A Little Getaway: Busch Garden's

The Busch enterprise is pretty generous with the military.  They own and operate Sea World parks, Busch Gardens parks, and Sesame Street Place.  Every year they let the military member and his family into a park for free or heavily discounted.  It just so happens that we got to go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for free this year.  Yes, sign us up!

 They had decorated the park for Halloween all ready.  Each land or area had a different theme.  Some themes were a bit more "horror movie" like then we appreciated, but others were incredibly cool.  Like these garlands of lighted jack o lanterns.  So awesome!  I want to try to do this someday for a porch, it was incredibly cool at night with everything lit up.

 First ride of the day, Jack refused to go, but Hunter had a blast and even rode again.

 Tea cups, everyone's favorite!

There is another little boy in there with dad somewhere too...

 The boys loved this Dumbo like ride with airplanes.  Seriously, they rode it like 5 times while we waited for Dad and big sister to go on a coaster ride.

This was the big accomplishment for Dad and Anya this trip.  They have talked about the Griffon since we came to bush gardens last in 2010.  Anya said no way then, and it got too late for Matt to try after he decided he would go for it.  So for the past three years whenever we talk about living in Virginia, the Griffon and conquering come into the conversation.

 What's the big deal you say.  Well for starters it is not a huge coaster car.  It only has four or five rows, but then the rows are not just two people wide, it is like 8 people wide.  So all but two people hang over the edge of the track. Then there is this drop...it is one of the longest and steepest drops I have ever seen on a coaster.  I think it is more then a 90 degree...so you feel like you are free falling for a bit there.

Yikes!

But they did it!!

Here is another spooky land.  This one was infested by spiders...webs and spiders everywhere!!

It was a fun day!

O'LE HALLOWS EVE

IT'S HALLOWEEN!

Let the Haunting and Treating begin!

 Sadly, Thing 1 and Thing 2 were retired this year for at least a few years more most likely.  As much as it pained me to do!  I had a hard time figuring out what the twins would be this year, it will probably really be the last year I get to pick for them.  Then it hit me!  A knight and a Dragon.  I thought they were pretty cute, and they loved their costumes, which were dress up they lover wearing anyway.

So Jack was the Dragon and Hunter was our fearless knight.

Disclaimer: no one was slain.

 Anya kept me on my toys as usual. 

She is Raven, a super hero from Teen Titans cartoons.

I had fun putting her costume together this year because they were things I felt like I could actually do, plus she helped with most of it!

We sprayed her hair purple...can you tell?

 My sweet Cora is a Cowgirl.

She always takes it easy on her mom's creativity, and she always turns out cute!

 Hannah upped her game this year, she is not only a Hogwarts student, but Hermione herself.

 My group of scary goblins!

 Milling about, waiting for treating to start...

Finally, it's 6pm.

Rushing over to the first house to trick or treat!

 The boys waisted no time, as soon as their bags were given back to them after cleaning up, they were dumped right onto the floor!

Look at that loot!!

 It's time to eat some tasty treats and view our Halloween movie.

I have to say that having one of your treaters wearing braces is pretty awesome.  Matt and I scored some pretty excellent booty since she couldn't partake.  I will have to keep that in mind for future years...

Happy Halloween!

Carving the Hunted Pumpkins.

Look at all these serious carvers!

 So Hannah didn't mean to make her pumpkin puke.  She hates gutting her pumpkin, and decided to finish after she carved this year...this was the result of that decision.

all our Pumpkins a-glow.

A Pumpkin Hunting we go...

 We seriously love the Pumpkin patch, but who wouldn't.  Even if it is slightly (ahem) over priced!

 Hunter always finds his perfect pumpkin right off and then carts it around the rest of the time.

Love it!

 This years finds.

 This patch had a lot of fun activities. 

We went on a hay ride, and played in a corn box.

 Enjoyed a corn maze.

 Climbed on hay statues.

 but our favorite was the bunnies.

It was very difficult to pull all the kids away from the bunny pen!

As we left it was to the sound of kids begging for a pet...

My favorite Room

So I really didn't put much effort into decorating our home here.  Usually I take a month or two scouring antique shops and boutiques for the perfect accent to place here or there.  But not here.  We are only here for one year, so we mostly just unpacked the essentials.  Downstairs has some pictures hanging here or there, but not many.  My kitchen is barely decorated (compared to what I usually do) at all, the rest of the rooms are functional.  Upstairs is mostly just beds and dressers...nothing else.  The one thing that made me excited about this house was the formal dining room.  Finally a place for my nice dining table, antique hutch and of course all my polish pottery.  My pottery is the think that I love most that I brought back from Europe with me.  And my antique hutch is my 2nd thing I love most.  The two compliment each other perfectly I think.  

This is my favorite room.  I come in here and just sit, and feel happy.

What, I have two Four year olds?!!

So, I am play catch up a bit here for October.  We just did so much and we were so busy, and frankly I lost my blogging momentum since we moved back to the States.  

So much overdue, here is the boy's birthday!

I still can't believe they are 4!!

 We have this app on our iphones that our friends got us really hooked on.  It is called Cake Doodle and the kids LOVE it!  You basically bake and decorate a virtual cake.  So when the boys saw me making a real cake they wanted to jump in and help.

It was a blast and they did great!

 The boys requested "Cars" themed cakes this year.

 So I started to run out of frosting, but you get the idea.  I made their first initial into a road and then put toothpick decorated Cars on the road.  The boys were pleased!

 Jack is so grown up!

He loves the birhtday song!

 So the girls found these trick candles and wanted me to put them on the boys cake this year.  I just put one on, but after seeing Jack trying to blow out his candles (we sing and blow in birth order) Hunter wasn't so sure about his turn.  I think he kept expecting the fire to leap of the cake and get him.

Next time no trick candles!

 They were spoiled again this year by some super fun gifts from Aunts and Uncles, and grandparents.

And do they ever know the boys well...

Golf books!

 "Planes" play sets!

 "planes" airplane launchers!

They loved all their gifts so much, but in the end I think they are sports men at heart.

First thing the next morning, while waiting for breakfast, the boys went golfing at our kitchen table.

Happy Birthday to our awesome 4 year olds!!

You make our lives complete and full of adventure!

It isn't the same...but it's still good.

Cuddling with these boys just isn't the same as it is

 cuddling with this little munchkin.

They have grown up so fast, too fast.  Sometimes I miss my baby boy cuddles, and how they would curl up on your shoulder and snuggle and fall asleep.

But, even though I miss those precious baby moments, it is still good...

 We are painting

 cooking...

and having all kinds of adventures with our home pre-school program.

It has been a lot of fun hanging out with my boys, and I treasure every second.

Because I know that too soon the time will come when I will look at my teenage (gasp!) boys and remember (wish for...long for) the sweet pre-school age years.

They are so funny and say the craziest things.  Like everything they don't like is "weird" and everything they love is "awesome".  They can't pronounce the "f" sound, so everything that starts with "F" actually has a "B" sound, like Bace (face), boot (foot) and my favorite one is poopball (football), which for some reason has a "P" sound instead of the common "B" sound.

So much fun, I love my sweet boys and their shining faces!