One less drop in the pool!

Yea! RJ went swimming tonight with no tears! Hopefully we are on a roll and the tears will no longer join the pool experience! His first class there were no tears... then all the other classes the tears came... tonight, None. Let's keep it that way big guy! On a side note... gotta write about what happened tonight! Cameron and I were talking about where we were going to grab supper with the kiddos and both shared that Roy Rogers was our favorite, but the closest one was on the turnpike. That sparked a memory I had that the last time I stopped at that rest stop there was a blizzard while my parents were taking me and another kid (Matt N) back to Bloomsburg after Easter Break. We laughed about this situation and I told Cam since that day I will not stop at that rest stop!!

...so the swim lesson ends, and we decide to head to the Harleysville McDonalds hoping the playground attached would have lights because we didn't think the Souderton had lights. As we got there who was out in the playground area but... Matt N and his family!!

Crazy!! Should I play the lottery or hide for something crazy may happen?! Talking about the guy and then see the guy less than an hour later! Strange happenings!

The kiddos didn't eat much, but had fun playing. Morgan was once again petrified of going down the covered slide. She refused to come down and cried hysterically because RJ wouldn't go down with her. Deklan offered, AJ offered, but she refused to go down the slide without RJ and she refused to come back the way she got up (not using the slide). FINALLY after Deklan offered to hold her hand for the umph-teen time she said ok and they SLOWLY made their way down. After that she went down the slide on her own another million times. She just had to be 'forced' to do it once and then she realized it wasn't as scary as she thought it was!

Came home, the kiddos watched some of Dancing with the Stars AKA in Morgan language - Stars (Gotta love that show... girls all dressed up as princesses... who could resist?). Then to bed for all!

All this for a hayride?

Tonight we visited Linvilla Orchard. It was a fun time WHEN.WE.GOT.THERE! Mental note to self, NEVER.EVER!!! try to go to Linvilla on a Friday night at rush hour!! Estimated time to arrive at Linvilla... 51 minutes, actual arrival time... 2 hours 3 minutes after we left our home. Patience was not a strong suit!!! Part of the lack of patience was wanting to get to Linvilla, have fun, and get home in time for the first pitch of the Phils at 8:37 (5th game of the division play offs). Wow!! What a long ride, but once we got there it was a warm environment. It had two market type shops to buy yummy foods, lots of scarecrows set up, and don't forget lots of pumpkins hanging around! We met Aunt Melanie and her friend Amy with her 3 year old son Vincent. About five minutes after we got there Aunt Melanie got there... her traffic was as bad as ours... (Amy was lucky because she lived nearby Linvilla.)

Waiting with our PINK tickets!

We got on a hayride to visit the nice witch. The hayride was nice! It was fairly long and for our $8.00/person we got to visit a nice witch who told some silly jokes, and gave us all a pumpkin cookie. Yum! We then got dropped off to enjoy toasting a marshmallow over an open fire with a cup of cold apple cider! Yum! Neither of my kiddos wanted to toast their marshmallows and ate them cold. We all enjoyed the cider! Aunt Melanie bought some yummies from one of the markets, and then we all got ready to go home! We switched Morgan's cars eat and her overnight things into Aunt Melanie's car and gave hugs and kisses. RJ was very sad that he wasn't going too! Next time it will be RJ's turn!

Thank goodness it took 50 minutes to get home and RJ and I enjoyed some quiet time before putting him to bed. Daddy was working so it was just he and I!

I sat down and watched the Phillies game. Unfortunately the offense just couldn't get it together and they fell to the Cardinals with a score Cards 1, Phils 0. We ONLY needed 1 run to tie! I felt disappointed, but I think I will be rooting for the Cards from here on out. They proved that they are the come back kids! I hope their good luck keeps up! Phils, I still love you... whether you win or lose I will ALWAYS be on the band wagon!

Tiger of the Day!

This occurred the week of RJ's birthday... but I figured I would post it now! Better late then never! She gets to bring home the tiger bag with Stripie the Tiger, and the book that defines each child.

If you look carefully Morgan says she is thankful for her dog, Lacey. Sounds nice, but A LOT different than everyone else! Everyone else said they were thankful for their family, for God... We all know Morgan loves Lacey girl! It is perfectly alright to be truthful and state her true feelings without needing me leading her down the path I want her on... there will be plenty of other times for that strategy!

Wordless Wednesday

I told Morgan it was time for bed and she went and got her doodle pad and wrote me a note!

Family Love

...from RJ's party

Just had to put this picture in... while we were watching RJ open presents a line of "hair players" was created! You can see the chain! Morgan played with MeMom's hair, MeMom played with Megan's hair, and Megan played with Mandy's hair... You see Matt's leg... don't think he wanted to be in the picture getting his hair played with, but he was too!

One fish - One cat

Fish LOVE water

Cats HATE water

Morgan LOVES the water -- RJ Doesn't.

RJ

Morgan

When RJ cries almost the entire session it breaks my heart! BUT... I need him to learn how to swim!! The girls teaching his class just let him sit on the side. Just sitting probably made him very cold! I told the girls after class tonight to make him swim whether he is crying or not!

I think because RJ gets cold so quickly he isn't as big a fan of the water, but Morgan really enjoys swimming and is learning how to 'really' swim. She has been having a blast taking lessons with Deklan too!

Opening presents...slowly!

RJ loved opening presents... but did so slowly! After every present he either wanted to try it on, or open it up and play! Opening presents was a two day process!
He got some wonderful things, thank you friends and family! Again, we love you all!

P-A-R-T-Y!

Today was a FUN.FILLED.DAY with lots of fun, love, food, and presents!

The day started with getting all the food out and ready for the kids party! Everything was out just in the nick of time! Lots of snacks to munch on! Moon bounce up on the deck for the kiddos to play in! One by one the children arrived!

Everyone seemed to have a great time! Couple dads came and a couple moms. Ate snacks, got our faces painted, ate lunch (mac-n-cheese and meatballs), we pulled the strings on the pinata, collected the goodies, and ate yummy make your own ice cream sundaes! Yum! Hopefully all the kiddos went home full, happy, and most importantly tired!
RJ - the birthday boy! and Morgan both went down for naps and took about 2 hour naps each. I'll take it! After I put them down I wrapped all the snacks up so they wouldn't go stale. Then Bob and I took naps on the couch. (Much needed for me and made me happier!)

Around 4:30pm the family members started to show up slowly one by one! It was nice to just hang out with everyone since all the food was already prepared.

We had a nice time visiting with everyone, and were especially blessed that Aunt Peggy could join us for RJ's party! We were thankful that we could visit with her! We miss her! We were actually very lucky that everyone came since I got the invitations out late. I had a hard time realizing that October 1st came right after September so I didn't get the invitations out as early as I usually do! Thank you everyone for coming and sharing RJ's special day with him! He loved getting sung to and did a great job blowing out his candles. MeMom, he LOVED his cake... but who wouldn't?! You did an amazing job like always!!

Thank you to everyone! We all love YOU ALL!