Overdue Vacation Pics - Part Two

After visiting the Lego store and other fun places at Downtown Disney, we decided to find somewhere to eat dinner. We headed over to Pleasure Island, another section of Downtown Disney, which has a variety of restaurants and shops. (Interestingly, it used to have nightclubs, but they are all closed down and they are making it all more family friendly!) We ate at a new restaurant there called Paradiso 37. It was by far our priciest meal of the week, but we enjoyed the interesting flavors of the Americas! After dinner, one vehicle loaded up with the men and half the children, while my mom, sister, Jonathan (our bodyguard who always stayed half a block away to make sure we didn't dampen his style!), and I stayed to shop around a bit with the toddler duo of Nathaniel (age 2) and Juliana (age 3). We had a lot of fun...enjoy the pics!

Nathaniel and I enjoying dinner

my sister and her clan at dinner

the toddler duo contained...for the moment!

my sister, my mom, and I having a little fun

(photo courtesy of Jonathan!)

grandmom and Nathaniel riding the "choo-choo"

my all time favs...Pooh and friends!

the toddler duo...free at last!

Overdue Vacation Pics - Part One

A few weeks ago (although it seems like a lifetime ago now!) our family, my sister's family, and our parents took a week long trip to Orlando, Florida, for a mini family vacation. We rented a beautiful house with a pool that more than accommodated all 14 of us (that would be six adults and eight kids!) and ventured out and about each day to various area attractions. The first night we were there we went over to one of my favorite places in Orlando, Downtown Disney. The following pictures are from the Lego Imagination Center there...more pics will follow from other things we did that night and later that week, but I have so many pics, I need to chunk them into groups to keep the posts semi-manageable! Enjoy!

the wall of single Lego bricks you can buy by the pound

I love the sky behind these two pics of the boys!

my happy two year old!

attempting to climb a mini climbing wall

cousins working together on a Lego creation

one of the few decent pics my teen allowed...and he's actually helping his brother!

Benjamin's finished product...he wanted a picture to remember!

Dave and the younger boys enjoying the beautiful scenery and weather!

Our Advent Tree

A few years ago I expanded on the tradition of an advent calendar by creating an advent tree for our boys. I found these ornament boxes and immediately thought that they would be great for hiding little goodies for the boys as we counted down to December 25. The boys take turns opening one box each night to find the treat inside. From our almost 15-year old to our 2-year old, each of the boys enjoys this tradition. When I have something that doesn't fit in the box, I put a paper with a clue to the item in the box, or, this year, just a number that clues me in to my "master list" of items. They wait expectantly as I go to our "back room" and rummage around to find the item that the number indicates. Usually I have four of an item so that each child gets something, but sometimes, the treat is for the entire family (e.g., a new DVD). This tree is in addition to our regular tree and sits in our dining room. It's a lot of fun and something I look forward to planning each year for that little something extra that makes the Christmas season fun and memorable!

our advent tree

What I am Thankful for...

This photo was taken in Florida a couple of weeks ago. When I have a spare moment (ha!) I will post about the trip, but I didn't want to let November come to an end without posting what I was thankful for...God, my family, and having all the necessities (and little extras!) that we need. Life is good!

Quote of the Day

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too."

— Somerset Maugham, English playwright and novelist

I Love Fall!

Just wanted to check in on this chilly, crisp, fall day and say:

I LOVE FALL!

(That's all!)

Jonathan

My sister has been hinting not ever so subtlely that I needed more photos of my older two boys on the blog. Well, Sabastian doesn't mind being the center of attention in photos, but Jonathan avoids the camera if at all possible. So, I had to be sneaky in getting a photo of our teenager, but here's what I got:



It was taken holding the camera backwards...not too bad, I guess! Since he slept the summer away, I'm not sure where the muscles are coming from, but he is lifting weights a little with Dave now to enhance them. The girls have definitely noticed our handsome son and vice versa. May I just go on the record to say that the teen years are not my favorites thus far? And I have a looong way to go to be out of them!