That’s basically how I would describe our indoor soccer experience this year.  It was good practice for Ethan, but I think we’ll stick to the real outdoor deal from now on.  There’s just something about stepping foot on that grass on a chilly day with snacks, blankets and camping chairs in hand that just can’t be replaced by a stinky gym where you have to play an oversized glorified tennis ball.  Can I get an amen?  Oh well, Ethan had fun so that’s all that mattered.  We signed him up with the same 3 boys he’s been playing with for 4 seasons now and they loved it.  Yesterday was his last game with the green Eagles and as his coach was handing out trophies he said he would give Ethan the offensive player of the season award.  That was very odd to hear for these defensively minded ears, but still sweet.  I definitely think E has found his talent and I’m so glad that outdoor soccer has already started…Go Strikers!

Before the first game

Liam, Ethan, Alex & Nicholas

Getting his trophy

I love this soccer head!

A month or so ago I noticed that the local theater group was doing a show of Pinkalicious and the wheels started turning.  Rachel invited 5 friends over this past Friday night for a perfectly pink evening.  Rachel was dressed and ready at 3:30 and outside waiting for her guests to arrive:

(this picture was taken before she started dancing on top of the camper and got black stuff all over her tights)

All of the pinkies ready to start the evening:

Rachel, Lauryn, Josie, Allie, Emmy, Elly – crowns and wands courtesy of Amber

Enjoying a completely pink dinner: bagels with ham and pink cream cheese, pink popcorn, pink yogurt, strawberries, watermelon, pink lemonade and of course, pink cupcakes

The veteran princess at the party read Pinkalicious to a very attentive crowd

Josie, Emmy & Rachel arriving at the show

The girls were so happy to be at a “movie” as they kept calling it to see the real Pinkalicious and her real pink cupcake house. 

I’ll never forget Rachel telling me that night that she LOVED having a no boys allowed party.  Which she quickly followed up with, “So, when is our purplicious party?”

…I looked like this..

…because I was surrounded by this…

…and realized I would get to be with this guy forever and ever…

Clay (with the help of Josh & Erin…thanks, guys!) set up a scavenger hunt all around campus (A&M) that led me in front of the Systems Building where 14 friends were waiting with 14 roses for the 14 months we had dated.  I collected the roses and turned the corner to see a Ross Volunteer sabre arch with Clay waiting at the top.  And come to find out, about 60 of our friends were hiding in the bushes to congratulate us.  I can still remember most of the details about that night, but as I went to bed that night – at 21 years old – I remember thinking that I was literally the luckiest girl in the world to have Clay.  And now, 11 years later, I KNOW how blessed I am to have Clay.  He still cracks me up and he still teaches me new things every day.  He is not complacent and I am so thankful for that.  He is incredibly loyal and loves us all unconditionally.  And for the record, I think he has aged very well.  And yesterday he impressed me all over again.  A few weeks ago the worship committee at church asked him if he wanted to lead singing on Sunday morning.  I’m so thankful I’m not a man because I probably would have run and hid if they had asked me that.  But of course he didn’t even hesitate before saying yes.  So, the bulletin yesterday morning looked like this:

Of course he did great and even peppered a few jokes in there…true Clay Starr form.  Words can’t express how thankful I am for the example Clay sets for Ethan…and for me.  Love you babe – happy engagement day!

Day 2 and 3 were spent at Epcot and Hollywood Studios, and of course they were both awesome.  It was EXTREMELY cold both of those days…in the 20s in Florida.  When we went to Disney with Ethan a few years ago we didn’t go to Epcot, so we talked it up that morning and the kids were very excited.

Waiting for the monorail to take us to Epcot

We made a beeline for the Nemo and Friends ride and show

Thrilled to see Chip and Dale along the way

Enjoying cotton candy while we were waiting on the boys to ride Soarin’

Stitch

In the Norwegian store

We ventured to Hollywood Studios on Tuesday and again braved the bitter cold.  Our main goal was to do the Toy Story Mania ride and for Ethan to ride the Tower of Terror.  Surprisingly enough Ethan says the Tower of Terror was his favorite ride.  I can’t wait to go back in a few years when Rachel is taller and we can all ride it together.

Meeting Elastigirl and Frozone

The boys’ haven

A highlight of the trip

In the fake snow with the millions of Christmas lights

While the boys were riding something, I took Rachel to the Beauty and the Beast live show.  When Mrs. Potts and Chip came on stage I noticed that Rachel was exceptionally quiet and still. 

