I am still not caught up on this blog

I may have to wait until Christmas break to catch up a month plus of the blog. We were fortunate to spend a fun filled Christmas inspired weekend this past weekend here in Florida with Mimi and Papa and I hope to post pictures one night this week of at least our fun filled early Christmas celebrations...from the Moorings boat parade that we were in with our boat all decked out with lights on Friday night to breakfast at the seadside cafe and playing at the beachside park Sunday morning we had a blast!!! Thank you for taking the time to visit during this very busy and hectic month...it meant so much to all of us!!! Can't for our springtime visit when you return in March:)

hello out there....

I am behind on the blog....Thanksgiving has occurred...we are now into attempting to get the house decorated for the holidays and keeping schedules straight with holiday activities and extra school activities and work in over-drive mode for me. I closed a 10 million plus commercial transaction today for a client that owns 11 different stores in a national franchise in various states....have been working 6 days a week long days for 21 days now....= nearly lost my mind but all is good now. We closed and disbursed today...now to catch up in life/prepare for Christmas/decorate house/catch up on all other client work....the life of a working mother/wife/lawyer/small business owner.....

lazy Sunday

After a very busy week of work and school we have had a pretty lazy weekend which is much needed. We had Jackson's last soccer game yesterday for the season and he did great. I then sadly spent much of the day at my office, this is a very busy time of year with corporate clients that opt to buy and sell businesses, buy and sell out partners, etc and I have THREE of those deals going on for three differnet clients...it is A LOT of paperwork and documentation...all doable but I needed a quiet day at my office to think and organize myself going into these large and complicated business transactions. Then we spent last night at a friend's house with several other families gathering to celebrate one of the dad's birthdays. Easy and low key and it was great. We all slept in this morning after the early run out the door yesterday to Soccer (God understands why we did not go to mass today) and we are just getting tasks done around the house today. I've started my shopping for the holidays and I'm trying this year to keep a running list of what I have ordered and for whom so I don't end up with a ridiculous amount of stuff at the end because I forget about things I buy!!! Is is mostly all shipping to my office for the kids. Happy Sunday all, I will try to post some pictures here from my i phone when I can get Jon to show me how to get the upload feature to work!!!

Trick or Treat

We had a Halloween party last night, the pictures do not do it justice but Jon went all out and had a great set up outside with music, lights, a screen and a projector and he even had a fog machine going and a ghost dvd that projected on to the screen, he could win awards for these talents... and we had lots of fun for Trick or Treat in our neighborhood! Sarabeth was supposed to be a cowgirl but when her friends showed up in princess dresses at the last minute she ditched her costume (I will have to get her to play dress up so I can snag a picture as she was really cute) and put together all on her own a princess fairy costume complete with her pink glitter boots and fairy wings!!! Jackson was a ninja again and tore all over the neighborhood with his buddies last night. We had quite a crowd but the kids were really amped up and I was lucky to get the handful of pictures I did take, not a whole group shot but it is what it is!! Thank goodness it was fall back today is all I can say, we got Halloween put away, cleaned up from the party and re-organized the garage (much needed task) and spent the rest of the day relaxing poolside enjoying this nice weather we have this time of year, phew. I feel like we need a day to recover from the weekend!!

Halloween week!!

