I can't believe my Riley is six years old. His is the first of a flurry of birthdays, so it always hits me the hardest. Another year of Disney celebrations, my favorite!!!!

We were in a hurry, and grabbed breakfast in the car. Whenever Travis & I switch seats, there is mayhem. So Travis ordered chocolate milk for the kids (why can't it come in regular cups with straws? how are the kids supposed to manage those stupid plastic contraptions with enormous openings???), opened them, and passed them back. He said, "This one is for Tal" and gave it to Reagan. Reagan didn't realize it was open and THREW IT upside down to the third row to Tal, who got drenched. I didn't want to go home, so we had to stop & get clothes for Tal. We're scheduled to get new carpet for the poor car--between this and Camden's carsick issues, it has taken a beating. I'm struggling to remember if Cam threw up that morning or not.

...we dragged Riley to Hollywood Studios on his birthday? So we could mooch off his FastPass! The whole family got the Birthday FastPass, and since we never seem to get enough of Toy Story Mania, well, we spent the day getting our fill. It was awesome.

Tal looks so serious here, right? And my favorite part would be the decorations--here is a shot of Tal--I was squatting down so I could get a good picture of the Chutes & Ladders ceiling. SO CUTE.

We cooled off (translated: Travis made phone calls) in the Honey I Shrunk The Kids playground, which is mercifully shaded and misted. Let's just say that Travis doesn't melt in the heat like I do. What is up with that? I love this picture of him--isn't his hair great??? Mine, not so much. But we never take pictures together. One of the kids took one, but it was too blurry to post. How does that happen with a point & shoot?

You know, Disney is good for a lot of things. We mostly enjoy staying over, but the day trips are great, too. Even standing in line is awesome, because you are forced to slow down and hang out for a bit and just enjoy. And you typically talk about fun stuff, not work or laundry or other junk--it just makes you talk about the good, lighthearted things.

And sometimes you just need a comforting day like that.

Rattle.

Clink.

We had multiple celebrations! Gramma & Potter have a newer tradition of leaving birthday surprises at the front door--they LOVE that! And Nanny (Brenda) made a fun car cake on another day (can you see Cam's expression in the picture?), so it was more like a rolling birthday for him. Gramma's gift was art supplies, all individually wrapped, and it was SO. EXCITING. He put them all in the (hideous) new Mario bag and they are on display in his room.

The kids always want to go to Super Target. There are cows next door, sugar milk at the Starbucks, everyone knows them, toys galore, cookies from the bakery, glorious game aisles...it doesn't get much better. They hop out at Starbucks, whether or not I'm planning to stop.

It is actually mostly a ton of fun.

Here are more. I think these were iPhone snaps (so convenient, but not such great quality). Anyway, Reagan yells something like, "Mommy, can I have one of these?"and I see a $750 tag. Um, NOT THIS WEEK. But it was super cool, and they looked adorable sitting on the display shelf. It was also fun to send one to Daddy from the store (and make him the bad guy).

And this is what it looks like when I go shoe shopping. They are nuts.

Who knew I would end up loving to to go four-wheeling? It is actually really fun. We get so dirty--there are a couple of pictures of me floating around, I came back with my face so dirty once! We go through orange groves and dried-up lakes and all sorts of strange places.

I had to take this cute picture of Travis, because I figured it is the only time someone a) wore a Breakers hat four-wheeling, and b) wore a Breakers hat backwards. So cute.

Fun game! We played all weekend and got really competitive. You play with buildings that go in the middle of the board. It takes a few hours to even get the feel of it. It is pretty insane--highly recommended (well, maybe not if you are crazy competitive).

That I need to check the dress code. Because the last two times we were invited to something?

1. Travis says it is a dinner. So we're in the car and he hands me the phone and says to look at the invitation. OH. It is a BLACK AND WHITE BALL. I would have loved to have known that. Was in gray and survived.

2. This night? We both wore black suits. We're in the car about the time of this picture, and he hands me the invitation. OH. It is a USF CELEBRATION. Please wear your green & gold casual wear.

Our booth!!! We donated it to the USF Health Department and they ROCKED IT. Each department had a room, and "lab techs" served shots that looked like vials of blood. Adorable. I think Steve may still be mad about the setup (it's a beast), but I did offer to help :).

Let's see...sharing a seat at the computer...PB&J....sitting in the car without carseats....hanging a birdfeeder....and just being silly. You know, the usual!

Travis has been taking Tal to BE (and on to Barnes & Noble, some days) to work together. Tal does GREAT on his homework, and is doing lots of extra chemistry those days. It's been really neat for everyone.

Reagan THOUGHT he was being original with this crayon thing, but many of us remember that crayons were his appetizer of choice for quite some time.

Camden usually does well, but he wasn't ready to leave one morning--I figured this was a good one to save for future blackmail.

So we decided to go to the Idlewild not-Halloween thing this year. I HATE not dressing up, but it is So. Much. Fun. I forgot my camera, so I have sub-par phone photos.

We got to do inside & outside bouncies, hay maze things, and GAMES. Every room had a theme--here is a potato sack race, a blacklight art room, and pony races. One room was the Lion's Den. It was all dark and had jungle music playing ,and the kids had to shoot Nerf guns at lion balloons that were set up in a safari-looking tent. And the helper in the room had a laser light and was pointing at the lions. Everything was done to the nines (of course). The kids think church should always be like this.