Nice break from sports comes to an end. . . . . .

Megan decided that she did not want to play JV or Varsity Basketball, so that was ok with us to have a break after she was on 3 softball teams this summer (city league, traveling team and school team), and Nic had baseball and soccer.

Now Megan has decided to go out for the 6th grade basketball team and Upward Basketball (which is a church basketball league for K-6th).

I don't mind the kids playing sports, in fact, I rather enjoy it.  I grew up in the mountains of Pennsylvania with my grandparents and it was a 20 mile drive one way to school down off the mountains, so I was not allowed to participate in sports, because of the drive. 

When Basketball is over we go right back into Softball and Baseball in April.

Today we found out that Megan made the 6th grade basketball team.  They had scheduled 2 tryouts and added a 3rd night of tryouts because of the huge number of girls to try out.  We waited all weekend to find out if she made the team and this morning she texted me from school to say she made the team.

Disney World

We went to Disney World in January of this year and I done a blog on the All Star Music Resort we stayed at and for some reason, it is being viewed alot.  So I have decided to blog about each of the parks that we visited during our stay.  I will be posting them soon.  These blogs are just my opinion but I hope they can be helpful to someone who might be planning to visit Disney World.

We took the kids out of school for a week in January to go, but they ended up only missing 2 days of school because of snow days. The weather in Florida was in the 70's (nights into the 50's) .  The wait in line for the rides was never more than 10 minutes for any ride and most rides we got right on. 

I completely recommend the dining plans.  There are different types of plans, so you need to choose the one that fits your family.  If you enjoy sitting down and eating a meal, you will save alot of money, plus the character dinners are worth doing and they can cost alot.  The only dissadventage to the dining plan was paying 18% gratituty for table service meals.  Our group consisted of 3 adults and 3 children (1 child under 1 yr old) and our table service meals would run around $150 (if we had to pay).  Also, some places to eat do not accept the dining plan, so you have to check and make sure they accept it.  We did several character meals and the entire group (our 6 and 5 in the other family with us), all enjoyed them.  I would suggest calling for reservations as soon as you book your trip if you go during a busy time.  We were able to call the week of our stay and still get reservations, so it depends on time you go.  We never spent a penny on food during our stay with the dining plan, and our plan was $34.99 a person per day. 

We stayed inside the Disney Resort, so we parked our van all week and rode the bus (free) to everywhere we went.  Advantages:  FREE, not worrying about parking, getting dropped off at the gates.  Dissadventages:  Waiting for a bus to arrive, crowding on bus, and if you have a stroller (like we did) getting it on a crowded bus).

If you stay inside the Disney Resort, not only do you get free transportation, but you get to take advantage of the parks extended hours. 

Be prepaded to have any bag or purse you bring into the park completely searched before entering.

Tips:
* if you have a stroller... there are strollers everywhere you look and when you park your stroller, sometimes disney workers will move them to make room, but to find yours among the crowd tie a ribbon on it or a balloon or even a glow stick at night.

* buy some glow braclets for your kids to wear at night so you can find them in a crowd.

* take the $1 disposible ponco's you can buy at Walmart in a small convient package.  Ours came in very handy.

* If you stay inside the Disney Resort... souviners can be bought and delived to your hotel for free so you don't have to carry them around with you.

Note to parents with children:  About 8pm at night during our visit to EPCOT, we were in line for food when a gentleman (who was beyond drunk) walked up to a complete stranger and punched him in the face and they started fighting along with everyone in their group and my son got knocked over and we almost got trampeled.  The gentleman working behind the food counter told me that fights were a nightly thing and that as long as Disney served drinks it would continue to happen.

With the package deal we got, the only money we spent was for souviners we bought.

Malia . . . . 20 months old next week

My pictures have been coming out so blurry, but here are th latest pitures of Malia.  She is my little LOVE BUG.  She loves to hug and kiss and is so polite and kind.  She is always sharing her food and says thank you alot.

Malia with her sisters boots on

Malia was watching TOY  STORY 3 and went and got her Woody Doll and was kissing it.

 and a little hug for Woody to.

 Malia at a basketball game.  She is wearing a COLTS NET HAT.  And Megan took her to sit with her friends and Malia was a big hit.  The boys were taking pictures of Megan and Malia together.

