Decorations/Activities for an Art Party

Wait, this isn't a decoration... this is just a dead tomato plant that I forgot to get rid of before everyone came to the party!!!
HERE are the decorations/activites!!!

Sis is 9!!!!!

I'm WAY behind on posting (I have several I've started, but not finished yet), so I'm going to try to catch up a bit tonight!!!

Here are some moments from Sis's family party:

Here's the birthday girl in all her royal splendor:

Sis's cousins (aka Big Sissy and Little Sissy on Blessed Mama's site): Sis making Little Buddy smile and coo:

Aunt Liss and Little Sissy:

The only thing cuter than baby feet are FAT baby feet...

Swallow your cake, Bub!!!

My birthday rocks!!!

I've never seen Sis blush before now!!! She got a card from her Great Grandma that had the word "butt" in it. It made her laugh, which made US all laugh, which made her blush. Cute!

Finally, here are Sis's "big" presents from us for this year. Our artist got all the painting supplies she'll need for a while! She was so excited!

The biggest thing missing at the party was Uncle Billy... and it was HIS birthday, too!!!

Happy Birthday, Sis and Uncle Billy!!! We love you!

Aerosmith Rocks!

So, on Thursday, we went to Hollywood Studios. All Bub kept talking about was riding the Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster... although he knew there was a chance that he wouldn't be tall enough to ride it. Well, turns out he wasn't. But instead of being TOO sad about it, he chose to use his gift card from his grandmother to buy a Rockin' Roller Coaster Aerosmith t-shirt. I think we ALL agree that this was the coolest shirt in ALL of Disney World! How cool does he look???

This is Bub, H and K waiting while others were riding Tower of Terror:

I'm large and in charge!!!

The 8 younger kids posing under Mickey's Magician's GIANT hat!

We're tired and ready to go back to the hotel!!!

Once we got home, we ate a late lunch at the hotel food court. We gave the kids the choice of swimming, going to Epcot, or shopping. Sis said what she REALLY would like is to go back to the hotel room and rest... so rest we did!!! It was a wonderful respite to our busy-ness that we had going!

Oh, Mickey, You're So Fine!!!

After a day at Typhoon Lagoon Water Park (no camera!!), we went to Chef Mickey's for dinner.

Can I poke your eye out?

The two Donalds...

Not sure what Bub is doing here...

I think that Minnie is my favorite!!!

Goofy helped Sis celebrate her (early) birthday celebration with a special hug!

Wii don't need no stinkin' video games!!!

So, what do kids on vacation do to pass the time while their parents are getting cleaned up and ready for dinner??? They take all the pillows in the room, and use one for their head, one for their legs, and one for each of their arms...

Date Night

So, after Animal Kingdom, we all got cleaned up, then went to Boma's, an African restaurant on the grounds of Animal Kingdom. With a party of 17, we always had a wait even with a reservation... so we entertained ourselves any way we could. Here is a (blurry) picture of the game of limbo the boys were playing...

Then Bub and Sis decided to pose for a lovely picture.

Then Sis, Miss Gilly and I posed for a picture we took ourselves. Sis's response after she looked at it on the screen of the camera: "Oh, that's really cute. My head doesn't look nearly as squished as it felt like it was!"So, at dinner, we had to split into 2 tables. We decided to seat the moms with the sons, and the dads with the daughters. So, in Sis's mind, it became "date night," something she enjoys with her dad occasionally. So, she insisted on a picture of her and her date:
Then she came over and took a picture of me and MY date:

Just call me Noah!!!

Do you ever think that it's just not worth going on vacation, because there's always something BIG that happens while you're gone??? It's become a joke at work between the union president and me that if either one of us takes time off, something HUGE happens...

Well, this was one of those times. Hurricane Ike passed right over Florida where we were without a whimper, but it apparently made its presence known in the good ol' Midwest. This was the view of my office on Sunday morning...

Here's the hallway looking in to my office (on the left).

This is kind of blurry, but here's the inside of my office. My desk was completely clean when I left. Everyone just piled files on top trying to save some of them (see my cute pink hardhat in the background?).

So, I showed up on Monday morning after my vacation all refreshed. I even dressed up that day... heels, dress pants, and a cute little sweater. While the water was gone, I came in to the aftermath MESS!!! What a nightmare! I immediately went back home to change into "yucky" clothes, and spent the next 2 days cleaning/disinfecting/reorganizing. I guess the silver lining is that I'm WAY more organized now, and I have a new desk out of the deal!!!

Isn't life fun??

Who let the monkeys loose? Animal Kingdom in Florida

So, we were in Florida last week. We went to (mostly) Disney parks. We were with 3 other families (that's 8 adults and 9 children). Our schedule was:

Sunday - Magic Kingdom

Monday - Cocoa Beach

Tuesday - Animal Kingdom

Wednesday - Typhoon Lagoon Water Park

Thursday - Hollywood Studios

Friday - Epcot

We had to download our photos from the 1st 2 days on our friend's laptop on our trip, so I don't have those photos yet, but I'll post some from the ones I DO have... just think, it's a slide show that you can choose to ignore, and no one will be the wiser!

So, the 1st day, we went to Animal Kingdom. The ride of the day was Expedition Everest, an INTENSE roller coaster that we all loved! The funniest story of the day (for me) was when a friend's little boy was holding my hand while we were walking. Here's our conversation:

K: Darla, you look beautiful today!

Me (feeling rather FINE): Thanks, buddy!

K: And your hair looks really good!

Me: Awww.... thanks!

K: I mean, it's nothing like the other day when we were in the same hotel room (our two families flew in really late one night and shared a hotel room the 1st night)... I mean, your hair looked so scary, I wasn't even sure it was you when you were sleeping!!!

Isn't that lovely???

So, here's how I started EVERY day in Florida: putting sunscreen on. Note the capri pants I had on that day... it's because the back of my knees were so sunburned from the day before that I had to wear the longest pants I brought!!!

Here are 8 of the 9 kids with us. Kid #1 (the 12 year old) didn't care to pose for all of our "kid" shots by this point in the trip!

Here's Bub and his friend, H.

Check out my lovely backpack (HEAVY) that I lugged with me everywhere we went!

There are only a handful of people in this picture that WEREN'T with our group!

This last pic has nothing to do with Animal Kingdom, but I thought it was funny. It's Bub doing his "gang sign" as we were on the train headed back to the parking lot.

So, as I get the opportunity, I'll add more postings with pics from our trip. Enjoy (or not) the show!

Artsy Fartsy

Tuesday night was BEAUTIFUL outside, so I was inspired to go outside and take artsy pictures of our house/yard. I was SO excited to download the pictures once I was done, however, that I became careless, and let the strap of the camera catch a handle of our kitchen cabinet.... the results were devastating, LITERALLY! Our lens was shattered in the front. I felt so sick for my carelessness! Once Don came home, I confessed what I did (tearfully!). He consoled me, THEN looked at the camera. It turns out that I just broke the UV filter on the front of the lens... a MUCH less expensive disaster! What a RELIEF! So, here they are... the pictures that broke my lens!