Just Not Right

Remember the tooth? The one that has been hanging at disturbing angles for weeks.

Over and over again I have been thinking this tooth would finally come out.










Even after Grandpa tried yanking it on vacation














It FINALLY came out last night.

I should be saying Yippee!

BUT...

Alas, my camera is still at church.

Oh well, I guess the tooth fairy will have to photograph the tooth AFTER it is picked up.

And my little boy really does look ALL GROWN UP!

Weekend Top Five 3/30/09

So I had some great pictures top go with my Top Five this week. Unfortunately, my camera got left on the shelf at church so it will be picture less this week. Maybe I'll share them with you later this week.

It got REALLY cold Saturday night and into Sunday. The "beautiful" snowfall that gets me excited in November is the SAME snowfall that I want to shout curses at in March. So when the slushy, heavy stuff was coming down Sunday morning, it was a little challenging to be cheerful.

5. Noah's Speed Stacks

Noah had a perfect week at school last week and came home with an award from his teacher. But more importantly for him, he finally earned the speed stacks that I got for him a couple of months ago. I told him he couldn't have them until he had a perfect week, with no tigers out all week. He spent the entire weekend performing the 3-6-3 and the 1-10-1 for us. Once again, I had some AWESOME pictures to go with this point...oh well.










4. Go Fish Concert
If you haven't heard of this group, I strongly recommend them for car tunes. This is a group whose sole mission was to "create music that won't drive parents nuts" and their music is very wonderful harmonically, great melodies, pretty loud and crazy, and spiritually based. Some of our favorite songs are "The Mom Song", "Get Your Jammies on" and "The Bible Book Bop". Noah has been listening to "Snazzy" on his MP3 player even since he got it for Christmas and when he took the player to school for show and tell, the whole class boogied to that and another one the songs "American Kid". If you click on any of the titles, I have included the links to You Tube performances. You HAVE to listen to The Mom Song. It is awesome!

Anyway, Steve heard that they were performing a benefit concert in Holland Friday night so we went out. It was very cool. It was basically a gymnasium, where the concert was set up but there was a big open space where the kids spent two hours pretty much rocking it out. They had a blast and it was fun to give them the opportunity to just go crazy.

3. Children's Museum

Yup, we went again on Saturday. After Noah (yes, Noah) took a nap on Saturday, we went to the museum for just about an hour until it closed. The boys once again had a great time playing on the "Blue Man Group" instruments.








2. Noah's Solo

It was our last Cherub Choir performance of the year on Sunday. I had been rehearsing "The Butterfly Song" with the kids all year since every single kid in choir had a solo in it. This past Wednesday, a couple of kids started chickening out and Noah stepped and did their solos too. It is amazing to me how a little boy with such an amazing vibrato can put up such a fight to actually use that instrument of his. People kept coming up to him afterward telling him what a great job he did, and he got a little embarrassed.

I did however discover that one of my parents put the video of them singing on You Tube. If you want to see 2:12 of cuteness, including Noah singing solo on wiggly worm and crocodile, click here. I put it on my facebook page as well.

1. Noah's Book

I just realized how "Noah heavy" this post is. I will have to make it up to Aaron soon.

Anyway, several weeks ago Noah was supposed to bring home a BIG bag full of writing supplies and create a book. It turned into such a huge hassle and the book never got done. So in Noah's Friday folder,was a "nice" note about the teacher needing the book completed and returned to school on Monday.

So we spent most of the weekend working on it. We actually had some pretty big battles while we were working on it, since he was determined to create it in ways not fulfilling the teacher's requirements.

When it was finally completed, it turned out really cute. I will once again post pictures when I get my camera back.

The week ahead:
Not much happening this week. My big plan is to do some more research into school options for Aaron for next year. I have two school districts that I need to contact about "school of choice"
options and whether they have Young Fives programs or not. No school on Friday for the beginning of Spring Break. Not sure what Spring Break holds yet. Hopefully I will find out soon when little league will start and then we may be able to make an overnight trip possible.

Please let me know if you posted about the weekend and link below. I do have a couple more vacation posts, but in general, I am back to normal.

Have a great week!

Saturday Review: Minty Refreshment

I have become a slacker blogger. While packing for vacation, I received the new LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE Anticavity Mouthwash to review. I packed it into my suitcase, planning to take it with me and use it during the vacation, and write my review when I got home.

Shame on me...I got going with all of my vacation posts and neglected to tell you how much I used this product. I used it every night after brushing. I have not normally been a big user of mouthwash, but I was intrigued to try it for several reasons:
1. Noah has been using a "plaque identifying" pre-wash for awhile and I thought I should be getting myself into a similar habit
2. I have been having some major tooth pain and I need to see a dentist soon regarding the problem.

So when I was contacted by Mom Central to review this produce, I was thrilled with the opportunity. Her are the major benefits of this new product:

LISTERINE® TOTAL CARE,Anticavity Fluoride Mouthwash, now available, is the only fluoride mouthwash that contains six benefits in one:

· Helping to prevent cavities
· Restoring enamel
· Strengthening teeth
· Killing bad breath germs
· Freshening breath
· Fighting unsightly plaque above the gum line

I was drawn by the claim to "restoring enamel". If this was indeed true, I could prevent any further damage until I get to the dentist to get my problems taken care.

While using it, you can definitely tell that it is working. It kind of stung a little the first couple of times, but I think it is because there was such a mass of germs that needed to be attacked. Each day got little better and I LOVED how clean my mouth felt afterward.

So I definitely think this product is a good purchase, and I plan to continue it's use in the future.
This post was written on behalf of Mom Central



p.s. I will let you know how the dentist thing turns out as soon as I gather the courage to go :)

Friday Photo Story: Our Marathon Day at Magic Kingdom

After a long week of "vacationing", there were still quite a few rides at the Magic Kingdom that we had wanted to experience with the kids but had not had a chance to. So, like you read about here, we had a character dinner with my family scheduled on Friday, our last day at 4:00. We were planning to go to dinner and then hang around the park for the rest of the night to watch the night parade and fireworks.

Steve and I decided that since it was our last day, we would make it count and do a marathon day, from the time the park opened until after the fireworks ended at night.

We knew it was going to be a long and exhausting day, but we are SO glad that we chose to do it. It was the most fun day we had in the parks by far. There were lots of things that we didn't even know about that we got to experience since we got there at opening.

We started out bright and early at 7:00, hoping to get to the parks before it actually opened at 9:00. We got into the outside gate around 8:15 and waited among the crowds (remember this picture from Wednesday?).

