Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party - 5th year! 2016

On Friday we went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party for our 5th year in a row. The price has gone up this year and it's definitely less of a "secret" than it used to be. We haven't been doing as much this year and we realized we hadn't been to Orlando in a long time and hadn't been to Disney since the Christmas party. It was good to eat at Uno's and we did see our favorite waitress and she still remembered us.

We checked in to the Beach Club Villas and changed in to our Disney outfits and then took the bus to the park. Connor and Mommy got matching shirts this year and Connor wanted to pretend that Mommy was his big sister. Andrea got Paige a very cute coordinating Halloween dress. While we didn't get all dressed up in costumes, it was fun to dress up together for the day.

After getting in to the park, we went in to one of the shops and Paige picked out a souvenir immediately.

We typically take a right turn after entering the park and go to Tommorrowland, but this time we decided we should go left and see how that would work. We started on the Aladdin ride and then rode the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and then Splash Mountain. The lines were a bit long and we waited 25 minutes for some of the rides until the regular visitors got kicked out of the park.

Once it got a little later, it wasn't quite so busy. We got the kids 2016 Halloween Party trick-or-treat bags and did quite a bit of trick or treating and got a bunch of candy.

The kids played "Pin the Boo on the Ghost" in one of the shops, and it was a good spot to get lots of candy in the trick or treat lines.

Connor and I rode at the front of the Barnstormer and we decided to go on it a second time around 10:30. Right as we got to the line, it started to pour rain. We found a little bit of shelter under some small decorative circle covers in the line, but we were still getting pretty wet. We stood out there for at least 15 minutes until the rain died down a little, then we ran over to the rest rooms where Paige and Andrea were waiting. We decided to call it a night, and covered the stroller with a poncho, opened up some umbrellas and started the trek back to the front of the park. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long for the bus, but we had to stand on the way back to the hotel.

We all were very tired by the time we got back to the hotel and fell asleep quickly. The next morning I was surprised we slept in pretty late and went to an early lunch at Uno's. After lunch, we put on our swimming things and explored the resort area.

Connor did a little shopping, but he didn't find anything for his souvenir.

We swam in the pool for quite a while in the afternoon. Andrea snapped a pic of me with the kids before we all got wet.

There was a pirate ship with a slide on it, which ended in a sandy pool. I took the kids up and Andrea took a video as we all came down. Unfortunately, Paige changed her mind at the last minute and went back down the stairs. Andrea was expecting her to follow me, and she didn't. You can see me hurrying out of the pool to go find her. She eventually did go down the slide and Andrea did too.

The pool also had a lazy river, and we all had fun swimming around and playing together in the pool. The deeper parts of the pool had nice white sand at the bottom, and it was one of the nicer hotel pools.

After swimming, we walked to the Boardwalk for dinner. While we ate, Connor spotted a basketball game in a carnival-type area. We watched a few kids try it and fail, and asked the worker which game was the easiest to win. The water spraying game guaranteed a prize, so Connor decided to give it a try.

Andrea and Connor played the water game first and Andrea got on target quickly and was the winner.

Connor had all weekend to shop for his souvenir, but at the end of the day the thing he wanted most was a chance to win another blue monkey. I played against him and didn't pull the trigger properly and got off to a terrible start. I bumped him a little to get him off target, but he still beat me!

Connor was happy to win the first Monkey with Mommy and was even more excited that he found an abandoned monkey at the Boardwalk and then won another monkey. Just what we needed, lots of new stuffed animals!

We slept in a little on Sunday, ate at Uno's and then drove home. It was a fun weekend and I'm thankful that we finally made it down to Orlando this year.

Connor's twin brother Trevor

Connor has had a wonderful attitude about our move and has done a good job socializing and making new friends. He's probably done the best of everyone with the move. That said, he still does miss some of his good buddies from the old neighborhood. This Saturday, Rachel invited Paige to go to lunch with them, and Andrea was planning to drop Paige off in our old neighborhood. Andrea got to thinking that it would be a good time to pick up Trevor for the day and thankfully Gina (Trevor's mom) agreed that it would work. We kept it a secret until Sunday morning, and Andrea surprised both kids with the plans.

Paige had a fun time with Kennedy, and Connor enjoyed hanging out with Trevor all day. I did the tennis clinics in the morning at the club and then Andrea met me at the beach with the boys. They played in the ocean for a little while and then we all had lunch. Connor wanted us to tell everyone they were twin brothers and we played along with them. It was pretty easy to assume they were brothers, their hair color and skin color is identical. Their eyes are different, but other than that they do look very similar.

Rachel and Chad dropped Paige off in the afternoon and Gina and Mark came to pick up Trevor. We gave a couple tours of the new house, which is almost complete. We went to Cantina for dinner with the Haskins and it was a nice opportunity to catch up with them and hear about everything that's been happening in the old neighborhood.

I'm thankful that Connor and Paige both got to spend time with some friends and thankful that Andrea is so thoughtful to put together fun days for them.

Finding Dori party

The kids went to a "Finding Dori" themed party at the beach club. There were a bunch of kids that went and Paige was excited that Abby, who lives in our neighborhood and rides their bus, was there too. The kids did a scavenger hunt, ate dinner, did some artwork, and played some games with everyone. Andrea and I went out to dinner and did a little shopping. When we picked them up, they were playing "Duck Duck Goose" and they were pretty wound up and in great moods.

Haircut for Chloe

Chloe finally got a proper haircut this past week. She was getting pretty shaggy lately. Grandma Alice had trimmed her a bit early in the summer and poor Chloe Bear was overdue for a real haircut. She can actually see now and hopefully is a bit more comfortable.

Chloe officially turned 13 this past month and has been doing well overall, although she had a couple instances of upset tummy overnight. It always seems to be overnight, and she ends up pooping her guts out. It's something she does every once in a while over the years, although it does worry me that it was a couple instances in the past few weeks. Hopefully she's feeling better now.

Splash Dance class with the PV Sharks!

Andrea signed Paige up for a dance class with the PV high school Sharks dance team. Paige was super pumped for the event and was excited to learn some real dance moves. Andrea dropped her off at the high school on Saturday for a few hours and Paige worked with the dancers to learn a routine that she'll be performing during an upcoming JV football game.

The girls also played some games together and had a few other activities for the day.

Andrea snapped a pic of Paige with her group and also bought her a little framed pic of her with the dance teammates.

When she got home, Paige said the song that they danced to was playing in her head all day and we'd always catch her practicing her new moves. We're looking forwards to seeing her perform!

School pic

We were a little early going to the bus stop on Friday, so I snapped a pic of the kids with their backpacks. No reason, just thought they looked cute.

Paige doing cartwheels and sassy posing

Paige has been doing a lot of cartwheels lately and decided it'd be fun to do her cartwheels and then fall in to a sassy pose. It was too silly for me not to take a few pics and a video. We were trying not to laugh during the video, but it was hard!