puffy cheeks

My sister told me to tell my children that I know when they are lying because their cheeks puff out. So now when they begin to tell a big fib they try to hold their cheeks or suck them in or just become very self conscious of their cheeks. She's a genius.

You can watch this old video of Jane. She is trying to convince me that her teacher wants me to buy her new play dough. It really doesn't matter what she is saying, just watch her struggle to get it out.

Liar, liar, pants on fire.

St. Patty

Word

peace

All dressed up for school on Friday. Worth a picture

mean mom

This happens to be a crowd favorite so I thought I would share it with all of you. The story begins when Maggie was not being kind and I scolded her and put her on time out. She didn't walk to time out. She walked to the front room and started playing the piano. It took me a while to hear what she was saying and grab the camera. I really did miss most of the mean scolding she was giving me. She sang a lot of "my mom is so mean" phrases. I think the song ended because she noticed I was there. Turn up your computer to hear the ending. This is a typical Maggie moment.

Enjoy!

Toothless

Charlie is at the stage when the teeth fall out and his mouth isn't quite big enough to fit the incoming big ones. It deserves a post. And so does this assigment that he brought home.
I told him that it made me laugh and he said, "yeah my teacher said it was a good one."

Perfect Ending

I came across this picture which happened on our trip. It was one of my favorite moments. They had been in bed for all of 5 minutes. Of course I had to share it.

The Magic of the Kingdom

Here are our final vaca photos . We had a great trip together and the weather was so nice that we stayed an extra day just to swim in our pool. This is a picture of our kids with our friends that ended up going down to Florida also.

The Browns. We love em.
Mike and Charlie

Maggie and Jane

Charlie trying to appear miserable

Jane & Mags

Jane, Charlie & Mags

Here we can talk about the joys of a wish list. It's great because my children aren't begging for things all of the time but there is still the constant question of "hey mom, can I put this on my wish list." I always say yes and they always seem to get excited about it.

Minnie, Jane, Maggie, Mickey & Charlie

Whole Clan

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was great but I didn't get many photos there either. Highlights were the Safari ride, the wild rapids ride which Maggie was able to do, she got soaked, and of course Charlie's favorite.... Mt. Everest. We capped the day off with dinner at Rain Forest Cafe.

Character Crazed

We have many highlights from our trip but some of the extra fun was that our neighbors were down in Florida when we were and so we were able to join up with them for two of our days. I didn't take my camera along but was able to get a few shots on my phone. Sadly I seemed to miss any pictures of Miss LeighAnne. And most of this post exclude Charlie too. He was way too cool to stop and take pictures with the characters. Woody, Mike, Kimber, Jessie, Mr. Bill, Jane, Maggie &William

Rabbit, Jane, Maggie & Alice in Wonderland




Jane, Chip, Dale & Maggie




Handy Many, William, Maggie & Jane









I happen to love this video of Jane, Maggie and William watching the Beauty and Beast play. It captures why it's so fun to take your kids to Disney.

Family Fun

We decided to take advantage of a little school break in January and drove down to Florida to live it up. One of our stops was Sea World. This is my husbands magical world. He always told me that if he didn't have a family he would be a marine biologist. He loves the ocean and animals in it. Shamu.

And if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you'll find Mike in a big yellow slicker and Charlie in a red shirt. They went for the splash zone. The girls and I were not so adventurous.
Charlie, Jane & Maggie



Mike signed us up for a little one on one with the dolphins.

We were able to hit Sea World on two different days. The weather was perfect. We loved the shows. We ate dinner with the sharks. They had some great rides that we had to miss out on because Charlie wasn't quite tall enough.

Birthday Boy

Mike had a birthday shout hooray!
His birthday hit on our drive home from Florida. He was a good sport since we didn't have a single present to hand him. Our sweet friends the Browns had cupcakes sent to our hotel where we stopped in North Carolina. That was really the only celebration he received.
We left Mike in NC where he spent the rest of his week working at the Army base.

This is our family celebration last night when he was finally able to join us. We have missed him a lot. He has been gone every week for months. We love him and enjoy having him home. I'm so grateful for a kind and considerate husband. He works hard and does his best to spend time with his family.

Happy Birthday Babe!