Pumpkin Festival and Veggie Tales

It's been quite a busy week around here. We are planning Bernie's 3rd birthday party for this Sunday, even though his actual birthday isn't until Thursday. It's gets so busy around Halloween, that we kind of have to squeeze it in.

Last Sunday, we went to the Hunsader Farms Pumpkin Festival about 20 miles from here. It's hard to believe farms exist only 20 miles from us, since our area is so busy and populated and basically has no vacant land. We headed to the festival with Marty's parents and sisters. Lots of cousin fun!

Going through the hay maze


Sharing their orange soda, which resulted in orange mustaches the rest of the day.


Grammy caught dancing with the kiddos!


At the Boogie Barn, where you Boogie, of course. Look who was shy and sat down the whole time.

Hay maze, petting zoo, pony rides, circus and so much more!



On Thursday evening, my mom took us to see Veggie Tales Live. Arianna said she loved it while Bernie became somewhat uninterested after intermission.







The kids are standing at the stage for a close up view. This was at the very end. Do you see that black box to the left of Bernie? Looks like a speaker, right?


Well 2 seconds later we found out that it was a bubble machine! Bubby had bubbles all over his head!


What a fun week! Look out for a dino-roaring birthday party coming up!

Beachin' it in October

We are having just about perfect weather. During the mid-day, it can be a bit hot to turn the A/C off, but, ah, feels so nice most of the day. The kids and I enjoyed this perfect weather at the beach today. Just enough wind so you don't sweat, but not strong enough to blow the sand every which way.

When we first arrived at the beach, Arianna was trying to hide from the paparazzi.





However, it didn't take long for her to realize she liked the attention and started to perform


and pose.


Bernie could have cared less about the extra attention and kept his focus on the sand.




Somehow, the camerawoman got him to break that sand concentration and actually got a good laugh.



Here's to hoping the weather stays beautiful and doesn't get hot again!

4th Birthday Cupcake Party!

We celebrated Arianna's 4th birthday on Sunday with a cupcake party.

The "sweets" table with all of the cupcakes.





Pinata Time!


Grabbing all of the pinata loot:


Arianna and Bernie about to decorate their cupcakes.


Each of Arianna's friends with their decorated cupcake.

This collage created with Smilebox

Slightly shy during the happy birthday song


Typical birthday chaos during present opening


A birthday timeline


The birthday girl again, with yet another cupcake!

FOUR Years Old!!

Sneak Peak of the 4 year bash!!!

Weekend Recap

A few days later (as usual), but our weekend was so good, I don't want to forget!

Marty took Saturday off to play golf with some high school buddies. So this freed up a Saturday night (which has only happened 2 or 3 times in the past 4 years) so we went on a date! However, the best part was that Marty's sister, Erica, volunteered to take the kids overnight. (And for the record, a night without either kid has never happened in 4 years.)

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures, but here is a cell phone pic on our way to Erica's.





Obviously, Marty and I were ecstatic (we also thought Erica was slightly crazy for asking of this arrangement) and had a great time together.
But, more importantly, Arianna and Bernie were apparently fantastic at their first sleepover. Bernie had never slept away from home and Arianna only twice.

Erica said she'd do it again!! Success!!!

I'm also taking orders for anybody else willing to one up Erica. A weekend. A full week. We'll take whatever. I'll even dedicate a blog post about you too.


On Sunday, we had (3) free tickets to Disney on Ice. We decided that Arianna would enjoy it more than Bernie, so he stayed with Mimi and Papa. Arianna LOVED it and was reluctant to clap after a performance because she thought it meant the whole show would have to be over. We saw Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck who were the hosts of the show. The performances were brief versions of Lion King (which we missed for being a few minutes late), The Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch ( I didn't care for this one) , and the 2nd half was all Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Arianna's favorite was Tinkerbell and now decided that's who she wants to be for Halloween.

Overall it was great husband and family time.
Marty got a free seat to the Rays and Yankees game on Tuesday night (4th row!) to cap it off.
The Rays lost that night, but that's because I wasn't there with him.

P.S. Don't forget the comments are open to sign up for a few nights with 2 wonderful kids!!!

Thank You Aunt Lisa

For our butterfly nets!
Although we haven't been outside to catch anything yet.

My brother Josh and sister-in-law Ashley were here this week. They are transitioning from Wilmington, NC to Nashville, TN and made some time to visit their favorite Floridians.



We hit the beach, attended a Rays game, and went to Busch Gardens. I took 2 days off work and had to work the other 3, so Josh and Ashley had lots of intimate time with the kids during those days. Thank you for spending so much time with us!

(Most of the photos I got this week are from Busch Gardens since that is the most time I had available to snap them.)


Chugga Chugga CHOO CHOO! Riding the train around the animals.




The Safari at Busch Gardens - although Aunt Ashley shared some of her experience at the real safari from Kenya in April.


The lions, a piece of thick glass, and us! In the perfect spot that day.


They are some ferocious beasts, but so awesome to observe.






Josh couldn't wait to read the map so someone could snap his picture!


Duck watching.





Thank you for spending your week with us, even though we don't like to sit still much!


P.S. I couldn't forget the best picture from the week!