The first surprise came at about five minutes to 9. A "welcome show" was held right outside the entrance and all of the characters arrived by train to open the park. It was exciting...you could feel the energy. I didn't get any pictures because we were looking right into the sun, but we did get some video of it. Noah passed some time by taking silly pictures of Steve with my camera.



















When we first walked into the park, we headed right to the "lands" that we wanted to do.

The first thing we came to was Aladdin's Magic Carpet. No line! Cool!

The boys and I jumped right on while Steve went to get fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.








After riding it once, the ride operator told us we could go again if we wanted since there were no people. After two more times, Steve came back, got on and we went yet one MORE time.














Hyped up from our good luck, we headed to Pirates of the Carri bean. Again, NO WAIT. Walked right through and onto a boat. We were even more amazed when we discovered the operator of the ride was a student at the school my taught at before he retired. What a small world! Although the ride was dark and eerie, the kids handled it quite well and we were off to more stuff.





We moved on to Splash Mountain (again, no wait) but as we loaded, the ride broke down and we had to get off...first broken ride of the day.

So off to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Our fastpass was for 10:15 and it was 10:00 with a five minute wait. Let's go ahead and go...

Here came our first glimpse of the day of Noah's "demons" from the Everest ride two days previous (which I mentioned in this post). The kid who LOVED every roller coaster he had ever been on in his life, started crying uncontrollably because he was so scared to go on the ride. Steve and I struggled between one of us taking Aaron and the other sitting off with Noah or just biting the bullet and doing it.

Yup, the bad parents that we are, we just moved him along. I kind of felt that if he was going to get over this issue, we needed to just do it. The part that he was scared of was because that DARN Yeti jumped out at him. It took a lot of convincing that nothing would jump out at him on this ride.

We got through it one time and our fastpass was ready so we just turned around and rode it again. I still can't believe we were able to ride that ride TWICE in a row.

So off we headed to Haunted Mansion. Once again, NO WAIT. We walked right in again.

Noah had recuperated a little from his "trauma" and we loaded into the cars. The spooky music kind of freaked them both out a little but they were fine...
UNTIL..
Oh yes, yet another ride broke down. And where should it break down? The spooky graveyard with loud creepy music and ghosts continually popping out at them from behind gravestones. We sat there for a good 8 or 9 minutes before we went again. No one was interested in doing this one again.


So it was now around 11:00 and we had done most of the rides we had wanted to tackle the entire day. So we headed to Dumbo and waited in a line (still only 30 minutes) and checked that ride off the list.



















We did actually get back to Splash Mountain, where Noah started in on his minor panic attack again, but he got over it when we told him to just watch the story of Brer Rabbit which we had read at home. Once again, the ride was still not quite working properly, and there were major "log jams" and we kept ramming into the logs in front of us while the ones behind us kept ramming into us. The good thing was that I didn't get wet, which was good because everyone else was coming off it soaked and I really didn't feel like being wet for the rest of the evening.

Then it was off to re-ride Space Ranger Spin, which had been the favorite on Monday. My score, sad to say, did NOT improve. I still don't understand how Aaron can get 1000 points, Noah can get 1400 points, I can get 4000 points and my STINKER of a husband can get 50,000 POINTS.














While over there, we took in the people mover through Space Mountain and the Monsters, Inc. Show (which was very funny).



















We stopped to eat our sandwiches we had brought for lunch and were starting to get tired so we headed up to ride a few spins around the park on the railroad. By that point, it was time to start gathering for the afternoon parade, and then head over to dinner with the family.














We also were caught by surprise by a neat character show right out front of the castle that even included it's own little firework show. Aaron was talking about seeing "the REAL Peter Pan" for days afterward.














After dinner, we needed to actually WAIT for rides since the fastpasses were gone, but we didn't mind. We made it to the jungle cruise, where Aaron was invited to drive the boat for a little while














I thought it was kind of neat that every time there was a crowd waiting for a parade, a Disney "cast member" would put out fun activities in the streets for kids to do. Noah is quite the hula hooper!














Are you exhausted reading this? I am again just writing about it. But it really was a good thing that we did it. I was glad we did it on the last day so that the "grumpies" from being tired the next day were spent in the car on the ride toward home.

My T13 for next week will be the images from the evening from this long and eventful day. But for now, I need to go take a shower, get dressed, and take Aaron to the park.

Have a great Friday!

Dinner With Pooh and Friends

My brother and SIL were generous to treat our entire group (11 of us in total) to a character dinner at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom on our last night of vacation.


Yup, we do stand out a little all in red







The four of us had been in the park since it had opened that morning, so we were a little more grumpy than we should have been when we first arrived, but luckily, the spirit and joy returned pretty quickly when:
A. We got a look at he amazing spread of food at the buffet
B. You just can't be grumpy when Tigger is bouncing around
C. How excited the boys were to see their cousins again

After getting our group settled between two tables, we took turns heading to the buffet for food for children and ourselves.
Noah was still on his eating freeze because of the dumb tooth (that STILL wont come out) but was thrilled to head over to the dessert bar with my dad and pile his bowl full of ice cream and sprinkles.









We were honored to be visited by Pooh



















Piglet














Eeyore



















and Tigger, who definitely had the most personality of the characters. My niece and nephew had autograph books for the characters to sign and Tigger got creative in signing by using Aaron's head for a desk














and then Aaron reverted into his silliness and started his "poking" problem again, to which Tigger,(just like Lilo earlier that week) made it clear that poking WAS NOT okay. I really liked how the characters could get their needs met while still staying in character and being kind to overzealous children (aka Aaron)














Noah opted to "play it cool" with a high five, rather than the typical character hug



















It was a nice way to spend our last meal together and two weeks later, the boys are STILL talking about the ice cream with sprinkles that grandpa got them.

I know they don't read this blog anymore, but a big Thank You to my brother and SIL who treated us to this special dinner anyway. We appreciate you including us.

Have a great day everyone!

Mini Golfing on Vacation

On the second full day of our vacation (Tuesday), my brother's family had planned a trip to Gatorland so we decided to see what we could find to do around Orlando.

After being up all night with Noah running a high fever, I was wondering if we were even going to be leaving the "condor" (See yesterday's post).

Luckily, he woke up feeling much better so we decided to see if we could find a mini-golf place in the area that would be reasonably priced.