Malia going bye-bye with grandma

 OK...Malia took her shirt off, put on her pumpkin hat and Megans boots.

Malia and Megan

updates.... Nic's 10th Birthday, Veteran's Day Parade, BFF's

I have been having trouble getting my pictures to download and so I just quit bloggin for a while.

Nic had his 10th Birthday !!! He invited 5 friends to play some laser tag and mini golf.....

Megan's glasses she got with her tickets from the video games she played.

There was a teenager walk up to me and gave me 1,100 tickets for our group to use.  How nice !!


Then there was the Veteran's Day parade.  Megan, Nic and I rode in Grandpa's car with him and Grandma and tossed out beads.  Grandpa is a veteran of the Vietnam War.  The car is their '68 Chevelle.


Megan

 Megan and Memaw

 Megan and Nic with Memaw and papa (putting the top down)...Nic is wearing papa's shirt from army.

 Nic, Megan and Memaw with papa in back

Megan has been having a blast.  As I think I have said before, she is growing up and has changed so much.  She is hanging out with great friends who are a good influence on her. 

Parker, Kylar and Megan.... They had a sleepover at our house and had BLIND makeovers and this is the result................ 

They also took handbags and painted on them, painting designs and their names and BFF on them.  They use them for school and have become a hit as other girls have been making them to.  Then they played JUST DANCE on the wii.  We made a trip to walmart for paint supplies and they bought matching jewelery to.  I heard one of them say they were gonna be BFF's for a long time.  LOL.

slumber party

Megan had 4 of her BFF's over and what a blast we had.  First we ordered pizza and the girls talked about plans for the night.  Then we teepeed a couple houses and we came back to the house and the girls were telling stories of funny things that have happened to them.  I told them a story of one of my numerous experiences working at Walmart ( I could tell stories forever of crazy things that has happened to me).  After tellin them my story they were begging me for more and I think I talked all night about crazy people of Walmart.  Bethany and Megan were telling them about when they go to Walmart together all the crazy stuff they do and they wanted me to take them to Walmart so they could do some crazy things themselves. I told them I was not in the mood to get kicked out of the store. LOL. . . . .  Then they played hide and seek in the house.  Oh, they also went around the neighborhood with sidewalk chalk leaving messages on everyones sidewalk.   I am glad we only have slumber parties a couple times a year.  At least we had an extra hour of sleep with setting the clocks back to catch up on sleep.

You would think . . . . poor Nic . . . .  not in this case, he had so much fun and joined right in with the girls all night.  The girls didn't even mind him joining in. BUT he still won't even talk about girls yet . . .  hahaha.  He will be 10 years in a couples days.

Update: Malia's arm

GOOD NEWS !!! It's not broken.........can't give all the technical terms, but he thinks the tendon (or was it a ligament ??) around her elbow was stretched.  It's been over 24 hours since she hurt it and she is still not using it.  Poor girl.

Malia and her first broken bone ?!?!?

I am in agony right now waiting to get Malia in to the pediatrician for xrays.  I feel so bad for her.

Yesterday Malia fell while running in the house and tripped and fell into the cabinet and landed on her arm.  She cried and cried but did settle down after 10 minutes, but I thought she just hit her head, and I did not realize her arm was hurting until later that night when we noticed she would not use her left arm.  She was not really crying in pain later on because of it, so we decided to let her sleep it off and see if it still bothered her in the morning.  She is still not using it, but is not crying in pain either, only when she goes to use it.  So I called the doctor and she has an appointment in 2 hours.  Poor girl, I wish she could tell me how she felt.

Halloween pics

Malia the pumpkin (the pics are blurry).  Megan felt a little too old to dress for Halloween, so she went as a MULES FAN (in red and black) and she took Malia to each door.  Megan's friend Bethany went with us and she was a DEAD 80's girl.  lol.  Nic did not want to dress at all and he stayed home and passed out the candy to trick-or-treaters.

We met Amy, Hunter, Kensey, Tanner and Braxton at the Pumpkin Patch for some fun.  After the pumpkin patch Hunter and Kensey came back to our house to hang out with Megan and Nic.  Tanner and Braxton are the 2 kids that I babysit and Hunter and Kensey are there older siblings.

