The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Disney day 2

Our second day at Disney brought the best treat – a VIP tour guide!! We had a tour guide taking us around Hollywood Studios for the day and getting us onto any ride we wanted with no line! Yes, it was just as awesome as it sounds!!

Ready for a fun day!

disney

disney

Our tour guide, Carey, picked us up and took us to the back entrance to Hollywood Studios where we were greeted by snacks! Can’t beat that!

hollywood studios

We then got to do it all that day. We rode Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster over and over and over again! We went on all the rides in Toy Story Land and even got to walk onto the brand new ride in Star Wars land! So so awesome!!

jedi

jedi

jedi

jedi

toy story

jedi

tower of terror

hollywood studios

The kids also got to do Jedi Training!

jedi training

jedi

jedi training

jedi

jedi

Plus we got to meet Chewie and Darth Vader. Samantha was not a fan!

chewy

chewy

darth vader

hollywood studios

After an early dinner at Prime Time Cafe we were worn out and happy after a fun day!

prime time

More fun ahead!

Disney!

In October, we all took a little trip down to Orlando for several days of Disney fun to celebrate Spencer’s birthday! With many thanks to GJ and Daddo, we had some excellent perks and probably one of the very best trips ever! We flew down on Thursday morning and we were ready to go…

disney

disney

That afternoon we went into the park for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It’s fun because they have trick-or-treating stations setup all over the parks and the crowds are smaller so you can ride more rides. Plus, lots of people dress up and the people watching is prime time!! ha!

disney

disney

disney

Before we had left, I had measured Samantha and knew she was about 2 inches shy of being 44 inches…44 inches gets you on Space Mountain, Everest, and Avatar Flight of Passage. Knowing my daredevil roller coaster rider, I knew she’d be so disappointed if she barely missed the height cut off. So, I went out and found the tallest tennis shoes I could find – some Nike Air Max – and then also added a few Dr. Scholl’s gel inserts to the inside! She might have been walking on stilettos but…

space mountain

She made it on Space Mountain! Woohoo! They measured her twice and she passed easily both times! Hooray!

space man

disney

disney

Needless to say, she loved it! It was the boys first time to ride it too and it was a hit all around! We continued the day with as many of the good rides as we could get on including The Haunted Mansion, Barnstormer, and Big Thunder Mountain.

haunted mansion

barnstormer

 

big thunder

disney

We stuck around for the parade and fireworks.

disney

disney

disney

disney

disney

A great start to a great trip!

School Photos

Nothing better than school picture day!! I just love comparing all the years. Starting with Maxwell…

2011 in the nursery…

2011

2012 in Older Toddlers…

2012

2013 in the Twos…

2013

2014 in the Threes (good hair day! ha!)…

2014 school photo

2015 in the Fours (this one was a winner!)…

school picture

2016 in Kindergarten…

mbb school pic

2017 in 1st Grade…

school pic

2018 in 2nd Grade…

end grade

and now in 3rd grade!

school photos

On to Spencer…

He started off strong in 2013 in the nursery….

2012 school photo

Then we didn’t get one from Older Toddlers in 2014 because he wouldn’t sit for the photographer. Yep, his teacher said he just wouldn’t do it. Oh well.

2015 in the Twos (such a cheerful smile)…

school pictures

2016 in the Threes showed major improvement! Love that little smile!

spencer pic

We also got a belly laughing Spencer…

spencer

2017 in the Fours – with a new scar on his cheek!

spencer

2018 in Kindergarten…

school pics

and now in 1st grade!

spencer

Now, on to Samantha…

2016 in Older Toddlers…

skb pic

school pic

school pic

2017 in the Twos…(how badly do I want to fix the rubber band in her hair?!)

samantha

ssmantha

2018 in the Threes…

threes

and now in the Fours!

fours

school photos

They’re all growing up before my eyes!

Front porch pics

My porch has never looked so good!

porch

porch

Also, knee socks forever.

porch

See you tomorrow!

Halloween!

By the time the boys got home from school on Halloween the rain had stopped and the excitement was high! While it wasn’t raining, it was still freezing cold with temps only in the 40s. That didn’t bother my crew too much though. With a few costume adjustments we were ready to go hang with the neighbors by 3:30!

Boba Fett, Olympic Gymnast, and Ronald Acuna Jr!

halloween

halloween

halloween

halloween

halloween

We eventually made our way down to the big neighborhood party, trick or treating along the way. The party was fun and complete with pony rides this year!

jack

pony

halloween

These pics of Samantha and her buddy, Jack, made me laugh!

jack

jack

jack

jack

Maxwell chose to go over to another neighborhood to hang with some of his buddies and while I really missed having him with us, I’m glad he was having fun with his friends…and I was able to call him using our new flip phone!

halloween

candy

By 7:30 we were trick or treated out, wind burned from the cold wind, and happy to be home! Robert picked up Maxwell and we were all back together to check out the giant candy haul!

candy

halloween

Happy Halloween!!