Elizabeth's 8th Birthday

On Elizabeth's birthday, she went to school and as soon as she got home we headed off to Downtown Disney and T-Rex cafe. We had a T-reffic dinner among all the prehistoric animals. We sat in a booth beside animatronic Mommy Mammoth and her 2 babies. They were quite loud every 22 minutes when we had a meteor shower. Both children loved this restaurant and I foresee us spending a lot more time here.

After we ate and Elizabeth had dessert and a great dinosaur birthday song sung to her. We went to the Build-a-Dino Store located inside the restaurant. (It's the same as build-a-bear just all dinos!) Elizabeth made her own T-rex and Banastre made his own Velociraptor.

Adding to the fun after this, Elizabeth went Gem Mining and Banastre went searching for Dinos in the Dig Site.

All in all we all had a great time! (Great alliteration all day!)

More posts coming soon. (Hopefully not taking as long as last time!)

Too much

Banastre's newest phrase to us is too cute. While putting him to bed one evening Matt asks B, "How much do you love me?" His reply, "I love you TOO much!" Now it has become how he tells us all that he loves us. You can't imagine the smiles on our faces when you hear a little voice from another room yell, "I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH!!!"

Once Upon a time...

there was a very bad blogger. She kept putting off blogging until all of the posts she wanted to make kept adding up. So, today this very bad blogger is going to do her best to catch up. (Although the blogger has to pick Elizabeth up at school in an hour and then go to work!) Hope you all enjoy the catch ups!

Student of the Month

Each month at Lost Lake Elementary, the teachers from each class choose a student who best represented the previous month's character trait. Elizabeth was chosen as Student of the Month for October. The character trait was Responsibility. We are very proud of Elizabeth for achieving this honor. She was rewarded with a certificate, a free Chick-fil-a coupon, a free pizza coupon and a pencil. She will also have her picture in a local paper. (I just have to find out which one!!)

Responsibility is something we have been working on at home. We have stressed how important it is to be responsible for all of our actions, for getting things done on time, and for making sure we have everything where it should be. (Homework in folders, dance shoes, etc.) I'm glad to know that she is paying attention to these things and they are showing at school too!

CONGRATULATIONS ELIZABETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween

Halloween was a great hit this year!! Banastre loved dressing up but he wasn't too sure about Elizabeth's make up. Once we got started he completely forgot about her. As we would walk by other groups of trick-or-treaters he would say who everyone was dressed up as. It was really cute. In between each house he would say, "Come on, I need more candy!!!" He didn't have a nap either so I was prepared for a meltdown. It's amazing what the promise of candy and chocolate from each house will propel a boy to do. After baths, he was finally in bed at 10:00. He's already asking to go again. I say next year, but I don't think he quite understands how long it will be. (I do have a feeling he will be dressing up as a pirate again very soon. He loved it!!)

I just added this pic because I thought it was so cute!!!

Catch up

Ok, I know. I have been a slacker with this. But we have had so much going on here lately! Since my last post, I have gotten a job. And now I don't feel like I have much time for anything outside of work but being with Matt and the kids. I know this will change when we all get used to Mommy going to work, but for now it is hard.

So here goes a brief synopsis of whats been going on around here:

We have a crazy bird who keeps attacking a window at our house. The poor mockingbird can see his reflection in the window and will fly into the window for hours each day.

Elizabeth mad the all A honor roll at school for the first nine weeks. There were only two others in her class to make the all A list. We are extremely proud of her. She has had to work hard this year as Third grade has really stepped up the learning material and intensity.

We also had a parent teacher conference with Elizabeth's teacher. We went over all the usual stuff and they gave us some of her test results back from the beginning of the school year. The whole school takes a test called the SAT10. Yes, it's a smaller version of the one we all took to get into college. Miss Elizabeth scored a 1421 out of 1500. 706 in comprehension and 715 in math and problem solving. We are so proud of here for scoring this high!! I mean WOW!!!!! They have also tested them with another test and Elizabeth is reading on a 6th grade 3 month level and doing math on a 5th grade 5th month level. Remember, she started Kindergarten early and is actually only supposed to be in 2nd grade this year. So, they are finally going to test her for the Gifted and Talented program. If she is accepted she will have to change schools. We feel this would be great thing for her. The teachers are having a tough time keeping up with how fast she is moving and they keep trying to keep her challenged. In the G&T program she would fit right in! I will let you know how the testing goes.

Potty training is a day to day thing around here. You never know which day Banastre will want to go and when he doesn't. We are still a work in progress. But hopefully he will be done by his third birthday!! (Don't you just love that second pic...he was in full model mode this day!!!Look at the swing of the hair!)




Tuesday we did the requisite Jack-o-lantern. Banastre and Elizabeth were very excited and all ready to help Daddy. Once the top was off and one look inside, Banastre decided to just watch and let Daddy and Elizabeth take care of it. He loves the finished product and even enjoyed eating the pumpkin seeds. Now, he is all excited about tonight. I can't wait to see him all dressed up...but no hints on costumes. I will get the pics up this weekend when I'm off work!! Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!

It's Good to Know People

Matt and I have a friend that works for Disney. One night in the hot tub he casually mentions that Disney is hosting a fireworks convention and will be dong special fireworks on the next Saturday night. Not many people know, Jason said. So, we decide we should really go check these out. It's the same night as the carnival I talked about below. The kids were tired, but we decided to hit Magic Kingdom for a few rides and then find us a spot to watch the fireworks. After our usual rides, we headed over to Disney's Polynesian Resort to find us a spot on the beach. Things started out really good. Not many people, but we are an hour early. Found a great spot. Watched the floating electrical parade out on the lake. Kids played in the sand. By the time the fireworks started (20 minutes late), there had to be over a thousand people crowding the tiny beach at the Poly. The smart Tarleton's we are though, we let the kids play in a huge area in front of us. We didn't encourage quiet or sitting still and guess what...no one sat in front of us. We had our own little section of the beach.

The fireworks were amazing. Supposedly this is the most Disney has ever spent on fireworks and it showed. There huge fireworks going off of the main island in Seven Seas Lagoon, smaller ones being launched from an island in front of the Contemporary. It was an amazing show!!! I won't bore you with all the pics I took, but there were some firework designs we had never seen before. We loved the spirals and the blue Mickey heads. We just hope next time Disney does this, maybe it will stay quiet! The place was absolutely packed!!