Halloween 2009

Halloween 2010.  Collin was excited to be a transformer again this year - especially since he didn't get to wear his costume to school last year because of pink eye.  Madelyn wanted to be a bug again, but it was too small so she settled for a princess - but only if mommy would do her hair in a bun like Ella's.  Ella INSISTED on being Cinderella.  After just getting back from Disney - there was no talking her out of it.  The kids of course had lots of fun trick or treating!









Cole and Ella







Madelyn and Carly

Halloween at School

Ella absolutely insisted on being Cinderella this year!  There was no talking her out of it.  She got to wear her costume to school this year.

Collin had a parade at his school.  Mommy went with Ella and Madelyn.  The girls thought it was so fun to see all the costumes parade through the school, and Collin thought he was such a "big kid".  It was pretty cute.



Carving pumpkins.  Collin and Madelyn did not want to touch the guts.  Only Ella actually stuck her arm inside and helped mommy to empty the pumpkins out.  Collin and Madelyn insisted on using a spoon.  Madelyn wanted a happy pumpkin and Ella of course wanted whatever Collin wanted, and so they ended up with the exact same one.   Oh well!






VIDEO OF COLLIN AT SCHOOL

What is Heaven like??

Last night we were doing our Advent time and one of the questions in our book was, "What do you think it will be like in heaven"?  So I asked the kids to each tell me something that they thought about heaven.  I expected some of the regular responses like, you can eat candy all the time, you can stay up all night, there are lots of rides like the Mall of America, etc...something along these lines.  Ella said "I will get to see God a lot", and Collin said "It will be peaceful".  I kind of chuckled and asked Collin, "What does peaceful mean to you"?  He says, "you know like quiet and calm".  I mean seriously what 7 year old boy do you know that describes his heaven as peaceful?  Only Collin, and the funny part is - that really is his heaven!

Naples, FL

After a week in Disney we headed to Naples, FL to spend some time with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Dixie.  The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and we were all ready for some relaxing after our crazy pace at Disney.  We spent our first day lounging by the pool.  Perfect after 8 days of Disney.  We definitely needed a little down time!  The kids swam and mommy soaked up some sun.  We spent an afternoon playing at the beach.  We went out for dinner by the water and played a little mini golf with grandma and grandpa.  Collin got a hole in one on the first three holes.  He was SO excited!!  Madelyn hit the ball once and then went and picked it up and dropped it in the hole - for a "hole in one" every time, Collin and Ella thought it was hilarious.   We are so glad that we got to spend this special time in Naples, it makes us miss having grandpa and grandma close by!

Disney World 2010

We decided to head to Disney World this fall. My good friend Kim and her family invited us to stay with them at their condo. 4 adults and 7 kids in one place for a week.....how do you say "no" to that?? As it turns out 4 adults and 7 kids in one place works our really good, especially when you spend 99% of your time at Disney World and run the kids until they are so tired they BARELY have time to play their DSi at night! We were also lucky enough to overlap with with Megan, Brian, Jake and Elizabeth for one day of our Disney trip. Collin and Jake were kind of off on their own, they seemed so old and the girls were three little peas in a pod walking around the park together. I'm pretty sure the only time Madelyn walked anywhere on her own two feet was when she was with Elizabeth. We had a GREAT time! Thanks Kim and Travis, we will never forget this week!

P.S...I know there are a lot of pictures here, but I took 1200 pictures over the course of the week, so this is nothing!!

We spent our first day of Disney at Sea World. We started out with a bang. We did a full day at Sea World. We loved the dolphin and whale show - we watched it almost 3 times (mommy just had to catch the end one last time before we left)! I liked when all the dolphins jumped together and Collin liked when the guy was surfing with the dolphins. The kids also went on the Atlantis ride and had a lot offun.

Next we hit Magic Kingdom. We covered a lot of ground our first day at Magic Kingdom. We started out admiring the castle. The girls were in awe and wanted to go inside so bad, but it was closed. We met Mickey and Minnie Mouse (Madelyn's favorite) and all the princesses. The girls LOVED meeting the princesses and had so much fun getting all their autograph books signed. We rode the Barnyard rollercoaster(for little people). At first Madelyn was not so sure, but by the end of the trip she was literally running up, and riding "no hands" like all the big kids. Even the older kids had fun on this one - I'll admit, it was pretty fast for a little kid roller coaster. We got front row seats to a the afternoon parade, took in theshow at the castle and of course rode all the big rides: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. The kids all voted Space Mountain their favorite and must have rode over 20 times by the end of the week. Ella was just shy of the 44" mark so we had to buy her some thick shoes and fill them with 2 inserts. It was so ridiculous that she couldn't even walk. We had to carry her to the line, get her measured, carry her up to the ride, ride the ride and then carry her backdown. But it was so worth it for her to be able to ride the big rides!! She had more guts than most of the boys!

Matt and Megan

Ella and Elizabeth

We started our day at Epcot by meeting all the disney characters. The kids got autographs from Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto. They thought it was hilarious when Goofy couldn't figure out Ella's autograph book and kept pretending to drop it. They were laughing so hard!! Rode some super fun rides. Ella's favorite was Test Track because it went really fast. Collin's favorite was Mission Space because it wasn't boring because you push buttons. We did breakfast with the princesses. The girls LOVED this. They got to meet Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and Ariel. Madelyn was nervous at first but warmed up after a while and gave each of the princesses a hug and blew a smooch. Ella was just in awe. She was pretty much left speechless by the whole thing. It was pretty cute to watch. By far their favorite part was doing the parade with the princesses. The girls got to parade around the restaurant with a princess without any adults just them and Cinderella! We ended the night watching the firework show.

Here is our entire clan....(minus one Tate) it was quite a group. On the day that we met up with Megan and Brian we could literally take up an entire rollercoaster by ourselves!

One of the kids' favorite rides in all of Disney was Mt Everest at Animal Kingdom. It is a super fun roller coaster with a Yetti inside! The first time around Ella was not tall enough and only Parker was brave enough to ride. After some convincing Collin decided to go and LOVED it and we snuck Ella in a few times. She of course loved it also. The kids ride "no hands" the whole way! We also went on the Kali River ride and got plenty wet. Another high light was the Jungle Safari Jeep Tour. We got up close and personal with hippos, elephants and within feet of a giraffe. He literally walked right up to our jeep and then crossed right in front of us. It was so cool.

The overall theme for the rides at Disney was definitely "NO HANDS!!" (unless of course you were one of the boys doing a "gun show"!

We spent our last day back at Animal Kingdom just the 5 of us.

Madelyn after the 3D bug show.

What our car looked like on the way home from Disney!! They literally went all out until they crashed.