Zoo Spooktacular

And now back to the kids fun. The zoo has their annual Spooktacular where you hit different treat stations and there are places to dance, get snacks and of course you can see some animals. The highlights for us were the giraffes who were feeding at the overlook and Savannah was so excited, she was shouting giraffe, giraffe, and it actually sounded like giraffe. Then when we went to see the jaguars, they were both out and right at the fence and windows. They have two jaguars, a spotted one and a black one and both were absolutely gorgeous, they have never come up that close before. Savannah kept saying hi kitty. We went through the Haunted Temple and got to see the anteaters right at the window too, it was great. And of course there was candy, popcorn, donuts and chocolate milk handed out. Another great year at the zoo. This was Jaesen's first year going and he was pretty impressed by it all.

Big Kids Halloween Party

Okay so this is the update for what we were for our halloween party. What a day that was. We had soccer games in the morning until 130, then we split teams. I ran to the grocery with Savannah and Jaesen took the boys to the Halloween Superstore (yea!) to choose costumes for us. I baked pumpkin cheesecakes, did 3 loads of laundry, mopped, cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed and Jaesen was still deciding what we should be. Now the party was supposed to start at 5, we got there at 640. Jaesen had technical difficulties with his horns and once he got them on we weren't sure they would come off so easily and we laughed at how he may sit in the front pew at church with horns still attached. That would be a talking point, I'm sure. We had a great time though, Happy Halloween!!!

Tristan's big moment at church

Two weeks ago it was Children's Sabbath at our church, meaning the kids do a large portion of the services and participate in a lot of ways. Well Tristan was among four kids his age chosen to light candles in honor of children from around the world. He was so nervous and so serious. I told him afterwards that he could have smiled, he just looked at me and said "No Mom, I had to concentrate."
And of course this post wouldn't be complete without a funny story from Jack. Last night was the fall festival at the boy's school. Jack won a beanie baby leopard. On the way home he was deciding what to name it. "I think his name should be Sprinkles." He had just named another one of his animals Sprinkles as well. It seems to be popular these days. "And then I think Lin Lin should be his second name, and Octopus will be his third name. His fourth name will be Merlin and Belly (no not Bailey like our dog) will be his last name." So the leopards name is Sprinkles Lin Lin Octopus Merlin Belly. Poor leopard, the other leopards are all gonna tease him. I was dying in the front seat because he was so serious. And Savannah, well she has an ear infection-----again. We have a costume party to attend this evening and have no idea what we are going as, will have to update that later.

Corn Maze

This picture says it all. It was a good day at the corn maze. It was the same place we went last year, the bonus was this year Jaesen got to go, and I wasn't quite as stressed having to do it all. The corn maze was fun (although we all agreed we love the huge one in Massachusetts best), the food was great and the weather was cool so we weren't burning up. The highlight for Savannah was seeing ducks up close and personal. She was thrilled beyond belief and her excitement made us all laugh.
We ended the day buying some pumpkins for the kids (which took about an hour to choose) and by that time Savannah had had enough. It took all I had to get her to the car, diaper changed and strapped in without losing a chunk of hair to Little Miss I'm a Grouch!!!!! All in all though it was another fun day, and a reminder to not take any of it for granted cause who knows what the next set of orders could be.

The beginning of Halloween

For those of you who really know Jaesen, you know that Halloween is his holiday. We always have the best decorated house and the most pumpkins, the most bones in the yard, the most tombstones, etc. So it has been a real disappointment to him that he has missed the last 3 Halloweens due to deployments on the Kitty Hawk and then Iraq. So it was with great fanfare last weekend that he announced, "Get in the car, we are going to the Halloween Superstore." The boys cheered, and so did Savannah since she will do anything that they do. Little did she know it was full of scary Halloween stuff. The whole entire time she was in the store, she screamed. I am not talking little girly screams. But ear piercing, shoot me in the head and put me out of my misery screams. People kept looking at us as if to say, hey your kid is screaming make her stop. I can only hope that one day they experience the joy of a from the bottom of their lungs type screamer. I had finally had enough and took her outside where she was much more pleasant. So we bought out Target, Wal-Mart and the Halloween Superstore. Jaesen is making up for lost time. So we have giant cobwebs on the front of our house, a skeleton hanging from the roof, a graveyard, a boneyard, spiders, strobes, fog, soon it will be pumpkins, but they rot so you have to get them late here in Florida. He is beside himself and can hardly wait for Halloween night. I can only hope he doesn't make too many kids cry when they come to our house for candy.

Smoke Alarm Wake up Call

There really are not many dull moments in our house. Thursday and Friday I have my clinical days at the hospital so we are up and out fairly early, no later than 6 a.m. or so. So it's about 5 minutes to 6, I go in to get Savannah to find out her diaper leaked and she and her bed were soaked. The boys meanwhile are making waffles and crashing in to each other in the hall as they try and find their clothes that are laid out for them in the same place as always. You never know I may try and hide those clothes someday.... Anyway, I am stripping Bean's bed after changing her whole outfit and this horribly loud noise goes off. I run out into the kitchen, pull the waffles out of the toaster, and my english muffin which the boys had recooked and probably caused the whole calamity, and started out to the garage with the toaster to remove the smokiness. I run into Jaesen in a tshirt and boxers trying his hardest to beat the code into the keypad for the house alarm. At this point we have one child crying from the noise, two eating waffles, one person trying to solve the problem at the wrong alarm box. I got the toaster to the garage and shout and point to Jaesen that he is doing no good since it's the smoke alarm, not the burglar alarm going off. I start to fan the alarm with a towel and get Tristan to fan using the front door and just as Jaesen gets up to be able to reach the alarm it stops buzzing. Par for course. By this time it's about 6:10 and noone is in the car or has shoes on, including me. Fortunately I made great time on the freeway!