Disney Trip

We left for Kissimmee about 1:30 Friday afternoon.

Ready to go

Taco Bell Stop

Traditional Epcot photo

Epcot

Meeting Alice in Wonderland

Lines were really long for rides, so we spent most of our time in the World Showcase in the back watching different Christmas shows. We did do Test Track because Ty David hadn't done it before, and also Mission Space. But then we heard music from England, Scotland, Mexico and so on.

This was one group we listened to. All the groups were really good.

 Mexico

I loved seeing the kids having fun.

Kwanzaa

We left and went back to the hotel around 5 pm for a couple of hours and then went to Magic Kingdom. I wish we'd just stayed at Epcot. There were more special events we wanted to see, and Magic Kingdom was so packed that we did  little there. We got back to our hotel room at 2 a.m.! That was a different experience for the twins.

Hollywood Studios (They are supposed to be poisng, but they look sad/mad instead!)

 We got information for Jasmine's history fair project.

This is perfect since the topic is Leaders and Legacies.

It was crazy crowded and lines were long. The best part was the Frozen sing a long. Loved it. Went to it twice. 

We went back to the hotel around 5 and decided that just Tyler and Jasmine would go back to Magic Kingdom. I'm not going to go into that. Let's just say it was a preventive measure. You all know what I mean.

Waiting for the light show.

It poured and that cleared it out enough that they were able to go on the Mine Train and Thunder Mountain, the Jungle Cruise (which had a Christmas theme) and do a pirate treasure hunt. They had a really good time and got in around 1 a.m. Kayla was still up watching Disney channel. It was a novelty because the don't watch TV at home, just DVDs. Kaleb fell asleep around 11.

I would love to say we had an uneventful trip home, but that was NOT the case. Everyone is safe and it ended much, much better than it could have. I'll post about that next time. 

Let Vacation Begin!

Well, not quite. But almost.

The kids have a half day tomorrow (Friday). Except one who has been excluded from the class party due to seriously poor choices the past two weeks. A full day of in-school detention made no difference, and the poor choices escalated to the child getting up and leaving the room during classroom instruction, starting arguments with the teacher and shouting over the teacher when she tried to continue teaching. The same is happening in music, art and PE.

Tomorrow (Friday) afternoon we are headed to Disney. We will spend Saturday and Sunday there. The lines will probably be long, but Jasmine is doing her history fair project on Walt Disney (leaders and legacies), so of course we need first hand research at the Walt Disney exhibit at Hollywood Studios. They have a film about his life and displays that show the development of the movies and parks. All sorts of memorabilia. Her project is due not long after they go back to school after Christmas vacation.

Jasmine had spirit week last week. One day was fiction character day.

And there was decade day.

And Christmas sweater day, but she doesn't have any sweaters, so she wore a shirt.

And the last day was dynamic duo day. A friend wore the "I'm with Thing 2" shirt.

The cats have a new favorite nap place.

This year the three youngest got Disney ornaments. I'm afraid all of the children have a very mismatched set of ornaments from ones I cross stitched in the 90's to the gold ones Walmart used to sell and personalize to whatever we saw we liked after Walmart stopped carrying the personalized ones.

After the church program. 
Kayla is shooting up and isn't too much shorter than Jasmine now!

Jessica, Adam and Deja joined us for Sunday lunch, and Jessica put the finishing touches on the homemade peanut butter pie.

Jasmine had her concert Monday night. She's in the back on the right.

Kayla had her first basketball practice for youth center 9-10's basketball last night. I think she will enjoy it. She is going to work hard on being aggressive in good ways and playing as part of a team. I don't have any pictures. The games start January 10th so I will take plenty of pictures then. Both twins are still in gymnastics. Kayla got two stars on her belt tonight.

Tyler flew in today. Yeah, the hair is looking a little rough. Haircut tomorrow before we leave for Disney.

Here's one of Jasmine's concert songs.

Catching Up

This is a catch up post of everything from Thanksgiving until now.

Jasmine helps me in the two year old room at church. They love her.

