Frenzy on the Fourth

Another Fourth of July holiday has come and gone and we managed to survive having our annual Extravaganza Jubilee Celebration to celebrate the good ol' USA and Bobby's innate love of blowing things up.



Just like a good planner, I headed to Target on July 4 at around1030am and grabbed some festive tees for the boys. Grant's had a red, white and blue eagle or something crazy on it. You just can't see it. His picture attitude was less than stellar so don't be expecting too much from him.Little Buddy was Mr. Picture Poser. There may or may not have been candy involved.Bobby's attempt to make Cade have a normal kid smile instead of his iguana neck cheesy ball smile landed me a great photo op.Pyro Bob had a souped up arsenal this year under the guise of helping out a former coach of mine. On one of his usual tent stops he found that my high school softball coach was manning the tent to make some extra cash in the summer. Basically he was using his good nature to help put food on the table for the man, his wife, and three kids. It had nothing to do with the fact that Bobby LIVES to shoot fireworks......Now, contrary to what some believe, Bobby follows all rules and safety regulations regarding fireworks and any other flaming balls of hot paper and gun powder. I don't know why our neighbors fear their house burning down this time every year.We had the usual smattering of children watching army tanks, little china houses, and red hot doodads spinning out of control in the street. And, as every year past, they (Bobby) loved every second of it.They were pretty loud though.And what's the Fourth without colored smoke bombs??We had some good eatin'. Barbecue if you're into that (which I'm not), mac and cheese, hashbrown casserole and any other yellow/white starchy food you can name.....and homemade ice cream which I AM into.
The water slide and jump house made their debut for the kiddos.

And the men played cornhole (not pictured) and this ball-on-string game that I cannot recollect the name of.
Check out all of these boys. That's not even all of them. I just liked the picture of them all together with their tan little backs.

Here is this year's girl's group photo......sans Jon in the background. I'm pretty sure he was holed up in the play room making kids clean up and call him "Big Jon".We had a great evening spending time with our buddies and watching Bobby's pyrotechnic show. Mixed with all of the neighbors fireworks it was actually a site to see. Praise the Lord for being able to live in America, for freedom to worship as we please, and that no one walked away from our house with third degree burns or missing appendages! Happy Fourth!

It's Tough To Be A Bug

I really felt like it was a set up. The doorbell rang and, of course, it was one of at least 5 companies that will try to sell us a bug contract this month even though we're already debugged at the Morgan Casa. Or so I thought. I let Bobby take the door call and I went out to the garage to get something. There was the biggest bug ever with pinchers and the whole nine yards lying on it's back kicking it's grotesque little legs. I feel quite certain that the guy talking to Bobby had planted the bug there so he could swoop in and rescue our family from some type of bug takeover. Anywho, I called the boys out because I knew they'd love it.


They kicked it outside and began to play with.....errr, torture it. If it weren't so creepy I'd just buy them bugs to play with. This particular one provided a good 30 minutes of uninterrupted play time. Cade got some bug tweezers and attempted to pick him up. It proved to be a tough task because those twiggy little legs were tacky and kept sticking to the driveway.

Aaaahhhh. Finally.

They put it in Rhett's bug catcher. Everyone was thoroughly impressed. This is where it gets interesting.........

Enter Bobby and his "hey boys! Let's blow him up!" comment. I was all, "Bobby! Is that appropriate?? I mean," whispering, "next you know it's cats and we've set them straight on a path to Jeffrey Dahmer. "

Against my better judgement he lit a little firecracker with said bug sitting sweetly on top.

Boys watching intently as Bobby, quote, "gives Mr. Bug a ride on the dynamite express"!

Here he goes!

BOOM!

I'll be the first to admit.......I was laughing. Really laughing hard. That nasty beetle bug probably flew 20 feet in the air. It was a sight to see. I guess this is just one more day in the life of a home filled with too much testosterone. Please pray tonight that we have not created a UniBomber or some type of future arsonist. Let it be noted here in writing that I, the good wife and mother, voiced concern over this "boys will be boys" action......but don't note that I laughed. That could be used against me later.

