A Fall Tradition

On Monday the MOPS group at our church went to Cox Farms. The kids and I really like this place. Wesley told me, "Today we are going to my favorite place in the world- Cox Farms." That evening he said that his favorite places are Cox Farms and Great Wolf Lodge.

When we first got there about 10:15 there was not a line for this slide. Later in the day there was a line but not as long as it usually is. Going in September is great because there are fewer people.
The kids liked this slide and this year Lydia had no problem climbing the ladder by herself.
We went on the hayride with the other moms from MOPS. For the most part we all stayed together for about three hours which was awesome.

My friend Leslie took 12 pictures of us and this is the best one. If you want good shots of kids (and moms), you have to take a lot of photos!

These little piglets were six days old.

Lydia decided she could and would do the climbing obstacle course after she saw Wesley do it. She did it by herself.

Wesley was really good at the rope swing.

This is the MOPS coordinator with her two little girls.

Wesley remembered the volcano slide from last year. Both kids liked it.

Kamber's little girl Adeleigh loved it.

Wesley also remembered how the goats scared him last year but he wanted to feed them again. He wasn't afraid this year. Well, maybe just a little. Lydia held on to the cake cone of food for a surprisingly long amount of time (relative to the other kids) while the goats ate it. After she had finally dropped the last of the cone, one of the goats did knock her down. I think the goat was just rushing by her and bumped her a little hard. She was okay though.

The kids liked climbing on this mulch.

At one point as we walking between slides, I realized Lydia wasn't with us. I turned around and she was sitting on this tractor.

The kids loved this big slide. Here is Michele and Rachel and Lydia. When we were there last October there was a long wait for this slide but yesterday there was no wait.

Here are Lucas, Evan, Wesley and Lydia.

Wesley also liked this rope swing and did it over and over again.

Lydia was able to hang on the rope swing briefly.

She needed help to get on and off this tractor. She loves to "drive".

We said goodbye to Lucas and Julia after 4:30 and headed home. Yes, we were there for 6 1/2 hours! What a fun day!

Notice how these two are wearing orange and maroon? Go Hokies!!!

First Day of Preschool

Actually all of these pictures were taken the day before the first day of class. On this day we went to the school to meet the teachers. One of my friends was sweet enough to keep Wesley for me while I met with Lydia's teacher and then she kept Lydia while I met with Wesley's teacher.

I am glad I took these pictures because I couldn't get everything together in time to take pictures on the actual first day of school. I don't know what happened to the time. Last school year, I did two drop offs and got to work by 8:30. The first week of school, I barely got both kids to the same school at 9:00.

Lydia was very excited about going to school but she has told me several mornings that she wants to go Ms. Joan's house.
Wesley wanted to take a picture with his arm around Lydia but she didn't want that. This picture shows how she is always looking at Wesley to know what to do next.
Every year I hope to take a picture of them by the front door to show how much they grow over the years.

Lydia was nervous when we first got to her classroom but once she discovered the toys, she was so happy. She really liked playing with the assistant teacher.

She loves kitchen sets and babies so she is pretty happy in her classroom.

One of Lydia's friends and neighbors in her class.

Lydia likes her teacher.

This is Wesley's teacher. At first he was a little sad to have a new teacher. He loved his teacher last year. Wesley's classroom is smaller than Lydia's and there are more kids in his class but it seems to work. This teacher has been in the same room for several years and she has a great reputation at the school. So far Wesley really likes her. She gives homework! In pre-K! Well, it isn't really homework. If they do extra worksheets (writing letters) she gives them stickers. So far, Wesley likes doing homework. We only do one sheet, maybe two, a day.

Now That Was A Halloween Party!

On Thursday night Wesley was exhausted. After a day wihtout a nap at Animal Kingdom, dinner at Chef Mickey's, and then swimming in the pool he was one tired little boy. When I gave him a shower, he kept sitting down saying that the was tired and then he laid down in the floor after getting his pajamas on. That night he fell out of bed twice. The rest of the week he was fine.

About 4:00 AM, Lydia woke up to go to the bathroom. She didn't want to get back in her crib; she wanted in our bed. At home this would never be allowed but I let her since it was vacation and I didn't want her screaming and waking up other people. I got up at 6:45 to get ready to go with Dianna to our Keys to the Kingdom Tour. Both kids woke up before I left, but Chris was able to get them to go back to sleep by putting them both in our bed. He had to wake them up at 9:30! He let them sleep late because he knew they would up late.
While Dianna and I were on our 5 hour tour Wayne and Chris took the kids to Magic Kingdom. We saw them right before they got stuck on Pirates for 20 minutes.

Dianna and I thought the tour was wonderful. Afterwards we met up the rest of the family. Here is our sweet little princess.

Dianna and Wayne drove the cars.

I didn't want to drive them again because it made my leg hurt to hold the pedal down.

I finally got Lydia to take a nap in her stroller right before dinner. She slept through dinner which was fine. We ate at the Kona Cafe and I thought it was delicious. Dianna got this cool dessert - ice cream in a waffle cone with cotton candy on top.

After dinner we got back on the monorail and returned to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

The Halloween Parade was spectacular. I loved all the floats and characters and music. Before the parade started the Headless Horseman rode by but I missed getting a picture of him.

All the characters were dressed up. Tigger was a pirate.

Eeyore was the saddest clown I have ever seen.

Below is Captain Hook's ship. The tic tocking crocidile was a complete float behind him. Peter Pan and the Lost Boys were also in the parade. There was also a great pirate ship with Jack Sparrow.

The floats were amazing. Because it was dark, I didn't get a lot of great pictures of all the different floats. The parade was fun and peppy and completely enjoyable. It was far better than all the other parades we have seen there and the other parades are good.

Goofy and his candy company were at the end of the parade.

We saw a lot of great adult costumes but this guy was the best. The Head Salesman from the Jungle Cruise.

Donald was dressed up a like pumpkin. Check out the cute little Donald beside him.

Princess Daisy.

It is so hard to get both kids looking at the camera at the same time.
There were no lines for the rides. Some of the character lines were really short. The longest wait was for Snow White and the Seven Drawfs because all seven are usually not out together. We skipped the long wait.
We trick or treated around Magic Kingdom. There were several places where cast members were giving out candy. We let Lydia hold her own bag and the next day we noticed there were a lot of empty wrappers in the bag.

There was a dance party with Pluto and Goofy. We recognized the DJ from John and Erika's wedding.

We made sure that we saw the 8:30 parade because we didn't think we would still be out at 10:30. We were wrong. We stayed until the park closed. The five hour Halloween Party was so much fun and the time went by really fast.

Wesley fell asleep right after we told him that the park was closing and we were leaving. It was midnight! You can see that Lydia was still enjoying the candy. It was almost 2:00 by the time we got out of the park, got to our car, got to the hotel, and then got ready for bed. Lydia finally fell asleep then. She was a little jacked up on candy.

Segway Tour

Wayne and Dianna did a Segway tour in Epcot on Wednesday morning. They said it was great
Here on some pool pictures from Thursday night.
The lazy river was fun.

Here is Lydia getting ready to swim to the wall without the lifejacket. She can go about three feet before she sinks.