Carving pumpkins

Daddy and I spent about 4 hours Monday night carving pumpkins for the kids. This year's choices were a little bit more detailed than last years. C picked Jango Fett (or Bubba; I can't tell the difference between the two) and K picked Minnie Mouse. I always get stuck diggin out the guts. Once the kids get old enough, I'll pass that job onto them. Daddy did all the carving. Then I rubbed them all down with Vaseline; supposedly that will help them not decay as fast. That was GROSS! We didn't get done until almost 11 that night so the kids didn't even see them til the next morning. I think they turned out really good! It was fun but very messy.

So here are "their" pumpkin creations.

Why have we been so busy?

I honestly don't know. It's not like we have had a lot of extra/unusual things going on. We did have missions conference this past weekend. But we only went Friday night and there wasn't even an international dinner this year (what is a mission's conference without a meal????) So I can't blame it all on that.

The 2 weeks immediately following Disney, I had extra kids 2 days in a row. That makes for 2 busy weeks. I also had my blood drawn for a check up (my bad cholesterol is high-fun stuff) and I had a filling done last week. That was THE WORST FILLING EVER! No wonder I always cancel those appointments for 18 months in a row!

Last Thursday a friend (the mom of my Tuesday kids) and her 3 kids and me and my 2 kids (was that a run-on?) went to an indoor playground way up north of Indy. It took us about 40 minutes to get there. But it was so worth it. We were there for 3 hours. The kids got to play and we all ate lunch together. C still ended up doing an entire day of school that day. He did most in the car (we got to drive Daddy's cute new little car). He did very good.

Otherwise, I really don't know what we have been doing. Trying to keep up with the house, laundry, dishes, football............... So I've determined I'm going to try to be more productive. I don't know when, but I"m going to try.

This past Saturday we did get some shopping done. I needed hose/nylons/those horrid college thingys for winter. I never wear them in summer, but winter sometimes requires them. We are also looking for sneakers for both kids (can't find any) and Daddy needed new winter gloves.

Yesterday I got A LOT cleaned out of the garage. I'm tired of storing garage sale stuff and then making little/no money at the garage sale that I worked so hard on. So most of it went to Goodwill. I also had to rearrange some stuff to find a place to store the pool (18 feet around by 4 feet deep-just a little one) that we got from Jon&Teena (C wanted to know when we were going to set it up. It's a little cold don't you think?) I also started fixing one of our dining chairs that has been sitting in the garage for a long time. I asked my neighbor for some help and he is going to finish it hopefully tomorrow.

Last night Daddy and I spent 4 hours working on.........................check out the next post. Today I'm determined to get some Disney blogging done. Tomorrow I would like to start (that's the key word) organizing my scrapbooking stuff. I have also been busy doing some online Christmas shopping (I've found some AWESOME DEALS! Check out http://www.mysweetsavings.com/ She always has some awesome deals)

This week I have 2 different sets of kids 2 different days (did you follow that?) Saturday night we will do our new tradition for Halloween. Wednesday night for AWANA K is supposed to dress up as an animal. Check back for those pix. We still haven't finished our fence staining (on our list for whenever we have a few days without rain). Thank heavens for Green Socks who put up our swing set or that would still be in the garage too. (Oh I guess I need to blog about that too, huh?)

Oh and K got a big girl bed (frame/headboard), but no new mattress. We just put her crib mattress on top. Hopefully we will get her a new mattress this weekend. Then I will take some pictures and blog about it.

And I forgot to mention that C's children's choir sang in church a few Sunday's ago. Daddy videoed it but didn't get any pictures. In the class for this choir they had been collecting quarters for Bibles. They collected enough money for 49 Bibles to send to missionaries. That's 49 Bibles at $5 each! Good for them!

So that's been my life. In a very large nutshell/post. Now I will attempt to finish my Disney blogging--after tomorrow's post.

Here are a few pictures of the indoor playground that we went to last week.

I promise.............

................ to finish my Disney blogging. Life happens and ours has seemed busy lately. The next few days will be some catch up posts and hopefully by the end of the week I will finish Disney. It's driving me nuts and I'm sure you are worried cuz we are still stuck at Epcot (do you still remember what it stands for?) Check back tomorrow!

Epcot-Thursday

Anyone know what EPCOT means? Here is your piece of "useless information" for the day. It stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Now you are a better person for knowing.