Coach Pitch... Check.

Cade recently completely his first season of "real" baseball. He played in the coach pitch league this year and let me tell you, it was a step up from the unorganized chaos of t-ball. His position was left field but if my memory serves me correctly he never actually caught a fly ball. That's okay. We were good at running the ball down and throwing it in :)He did get (usually) at least one hit a game. He looks pretty relaxed with the whole arms crossed thing going on in this pic. Makes you think that it's old hat to be standing on second base. Bobby was one of his coaches this year. I think he would describe the experience as slightly rewarding and mostly incredibly frustrating :) The ol' Captain D's Rays pulled out only one win this year and it was pretty brutal. You know things aren't looking good when your playing teams with matching bat bags and pullovers.......in 7/8 year old baseball. Seriously? Give me a break.He did, for the first time, get to sit in a real, true dugout. And that was all kinds of cool. Don't be judging his Kareem Abdul Jabaar sports glasses either. My heart can't take it. The kid needs some extra eyes. What can I say?

Once again we teamed up with our buddy. These two made a pretty good match for each other on the baseball field. I think the best quote from my Cade was: "I hope next year we get to keep all of our good players....and me and Cade Ashman." Ha. Both of them showed considerable improvement from the beginning of the season. I was proud of how hard they worked. The highlight of the season was our impromptu team trophy handout and cupcake eating. Nothing like stuffing your face with a cupcake right before closing ceremonies.
Add one more trophy to the collection of sports memorobilia because coach pitch is over. We've been there. Done that. Check it off the list for 2009. We'll be back for some more next spring. In the meantime we're going to be playing a little pitch out in the back yard.

It Was Really Similar to Phelps....

Errr, without the Olympics...or the eight gold medals........or the speedos, and, umm, without the bong. In any case, Grant spent his third year in swim lessons and Little Buddy his first.

Grant and a friend of Rhett's informed me that he cried the first day. When I asked him about it he said, "That was NOT crying." I asked him what it was exactly and his reply was " Well, I screamed 'NO!! NO!!' a couple times and then I kicked my feet some". He said it very matter-of-factly. When I asked him why in the world he did that he answered "BECAUSE. You told me never to get in the water without my life jacket." Tis true. Should've cleared that up before swim lessons I guess.After only a few minutes he got over it and did all he was asked to do.He got in that pool with no life jacket and swam like a little fishy. We've been to the pool since lessons ended and he didn't wear his life jacket at all. The best thing is that I never had to jump in and save him! As I said, this was Grant's third year to go to lessons. He was swimming like a champ at the end of summer last year. However, he some how forgot every piece of swimming knowledge he had somewhere between August and this May. Too bad we had to discover that bit of information AFTER he hung on the zip line at Blizzard Beach and plummeted into 10 feet of water. I bet that lifeguard was getting hot anyway perched up on that high chair in the hot sun.......

A couple days at our neighborhood pool cured him of his less than stellar swimming skills. It all came back quite quickly. I must say though that I was thoroughly impressed at how well he was swimming using strokes at the swim show this year. Here he is just after he jumped off the diving board and swam all the way to the other end of the pool. This is his "I'm really trying to look humble but deep inside I'm full of pride" face.

I think one of his favorite parts was the races.

Well, that's probably a lie. The real reason either one of them stuck it out through the week was a chance to pilfer through an orange tackle box full of kid sized treasure.

We are now the proud owners of 58 little neon ninjas, 15 tiny army men on plastic parachutes, and 1 sticky frog. Not to mention one blonde surfer kid with improved swim stroke skills and one curly cutie that doesn't have to sport a life jacket tan this year. Yee Haw. (some numbers may have been exaggerated but if you add up all the years we've been swimming there, they are probably accurate).

