To The Farm We Go

Before our trip down to the farm this past weekend, we decided to go ahead and convert Ryder's baby car seat into a baseless booster seat.  I can not even tell you how excited Eric and I both were to do this.  We are now so much closer to being totally done with carseats.  What a wonderful day that will be!!  We had to commemorate this milestone with a picture, of course.  The rest of the weekend at the farm was packed with all sorts of activities and fun, as usual.  The kids both got to ride the four wheeler and go fishing.  The weather was actually not too bad, so our time spent outside there wasn't as hot and sweaty as it could have been.  It was the perfect quick little farm visit before we get back into the swing of the school year.

The kids both loved getting to feed the catfish.  They easily went through four full trays of food.  The fish at Papaw's farm are not starving, that's for sure.

We woke up early Sunday morning so that the kids could fish.  This was something that they had both been asking to do since the last time we were down there.  Savannah started the morning off right with a catch almost immediately.  A pretty good sized catfish that papaw had to pull in for her.

Ryder caught a little bitty baby brother sized fish.  He was happy about this… the size, or lack of, did not bother him.

Is this not the sweetest moment ever.  Ryder sat so patiently right next to his daddy waiting on a fish.  It was the sweetest. 

Ryder Turns Flea

He's "flea", he's "flea"… I can not believe that my little baby boy just turned "flea".  We celebrated his third year with a CARS and Planes themed party with family and friends.  Everything was perfect and it seemed like everyone had a great time.  

Ryder's awesome cake… made by one of my sweet friends.  Totally dairy and egg free especially for our birthday boy.  

The piñata… pretty much the hit of the party.  You would think that a pool full of tire floats would be the main attraction… nope, the little dinky Planes piñata was.

This is pretty much what a good time looks like!  Pool party success!

I have to share my favorite decoration… I am all about the little extra details… these eyes for our cars that we cut out turned out awesome!  The look on Ryder's face when he came out and saw that my van and Eric's truck had CARS eyes was absolutely priceless.  He thought these eyes were the coolest things.

Perfecting Her Study Habits

It's no surprise to anyone that Savannah reads all the time.  She is a book lover… she reads her books cover to cover and then re-reads them.  Her latest thing she has started doing is note taking while she reads her educational text book type books.  She writes down "interesting facts"… at least that's what she told me she was doing.  She used two of her dollars to buy two spiral notebooks for her notes.  She has also asked if she can circle and underline things in her books.  Seriously… totally normal seven year old behavior, right???

The Rest Of Disney (In A Nutshell)

I took a record number of pictures this time around at Disneyland, so I have been having a really hard time going through them all and trying to pick out only a handful to post.  There are so many good ones… I can't wait to get them all into a photo book.  We really did have a great time.  The kids were so much fun and easy to travel with.  Ryder was scared of two characters (Darth Maul and Captain Hook) and that's it, he wasn't scared of any ride, scaredy cat Savannah came out of her shell a little bit and actually rode some roller coasters, we didn't have to stop to change diapers, there were very few attitude adjustments needed, Ryder napped perfectly in the stroller, Disney was insanely allergy friendly for Ryder, Savannah was a trooper and walked all three days with maybe a handful of complaints, there was no crying for souvenirs… I really could go on and on.  It was a fantastic family trip!  It really does get easier and far more enjoyable to travel as the kids get older (hang in there parents of little littles).

One of my most favorite pictures from the trip.  I have one just like this with Savannah when she was Ryder's age.

Savannah and Cheridan in their princess ears.

One of the best things about all of the pictures from our trip is this toothless smile.  I love that she is toothless in all of our pictures.  What a perfect time stamp.

That moment when you get to meet the princess who you are dressed up as.  Totally a special moment for a little girl.

These two little people are the best two little people in the whole world.

Savannah's "which character are you?" quiz resulted in her being Maleficent.  She was so excited about that!  My little villain lover.

Having characters sign his autograph book was one of his favorite things about Disneyland.  He was very committed to getting as many as he could.

You will laugh when I tell you that I showed up to the park at 6 a.m. one morning with the kids so that we could be at the front of the line to meet these two ladies.  We ended up being fifth in line and only had to wait maybe 25 minutes.  The wait time on average throughout the day is 3 hours plus.  No way was I waiting in that long of a line… I knew how much both the kids wanted to see Elsa and Ana though, so waking up way too early seemed like a better option than a long ridiculous line in the middle of the day.  It was worth it, Ana and Elsa were perfect and so in character… Savannah and Ryder were in love.

Radiator Springs Comes To Life

Ryder's absolute favorite movie for well over a year now has been CARS (one and two).  Eric and I both were both looking forward to getting to take Ryder to Cars Land while we were at Disney.  No joke, the boy plays with his CARS cars every. single. day. all. day. long.  The movie is always on somewhere or being quoted by him while he is driving his cars around.  We have grown to love it as much as him.  The look on his face when he saw Tow Mater and all his other favorites cruising down the streets of Radiator Springs was priceless.  This is why people pay the high prices to take their family to Disneyland over and over again.  Disneyland is magical and the way that they bring the movies to life is amazing.  Getting to see Ryder blown away by their animated favorites coming to life in a real life built Radiator Springs made our trip worth every penny.

It is seriously unreal how they brought this movie to life.  Every little detail is perfect.