Melting Pot

In October, we went to the Melting Pot with our friends, Joy and Eric. The Melting Pot was having one of their special nights, this one was a couples night. We had a good dinner and enjoyed the company. The guys would have liked a little more in the end, but I think they still had a good time.

A brief moment of terror...then a chuckle!

I am not sure if everyone knows that on a typically work day our alarm clocks start going off at 5 a.m. At which point either Thomas or I get out of bed first, then into the shower, next upstairs to wake up the kids, the kids are typically up about 5:30.

This particular morning I was the lucky duck, out of bed, into the shower, upstairs to wake up the kids...Tapanga's room is first, walk into her room, and look at her bed: first thought, something is not right...2nd thought, WHERE IS MY BABY!

3rd thought, what the heck is she doing sleeping on the floor? I am not really sure what happened or how she ended up on the floor, but she looked comfy...she had her favorite blankie and her stuffed horse. But, I will say I did not like that moment of fear that came across me and hope she doesn't become one to get up in the middle of the night often! All is good and well, so now I think how cute!

Daddy's Toys

We have been working on unpacking the multitude of boxes from our recent move. Thomas came across the box his mother had given him for Christmas a couple years ago, which inside included toys from Thomas' childhood.

Now he says they were actually toys handed down to him from other families more like in his early teens, but....

Anyway, Thomas was going through the box and looking at throwing the bunch of toys out. I have a sentimental streak and kept suggesting to him that he keep the toys for the boys. About this time Tanner comes out and caught Thomas with these Transformer toys and of course, wants to play with them. So, Thomas let him. These toys though are pretty complex and so Thomas ended up putting them back together for the boys....The boys were really into playing with Daddy's toys! They loved it...see sometimes it is good to have a sentimental moment!

Bunco Weekend

October 2-4

While playing on the Internet one evening I found that Opryland Hotel was offering a Bunco weekend. Bunco is a dice game that we started playing about a year ago, when we started two Bunco groups. After playing with my friends a few times, I introduced the game to Thomas and my parents, who also found that they liked the game a lot! So, when I found out about Bunco weekend I just had to go! I asked a bunch of friends if they wanted, but nobody really committed to it so I drug Thomas along with me and then my parents said they wanted to go also!

The World Bunco Association hosted the regional championship at Opryland. When booking the package we got a two night stay and all activities, for a very reasonable price! On Friday night, we checked into the hotel and went to check out the events for the night. Here we rolled Bunco's for prizes and decorated a picture frame!

On Saturday the game playing began! Round 1 involved all 150 or so participants! Where we played 4 sets of six in the morning, took a two hour break and then played 4 sets of six again! We played in groups of 12 and played with losers leaving! Usually I have really good luck on Bunco nights, but I wasn't have much of it this weekend!

If you look closely at this picture, you can see a bunch of people behind KG. There were many groups of women from different parts of the country. The ladies wearing Kentucky Derby Hats and sashes were from Louisville, they had a group of about 16. There was another group of ladies from Alabama, other people traveled from as far away as Minnesota, Michigan, Florida and more! It was really fun to hear about other peoples Bunco groups and the rules that they follow, some groups only roll 6's, other groups play with a head table, and others drink a lot more than playing!

Thomas and I waiting to play after one of the breaks!

On Saturday after playing our two rounds, we decided to go to the mall and eat the Rainforest Cafe. Of course, you can't go to Rainforest and not get a VOLLLLLLCANOooo!!!After dinner and some shopping we went back to the hotel and used our free Delta flatboat cruise tickets!

When booking our package I decided to upgrade our room to an atrium view and this was our view from our 5th floor Delta section room.

On Sunday, Day 2 of playing, the contestants for Round 2 were announced. Originally it would only be 48 people who would make it to round 2. Of the 48, the people with the most Buncos and the people with the most wins from game play the day before would make it then they would raffle the remaining spots.