Usually we take the boys mini-golfing on Father's Day each year and Aaron isn't very interested in actually golfing. In addition, Steve is usually grumpy when he starts playing badly, so I wasn't sure how the activity would go.
We found one called Pirate's Cove. I had decided not to play since I figured Aaron would lose interest after awhile. In order to battle Steve's "score issue" we decided to not keep score at all. Instead, we would just celebrate if anyone got a hole in one.

So we got started. It was a fun course based on the story of Captain Kidd. There was a beautiful waterfall right in the middle and we got to both go over it and through it, getting a little wet each time, much to the boys' delight.


Even though Aaron did stay in the game pretty well, he did have his moments.

At one point, he realized it was easier to swipe at unsuspecting bugs than it was to hit a ball. Too funny!








Noah was the most excited as we were finishing our last hole and he saw a REAL LIVE LIZARD sitting on a post. To many of you, this would seem like a silly thing to be excited about, but to us Michiganders, this was an unusual sight.

Noah was sad that we couldn't put it in a box and bring it home, but I convinced him that it wouldn't be nice to take him away from his family.











It was a fun morning excursion and after a quick trip to a fast food restaurant for lunch (where Noah finally ate something) we were back to the condor for naps all around before a night on the town. (Disney downtown, that is)

Have a great weekend. Please come back on Monday and join in on my own personal meme, Weekend Top Five.

Animal Kingdom: Not So Regal

Note: This post was schedules to auto-post next week. But in honor of Courtney, who leaves for Orlando tonight, I want to share it early. Sorry for two posts in one day...it just seemed important to get the word out.


Just in case you've been reading all of these vacation posts thinking,"Okay, so I get it already. You had a great time and you just want to keep bragging", then this will be the post for you.

Not everything about our vacation was hunky, dory. There were definitely some moments that were not what dreams were made of.

One of these was the day we went to Animal Kingdom.



I had been warned by MANY people before we went to not go to Animal Kingdom. I had been told that the layout was very challenging and that there wasn't as much to do there as other parks.

We didn't listen to the advice for several reasons:
A. The Lion King show looked really neat
B. My brother and SIL went last time and loved it
C. Noah wanted to ride the Yeti ride (Expedition Everest)
D. I really thought that it had to be great, just because it was part of Disney World
E. I thought the kids would have a blast in the "Big Boneyard"
F. The Kilimanjaro Safari was said to be amazing
G. I thought the River Rapids would be fun

Let's take these one at a time, shall we?

A. The Lion King Show really WAS neat...the only thing that lived up to the hype. Very cool show!














B. I think we ALL agreed that the experience of Walt Disney World 8 years ago without young children was very different than the one we had this time around

C. After seeing in a book we had about this ride, Noah was determined to go on it. The fastpasses for the ride were all gone by noon so in order to ride it, they would have to wait 95 minutes, which he and Steve did right after lunch. After the ride, he seemed prettyy excited, even though he said he definitely would NEVER go on it again because it was so scary when the Yeti jumped out at him.

We didn't know how bad it was until two days later in Magic Kingdom when Noah started crying before EVERY roller coaster, still freaked out over Everest. He was actually hyperventilating while we were in line for Splash Mountain.

Even after we got home, he had nightmares for several nights, saying a Yeti was chasing him.

PLEASE USE CAUTION if you choose to take your child on this ride, especially if he is sensitive like my Noah.




D. Brand labeling is never a good thing.

E. Since we had about two hours to wander while Steve and Noah were waiting to go on the Yeti ride, Aaron and I went on a kiddie ride similar to Dumbo with my SIL and niece and nephew. That was fun but then we separated and I thought it was a perfect time to let Aaron play in the Boneyard.

It wasn't a digging place at all, but a big huge play area. It actually was very neat, as soon as Aaron lost me a few times and figured out his way back to find where I was. I actually would have let him stay much longer had I not been worried about him overheating or getting sunburned.




F. The Safari was the only thing we got a fastpass for all day. Thankfully we didn't have to wait before boarding and we all were able to sit together for the trek. There were quite a few animals that we were able to see and it was neat to see them in a more natural habitat than in some zoos we have been too.

The most memorable thing for me was a friendly giraffe that took to following our vehicle. It tailed us for quite awhile and I was as disappointed as the kids when we got too far ahead of it to see it anymore.










G. After waiting for the Yeti ride for almost two hours, we got to the line for the rapids ride (which fastpasses had again run out hours before) and it was an hour and a half wait again. At that point I turned to Noah and asked him, "Noah, do you want to wait for another cool ride as long as that last wait or do you want to go back to the condor and go swimming?" We were on the road fifteen minutes later, not even waiting to watch the parade that would begin in another fifteen minutes.

So, are you wondering if anything good came out the trip to Animal Kingdom?

The answer is yes.

I felt bad for Aaron being stuck in the stroller so I let him use some of his Disney Dollars to buy a water sprayer...$16 for a $3 water bottle, but he was so thrilled with it that it kept him amused for a very long time.



















All of the kids enjoyed playing the many African drums



Yes, my hubby, the big kid loved it too!


Noah and Steve making rhythms together







I was also able to get a cute picture of the four cousins that will definitely be framed















The kids did actually get to visit with a couple of characters from The Jungle Book. They were the only autographs we got the whole week, due to either forgetting the books or the long lines to meet characters.














So yes, there were a few good points, but probably not enough to make me want to visit Animal Kingdom again. If you have a hopper pass and can pop in and visit the Lion King show, I suggest you do it, but I would not suggest wasting an entire day there if you can only do one park a day, like we could.

If you have had similar experiences with Animal Kingdom, I would love to hear it. My BIL and his family went to this park when their kids were little and had such a horrible time, they got their money back. That was several years ago and we had assumed that it couldn't possibly be like that.

As a matter of fact, while my SIL and I were relaxing in the condor's hot tub that night, waves of people came and went and all expressed similar stories of their experiences that day. Sometimes it's nice to know that you weren't alone when you feel things aren't what you had hoped.

I hope you are all enjoying these trips down memory lane. I am really writing this stuff down for my own sake so I will have a picture diary of our vacation for years to come. I appreciate you all coming along for the ride.

Have a great day!

The "Condor"

Are you thinking of a bird?

Well, guess again.

For some reason, Aaron heard "condor" each time we mentioned the condo that we were going to stay in during our vacation. At first, Noah was being kind of mean and trying to correct him each time he said it. After awhile though, we convinced him that it was actually cute, and we all started calling it "our condor".

