Renaissance Festival

So I woke up last Sunday morning and Tommy had bought tickets online to the Renaissance Festival for the day. This was the first time for all of us, so we didn't know what we were in for. It was a lot of fun. Lots of rides and games for the kids, really cool shows, fantastic people watching, and great food. I, of course, had to get the big turkey leg for lunch, the kids had meatballs in a bread bowl to share (Brady also had some of my turkey leg...he tries pretty much anything), and Tommy had a steak on a stick. Here are some pictures of some of the things we did...

Our first ride...the spinning ships. Boy was I dizzy...I couldn't wait for it to end.

Climb the ladder...win five bucks. Well if you know Ashlyn, then you know she was determined to do it. She had five tries for $2. Poor thing, she worked so hard.

First time climbing the BIG rock wall...

"Mommy, I can't reach the top. My arms are not big enough."

"Believe me Ashlyn, that's high enough."

Our Star pitcher throwing tomatoes at the insulter.

Brady had the crowd in amazement with his throws.

Ashlyn hit the guy right in the face after he insulted her. Take that!

After the jousting show, Ashlyn gave it a shot on this horse on a zip cord.

The pole was too heavy to hold up, so she barely missed the ring.

Mommy in charged of her kids plus 2 on a bumpy camel ride.

This green troll let kids come up and make a tooting noise from his can of goo.

Ashlyn loved it. Brady was too afraid of him.

Puzzle Time

Puzzles are a big thing at the Sullivan house. I have always loved doing puzzles so it is not surprising that my children love it too...and they are really good at it. Ashlyn started doing 24-piece puzzles when she was 2...now she does ones with 100-pieces. And of course Brady is following in her footsteps. She a really good teacher too. I guess we need to graduate to the 250-piece puzzles.

Happy Halloween

Silvermist (aka Ashlyn), Tinkerbell (aka Mommy),

and Buzz Lightyear (aka Brady)

Total concentration while painting.

Ashlyn, Kaitlin, and Kailey

Snakes in the tub!

Trick or Treat!

Going on a Hay Ride!

This year we decided to do something different for Halloween. Our friends the Plummers had a Halloween party up in Mooresville. The kids had a great time playing with all of the kids that were there...and boy were there a lot. Brady was only scared of a couple of costumes two little boys were wearing. Dracula and the Grim Reaper...too scary for me too.

Dave, the host, took the kids trick or treating...he did two loads in his truck with a trailer filled with hay. The kids were loving it...except for when it starting to pour...not so much then. They still got plenty of candy. Fun for all ages!

Pumpkin Carving

We finally carved our pumpkins, two days before Halloween. The kids were so excited and wanted to make them look really cool. Obviously Tommy and I would be doing the carving. I thought that maybe they would help clean the pumpkins out...no it was too eeeewww. Ashlyn and Brady picked out the way they wanted each pumpkin to look not understanding that we are no artists...well at least I'm not, I won't speak for Tommy. Anyway, of course they picked out two of the hardest ones. It was fun and they actually came out pretty good. Tommy's was suppose to look like a skeleton face...what do you think?

Awe Shucks

Fall is here and the kids are getting so excited about Halloween. We headed into Monroe to Awe Shucks Farm. They had tons for the kids to do...a corn maze, a hay ride, a tree house with a cool slide, a pony ride (we missed out on the pony because she was too tired from the rides all day), farm animals, lasso practice (Tommy tried to lasso the kids and me...he got Ashlyn a couple of times), horseshoes, fishing lake, pumpkin patch, duck racing (not real ducks...rubber ones that move through a chute when you pump water into it), and hay jumping. Ashlyn didn't want to leave and would love to go back again.

Chuck E Cheese

"Thanks PaPa for coming to my party!"

Brady's favorite game, Skee Ball...he is really good at it. But watch out, he throws overhand.

Another favorite, basketball.

Brady and Chuck E.

We went to one of Brady's favorite places for his 3rd birthday...Chuck E Cheeses. He was so excited that he told everyone that he saw that he was having his birthday party at Chuck E Cheeses. Even when we were at Disney World on Ashlyn's birthday...people would wish her a happy birthday when seeing her birthday pin, and Brady would chime in, "my having my birthday party at Chuck E Cheeses".

We invited all of his friends, mostly girls...such a stud already. I think there were only two boys besides Brady...his friend Dylan couldn't make it. Brady played all the games and won lots of tickets which he used to get two hand held rocket launchers...one for him and one for Sissy.

When it was time to leave to get Ashlyn from the bus stop...oh I forgot to mention, Ashlyn was in school that day, she was not happy about missing it. I told her that I would take her on her day off in October. Anyway, Brady didn't want to leave; as you can see from the pictures, he was having way too much fun.

Happy 6th Birthday Ashlyn

When we got home from Disney that Sunday, Tommy snuck out and went up to her school to paint the rock. The next morning she was so surprised to see it.

This year we told Ashlyn that she could have a sleepover party for her birthday and invite 4 girls. She was so excited, she started to think about what friends she wanted to invite. I told her to limit it to just girls, not for any other reason than the list would be too long. She decided on Evelyn, Kayley, Kylie, and Emma. As soon as we set the date and sent out the invitations, she started counting down the days. We almost had to reschedule it when she came home from school on the Wednesday before the party with 102 fever. Thankfully she quickly recovered, as she always does, and was fever free the next day. We did kept her home from school to rest the next day.

