The Richest Life: October 2017

Eclipse Day!

This August we got to witness a total solar eclipse here in Sale Creek! We had totality for 1.5 minutes here at our house, whereas Chattanooga was for seconds and even Soddy was like 30 seconds. For this reason, we decided to have a party to allow people to see the totality for longer. Nana and Poppa threw the party at their house!

It was fun letting the kids see but also worried us moms some. There were lots of news report advising to be extremely careful! It worked great though because the kids were preoccupied with each other and we had to actually stop them to look!

Cool event to witness and good friends to spend it with!

First Day of School, 4th grade; 1st grade; and preschool

Summer goes so fast! We are already in school full swing but wanted to remember the fun excitement about our first days this past fall!

Garyn didn't say much about school in the days leading up. That night before he did say he was excited to see everyone and see who all was in his class. Mrs. Elrod is his teacher this year.
The 4th and 5th grade hall is in the back of the school so we haven't been back there much! Neither of us knew much about Mrs. Elrod so we were both anxious to see how this year would go!

There were several people in his class he had never been in class with. I'm still trying to remember everyone's names. And as usual, he is doing well in class and Mrs. Elrod is great!

Ansley had a familiar face! Ms.Dent was Garyn's teacher for 1st grade, not that she remembers that!
Even still, Ansley was excited to have the same teacher. She doesn't have many people in her class from last year so that took getting used to. I went to eat lunch with her one day and she was sitting with boys.(Not that this is bad, she just usually plays with girls more) I asked about it and she said she wanted to sit there so she would be next to her friends from last year sitting at a table next to her. She has since started making friends with girls in her class but it took some getting used to. She also had to get back in the swing of being away from mom and home. She cried a few times after the first few days, not wanting to go. We had to start offering a shopping spree for not crying all week. She loved that idea! After two weekends, we scaled it back until we didn't even need to mention it anymore.

Ansley was pretty excited the night before, I went to lay at her first day outfit and found that she had already done that and had shoes ready too!

Layne has his same teacher and is in the 3 year old room again since he won't go to Kindergarten til 2019. He now has class with Brinkley though so he was excited about that! (And we love Ms. Debbie who he has again!) The first day of school, we got report that Brinkley held his hand all day and another girl was kissing him on the cheek! Starts young these days......:)

Layne still likes school for now and gets excited most days. He did however have a couple of weeks were, when I took him, he cried to not go. He would go fine for Pop.

I totally forgot to do his picture in front of the chalkboard but here is him starting to write his name!

Disney Round 2!

Written in January 2013
We were lucky enough to go to Disney world twice in 2012! We loved ever minute of it, too.

Nana and Poppa's anniversary is New Year's Eve; 2012 marked 35 years for them! To celebrate, they took us to Disney!

We got there on the 30th of December. We stayed in the Pop Century Resort this time and always like exploring the resort.

Garyn was making up all kinds of games on this keyboard

That first day we went to Magic Kingdom and arrived just in time for the afternoon parade. We put the kids on our shoulders so they could see better in the crowds. (Not sure why Ansley has her hand all the way in her mouth.)

I didn't get any good pictures of that parade but being that it was Dec. 30th, it was still Christmas themed. We were glad to experience their Christmas events some. After this, we went to some of our favorite rides: Buzz Lightyear, Dumbo, People Mover and many others. We stayed pretty late that night and watched the lighted parade. We made sure we had a good spot for that!

The next day, we got up early to eat with the Disney Jr. crew at Hollywood Studios. Garyn has been watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates a lot so we opted to do this character breakfast.

I was so proud of Garyn. He was timid but not scared to stand alone with the characters this year.

Ansley on the other hand wouldn't go without Momma. This is Oso by the way.

June from Little Einsteins, this show happens to be one of Ansley's favorites now.

And Handy Manny.

I loved her little cheesy grin in front of another favorite, Mickey and Minnie.

We were able to ride Toy Story Mania even with Ansley. She scared me, though, because she was tiny enough to get out from under the bar that was pushed across us. When the ride was still, she would jump up. A few times, I wouldn't get her back down quick enough before the ride would jerk forward or sideways. We survived though!

(About to get on Toy Story Mania)

We also rode the Star Wars Tours for the first time. Garyn rode with both me and Tyler two separate times and loved it. I was feeling a little motion sick from it. However, I didn't feel like I was going to blow. Unfortunately, the guy behind us did. I noticed the horrible smell and turned to see the horrible mess. I couldn't get Garyn and I out of there fast enough because I - 1) didn't want to brush up against him in the crowd and 2) I wanted Tyler to check my back to make sure it was clean!

(Wearing our cool 3d glasses on the Star Wars Tours)

We did the Stunt Show again, the Muppet's show and the Disney Jr. show. The kids enjoy these shows and we all laugh so much. Some of the best moments are just watching their faces not caring whether the laundry is overflowing or whether its time to start making dinner. We laughed so hard at the Muppet's when they talk about having a special guest named Mickey Mouse for it only to be a rat dressed as him. Garyn has repeated that several times and cracked us up.

( About to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show)

Ansley called these guys all "pal" for the longest. We never knew exactly why but figured it was because Mickey would always say pal. So everywhere we went she would point them out yelling "PAL!" She has since started saying "Mick Mouse." I'll never forget her first name for him though!