The Mosenthins

September and October Picture Marathon

2011-10-31T17:06:00.000-04:00

It seems like fall (such as it is here in FL) has thrown us into a whirlwind of busyness that I'm sure is only going to get crazier as the holidays get closer. I thought I would post some snapshots of the past few weeks before I start posting pictures from several fall/Halloween events.

Since "Lion King" was just re-released on blue-ray, 3D, etc. they had it in theaters in 3D for about two weeks. Kay-Kay and I went straight from school one afternoon to watch it. When we went to buy our tickets and the girl saw K's shirt and her Simba and Nala "pals", she was pretty sure she knew what we were there to see. :-)

I pulled out these washable window/mirror crayons one day when Kaelyn didn't have school. For some reason, it's so much more fun coloring on the mirror or a window than on regular paper.

I'm not sure it actually shows up in this picture but Kaelyn had written "Kaelyn loves Ross". Ross is a good buddy of hers from school.

Kaelyn informed us on this particular Saturday morning that she would get her own cereal. She is behind the curve on her independent skills but it seems like all the sudden, it has dawned on her that it is not cool to have an adult help you do everything and she is really getting much more independent now.

Sweetness on a lazy Saturday.

School picture day.

Out to Carrabba's for my birthday.

All of us at my birthday dinner. I said to Kevin, "I can't believe everyone else is looking and smiling and "fit" in the picture but you're not smiling." He said he thought he wasn't in the picture, thus the funny look.

Kaelyn said, "Take a picture of me. I'm going to do something really hilarious." :-) I think she was trying to look like Grumpy here.

Checkin under her pillow the morning after the tooth fairy came.

This was the first thing she did and she was still barely awake as you can tell.

Kevin showing her how to play one of his wii games.

This is the week she was home all week with strep and you can kind of see in her eyes that she wasn't feeling real great.

We had Jessica Brown's 16'th birthday party on a GORGEOUS Saturday afternoon at Sandsprit park.

Kaelyn was very impressed with the cake since it had the Eiffel Tower on it. The party was themed in Paris stuff.

Brittany and Kay watching Jessie blow out the candle and cut the cake.

Gay and Kaelyn looking at the water. This is the Indian River and it is one thing that makes this park so beautiful and enjoyable.

Can we say giant pumpkin? :-)

Me and my Sweetie.

And my other Sweetie.

Ready for the Rain.

2011-10-23T18:47:00.000-04:00

Kaelyn was out of school all of this past week with strep throat. Tuesday, I took her to the doctor. It had rained off and on most of the day (actually for several days). It wasn't raining terribly hard when we got home but there were puddles above my ankles between the car and the house. I thought, "Great, that's just what I need. Kaelyn getting her feet soaked and cold when she's already so sick." Then I remembered that she has a pair of rain boots that she had never worn yet. I went in and got them for her and she insisted on using her umbrella too. She looked just as cute as can be all ready for a walk in the rain.

Isn't She Lovely...

2011-10-09T01:52:00.002-04:00

Isn't she lovely

Isn't she wonderful

Isn't she precious

Less than one minute old

Isn't she pretty

Truly the angel's best

Boy, I'm so happy

We have been heaven blessed

I can't believe what God has done

Through us he's given life to one

But isn't she lovely made from love

(Taken from Stevie Wonder's song "Isn't She Lovely")

Last weekend at Epcot, Kaelyn and I were sitting down resting while waiting on Kevin. Kaelyn was "smelling" and playing with this flower that she picked. I was taking a couple pictures of her on my phone and I just happened to catch the setting sunlight on her face and hair. When I looked at the picture after taking it, I couldn't get over how pretty the light made her look. Even though the picture is not great quality since it was taken on my phone, it is a new favorite. Every time I look at the picture, it strikes me just how beautiful and sweet she looks here (pardon my mommy partiality kicking in here).

I was just going to post the picture above but I decided since I was doing a blog post and loading pictures from my phone, I may as well post some other recent ones from my phone. These were all taken sometime within the past week.

She's crazy! She loved this fake snake and what's more, she really has no clue that some people are totally freaked out by snakes and would NOT care for this fake one. I'm not sure how she would react around a real snake but I'm not so sure she would be bothered by it. It was her idea to wrap it all around herself. She needed my help with it but it was totally her idea.

I said, "Pretend it's giving you a kiss on the cheek" (mainly just joking) but she did it and then did it again so I could get a picture. (Once again, most of these pictures look fuzzy and not real great quality).

We put her in a purple shirt because we wanted to make sure she matched the poles at Magic Kingdom.

:-D Ha ha ha! Just kidding of course!!!

She got a Mickey lollipop from the Boo to You parade at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

She had just lost one of her top middle teeth on this morning.

When they found out (at Hollywood Studios) that she had just lost her tooth that morning, they gave her one of the special buttons to wear around. She was SO proud of her button!

Phineas and Ferb

Reading, reading, reading.

OH NO! Yes, it's true. The other top middle one came out today. Now she is missing both her two front teeth ---- and she has her school pictures this week.

She can't stop looking at herself, or more specifically the spaces in her gums, in the mirror every time she passes a mirror - or anything that reflects for that matter - for instance, the window at Five Guys. We were eating outside and she kept looking at her reflection in the glass. I'm sure the people sitting inside were wondering why she had her mouth pressed up to the window looking like she was peering inside. :-)

Joy's Recital

2011-10-08T12:41:00.000-04:00

When we were in New York this past summer, our trip happened to be timed just right so that we got to attend one of Joy's piano recitals. I was very happy since so many of those things of Joy's we all miss now since we're all away from home - and so far away besides. It was a Sunday afternoon at a local Catholic school. Leah and Maddie also came so we all had a "good 'ole time". Joy's song was Fur Elise and she plays it beautifully (we got to hear the "pre-views" of it also when she was practicing at home).

Waiting for the recital to start.

Chatting during the break.

Look at that tongue. :-) She sat and layed contentedly on my lap for a long time like I wasn't a stranger even though this was the first time we saw her.

Standing around chilling during the intermission.

This one some how got out of order. I love the way Maddie just looked at Kevin like she was posing for him in these pictures.

A picture of the outside of the school. A beautiful building.

Finally her turn.

I love all these pictures where she is VERY concentrated on her playing.

All of the piano students gathered for a group picture afterwards. I don't remember how many students Mrs. Barnum has but I'm thinking it was close to 40. It was quite a chore just getting them all arranged by height so that you could see them all! :-)

The "already arranged" students waiting patiently for the pictures to be taken.

Joy and her piano teacher.

Joy with Mama and Daddy. A couple of GREAT pictures of the three of them.

I was so happy to get to be there and be part of Joy's "fan" section, :-)

More cute elephant pictures

2011-09-15T15:27:00.002-04:00

No, it's not Dumbo this time. A few weeks ago at Animal Kingdom, a baby elephant was born. Back when the first baby elephant was born at AK, they kept it in it's "backstage home" for several months. Since this is the sixth baby elephant born to the herd, they were able to introduce him to the other elephants much sooner. We were so excited to get to see him when we were at Animal Kingdom last Saturday because he was only about two weeks old and he had just been "released" onto the savanna that week. His name is "Jabali" which means "strong as a rock" in the Swahili language.

This is a cropped/zoomed picture of one we got on our camera. He was a bit hard to see as he was right up under his mom and older sister.

His older sister is quite protective of him - about as much as the mother herself.

I copied these two pictures (the one right above and right below) from the Disney Parks blog since obviously they have better pictures. These show just how tiny he is comparatively though he will eventually grow to be more than 10,000 pounds.

This is his big sister, Kianga and his mom, Vasha (I'm guessing also African names). The most recent blog posting about him said that he's making friends with one of the other "baby" elephants that just turned a year old. She's also small but not like this one. This is a small "blip" that I copied from the blog because I thought it was interesting and cute:

"Members of our elephant team report that, at first, when Jabali approached Luna, she would run away, probably not sure what to make of the new kid on the block. Then, once she became more comfortable, she would try to wake him up when he took a nap – until big sister Kianga put a stop to that. Now, the team reports Jabali and Luna are hanging out together."

So there you have it - me and Kaelyn's newest online fascination.

Have You Ever Seen An Elephant Fly? ;-)

2011-09-07T00:41:00.000-04:00

The Dumbo ride at Magic Kingdom is one of Kay-Kay's favorite rides right now. Her Dumbo pal always has to ride with her of course, and now she has a new pair of "Mickey" ears all except they're Dumbo Mickey ears.

