festive weekend

We have had quite the festive weekend here...and quite the busy weekend as well!!! This is always a really fun weekend in our town as the Festival of Trees fundraiser for our local children's theater is held the weekend before Thanksgiving and Jackson's school, and our Parish also hold the Harvest Festival this weekend.  We also had a soccer team party to celebrate the winning season that the "Ninja Turtles" had!!  Jon and I are both on the committee for the Festival of Trees so besides attending the events, we were volunteers for set up and lights, etc. for a lot of the time.  Crazy with both of us working and no family to help out here so we tag teamed a lot of it. Luckily the theater is around the corner from our house so not a big deal to run to and from to set up, or switch on the holiday lights, etc.  Friday night we attended the Gala Preview party for the Festival of Trees.  I sponsored a tree this year and it was really a lot of fun and a great way to start the holiday season off.  We were all dressed up, Jon in a new suit, me in a cocktail dress and holiday wrap and accessories.  There were so many beautifully designed Christmas trees  and wreaths to bid on, festive music, food, and drink, twinkle lights just about everywhere, a perfect night!  Saturday I had to set up the kids corner at the festival and then I headed back home to get my house in gear as we have Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Megan coming tomorrow to spend the Thanksgiving week with us.  Saturday afternoon Sarabeth and I took much needed naps and Jack and Jon headed to the Harvest Festival.  Jack had been waiting patiently for two days.  Thursday night the festival was rained out and Friday we had the gala to attend so Saturday it was!  Saturday night we headed down a few neighborhoods south of our to Jackson's soccer coach's house where we had a "crockapalooza" party...every one made something in a crock pot to bring and share.  It was really a lot of fun, but a group of 5-6 year old boys in a pack together is always a bit crazy and wild!!  Jackson has made a lot of new friends from soccer this season and Jon and I have made some new friends too (with their parents).  Most of us live near each other which also helps and many of the kids go to school together at the beach side public school.  Jackson gets some diversity in there since he goes to the local Catholic school instead so it's good because he has his "school friends" and his "soccer friends". His web is wider which is never a bad thing!!  I know everyone always says your friends end up being your kids friends parents....for the most part that is proving to be true!

Sunday..as if Friday and Saturday were not enough, we headed back to the theater for the breakfast with Santa event...we have gone every year but I think we will skip this next year as Jon and I were nearly dead this morning!!  We can take them to our country club anyways for breakfast with Santa in December...they will never be any of the wiser.  We did have fun at the breakfast and afterwards, I ran next door to the festival of trees and set up the kids corner again.  Jon took the kids through to see the trees and trains before it opened up so it worked out perfectly.  We ran home for a bit, changed clothes, relaxed and picked up Jackson's friend Dale for the Harvest Festival.  The kids loved it and Sarabeth did too!!  Phew...I need a nap after this weekend.  We're whipped into shape down here and eagerly awaiting our holiday visitors!!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEK ALL!!

getting ready for the holidays and visitors!!!

We are home this weekend having a much needed low key quiet weekend.  We had to go to a local benefit last night we never go out on a Friday night but tis the season so we went and actually had a great time!!  Other than last night, we have NO plans for the rest of the weekend other than to get organized here for the influx of Ohioans coming our way in the coming weeks.  Jon is finishing a massive project in the backyard and the clean up that is necessary after this project.  This also resulted in an an entire overhaul and clean out of the garage today.  We seem to have to do this every 4 months or so.....if only it could stay the way it is right after we clean it out!!!  Since we insulated our attic this past spring we were able to put some things up there now.  Not a whole lot, and nothing of extreme value because the attic does still get REALLY HOT relatively speaking...but things like folding chairs that we use for a party once a year, a large back deck cooler...extra luggage!!!  Florida houses don't have large basements or a whole lot of storage space in general so most people (Including us) shell out big bucks for a storage unit and we line our garages with shelves, and make the most of the space we have!  One good thing about this is that it pretty much requires you to overhaul your stuff fairly often and prohibits the hoarder in all of us from rearing its ugly head because there is not a black hole (aka basement or huge usable attic) to stow the junk in!!!