The condor was quite nice. It is a condo resort about five miles from the Disney parks. Each condo is individually owned and we paid less for a two bedroom two bath condor than we did for three days of Disney passes.

The pool was great. The perfect depth (between three and three and half feet for the majority of it) and this was the first vacation where we could take both boys and let them swim around without being held. That was a HUGE milestone for us and made going to the pool much more fun than ever in the past. I am so thankful that the boys have several years of swimming lessons under their belts now.
Aaron spent most of the time jumping off the side of the pool into the water.


I wish I had a pictures of him trying to "catch" his three year old cousin. It was funny that they both believed he could do it, but not so funny when they bonked...his head, her nose.












ON our last visit to a hotel pool (I don't even remember when) Noah had lost his goggles and he hadn't gone swimming since then. I was worried because he REFUSED to go into the water last summer without them.

I got some diving rings to bring and by the second day, he was going under and getting them without any complaint. I am hoping that means we ware finally over that hurdle for swimming lessons this year.



After that, he was content to swim all over the place. I even found him treading water over his head while he was playing ball with Steve and my FIL.

Our condor also had a playground. The playground was actually two blocks away from our condor, so we only visited it twice, but the kids still had a good time.

The sand box around the playground was really soft fine sand that my SIL and I both wished we could bring back with us.

Here is Noah with his cousin.










The playground also had a big castle to run around and climb up

















and teeter totters that we banned the boys from after the first visit, since they were so wobbly.












Noah was fascinated by some of the flora around our condor since we didn't have those kind of plants in Michigan.

I never did get a picture of the palm trees :(









After playing in the heat, we were all ready to head back to the condor...


My brother and SIL carried their two oldest
















and Noah took over the duty of pushing his youngest cousin in the stroller, with Aaron "helping" nearby .











I do recommend the Windsor Hills Resort if you are taking a family trip. The price was extremely reasonable and we had so much more room than if we had gotten a regular hotel. If you go to the website and plug in the dates you will be there, you will receive emails back from all of the people whose condos are available that week. Then, you can pick the one you want to use. I think I had at least 30 emails to pick from.

The boys' bedroom was designed in a Disney theme and there was a washer and dryer in the unit, as well as utensils, cleaning supplies, and pretty much everything else we needed, including an extra stroller (since we didn't think we would need two from home, but we did).

I can't believe the week is done and I have only posted two events of our vacation.

Vacation Posts still to come...
MAJOR battle with the in-laws one morning
The Disney park that we will NEVER return to
Major country event that I missed capturing on film
All day park marathon
Silly and embarrassing pictures
Personal thoughts about vacation in general and how it can affect one's psyche

Have a great Thursday.

Wordless Wednesday: How We Found Our Stroller in the Crowds

It was a great suggestion I read in a book.

It floated out of the car somewhere in Tennessee on the way home and Aaron cried for about fifteen minutes.

Monday: Adventures in Free Parking, Lost Tickets and A Sick Boy

...continued from yesterday.

After we left the character breakfast at the Polynesian, it was time to begin our Magic Kingdom Adventure. We knew we had two days in the Magic Kingdom so we didn't feel too stressed about seeing or doing everything.

We had to drive away from the resort to get to the park. Somehow, we MISSED the entrance the second time around and didn't get a chance to pay for parking (OOPS) We mentioned it to the parking attendant who led us to our spot but he just kept waving us through. Feeling great about saving $12 on parking, we packed up the strollers, slathered on the sunscreen and headed to the terminal to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. After getting all the way there, I looked into my purse to get everything for the park.
Lo and Behold the tickets are NOT in my purse!
So, leaving the boys with Daddy at the terminal, I waited to catch yet ANOTHER tram back to the car, praying that the tickets are there. Meanwhile, my MIL is calling every two minutes wanting to know why we weren't in the park with them yet.
Luckily, the tickets were laying on the seat and I was on my way back. By the time I got back to the boys, Steve had found out that in order to "cash in" on the birthday rewards in the park, he would have to wait in yet ANOTHER hour long line. The kids handled this delay so well that we were shocked, and Steve decided to forget it, let's head to the park. He did go back later while we were in line for something else, and found out that the gift card could be used any time that week.

Boys looking down at Small World

By the time we finally entered Magic Kingdom, it was around 11:00. My MIL was continuing to call and nag me to find them. We started hiking it to Tomorrowland, and as we were walking down Main Street, a parade came right toward us and pushed us off to the side. I can honestly say that was the first time I literally RAN INTO a parade as I was walking down a street. At the time I couldn't even find my camera since we were in such a hurry at the time to stop my MIL's calls, so I got pictures on my phone, which I have no idea how to transfer (Deb?).
We DID finally meet up with them at Space Ranger Spin and enjoyed a few rides. We then headed to Fantasyland. Pretty much all fastpasses were gone for the day so any rides we were going to do would require long waits. Now is my chance to say: Every time for the rest of my life that I get mad at my children for being restless, I just need to remember how well behaved they were this, and all three days of waiting in the parks. Never once the entire day did my children complain about being hot (It was NINETY ONE degrees that day!), hungry, tired, or waiting in line. They were awesome. Even the in-laws were impressed.

We made it to several things before we left, mostly the kiddie rides, but we really did enjoy them all. Our favorite by far for that day was the 3D show Philharmagic.



We took advantage of the lines to take the boys to the bathroom. During the last wait of the day, (Peter Pan), Aaron started arguing about going to the bathroom. I said to him, "Aaron, if you don't go, you're going to have an accident" to which he replied without missing a beat "I already did."
After we stopped for ice cream, Noah pepped up a little, even though I had to throw the shirt in the garbage that night from the chocolate stains

We then went to Steve's parents' condo for spaghetti birthday dinner and it was at that point that Noah was BEGGING to go to bed and wasn't really looking so great. He didn't even fight with me about not getting souvenirs at the park that day, which is the only thing he had talked about for weeks building up to the trip.
By the time we got back to our condo, I borrowed my SIL's thermometer (they were in a condo nearby) and Noah 's temp was 103.5 degrees. Poor kid! He fell right to sleep, burning up. I stayed with him that whole night, giving him Tylenol and Motrin throughout.

You'll have to stay tuned tomorrow to find out if Noah ever started feeling better...

First Morning and a Breakfast with Character

ard
After two full days of driving, we went to bed Sunday night in our condo looking forward to beginning our vacation with a bang.

Monday morning was Steve's birthday so Steve's parents who were also down at the same time wanted to spend his birthday with him. They treated us to a character breakfast at the Polynesian Resort.