When the day finally came to have the party, the Gators were playing Tennessee...meaning Tommy was out of commission until the game was over. So I had first shift...5 to 7. We did a craft (fairy sun catchers...there was a Tinkerbell theme), played musical chairs, ate pizza, ran around upstairs and downstairs, then had cake. Talk about short attention spans. Each activity only lasted at most 10 minutes. After cake, Ashlyn opened presents then finally it was movie time...Barbie and the Three Musketeers. The girls got in their pj's, I popped some popcorn and they settled in the bonus room. All was quiet...time for me to relax. After the movie was over they played and played and played. Time to watch another movie to get ready to sleep...yeah right. Ashlyn was actually tired and was the first to lay down...probably still not 100% after being sick. The others kept playing. When all was said and done, Ashlyn and Kayley were the first asleep by 10:30, where the others were up passed the movie until 11:15. I was exhausted.

6:45...rise and shine. Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, play some Wii, then the party was over. Definitely a time to remember for us all.

Nickelodeon Family Suites and Disney World

When we arrived at the Nickelodeon Family Suites, we had 10 minutes before the Sliming (they pour a big bucket of green slime over you by the pool water slides). Of course we rushed down there so Ashlyn could get slimed...gross, then you swim in that water.

First night, dinner at Planet Hollywood.

Downtown Disney outside of Lego Land. The Lock Ness Monster is completely made out of Legos...pretty amazing.

All made out of Legos...except the B-man.

The first morning we had the character breakfast at the Nickelodeon Family Suites. We got to meet Dora, Patrick, Sponge Bob, and two characters from the Fairy Odd Parents. Brady was a little scared of Patrick...I totally understand, he's a little strange looking. His favorite was Dora...he may have a little crush on her.

As Brady says, "Bum Bob".

"Oh no, it's a bad guy! Get me out of here!" This was a spot to take pictures after getting off the Buzz ride.

One of Brady's favorite rides, Motor Speedway.

Ashlyn was asked to drive the boat on the Jungle Cruise ride in Magic Kingdom...what a lucky girl. The funny thing is, she really thought she was actually driving the boat...shhhhh.

Oh no, the claw.

Waiting on line to meet Buzz and Woody.

Brady's new favorite character is Buzz Lightyear. Even though we met him last year, we had to do it again. "To infinity and beyond!"

In Pixie Hollow with Tink. Ashlyn was so excited when we found out that there was a Pixie Hollow in Magic Kingdom. We waited on line for 45 minutes to shrink down to fairy size so we could meet the fairies. She was a little disappointed when she found out the Silvermist was not there...but she still got to meet Iridessa, Tink, and Rosetta. She still felt super lucky.

In the honey pot on Pooh ride.

Heffalumps and Woozles from the Winnie the Pooh ride. Brady was scared to go on the ride this year at first because he said that the heffalumps and woozles were too scary. We finally convinced him that they were just really silly. It was his favorite ride last year.

This was one of Brady's favorite rides...Buzz Lightyear. You use the toy laser gun in your cart to shoot at all the targets...or as Brady says, "shoot all bad guys". I lost track how many times we went on it. The Toy Story ride in Hollywood Studies was so much better, but we didn't spend that much time there and you needed a fast pass because of the long wait.

We ate in Epcot, in Germany two times for dinner...mainly for the show and of course the beer. The kids loved to dance after dinner. The Chicken dance was their favorite song to dance to...it still is. Don't you love Ashlyn's split.

The baby slides at Nickelodeon Family Suites. Brady wasn't big enough to go on the really big ones. That's fine, I don't think he would have wanted to anyway...too scary.

On Friday night we bought tickets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (I know it was still only September). The kids loved dressing up. Ashlyn wore her new Silvermist costume (one of the fairies from TinkerBell) and Brady wore his Superman costume from last year's Halloween. They got to walk around the Magic Kingdom and stop at all the trick-or-treat spots to get candy. Yes, we had to hit all of them...we might have missed one, but I wasn't about to tell them that. All the villains were out to meet...like Captain Hook. Last year Ashlyn wanted nothing to do with any of the villains. At night they had a Not So Scary parade and fireworks show. It was really amazing...and this time the kids made it through the whole thing.

The last day we were in Disney, it rained (at least that was the only time). We decided to go to Epcot since there is a ton to do inside. We were lucky enough to visit a great character spot where the line was super short (last year it was way to long). We got to see Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald, and the bears from Jungle Book. It really made the kids so happy.

This is Bruce (the shark from Nemo). This is one of Ashlyn's favorite places to pose for a picture. When you get off the Nemo ride he is among the things you can see and do...it's like an aquarium museum. We also talked to Crush (the sea turtle from Nemo) again like last year. All the kids get to sit in the front on the floor and he picks out kids to talk to. Ashlyn asked him a question both times we went to see him. It is such a cute show. Who knows when we will be back to Disney World, it is so hard to stay away too long.