It's Finally Here!

Well the day has finally come that Dave and I have been waiting a long time for. We are leaving soon on our 7 day Caribbean Cruise on Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas.

This whole idea started about 18 months ago when Dave was in the half way through his MBA and we were really having a hard time. Dave was never home, we both were stressed and we both wanted to quit. We decided to persevere, but to add a little reward to the end. A cruise with just the two of us. So we put a little money aside every month, and now here we are. I am just about to bust with exctiement.

We are going to Haiti, Ochio Rios, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel Mexico. My parents are coming to watch the kids. And I am crossing my fingers that all will go well while I am gone. I am sure it will be. Megan is already asking when she can go too.

So brace yourself for some photos (and long posts) when we are back!

Emily's First Field Trip

This past week Emily had her very first field trip. They went to a local park to learn about safety and have a lot of fun. Emily was most excited to be able to ride a on a school bus for the first time.

Emily's Kindergarten class getting ready to listen to the saftey presentations.

One of the saftey lessons was bicycle safety. They also learned about stop signs, railroad crossings, and stop lights. When they were asked what a red light meant they said, stop, green meant go and yellow meant......go faster! =) (Do as I say not at as I do I guess.) Then they were allowed to ride their bikes around the city

This is Emily ready to get going on her bike. They provided everyone with a helmet. If you are wondering about the hair net, it was required to ride. I guess they did not want the kids to share potenetial "head germs" with all the other kids with the helmets. And there were A LOT of kids there that day. She also let me know again, that she wants Santa to bring her a girl bike for Christmas. She really loved riding that bike!

They got to visit a fire house at that is 106 years old. They got to see a lot of cool old fire stuff including a fire engine.

They learned all about fire safety. While there, they asked the kids if their family had a fire escape plan and if their family had a fire extinguisher. Emily raised her had for "no" on both counts. I guess our Family Home Evening from about a month ago did not sink in to well!

Teacher and Student

I love the fact that I have two girls. I also love the fact that most of the time, they are each others best friend.

This is a picture of Megan giving Emily a little language arts lesson on Nouns. They love to play school. They got this easel with a white board/chalk board last year for Christmas, and it has made for hours of fun!

A Boquet of Freshly Shapened Pencils

One of my favorite movies is "You've Got Mail". I love the line where Meg Ryan equates the beginning of Fall with the brisk air, and a "bouquet of newly sharpened pencils".


Well in Florida we are finally getting some brisk air (yea!!!), and at our house we have LOTS of newly sharpened pencils!

Emily recently has found a new found love with pencil sharpener. I think it is because her kindergarten teacher does all the pencil sharpening at school, and she thinks it is cool that mom will let her do it at home. She over the course of the past weekend sharpened a couple dozen pencils from not being sharpened all to those nice sharp points that we all love.

I did not even know that we owned that many pencils. So why do I buy more every year when school starts? Note to self...... no more pencils! ( I also have that weakness with new sharp crayons as well. Dave is always after me about buying new crayons when we already have a ton of unsharpe ones.)

You know you can never find something to write with when you need one. Thanks to this cutie we can no longer say that about pencils. Will she stay this young forever?!

Halloween Fun.....Better Late Than Never

We went Trick or Treating with one of my good friends, who lives in a bigger subdivision with more kids. These are our friends from the neighborhood where we live (from left to right) Ashely as the Water Fairy from the new Tinker Bell movie, Megan as Hannah Montana, Alicia (a friend from school) as a Pop Diva, and Emily as Dora the Explorer. We had quite the crew and they all got way to much candy!

Hannah Montana and Dora the Explorer in front of our neighbors fall decorations.

Megan wanted to be Hannah Montana this year. For those who do not know who this is, it is a show from Disney Channel. We bought the wig even, but it had a hard time staying on. It made it though the pictures, but that was about it! Needless to say we will never do a wig with a costume again! She looked like quite the pop star!



This is Emily as Dora the Explorer. She had this costume picked out weeks before we bought it. She looked so cute, and she loved her backpack!

Halloween Fun at School

Emily had a Fall Festival at school. I am the Room Mom so I get to help. They made pattern hats (as you can see), frosted a scare crow cookies, explored the inside of a pumpkin, and did some painting of fall leaves on a tree. Oh to be in Kindergarten again!

The girls had a literary character parade at school. Megan was "Annie" from the the Jack and Annie in the Magic Tree House series that she loves to read. We braided her hair, and she wore an outfit like you would see in the book. She is carrying a Magic Tree House Book.

This is Emily in the literary character parade. She was Dora and carried her favorite Dora book.