We had to take the hat off before the ride started or it would have flown off for sure.

These two pictures were actually while we were waiting to get on the ride.

Cute and Sweet (And Short and Sweet)

2011-08-21T23:19:00.001-04:00

Just a couple - or three - pictures that I thought were too cute to pass up on posting. I have more pictures chosen and ready to blog when I get a chance but I thought I would sneak these ones in in the meantime.

All three of these pictures are from this past June when we were in New York. We spent a couple days at a cabin on Peck's Lake with Kevin's family. The lake and surrounding mountains were absolutely beautiful and we had a good time taking the boats out on the lake and making smore's etc. on the campfire.

Back to School

2011-08-18T18:27:00.001-04:00

I have tried to do this post since Monday. I attempted to upload pictures to blogger Monday night, Tuesday night, AND Wednesday. Each time, I would get a few or even a lot of them uploaded just to have blogger get "hung up" and then all the pictures I DID have would also "go away". So I got as many as would load last night saved in a draft in a long, slow process and then finished the rest today. I'm not really sure what to be frustrated with - blogger, our internet, or my computer - but make no mistake, I can still be frustrated . And now that I have gotten that off my chest and you all know what sacrifice it was to bring you these pictures, I can resume this regular blog post. :-D

Monday was Kaelyn's first day back to school. The beginning of this year has been as good as the beginning of last year was terrible. Kaelyn has the same teacher and aides that she had for Kindergarten last year. The [autism] Kindergarten and first grade classes are together this year and there are only three Kindergartners so all of her classmates are even the same except for those three new ones. Other than a different classroom and a different grade level of work of course, everything has stayed the same for her, which is a really good thing for autistic kids.

Buster wasn't too happy about being left behind when we were getting ready to walk out the door.

I asked K if she wanted a picture with Buster and this is the best we could get. :-)

The Brown's got Kaelyn this globe when they were shopping for school supplies over the weekend. She loves it of course (maps, globes, gps's, etc. are one of her current obsessions/fascinations for those of you who don't know that already). She was genuinely "studying" it while I got my shoes on but I thought it made a perfect Back to School picture.

The heat and humidity outside instantly fogged up my camera lens giving the hazy effect here.

She was so proud of her new outfit. She LOVED it!

Can't believe she's in first grade already!

Outside with her other classmates that are car riders waiting to walk together to the classroom.

Chipotle after school.

Opening the box that her new backpack came in. I ordered her a personalized backpack online and it came Friday right before school started Monday.

She told me the next day, "I'm so excited about my new backpack."

And now a complete change of subject and pictures but these pictures are also from last weekend right before school started. Since I loaded them to my computer at the same time as the school ones, I thought I may as well go ahead and post them as well.

The Brown's just got a new pedal boat and the kids were excited (at least Megan was) for Kaelyn to go out in the boat with them. They even bought an extra life jacket so there would be enough. They just took it around the canal behind our houses where the water is calmer.

Zach and Rod took the first shift of pedaling.

They came up behind our place so I walked out to the back porch to see them. I'm not sure if you can tell unless you enlarge the picture but Kaelyn was waving and yelling to me here.

Kevin was down on the Brown's dock and zoomed in and took this picture of me standing on our back porch watching them.

Then Kevin and Rod took just Megan and Kaelyn out.

The canopy is an especially nice addition especially in the Florida summer heat.

Mother's Day and other May stuff

2011-08-12T00:31:00.000-04:00

Still posting photos from May. Luckily, life hasn't been quite as exciting the past couple months (at least picture wise) so hopefully I won't be behind forever with all the pictures I want to post. ;)

These first two pictures are from the Saturday before Mother's Day.

Mother's Day Sunday after church, Kevin took several pictures of Kaelyn and I. I thought it might be interesting to post some from Mother's Day LAST year first:

Mother's Day 2010

Interestingly enough, we were "working with" a windy day both years as you can see in the pictures.

Mother's Day 2011 (though I'm sure you probably could have figured that out on your own by the different outfits and change in location).

I didn't have a stomachache here, I was just holding my shirt down because the wind kept blowing and poofing it out. :-)

Guess who had to be close by and try to get into every single picture? (though he didn't realize he was part of a phototshoot)

Probably my favorite of them. Some of you saw this one as my facebook profile picture for awhile.

She is such a Mommy's girl, which I am just fine with.

Kaelyn only "lasts" for so long when it comes to pictures - understandably so.

This is one of the nights when Kaelyn wasn't feeling well during the time when she was having all her stomach issues. Buster usually just curls up at her feet. He even has his own blanket we put at the end of the bed or sleeping bag if she's sleeping in her tent. But he seems to know and be worried when something is wrong and she's not feeling well and he had to be right up beside her that night - at least for the first little bit after she went to bed.

Kay and Megan wearing their matching shirts.

This ice cream cone was a big deal for Kaelyn because we ususally make (made) her get her ice cream in a cup because she never could quite figure out how to eat the ice cream in a cone without a spoon. She insisted on having a cone this time so we let her and she did just fine and was very proud of the fact that she had an ice cream CONE.

Kaelyn's Birthday Party

2011-08-06T14:25:00.001-04:00

I was sitting at the computer choosing pictures from Kaelyn's birthday to blog and she was sitting next to me. So she helped me choose which ones I should post. :-) Actually, if I would have posted ALL the ones that she thought were interesting, I would have posted them all and then you would have really been bored. She had so much fun at her birthday this year. She has just started really "getting" what birthdays and more specifically, birthday parties are about and she still talks about her birthday party.

First, an "extra" picture thrown in here, which WAS taken sometime right around the b.day party. :-)

Chillin' and watching a movie before the party starts. She asked me what she was watching here in this picture and of course, I had no idea... but SHE REMEMBERS!

Rach working on the birthday cake.

Kay desperately wanted a Phineas and Ferb party and cake so I bought a toy set and we (mostly Rachel) made our own. (I baked it and Rachel decorated it.)

I crawled back behind the table to work on the balloons and stuff.

Birthday girl.

The table/decor

Look how pleased she looks!

Honestly, I wanted something far more girly or cute than Phineas and Ferb but she kind of had her heart set on this so that's what we went with and she was so excited and happy.

Pizza for supper.

So I have to share this: Every time Kaelyn sees these pictures of the kids eating she has to tell about what she was saying while they were eating. She informed them all (several times) which direction they were - Andrea was south, Kay was north, Megan was west and Zach was east.

Gift time

Long story here but I'll try to summarize it: I had a conversation earlier in the day about Kaelyn needing to take a nap or at least rest because she hadn't been getting much sleep and I told her I was afraid she would be grumpy and ornery for her party. Totally unrelated to that, Rach and John had found this plush Grumpy Dwarf. The only reason they got Grumpy was because he was the only one of the seven dwarfs that they had. As soon as Kay opened the present and saw it was Grumpy, she thought it was being implied that SHE was Grumpy and she took it very personally and was embarrassed. :-)

We couldn't quite figure out at first why she flopeed over on the floor all embarrassed and upset and then I finally figured it out by comments she made to me a little later about how she didn't want to be grumpy etc.

I like this one a lot!

I think the look [in the picture above] was amusement and sheepishness over this "scene" here. John was acting out Grumpy or something. :-)

Mr. Potato Head shirt that she LOVES.

Perry the Platypus t-shirt

Perry sunglasses from the Brown's that went with the shirt perfectly.

Britt with the canine party guests.

Excited and surprised over a present.

The Eiffel Tower - another long story that I'll spare you the details of. All I can say is - only Kay-Kay! (And yes, she was quite happy to get her own Eiffel Tower)

She's so cute you can't help but love her to death! :-)

Buster has the same birthday as Kaelyn, which is kind of funny and cool. Brown's big dog ,Izzy's birthday is the next day so they got their own cupcakes. :-)

Izzy wasn't impressed with being up there for the picture and she jumped down before we got the picture. Buster of course doesn't care if there's food there or a burning candle, if he can get it in his mouth, he thinks it's edible. :-)

Kay-Kay and Megan

Kevin and I trying out the new Disney songs sing-along wii game.

The only bad thing about this whole day/party is that --- my little girl is a year older - and I can't stop her from getting older too quickly! :-(

Chillin'

2011-08-03T21:46:00.000-04:00

These are the last of the pictures that have been sitting in my blog folder. Gonna' move away from vacation pics. now (though I might go back and post a few more later) and on to other stuff after this post. These are all pictures from "take it easy" days when we didn't go to the parks, we just hung out at the pool, did a little shopping, hung out at the resort etc.

