Visiting Santa

Last night I took the kids to the mall to see Santa. They were very excited to go, although Bailey was a little disappointed that they left their wish lists at home. I told her we could mail those and that seemed to help.

Here is what they asked Santa for this year: Emily wants a laptop, Bailey wants and iPod, and Liam wants the Paw Patroller. Santa is going to have an expensive year!

The Mango Song

Last week Liam was going around the house singing about mangoes. It was the strangest song I'd ever heard, something about mango the mahn-go... anyway, I finally figured out what on earth he was singing!

At Liam's preschool they sing a song when they are in line walking from the classroom to the playground. It goes like this: "I've got my hands behind my back, I've got my hands behind my back, I've got my hands behind my back, listening to the teacher." THEN they sing it in Spanish: "Tengo mis manos detrás de mi..."

Tengo mis manos = Mango the mahn-gos. LOL!!

Family pictures

Today my friend Susan came over and took some pictures of the kids and our family. I just love how they came out!! Here are the best ones!

Liam's First Karate Tournament

Liam had his first karate tournament this morning and it was a lot of fun to watch! I am not sure he completely understood the concept but he got to do three rounds of sparring with different opponents for the chance to earn points and a gold medal.

Waiting for his turn was hard. Liam was supposed to sit in a line behind an orange cone. Well, he was all over the floor, rolling around, pushing the cone, dancing to the music, and basically just being a four-year-old boy. It was quite funny to watch him.

He did not like the protective gear he had to wear, and he actually snapped his glasses in half trying to get them on with the helmet on.

Here's his first round--he's the one on the left.

Still on the left, in blue this time--his third round. The cutest part of this round was when his opponent was awarded a point and he jumped up and said, "YES!!" and then Liam did the same thing!

Here he is getting his medal!

He was so proud of himself and so were we! He did a great job and I think he had a lot of fun.

Halloween!

We had such a wonderful time trick-or-treating with Mimi, Grandpa, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Cristin, Axel (and Axel's aunt and grandparents), and our friends the Kuhns. Unfortunately it was another warm Halloween which meant lots of mosquitoes when we were out after dark.

This year Emily was "a nice witch," Bailey was the Fairy Godmother from "the new Cinderella movie," (she meant the live action film that was released earlier this year), and Liam was supposed to be Iron Man but he changed his mind at the last minute and decided to be a "flying firefighter." I do not know what that means and I do not attempt to understand the mind of a four-year-old, LOL.

Anyway, here are some cute photos from our night!

Pumpkin Patch and Pumpkin Carving

Last weekend we went to a fall festival at a farm/greenhouse to get pumpkins and try a hay ride. We weren't able to get any pumpkins because they were sold out, but we did get to do the hay ride and the kids played in a bounce house.

Later that afternoon, we took the kids to a local church pumpkin patch. They only had larger pumpkins and we spent a fortune on them.

The kids really wanted to carve their pumpkins, but in the end it was just a whole lot of work for Mommy and Daddy. Daddy did most of the scraping and carving, and Mommy did most of the clean up. Liam was afraid of the pumpkin seeds, LOL. He and Bailey designed their own pumpkins and Emily carved a bat by herself!

Fall fun in Florida :)

Laundry Room Makeover!

We have lived in our house for almost 14 years and I have never done anything with the laundry room unless you count allowing clutter to pile up on the dryer when going in and out of the house. I decided the other day that it was time to paint in there. I found an adorable decorative box at Michael's that says, "Every family has a story, but I like ours the very best" in a beautiful aqua blue color scheme. I decided to start there. Then I went to Lowe's and found a complimentary paint. On Friday morning I started painting while Liam was at pre-k, and I was done that afternoon. My brother gave us some tile he had left over from another project and my dad was able to install them over the weekend. To top it all off, Will got me a new dryer to match my HE washer.

Now the laundry room is one of my favorite rooms in the house!

Emily's Ocean Adventure

Emily has opted not to have a birthday party this year. Instead she wants to swim with the dolphins. We tried to make this happen in the ocean yesterday with no luck. There were dolphins--but only after her swim was over and the boat was on its way back. Then the dolphins were jumping through the wake. However, she and Daddy had a great time in Cocoa Beach swimming with manatees and seeing lots of interesting creatures. Emily got to hold a pufferfish and touch a crab! Here are some pictures from their day.

Science experiments

This is what the kids wanted to do before school this morning:

Emily got a book called 101 Cool Science Experiments and she and Bella have been dying to try one out--so today they did the baking soda and vinegar (and food coloring) volcano. Fun!