I think Epcot is one of my favorite parks; but only the World Showcase part. I love looking at all the countries and would love to try all the different foods. We were there during the International Wine and Food Festival this year. They had extra food booths from extra countries set up. Unfortunately we didn't get to try any of them. I would love to go again during that time and try some of those foods.

We did do the Test Track that is in the Future World section of Epcot. But that's all we did there. The rest of our time was spent in the World Showcase.

Test Track is a pretty cool ride. Once again, K was not tall enough (I still think she could have ridden it). C rode it twice. The first time was C, Daddy, Papa, and me. Grandma entertained K. We didn't have a wait at all. The second time I enteretained and Grandma went with the boys. They had a little wait this time, but still not bad. C loved it! It simulates what a new car is put through before it becomes mass-manufactured. There are bumps, heat, cold, fast turns, fast stops, and speed. It's really cool. In the waiting room/show room there are numerous GM vehicles that the kids can climb all over. K had a blast climbing in those cars and pretending. Good idea GM.

After the ride, we headed over to the World Showcase. So awesome. C has been learning about different countries in school so I thought he would really like to see all this too.

Animal Kingdom-Wednesday

Blogger is being dumb again and not letting me move pictures! So frustrating! On the dino ride. Aren't her little dimples cute?

Sorry it's not rotated. Turn your head; I think it's a cute picture. :)

I thought it was so funny how these "apes?" were sleeping--with their butts up against the window. It's almost like they knew we were out there and this is all they wanted us to see.

K was fascinated with this tree. I think they called it an upside down tree.

The Mount Everest ride.

The tree of life. Can you pick out any of the animals on there?

Mary Poppins at the electrical parade in Magic Kingdom.

Wednesday morning we went to Animal Kingdom. Early that evening we went into Magic Kingdom. We were there mainly for the electrical parade and the fireworks.

But first to Animal Kingdom. The main thing that we wanted to do was the African safari. Honestly, there wasn't much we really wanted to do at Animal Kingdom. If we were ever to go back, there are things that we missed that we would do but those things weren't "earth shattering" that we missed them this time. Once we got in the gates, Daddy ran ahead and got a FastPass for the safari. Then he ran to the Mount Everest ride to get a FastPass.

The safari was interesting and we did get to see some animals. Some seemed up close, like the giraffe, but some we could barely see, like the lions. There was a rhino that crossed the road behind us and held up the vehicle behind us.

We went to DinoLand for the kids and rode The TriceraTop Spin which is a "Dumbo-like" ride. DinoLand is a fair midway part of Animal Kingdom. The kids liked it. While they rode the dino ride again with the grandparents, Daddy and I went onto Expedition Everest.

Daddy and I rode the Mount Everest ride which is another one of Disney's attempts at a roller coaster. Since we didn't have to wait we didn't get to see all the "stuff" that is throughout the waiting area. As Disney always does, it looked pretty authentic. There were no loops or twists in this ride, but it is in the dark and goes backwards so you can't see where you are going. It was a good ride but really short.

The best thing at Animal Kingdom was Camp Mickey and Minnie. There were MANY characters there for autographs and pictures. They lines weren't overly long either. I think we saw 6 characters at Animal Kingdom.

As we were leaving we stopped to admire the Tree of Life. Supposedly there is path around the tree that takes you up close to admire all the animals. We never did find that path. There is also a 3D adventure inside the tree that we didn't do this time, but will schedule for next trip.

After Animal Kingdom, we took a bus over to the Magic Kingdom. We took pictures of Cinderella's Castle, ate at Tony's, did some shopping in a huge store, and staked out our spots for the parade. We had our spots about 90 minutes before it started and I am so glad we got there that early. We had FRONT ROW SEATS! Some of the characters actually shook our hands and of course the kids thought that was THE BEST. The kids had watched Mary Poppins just a few days before we left. Mary Poppins shook our hands! After the parade, we stayed put and watched the fireworks. I would say we didn't have the best seats for the fireworks, but they were still good. The kids really liked those too. Side note: this is a pat on the back for me but since I'm the one blogging, I'll brag on myself. I had bought a pack of 10 glow sticks at Wal Mart for less than $4 to take with us to Disney. As we were waiting for the parade, I passed them out. It helped to keep the kids entertained and we didn't have to pay the very expensive prices for the ones that Disney was selling.