Just got home from Disney, and we're BUMMED. We had the time of our lives. Everyone. Even Eric. And here's the picture to prove it, as promised.

You're welcome, honey.

We're in FLORIDA! We're wiped, and we've still got to figure out tomorrow's plans, but thought this was worth sharing.





We are here this week all together to celebrate my dad's birthday...my dad's SEVENTIETH birthday. And here are some pictures of dear old dad...yes, in the pool at the house...deciding that he should go on the whale.





Seventy. Nuts. As my friend Shell says---yup, we're nuts in this family. But GOOD nuts.

More to come! Animal Kingdom was today--and Colin ROCKED the scary rides. Magic Kingdom tomorrow---Sydney's opted "in" on wearing her princess costume. With sneakers. Niiiice.

Sydney & I were chilling outside this afternoon while we waited for Colin's bus to come around the corner. The bus was running a little late, so I decided to introduce my girl to the fun of staring contests.

I explained how it works, gave her a practice run or two, and we were off.

Round one: Sydney blinks 2 seconds in.
Round two: Sydney blinks 5 seconds in.
Round three: Sydney lasts a whole 6 seconds...then blinks.

I thought maybe we should review both the rules and the point of the game. Got it? Got it. Cool.

Round four: Sydney...blinks.

After another loss, Sydney leans her wide open, beautiful, bright blue eyes in to about a centimeter from mine and says,

"Mommy...let's have a BLINKING contest!".

And THIS is why I'm sure she's brighter than she looks.

Grabbed this for you off Colin's homework sheet for tonight.

This is hysterical, because it is really just a peek into his little head.

Black. White. Easy.

And there you have it.

Empty platter? That's where the turkey goes...




We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. Well, at least, we TRIED to have a proper Thanksgiving meal yesterday. It all went really very well---right up until the part where I apparently can't cook a turkey. I know it's so cliche, but it's true! Turkey is really hard to get right, I swear!

We will be headed to Florida on Friday, and plan to be on the BEACH next Thursday...so Colin demanded that we have the full turkey dinner Thanksgiving thing before we left. We're doing Disney---stay tuned for those pictures. Eric in mouse ears? Oh, yes. SO YES.


Anyhow---back to Thanksgiving.






Last year, we tried this really neat way of cooking a turkey where you not only put it turkey in the oven upside down, but you also cook it at high heat for an hour, then put it down to like 180 degrees for like 10-12 hours. Last years' turkey was SO GOOD. So good. Except it occurred to me--as I pulled a pink slimy turkey out of the oven 11 hours after I started the process--that I didn't COOK last years' turkey. Someone else did. Someone who can do the math required to adjust the cook time to do the slow-cook-method thingy. I cannot be trusted with math. Or turkey.

So, we had a really nice family dinner. See the plate? Yummy, huh? A full Thanksgiving feast. Of veggies. And bread. And stuffing. And more veggies. And then there was the wine---lots of that---it made the whole "no turkey" thing not seem like such a big deal.

I realized that I hadn't updated the blog in a while, and we've all been kinda sick over here--so there's not a whole lot to share.

Except, of course, our plans for today! YEEHAW and WHOOPEE! Mommy's feeling better, so the "lists" are back! HOT DANG! The kids are trembling with excitement, too.

Yes, it's a little Type A and OCD and all of the rest...but it's pretty gratifying to be able to see things get ticked off a list.

Colin's got toilets, Sydney will be tired & complaining after her first thing, my list only looks short, and Daddy's? Well, it IS short---and I can almost guarantee he won't do either thing anyway. Shocker. So--you can just move those two things you see there onto Mommy's list & know that they WILL get done.

We're OFF!