We were supposed to meet at the resort at 8:30 to check in for the 9:15 breakfast. Since we were up early anyway, we decided to head over early and see if we could get a quick trip around the park on the monorail. (We didn't know that we were in for A LOT of monorails before the week was over!)
We got to the resort at 8:00 and went to ride.

Since the monorail was empty and it was early in the morning, we were invited to be "assistant engineers". We stepped right into the front by the driver and posed for our first of MANY "brother shots".


They were very excited to be able to see right out the front...




until it started moving.
Then, Aaron got a little freaked out and ran to hide in my arms for the remainder of the trip.





At the time we were worried that this was going to be Aaron's reaction to everything at "The World"




As I will share later, that worry vanished very quickly.

So after our quick spin around, it was time to head into the Polynesian to be seated for our breakfast. We were each given leis to get into the Ohana spirit, which the boys quickly shed as soon as they could. Mine remained in the stroller the rest of the week.

Steve was excited to get a birthday card from the characters at the breakfast.

















Aaron was a bit grumpy for a large part of it and we chalked it up to nerves. Noah also was acting a bit under the weather and it was the first time of many throughout the day that he was starting to run a FEVER. I ended up leaving the breakfast table to run to the gift shop to get him some chewable Tylenol, which he took at regular intervals the entire day.

I will continue on THAT story another post.
But the characters were still a hit. It seemed that each time we started eating (or getting a child to eat) a character was appearing, tapping the boys on the head as a greeting.










Our breakfast for the morning was served "family style" which meant that a big tray of food was delivered to the table and we took what we wanted. When it was empty, they would bring more on request. It was a very different kind of dining experience.

The boys were visited by...




Mickey
















Pluto














Lilo



















and Stitch.









For some reason, along the way, Aaron picked up a strange habit of poking the characters. The characters each handled it a little differently, but the best was Lilo poking Aaron right back!










Also included in the breakfast was a parade for the children with characters around the restaurant.


Aaron did not participate. Instead, he sat at the table crying because the characters wouldn't pick him up and carry him around. Did I mention that he was having a grumpy morning?





After the breakfast, we were off to our first morning in Magic Kingdom.

I'll share more about that later. I will also be sharing about the other character meal that we were generously treated to later this week.

Have a great Tuesday.

Weekend Top Five- Two Weekends in the Car

Yup, we're home. After a large amount of deleting, I am left with about 350 pictures to sort. You are going to be subjected to vacation pictures for some time.

Remember the St. Louis blog marathon after my vacation last year? This is likely to be worse!


But in keeping with my own meme, I will start with the Weekend Top Five.

It is a bit longer, because I have spent the last two weekends, LITERALLY, in the car. The last two Saturdays, and last two Sundays have each logged 12-14 hours of car time, driving from Michigan to Florida, and back again.

So in keeping with the theme, I will share with you 10 (2 weekend top fives) moments on the road between Michigan and Florida:

1. Even in the rain, the mountains in Kentucky and Tennessee really are beautiful. I had never seen them. I have no pictures though because I was video taping them at the time.

2. After MANY hours on the road, when one takes her shoes off, it can be so smelly that one's husband who is driving will need to open all 4 windows of the van to air it out.

They look innocent enough!








3. One way to cut down on fighting in the car is to make the rule that EVERY time a brotherly squabble (aka fight) breaks out, a certain first grader will be required to complete one of the MANY homework sheets sent by his teacher


We never did get it all done.












4. When Mommy and Daddy got tired of driving, it's time to put "Man Bear" to work.


Yes, we were desperate for entertainment value with the kids after awhile









5. Both boys spent a little time with the travel Lite Brite's, even though the batteries were burned out. Believe it or not, we only found one peg on the floor when we got out.
















6. After many temper tantrums from a very tired Aaron, he actually succumbed to sleep one of the four days.

















7. Noah was able to pass three hours with a new leapster game

















8. Aaron preferred to spend time dancing with his souvenir buddy, Pluto.

















9. When given the choice, between taking a nap and reading, Noah finally gave in and started reading the chapter books I bought him for the trip.
















10. When all else fails, you HAVE to break out the movies!

Notice Noah wiggling that pesky tooth that is STILL hanging









Now that Deb got Mr. Linky going again, I hope you will join up and post about your weekend.

Stay tuned for more exciting vacation adventures...

Thursday Thirteen: Do I Have To Come Home?

Yes, our vacation is almost over. I have a tendency to suffer from a bit of let down when things that have been anticipated for so long come to an end. It happens every holiday, and I am certain it will happen big time when we get home. So for my T13, I thought I would try to think of 13 things that I will look forward to when we get home.

1. Not living out a a suitcase
2. Sleeping in my own bed
3. Getting Noah back into a good pattern at school...he had a bad day all 5 days last week
4. Final Cherub Choir rehearsal and performance for the year
5. Getting my piano students ready for the recital in May
6. Bell rehearsals to prepare for two public performances
7. Figuring out SOMETHING to do about Aaron for school next year
8. Raking and starting spring yard work (Yup, I actually LIKE it)
9. Spring Break, even though we will not go anywhere
10. Easter
11. Watching Noah play tee-ball
12. Garage Sale in May
13. Summer Vacation and three months of NOT worrying about the boys and school

I hope you are all hvaing a great week. Happy T13!

Wordless Wednsday: All ready to go

Tackle it Tuesday: Pillows

As you read this, I am probably sitting around at the resort pool or out finding something fun to with the family on our day off from the Disney Parks.

Although all of last week was one BIG tackle getting ready for our trip, I did do one "somewhat" crafty thing to get ready.

Knowing that I was going to pick the boys up and throw them in the car at 4:00 in the morning, I wanted to have pillows for them. I went to Target to get body pillows, but each pillow was $10 and then each pillowcase was ANOTHER $10 apiece. I figured that there was no way I was going to pay $40.

I bought the pillows and decided that I could figure out a way at home to cover them.
I do not own a sewing machine, nor would I know what to do with one if I did. I took one home ec class in 6th grade, but I got the thread mixed up so many times on the sewing machine that the teacher kicked me off, and I have been scared of them ever since.
So here I sit with two HUGE pillows that are being currently eaten by the Mutt (formerly known as the cat, Pumpkin) and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on fabric that I wasn't sure what to do with.















So I headed to the "linen closet" which is actually a very small hall closet STUFFED FULL with unmatched sets of sheets for many different sized beds, including ones that we don't even own anymore. (I guess that could be another tackle some time in the future...huh?) I pulled out two sheets that I didn't think we would use anymore and laid them out in the living room.

