Cheetahs Soccer

Soccer is finally over. As much as I would like for Allie to play a sport, I don't see it happening! T-ball was excruciating to watch since she usually sat on the ground unless she was batting. Soccer was probably worse. I thought she would love it more because she got to do more than in t-ball but fooled again! She liked kicking the ball but only when she wanted to and then it was with no goal in sight. She also stopped playing and chasing the ball on a few occasions to go check on one of her teammates who'd fallen down (which usually resulted in giving up a goal). How do you teach a five year old that sometimes it's okay to leave somebody on the ground? I think we are going to try gymnastics. Something that she can do on her own. We had a fun little team of players but we didn't have a lot of experience. Our defense improved dramatically over the season (probably because we got plenty of practice on defense). Unfortunately, we didn't have a very dynamic offense. I think we had five or six goals on the season and the one kid on the team who had two or three those goals got sick with swine flu and missed the last few games of the season. Nonetheless, the kids usually played hard even though they were on the wrong end of the scoring. It was so crowded at Mazzio's for the pizza party that I didn't get any pictures but here are some from the next to last game. She actually did play hard in this game (and almost scored a goal!). Maybe it just takes her the whole season to get used to the sport and she likes it just before it ends??

Coach Dad keeps a close eye on the action

go number 7!

Coach Joe Neal (Erika's dad) watches Allie in action

allie and meredith

Pumpkin Farm

I can't believe how far behind I have fallen with blogging. I love my new Beth Moore Bible study but it has consumed my time (not necessarily a bad thing) along with co-chairing the book fair at school. Anyway, I'm going to take a break from Disney to post some fall activities per request.
One Saturday in October we headed to Kaska Pumpkin farm for the afternoon. It was extremely muddy from all the rain we have had but it was a gorgeous day out and we had a great time with the Nickell's.

Allie, Blaine, Libbie, and Delaney

The corn maize was a little bit more difficult this year than last. Glad we went in after the kids.

Justin, Blaine, Allie and John hopefully headed in the right direction.

the cow train

Blaine is in the last cow, Delaney is in the 3rd to last and Allie looks like she is in the first one but there were a few more.

enjoying the ride!

This thing was Allie's FAVORITE. You raced ducks by pumping water to make them go. She played at this almost the whole time we were there. Of course her shirt was soaked by the time we left.

Allie and Delaney going for a slide on the hay. Almost as much hay in her pants when she was done!

the wind blew just as I was about to take her picture

What fun!

Magic Kingdom

Even though we had another late night at Epcot, we still managed to get to the Magic Kingdom before opening. I know the kids were excited they were just too tired to show it :) As the race began we headed straight for Dumbo dragging the kids behind us and reminding them of how much fun this is. There was already a line at Dumbo but we didn't have to wait too long. I stood in line with Blake and Allie while Justin went to get fastpasses for Peter Pan. I didn't realize that we had to ride with them until we got to the front and Blake wasn't tall enough to ride with Allie. Nothing like starting your day on a ride that goes round and round in circles. We headed over to Peter Pan which became Allie's favorite ride. We also rode the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mad Tea Party, Snow White's Scary Adventure, Peter Pan again, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad all before lunch. After lunch at the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe we ran into the Jantzes and checked to see how their girls were feeling (caught the flu on the way to Disney World). We also rode It's a Small World, watched Mickey's Philharmagic, listened to Storytime with Belle, shopped in the stores then headed to watch the parade. It was hot and we were beginning to fade so we decided to head back to the hotel even though we had dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace at 6:15 pm. I forgot my camera when we came back so I have no pictures of Winnie the Pooh, Eeorye, Tigger, or Piglet (Allie's new favorite character). Justin took some with his phone so maybe I can figure out how to post those. The castle looked pretty cool with the lights changing as it got darker. We did some more shopping before we got the news that Grammie had arrived at the hotel so we headed back to meet up with her. We definitely rode the most rides on this day (so far)!

none other than Dumbo

dumbo was our first ride in the magic kingdom

winnie the pooh and it's a small world

Allie did not like the small world ride but it was ac and a smooth boat ride. that makes it one of my favorites!

ready to ride winnie the pooh

alice and white rabbit

we didn't realize that blake and allie had to have an adult ride with them on the tea cups. as soon as the worker told us that i quickly ran away. i'm sure justin had a great time!

belle's storytime: blake was picked to play gaston! not a role that he was happy to play though. poor allie would have given anything to be a part of belle's story.