This picture is actually supposed to be turned horizontally but I guess blogger thought it knew better which way to post the picture.

There are several pool areas at the resort where we stayed and the family area pool is awesome complete with a fountain area, wading pool w/mushroom, water slide, volley ball net and basketball hoop in the pool etc.

Kay doing her word search puzzle book.

Wyatt playing with his legos.

John grabbed our camera one morning when no one was around and took this stunning self-portrait. He should have known it would come back to haunt him. :-)

Fun Photo Shoot (Hollywood Studios)

2011-07-26T21:38:00.002-04:00

So, "photo shoot" might be too official of a word for what these pictures are. When we were at Hollywood Studios on vacation, Rach and I decided to stop and take a bunch of pictures by an "old" street sign and suitcases. Not great pictures, but certainly fun - and we had fun doing it. It was well into the evening so one kid was out for the count and the other one was quite tired. :)

(I did several zoomed and further out because it's harder to see the "subjects" in the ones taken further back but the surroundings are neat to see too.)

Can you believe it? Two otherwise great shots but in the first one my eyes are closed, in the second one, Rach's eyes are closed.

I didn't post many of Rach and John in case she wants to post or use them herself sometime.

Still "cleaning out" blog folder

2011-07-08T14:49:00.001-04:00

I will try to be as uninformative as possible here so as to safe space and people's time.

These are more pictures from Hollywood Studios on our vacation back in May.

This is Kevin and John on the Rockin' Rollercoaster. Notice John is pretending to be sleeping. Now, mind you, one of the main "thrills" of this coaster is that you take off and go from 0 to 60 in about 2.7 seconds. :) We went back with Rach and John a couple weekends later for Star Wars Weekend at Hollywood Studios and when the two of them rode it that time, they held their light sabers for the picture.

The three photos above were all taken while we were waiting for the parade.

Pixar Parade

In the Animation Courtyard character meet and greets. While one person waits in line, kids can play with the computers. They can sing along or say lines from movies and the computers record your voice and play it back. Also, you can "color" a favorite disney character by using the paint program on these particular computers. Wyatt was "coloring" Flounder from Little Mermaid.

So lucky to get this shot since Wyatt was still a little nervous around the characters though he was excited to see them.

John with Mr. Incredible from the Incredibles movie.

John's mom, Marie with characters from The Incredibles.

Wyatt giving high five to Mr. Incredible.

John, then Kevin outside the newly re-done Star Tours ride. It was "soft opened" that day meaning if you were back there at the right time, they might open the ride for whoever was standing around but it wasn't officially re-opened yet. They were thrilled to get on it a couple times toward the end of the day.

In our 3-D glasses, about ready to board the new Star Tours ride.

Kevin and John on the Tower of Terror.

A serious Jedi battle going on with light sabers. (When we were back a week and a half later for the actual Star Wars Weekend, they both "caved" and bought light sabers that light up and come complete with sound. :-) They even had some of the characters autograph them.)

John: "Did I look real? Let me see." Yep, pretty convincing if it wasn't a plastic light saber and Kevin wasn't grinning. :-)

Back to Vacation

2011-06-30T20:18:00.000-04:00

I have had these pictures in my "blog" folder for several weeks. So... we're going back to vacation pictures. This posting is only part of the pictures.

Wednesday we went to Hollywood Studios. These next few pictures were taken back in "the Streets of America".

All of the various backdrops are painted murals of various big cities in America but it's unbelievable how realistic and 3-dimensional they can look when seen at the right distance/angles.

One of the false fronts to one of the buildings in the "city".

Me and my girl.

We were standing there trying to decide where to head next, and here came Mater around the corner.

Aren't Mater's teeth just too much?

Umm Rach? Did you know there's some weird guy in the background of your nice picture? :-)

John and Kev on Toy Story Mania.

All of us at the exit of the Toy Story ride.

Kaelyn in "One Man's Dream", the special exhibition about Walt Disney.

When Wyatt saw Kaelyn stand by the wall and get her picture taken, he promptly went over and backed up against the wall to pose for a picture. :-)

:-) John with one of the early 20'th century ladies "roaming around" the streets of Hollywood.

Belle show. Kevin caught this action shot as this guy was being "knocked down" by Gaston.

This is one of my favorite shows! It is a Broadway style show and the acting and music is excellent!

Gaston checks his reflection in his sword.

Kay got to go up and be presented with the rose at the end of the show.

Up a tree

2011-06-26T00:17:00.001-04:00

I uploaded these pictures to blogger a few nights ago and forgot about them so I thought I would quickly post them tonight.

This is one BIG reason I wanted to spend a while up here (in NY) during the summer. The combination of Florida being so hot by this time of year and the trees, grass, etc. being so different means that Kaelyn doesn't experience some "normal" summery things like climbing trees, catching fireflies, playing outside without it being unbearably hot.

Kaelyn, my youngest sister Joy and a little friend Jordan.

They were all supposed to be waving - obviously, Kay-Kay likes to add a little more drama and expression to things.

:-)

As some of you already read on facebook when I posted this picture, I was equally proud and terrified about this. Kaelyn wanted Joy and Jordan to get down after a bit so that she would be up in the tree all by herself. She was so proud of herself. I thought NOTHING of being up in trees - even higher - with no adult around when I was a kid. I was obviously naive to such things as broken arms, legs, skulls, etc. acquired from falling from trees. Though I didn't stop Kay from climbing and I totally understand the awesome feeling of being so high up in a tree like that among the leaves, I was so afraid every time she moved. *sigh* ahhhh... motherhood.

So much like her mama - but cuter!

A pair of helpful hands.

Joy hung off the branch before dropping down to the ground so Kay wanted to hang from the branch as well.

Summer travelers

2011-06-23T17:47:00.001-04:00

Kay and I are still in New York. I have LOTS of pictures so far. Here are few from the beginning of the trip. (Rach specifically asked me to post some things from our time up here, the rest of you may not care.)

Kay reading Snow White to Joy's Kitty Misty.

I asked Kay-Kay if she wanted to hold Madelyn. At first she said, "Well, I'm kind of afraid of her." :-) LOL. I'm not sure why. She finally agreed to sit with Joy and hold the baby. She's honestly not sure what to do with a baby. She doesn't know how to interact or what to do because babies don't talk or do things like other people. :-)

She (Kay) is a sweetie anyway even though she was terribly worried that Maddie would "chew your [my] fingers" (not sure where that came from but she was obssessively worried about that and very impressed when Madddie didn't chew anyone's fingers). I said that Maddie was a vegetarian but of course that little bit of humor was lost on Kaelyn. :-)

Out to lunch with the girls. :-)

Magic Kingdom

2011-06-03T19:58:00.000-04:00

After we finished our character breakfast at Magic Kingdom, we spent the rest of the day in the park of course.

Kay back in Frontierland.

Kaelyn had Jessie sign her hat this time.

In the Toy Story movies, Andy has his name on the bottom of Woody and Buzz's boot/shoes. Kaelyn has wanted Woody's name on the bottom of her boot since she's had the costume. So we had Woody sign the bottom of one of her boots this time.

Jessie knelt down and helped Kaelyn put both her hat and the boot back on. It was quite cute.

Besides signing his name, Woody wrote "Hey Howdy Hey" which is one of the phrases the Woody toy in the movie said when his string was pulled.

This is on the "raft" over to Tom Sawyer's Island.

Raft ride to Tom Sawyer's Island.

We had put Kaelyn's Jessie costume on her for when she saw Jessie and Woody but she wanted to wear it for awhile. It went along perfectly with the the fort and scenery on Tom Sawyer's island.

I LOVE this one!!! There's just something about it...

This wall is partly whitewashed based off the Tom Sawyer story and it says "Tom (hearts) Becky" (as in Becky Thatcher of course) Kaelyn thought it was pretty cool that my name is painted on the fence. :-)

A view of Thunder Mountain [roller coaster] from the island.

Fort Langhorn on Tom Sawyer island. Does the name of the fort ring a bell? Langhorn - as in Samuel LANGHORN Clemons, who wrote Tom Sawyer.

Sentry duty. :-)

The fort

Like I said, perfect background for the costume.

My sweetie and I on the Dumbo ride - such and adorable pair! ;-)

Love this one - Wyatt loved this ride!

Flying high. Notice my hat on the ground. :-) And yes, I did get it back.