Since we did not really get to shop last weekend, and we are doing early Christmas with a lot of our incoming visitors in the coming next 3 weeks, Jon and I made a list of what we still needed and I am not joking, he sat on one lap top, I sat on the other lap top in front of the fire in our living room, we put on christmas music tonight and we did our holiday shopping that way...AMAZON PRIME= no shipping charges!  Amazing and I just went right down the list from my couch!  It will all be here this coming week.  Not as fun as going to a store but you just put your search in and like 10 different options would come up for "princess undewear size 2T" for example and I selected from those and am calling it good this year!!!

Tomorrow we are going to church, then Jackson has invited a friend over from his soccer team and that's about it!  Happy weekend all!!!

random weekend away

We had a random weekend away last weekend.  We had planned to have our nanny stay with Sarabeth Friday as normal and Jackson to go to school and we were going to Orlando to do some holiday shopping and stay over one night, returning home Saturday.  Let's just say things DID NOT go as planned, our nanny became ill, could not work Friday or stay over as planned Friday night and we got word of this late Thursday night so no time to undo what was now a non refundable hotel reservation.

So....this made for very interesting holiday shopping and it may be an Amazon Christmas but because the kids came with us, we made the best of it, piled into the car and of course wound up at the most magical place on earth (which was also NOT in my plans for the weekend) but with them, they are Disney maniacs and we have passes anyways so no extra expense to go to Magic Kingdom.  We enjoyed really nice weather this trip, the nicest weather we have had in many many trips and enjoyed being outside in the sunshine but not sweating!!  We also found the park to NOT be super busy this time too and got to see and do much more this time than past trips.  We stayed at the Dolphin which is fast becoming one of our favorite places to stay as it is located on the boardwalk, has full resort amenities, playground, large pool, restaurants, nice rooms and includes all Disney transportation which is awesome.  The Swan and Dolphin are not actually owned by Disney but they are sandwiched between all other Disney hotels and Disney property and is a bit less expensive but includes all of the amenities as any other Disney property high end hotel!

Friday in the spirit of doing some actual holiday shopping we did hit the large Toys R Us up in Orlando and the kids loved it!  They had gift cards from their birthdays from Great Grandma O'Bryant and we let them each spend their gift cards and pick something out and they LOVED it.  Sarabeth is like a toy maniac these days with all of the catalogs showing up in the mail and the toy commercials on tv.  She was just piling things into the cart like it was some sort of shopping spree game show or something.  I had to keep putting things back and finally got her to settle on a baby doll that really goes potty and cries when you give it a bottle.  Jackson picked a set of construction truck vehicles and they were both so happy!  We got some good ideas for Santa when he does his shopping too!! Friday afternoon we checked into the hotel and Jon and Sarabeth napped while Jackson and I enjoyed the pool, outdoor basketball court and playground.  Friday night we went to Epcot and Saturday was the big Magic Kingdom day.  Sat night we ate on the boardwalk and played boardwalk games and were all in bed sleeping by 8:30!  We were wiped out from a busy day at Magic Kingdom.  Sunday morning we discovered a hidden gem in the Swan hotel which is adjacent to the Dolphin hotel and had an easy, character breakfast at Garden Grove to top off the weekend.

The Garden Grove restaurant is really good  (see the first picture below to see the glee in every muscle of Jackson's body)!!!  Garden Grove does not take breakfast reservations but the key is to get their early.  No problem for us due to the time change....our kids are up at the crack of dawn (think 5:30 am on Sat am) They slept until 6:30 on Sunday am!!!  We were seated at breakfast by 7:30 and had a great time eating breakfast while seeing Pluto, Chip, Dale and Goofy. Jackson absolutely LOVES the characters and always has.  SB is a big talker, she loves the characters from a distance and is all about them but when they get near her, she literally could walk on water to get away from them and jumps into my arms like a little maniac.  If she was not so visibly terrified it would be kind of funny.  Notice in the pictures when I am holding her, I have to be between her and the character!!  Sunday we were home by 11 and enjoyed a quiet afternoon unpacking and unwinding from a fun impromptu weekend.  I like weekends like this because we get to have a lot of quality time together just hanging out which is hard to do while home with all of the projects and "distractions" I seem to find myself dealing with here and there at home.  I can't relax in my own house it seems!! Jackson was off school today for Veterans Day so was lucky to have an extra day to relax and rest up.    Thanks to all of our Veterans out there for making this country so great!!