Halloween week is upon us and an extra busy week it has been!!! We went to Disney last weekend for a long three day weekend after a busy work week, we got Grandma safely to the airport to go back home and get some much needed respite after a week here filling in as our nanny while Ann was off for a medical procedure, and this week we've made treats for our upcoming Halloween party at our house, we've made treat baskets for teachers and our nanny Ann, and for mommy's employees, and we made treat bags for all of our classmates!! In the midst of that we organize and sponsored a luncheon for Jackson's class, teachers, and classmates parents following his First Reconciliation today at his school. Tomorrow brings more fun as we have school, work, Halloween parties at school, and a soccer game to top off the week (omg) tomorrow night as the soccer fields are being used for a tournament Saturday...the one shining light in that is we get to SLEEP IN on Saturday morning, or at least we don't have to all run out the door before 8 am!!! These kids don't really sleep in but they are getting better about just getting up and turning on the tv and letting Jon and I rest a bit on the rare weekends where we can sleep in here or there (and I mean sleeping past 7 people)...not really sleeping in lol, I cannot even do that anymore!!! Our Trip to Disney for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween was great, we found a new hotel we really like, The Contemporary. The location is beyond convenient but i will say as it was built back in the day, you have to remember where the elevators are with a stroller...we rarely use our stroller anymore but for Disney we still but out the double stroller we bought a few years ago, the Sit and Stand...although after this trip we need like a double version of the stand versus sit!! Sarabeth would fight with Jackson to sit in the back seat (the big kid seat) for easy access in and out and off and on the stroller vs. the "baby seat" as she deemed the front seat. Jackson was a good sport however and despite his long legs, was often happy to sit in the front "baby seat" and tolerate her particularly snarky behavior re. the stroller. He is a great big brother and overall very kind, protective, and extremely tolerant of "sissy" who is a bit particular about just about everything these days. The hotel room we got was amazing, we did not stay in the main building which is the one that has Chef Mickey downstairs and the monorail zipping through it, the rooms were extremely expensive this weekend and the rooms in the main tower were even more so we took the side garden wing and I would choose this again! it was quiet, peaceful, close to the pool, not a bad walk to the main building and monorail access and restaurants and shops, and best of all, by luck we got on the top floor and our room faced Bay Lake. I will let the pictures tell the story but the first morning we woke up, it literally felt like we were at our lake house seeing the sunrise, unbelievable! We went to Magic Kingdom all three days and never got in our car one time all weekend. We either took the quick walking path from Contemporary to Magic Kingdom (note from contemporary magic kindgom is like a 20 min monorail ride but 10 min walk as it goes around the other way from this hotel...but on the way BACK from the parK, Contemporary is the FIRST STOP off the monorail) so we often walked to the park on the path in the am and took the monorail back to the hotel)...useful knowledge!!! We went to Epcot one afternoon and evening as we had dinner reservations at the Coral Reef restaurant which is like dining inside an aquarium. Sarabeth was a bit cranky by this point having missed her nap now two days in a row but Jackson really loved it. Sunday we packed up the room and then hit Magic Kingdom for a few more rides and Disney Magical moments before it was time to take the monorail back one more time and get in the car to ride home. Sarabeth is REALLY in her Disney prime now at 4, everything there she is into. She even surprised us this time and participated in the afternoon resort pool games both days, she is a bit shy but she loved it and was so sweet to win us all a bracelet (one for each of us) when she won one of the games. Who could resist a bunch of adults dressed in terrible Disney park uniforms, dancing around a pool with a bucket of toys and bubbles and playing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse music, Doc McStuffins games, and of course, the famed Sophia the First??!! SB was not missing a minute of it. She was tall enough this time too to ride most rides and all 4 of us rode Splash Mountain....SB and I were terrified, but she did it! Jackson and Jon rode in the first row, we rode behind them, however afterwards she told me I'm not riding that Splash Mountain again...I much prefer the carousel....ha! I agree. Poor baby was so tired she slept most of the way home after crying when she realized we were leaving. I remember Jackson doing the same thing when he was this same age. They enjoy it so much and then it is all over, it overwhelms them!! After a weekend at Disney we dove into a busy week with Halloween and Jackson's First Reconciliation. He was pretty nervous but did great today, we are so proud for him to have celebrated his first Catholic Sacrament and it is days like today when I know we made the right choice putting him in our little local Catholic school. A lot in the world has changed but when I go to events like this at his school, it really does not feel any different than when I was that age and that is a good thing in this world. Happy Halloween everyone!!!