John and Wyatt watching Rach get ready to ride Alice's teacups.

If you're wondering, John, Kevin, nor myself do "spinny rides" but Rach likes them. We figured Kay would do okay with them. Kevin decided to give it a whirl - ha, ha get it? - and he said it wasn't that bad. Anyway, that's why Rach, Kev, and Kay were the only ones riding.

Wyatt and Kay having a light sabre fight.

Jedi warrior.

Ha ha! Don't ask. Never mind, you don't have to ask, I'll tell you. :-) We were in a little area of the park that isn't being used for anything right now so we were just letting the kids run around and we were relaxing. Kay and I took her stuffed Pooh and Wyatt's Pooh and we were throwing them both and catching them at the same time. A great practice in coordination.

Me on the astro orbiter.

Wyatt and I waiting to see Mickey and Minnie.

This was the first time (other than Piglet) that Wyatt got brave enough to go near a character.

Waiting for the Mainstreet Electrical Parade to start.

Wyatt has fallen in love with Mickey and Minnie.

Watching the parade - I think this picture is very cute!

Vacation - Character Breakfast

2011-05-31T20:37:00.002-04:00

This year on our vacation, we did a character breakfast in one of the restuarants at Magic Kingdom. We ate at the Crystal Palace and saw Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. It was a blast!

Our time slot was actually before the park opened so we walked through the front of the park before the crowds were in for the day - not a view you normally see of the park - Main Street and the castle without hundreds of people around.

Quite a pretty building inside.

There were mirrors all around the inner walls. Kevin got this reflection of the rest of us eating.

Tigger came to our table first. He was making Kaelyn's plush Tigger "bounce". :-)

Wyatt, a bit hesitant, meets Tigger.

Kaelyn giving Pooh a big hug.

After Pooh and Tigger came by our table, a little bit later, Eeyore came over. Here he is looking at Kay's little Eeyore. By the way, I was so excited to find, some time back, that Kohl's was selling the Pooh stuffed animals and original A. A. Milne Pooh books. I got the various characters for $5 each and since I knew we were doing this character breakfast, we brought them all with us.

Breakfast! :-)

Piglet - he was SO cute! Both Wyatt and Kay seemed to really love seeing him.

We even got Wyatt to give Piglet a kiss, which was very brave for him [at the time]. He has since gotten used to the characters and though he [Wyatt] is still a little shy, he likes them.

And who wouldn't love this picture? (or maybe I should say "what PARENT wouldn't love this picture?")

That still didn't come out right but you know what I mean. :-)

In the center of the restaurant near the entrance, they had topiaries of all four characters.

While Kevin and John were waiting to finish taking care of the bill, the rest of us left the table and were walking around taking pictures. Kevin was waiting for the server to come back and Tigger had made his rounds and was back to the table. John took a quick picture of the two of them. When we saw Tigger back by the table, Kay went back over there to see him for a few minutes.

Kevin and I at the entrance.

A view of Cinderella's castle through the front doors of the restaurant.

Kevin took this picture of me out front of the restaurant. When we were looking at all the pictures later when I uploaded them to my computer, Kevin pointed out that the way my hand is on the railing for the steps but my body hides the rest of the railing, it looks like I'm standing there with a cane. :-) It's very amusing to me every time I see the picture now because that's how it looks to me now.

2011-05-26T15:15:00.001-04:00

This post is the rest of the pictures from our day at Animal Kingdom on our vacation.

Rach, Kaelyn, and John on the safari.

Hungry, hungry hippo... not sure if he eats marbles, though they can eat between 80 and 100 pounds of food per day!

:-)

Often when we go on the safari, the warthogs are in their burrows keeping cool so you can kind of see them but not well. Since we went a little later in the day, we "caught" them out and about eating. Funny looking creatures for sure. I always think of Pumbaa from the Lion King movie since he was a warthog.

This is another "don't ask" photo. This is little cabin that's just for looks to go along with the feeling that you're in a remote African village. It is possibly also cleverly used by the cast members for something. John said to Kevin, "Here take a picture" and Kevin did. I was amused when I saw the picture later at how much it looks like John is really "coming home for the day". You can't actually go inside the building which made it look funnier.

There are different places around the park(s) where they have misters spraying on warm days. On one of the paths back in the trees, they had mist spraying and the sun was setting and low in the sky. The rays of the sun shining through the mist looked really cool.

There's another place to see the hippos besides on the safari. This was a partial under water viewing area. These crazy birds just hang out on the hippos backs. We were amused with this particular bird. When this hippo started moving through the water, the bird just stayed on its back getting a free ride. The hippo started to submerge and as it got lower and lower into the water, the bird just stayed on its back. When the hippo was almost completely under water, the bird jumped off its back and jumped right over onto the back of another hippo right beside this one. :-)

Some snapshots taken back in the "Africa" section of AK.

So it was late in the day and the pictures got goofier and goofier. This old bike is chained to the wall and is part of the "look" of being in an African village. The pictures of and by the bike started out to be serious ones and then, well... it all went downhill from there...

Wyatt's "big" cousin played with this phone for awhile while we took a bunch of pictures. Kaelyn pretended to call lots of different people and she was having whole [pretend] conversations with them. Once she finally put it back, Wyatt went over and wanted to do exactly what she had been doing.

Animal Kingdom truly has some of the pretties scenery of all the parks.

This picture looks cute and casual but we actually only had about 3 seconds to snap it before Wyatt jumped down and Kaelyn stopped smiling. :-)

These two pictures absolutely crack me up!!! :-D

(I told you the pictures got crazier the later the day got!)

Vacation

2011-05-23T19:24:00.000-04:00

We have had A LOT going on around here it seems like. We just spent a week at a [timeshare] resort in Kissimmee with John, Rach, and Wyatt. We did all four of the Disney parks as well as having pool time, shopping time etc.

Our first day, we did Animal Kingdom. Rach and John had not been to that park before. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Though it had already gotten hot here in Hobe Sound, we had really pleasant days except for the last couple days of our vacation.

Wyatt was afraid of the characters the first couple days. He was interested in them and liked them - from a distance but it took him a bit to get used to them. That's pretty normal with kids his age though from what we've seen.

Eeyore playing peek-a-boo with Wyatt.

He wasn't "screamingly" terrified - just hesitant and a bit fearful. He loves the Pooh characters in books, movies, toys, etc.

Kay LOVES Pluto - she loves all the characters but she really seems especially fond of him most of the time.

Pluto, Kay, and I dancing.

Kaelyn and Wyatt playing on a dinosaur back in Dinoland.

Triceratops Spin

This particular monkey (or ape I guess) island has one family of apes. This was the sister I believe.

This was the dad, who seemed to be very much posing for all of us watching.

And this is mom and the baby. These are called white cheeked gibbons and Kaelyn learned all about them from one of the cast members who works with them.

Kevin and John riding Expedition Everest roller coaster.

Love this one! :-D

Me pretending to be trying to pull this surrey (or whatever it's called).

So then of course, Kaelyn wanted to do it and have her picture taken also. :-)

This is for you Mama.

Saw this cardinal in some bamboo and brush back on one of the animal trails. It was already very close to us and then with just a little zoom, Kevin got this great picture.

Don't ask! :-)

Buddies and big girl stuff

2011-05-11T21:32:00.000-04:00

Kaelyn has had a bit of a cough that intensifies about triple when she goes to bed. The other night she kept coughing and coughing for awhile despite us giving her cough medicine. She woke up several times from coughing so hard and came out while we were still up. Between that and the fact that it stormed that night, she ended up in our bedroom. Buster of course, feels like he needs to be with her when she goes to bed, at least at the beginning of the night. Usually he lays at her feet but I think he must have sensed that she wasn't feeling well and was restless because when I went back to the bedroom later, he was right up near her.

We found these shirts at Wal-mart when we were grocery shopping Saturday. Of course Kaelyn loved them because they had Chip and Dale on them and when I suggested that we could get one for her AND Megan because they said "Best Friends" she was all excited. I had them try them on Tuesday afternoon and they both wore them to Chick-fil-a that night. Kaelyn was so excited (Megan was too according to Rod and Betty). She (Kay) has never actually had matching clothes with anyone like that before. They were just so cute!

P. S. I love the fake pink suspenders on the shirts. Kay desperately wanted to wear her shirt to school the next day but they have to wear shirts with collars on them. She was SO disappointed!