Malia at the pumpkin patch getting on a tractor

and riding a horse

Megan giving it a try

Nic and Megan's parent teacher conferences

NIC . . . .  will be 10 years old in 2 weeks.  Hard to believe it.  He now towers at 4'10" and we are guessing he will be at least 6'4" by the time he is done growing.  Jason is 6'2" and is the shortest of his 2 other brothers. Nic was born 9 lbs. 9 oz. and 22" long.. . . . a big long baby.   

We are so proud of him.  He made the honor roll for the first time ever this year.  He also got a 96% in math for the first semester so they are thinking of moving him to hi-math.  During his parent / teacher conference I have to admit that I was a little nervous, but his teacher said that she has no concerns about Nic, only that she has to remind him sometimes about talking when he is not suppost to be talking.  She said he was a good listener, always has his work done and is eager to learn.  Way to go Nic ! 

And at Megan's parent / teacher conferences she got good reports from 2 out of 3 teachers.  Two of her teachers told us basically the same thing about her . . .  that she was a good listener, always helpful, gets work done, and both said she was a joy to have in class.  One of the teachers even said that he wished he had 20 more of her and that we should be so proud of Megan and that they don't come any better than her.  They had no concerns at all.  The third teacher was not so much in agreement with the other two, but I won't get into that, only to say her words were "she has a lot of blonde moments".  Megan did make the honor roll again. . . . Way to go Megan !

This is what happens when you take a mini vacation . . . . . . . . .

While we are out of town, this is what happens at home.  Oh what fun this will be to clean up.  Our neighbors sent us these pictures and called us to let us know right as it was happening.  I guess there was some payback to be had for us teepeeing alot of people the last couple weeks.

Mini vacation / 15 th Anniversary Celebration / Birthday Parties

My nephew Andy turned 5 yrs. old and had is birthday party at PUMP IT UP (bounce houses).  It was out of town (about 50 miles away), so we decided to make a weekend out of it because Alex and Adrien are also having there party in the same town the day after my nephews.  So day 1 we went Shopping and to Andy's birthday party and then to the hotel.  We actually had reservations at another hotel, but changed our minds after arriving.  We have always wanted to stay at this hotel.  It was kind of our Anniversary away(with kids). Pics below. . . . .

PUMP IT UP . . .  there are 2 big rooms like this and the kids had a great time. 

Nic playing tee ball

Malia climbing into a bounce house 

Malia 

Megan and her cousin Casey and Malia playing tee ball 

Jason coming down the slide with Malia 

Megan shooting an air gun 

Nic getting ready to battle with big gloves on 

Nic 

Our view of the pool from our balcony 

Malia on balcony  SCARRY 

OK. . . . . now you may ask why show this pic. . . . GOOD STORY. . . .  Nic went running to the balcony and didn't realize the door was shut and ran right into it and fell back on the floor and I think the whole hotel heard us laughing.  He kept saying over and over, I DIDN'T KNOW THERE GLASS THERE, LOOK DOES IT LOOK LIKE IT TO YOU.  Really it was hard to see the glass, we were the first ones to use this newly remodeled room, so maybe the doors are new and very clean. Sounds good reason enough, right. And I caught Malia almost running into it.  The kids want to sleep on the balcony tonight. UMM, NO.  But right now, they are sitting out there with chips and drinks having a good time.

OK. . . .  ANOTHER FUNNY STORY. . . . WELL (not really). . . . This is the elevators and we were on the 4th floor and when we first went to use the elevator, we all went to get in and Malia and Nic were not in yet when the door shut right on Malia and pinned her in between the doors.  Nic was helping her in, when he jumped back, but she got pinned.  Megan started screaming and we all had our hands full of stuff to take to the room, somehow Jason managed to drop it all and pull the door apart to get her out, and it seemed like an eternity, but was only seconds.  She was not injured or even bothered by it, but right after we got Malia out the door shut again leaving Nic out and he was screaming WAIT. . . .  well somehow Jason managed to get his hands in the door and got them pinned in and could hardly pry the doors open with his hands in them but he got Nic in who had a look of horror on his face watching his dads hands get closed in the doors.

They are looking at the elevators, talking about how this time they are gonna make sure the doors stay open. 

The pool changes colors, blue, purple, red.  Megan and Nic in the pool.  We watched them from the balcony.

This hotel was very nice and I highly recommend it, the Holiday Inn at Evansville Airport.  Tomorrow we have another big day ahead.