Halloween 2011

My camera has been acting up, but I wanted to post these pictures, even though they are blurry.

Brenna was Strawberry Shortcake, Conner was an extra strong ninja, Corby was Green Lantern, and Maren was a Vampire.

When we were looking around at costumes, Brenna very strongly wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake.  She was the highlight of the Church's Halloween party, and trick- or- treating everyone raved about how adorable she was.  Like always, cuteness wins it all.  ;)

Conner was a ninja last year, but he really wanted a "Strong" ninja costume.  At school they were allowed to wear their costumes if they could find a book that goes with it.  It was difficult, but we found one about the history of Karate, and in there they had a nice chapter about Ninjas.  I found good info about ninja, like they were like secret spies of Japan.  The Samurai were the soldiers for the kingdoms there in Japan, but the ninja, were secret families that lived in the woods and mountains hidden and were basically trained through the family, and were hired to kill people.  Not only were boys ninjas, but so were girls.  They were masters of disguise and stealth.  Awesome.  No wonder he wanted to be a ninja.  :) 

You can see my camera getting worse and worse.  Corby loves the Green Lantern, even before he saw the movie.  In some of the Justice League TV cartoons they show the Green Lantern and he was hooked.  

We had lots of fun putting the Vampiress costume together for Maren.  I wish the picture were better.  

This was the only picture that came out well enough to show of our Jack- o- lanterns.    It was an image of a cat.  We bought four pumpkins, and the kids, gutted them themselves.  Everyone tried to carve them themselves.  The only one successful enough was Maren.  The others are just not there yet.  But on Corby's pumpkin I helped him make a pirates ship, and Brenna's had a Cat, and Conner's had little images of bats, ghosts witches, and all of that, Maren made a spooky face.

Corby's 5th birthday!!!

Happy 5th Birthday Corby!!!  We had a great time on Corby's birthday.  We did just a little family party.  

I found this recipe on family.go.com. It is a Disney link and they have recipes and things there. Just click on the cupcake and cakes link and they have all kinds of fun thing. Corby loved his Cars cupcakes.  

Happy customers.  :)

We did something different this time for the presents.  I had seen somewhere a where someone put all the child's presents into a regular bag instead of wrapping paper.  I thought it was a great idea. A great way to save money, have less mess, and be green all at the same time.  We also played the "Thompson"  game of Beulah Beulah.  All the kids are requesting the same thing for their own birthdays.

Afterwards we went bowling.  Everyone had so much fun.  

I couldn't get a real good picture of Brenna bowling.  She kept on moving too much, and my camera is not too good with movements anymore.

New swing set and birds.

We have a new "used" swing set, so now we one of the fun spots for the kids in the neighborhood.  The kids are loving it.  Already since we have had it, both Conner and Corby have learned how to swing all by them selves.  Brenna is still in the learning process.  But I know it won't take long before she is swinging all by herself.  She is a quick learner.  

We also have two new parakeets.  Now each of the children have their own.  Sean loves birds, and wanted to spread the bird love onto the kids.  

Can you spot all four of the birds?

What about in here?

Here is Corby with his bird Chitter/ Lemon/ Sunshine/ Checkers/ whatever he decides to keep its name.

Conner has his bird Pepper

Brenna a Crystal

Maren and Chile

My camera is starting to show its age and is not working so well anymore, sorry for the blurry shot.  Here is a picture of  Lemon and Crystal.

Jumping in the Rain

It's raining it's pouring the kids are jumping on the trampoline.  No thunder or lightening, just fun sweet rain.  The kids, snuck out, and enjoyed a fun wet time.  

Even the dog had to join in. 

A new school and a new school year!!!