This ice cream cone was a pretty big deal for Kaelyn. :-) She usually always gets ice cream in a cup. She struggles with coordination sometimes and she never has quite figured out the way to lick the ice cream and eat it without eating it off of a spoon. She loves ice cream so much that it usually doesn't bother her what form it's in. At Chick-fil-a they let kids turn their kid's meal toy back in at the register in exchange for free ice cream if they don't want the toy or already have it. When it was time for the girls to get their ice cream, Kaelyn informed us that she wanted a cone this time. And after all, she is getting pretty big - she's about to turn six here in a little over a week. :-)

As Kay was finishing her ice cream, Megan was headed back to the playground and said, "Kay-Kay, do you want to come play with me?" Kaelyn said, "Absolutely!" :-) She's such a little me sometimes in things I hear her say but I love her enthusiasm.

Mother's Day Tea and Photo shoot

2011-05-08T23:06:00.001-04:00

Friday, Kaelyn's class had a mother's day "tea" and lunch. It was a lot of fun but I am so frustrated with myself. I took the camera and got several pictures and videos but forgot to get any pictures of me and Kaelyn. I even thought about it before hand and still forgot. Other than that, it was all really great. The kids were just starting to eat their lunches and there was food for the moms. After we ate, the kids performed "Green Eggs and Ham" - their favorite story/movie. It was a bit chaotic with 12 autistic (and somewhat hyper) kids but cute all the same. Kaelyn had two parts to say and she stood up and held up her pictures and said her lines loud and clear. :-)

Kay with her lunch tray from the cafeteria. Thankfully they had brought in a sub ring and a fruit and veggie tray for the moms. The school lunch didn't look that appetizing. :-)

Kay sitting in her seat waiting for their little performance to start. Oh yeah, they also sang a couple songs about moms and grandmas.

After the kids were finished, the moms just milled about and talked. Kay went to her favorite play area in the classroom - the kitchen. I was able to take some "normal school day" pictures that I would not normally ever get a chance to take.

This was Saturday on our way out to go grocery shopping, etc. I got flowers, cards, and dinner out.

Mother's day photo shoot - it is what it is.

Then this afternoon, Kaelyn agreed to and cooperated with a photo shoot.

First attempt at this shot - not too bad but not the best.

Second attempt - I didn't even post. The wind kept "poofing" my shirt out so our expressions were good but I had my hand across the front of my shirt.

Third attempt at the photo - great one! Oh wait! Buster decided to wander into this shot and not showing his best side either. Oh well, you get the idea.

So I know that it seems like we have most of our pictures taken by palm trees or water but we live in Florida and well, that's pretty much what there is in Florida.

Really like this one and...

... totally LOVE this one!!!

*Long sigh.....* Once again, a great shot ruined by one small thing - my squinty eyes this time.

By this time, we had lost Kaelyn - as in lost her attention - but I was happy we had a couple decent ones of the two of us.

Kevin just kept taking pictures after Kaelyn wandered off with Buster so what was there left to do but smile and pose? :-)

So all in all, I had my favorite people and some of my favorite things all weekend long and it was a simple and simply perfect Mother's Day!

Oh, and by the way, I know I'm only an hour away from being late but - Happy Mother's Day to you moms reading this!

"Stuff"

2011-05-03T23:03:00.002-04:00

These first pictures are from Animal Kingdom.

This little girl is SUCH an animal lover! She doesn't always know how to show her affection and interest properly without being overbearing to the animals but it's certainly not because she doesn't want to be nice to them.

This is in the "affection section" at AK. They have brushes for the animals too and Kay loves to brush them as well.

One reason I love Animal Kingdom - some beautiful scenery. This is all scenery on the safari.

Ankola (or Watusi) cattle on the safari. The horns on these cows, while they can be up to 8 ft. from tip to tip, are very light as they are almost completely hollow.

You see him lurking back there? The cheetah's are usually lying in the shade and are not real easy to see or get pictures of. When we went by this time, there was some kind of antelope across a ditch from the cheetah that he was Very interested in.

This is what he was watching.

Interestingly, there are barriers - ditches, fences, etc. - in certain parts of the safari for obvious reasons. However, Disney has gone through GREAT pains to ensure that none of the "unnatural" barriers can be seen unless you know they are there and are looking for them. It looked for all the world like the cheetah was going to attack at any moment but what we knew from a documentary we have seen (or a book read or something) is that there is a HUGE ditch (both in width and depth) along with fencing that's hardly seen unless you're looking for it. People on the safari were saying, "Oh my goodness! Is it going to attack it?"

Another area of the park and some more scenery around the park.

White rhino

And now Hollywood Studios:

One of the many "citizens of Hollywood" that walk around the "old" streets of Hollywood entertaining, etc. Notice his banana gun in his holster. He said it was in case there was any monkey business going on. They all represent people from the 30's and 40's and any conversation they have with you is strictly "in character".

This picture is amusing to me. :-) (Kevin and I both had the song "Stop and Let Me Tell You" going through our heads while this picture was being taken. I loved it when I got picked to hold a sign for that song.)

Kaelyn "riding" the giant ant on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. Ironically, that movie came out long enough ago that most of the kids playing on the playground, Kaelyn included, know nothing about the movie. :-) (Kevin just googled it and he said the [original] movie came out 22 years ago in '89. Boy do I feel old!)

Kevin back by the Star Tours ride.

Hollywood Studios' replica of the real water tower at Disney's movie studios in California.

Tower of Terror

The park's icon - Sorcerer's Mickey's hat.

Waiting for the Pixar parade. Kaelyn doens't like to wear sunglasses I think because of the way they feel on her face. That's why she wasn't looking cool like us. :-) Just joking - about the looking cool part.

I LOVED THIS! A walking Mr. Potato Head character. This is the first time we've seen him like this. We had seen this parade one other time but he wasn't a walking character. His eyes spun around in circles and his eyebrows moved! So cool! Okay.... all done with my little kid moment now. ;-)

I asked Kaelyn what her favorite part of the parade was. I was sure she would say Mr. Potato Head but she said that it was Jessie and Bullseye. Guess it was just ME having that little moment of excitement!

Easter - 3

2011-04-28T17:41:00.002-04:00

Here is the last post of Easter pictures (if I haven't already lost you all by now).

It was a little hot during the day for an Easter egg hunt, particularly if you had chocolate in your Easter eggs, which I did; so we waited until evening to let Kaelyn hunt for eggs. When we left Browns, Kaelyn had a fever. I gave her Ibuprofen and she slept with her head in my lap for about two and a half hours. She seemed to sweat most of the fever out. When she woke up, she was feeling better, which turned out to be temporary, but she was feeling well enough to go outside and hunt for the eggs and open a few presents (mostly books and a couple movies).

We had to contend with the noseeums, but since we were out for such a short amount of time and we were moving around, it was better than dealing with the heat earlier.

The eggs were hidden a little more than just laying them out on the grass but they were not hidden that much. Kaelyn was particularly amused with the ones that were hidden in various spots on the cars; for instance one in the tailpipe.

:-)

I was happy she was feeling this good at the time. She ended up with a fever for a couple days and still doesn't seem quite as perky as normal. I think allergies or sinuses may have something to do with that though.

I was taking a picture on my phone since it's so much easier to take a pic. on my phone and instantly upload it to facebook in seconds.

These pictures are going back to earlier in the day. Larissa was holding Rod and Betty's camera for part of the time so she "snapped away" and got some different shots while Kevin was taking pictures on our camera. These are just a few favorites off of their camera.

Kay-Kay and Megan

Heart warming - or heart melting - not sure which one. :-)

Kay (and Buster) were looking off at our camera but I thought it was a cute perspective/angle.

I LOVE this one! Not so much for the sake of a perfectly posed picture but because of the moment it captures. Most of you probably already saw this one because I posted it on facebook. As I said on facebook, an adorable little girl is doomed to having her parents follow her around making her stop and pose for pictures. :-)

Once again, looking at a different camera but I like the picture A LOT.

I didn't like, and thus didn't post, many of the pictures taken of Kevin and I due to the fact that I looked like an elephant (wearing a green sweater no less) in most of the pictures. This was probably my favorite of the ones taken so that's not saying much. :-)

Another shot of Betty, Larissa, and I.

Easter - 2

2011-04-25T22:56:00.001-04:00

Once we brought Buster into the picture - literally - Kay was willing to get a few more pictures.

They are just too cute together though sometimes they annoy one another. :-)

I just LOVE this one. When we got back from church, we walked right down to the end of the street to get pictures rather than going into the house first. So when we went and got Buster so that we could get some pictures with him, he was VERY happy to see his girl. He typically greets her with lots of kisses anytime she walks in the door from being gone.

