Labor Day Weekend

My brother had recently bought a house in the Poconos, so we decided to take advantage of the 3-day weekend and head up there to pay them a visit.  We left Saturday mid-morning and surprisingly got stuck in a lot of traffic.  The drive should've normally taken us two hours or so, but it seemed like every road we turned on, we'd be going at a snail's pace.  The trip took us probably double the amount of time it should've, and this is without making any stops.  The kids were asleep for the most part, but halfway there, baby M woke up yelling that he had to go potty.  Of course, this had to happen right after we hopped onto I-80, where we were moving at five miles an hour, all the way on the left lane (unable to exit) and no shoulder to stop at.  I refused to let him pee in the car, so I unbuckled my seat belt and jumped to the back, where I got him out of his car seat and took out a half empty water bottle for him to pee in (fortunately, we literally were moving at 5 miles an hour, otherwise I would not have risked taking him out of his car seat).  He peed and stopped, so I proceeded to pull the water bottle out... BIG BIG mistake.  It turns out he wasn't completely done yet, so as he continued peeing, urine went all over the car... mostly on me.  Thank goodness for sani-wipes!

Other than the pee incident in the car, the rest of the day went smoothly.  We got to my brother's place, had lunch, then spent the rest of the afternoon in their community beach/lake. The kids were in the water trying to catch the fish.  Baby M wasn't too interested, so M and I took him on a paddle boat ride.  It didn't last long though, as he got bored sitting in the boat and wanted to go back on shore to play with his sister and cousins.  Afterwards, we checked out big sister K's tennis skills by the courts (as she spent the entire month of August in tennis camp).  To my disappointment, she did not progress as much as I would have hoped (though my expectations of her are at times unrealistic and I need to remind myself that she is only 6).  When the kids got tired, we took them to the pool to cool off, then went back to the house to shower and get ready for dinner.  The day went by quickly.  Baby M and big sister K got to have a sleepover in their cousins' room, and they loved it.  Sadly, we had to leave the next day...

Getting ready to serve:

One last photo of the kids before we left:

PHOTO-BOMBED!

On Monday, we made an impromptu decision to go apple-picking at Battleview Orchard.  We went early enough that it hadn't gotten too crowded yet, so that was nice.  They had a few varieties to pick from, but our favorite was the Honey Crisp apples.  The kids had a great time "taste testing" everything:

First Day of School - 2nd Grade

Summer just kind of came and went... and now it's back to school time for the kids already!  Big sister K started her first day of school on Wednesday.  She was so excited that she got out of bed all on her own, got dressed, brushed her teeth, and was all ready to go before the rest of us barely got started!  This year I let M do the drop-off and didn't tag along as I had previously.  M told me she just ran off after he signed her in, not looking back once to wave bye.  SIGH... all grown up!

Great Adventure

Big sister K had gotten a free ticket to Six Flags Great Adventure for reading a certain number of books a few months ago. We've been so busy all summer that we never got a chance to go.  The ticket expired on August 16, so we shifted some things around in order to free up the 15th to go.

Big sister K was all about going on the roller coasters, which M and I don't do, so we went with two other families and had big sister K go on the thrill rides with them. She had a blast, and my brave little girl wasn't afraid at all!  She even wanted to go on the ones where she didn't reach the height limit. They took her on El Toro and Skull Mountain. Afterwards, she showed me which ride was El Toro, and when I saw it, my mouth dropped:

Meanwhile, baby M had fun going on all the kiddie rides.  He enjoyed this one so much he went on it multiple times:

Big sister K and baby M didn't know who Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were (it's such a shame!), but they wanted to take a picture with them anyway:

Pantene Beautiful Lengths

I chopped off 10 inches of my hair back in March to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths:

When big sister K saw what I had done, she decided she wanted to do the same.  Her hair was not quite long enough at the time, so I told her she'd have to wait. It's grown out over the past five months... M has not been a fan of the long hair (complained about it every time he had to give her a bath) and wanted to cut it ages ago, but big sister K held her ground and refused, insisting on donating it.  I measured her hair recently and saw that she finally met the minimum length requirement.  Monday night, she randomly told me she wanted to cut her hair right then and there, so I did.

