while they were off track Part 3 - Halloween

I ♥ Halloween! It is definitely one of my Favs! The kids had fun dressing up and this year I got into it a little more than usual. Pretty sure I freaked them all out in the process, but what the heck...I'm only young once. And technically I am not really that anymore.
I was Punk...in case you could not tell.

My uber cute kiddos all dressed up and ready to go!

With the Bankheads...we take a group shot of our kids together every year and have done this for as long as we have been friends. It's a tradition that they all look forward to.

Funniest thing ever...this year Jonathan wanted to be an Army Guy so we got his costume all ready for him. Never once did I even ask Shannon what her boys were going to be and then when they got to our house to take the picture together, and lo and behold...Brody and Porter were dressed as Army Guys too! It was awesome!

Rachel was a candy corn.


Jonathan was an Army Guy and Jenny was a Bunch of Grapes.


Meghan was a wall. We got this costume from a neighbor about 3 years ago after her daughter used it and were just waiting for Meghan to be able to fit in it. She was still a little short and had a hard time walking in it, but it was a simple fun costume.

And Sidney was a kitty cat. She kept saying "meow". :)

while they were off track Part 2 - Swine Flu

On Thursday of our Disneyland trip I started to feel yucky. Not enough that I needed to stay at the hotel and just leave Mike alone with the kids all day, just enough that I was ornery. (Mike would say "what's new about that?"...he is such a smart aleck!)

Anyway, Friday was even worse and so we called it an early night and headed back to the hotel. Mike did dinner with the kids by himself and I fell asleep in the room. Saturday morning was full of rush rush rush so that we could get all packed and to the airport on time. I felt HORRIBLE! All I could think was "just make it home and then you can die...just make it home and then you can die". For real.

Sunday I didn't go to church because I had no voice. No lie. My kids love it when I have no voice. Apparently it's quieter or something something. I don't know.

Finally on Monday I had the chance to go to the doctor and get a giant q-tip shoved up to my brain. THAT is a very pleasant experience and don't let anyone tell you different. That stupid test said NEGATORY! no swine flu, but I knew better. I am a mom, my gut just tells me these things. Sometimes.
The nice doctor gave me an antibiotic anyway and within a day I was feeling better.

And then Wednesday Sidney started coughing. Nothing is worse than a little one that feels crummy and can't tell what hurts so they just cry. Mike took her in to the after hours clinic while I was at Mutual and she tested positive for H1N1. So, basically...I DID have it, I just missed the window for it to show positive on the swab. Dang! It might have actually felt worth it somehow had it been positive. oh well.

It was a rough week and a half for us. I think Meghan got a mild case too, but since there isn't anything that can be done (really) we just sanitized as best we could and tried not to cough or spit on each other.

At least it didn't last too long. That is the silver lining in all this. That and the fact that at least 3 of us have an immunity to the virus now.

"while they were off track" Part 1- DISNEYLAND

We LOVE Disneyland. Who doesn't? Well, I am sure there are some people that don't, but I must say that it is one of the places that I think we could be at everyday and be very happy.

So, the kids were off track and we planned our family vacation for October. It's hard to go during the summer because of year-round school. It rained the first couple of days that we were there, but honestly that didn't stop us at all! We just kept on going! Besides, the rain wasn't hard, just more of a drizzle and we were warm enough with just our jackets on. We walked onto rides. Seriously. We love going in October for that reason. It is still nice-ish weather and not busy like during the summer or Christmas time.

We did a day at Knott's Berry Farms too. That was super fun for the big girls because they could go on some bigger roller coasters. Jonathan and Sidney had a ball in "Camp Snoopy" which is the kids rides section of the park. And yes, the park has a Peanuts (Charlie Brown and Snoopy) theme to it. We even got to see Snoopy and the kids liked that!

Jonathan was much braver this trip and tried most every ride. He even went on Space Mountain! He was freaked out when they got off of it and claims he will "never ride it again until he is 13", but whatever...at least he tried it once. I was just glad we didn't have a repeat of last time when he cried and screamed before every ride asking if it was scary. That stunk! Sidney was a trooper and officially has a favorite ride called the Carousel. She loved it and wanted to go on it all day long or at least anytime we passed by it. Jenny and Meghan and Rachel all had a ball, just like we knew they would! They were all tall enough to go on every ride and that was fun for them.

New things I tried this time around that worked really well:
1. Instead of having a "general snack bag" that everyone could get something from when we had snack breaks like I have done before...I made a ziploc with each person's name on it. Every morning I put in it a variety of snacks. Then the kids could choose how they wanted to use up their snacks. They could eat them all before noon and have nothing else the rest of the day, or they could space them out. Also, there was no complaining that "she got a fruit snack and I didn't" or whatever. Everyone had the same types of things and if they ate all the good stuff and didn't save it for later, then that was their problem.
2. Everyone took the same amount of money to spend. No one got to take any more than anyone else even if they had more. I think this helped cut down on arguments between kids too.
3. Our hotel rocked! I can't take credit for that one, it was all Mike, but it was fabulous! We ate breakfast and dinner at the hotel restaurant and ALL the kids ate free. How wonderful is that? Plus, it was pretty good food.

And now...here are some highlight pictures of our trip!!