Bragging

I am not a creative mom--at all!! But my girls are obsessed with tutorials on YouTube. After watching this tutorial I figured I could pull this off. And we did:

The kids put together a Mermaid Party and invited Jane's friend Ashlee. They decorated with all of their Little Mermaid memorabilia and even wrote out an agenda for the party (she's her mother's daughter).

At the end of the party she said, "Well I think that was a success!!"

Too cute!!

But that is not all --after much work and studying this week on some very hard spelling words...

...the kids both got 100% on their spelling tests!!!!

I am one proud mama:)

DisneyWorld Day 1

We've had a few people ask us to report tips we learned while taking this trip to Disney. Brett and I found ourselves comparing things we would do again, and some we wouldn't. All in all it was a fabulous trip. We made some fun memories and we learned a few lessons. So here goes....

Lesson #1- IF YOU DRIVE THROUGH THE NIGHT, YOU HAD BETTER BE PREPARED!!!

(with a plan, cokes, naps, and a hotel reservation:) We had planned to leave Saturday but there was word of a storm blowing through so I was packed and ready to go the minute Brett got home from work on Friday. We began our trek with thought of stopping when we got tired. Between the two of us we made it all the way but then had no plans of where we would stay for Day #1. If we booked a hotel that early in the morning, we would have to pay for a full day. So, we stopped at a rest stop and slept for an hour. Not sure if I would do this again, but we were glad we were there. The kids did great because they slept most of the way:)

sleeping at the rest stop

Lesson #2 - "A1A BEACH FRONT BOULEVARD" WILL HAVE YOU SINGING ICE ICE BABY ALL DAY:)

And it did. Brett couldn't stop reminding me that we were driving on A1A. It really does exist. We took our time on it too because we had to kill a few hours until we could check into our hotel.

Lesson #3 - DO THE BEACH FIRST

By the end of the trip we were exhausted. We were so glad we had gotten the beach out of the way before we started Disney.

Daytona Beach, Florida

Lesson #4-SPEND AS LITTLE AS YOU CAN ON FOOD

We still spent a pretty penny on food for a family of 5 but we tried to scrimp where we could. We used gift cards, PB sandwiches, granola bars, and shared meals at McDonalds. We ended up buying dinner at DisneyWorld one night and it cost us $43 for crappy food. We felt robbed and wish we wouldn't have done that. If I had it to do over I would have planned the meals a little better.

Olive Garden at Daytona Beach (in our jammies:)

Lesson #5 - GIVE YOURSELF A DAY TO RECOVER FROM DRIVING

We were super glad we had a couple days to recover from the drive before we started Disney. We needed it and the kids did too.

Day 1 over and we were beat!!!

Halloween 2011

Again, Tobe hates to dress up. After much stress and contemplation, he agreed to wear the Thomas Costume just to get candy. It came off the minute he got home. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that boy.

The girls and I were witches!!

All our loot!! Our neighbors all get together at the end of the street to hand out their candy. They put signs on their doors to come to the end of the court. We were passed up by many trick-or-treaters because they didn't think we were home. We had lots of candy left over!!!

Parke County

It is Fall Break here in Indiana!! The kids are out of school until Monday. Brett took the day off and with the Boothe family we visited Parke County.

Parke County is the Covered Bridge Capital - there are about 31 covered bridges around the area.

I've never seen a real "Goat -Tee". Yucky!!

Indiana is so beautiful in the Fall.

We love to get out and explore the state of Indiana. There is so much to see. I have to admit- the midwest is beautiful,esp. in the fall.

Entertainment on a Budget

Brett and I have been trying to follow a strict budget for the last little while. With Christmas coming up and our anticipated trip to DisneyWorld, we've had to tighten the belt a bit. So we've had to get creative to be able to keep the kids entertained and prevent ourselves from going a little stir crazy.

I had a groupon that I had bought a while back for 2 hours of bowling at PinHeads. We invited our friend Morgen and took the family bowling. It was super fun-but I must admit, the kids did not last the full 2 hours. They got bored.

I had a coupon for free underwear at Victoria's Secret. Aly LOVES the "underwear store" because of all the make-up samples. I hate to say it but we frequent VS because it is a cheap outing for my little sparkle princess and me:)

The Children's Museum has a Haunted House every year for Halloween. In support of my budget, Lyndee went to the Library and cleaned them out of their FREE tickets so we could all go. The kids dressed up and we had a blast. Brett even joined us on this event.

We've tried to take advantage of all the nice days to go to parks and walks with Theo. We've also enjoyed the cold rainy days by snuggling up in blankets watching movies and making treats:)

Tis the season!!!