Disney World through the eyes of a 7-year-old

Hey! This is Ender. I thought that Disney World was very fun! I loved Magic Kingdom. It was my favorite park. Tomorrowland was my favorite land in the Magic Kingdom, and Space Mountain was my favorite ride. Space Mountain was so dark that you did not know which twist or turn you were going on. It was AWESOME!!
All I want to tell you is that Disney Hollywood Studios has a very fun roller coaster called Rock N Roller Coaster. I love that it goes really fast and has lots of colored lights.

Some of the other things I liked were the Tiki Room and the Pinocchio restaurant. The Tiki room had lots of awesome funny birds. My favorite was the big red one named Checkers. I read it on his name tag. He looked kind of like a snake with wings. The Pinocchio restaurant had really delicious food. I ate spaghetti and meatballs which is my favorite food.

I am glad we went to Disney World, and if you can you should go someday! It's fun!!!

Love,
Ender!

Tower of Terror...staring Solace, Ender & Armour

As I mentioned in one of my earlier Disney posts, Kindle is 40 inches tall and thus barely tall enough for a lot of the big rides. At first we got her to go on a few, then she decided she only likes flat, slow, non scary rides. Yeah-she's a real dare devil! So, by the time we got to Tower of Terror, we were pretty sure it was not for her as it falls (not flat), is fast and scary. However, we got to the line, got a rider swap, and Kindle measured herself and walked over to Wes to go in. We told her it was scary, it drops, and was fast, and she insisted she wanted to go on it with Wes. INSISTED. We didn't think she would like it but we had decided before we left that we were willing to let them try the rides and form their own opinions. So, Wes entered the line with Solace, Ender, Armour and Kindle. I went to a shady spot to wait.

About 5-10 minutes passed then I saw Wes and Kindle coming out the front. I assumed he was bringing her to me, then running back in line with the others. But he told me that right at the point it takes you into another room, at the point of no return, Kindle refused to go through the door. The other kids were already in the room, so Wes yelled to them to go on and we would meet them at the exit. Solace tried to bail and go with Wes but he told her she needed to stay with the the boys.

They were on their own on the Tower of Terror...an 8 year old, a 7 year old and a 5 year old...interesting...I went into the exit and talked to a very nice lady about what had happened and she told me they would come out this way whether they went on or got too scared. She let Wes, Kindle, Everest and I wait in the area where you can buy pictures. I got more and more anxious as I waited and after what seemed to me like an eternity, the 3 of them walked out holding hands with Solace in the middle. All with fake grins. We asked how it was...Ender and Solace started reciting a rehearsed answer about how good it was and how they were hardly scared at all. Armour said "It was terrible. I did not like it." We asked them all 3 who wanted to go use the rider swap with me...they all refused!
We were glad to have our crew back and were grabbing the stroller to go when a lady-a random stranger came over and handed us a card and said "This is their picture number-you will want this one!"

Our curiosity peaked and although we had vowed not to purchase any Photo pass pictures at the outrageous prices, we went to the counter to see the picture (how could we resist with the strangers recommendation). We bought the download...Have you ever seem sheer terror before? Well, check out this picture:

Well-we managed to test out their fear level and scare them sufficiently. And they got to be big kids and do this all on their own! How grown up are they?!

Ender @ Vala's October 2010

One of those "only on Omaha" things that we will surely miss when we move is Vala's Pumpkin patch. It is like this big Pumpkin Patch with shows and trains, and all kinds of fun activities for families. And of course it is a favorite place for school field trips! Last year Ender had Miss Jenkins for 1st grade and I went and chaperoned his class field trip to Valas. Here are a few pictures of Ender and his buddies at the Patch!

Ender and a buddy on the hayrack ride to pick their pumpkins.

 Pumpkins picked!

 Kindle in the fairy tale area! She is Cinderella!

 The crazy dragon show-he smashes a pumpkin as it falls to the ground from his mouth...BTW Ender is the kid in the red shirt and jean shorts in case you could not recognize him from the back!

 On the train.

Ender is one of the 4 boys in the second row that is looking away (on the far end) and that is his teacher Miss Jenkins in the back.