I was thinking that it would take FOREVER to hand sew these big huge pillowcases. So what else could I use?









How about the glue gun? When I was growing up, my mom had a major obsession with her glue gun, and glued EVERYTHING. We made fun of her constantly for it, which is why it is so funny that I have become so active with mine.















I spread out the pillow and sheet, inside out, and started on the long side, gluing the pieces together. Then I did the end and stuck the pillow inside. The sheet was about 18 inches too long and it kind of looks like a scene from CSI.















So Thursday night, I decided to try another idea. It was given to me by a friend of mine on my facebook page. What about if I took two regular pillow cases and merged them together (again with the glue gun)?









It worked so much better and I finished BOTH pillow cases in less than fifteen minutes.












Of course, Aaron hindered the process a tad when he decided he liked them just the way they were an d he NEEDED to lay on them in the hallway at that exact moment. Aaron decided to make a bed out of them right in the middle of the hallway.









I guess I will let you know when we get home home how the pillows actually worked out, but I was proud of how someone as UNCRAFTY as myself actually figured out a solution to my problem without spending money.

Have a great Tuesday.

Happy Birthday Steve

As you all know, we are not home. But I still wanted to send Birthday wishes to my hubby. His birthday is today and he will be two years older than me for the next two months (and of course, I won't let him forget it). Last year in this post on my old blog, I wrote a little tribute to my husband of twelve years, so this year I thought I would share some of the daddy pictures I have recently taken that I like the most.









Here he is helping Aaron make a bird feeder at the library in January

















Pushing Noah down the slide he built from our front steps


















Deb took this of Steve and me dancing in our living room on New Year's Eve...we still have fun 12 years later



Sorry it's so pixelated





Rockin' it out with Aaron


Aren't they cute?


















Daddy and all of his boys in their favorite spot














Happy Birthday, Honey. We Love You!!!

Friday Photo Story: A Letter in the Mail

As I mentioned on Monday, I have jumped back into the world of facebook. I have learned from my mistakes, and with ignoring ALL applications and only writing light hearted updates, I was able to reconnect with people in my long lost past.

I didn't have a lot of friends in high school, but several of the ones that I did hang out with have found me on facebook, and it was fun getting to know them. They were one of the reasons I was sorry to leave facebook.

One of my friends, a SUPER sweet girl, is a pediatrician in California now and takes her two girls to Disneyland often. She LOVES the place and decided to do something for my boys to pep them up for our trip.

So yesterday, the boys received a postcard.














On the inside, "Mickey" had written a letter to the boys telling them how excited he was to see them.



















Isn't that the sweetest idea? This girl was a sweetheart in high school, and she still is to this day. I don't think I'll ever see her in real life again, but it was very neat to reconnect with her and I was honored that she thought of a small special thing to send my boys.

Have a great weekend. We leave tomorrow morning before you wake up, so I will have autoposts next week. I hope you enjoy them. I think his will be a good lesson for me to be without my computer for the whole week.

See you on the 23rd.

Friday Review: Baby Einstein World Music

I am sure you have heard of the Baby Einstein Company. Most of you probably own at least one of their produts.

Noah was a Baby Einstein baby all the way. We were given Baby Mozart for a shower gift when I was pregnant back in 2002, and from the time he came home from the hospital, he was hooked. They were quickly followed by others. Our favorite was Baby Santa. Our collection has grown through the years and I think there are currently 9 or 10 on our shelves. The music is fun and the visuals are simple, colorful, and large for even the youngest of babies to be able to focus on. We have also owned several of their other products, inclusing the puppets, stufffed animals, CD's, and instruments.

Although my boys are now 4 and 6, they actually STILL will sit and watch them while they're reading, doing puzzles, or some other quiet activity. They are extremely soothing.

The other day while I was downstairs playing the piano, I played a slow sonata movement that was featured in the Baby Mozart, and Aaron actually recognized the song. How cool is that?

That is why , even though my "babies" aren't babies anymore, I was excited to be a part of the Baby Einstein World Music Tour.

Now, it has been a few years since I have purchased any of the Baby Einstein movies, so it was fun to see the advances they have made in the few years of my hiatus.



There are some things that never change. The music is just as soothing as ever and the pictures are still simple, bright and colorful.

What I noticed that seems different is that it has become more educational. The cool thing about this one was that it had two modes: One for just the pictures and music for younger babies, and a second mode for older babies with written words of the instruments and a person speaking the words. If you are interested in seeing a sample of the DVD, you can see it here at the website. The website also has a link to studies about infants and screen time which I thought was interesting.

I chose to use this DVD as a calming effect in the van on the way to Florida when the boys were getting riled up. It worked!

The boys watched intently the first time, and when they asked for it a second time, they started discussing where the different continents were, and 4 year old Aaron wanted to know for sure if we lived in North America. When I confirmed it, he thought it was the coolest thing that he lived in somewhere that he saw in a movie.

So I absolutely recommend this DVD for your child if they are under a year old.

This review was gladly written on behalf of Mom Central and the Baby Einstein company.

Thursday Thirteen: What's Left To Do?

After boring my readers endlessly for a couple of months with trip preparations, it is finally here! We leave in less than 48 hours. It's days like this that I wish I had left Aaron in preschool just so I could get all this last minute stuff done in peace.

Here are 13 things that I still have yet to do before we leave at 4:30 Saturday morning.

1. Wash underwear and socks and pack them...it's the only thing left to pack
2. Eat all of the food in the fridge so it doesn't go bad over
3. Get batteries for camera and various electronic items for the drive
4. Set the lights on timers
5. Buy drinks for the parks...I think I'll wait until I get down there to avoid bottle return fees
6. Find possible overnight hotels for the way down
7. Decided which route to follow: Google maps, map quest, or Garmin navigator
8. Make a second pillow case for the body pillows I got the boys for the car (I refuse to pay $10 apiece for store bought ones)
9. Put the dutch oven, skillet, strainer, and other various kitchen appliances in a big tub for the condo
10. Write blog posts to automatically show each day while I'm gone
11. Go to Noah's school to pick up all of the homework for the next week while we're gone
12. Lose 20 pounds (okay, so that's not going to happen but one can only dream
13. Sleep soundly with happy dreams of the memories we're going to make

Now I will stop blogging and go get stuff done.

Happy Thursday!

(Look, Mr. Linky is back...Thanks Deb!)

