Our pumpkin "Jack"

On the way home from church tonight we stopped and picked up a pumpkin. The girls being girls decided it needed a name so we named it Jack.

Matt making the first incisions. He started out with a knife but ended up using a small saw.



The kids could not wait to get their hands into that pumpkin! We took the seeds out, cleaned them up and roasted them in the oven. They were awsome!!



The finished product.

Conner's Cornfield Maze

We had a field trip to Conner's Cornfield Maze in Hilliard today. It is always fun when we go there. This year the maze had a "Noah's Ark" theme. You have to follow the numbers to be able to get out of the maze but at each number is a question that the answer determines if you go right, left or straight. Luke and I toured the maze with the girls of our group that were Hannah's age. Let me just say, we got so lost!!! They had no idea what they were doing! We ended up running into the group that had the younger girls in it and they were able to lead us out. Next time I am going with them!

Of course they have much more to do there than just the corn maze. They have go carts that you pedal around a track, some water games, a petting zoo and this cow train ride. Luke and I got to ride in the front while we pulled the kids around. He was more interested in the gear shift than the ride in a tractor!





The kids seemed to really enjoy the hayride.

One of the other attactions is a big tub of corn. The kids get into it and play around. Here, some of the kids are burying Noah in the corn.


And these were too cute! Mommy's little pumpkin!

Florida Times Union

The Jacksonville newspaper was at our archery field trip that took recently. The man took some pictures and told us to watch for them in the next couple of weeks. Well, they were in today! This was the article on the front page of the Metro section. There is also a link to their website to view a slide show of pictures. My kids made it into several of them. Check it out!!

http://www.jacksonville.com/slideshows/071011173031.shtml

We're Back!!!

We are back and we had a blast! We are so tired we don't know quite what to do with ourselves. We will need the next week to recover from our vacation.

We arrived at our condo at "The Fountains" last Sunday at about 4pm. After unloading the car, we headed out to Downtown Disney for dinner at the RainForest Cafe`. We enjoyed our dinner there. The food was average but I think people go more for the atmosphere. It's like eating in the middle of the jungle. We finished our dinner with a dessert they called the Volcano. It was ice cream, brownies and chocolate and caramel sauce. All six of us split it so it was gone in about 30 seconds. You can see it on our table in the group picture of us.





On Monday, surprisingly I had to wake the kids up. I thought they would have been up and dressed by 6am. They have been so excited about this trip. They had been on a count down for weeks! Anyway, we headed out to the Magic Kingdom. We have found out that this was a great time of year to go. We pretty much walked onto every ride. It was so awesome! And this time everyone was tall enough to ride it all with the exception of Luke. It did make the trip a bit more challenging as you can imagine. Matt and I took turns taking the kids on rides that Luke couldn't ride. We spent the whole day there. We did leave and go back to the condo for dinner. I had taken my crock pot and had dinner waiting for us.






Tuesday we had reservations at Cape may Cafe` at the Beach Club Disney resort for our character breakfast. It was an all you can eat buffet breakfast. Minnie, Goofy and Dale (Chip was MIA) came around to our table and spent time with us taking pictures and signing their autograph books as we ate breakfast. These pictures are the kids with the characters at breakfast.






After our breakfast it was back to the Magic Kingdom for day two. We took our time the first day doing every ride and show we could. We got half the park done so we needed to do the other half on Tuesday.




On Wednesday, we took a much needed rest. We hung out at the pool, Matt and the kids played ping pong and we took naps. I for one was completely wiped out! That night we took the kids to Medieval Times for dinner. They put on a jousting show and feed us dinner. The dinner you get does not come with silverware so you have to eat it all with your fingers. It's very interesting! We had soup that we drank from bowls with garlic bread, ribs, half a chicken, half a potato and apple pie for dessert. Matt and I had been there before years ago but the kids had never been and they really like it. The girls bought princess hats and Noah bought an axe and Jacob bought a sword. I know what you are thinking but hey it was their own money. Don't worry, knowing my boys they will be broken in no time at all.


We decided that on Thursday we would go to Animal Kingdom. None of us had ever been there before. I personally am not that excited about animals but they did have some good rides. We enjoyed the Dinosaur and Everest rides they had. There were a couple of other little rides we did too but those were our favorites. I couldn't believe it but the Everest ride is a roller coaster that went backwards! It took you all the way up the mountain then back down backwards! FREAKY!! Even Matt and I were a little shaken up by it. The kids, they LOVED it!!!





Since Animal Kingdom closes early at 5pm we headed back to Downtown Disney for dinner at Planet Hollywood and to do some shopping.



We also made it to LegoLand. They have any Lego product you could ever want. Outside they have a place for the kids to build something out of the legos that are there. Here are the kids building with Legos and Luke sitting next to a basset hound made out of Legos. We thought it looked a lot like our Max!





Is it Friday yet because I am exhausted just typing this out! Friday, we went to MGM Studios. Luke and I had to cut the day short because it rained and he was getting tired by this point. It had been a long week for him. Out of his routine, out of his sleep schedule and in a stroller all day. So Luke and I left Matt and the kids at MGM and picked them up at 8pm when it closed. I did manage to sneak in a ride on the Tower of Terror. Oh my gosh!!!! It takes you up an elevator 13 stories, opens the doors to the outside so that you can see the whole park then....it drops you! Then you go back up and it drops you again. It does this several times. You know that feeling you get in an elevator when it settles? Well, this was 20 times worse! The girls got to see their High School Musical and the boys enjoyed the Rock n Roller Coaster. They seemed to have a great time. Of course I got to hear about all the fun I missed. Luke must have needed the rest because he slept from 2pm-6pm. I must say, it was a relaxing day for me with him sleeping and Matt and the kids at MGM.




Our last full day was Saturday. We again took the opportunity to catch up on much needed rest and slept in. After lunch we ventured out to M&M World at the Florida Mall. What a neat place! They had anything you could imagine with the M&M logo on it. And any color M&M you could ever want. With or without peanuts. Before we left we bought a pound of M&M's for all of us to share.





We found out that the Magic Kingdom was closing at 12am on Saturday night so we went back to do the rides again that were our favorites. We got there around 4pm and stayed until it closed at midnight. We got off the Haunted Mansion at 12:05am. By the time we caught the ferry and the tram to the car it was 1am. We were beat! But it was fun! It was 2am before we got settle down and got to bed and we were up early to pack and check out by 10am this morning. What a long and expensive week this was but our kids had the time of their lives and memories they will never forget!

Here are random pictures of us enjoying our week.......