Two Sundays a month Adam & Deja and Hunter & Jessica join us for Sunday lunch. We all like Chinese, but usually we grill something or I have something cooking in the crockpot that's ready when we get home from church. I didn't have anything ready this time so grabbed Chinese on the way home from church.

Deja had never played Rummikub before, but she caught on quickly.

Doesn't Adam look thrilled that we stopped the game to take pictures? Not.

The puppies visited again. They are not even a year old yet!

Look at the size of his paws! If our puppies get a hold of something, we might be able to get it away from them before it's trashed. If these puppies get something, forget it. Especially if it's food.

This is the first time we've gone to breakfast with Santa. I wasn't really sure what it was before so never bought tickets for it. And with only five of us, it was only $25. When there was 9 of us it would have been $45! But it's an okay breakfast (think powdered scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, boxes of cereal, fruit) plus the kids get a present.

I was really good this year :0

Here's my complaint. For the boys in the 9 and up group they had nerf guns, glow in the dark basketballs, nerf footballs, regulation soccer balls etc. The gifts were out of sight and Santa's helper just chose one and handed it to each child. But you could see all the kids sitting at tables eating with their toys in front of them.

For the nine and up girls, there were only play make up kits. They would have been more suitable for 6-9. Personally I wouldn't give out even play makeup and nail polish to other people's kids because make up is something each parent has to make decisions about. Kayla loved hers (and now she has polish, glitter and eye shadow smeared all over herself), but we negotiated for a boy toy for Jasmine. The younger groups got dolls, play tents, Lego sets (I would have used those for 9 & up not 6-9 because they were big sets), cool trucks etc. The baby toys were amazing too. It was only the 9 & up girls that didn't have any choices and weren't really appropriate.

Fourth grade students have to create something to sell at a business expo to raise field trip money. Kaleb is at a different school and doesn't have to do it. He went on the same field trip last week, and they even ended up having charter buses, but I think the school system picked up the extra expense.

Jasmine marched in the Christmas parade Saturday.

Here's a very short clip of her here at home:

We bought a new smaller tree to replace our old one. Last year we had a real tree but don't want to spend that much money for something we're just going to through away afterwards. In GA we bought living trees still in their buckets at a nursery and planted them outside afterwards.

It came with lights already on it. We haven't put any ornaments on yet.

Jasmine set out three nativities.

We all made sugar cookies.

Ty David called from Kentucky to talk over some Christmas plans. We are making a very quick trip to Disney with a military pass. Jasmine's history fair project is on Walt Disney, so we're going to Hollywood Studios to the display about Walt Disney, how he made his first movies and how he got the idea for the parks. This should count as a primary resource! It's going to be really crowded because we're going the weekend before Christmas.

Jasmine had a choir festival Monday evening. I posted two videos in the last post.

 I got one very bad news e-mail from a teacher today which does NOT put me in the holiday mood!!

I mailed Jeff's Christmas presents today. He leaves for Korea January 10.

Most of my shopping is done. A few last minute things to get and a few things I'm waiting for in the mail.

Saturday night I only slept two hours when I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Sunday Night we were up helping Jasmine finish homework until 12:45!!!!! Last night I couldn't fall asleep until after 2:30, and we have to be up at 5:00. So it took me three nights to get 8 hours of sleep!!

I got my first present of Christmas today. A package from Tyndale, who has published three books I wrote. Their present is almost always my first present.

Cats not included! The back thing is a book with readings for each day of the holiday season. The front one is to hang on the wall. Now to find a spot. Sometime I will post photos of our walls. They are pretty full.

Ahead we have too much homework and too many projects, a dental check up and cleaning, an orthodontist appt, a daytime parade on a school day that all the preschool and kindergarten kids anywhere nears us attend. So there are school buses blocking very small residential roads. There is the boat parade that we've never gone to but might, our church program, the winter band concert, a meds appt, and IEP meeting, our Disney weekend, the rock climbing wall on the way back, and then the Christmas Eve service followed by all our big kids coming over. Then I plan to do nothing for a week except drive three hours so my kids can see a hockey game!

So what's ahead for you?