It came out shorter than I expected, but she didn't seem to mind:

I am super-proud of my little girl for her generous heart and selflessness.  I hope she stays this sweet always.

Savannah, GA

We left Orlando after breakfast and started to make our way to Savannah, GA on Monday.  The trip should've only taken us four hours, but ended up taking seven hours with baby M having to go potty every half an hour (or so it seemed).  In any event, by the time we got there, it was almost dinner time.  We checked in at the Marriott Fairfield Inn, which was a big disappointment (looked more like a Motel 6 than the 3-star rating it was given), then made our way to Publix supermarket to stock up on some snacks for the next few days.

First stop on Tuesday morning was to the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace, the founder of Girl Scouts.  I went in there not really expecting anything, but we had a good tour guide and I found myself actually enjoying listening to the little tidbits about Juliette Gordon Low.  Big sister K went along with it, but I think she was more interested in going back to the gift shop and picking out some patches for her Girl Scouts vest that I had promised I'd get her.

In the afternoon, we made our way to River Street, a historic part of Savannah that has many of its century-old buildings converted to tourism.  Of course with our luck, once we paid for parking and got out of the car, it started pouring.  We found shelter inside a hotel and stayed there for over an hour until the rain stopped.  A lot of time wasted, but it was better than getting soaked.  River Street was actually quite charming.  I could do without all the tourist traps, but I guess that's part of the charm.

Wednesday was spent at the Georgia State Railroad Museum, Savannah Children's Museum, and Savannah History Museum, followed by a few hours at the outlet mall.  The kids had a good time going on the trains and seeing their very first real roundhouse and turntable. It was another scorching day... you would think we'd be used to the heat by now, but it was still torture, especially with most of the activities being outdoors.

Enjoying a bit of air conditioning inside one of the train cars:

On the train going through the turntable... the roundhouse is behind the kids:

My little climber at the Savannah Children's Museum:

All smiles!

Legoland

Another hot and steamy day in sunny Orlando... off to Legoland we go!

 Big sister K on the carousel ride:

Lego Friends:

 Baby M's latest craze with Star Wars... he likes Darth Vader, but is afraid of him (took him a while before he was willing to stand next to the Lego statue):

Darth Maul:

Here's the Legoland version of a safari.  Some of the figures were pretty impressive, but still not quite the same as seeing real animals.

Kids got their first honorary drivers license after driving these mini-cars.

   Kids with their new minion dolls from a carnival game... which we didn't actually win (couldn't knock down three stacked cans with a softball after six tries), but the lady who worked there felt sorry for us.  She let the kids try and of course, they couldn't do it either, but then she gave them some "help" and knocked down the cans for them.  Big sister K ended up with a big minion doll and baby M a little one.  It totally made their day and was well worth the $10 spent!

 Me and my girl:

July 4th

Knowing the theme parks would be overly crowded on July 4th, we took it easy on Saturday and hung out at the hotel (we needed the rest from the previous two days anyhow).  The kids loved playing in the pool and also took advantage of some games and arts and crafts that were set up in honor of Independence Day.  We were there for a few hours when it got very crowded all of a sudden (I think a big tour group came in and decided to hit the pool), so we left to go shower.  After getting cleaned up, we took a trip to Downtown Disney to let big sister K trade some more pins.  Her current collection:

Some pictures taken at the hotel:

Animal Kingdom

On our way to breakfast before another HOT day at the park... if only they got along this nicely all the time.

 Can't complete our visit to Animal Kingdom without taking a picture in front of the big fake tree.

Killing time while waiting for the Finding Nemo Musical to start.

 Photo op with Russell and Dug:

 Photo op with Daisy Duck:

Baby M actually asked to take a picture with us while big sister K was off trying to collect her wilderness explorer badges.  One of the rare moments he chooses to smile and look at the camera.