Buster cracks me up - he's one of the most laid back dogs I've ever seen. That's probably why he's so tolerant of Kaelyn - and he not only tolerates her, but he loves her.

Quite fond of this one as well.

Megan and Kaelyn are the best of buddies. Love seeing these two together!

This NEVER happens. Kevin tends to be more the designated photographer and so often I find that I am short on pictures that have him in them. He let me take some pics. of just him after the others had all gone inside to change clothes and get ready for dinner. I thought these turned out really well - and he looks great in my opinion! :-)

Since I don't often say things like this I will take this chance to say that I am very blessed to have Kevin in my life! I am so undeserving but so thankful for the family God has given me!

I promise I only have a few more after this post! :-)

Easter Pictures Part 1

2011-04-25T19:46:00.001-04:00

This is the first of THREE - yes, I said three - posts of Easter pictures so bear with me.

We have a setting on our camera called "vivid color". I love it for scenery but not so much for people. I included a bunch of the ones using that setting though because it made our setting look so much prettier though we all look like we are badly sunburned. As you can see by looking at the first two pictures, the regular setting doesn't do justice to the scenery like the vivid color does.

Kevin's favorite feature of the camera (that he uses ALL THE TIME now) :-) It worked great for our Easter pictures since we all had some of the same color.

Friends - Betty, Larissa, and myself.

Kevin and I; Rod and Betty Brown.

Okay so I was going to delete this picture when I first loaded the pictures to my computer but it just made me giggle. Then I certainly WASN'T going to show it but I thought maybe someone else would get as much amusement out of it as me. What's so amusing and puzzling to me is what in the world I was looking at. It just looks so... out of place and odd - and funny. :-)

Strangely enough, the pictures of us all just talking all turned out better than the ones where we were all supposed to be looking at the camera. (See the picture above for one example) In almost every one we tried to get of the four of us, someone had their eyes closed or a strange expression - or their head tipped up looking at the heavens. The original idea was to have pictures if we needed them for business related things (the HSBR website, etc.)

She was ALL DONE with being in her "scratchy dress" and we actually had to chase her down because she was walking back down the street to our house to get different clothes. She was a good sport about putting the dress on in the morning for church though. We had a much easier time than we normally do when she's wearing something "scratchy" or different.

The little thing in her lap is her stuffed puppy with bunny ears that she got in her Easter basket.

She was so agitated by the time we got around to getting picture of just her. The breeze was blowing her pony tails and driving her crazy. She stood there so frantically flipping her pony tails back over and over that we all were getting amused with her. We didn't realize that she was getting sick besides. By yesterday evening, she had a fever and was not feeling well at all.

Trying to tolerate a few more pictures - and the dress.

Part 2 maybe tonight.

School Stuff

2011-04-23T12:13:00.000-04:00

Kaelyn's teacher asked each parent to fill some plastic Easter eggs and send them to school for the Kindergarten Easter egg hunt Thursday. They specifically instructed us NOT to put chocolate in them (probably because the egg hunt was outside). I wasn't sure if that meant all candy or not and they suggested us to use stickers and small toys to put in them. As it turned out, plenty of the eggs DID have candy in them. So here are pictures from my shopping trip to Wal-mart for stuff.

Obviously, I couldn't use the giraffe or larger animals but each egg had one [smaller] jungle animal in it.

Each egg also got a "stretchy animal" snake - not my idea of a treat but Kaelyn comes home with things like this from the treasure box quite often and they seem to be a big hit. Uggghhhhh! :)

Plastic rings from the party favor section

And SPARKLY bouncy balls. Oooo - Aaaaaaaa!

Toy Story stickers

So I had to buy the large eggs in order to fit one of each of those things in every egg. I had fun doing though- I guess I'm just odd.

Totally new topic now:

Yeah for Mother's Day tea with the Kindergartners!

You will have to enlarge this to be able to read it probably. Basically, Kay's class made cards to send to military people. I was very impressed with the idea. The teacher made copies of one of the cards so the parents could see what they did. The note (above) explains a little bit better.

Front of the card. I'm not completely sure how this was done but I know there were "puzzle" pieces that they pieced together and glued to make each card.

Inside. Kay said she wrote the "Thank you for all you do" (with help) so I'm not sure if each student wrote that in a card and then each parent was sent the card that their child did or how that worked out.

These next few pictures actually go more with the first ones but since they were taken a couple days later, they were further down in the folder and I didn't think to upload them to blogger differently.

This was Thursday after Kaelyn got home from school. They had their Easter party and egg hunt Thursday since they had/have both Good Friday and this Monday off. I thought the bags they made for the Easter egg hunt were adorable. As you can see, the bag has a little chick on it. What you can't see is that even the back of the bag has a little round circle and feather for a tail for the back of the baby chick. :-)

I thought this was just so cute and such a simple project.

She looked so cute and "Eastery" - even her hairbow had the right color pink and the other spring colors that were in her shorts.

April brings... snapshots on the blog taken in April.

2011-04-20T22:42:00.000-04:00

This posting is a potpourri of recent pictures. :-D Several of them were taken on my phone and I just loaded them on to my computer so if you are "my friend", that is, on facebook, you have already seen them. :-)

Kay-Kay just looked so springy and pretty on this day - well, she did in the morning anyway. School can be a little hard on the "polished" look though.

Sears, JC Penneys, and Wal-mart are alway advertising their new backgrounds - Spring backgrounds, Easter backgrounds etc. But I thought, "Hey, why spend all that money when I can just take my own pictures at home and have my own toilet paper background?" :-D

Just me and my girl.

Last Saturday we were out doing some Easter clothes shopping and I made sure we were well prepared for a day out in the wilderness, er, I mean the mall and Kohls. To be well prepared for a trek like this your supplies should include: coupons, doorbuster fliers, giftcards, money from your clothing fund envelope, a pillow and snacks for your husband (a smart phone is helpful too), books, marker board and markers, and toys for your kid(s), and water bottles - oh yeah, and a Tide to Go stain remover stick (don't ask; I'll just say that Kevin and I both needed one. I guess it was sloppy Saturday).

So Kay walked around Penneys reading this book when she got tired of being in the stroller. I used to read while I was walking around too when I was a kid. :-) In my defense, the only store we went to in the mall was Penneys. We were on a mission, well several really, and we had to make sure we got to a register before the door buster sales ended. Then we went to Kohl's and Wal-mart so it really wasn't as bad as I made it sound. So says Becky anyway.

Our church hands out these baby bottles once a year for people to fill with change for our local crisis pregnancy center. It has taken us MONTHS to fill it because sometimes we don't think about it and a lot of our change goes right into the ash tray of our car. But we finally got it filled. Yeah us!!! :-)

These are my "pick me up" flowers that were purchased after a REALLY, REALLY bad day recently. How can those colors not make you happy?

Birthday Party

2011-04-20T22:04:00.000-04:00

Kaelyn went to her first "real" birthday party Sunday afternoon. She came home with an invitation in her backpack but she seemed to already know all about the party from the student who it was for. We went Friday after school and she helped me choose a couple presents for Justin, the birthday boy. She was SO excited that she asked every day after she got the invitation what day it was. There were, I think, six kids from her class at school so that was exciting to her. The biggest surprise of the day was for me. When we walked up to the house, another mom was walking up and it was someone I went to college with here in Hobe Sound. I hadn't seen her probably since college. Her little boy is a friend of Justin. The kids all played in the pool and bounce house and there was a pinata. The boys [in her class] all seem to kind of "watch out" for Kaelyn - at least that's the way it appeared by watching them all interact. Several of the moms seemed to know about Kaelyn and they would say, "Oh that's Kaelyn" because they hear about her from their little boy. After the candles on the cake had been blown out and we sang, ALL the kids were standing around saying, "I want some cake! I want some cake!" much to the distress of most of the parents who tried to get their kid to wait patiently and quietly. :-) Of course Kaelyn joined in but for some reason when Justin heard HER saying it, he decided the cake cutting process was taking too long for her. He turned to her and said, "Do you wanna' cookie Kaelyn?" She said, "Yes" and he grabbed one out of a dish (that was with all the regular food people had already been eating) and gave it to her much to everyone's amusement. A few minutes later, his mom went in the house and discovered he was already opening his presents, which was really fine since there was so much going on. When Kaelyn saw that he had opened a present, she ran over very excitedly and found our presents and took them to him. He said, "Okay, you can open that one." His mom and I explained that it was for him so then he helped her. They all played in the bounce house and in general, had a great time. It was interesting being at a party where so many of the kids were autistic but mostly about the same level Kaelyn is. It certainly took the pressure off as a parent for everyone to understand it when one of the kids would be off in a corner in the house by him/herself playing with the new legos for a little bit or when another kid flipped out because the bounce house got wet when someone got in it after being in the pool. I don't mean any of that in a negative way at all. It was just nice to be in a "social situation" with other kids where you weren't holding your breath wondering if your kid was going to do something that looked strange to everyone else. All three of us really enjoyed ourselves and Kaelyn has talked and talked about it. Their teacher told me Monday that she was so excited that so many of them had gone and had that social interaction.

