The Pumpkin Patch

I can't believe that my children are 12 and 10 and that I've never taken them to a pumpkin patch.  Sure, they've been to various farms.  There have been numerous school pumpkin patch field trips, but I was always at work and would get a grandparent, aunt, or Brian to go as chaperone.  Seeing as how Olivia's tastes are changing so fast, I feel like these are the last golden days of doing "kid stuff".  I don't want to miss out on taking my kids to a pumpkin patch.  So, we loaded up on Saturday and headed over to Poppell Farms.  When I told the kids where we were going they were kind of like "we're too old for this", to which I responded, "tough, we're going".  Even though there was some initial grumbling, they both had fun once we got there.  We did all of the activities- hay ride, corn maze, farm activities, etc...  My favorite was the corn maze  They had bingo boards set up inside the maze, and if you found "bingo", you got a prize.  At the end of the day we each chose a mini-pumpkin to bring home.  I'm so glad that we went.  I think the kids had way more fun then they thought they would have.  I might even be able to convince them to go again next year. 

St. Simon's

We have had a sweltering summer, but last weekend we got a little taste of some cooler weather.  Not wanting to waste it, the kids and I loaded up and headed to St Simon's.  We arrived around lunchtime and had a meal at Iguana's Seafood in the Pier Village.  The kids put in to eat here, even though no one ordered seafood.  I think they just wanted the free ice cream at the end of the meal.  

 After our meal we walked around a bit and the kids played on the playground for awhile.  We also had a round of putt putt.  Olivia was the only one of us to get a hole-in-one, and she was excited about that.  It was a pleasant afternoon, and has definitely put me in the mood for some more fall weather.

Olivia is 12

We recently celebrated Olivia's 12th birthday, and I must say that we have most definitely entered the "tween" stage.  So much has changed in the past few months.  She is almost as tall as me and wears the same size shoe that I do.  Her fashion tastes have also changed.  She has started wearing jeans (!!!)- which she would never even try on before.  She has asked for make-up and I bought her some lip gloss, but she rarely wears it because she forgets she has it.  Even though Olivia is getting older and taller, she is still the same loving soul that she has always been.  Here are some fun facts about Olivia at age 12:

• She loves all things stem and wants to be an "imagineer" for Disney when she grows up.
• Her favorite snacks are popcorn and pickles (not together).
• She loves reading.  She read the "39 clues" series all summer, but recently she has been reading the "Warriors" series.  
• She is a cat person and is very concerned with the welfare of our two yard cats.
• She loves spending time with her family- especially her brother.  

 We were at Disney on Olivia's actual birthday, but we had a small family gathering when we got back.  She opted for an ice cream cake from DQ- a popular choice for everyone.  She also received many nice gifts.  Owen was especially excited for her to open his gift (a videogame) because he had picked it out himself.

Olivia wanted to have her friend Hannah spend the night, and these girls had a great time.  Hannah gave Olivia the cutest gift- matching pjs for the two of them to wear.  These two are such good friends. 



All-in-all, I think that Olivia had a great birthday.  We sure do love our girl.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween was a total blast!  We had such a good time.  The actual event ran from 7-midnight, but we could go ahead and enter the park at 4:00.  We arrived early and were among the first in line to enter the event,.  It rained quite a bit on us for the first hour and a half or so, but after that we had good weather for the remainder of the evening.  Because of the limited amount of time, we had to prioritize what we wanted to do.  I will be breaking the post down according to the different types of things we wanted to do.

Party-related happenings:  

Because we were attending a special event, there were some things that happen only at this time.  We wanted to experience all of those.  High on our list was trick-or-treating.  I had purchased monogrammed treat bags for all of the kids, and those bags were full by the end of the evening.  We hit up a bunch of candy stations, and at each one we received handfuls of quality candy (M&Ms, Twix, etc).   

I had read that the Boo-to-you parade is one of the best that Disney does.  I believe it.  My favorite part were the gravediggers who struck the concrete with their shovels and sent sparks flying into the air.

The Hallow-wishes fireworks show was also very good.  At one point we were surrounded on all sides by fireworks.  The kids said that they "thought they would go blind" it was so bright.

 We ended the evening with a midnight performance of the Hocus Pocus Villain Spectacular Show featuring the Sanderson sisters.  It was also very good.

The Rides:

We were able to experience a fair amount of  the rides during the party.  We used fastpasses from 4-6, but not during the party because the fastpass system does not operate during special events.  We couldn't do everything, but were able to do Thunder, Spalsh, and Space Mountains.  We also rode the 7 Dwarves Mine Train, Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Carousel, Teacups, and Pooh rides.  Everyone's favorite was Space Mountain because they turned off all of the lights and played a rock-and-roll soundtrack.  I'm usually "meh" about Space Mountain, but it was really fun in total darkness.

 The Characters:

We also spent some of our time meeting our favorite characters.  Because this is a special event, there were some special meet-and-greets that are only available at this time.  Some of these (like Jack Skellington and Sally) had 3+ hour waits, and we weren't doing that.  I think the longest that we waited was about 30 minutes to meet Stitch, but he's Olivia's favorite so we had to do that.  Stitch was decked out in his Elvis Halloween costume.

Owen's must-meet was Winnie-the-Pooh and Mandy's was Eeyore.  It worked out great because all of the Pooh characters were greeting guests together in their Halloween costumes.









The lines to meet the princesses were super short, so we met four of them.  We had never met Elena of Avalor before, so it was cool to see her.  We also met Rapunzel and Tiana, who were the definition of "princess"

We all jumped in for a picture with Cinderella.  I was pleased with the number of characters that we met.  I kind of wish that we'd have visited Mickey, but we just ran out of time.  Still, we got to everyone's "must-meet" character, so it was a success.  Overall, I left with a good impression of the Not so Scary Party.  It kind of makes me want to try the Very Merry Christmas Party at some point in the future.

A Disney Springs Hotel with Character

We stayed at one of the Disney Springs resort area hotels (Wyndham Garden) on this trip.  I was a little concerned to not be in an "official" Disney hotel, but it worked out great.  Not only was our hotel nice, but it was a 10 minute walk away from Disney Springs.  It also had a shuttle, and since it was a "good neighbor" hotel, we still had early access to booking fastpasses.  Another perk of this hotel was that it had an onsite character breakfast which was half the price of those on Disney property.  They had every type of breakfast food that you could think of including made-to-order omelettes.  The two characters that made an appearance were Goofy and Pluto.

Goofy was out and making the rounds when we entered the breakfast area.  The dining hall wasn't crowded, so we got to spend lots of time both of the characters.

Pluto came out while we were eating.  Now this was a big deal.  Pluto is Jaxson's favorite character, and he was so excited to meet him.  When Pluto entered, Jaxson stopped what he was doing and just stared at him until he got to our table.  I cannot tell you how excited this kid was to meet Pluto.  There is nothing like seeing a kid light up at Disney- it made all of us so happy.

We couldn't enter the park until 4 o'clock, so we spent some time at the hotel pool and had lunch at the pool bar.  After lunch, we returned to our hotel rooms to get ready for the evening.