Wordless Wednesday: It's STILL Not Out!

Although it looks like a tooth is missing, really it's just the space that his mouth has created for the big tooth.

The crooked one has been dangling for a week


I have now resorted to bribes to get it out


Speed Stacks for a tooth




Stay tuned....

School For Aaron

I had a disappointment on Monday morning. Let me give a little background first.

In Michigan, the cut off date for kindergarten is December 1st, which means that a lot of kids who are only four enter kindergarten each year. A large percentage of them end up repeating the following year because they just weren't ready maturity wise to be successful in that environment, no matter how "book smart" they are. Michigan is also changing their school funding requirements so that only full day, five day kindergarten programs will receive full state funding starting next school year.

To counteract the December first cut off, Young Fives programs have become very popular in our state. Parents whose kids are technically old enough to go to school, and even academically ready (like Aaron) but may not be mature enough to handle the work load, enroll in Y5's programs, which are generally a pretty good mix of preschool and kindergarten.

With Aaron being a late October birthday, I have always known that I think he would benefit from the extra year of Young 5's before kindergarten. But unfortunately, because of the funding changes, a large number of our local schools have nixed their Y5's programs for next year.

There was only one left, a charter school near our home. Yesterday was the lottery to get into the school. Aaron was 8th on the waiting list to get into the Y5's class.

That seems okay, right?

I was feeling pretty good about it until I talked to the principal. The kindergarten class is full with 95 KIDS on the waiting list. The kids who made it into the kindergarten classes will all be screened in April and any one deemed "not ready" automatically gets moved into the Y5's class, ahead of those who are on the waiting list. So by the time school gets out, Aaron may be 20 or 30 on the waiting list, or even lower.

I really have no other options for Aaron next year. If I were to put him into a kindergarten, it would be knowing that he would be there for two years. And since I don't want to put up with one, let alone two more years with the teacher that Noah had for kindergarten, I am totally stuck.

So as of right now, I have no place to send my little boy to school next year. I will be doing a lot of praying for guidance in this matter.

Thanks for listening. I needed to write out these thoughts before I stored them in the back of my mind for awhile.

Happy Tuesday.

Weekend Top Five 3/9/09

I just realized that next week there will be NO Weekend Top Five because the ENTIRE weekend will be spent driving to Florida. I'm thinking a reverse to the phrase...The storm before the calm!

This weekend was VERY RAINY the entire weekend. It was a four day weekend for Noah since he had conferences. We really didn't do anything special with his days off. The boys spent the afternoon with my step mom on Thursday while I went to conferences an d on Friday the weather was beautiful and warm so they spent pretty much the entire afternoon outside playing.

5. The Great Van Swap
My parents are being EXTREMELY generous in letting us borrow their van for our trip next week. It was definitely a huge relief to us. So since we were going to their place on Saturday (see below) we decided to go ahead and drive their van home and drive it this week before we left. So we had to get ours ready, which included cleaning out and vacuuming. It is always humbling to see just how gross one's van gets over the winter months when you don't clean it as often. I actually hung a stick-up on one of the doors and also spread carpet cleansing powered on the carpet before I took it to vacuum it. BUT, not all of the carpet cleaner vacuumed up so we ended up dropping off a car with white powder everywhere...real classy!

Then on the way home, my derriere started feeling warm. Sure enough, their van had BUTT WARMERS. Nice and toasty. I may keep using them this week just because I can. You all know me and how cold I am all the time.

4. Family Get Together
Our family tries to get together at my dad's quarterly to celebrate all of that season's birthdays. So we all got together this Saturday. Ever since my dad got his Wii, Noah has been hooked. He and his cousins spent quite a bit of time bowling, boxing, and ATTEMPTING golf. (None of us actually figured that one out)

Noah is in red






3. Facebook By Accident
Ever since I deactivated my FB account back in January, I have periodically gone on Steve's to write quick emails to friends or see what people were up to. I accidentally clicked on the other email that popped up, and the account that I had THOUGHT was deactivated was right there in front of me, and friends saved and past comments posted. I thought it was kind of weird but it must be related to that new policy that FB instated. I figured I might as well keep it up since I missed being in contact with some of the people on it. I know I learned from my mistakes before and will be able to be more responsible this time.

2. Church
For some reason, I have planned my youth chimes to play on the Sunday following DST three years in a row now. So 7:00 came even earlier than usual Sunday morning, and we had practice before church, two church services, and a rehearsal afterward. The boys weathered it pretty well since Steve kept them in the youth room playing games the whole first service and had Sunday school the second service.
Between the two services, while Steve and I were singing in choir, the boys found their own little hideaway under the table to eat their apples and read library books. I just happened to have my camera with me this week, so I snapped a shot.

1. Early Bedtime
I don't know if it's the weather, vacation restlessness, or the time change, but my wonderful little boys have not been so wonderful this last week or so and my patience was at its end by Sunday afternoon. After getting out of the house for an hour to regroup, I came home and stepped right back into unpleasantness.

After awhile, it just seemed hopeless, so blaming it on the time change, the boys went to bed HOURS before bedtime, with Mommy following soon after.


I REALLY hope this whole week leading up to vacation this week gets better, because if not, I just may leave them at home and go by myself.

Sorry for the vent...I really am frustrated if you couldn't tell. Hopefully a good night's sleep will return some good cheer and get me in the right frame of mind to put the finishing touches on packing. I also need to FINALLY get Aaron in for his allergy testing this week.

Has the dreary weather affected any one else's kids in this way?please share with me your weekend...I really need to figure out how to get Mr. Linky set up again (Deb?)

Happy Monday.

Noah's Conference

Wow, what a difference a year can make. I went to Noah's first grade conference yesterday. Last year, I left both conferences frustrated in tears.

From the minute I sat down, it was like sitting and hanging out with a friend. I have kept communication very open this year with his teacher and it has definitely paid off. We sat down and she showed me the Dolche reading list, saying "well, here's the current list but you know he reads great so we'll just move on."

Then she showed me his journal and it was so much fun to see the stories that he writes about on Monday mornings about his weekends.

Here he is Wednesday morning before school...bandanna day

We talked a bit about the decision to pull him out of school for a week in order to go to Disney and she was fully supportive, saying that he could write about his trip and share it with the class for his writing work that week. Since it's reading week and they are required to read 25 books, she said it was all relative and since Noah is reading chapter books instead, he could count each chapter he reads in the car as one book so he still meets his goal for the month.