She looked up and said in a very dramatic whisper, “Mom, there are HUMANS in there!”  I had no idea what she was talking about and she said, “Mom, I see human feet – there are definitely HUMANS in there!” 

I’m taking a break from this awesome snow day to resume my Disney blogging (Mom, Dad – don’t fall out of your chair and hurt yourself).  This was the first year that we did the Disney dining plan.  I suppose we were just out of the loop on our previous trips because this thing was awesome – and well worth the $0 we paid for it (they were offering free dining plans when we booked our trip).  All 4 of us had a snack, a counter service meal and a sit-down meal every day.  I was a little concerned about how much Ethan was really going to be able to eat there – especially at the the character dinners and specialty restaurants.  If you have a child with food allergies or know of someone going to Disney with food allergies, don’t sweat it!  That was the best and most accomodating service we’ve ever received.  At every restaurant (even the walk-up places), the chef would come out and talk to us about Ethan and then recommend a few things.  Most of them even talked directly to E asking him what he wanted to eat or if they could make him something special.  At one lunch the manager figured out that we were Aggies and brought out grilled chicken strips in an aTm on Ethan’s plate.  One chef made him a special raspberry sorbet for dessert, and at another restaurant they introduced us to Divvies cookies.  There were even several restaurants that had Silk soy milk boxes for the kids.  Just one of the many reasons we already can’t wait to go back!

Chef Mickey’s for breakfast at the Contemporary resort

Princess storybook dining at the Norweigan restaurant in Epcot

Donald’s safari breakfast at Animal Kingdom

Dinner at the Moroccon restaurant in Epcot (this photo cracks me up!)

At the Sci-Fi Dine In at Hollywood Studios (such a cool place)

At the Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge – this was our favorite restaurant.  Ethan asked our waitress for ketchup and she said he was going to have to ask louder than that.  So, we all screamed, “We need some ketchup!”  Kids from all over the restaurant brought us their ketchup bottles and Ethan couldn’t stop laughing that we had 15 bottles.  Of course the kids loved repaying the favor to other tables throughout the night.  This restaurant also had all-you-can-drink milkshakes…nice!

We started day one at the parks the only way you can start your Disney World trip…at Magic Kingdom.  We all hurried getting ready that morning, and may or may not have accidentally bumped a few “slow walkers” out of the way on the walk to the bus.  Hey – that’s the chance you take when you’re leisurely strolling along a sidewalk at 8 in the morning at Disney World! 

I had all of these wonderful dreams of how Rachel would react the first time she saw Cinderella’s castle and she did not disappoint.  This was what her face looked like when we turned the corner down Main Street and she saw the castle…love at first sight:

The first we did was pick out mouse ears and surprisingly enough Rachel wore them for the rest of the trip. 

We just spent the entire day riding rides, watching shows, laughing at Ethan talking pirate-speak, as meeting as many characters as possible.  Rachel said her favorite part was the seeing the Wicked Witch on the Snow White ride, and Ethan’s favorite part was a toss-up between the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and The Haunted Mansion. 

It’s really too bad that the kids weren’t very excited.

We got back to the hotel that night and Ethan felt a little bit warm.  I think his fever was around 101 or so, and he kept that fever for the next six days!  But we will not be beaten on vacation – two bottles of Motrin took care of that problem.  He really did great…he would just start getting a little tired and cranky when the medicine was wearing off, but nothing bad.  All in all a wonderful first day!

That’s basically what we said to the kids on the morning of departure.  We booked our Disney trip last March with the Hammonds, and much to our disbelief actually kept it a secret from the kids until the morning we left!  It worked out for the kids to spend the night with Nana & Poppa on Friday so that Clay and I could pack and jump up and down and scream with excitement (and eat at Fuzzy’s Tacos) by ourselves.  We showed up at Nana & Poppa’s Saturday morning and walked in with Mickey and Minnie hiding behind our backs.  We asked Ethan what he thought we should do that day and he said play.  Then we asked them if they wanted to go to Disney World – right then – that very moment.  They screamed and Rachel said, “This is the best day EVER!”  Well worth keeping a secret for months.  So, my Dad drove us to the airport and the day of travel began. 

This is the first year that we’ve used a day just for travel (not trying to cram in a couple of hours at Magic Kingdom after throwing our stuff in the hotel room and chasing after the bus).  If you have small children and have never been to Disney before, I would HIGHLY recommend using your first day just for travel.  Our flight got to Orlando around 2:00 or so and the adults, I mean kids, were beside themselves!   This was another year of firsts in that we stayed at a little nicer resort – Port Orleans Riverside. 