We are in a new school year, and with it a new school.  The school last year, C. A. Moore, made a C grade and so we had the opportunity to be moved to a better school.  All the better schools near us were full, so we get to drive 30min. away for a nice A school.  I don't mind, since they were nice enough to provide a bus too.  From what I learned at the school orientation, and one of the teachers that was a former C. A. Moore teacher, about 230 kids took up the school system to be moved to this very school.  Lucky for us, because if that wasn't the case, there would not have been a bus.  I will not put down the name for the new school,  for the safety of the kids, but I will tell you that it is a K-8 school, and the mascot is a gator.  In fact the school T-shirt has a gator logo on it similar to the UF gator logo.  A big plus for us gator fans.  But sadly we did not inherit the gator colors of orange and blue, but we do have green and gold.  So they look like little gator lemons.  ;)  

The building the kids are on.  Maren is on the second floor and Conner is on the first.  Because they are lucky enough to be a K-8, they also get a gym. 

Conner's cheerful teacher!!!  This will be a great year for him.

Maren's teacher, and ex- C. A. Moore teacher come to a better place .:) She is also a part time photographer, and loves writing, this will be a great year for Maren, I think it is a great match.  

Corby is starting school this year, he is in the VPK half day program, and I was able to put him in a nearby preschool.  He is loving school, and to everyones surprise he is doing very well.  I knew he was smart, but he hasn't given them any trouble.  In fact I get glowing reports for his behavior everyday.  :)

Being the VPK program, he also gets a free lunch.  Here he is enjoying meatloaf, mashed potatoes, bread, and veggies, and fruit.  Yum yum.

This is his wonderful teacher. 

Going to Disney!!!

Sean decided to have a "Fun" weekend on his vacation from work, so he arranged through a buddy at work to get some free passes to the four parks for free, we only had to pay for one of the kids, and Brenna was free, because she is still under three.  We had a very busy day trying to make it to all of the parks.

We first made it to the Animal Kingdom, and had lots of fun, spent a small time at Epcot, and spent the rest of the day in the Magic Kingdom.  We didn't make it to the Disney studio park, but maybe another time.

As you come into the Animal kingdom there is a huge tree with pictures of animals all in it.  Very neat.

We went on a "Safari" ride through "Africa" and were able to see many fun animals, like this neat Oppapi? Excuse the spelling.

A Rhino.

I don't remember what this one is called.

Hippos.

Crocodiles. 

A cool tree.

A termite mound.

Another kind of deer I don't know the name of.

A giraffe. 

Wilde beast. 

An Elephant

Conner checking out the Elephants

Corby riding with big brother

Flamingos 

Big sister and little sister, checking out the Animals.

A cheetah. 

Ostriches 

Difficult to see, on the rock is a lion sunning itself. 

Ostrich Eggs. 

A "poacher's" campsite.

A "Poached" baby elephant. 

Behind this glass were some tunnels filled with naked mole rats.  For those "Kimpossible" fans,  say hey to Rufus' family.

Underwater view of the Hippos.

A meerkat. 

 Below the kids try their hands at drumming the bongo drums.

A ride.  Brenna was too little to go, so Sean and I took turns going with the little kids.  The upside is, if you have a kid too little to go, you can receive a fast pass for the second person for up to four people.  So one of us would wait through the long line for the ride with the three that could ride, then the second parent was able to go straight to the front with the pass and the three kids.  Nice, right.  

 Ok, so I am really bad at taking pictures, but it was lots of fun.  Below is the Disney resort that we stayed at. We were in the Movies Resort, in the love bug rooms.  Below are the cool decorations they had.  Also, because we stayed in the resort, we were able to take the trams, and buses to the different parks.  Lots of fun.  One fun thing to remember, is when we were in the magic Kingdom, we went to the "Monsters Inc."  interactive comedy show where they use a camera to include audience members in their show.  Brenna got the part of Boo from the story of Monsters inc.  It was priceless.  When she saw herself up on the screen, she was so excited.

That night we slept at the resort, dog tired, and the next morning Corby woke up and said "Where are we? Who's house are we at?  I guess it's ok if Conner sleeps with me."  Because he fell asleep before we got back to the hotel, because true the the Thompson spirit, we walked around the whole park until it closed at midnight, so we could see as many rides as possible, and the kids all slept in one bed, unknown to Corby until  he woke the next day.  The following day we went to Blizzard beach and had so much fun going on as many slides we could, and enjoying the nice cool water.