We talked a bit about how far his maturity level has come. She said she is so impressed with how he is showing better choice making when it comes to how to behave in the classroom. I told her how last year I was struggling to decided whether he was even ready to move up to first grade and she said not only, Yes, he was definitely ready, but she for sure had no worries at all about how he will do in second grade.

I remember last year reading all of the posts from moms talking about how wonderful their kids were and how perfect they were at school and being so jealous and angry, wanting to be able to say the same. It is good to be feeling so much better this year.

Noah is most certainly not a perfect child. He is frustrating, strong willed, talkative, somewhat wild, and not always the first to want to obey the rules (all like his mother).

BUT...

To see such an improvement from last year to this year is enlightening and gives me hope. I am proud to see that others are recognizing his growth and I love that, for good or bad, he wears his heart on his shoulder for everyone to see.

I do want to share one cute Noah-ism though.

During free writing time, they can write letters to whomever they want. I always find fun letters in his bag that he has written to others and that have been written to him. But this one surprised me















I actually didn't open it because I wanted to ask him what he wanted me to do with it but when his teacher asked me in the conference what it said, I finally asked him and then opened it.

I will translate for you:


Dear God My Mighty
Savior You are the
greatest







(Happy sigh)

Have a great weekend!

Thursday Thirteen: It's Almost Here

Last week I listed 13 rides/attractions at Disney World that I was questioning Noah's ability to handle. The comments I got were extremely helpful and I do feel a little better prepared.

This week I would like to share the 13 experiences that I am most looking forward to seeing the boys reactions to:

1. Character Meals ( TWO of them with different characters)

2. Dumbo Ride

3. Winnie The Pooh Ride

4. Peter Pan's Flight

5. TRex restaurant in Downtown Disney

6. Nightime parade and fireworks in MK

7. Mickey's Philharmagic Show

8. Festival of the Lion King Show

9. Steve's Birthday at Magic Kingdom

10. Kilimanjaro Safari

11. Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin

12. Digging in the Boneyard

13. The general awe of it all!

Happy T13!

Picky Eaters

I wanted to share a funny sight from dinner Friday night. While I was dishing up, I found myself laughing and saying "I know this needs to be blogged" so here it is.

I was a picky eater growing up. And if I didn't eat, it was bread and water for dinner...which I gladly ate on the nights of "crock pot".

Both of my boys have picky moments. I read somewhere that a new food needs to be tried eleven times before it can be liked. I have to admit ta ht in my 35 years, I probably have not given broccoli OR cauliflower 11 times.



But we have told the rule to the boys. If we have something new, they are required to eat one "no thank you bite" (I learned this term from my step-mom and love it) and they are told the 11 times rule each time.

The rule has worked. Noah has gone from hating taco night to it being one of his favorites. We are working on several other meals each weekend.

Last Friday night, Steve stopped to get salad fixins to have with our chicken alfredo dinner. For about three weeks now, we have started making Noah try a SMALL bite of lettuce, drowned in dressing.

So, here were the salad portions as served Friday night:
Steve and my bowls















Aaron the four year old (who ate it and wanted more)










Noah the 6 year old and his ONE piece of lettuce.
We'll try to tackle tomatoes after lettuce becomes more tolerable.



To his credit, it was the first week that he didn't complain...just accepted his fate and swallowed it with the help of an entire cup of milk.






Do you make your kids try new foods? What about things you know they don't like?

Weekend Top Five 3/2/09

We really did nothing on Saturday , but it was a good day where we all got along and enjoyed hanging out as a family. We did watch Jungle Book 2 for movie night before bed and I got a quick trip to the dollar store in to get the rest of the stuff we need for vacation and Steve went grocery shopping for me. (I told he was a great guy)

I'll try for five anyway.


5. Twitter Attempt
I decided to try twitter this weekend. When I disabled it at the same time I disabled face book, it wouldn't let me keep the same name so I went back to the label from the old blog. I intend to be much more responsible about it and NOT get hooked. I think it is a lot less likely I'll get hooked to twitter since it's just a quick one liner...not a full communication tool. If you would like to hook up, feel free to click on my sidebar.


4. Noah's Questionable Tooth
If you followed my twitter this weekend you sort of got a clue about this strange situation with Noah's teeth. He has had a loose one on the top right forever and his mouth has been looking more and more strange by the day. His gums must be widening getting ready for the grown up tooth because when I got to his class on Friday, the entire class (including Noah) was convinced that a tooth NEXT to his loose one had fallen out and they couldn't find it. I was surprised but went along with it.

After I got home and thought about it, I figured there was no way that a tooth that wasn't even loose "fell" out and had no blood and he didn't notice. Take one look at this shot from Friday afternoon and you can see the gap that got everyone wondering.

I am hoping that this weird looking tooth comes out in the next week before we take several hundred pictures of him on vacation. I am coming close to bribing him to let me try the string on the doorknob method. I already told him that I don't think the tooth fairy can find us in Florida.

3. A New Skill Attempt
Last summer Noah was begging for "wheelies". He was also fighting learning how to tie his shoes. A few weeks before the end of the summer, I found a pair of generic wheelies at a garage sale and they were tie laces. I bought them as an attempt to motivate him to try to tie. It didn't work. (He has since finally learned).

Saturday, he tried to put them on and go outside to "skate". It didn't work out too well for him since he doesn't really have the coordination. But I decided to let him try anyway. We ran downtown to check out an event and Noah spent the entire time trying to use the railing to try to learn to "skate". It didn't really pan out but he had fun and I think he will keep trying.

2. Church and Changes
I haven't mentioned this yet on my blog but last weekend I was asked to take over the next age children's choir, in addition to the one I already do. That would mean I would be in charge of four groups instead of three, and also be in charge of putting together the children's and youth musical next spring. I thought I was working my way OUT of the church, and I seem to be getting sucked more in. On top of that, our bells now have two PUBLIC performances scheduled; one for a nursing home in May, and the other in downtown Grand Rapids in June. Not too shabby for the first year our church has even HAD a bell choir.

2. Patrick's Birthday Party
My nephew Patrick turned 6 on Sunday so we headed to his house after church on Sunday for a party.




Patrick displaying his birthday balloon












The favorite present that Patrick got was an electric arm that everyone took turns with.












So that's it for this weekend. Pretty uneventful.

This week looks a little different from the norm. Noah has Thursday and Friday off of school, and next weekend is our last weekend home before we leave.

Let me know if you posted the weekend. And I would love to hook up with you over at twitter.

Have a great Monday.