Zoey's Halloween Song--The Hungry Spider

Zander's Ghost Song! Don't Be Scared!

Renaissance Fair

This weekend, I took the kids to the Renaissance Fair for a few reasons. First, I had free tickets. Second, Tyler needed some time to finish up some school work. And third, it was a fantastic day to be outside enjoying some good people watching. The people I had my eye on were 4 and 6 years old and enthralled with all the fair goers in costume and all the costume merchandise that was around.

If I were made of money, I would have bought everything for the kids, because they obviously have a knack for dressing up and playing make-believe. Zander is constantly asking me to "make" him costumes of his favorite super heroes and to dress up as a king or a knight. So when I told the kids where we were going on Saturday they immediately went and suited up for the occasion.


Zoey (as always) was picked to join the festivities at the Children's Realm. She learned a new dance before we went to make our magic wands.


Both kids spent a lot of time trying to work the Crystal Styx. It is an impressive talent if you can practice a lot.
I would have to say that the highlight for me was riding the elephant (because there were a ton of elephants back in the renaissance days.) Although, the ride didn't last long enough for what we paid for--at least I can say that we have ridden an elephant.

A Zoey standard at all fair events--getting her face painted.

My little king.

First Day of School!

Zoey is officially a Wildwood 1st grader! I dropped her off this morning with mixed emotions--she is growing up SO fast! Her teacher this year is Mrs. Marshall. Zoey told me today that she is pretty much the nicest teacher around. I know that Zoey had a great first day at school by all that she told me after school. She got to go to music and Spanish class today. One of her classmates had a birthday and brought treats! She already has a lot of friends and she wants to go back tomorrow. So all in all a great start.

Another new thing for Zoey this fall will be piano lessons! Zoey will be taking lessons from her music teacher--she thinks that is pretty cool! I am looking forward to hearing her learn more songs than Hot Crossed Buns.

Both kids will start swimming lessons in about 2 weeks. They both made so much progress this summer with their swimming, we are looking forward to them even learning more.

Zander will be taking a sports sampler class in October. It is time to get him into some organized activities. This one is a parent/child class--so that will be a blast!

Tyler starts up with his Administration classes again tomorrow night. This go around: School Financing--sounds riveting, huh?

I plan on just trying to keep everything moving smoothly and get the kids where they need to go when needed.

Other Florida Highlights. . .

One of the highlights of our Florida vacation (and the reason that spurred it all) was that I got to see and visit with my grandparents for a few days. It has been quite a while since I had been down to Florida. We played cards (Garbage of course.) Zoey played checkers with great-grandpa. We went out to eat and we enjoyed their company! Above is all of us at the Cracker Barrel restaurant.

Swimming at the pool.
This is the hotel room after our day at Epcot. The kids had just gotten their Star Wars action figures and they literally sat on the floor (after an exhausting day) for an hour and played very nicely together before conking out for the night.


Zoey and I at Steak n' Shake. The hats were the best!Here is Zander the morning of our return trip at the airport. NOT a happy camper.

Zoey was glad to be home!

Zander was even happier. . .

The Atlantic Ocean

On our vacation this summer we made an afternoon of seeing the ocean. My first inclination was that the waves would scare the children and they wouldn't want to swim there that long--I was so wrong. Both kids loved the big waves and the nice soft sand. It was a blast for us too!

If you look closely in the picture below, you just might see Zoey underneath that big wave. It hit her fast and hard!

She looked a little defeated when she emerged from the wave, but it didn't stop her from spending every minute she could jumping the waves.
Zander enjoyed the water as much as Zoey did. He, of course, was always with one of us, but he almost always had a smile when the waves crashed by.

The waves created puddles (or more like ponds) in the sand. The shallow water and the sun made the ponds very warm. Zoey dubbed it her "spa" and liked to sit in the water and soak.





Zander and I fought the waves and we won!

More Disneyworld & Florida Pictures

Zander went off exploring with Daddy for a bit. He found Mickey, Minnie, and the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. He really liked that one.

 Above. . .Zoey is practicing to be a street performer. It may actually happen one day!

 A highlight for both kids was all the Star Wars stuff. In the store above, you were able to build your own lightsaber. Zander made himself a green one, but Zoey at the last minute opted for her Minnie Mouse princess.

 Zoey joined every conga line she could.

I think they each one a game. We will have to have a tie breaker some day soon!

What? Its the end of summer?

So you are probably thinking that we didn't do anything over the summer because Judy is usually so good about updating the blog on a regular basis. Well. . .that is just not true. The truth is we were so busy, we haven't have any time to put all our great pictures up on the blog. So to make up for lost time this and the next few posts will hopefully bring us all up to speed. It may not be in the exact order that it all happened--but the gist is there.

In July, Zoey spent one of the hottest weeks of the summer at Tamarack Nature Center. She got to go on lots of hikes, learn a lot of new games, and enjoy a lot of nature.

We spent a bunch of weekends at the cabin up at Grace Lake. It is quickly becoming one of the kids' favorite places to be. They get to swim when ever they want, they know every one on the complex, there are other kids to play with, Grandma and Grandpa are there, and they fixed up the playhouse with Grandma. That was a big deal this summer too! They spent a whole 5 days away from Mommy and Daddy up at the lake. They did great!

Earlier this summer, I had to buy a new pair of sunglasses. So I went to the best place around. . .Poppa's work! The kids can with and got to see where Poppa spent his time and who he worked with. They loved trying on glasses.



Despite all the trips and things going on, we also did enjoy some downtime at home in the backyard just playing around.

Zoey and Zander with the neighbors.

The church near our house puts on a summer fair each year and it seems to have more and more each time we go. This year's new thing was the bungee jumping. . .Zoey all over it!

DISNEYWORLD!!!!

What a trip this was! I can't even describe how much fun it was to see the kids meet their Disney idols and be able to talk to them and get their autographs! Even though the weather was very hot and we got tired, we all had a great time! Grandma and Grandpa were there to share the fun. Grandpa told me when we were planning the trip that he couldn't wait to see Zoey's reaction to the Disney castle and the princesses. It was all that could be imagined. When we got to Magic Kingdom in the morning, we walked in the front gates and it actually took a while for the kids to notice the castle. But when they did, their mouths dropped and Zoey went all giddy with excitement. It was priceless!

Zoey, in her true fashion, joined every dance party available to her. Below is her dancing with Baloo the Bear (from The Jungle Book). Zander, in his true fashion, took a more reserved approach and watched things mostly from afar. Although he did join in some dancing later on in the day.






Mulan was a must-see when we went to Epcot.

Grandma and Grandpa were celebrating their 38th anniversary the week we were in Florida. Happy Anniversary!
Princess Aurora signed the inside of Zoey's princess hat. She told Zoey that it was their secret. I'll never tell a soul. Oops. . .

There are so many pictures that we took at Disneyworld that I had a hard time choosing what to put up on the blog. On of my projects this fall is to put all our pictures in a photo album and have the kids help me write captions about what they remember from our trip. Then we can always remember what a great time we had.