Kay eating her cake.

Kay and Justin playing with one of his new presents - a table top air hockey game.

They were funny to watch. It wasn't played very competitively, which was just fine.

There were a bunch of other kids at the party but toward the end, these four, all from school were the last ones and none of them wanted to leave.

I was trying to get Kaelyn to leave and she wasn't wanting to leave. Then she saw the three boys run by to go back to Justin's room and she burst into tears. She had been asking all afternoon if she could go to Justin's room and see his toys. She was so amazed and fascinated by the fact that he lives in a house too.

:-) She didn't say that exactly but you can tell that they all associate each other with school only. When we went into the bathroom she said, "Is this Justin's bathroom?" "Look that's Justin bathtub. Do you think Justin takes a bath in that bathtub?" etc. So when she saw that they got to see Justin's room, she was just crushed. I didn't have the heart to not let her go with them. Justin decided to spread a blanket out on the floor so they could all sit and watch a movie. One of the little boys can't watch a movie without having popcorn so Justin's dad happily fixed them all popcorn. It was so cute. They only watched for a little bit and then we all headed out. It was a great experience for Kaelyn.

Thanks blogger for randomly deciding to flip this picture. Anyway... when Kaelyn saw that the other two classmates got Toy Story favor bags and she had gotten Rapunzel as the last three of us families left, she informed me that she wanted Toy Story. I didn't think anyone heard or was paying attention when she told me that she HATED Rapunzel (which she doesn't really) and then was scolded for it. Much to my embarrassment, she came home Tuesday with a Toy Story favor bag in her backpack. I asked her about it and she said Justin brought it for her. Little rotten stinker!

What's Your Weakness?

2011-04-07T19:57:00.002-04:00

So what's your weakness? You know, the thing that you just have to stay away from, the stores you have to stay out of because your love of __(whatever it is)__ is just too tempting. For me, it's books. I have to stay out of bookstores most of the time - seriously unless I have a gift card or I'm feeling very self-disciplined at the moment. I HAVE kind of learned to just pass by the "Bargain Books" tables and scan them quickly which means I can go through a bookstore quickly sometimes and not come out with anything. The thing is now, I know that very often, if I really, really want/need a book and plan on buying it at some point, I'm usually going to find it cheaper on Amazon or some other place online. Which is probably exactly the reason why the Borders in our mall is going out of business. I feel kind of sad about it and yet I'm sure it is very hard for an actual "brick and mortar store" as they say, to compete with online prices. I myself have not bought anything in there for a very long time (excluding the books I've bought since they have been having their going out of business sale). I've been in there 3 times since they've marked all their stuff down but my last trip there was by far my most successful as far as good deals. Kay was still on spring break last Friday so she and I headed up to the mall. Since the store is closing down this weekend, a LOT of their books have either been sold or sent off to other Borders/Waldenbooks stores that are NOT closing down. Since the sections were so much more condensed, I pretty much looked through every book title of the remaining books in the Christian, History, Biography, and humor sections. Any good children's books have been long gone. I know a lot of those were shipped off to other stores earlier on. I came home with a TON of books for both Kevin and myself. Thing is, a lot of them were $12-$20 books for 70% off. I got quite a few books that the original price was $14.99 and I paid $4.50 etc. So if you're a family member, chances are you might be getting a book for the next 3 Christmases because I probably have enough to do that. Just kidding! Unfortunately, I also don't like to part with my books even if I have read them. I'm not quite so much that way with novels but then it's not the novels that I tend to accumulate. I was going to put all the books in a stack and get a picture, then I looked at the bagfuls of them (yes, still sitting around) and realized I would never get them all in one picture if I organized them into a neat pile like I wanted to. So I ended up splitting them up by genres-loosely- and had three piles. :-) They are currently sitting in huge towers on the coffee table much to my distress. Kay got home from school, saw my neat piles and promptly carried them all into the living room and started trying to see how high of a tower she could build with them on top of the coffee table. The main reason I'm distressed about that is because it looks like SO MANY books when you see them piled high in a tower. :-) She also just asked me, "When I get an adult, can I read all of these books?" I said, "Sure!" :-)

These are Kevin's "political" books and my books about history, biography, etc.

These are the books by Christian writers.

These are humor/miscellaneous books

Two books that were missed when I was photographing "their pile". :-) There is also one book that I bought at the same time that is missing from the pictures.

Blogger turned two of these pictures which annoys me to death but I couldn't get them the right way no matter what I tried.

Now the only issue left is... where am I going to put them? My bookshelf - er shelves - are already full. That's why the books are still sitting around. Any suggestions?

Spring Break Fun

2011-04-07T18:31:00.001-04:00

Besides going to Sea World and going mini golfing on Spring Break (which I already posted pictures of), we also did a couple of the Disney parks, went to Disney on Ice, Kay played with a new tent, etc.
We started off by going to D on I Thursday evening. Kay had a field trip that day, then we went that evening so she was just absolutely hyperly excited Thursday. She didn't have school the following day because it was a teacher work day so that kind of was the beginning of Spring Break.
This Disney on Ice was relatively new so we had never seen it before and I think it was my favorite by far. (Some of these you may have to enlarge to see what they are).

Awwww... Dopey. (First time we've seen him as part of a show I think)

There were more characters and classic characters included in the opening and grand finale than we had ever see at one of these shows. In this picture of the big opening scene, you can see: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, the White Rabbit and Tweedle Dee or Dum (from Alice in Wonderland) in the back. In the front is Tinker Bell, Peter Pan, Snow White, Dopey, Belle, Prince Eric and Ariel, Jasmine and Aladdin, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Alice and the Mad Hatter.

Another shot of the opening.

Sorcerer Mickey from the classic "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".

Villains including Captain Hook, the evil - umm..person from Sleeping Beauty, the queen/old woman from Snow White, Cruella DeVille, and Jafar.

In this show, the fairy godmother turned Minnie into a princess and of course Mickey came out as the prince - very cute!

The "Christmas part" of the show.

JESSIE!!!!

Some of us were quite excited when she came skating out. This is the first time we have seen a DOI show that included the Toy Story characters.

Hammie, Jessie, Buzz and Woody.

And the tent... I found this bed tent back after Christmas at Wal-mart and it was marked WAY down on clearance. It has been "put back" in the closet for a birthday or something. But by the second full day home of Kay's Spring Break, she was getting... restless to put it mildly. I decided to get it out as something special and different. It was (and still is) a big hit. She read books in there, sat her little pink chair in there and watched youtube videos on her computer, played with her toys, etc.

She was determined that she wanted to sleep in it that night. It is actually a bed tent that is made to fit over twin size beds but since her bed is smaller than a twin, it doesn't fit exactly right so she just uses it as a regular inside tent.

I was afraid that if she woke up in the night and was in the tent, she would be really afraid. Ironically, she is less afraid sleeping in the tent. We've had some trouble with her staying in her room recently because she wakes up in the middle of the night and is scared. Every night since she has slept in the tent, she has stayed in her room all night. Oh yeah, and guess who thinks they have to help "put her to bed" wherever she's sleeping? :-) He will eventually get up or down (if she's in bed) and go somewhere else ususally, but he thinks he HAS to be with her when she first goes to bed.

We had it in the living room the first night but now it's back in her bedroom.

Megan came over on Saturday and they had a blast. They started out outside. Kevin was out working in the yard and Kay was out there bouncing the basketball and Megan came out and was playing with her. When Kevin was ready to come inside, he had them both come in and they played and played. Here they're playing with Kay's castle and toys.

They played with Kaelyn's McDonalds food and toys in the tent.