When we got to the hotel the check-in line was ridiculously long – apparently all of the resort computers had gone down just before we got there.  But we did get 4 free park passes to use on another trip.  While the guys were waiting in line Anna and I took the kids and walked around the hotel, played at the playground, tried to explain why their horrible mothers didn’t realize there was an outdoor heated pool and therefore didn’t bring their swimsuits, and watched the ferry boat go by. 

We finally got to our room and then headed out for dinner at Downtown Disney.  I’m not sure what Rachel had in mind for her first Disney experience, but I’m pretty sure that waiting for an hour in line to get seated for dinner was not part of the deal.  But the ferry boat ride to and from dinner was cool and we were able to get back to the hotel at a decent time to rest up for day one of pure happiness!

No, no, no, your computer is not playing tricks on you.  This is actually a new blog post for the new year.  I know that a certain set of grandparents are becoming slightly impatient to see Disney pictures, but it’s harder than you think to go through, rotate, organize and pick from over 500 pictures.  So…I wanted to get something up here to motivate me to post more often. 

Every morning before school the kids and I say a prayer – thanking God, asking for Him to help us be a good example, etc.  This was Ethan’s prayer today:
“Dear God, thank you for this day.  Thank you for mommy and daddy and Ray-Ray.  And myself.  Help me to be good at school today and do good things.  And PLEASE help me to get a strike at Alley Cats tonight.  Amen” 
We’re all about keeping our priorities straight around here.

Rachel got a couple of sparkly body sprays in her stocking this year.  One is cupcake flavored and the other is ice cream.  They were definitely on her top 5 Chrsitmas gifts list.  This is what went down in the bathroom a few mornings ago (and this conversation was held out loud to herself):
“I really need some bafume on.”
“Hmmm…which one should I pick – ice cream or cupcake?”
“Oh, I know, I’ll eenie-meenie-miney-mo them.”
(She sets both of them on the counter in front of her)
“Eenie, meenie, miney, mo.  Catch a tiger…Oh, I REALLY hope it’s the ice cream one.  …by it’s toe…”

Of course, this is the same child who asked me yesterday why Rapunzel never had to go to the potty. 

Now I’m back to organizing pictures…I promise.

This conversation often goes through my head:  “Oooohhhh…I need to write that down somewhere so I won’t forget what she/he said.”  And then someone is starving and needs a snack and I forget.  Or, ”That was the funniest thing he’s/she’s ever said, I have to write that down.”  And then the phone rings and I forget.  You get the pattern.  I was looking through some pictures tonight and came across a couple of videos I took of the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween this year.  My first thought was just to skip over them because I knew they weren’t of anything important.  And then I went back to watch them and I was SO glad I took videos of just the kids – not at a birthday party, not a soccer game, not posing for anything, not singing a rehearsed song, not performing at preschool…just a couple of videos of the kids being themselves running around outside laughing.  I know without a doubt that these are the videos Clay and I will be watching when they’re both in college and we’re just missing them.  A friend at church recently told me that her teenage kids would actually request to watch old home movies in the car when they went on vacation (Ann – thank you for always helping me to keep perspective!).  So, just an encouragement to my mom friends out there to write down the every day memories, take pictures of the same old weekly routine, and to switch the camera over to video every once in a while. 

My favorite memory of the entire weekend – and it was a great one – happened just a couple of hours ago.  Rachel came downstairs asking if Clay had found her bear that she sleeps with.  I’ll admit that I’m not always the most pleasant and patient person when they get out of bed.  However, I actually knew where the bear was so I went upstairs to get it and then tucked her in.  We whispered secrets to each other for a couple of minutes and then I told her goodnight.  When I got to the hall I heard her say to her bear, “I love my mommy so much.  She’s the best mommy in the whole world.”  I am truly blessed beyond measure.

The kids started talking Halloween costumes around the fourth of July, and we went through MANY different options.  We had a few different opportunties to wear costumes this year (trunk-or-treat, school, birthday parties, trick-or-treat, etc.), and I don’t think we were all ever in the same combination of costumes.  So, here is a brief look at the SFB’s multiple costumealities of 2010 (minus Ethan’s WAY too small Spiderman costume that he wore to a birthday party – trust me, you didn’t want to see that):

Costume day at kindergarten – Ethan with his BFF, Connor

Costume day at preschool – Rachel said she wanted us to match, and thankfully Kelly had this costume handy for me

Trunk-or-Treat at church…50s (yes, that is Clay’s authentic/now vintage high school letter jacket), Snow White and Super E

Before a birthday party

Trick-or-Treating

And, of course, the pumpkin patch attire