KG, had a great morning on Day 1...he actually won a place in Round 2 with the most wins!The officials started raffling off the extra seats and they decided to play 60 people instead of only 48 and the last spot got filled....by Thomas! Of the 150 playing in the beginning, 3 were male... and 2 made the 2nd round!

Thomas also got selected to play at the head tables on the stage!

After Round 2, we took a quick lunch break and then the players for round 3 were announced. This group included the 5 people with the most wins and the 5 people with the most Buncos from round 2....including KG! He had the most wins from his group, Thomas tied for most wins from his group but lost the roll off!

At lunch, KG had started talking about his luck was running out, he could feel that he just didn't have IT anymore and sure enough, he probably would have won the prize for most losses had their been one!

I have really enjoyed playing Bunco with my friends once a month and wish that a few of them would have been able to come to the Bunco weekend, because we would have had a good time! They were advertising another Bunco regional championship, this time in Destin, FL! Anyone want to go?

Disney on Ice

Mom bought us tickets for the opening night of Disney on Ice, we wouldn't have been able to go any other night because we had plans for the Bunco weekend at Opryland Hotel! We left Clarksville around 4, had to stop and get gas, then got caught up in some traffic. But we made it to the Spaghetti Factory around 530 for dinner before the show! The service was ok, but they hustled so that we were out of there in time to get to the show!!! Yummy food!

Here is Tyler and his Grammie waiting for the show to start. We had really good seats, we were at one of the corners with only about 4 rows in front of us! Perfect, the only thing was we had to buy 5 tickets when most of the night we only used 2-3 seats. Tanner and Tapanga sat on my lap and Tyler on Grammies. Tapanga is wearing her Princess shirt, waiting for the show to start!

Tanner is to busy watching everything around us to be bothered for a picture with his mommy!Here is the opening of the show, many of the characters came out on stage as they invited us to "Be Our (Their) Guest".

This is Tyler through the first half of the show.

One of the cute scenes as the characters celebrate Halloween.

Good picture of Minnie.Tanner eyes were glued to the show for most of it.

Tyler is enjoying himself.

At intermission Tanner begged me to buy them some cotton candy, so along with paying $10 for a bag of cotton candy we got this nifty Micky hat!The ending of the show, notice all the characters!

The show overall was good. Costumes of course were superb and the amount of characters represented was awesome. You could also tell they are trying to promote their new movie that is coming out this holiday season "The Princess and the Frog". We had a good time and the kids really enjoyed the show!

Pictures from my cell phone

I had a bunch of pictures on my cell phone when I was looking the other day, some of which I have don't even remember. With this in mind I decided to send them to my email and reminisce a little...
Here is Tapanga with an obvious mess she made...guess she was a little hungry!I don't remember this picture...but looking closely this is my in-laws house and one of their dogs. The hair on the baby looks like Tapanga, so I think this is Tapanga at my in-laws, yes...without a diaper...something my mother in law would definitely do!

Chocolate fondue! This is from the Melting Pot the night we took my in-laws.

This is a cute picture of Tanner and daddy at TGIFridays in Nashville.

Eating dinner one night at Chili's, it was a family corn on the cob moment!

Dinner at Red Lobster, one of the ladies pulled out a lobster Tanner was the brave one!

My vegetable kids, Tanner with his cucumber and Tyler with his green pepper.At the end of the summer I took the boys for one last visit to Tie Breaker park, we were the first in the park and very few people showed up...made it nice to play!While laying hay down the boys found a friend...notice how dirty my kids are!!!Tanner was devastated to have to leave the froggy..."Mommy, I want to bring the froggy with us." "Why, baby?" "I want the froggy to be my new hamsters friend." "But baby, we don't have a hamster and we don't have anyplace for the froggy to stay." "But the froggy can stay in the hamsters cage." "But, baby froggys need water space, hamster don't." "But I want to keep the froggy!" He really loved that frog! I felt so bad for devastating him like that...at least it wasn't a snake!

After moving in, Tapanga found herself someplace to take a snooze...on our bedroom floor in the corner!