was waiting for the parade to start. In order to get a good seat, or any seat at all, you must find a spot about 30-40 minutes before the parade, even on the slowest of days. On this occasion, Disney cast members filled the streets with hula hoops and giant bouncing balls for the kids to play with in the street until the parade began. So cool! Becca did great moving her hips and making the hula hoop go around. Ryan not so much. He sttod perfectly still with his hands in the air, while I whipped the hoop around him and he giggled and told everybody watching "I did it!"

Butterflyfest

Gainesville has a wonderful Butterfly Rainforest at the Natural History Museum on campus. Every year the museum hosts a Butterflyfest with all kinds of activities and events for the whole family. Becca and Ryan really enjoyed getting to make their own wings, masks and butterfly wands. You'll notice that Ryan chose bat wings and an owl mask. He's very creative.

Growing up too fast

OK this picture just amuses me so I thought I would share. Becca is really into school and practicing writing letters. Often, she asks me how to spell different words and she practices writing them down. So the other day when she asked me how to spell "alone" I didn't think too much about it. A few minutes later she called me to her room where she had taped the word "Alone" to her door and explained very nicely that when I see that word on her door it means she wants to be alone, so I shouldn't come in at that time.

Scrapbook Pages

I recently went to a weekend crop where I scrapbooked with my friends at a local B&B and got almost 20 pages done! Here are a few of my favorite pages.

Cute pics of Ryan

My friend Jay is the one who took all the pictures at Becca's party, and was able to snap these cute photos of Ryan as well.

Becca's Fairy Party

Rebecca is FIVE!!! When I told Becca that she was five today, she got so excited, running around the house shouting, "I'm FIVE! I'm FIVE! I'm not four anymore!"

We had a fairy party for her on Saturday and it was a great success. Grandmommy even came to Florida to surprise Becca by showing up as a Fairy Godmother. The little fairies got to choose their own wings and flower garlands, and then decorated their own wands and fairy purses. Later, they got a fairy makeover, applying glittery nail polish and butterfly tattoos. Then, they all chose some jewelry to accessorize their outfits. When time allowed, the fairies spent time coloring fairy coloring pages. For activities, we read a fairy story, hunted for gold coins dropped by the tooth fairy, and participated in a scavenger hunt for items fairies love like feathers, flowers, jewels, stones, and tiny mirrors. Once all the items had been collected, each girl got to choose her own tiny handmade fairy to take home with her. The fairies also had a wonderful time pretending to fly around the fairie ring in the backyard and playing on our new swingset. I've posted a few pictures above, but to see all the pictures click on this link. http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaM2jVw1YtWNj