Muffin Tin Monday-Orange you glad Halloween is coming!

I can't seem to get ahead, or even close to caught up! Here was last weeks Muffin Tin. Mac & Cheese, Mandarin Oranges, Carrots with ranch dressing (orange food coloring) Cheese Crackers, oh and a rice krispie treat!

Beach!

I have still not downloaded all the beach pictures, but here are a few at least to share. Coming back from a 2 week vacation is hard work! Not to mention that we got back and Mark left for out of town AGAIN. We have Judgement House at church and we enjoy working that. And then there are the clothes. If you have multiple children, you know what I am saying. It is a job for sure to switch out summer for winter. Not to mention for some reason I need to teach the children so we are not going to school till August! We are all still trying to get back in the groove. Slowly but surely.

The beach was wonderful! I am so thankful we added that on to Disney. It was a perfect ending. All the kids enjoyed it. Was not sure how Mavery would do but she loved it. She has come so far when it comes to water. She is a little more hesitant than my others (which if you know my others they are all part fish so most people are more hesitant than they are!) but really does like to be in the water now. Ft Walton is a beautiful area. We hope to return. We ate at some fun places. No shopping if you can believe that! We did exactly what we set out to do and that was RELAX.

I will add more pictures just as soon as I find my camera cord. ;-)

Mavery 1 year later!

I have much I want to say and share as we look back at this year together with Mavery but for now I will just leave this picture. Isn't the change amazing?

Muffin Tin Monday-Pandas & Gotcha!

For today's Muffin Tin we wanted to do a "Mavery theme". This week we celebrate her gotcha day(can you even believe that & I will do a post for her!) Mavery loves Panda Bears so we tried to do that for her. Had to stretch our creativity a little bit. Alot, you must think outside the box, or tin! ;-) So, here you go. Our PB & J bear with chocolate chip face. Veggie straws for bamboo. Rice, because well, panda bears, china =Rice... the pretzel gold fish are bear claws. The grapes are Panda Poo. Forgive us, I told you we had to think outside the box! And the fortune cookie, it just goes, right??

News From China!!

Our sweet friends are in China this week and they have their daughter! We are so excited for them. Some really "neat" things. Their daughter Eden Grace is a heart baby. She is also from the same province as Mavery. They are staying at the same hotel we were at ONE YEAR AGO THIS WEEK. I just love that. I also love the fact that Eden walked in and wrapped her arms around her mama when she met her, don't the pictures just melt your heart?? It has been a long and winding road for our friends on this journey to find their daughter. But now there they are, here she is! God has answered their prayers in the ways only He can. If you get a chance, stop by their blog and read the post from Edens daddy, so so sweet. http://www.ourgardenofeden.blogspot.com/ I love watching families formed by His very hand!

Saturday-La Celliar & Packing Up

Friday night was not a good night for me. I was sick, REALLY sick. I do not know if it was stomach flu, dehydration?, food poisoning? Whatever it was, it was not good. And all night as I was so sick, I kept thinking, I am going to miss La Celliar tomorrow!!! It was the place I could not wait for, the place I was so thankful to snag a reservation for. The Canadian Steak place in Epcot. By morning, I knew I would not be eating steak, but got up to try to at least go along so the rest of the family could enjoy it. Originally we were supposed to check out on Saturday, but then had added an extra night on. We went to the front desk to check and they had checked us out of this room, moving us to another for the night. Uh, No. That is not going to happen with 5 kids, a weeks worth of stuff, and me SICK! They say there is no option, they had a reunion taking over our building. So, we decided we were going to pack up and head to the beach. Thankfully my parents stepped in and helped us and we did manage to pack up and load up, plus get everyone dressed and out the door in under an hour. That has to be a record. We headed over to Epcot for our lunch. Canada is a LONG way from the entrance of Epcot. And it was hot. And I was MISERABLE. Praying the whole way that I would not puke in front of everyone. Yeah, it was bad. Everyone else enjoyed a yummy steak lunch, wahhhh ,followed by some fun desserts. The kids enjoyed our waitress and her moose call. Was a neat place and I hope someday to get back and enjoy a steak there! We had planned to spend the day at Epcot as I had not got to walk the countries, my favorite part. But obviously that was not going to happen. We left after lunch to begin our LONG drive to the beach. In our van that the air had quit working. Not a good way to end Disney for sure. But at least we were heading to the beach and not heading home yet!

