Monday: gymnastics and halloween

The day started out with gymnastics, and Mondays do lately.  Both classes had fewer people than normal.  Gymnastics seems to be one of the highlights of Isaac's week.

This evening we went trick or treating at a nearby church.  It was a nice night out, but I love doing it there because the amount of candy is just right.  Joshua wouldn't put a costume on until Ben told him he had to in order to get treats, so there aren't any great pictures of them together.  Isaac and I both told him he had to put it on, but I wasn't about to put it on a screaming toddler.

Isaac's costume worked pretty well, although I wish I had made a mouth hole and the eyes a bit bigger.  He ended up with a damp spot by his mouth.

Isaac had a great time; Joshua seemed a bit wary the whole time.  He especially wasn't a fan of the marshmallow man.

Sunday: a busy, but fun, weekend

Ben got home Friday night with Zach.  He stayed until Sunday.  We didn't really do anything all that special, but had fun hanging out.  Then Life Group (aka Bible Study) was at our house Sunday lunch time.  The kids played quite well and the adults enjoyed some time together too.

Saturday: parenting key

I think one key to parenting is moving toys around.  Often this is putting toys away (although that could be done by kids too).  Putting some toys away and bringing them out later is good.  Yesterday I found that moving the Duplo table from one room to another made it awesome again.  The proceeded to play with it for 45 minutes.

Thursday: Ben's still gone

Ben's still gone, so Dad and Pat invited us over to their house for dinner.  It was a lovely way to break up the evening, and the kids were so excited!

Wednesday: Ben's gone

Ben's on a road trip for the next few days.  Isaac has been asking to go to the Play Place at McDonald's for about six months.  So we went today.  We got there and he was so confused.  I think he was thinking about something else, but I'm not really sure what.  The only other play place that he's been to (that I know of) was on the way to Virginia while I was pregnant with Joshua, 2.5 years ago.

We ate, and then the kids played.  Isaac was a social butterfly, playing with many of the kids that were there.  Joshua was very disappointed because he wasn't big enough to get up the "steps" to the fun part.  I agreed with him that it was rather sad, but I also wasn't going to go in there and help him out.  He played in the toddler area for a bit and then ate some more french fries on my lap.

Monday: picture

I have a quilt over the banister right now.  It needed to finish drying and I need to check it for threads.  Isaac saw it and wanted to take pictures in front of it.  He really wanted to.  So every three seconds I took a picture.  (Only a few of the ones that look empty are actually empty.  He was adding toys one at a time.)

 

Delayed - Disney

Cheryl, Allison, Jamie, and I went to Disney last weekend.  It was a packed weekend full of fun!  (Warning - picture overload ahead.)

Friday during the day we did Epcot.  One of the main reasons we were there was to do the Food and Wine festival, so we did lots of eating (and some drinking).  We stayed at the Beach resort which was just a short walk into Epcot.  (Short if you go the correct way.  Jamie and I had a hard time following arrows this trip.  But...I think it could have been marked better.)

We did some of the rides and saw Mickey, Goofy, and Minnie.  The weather was warm, but there were often clouds so it felt nice.

 We picked out oysters to get pearls.  I got a blue pearl and it was perfect.  It is now a necklace.

In the evening we went to the Not-so-scary Halloween Party.  We dressed up as the emotions from Inside Out.  Joy and Sadness were the most recognized and we kept hearing, "Sadness" or "Joy and Sadness" from everyone around us.  We first stopped by Mickey.  It was a bit scary at first.

Then we watched the parade.  It was probably one of my favorite parades ever.  It was probably due to all the choreographed dancing.

We went trick-or-treating.  (They gave out handfuls of candy at each stop and it was awesome.)  We went on a few rides, including the mine ride.  I think that is one of my favorites, although it feels just a bit short.

Saturday Allison had to leave. :(  The rest of us went to Hollywood Studios for a few rides.

After a short stop at Disney Springs, Jamie and I headed to Animal Kingdom.  We mainly went to do the roller coaster, but decided we had enough time for the Safari too.  It was rather dark by the time we finally got to the safari, but since they hadn't closed yet we went for it anyway.  The weather was perfect so the least that would happen would be a nice ride.  We saw bunches of animals though!  Hippos, elephant, assorted grazing beasts, alligators, and, best of all, the lions.  The male lion was pacing and growling as we went by.

Sunday we had a quick stop at the pool, did one last ride at Epcot, ate some more food, and sadly said goodbye.  My favorite drink was the limoncello, my favorite food was Schinkennudeln from Germany, and all the desserts were delicious.

It was wonderful to have a vacation...I've been needing one.  Near the end I wished the boys were with me as we were doing something fun, but then I would remember that I waited 30 minutes to do this fun thing and was glad they weren't there. :)