the kids got a kick out of this back at the hotel room

Epcot

Even though we had a late night we still got up early the next day to head to Epcot. 13 hours at Hollywood Studios was more than I wanted so we decided first thing that we would break the day up by coming back to the hotel instead of staying all day to watch Illuminations. I had a better idea of how things worked and was ready to tackle the touring plan. On the bus we studied the map and went over the plans. First we headed to Soarin' and since there was no wait Allie, Blake and Justin hopped right on (I don't do heights although they got me on it before the week was over). As soon as we got off we raced over to Test Track, rode, then headed back to Soarin' with fastpasses. The Seas with Nemo and Friends was a cute ride but some kids ran up and got on the clamshell next to Blake and Allie so all 4 of us had to squeeze into one! Blake was picked to talk to Crush (the turtle) and mentioned that his aunt brought him so then I had to talk to Crush. It was a cute show but I could have gone without talking to a turtle! Today's lunch was at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway. This was a character meal that included the princesses. Allie's eyes began to light up as soon as we stepped inside and saw some of the princesses. Our first princess was Belle. Allie acted a little nervous but totally excited as she had her picture taken with her. The food was great I thought but Allie's eyes were on who was coming next. She had her picture taken with each one and they signed her book. I think she giggled through the whole meal. We ran into Donald in Mexico and then Blake and Allie played in the fountain because it was really hot. We had a chat with Rafiki before going into one of the stores. Allie picked out piglet and Blake wanted Stitch. We drank some coke and watched the Circle of Life before heading back. As we were heading back to the hotel the kids decided they would rest for a little before going swimming. We were surprised by the order but thought it sounded good. Well, they didn't last long and were probably out for about 2 hours. We headed back to Epcot to eat at Sunshine Season's Food Fair before picking our spot for Illuminations. Another late night but this was probably my favorite day. Epcot was not crowded at all!!!! We could move around very easily and there were no lines for anything! It was just a relaxing fun day!

standing outside the window where we ate

belle

sleeping beauty

snow white

ariel

cinderella

i love allie's face looking at the desserts

cooling off in the fountain

rafiki was playing with blake's hat

Hollywood Studios

We jumped out of bed the first morning and quickly ate breakfast. We loaded onto a full bus and headed to Hollywood Studios by 8:30 a.m. We arrived before the park opened and Justin and I quickly reviewed the map so we could plan our strategy. We were headed along with the masses to Toy Story Mania first. When the rope dropped, the race was on. We put Allie and Blake in their strollers beforehand so that we could manuever our way there faster. Of course, it was all the way over on the other side of the park. Toy Story Mania was a great ride and probably one of my favorites. We were back that way later that day and the wait time for the ride was 75 minutes! Glad we rode it first. After that ride we headed to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Great show! Playhouse Disney and Star Tours rounded out the morning since we had lunch reservations at 11:30 at Hollywood and Vine. This was our first experience with character meals. They had June and Leo from Little Einstiens and JoJo and Goliath. Allie really hasn't ever watched any of these shows but to see the colorful characters live was exciting for her and Blake. They also stopped and danced ever so often so they jumped on that chance. After lunch we headed back to Star Tours (not on my plan but both kids wouldn't here of anything else). After Star Tours we went to watch the Muppet 3D show and then we got in line to see Buzz and Woody. The line was really long and they didn't want to miss the parade so we got out of line to get some ice cream and reserve a spot for the parade. It was REALLY hot and crowded this day so we didn't watch the whole parade. We cooled off in one of the stores before heading to watch Beauty and the Beast. Next we headed to the Indiana Jones stunt show. I could have done without that and I like Indiana Jones movies. Blake's favorite place to eat was Toy Story Pizza Planet. We liked it too. There were other rides that we wanted to do but this was our first day and we were just getting the feel for how to do this. Plus this was the day before Labor Day and it was the most crowded of all the days. After dinner, we headed over to watch Fantasmic. That was a good show but we ended up being at that park for 13 hours straight. We were all ready to get out of there. It was our first park and it was crowded so we feel we didn't get as much done there as we did at the other parks. We would have liked to gone back during the week when it wasn't as crowded but time didn't permit. Maybe next time.

Allie on Toy Story Mania

Hollywood and Vine

Mickey ice cream for the parade

picture moments

Block Party Bash (parade)

Beauty and the Beast

Disney World Here We Come!!

I have finally gone through all my pictures and was surprised that I didn't take that many. I think we were so into the trip that we just forgot to 'capture the memories!' As most of you heard me complain, this was not a trip that I wanted to take but was willing to go along with Allie and fullfil her dream of going to DisneyWorld. I planned and researched for this trip for almost a year. I obsessed over the itenerary trying to figure out how to do Disney the right (perfect) way. I bought books, interviewed (or interrogated) friends who have gone, read Disboards until 2 a.m. several nights, and yes, even joined tourningplans.com for $8. We did the 6 a.m. (7 a.m. eastern time) call into Disney World for the dining plan reservations, including Cinderella's castle. We went to the zoo to practice walking from exibit to exibit in extreme temps. Finally the day arrived for us to leave. The day started at 5 a.m. in Waco and ended in Orlando, FL at 7:00 p.m. including a 2 hour stop in Atlanta to pick up nephew Blake. The kids were sooooo excited and Justin and I were exhausted already. Finally we made it to the hotel- Pop Century. Blake and Allie LOVED the decor. The plan was to arrive in FL at 4:30 but flight delays changed that. We had promised the kids they could swim so instead of eating dinner, we swam in the pool. Dinner was confusing because we hadn't figured out how to use the dinning plan yet. By 9:30 p.m. we had all swam, eaten dinner and made it back to the room. I finalized our plans for the next day and we packed the backpacks and laid out the clothes. We made it to bed at around 11:45 a.m. with a forceful itinerary to follow the next day at Hollywood Studios!

they had fun playing in the store

nice hats!

To be continued....