Breakfast at the Castle-Friday

Making our way to breakfast at the castle, we were there before the park opened, it was nice & empty!

Our tiny Sleeping Beauty with stitch.

Sawyer is very excited to eat at the Castle. ;-) His shirt says Back Off, I am Grumpy.

Princess Cinderella all ready for the ball.

We are so excited!

Though if you are a spicy girl who has been off of your schedule for a week, you do not like to wait so you come up with activities that get you in time out. Even a princess in her castle has to visit a corner.

And Princess Belle is about to see that same corner if she does not stop throwing herself on the ground.

Hey, at least they hand out swords to the boys as a bribe for a smile!

Inside the castle

It was royal, lots of little princess everywhere!

Mavery finally gets a smile on her face, she was having a rough morning.

They hand out wands as soon as we sat down. Makes perfect sense with a table full of glasses and 3 year olds.

They announced each princess before she came out, the girls would get SO excited!

As you can see, Mavery was REALLY excited. Now Sage, it is all about the food. And so she would get up for the picture, but she would have a big bite in her mouth! I guess I should be thankful she enjoyed her food at 2 dining credits!

Makennas favorite is Jasmine!

They have a wishing ceremony where the lights start flickering and the princess come around waving their wands and the girls are supposed to make a wish. Very cute. I think Sawyer crawled under the table about this point.

The girls loved the Peter Pan ride and so seeing him & Wendy was a treat!
A ride on the Magic Carpets. (yes we got in with them after we took the picture)

Friday we had an early breakfast at the Castle. Since we were on free dining, we opted to do this. And it was more ME, something I had always wanted to do. It took 2 of our dining credits, and I do not think the boys of our group that it was worth it. I would probably not choose it again, however it is worth it to go once. In my opinion that is. Dining in a castle? FUN! We spent the rest of the day at Magic Kingdom. Had a taste of Dole Whip there finally, YUM!Then the evening we went over to Downtown Disney. Along with the entire city of Orlando. We are convinced that Orlando is NOT feeling a recession AT ALL. This is supposed to be off season, I would sure hate to see peak season!

Animal Kingdom Thursday 10/1

This was the buffet, very cool!

Today Sage refused to get in the charachter pictures without us.

Mavery is warming up, getting closer!

And closer!

Riding a flying dino, she LOVES to ride!

Seeing double!

Lunchtime brownie. After the Mickey Ice Cream for a snack. We did make her finish her grapes from lunch. ;-)

Watching the parade!

Sage was not to excited about the jungle jeep tour.

Our breakfast at Tusker House was early, 8:15AM! We were met by Donald Duck and then led to our table. This was one of my favorite meals overall as far as the food went. Really yummy, and the way it was set up was not so crowded.

The big kids favorite ride was Mt Everest, such a fun roller coaster! I think we managed to ride that one about 5 times before the day was over. Malaine did ride it. Once. And that was all she cared for. The 3 little girls were very excited about their stuffed yeddis, which makes an appearance on the coaster.

Makenna turns 12!! October 1st

Trying to get caught up...Not every year you get to have your birthday at Disney World! We spent the day at Animal Kingdom, which if you know Makenna, you know that is appropriate since she loves animals. We started our morning with breakfast at Tusker House with Donald Duck. Her request had been lunch at LaCelliar in Epcot, but beggars can't be choosers and we had to take what we could get! We called it a day early per her choice and spent the evening swimming at the hotel. Take the kids to Disney, they still prefer a pool!! ;-)

TWELVE. Wow. That is kind of hard to swallow. My oldest is now officially just one year away from being a, GASP, teenager! However for now I am thankful that she still enjoys getting dolls for her birthday, is an amazing helpful big sister, and is one of the most creative people I know. Happy 12th birthday Makenna Kaylee, we love you!