 Kindle on the train.

Oh Valas...what a unique place you are! I fear nothing Scottsdale can offer will quite live up...

Home Surgery...

During the football season last year, Ender had a head injury. Check it out:

You may think from the pictures that it was a football injury, but it was not. He actually ran into a bar at the playground when he was not paying attention. This injury led to one of the more interesting and more talked of doctor daddy related stories in our family thus far. Wes and I were not excited to go to the ER with him as it costs a ton and we were paying out the wazoo already for Wes's Turkey bowl injury related follow up from January, and my pregnancy. Wes said he could actually easily deal with the head injury with some of the glue they use in the er. We had some, so we proceeded to do what the kids now call "home surgery". Wes wanted to make darn sure it was clean so he bought 2 contact solutions bottles (the big ones) and squirted them on the wound to clean it out as I held a screaming Ender down for what felt like an eternity.

THEN we had to put on the glue-it was a struggle with an irrational 6 year old at that point, but we did it and Wes and I felt like it was done well and worked out...but now Ender brings it up often and he will say things like "Don't run around-you'll get hurt and you will have to get HOME SURGERY!" (That Home surgery part is said in a very foreboding voice...)

I would have forgotten to include this story in this mass catch up, but Ender found the pics and INSISTED I write about it...

Soccer and Football LAST year

Well, as we are about to begin a new fall season of sports ina couple of weeks, I thought I better get the pictures from LAST year up here. How did it get a YEAR behind?! (Hey at least I did get huge events like Solace's baptism and Everest's birth in here)

Anyway, Armour played soccer and Ender opted for flag football for the first time last year. Solace was also going to play soccer but here team was cancelled due to a lack of a coach.

So, first about Armour's soccer...Armour is our natural athlete, and he is ubercompetative. He was on a team with his friend from church, Romey, and she is equally competative. They were playing against each other more than against the other teams most of the time-each of them trying to keep the ball to themselves. Armour was a great player and got lots of goals through the season and had one game where he got 10 goals. Here are a few pictures:

Now about Ender...that kids is a goofball, but he is also very talented. The very first practice was hot and he was in a mood. He kept trying to leave practice and was having major breakdowns. I kept making him go back in over and over and ignored his fit. It got MUCH better after that and he was a star quarterback on the team by the end of the season. He says he got 3 touchdowns on one game (I do not remember, but I think he did not actually run those td's in...he passed them to the guys that did). Wes was on a rotation where he could not attend many games and he could not go to any practices, so I had to take the kids on my own.

Here's a little story about football...One of the techs that Wes was working with at the time had a son on Ender's team. I never thought I would be a yeller mom on the sidelines, but as it turns out, I have a lot to say to the refs adn coaches already-high school should be interesting...

Anyway-after the first practice and first game, Wes was going to be able to come to the 2nd game. So, Wes asked the Tech, Peter, about how it had been going (before he went to the game). Peter said "Oh man-there is a mom that is so awesome-she was making her kids get back in the game and did not put up with any crap from him, the refs or the coach. I will have to point her out to you at the game." Of course at the game Peter came over to Wes who was obviously with me and said "um...I guess the lady is your wife." HAHAHA I am SOOO "THAT" mom...

Here are some of the pictures of football:

And here is a bonus pic of Wes and Kindle on the sidelines:

The boys had a lot of fun and will be returning to the sports they each played last year. This year we will add in a third sport with Solace playing Volleyball for the first time! That will be fun and busy! :)

Picture Day:Long, but funny read-you will laugh!

Oh friends and family! I usually consider myself pretty on top of things. I rarely miss things I am supposed to do and tend to over organize our schedule on multiple calendars where all can check and see what is going on. So, imagine my surprise when on September 14 Solace came home from school just upset and devastated and said "Mom, you forgot picture day." I though she was teasing so I asked Ender and he said "Oh yeah-you missed it, you missed it good!"

WHAT?! How did that happen?! I wrote it on the calendar...on September 21. Oops. My bad.