Disney Thoughts

We had the wonderful honor of touring Disney this year for our family vacation. It was our first time to go there and it was a great time......full of sweat, some tears, lots of interesting things, and many things learned. So, instead of trekking through every gruesome detail for you I've decided to highlight some of the lesser known facts that I stumbled upon while vacationing in the Magical Place. I am pretty sure that I'll also throw in some other random thoughts I'd like to share with you as well. Here goes:


Did you know that from the time we got up until the time we actually arrived at Disney was approximately 5 hours. But, alas, it was even less than that from the time we arrived at Animal Kingdom to the time we lost Grant. Yikes. Thank you stranger man and woman that held him while he cried and for flagging me down as I ran like a mad dog through the crowds looking for him. Note to self: Don't ever let that happen again. We were moments too close to my having loose bowels.Did you know that it costs about $48 plus tax to purchase Mickey Mouse ears for your family?Did you also know that it takes Little Buddy less than 7 hours to lose his and then cry (scream) in agony from the Castle to the shuttle bus stop?Did you also know that you can buy your children this little light up wand thing-a-ma-doogie to annoy yourself as well as others during the Fantasmic show for about $21? How many hours do you think it was before Little Buddy broke his? Twenty one. At this point we've decided that all Rhett is bringing home from Disney is a few memories. They are free and can't be broken, however, if his brain is similar to mine they can definitely be lost. No matter what part of the country you're in it's great to go to Ghiardelli and share a chocolate brownie sundae with your brothers.
But there is always "that guy" that hogs the good melty stuff at the bottom.



Did you know that Hollywood Studios does Star Wars Weekends and that is another name for Heaven if you are a boy in my family?

And also, if you happen to get stuck in a downpour, you may be lucky enough to be ushered inside of a building that holds some of Star Wars creepiest characters? One brave Morgan Jedi complied and posed with the freakiest of the freaky.


Tracie and I weren't scared either!
Grant ponied up to get snapped with Bobba Fett. He hearts Bobba.
Did you know that there is much joy to be had seeing the terrified face of your 7 year old riding the Rockin' Roller Coaster? Oh yes, my friend. I nearly wet my pants after seeing this picture.

Speaking of 'wet my pants'.... Did you know that Disney World has very clean bathrooms? I know this because my children use the restroom every 10-12 minutes on a rotational basis. That means for the 7 days that we were at Disney we spent a solid block of 24 hours of it in one bathroom or another. I was pleased that they have the little paper covers for the toilet. The germaphobe in me loves those even though I never actually sit.....it creates a germ hopping barrier......and you can use them to blot oil off of your face. Learned that on the Rachel Ray show one day last year.




Did you know that you can get your face painted at Disney World? Freaky!



And that they make no exception to age? Anyone with an inner Tinkerbell can get painted up!



They also do not make an age limit on who can be photographed with the characters at the nightly character dinners we attended!

In an unfortunate turn of events I also discovered against my will that they also do not discriminate by age (nor size for that matter) those who are allowed to wear bikinis and banana hammocks at the Blizzard Beach. For the safety of your eyes there are no pictures to share from that experience. And while we're on it.....to the man that wore his wife beater all day at Magic Kingdom and then strutted around Blizzard Beach the next day.....Three words for you: Sunscreen- Use it.

Most people talk about how their children's faces lit up as soon as they walked into Magic Kingdom and they saw the castle. Not how it happened for the Morgan's. Our kids faces lit up the moment we stepped off the shuttle in downtown Disney and we entered the mecca.....where manna flows abundantly and there are rivers of gold......or the Lego store where kids run wild and parents get headaches.


So, here's three cheers to one of the most fun, exhausting, glad to have my own bed back kind of vacations....

and three cheers to having my mom and dad and sister along for the trip!

My last word of advice would be this: If you are going to eat at Disney beware of the dish they call "Asian Chicken Salad". A better description would have been "Slimey Brown Cat Meat Served Atop Sketchy Iceberg". Disney dining is not for the faint of heart.