Disney On Ice

Last night, Terry and I took Sam & Ben for a night out on the town. Sam & Ben are Chris & Jen's 2 'oldest' boys (4 & 3 years old) with 'baby' Joseph and one on the way as their other 2. We are so thankful to live in Charlotte near family but somehow still find it so hard to take advantage of living close to family and make the most out of being close in these kiddos lives as their 'tanta' and uncle. Ben is our godson, so he holds an extra special place in our hearts, but we just love these guys and had a blast hanging out with them.

We decided we wouldn't let the constant rain hold us down, we were going to live it up! We all met up and walked to the train in the rain. I had umbrellas for both boys, and they were so proud to each get to walk with their own umbrellas. I think Ben's was almost as big as he was, but he held on tight with both hands and worked those muscles out to hold it up, with the occasional rest on his head.

We got to our pick-up point, and Sam helped me buy the tickets while Ben and Terry took a little break.

[sorry for all the not G-rated material in the past 2 posts...boys DO love being naked...
the picture is cloudy so Ben doesn't hold this against me later in life!]

Our seats for the show were in a perfect place (though high - the better to see everything!) on a front row of our section so we could all lean on and climb all over the rail in front of us without bothering any of the other climbing children filling the arena! We settled in with a big tub of popcorn split between us and got ready for the show. I didn't even think about the fact that it was Disney on Ice so it was cold in the arena when I scoffed the idea of carrying extra jackets on the train with us (oops!) Thankfully my chivalrous husband laid his jacket out across the railing we were leaning/climbing on so no one's hands [or tongues] would stick to it.

Here's a preview of who all we got to see (pictures from our seats):

During intermission, we got cotton candy which came with a 'free' (haha) hat of Lightning McQueen, which my husband/the boys were clearly very excited about.

The second half was all the untold story of Tinkerbell which I couldn't figure out until we remembered Tink has a new movie coming out, so they must have been using this as promo. Bummer for us, we missed out on Nemo and Dory - personal favorites for our family, after all there is a shark in the movie with our family name! Ben & Sam stayed strong til the show was over around 9:30 and despite trying to jump down onto the train tracks multiple times while waiting for the train to take us back, we made it safely back to the car - the boys even carried their umbrellas on the way back from the train even though the rain had stopped.

I drove the mom-mobile back to Huntersville to get the kiddos to bed, and Sam was actually begging Jen to brush his teeth and say his prayers by the time we got in they were so tired. Terry was sound asleep by the time we got home. Parenting is exhausting, how do you all do it? How will I ever survive as the can-do-everything while being fun, cute, and organized mom that I hope to be? My order might be too tall, I might need to lower my expectations for myself so I don't end up burning out too quickly!

Fall & Football

We Bruces have already consumed our fall weekends with football and fun. "The App Family" (all 17 of us) bought season tickets together and the 2 games that we have gone to have already been a riot. Here is the season in review:


At the first game, Kat brought these to the tailgate, and they were an amazing way to get ready for the game:

Then we went camping with Matt & Kat after the game though the rain tried to stop us...we held strong! Other than the 2-hour-extra "short cut" that Matt took us on, the trip was a blast. What a great way to kick off fall and enjoy the beginning of the cold weather. We saw gorgeous waterfalls, Matt's backside (look closely at the picture - and don't miss Kat's look of utter disappointment at the picture being spoiled)- and even built ebeneezers.

This past weekend was Homecoming. 21 of us rented a house together for the 3rd annual Homecoming Bash. I missed out last year, but the first year of this event was when I met all of Terry's friends. Talk about being nervous and put on the spot - Terry even had to give me many pep talks and warnings about his friends' (okay well namely Adam Bracken's) behavior. Safe to say, people are growing up this year :) The house was perfect, the food was delicious...*

*side note:[despite Harris Teeter not having pumpkin for the 4 dozen PUMPKIN muffins I was making, and that after Terry got it for me at another store I had the batter going into the muffin pans before I realized I LEFT THE PUMPKIN OUT OF THE BATTER...and despite the fact that our dog who was in trouble for eating Terry's snowboarding gloves and goggles got to eat the 9 cups of hot sticky chocolate-covered chex mix and 3 cups of powderd sugar that busted all over my kitchen floor when I tried to shake it up in the ziploc bag and could have died from all that chocolate, but in the heat of the moment, I kind of thought she might deserve it. Don't call animal control on me...]

... App won the game, and I even look like I could be an App alum!