Almost time for the kids to go back to school. And along with that comes shopping for school supplies. I would really like to know the logic behind the school’s supply list that each child is supposed to bring in for the year.

• Crayons, 16-count, regular size: Not a big demand at first, but the stores have this gem costing a little over $2.00 while the 24-count box was only 22¢. Why in the world am I going to pay more for less colors? Not going to happen. If they really want to have a problem with it, I’m just going to remove 8 colors and change the number on the box with a Sharpie™.
• 200-count packs of loose leaf paper: I could not for the life of me find packs of 200-count filler paper. The store only had 150-count which I figured should just be as dandy. If they need more paper, I’ll go get some more. Actually, I just searched Office Depot’s site and found that they have 200-count packs… for twice the price of 150-count. Ha! No, thank you.
• P.O.U.C.’s: “You mean the pencils of unusual colors? I don’t think they exist,” was my reply to the search of the elusive red pencils. Not red colored pencils, but red leaded pencils. I think they have the kids self-grade their work sometimes. Or it could be for editing a paper. Or not… he’s only in the third grade. Are they making 8 year olds write essays yet? Anyway, the P.O.U.C.’s were eventually found at Walmart.
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Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. It may seem amazing that we’ve made it this far but love has kept us together for 10 years so far and we’re planning on keeping it that way for a long, long time. We spent our anniversay day at the Magic Kingdom again to hopefully see the rest of the lands (Frontierland, Adventureland, and Liberty Square). We did manage to get through them. We passed on Splash Mountain as we were only going to do that one to get cooled off. Well, the daily Orlando rain popped right in and we got caught in the downpour. All of us were literally soaked. We rode more attractions that day. We even rode on Space Mountain. Jake enjoyed it but even though Abi and Ben survived, they vowed never to go on that one again.

We went back to our hotel to recuperate a bit (and change clothes) before heading back for the fireworks. Too tired to go out somewhere, I let Mandy take a nap in the hotel room and I took the kids out to dinner at some swanky fast food restaurant. I brought back Mandy’s and my own dinners to the hotel and set up the table for a “romantic” dinner while the kids watched some television quietly. Dad, I told you that it’s not tradition unless it happens at least twice in a row… Well, I guess you told me so. But at least I stepped it up a notch and had it at a nice hotel. Let’s ignore the fact that 4 children were with us. (more…)

Part 4? This is becoming quite an epic! Yesterday was Ben’s 8th birthday. What a big guy he’s getting to be. He had a great time, well, because he got to spend it in the Magic Kingdom! The weather did us fairly well as it was overcast and a bit showery which was just dandy. The rain felt good in the midst of the 90 degree heat and crowds of people. We rode the ferryboat over and Abi just beamed excitement when she saw Cinderella’s castle across the lake. After getting onto Main Street USA, we tried on the various hats in the hat shoppe before going down the street for a photo op in front of the castle. We then pretty much went through the entire east side of the park which included Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Mickey’s Toontown Fair. We rode lots of rides like the Mad Tea Party (probably our favorite), Dumbo, Goofy’s Barnstormer (which was Nick’s first rollercoaster), and the Speedway.

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