Riley and Mom at Disney

Mom and Riley on a ride!

Monday, October 26th was a vacation day for Riley from school. I decided to take her to Disney for the morning, just the two of us. She chose the Magic Kingdom so off we went. It was a fun day, but hot and crowded! She got to choose all the rides and she surprised me with her choices...nothing big or fast. She was going old school (Peter Pan, Snow White, race cars, etc). The speedway was the best as it was the first time she got to drive a car all by herself! Yikes...visions of things to come! We had some lunch there and treats too (Riley even did some shopping), but then we had to head back as she had dance and we had to get Kamryn from school. I'm glad we're able to go and do fun things like that together. I'm sure next time we'll be hitting other parks and the bigger rides!

Yes, that is Riley in front of me driving like a champ!!

Minneola Fall Festival

Kamryn and Alyssa

Kamryn and Kiley

Selah, Jessica, Riley (with Alana and Kamryn in the background) after dancing as they get ready to go ride rides

The Green Gremlins of ballet

The city of Minneola has a Fall Festival near Halloween. The last 5 years or so, the dance studio where our girls dance has been invited to perform. this year was no different. Riley danced in 3 numbers - ballet, jazz, and hip hop. It was a fun performance and they were just three numbers of the 15 or so the studio brought to the event. Since Riley was dressed up (with makeup) little sister had to follow suit. Kamryn was so funny. I had to take pics of her with almost all of the big girls (middle and high school) that she thinks are cool. There would have been more pics, but it was dark and she couldn't see/find them all. It was SO funny. Luckily, there are friends she has that were watching that she was able to sit with while I helped Riley into and out of costumes. After the dancing was over, they used their own money (I made sure I didn't have any) to ride some of the carnival rides with their friends. They ran out quickly, but still had fun! Riley will pretty much ride anything, the faster and spinnier the better. Kamryn did her own thing, but didn't seem to mind one bit.

Friends from AZ

We had a wonderful surprise the day after Riley's baptism. While we were spending time with Doug's family we got a call from some dear friends who now live in Arizona...Jason and Shantel Dance. We had just been talking about them the day before as we all sat around catching up. They stopped by Sunday evening and we spent an hour talking, laughing and reminiscing. It was so much fun to see them!!

Busy Day

There was a Saturday in October when we were going in so many different directions. Riley had a church activity and three birthday party invites, two of which were the same time as her church activity. She went to the church activity and luckily someone picked her up. That freed me up to go meet some friends from Tampa and take them to EPCOT for the food and wine festival. While I was doing that, Doug took Kamryn to the first of her two birthday parties. I picked her up from that one and took her to the next one. Then, I met Riley and took her to her next party. This would be a sleepover party at a resort at Disney (I was jealous) and I wouldn't see her until the next day. I picked Kamryn up from the second party and then we hung out and watched movies together at home. It was a very busy, but very fun day. I'm just glad we didn't have dance thrown in there too!

Birthday and Baptism

A family pic - not the best but still marking an important occasion

I can't believe I got a pic of this...usually she acts way too cool for her dad!

As mentioned in a previous post, Riley turned 8 this year. She didn't have a party with friends this year. Just some family time. She also got baptised. We had so many wonderful friends who came out to be a part of her baptism. There were a few who couldn't make it, but I know they were thinking of her anyway. It's still hard to believe she is eight, but I'm very thankful she is in our lives.

Riley and Doug

Riley and Mom

Something weird is happening with the pics I want to post so I won't add any more here. We did have a get together after her baptism at our house. It was fun to hang out with our friends (and my mom) and catch up. The kids had fun playing outside while the adults chatted. Again, we're so thankful for all of our friends (here and elsewhere)!!