Halloween Time at Disneyland

So what if it was 100 degrees? It's still Fall and the Halloween decorations are everywhere at Disneyland! We had a fantastic day despite the heat. The Haunted Mansion was all done up in The Nightmare Before Christmas theme, which was so cool. Riley amazed us with her passion for fast and scary rides, living up to her nickname: Danger Baby. The girl is fearless! Cole continues to be Mr. Cautious, and that has become a nickname, too. He refused to ride the Matterhorn or Pirates of the Caribbean, and all Riley could say was, "Let's go again!" She is so excited to be 40 inches tall so she can go on more rides!

We had lunch at The Blue Bayou, our favorite!

Riley in a staring contest with Minnie Mouse
Cole just moments before making his mama dizzy on the teacups!
Danger Baby and her daddy on their first of several Matterhorn rides
Even Danger Baby needs a nap after a long day!

Calling All Princesses!

Last night was Princess Night at our local Chick-Fil-A. Since we get so much out of their Tuesday Family Nights, I offered to facepaint if they could ever use me. Well, they called and asked if I'd come to Princess Night. I started at 5 pm and did not even get to stand up and stretch until the last face was painted at 9 pm (it was supposed to end at 8!). I did countless princess "crowns" and unicorns, and I stopped counting kids after the 50th one sat down. Needless to say, facepainting was a hit that night, and it went well with the castle bounce house, the princess etiquette lessons and photographer offering portraits. I handed out lots of business cards and I'm hoping for a few facepainting jobs to come my way. It's something I love to do!

Our little princess, all ready to party!

Sum-Sum Summertime

Can summer be over already? Are the $500 electric bills over too, I hope? Here's a look back at some of the fun we had over this past summer. We weren't able to take a vacation this year, but we still managed to have a good time.....

Riding the train at Castle Park
Whoever thought of the double steering wheels was a genius!
Aunt Britt makes the coolest blanket forts!
Coley turned 6 on July 8th and celebrated with a pool party
We are Chick-Fil-A addicts (we blame Heather Weber for her influence) and rarely miss Family Night or special events like Cow Appreciation Day. They know us by name there!
We ate ALOT of watermelon this summer!
We had lots of great swim days at the pool with our friends. Here are Cole and Alexis!

We spent most of this summer getting unpacked and settled into the new house, and getting Bryan's new company off the ground meant Daddy was working lots of long hours. We took advantage of the free summer kid movies at the theater, did alot of swimming at our wonderful community pool, and got to spend some great times with our friends. We had fun, but we're more than ready for the heat to end and for Fall to arrive. The kids are already planning Halloween costumes!

First Day of School

Coley started first grade on July 28 at Todd Elementary and he absolutely loves it. His teacher is Mrs. Lance and she runs a pretty tight ship, as Cole has come to discover! The classroom is equipped with electronic everything.....even the blackboard is a computer screen! The kids take tests on hand held responders and the test results are emailed to us! Here are a few photos of the first day of school....

Looking so cute with those missing front teeth!

So excited to have his own desk!

Little sis was more than happy to have the place to herself but soon started missing her brother. Baking cookies proved to be a good distraction, but every 30 minutes or so she would ask, "Where Cole?"

Peach Day 2008

We try to get out to the Owen homestead to pick peaches by mid-August when the trees are hanging heavy with ripe fruit. We were in luck this year, and were able to pick about 30 pounds of Babcock peaches before they "mysteriously" disappeared overnight, which has happened more times than I care to remember. All we'd find the next morning were bare branches and some empty beer bottles.

So, this year it was Mom, Britt, Cole, RiRo and Betsy. We were glad Dad was away for the day because he might not have entirely approved of our peach-picking methods, which included cutting down the best branches so we could pick them clean.

It was an all-day event. We picked, we bagged, we cleaned, we pealed. Then we baked. All in all, we made about a dozen crisps and cobblers, some of which we passed out to our friends and neighbors, and some of which we greedily kept for ourselves. So if you weren't one of the lucky ones, there's always next year.