Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Farris Family!

A Gingerbread Christmas

The First Grade classes at Madison Station, had a gingerbread man to run away from the school!! The gingerbread man sent postcards to the children at school letting them know where he was and what he was doing. He was seen in places as far away as Europe. Thanks to those of you who sent postcards telling Molly of your special Gingerbread man siting. She was so proud of her postcards!!! Just before he returned to the school with his special cousins for the kids to eat, the kids did a great program called "A Gingerbread Christmas". Here are a few pictures of Molly from the program.

Egypt Day

The entire third grade at Madison Station did an unit on Egypt. They learned all kinds of things, read lots of books, made great Egyptian art, and did an Egyptian musical. Here are a few pictures of Cole on the grand finale...Egypt Day.

Naughty or Nice?

Check out these videos from Santa...

http://www.family.go.com/santas-list/video/58549-aef223/

http://www.family.go.com/santas-list/video/58566-aef223/

http://www.family.go.com/santas-list/video/58578-aef223/

Have a Disco Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Holidays!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Did I mention that Spencer likes hats?

One night while in the hotel room at Disney World, I had all three children's pajamas and under ware laid out on the bed about to get bath time underway. Cole was in the shower and Molly and Spencer were watching TV waiting for their turn. Spencer walked past the bed and saw his under ware and the next thing we knew, he looked like this.......

Cole's Trip to Disney World

This was Cole's 11th trip to Disney World. He was able to ride the Rockin' Roller coaster for the first time with Mark. He REALLY liked it!! While at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Cole fought Darth Vader. At Animal Kingdom, he rode Dinosaur for the first time. I was worried that it would be too intense, but he loved it. He is growing up!! He loved being able to ride Expedition Everest again and was proud to go with me and Molly for her first ride. During Turtle Talk with Crush, Crush called him "the boy with goggles on". Cole LOVES Tom Sawyer Island. He was so excited about taking Spencer over to the island for the first time. He enjoyed showing him around and teaching him how to shoot the guns in the fort. He had a great time and is already talking about his next trip!!

Molly in Disney World

This was Molly's 10th trip to Walt Disney World (I think...I have kinda lost count). Her favorite rides are Splash Mountain and Test Track. She did ride Tower of Terror with me and was so proud that she bought a t-shirt so that everyone would know that she rode it. On this trip, she rode Expedition Everest for the first time. She liked it so much that she even rode it with me again. Molly lost her first tooth while in the Animal Kingdom at Pizzafari. She was glad to learn that the tooth fairy even visits when you are in Disney World!!

Spencer in Disney World

This was Spencer's fourth trip to Walt Disney World. He had a great time and since it has been 18 months since his last trip, he had forgotten many things. This time, he wasn't scared of the characters...AT ALL!! He got to ride his first roller coaster...Goofy's Barnstormer. He said it was, "cool and awesome"!! He enjoyed riding the new ride, Toy Story Mania. We promised him several months ago, that when he started using the potty, we would get him a Goofy hat from Disney World. He had to wait a few months after being potty trained, but he didn't forget the promise of a hat!! He wore the hat the WHOLE time!!! Mary Poppins asked him if Goofy ate his head...I was beginning to think maybe he had since he kept the hat on all the time.
Dancing at Playhouse Disney Live on Stage

Sword in the Stone

Our Princess

Molly, being like most little girls, loves the Disney princesses. We were able to eat breakfast one day with a few of them. Here are a few pictures of Molly and some of her favorite characters. By the way, she lost her first tooth while at Disney World!!!

Little Boys and Their Heroes

It is interesting to me the way that little boys seem to develop heroes. I have seen it in both Cole and Spencer. This trip to Disney World allowed both of them the opportunity to see a few of theirs. Mind you, Spencer thought that these were the REAL DEAL!! Cole, being older, realized that these were just a representation of the legendary icons that he has grown to love. Now, Darth Vader isn't actually one of Cole's heroes. Instead, he is actually playing the role of the hero...a jedi. He was selected from the crowd to participate in the Jedi Training Academy. While being instructed on how to use a light saber, Darth Vader appeared and Cole got to fight him. It was GREAT!!

Photo Projects

On this trip to Disney World, I decided to do two photo projects in Epcot. One was to take the kids picture in EACH country with a hat from that country. Japan didn't have any hats, so we used fans. The other was to take the kids picture with someone who worked in that country who was a native of the country represented. The only one that we didn't get was Mexico for some reason. I apologize for the sideways pictures, but for some reason beyond my understanding, the slide show always rotates them back to the way that they were taken. OPPS...if you use slideshow and know how to fix this, please let me know!!

Disney Traditions

Mark and I did something that we have always wanted to do....we surprised our three children with a trip to Disney World!!! Now as most of you know, we are absolutely obsessed with Disney World and have been many times...some may even say, too many!! Mark and I have always thought that it would be so neat to put our kids in the car and start driving without them having a clue that we were driving to Disney World...so, that is just what we did!! We began to plan this trip several months ago and decided that we would try to pull off the surprise. I spoke with both Cole and Molly's teachers at school about it and they both gave us the go ahead. They thought that it would be such a neat surprise and they even played along. We told the kids that we would go to see their grandparents last Friday night (it is two hours closer to Orlando) and spend the night. They thought nothing of the luggage because we were spending the night with my parents on Friday night. They were a bit sad and aggravated that we woke them up early and left at 5:00 am because "we just had so much to get done that Saturday". Once we got to Mobile, the sun was up and you could tell by their faces (especially Cole's) that they were beginning to sense that something was up....but still never would have dreamed DISNEY WORLD!! Well, when we got to the tunnel, it was over. They connect the tunnel in Mobile to Disney World because that is a very notable landmark on our journey to Orlando. They began asking questions. Mark started giving them clues about where we were headed and they guessed it right off. What a great surprise!!!

Being Disney World veterans, we have several "Disney Traditions". One of them is to eat Mickey Mouse Ice Cream. It doesn't matter how messy we get...it is one of those things that we do every time. All three kids have done it on each visit; no matter how young they were.





Another tradition, is to take a picture with the troll in Norway. I am not really sure why this became a tradition, it just did.



The last tradition is to try on silly hats and have pictures made. I will explore this tradition more in another blog entry, as it also became my photo project for the trip. Here are a few hats.....