Then Kaelyn showed Megan how to play Starfall on the computer. She [Kay] told me that she was doing the capital letters and Megan was doing the lowercase letters. :-)

Sea World

2011-03-30T17:42:00.000-04:00

These are pictures from yesterday when we were at SeaWorld.

For those of you who are not on facebook - The other day I said, "Hey Kaelyn, do you like my new sunglasses?" She looked at me for a couple seconds and then said, "Well, they look interesting." :-)

When we first stood here to get pictures, we didn't realize that you could actually walk up behind the wall and climb on the whales. A SeaWorld photographer saw us and offered to get a picture of us and pointed out the fact that we could sit on the whales. I think we look as silly as can be but that's okay. :-)

I think this is just too cute!

There is a whole kiddie section of the park with a HUGE playground, rope climbing area, sand to play in, a water area, a pirate ship you can play on along with 4 or 5 kids-sized rides. This was the little kid's roller coaster.

It's supposed to look like you're riding a whale if you couldn't tell. :-)

Kay climbing up the rope "bridge" to the ship.

The "pirate" ship. I'm actually not sure if it's supposed to be a pirate ship or just a regular ship but Kaelyn thought it was a pirate ship.

Drums in another area of the playground.

Kaelyn talked me into climbing back up with her onto the ship so we could pretend we were pirates fighting. She didn't have to do too much talking actually. :-D

We had quite a vicious battle jumping off the steps running around and yelling "Argh!" :-) This was where I pretended to throw her overboard the ship - just kidding. We were just pausing long enough for Kevin to get a picture from down below.

Kaelyn with one of the main actors from the Clyde and Seymour sea lion show.

Kaelyn desperately wanted to feed the sea lions but she was entertained for a LONG time just watching others throw fish to them. Kevin surprised her and bought some of the fish so that she could feed them.

She LOVED watching the seals and sea lions! She even chose to stay there longer and keep watching them rather than doing some other things before we had to leave.

Miniature golf

2011-03-30T14:27:00.000-04:00

Last Friday night, the three of us played mini golf as the first part of a little mini vacation for K's spring break. We're back home now (we got home last night) and I'm quite proud of myself for having everything unpacked, all the bags, coolers, etc. put away and I'm about half way through the laundry we brought back. Ready now to start into a little bit of cleaning that I didn't get done before we left last Friday.

In front of the entrance

The cutest little golfer. :-)

These "brooms and buckets" up above would dump water one bucket at a time if you walked through on the sidewalk area in front of the sensor just right.

These are from the original Fantasia movie from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". You can see here the first two buckets have started to dump.

Final hole.

P. S. I feel like I am [finally] starting to crawl out of a dark tunnel after months and months which may mean I will feel more inspired or interested in blogging. No promises though! :-)

March Things :-)

2011-03-23T23:12:00.000-04:00

So what have we been up to? Well, not really too much exciting. Kaelyn has her first "real" field trip tomorrow and she is VERY excited - she gets to ride a school bus. :-) One of her teachers said that all the "car riders" find it exciting since it's a novelty for them. Tomorrow night, the three of us are going to Disney on Ice and then Friday starts Kay's spring break. Other than that, nothing newsworthy. So here are some pictures that you might find funny/interesting:

I think you can see why this picture is "different". And yes, the little, pink princess camera is just a pretend one. Kevin and I both feel a little bit sheepish when Kay makes the characters wait on her while she "takes their picture" before she goes up to see them - but that's just Kay-Kay and everyone is good natured about it if not just plain amused.

This was kind of funny. Kevin and I thought it was cute that Goofy was dressed as a pirate back by the Pirates of Caribbean ride. Kaelyn was NOT interested in seeing him at all. She stated firmly (over and over I might add) as we waited in line, "Girls DON'T like pirates! They just like princesses and fairies. BOYS like pirates. " We assured her that that was fine and she could just wait on us. When we got up there, she actually did talk to him and get her picture taken after Kevin and I did because pirate or not, boy or girl, who can resist Goofy? :-)

And for being so anti-pirate for no other reason than that she's a girl, we sure had a blast having a "sword fight" in the store right outside the ride. Okay, maybe it was my idea but she thought it was fun too and I can't help it that I'm a kid at heart.

And then there's Daddy who is also a kid at heart at times though his comes out a lot more infrequently than mine. We've seen these "build your own light saber" things before (light sabers are from Star Wars for those of you who are clueless about that kind of thing like I am). Kevin always glances over longingly at all the little kids (and sometimes "big kids") making their own light sabers complete with lights and sounds. Ususally he walks on by probably for fear that his "I thinks Star Wars looks silly" wife will tease him. But his wife has agreed to watch one once sometime before she continues to make such harsh judgments and this time Kay found them fascinating - I think maybe because of our previous sword fight. :) So, Kay and Daddy had a light saber battle (or whatever the battles are called when you fight with light sabers). Anyway, I thought this was a cute picture of the two of them.

Besides her pretend camera, Kaelyn also had her pretend cell phone with her this particular time. She wore the Jessie costume for just a couple hours after seeing Woody and Jessie. She was a couple steps behind us and when I looked back and saw her walking along like this looking every bit like a cowgirl having a completely serious phone conversation, I just had to have a picture. A lot of people were laughing as they walked by but she never realized that people thought it was cute, because she was so involved in her imaginary phone call.

She got this stuffed Dopey for Valentines. He's holding a heart that says "Dopey loves Kaelyn". She took him with us when we rode the Snow White ride.

I wish. *Sigh* :-)

Flower and Garden Festival is the ABSOLUTE best time to be at Epcot! I have so many beautiful pictures like this of flowers and plants and topiaries.

Kaelyn has to take all her "pals" with her to the parks. They are stuffed animals (or in this case, plush characters). She came up with the idea that they were her "pals" sometime back and she truly loves them. You should see her bed when she sleeps at night. She also has to bring them out to the living room if she is watching a movie that they are "featured in". :) We had them all laying in a pile on the floor except for Donald Duck because she had him while she was visiting Donald. When Goofy saw them, he came over and sat down on the floor and started "playing" with them. When she finished with Donald and saw Goofy sitting there with all her toys, she just thought that was the funniest thing ever. We've never had anything like that happen before. When they got ready for a picture, he had her sit down with him and made sure all the characters were around them. She was thrilled!!! :-)

Toy Story topiaries - oh yeah, and us - out front.

Cuteness

2011-03-10T23:32:00.001-05:00

I do not normally think of gorillas as being that cute - humorous and entertaining to watch, yes, but not cute. But look at this picture and see if you don't think it's adorable - at least kind of - in a gorilla sort of way:

I think it's one of those "so ugly it's cute" kind of things. It seems like most baby animals tend to be cute just because of the fact that they ARE babies. Kaelyn and I thought he was adorable anyway. ('Course Kay thinks all animals are cute whether they are or not!) One of the last times we were at Disney's Animal Kingdom, we were looking at the gorillas and they had just recently let this little guy out with the other big gorillas.

He was very playful. Though he is somewhat hidden in this picture, if you look closely, you can see that he was hanging off some bamboo or a branch here.

He was just so little compared to the other humongous gorillas.

And look! Even elephants are cute when they are babies.

:-)

Somewhat of a random post given the fact I haven't blogged in awhile but I have been wanting to post the picture of the baby gorilla. It is currently a favorite picture of Kaelyn's and she even has it as her "desktop background" on her laptop. Yep, she got Daddy's old computer and while it was very inadequate for his work and computer needs, it works quite well for her. So there you go, a bit of random cuteness (or just plain weird randomness).

Some pictures for browsin'

2011-02-10T16:30:00.000-05:00

I can't even tell you how much I LOVE this picture! It is DEFINITELY a favorite and I imagine will be even 20 years from now. :-)

I just love these next couple. This was on one of our Disney trips after Kay-Kay had had a bath and was ready for bed.

She loves reading this book. (She loves reading any book really.)

I love this one too - especially the little girl's braids. :-)

And this is a current favorite too right now - mostly because of K's "look".

One of the groups of street musicians at Magic Kingdom. These guys play familiar Disney tunes more "country" style back in Frontierland.

They were walking around playing and stopped to play for all of us waiting in line to see Woody and Jessie.

Kev wanted to get a picture of K with them so he had her turn around and stand in front of them. She was totally oblivious to the fact that they were "posing" behind her. ;

:-)

Woody with K's Jessie toy. Both Woody and Jessie got a huge kick out of the toy once Woody discovered that it talked and said phrases that Jessie says.

Kaelyn and I getting ready to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (roller coaster).

Another ride on Big Thunder roller coaster.