Well, I should mention that this had been a particularly poor morning. We had very few clean clothes as our washer was in the process of breaking down at the time and I was sick of fighting with it. So, picture that the kids are basically down to their worst clothes. And, we woke up late that morning (I hate mornings anyway and when I am pregnant, it is all I can do to get out of bed in the mornings...). So, the kids were in charge of quickly washing their own teeth and brushing their own hair. Solace actually ran out the door that morning brushing her hair as the bus honked for her out front.

Needless to say, it was not a great looks day for my poor children. So, when they got to school and discovered it was picture day, Solace was really frustrated. I may not have mentioned on here that this year for the first time, Solace's teacher is a man. We love him-he is great! But, I did learn that there is at least one downfall to a male teacher. When Solace was upset about having to go take pictures, she told him that she was upset that her hair was not brushed enough or fixed as she would like it. To which her teacher replied "that's ok, just go in the bathroom and wet it down."

Trusting her teacher, Solace did just that right before going to wait in line for pictures. According to Solace, her hair was wet and a bit drippy but starting to dry when they took her picture.

To make it worse, Ender had been told a recess that day "Do not play on the slides today-they are wet and muddy and we have pictures right after recess." He forgot. He got all muddy, so they sent him to the nurse to get something not muddy to wear. Sadly, all they had for him was clothing 2 sizes too big. So, he took his picture with muddy skin and clothing 2 sizes too big. Awesome.

Wes told everyone at work that our children will look like a wet puppy and a homeless man in their pictures.

Now, as I forgot about picture day and did not order, I have not seen these (and likely will not unless they end up in the yearbook...), However, I expect they are not good.

Fast forward to today...picture retake day. I had great intentions of baths and curlers (for Solace) last night and perfection this morning. Nope, late night out practicing a song for the upcoming program for church and we did not get home for all that.

So, this morning we woke up early enough to clean, curl, and make cute. We had picked out outfits the day before, but Ender would not let me see his until this morning ("It will be a great surprise mom") So, he came in my room this morning and yelled "Surprise!" He was wearing a nice Sunday button up shirt with tie and ripped up old jeans with his favorite shoes-ripped up old camo shoes. I asked him if he wanted to maybe wear pants and shoes that matched his top better and he laughed. Laughed and laughed. When he got his laughing under control he said "Oh mom, these pictures are only from the shoulder up-I will be lucky if the tie makes the picture!"

Solace had the same idea and wore her lovely dress she chose, we curled her hair a bit, and she looked lovely from the shoulder up-under her dress she wore these crazy capris that sort of match and she wore tall socks and Ender's other pair of camo tennis shoes (she couldn't find hers and they wear the same size). She told me, "Well, I need to look great for the picture part of me, but the rest of me needs to be ready for Gymsic today." (Gymsic is a combo of Gym and Music that the 2 teachers do together each Wednesday.)

Well, I cannot wait to see how the pictures turn out, but I swear to you, if they come home today and say, "Mom, I forgot to tell my teacher I needed retakes, here is your check back," I think I will scream...

Kindergarten round up=Ender home!!

Here in Omaha, they have a thing called Kindergarten Round up each year. On that day current kindergartners stay home while the kindergartners for next year go to part of the school day with the teachers. With Ender home for Kindergarten round up, we wanted to do something special so we walked over to the park and had a picnic. Above is us eating our picnic, and below are a few more pics:

Kindle trying her hand at playing on her own

Here is the school boy in a variety of fun playtime activities!

This is Armour being the grumpy old troll (from Dora)...he did crack a smile and lose character a few times...

What fun it was to have one of our school kids home!!! We did miss Solace that day...

Talent Show auditions and day of...

Our poor little Ender had to miss a full week of school in mid May due to medical issues (he had a staph infection in his kidney). During that week was the audition for the talent show, and since Ender was technically not supposed to be at school, Solace had to audition without him. She did well and when he got back to school the music teacher asked Ender to come do his own audition during class, and they ended up getting in. If you want to see the video of the performance, it is here.
Below are a few pictures of audition day, and one of them waiting to go sing on the actual talent show day:

Solace a bit nervous to audition alone...

A

During the audition...

Show day...waiting to go up...

They were nervous but fantastic!! I love having my kids perform, it reminds me of the good old days! :)  But they are much cuter than I ever was!!!