Daily Journal

Fall Activities & Halloween!

Kai and Sierra are doing well in second grade. They also continue to play soccer and piano, which keeps us busy. We did find time to go on a short, weekend cruise and participate in a few fun, fall activities around Halloween.

The photo diary is below:
Fall Soccer
Mini Vacation
Fall Activities
Halloween
Miscellaneous

Fall Soccer (back to top)

Soccer continues to be a fun activity for Kai and Sierra. They love having Dad as their coach. It's great quality time for them. Below are some pictures from our fall season.

Mini Vacation (back to top)

We found a great deal on a quick, weekend cruise. We left on a Friday evening and arrived back at 7am Monday morning. Our weather was horrible for most of the trip and Royal Caribbean wasn't as "kid-friendly" as Disney, but we had a ball. We did it on the cheap, so we were piled into a closet size room but we had great fun (and the kids like it when we're all in close quarters... it was like camping in a tent on the ocean). Here are a few pictures.

Kai and Sierra got their own room keys (they fought over who got to open the door).

Our ship was Monarch of the Seas.

Here is a picture of lobby.

Kai was proud to say he was the first person of the cruise to go on the rock climbing wall.

Everyone cheered him on as it rung the bell and descended.

We had fancy drinks at dinner.

Kai ordered seafood every night (usually shrimp).

The wait staff performed for us.

The kids liked participating.

Kai's head hit the bunkbed underneath.

Sierra was selected as Student of the week prior to our cruise so "Aloha the turtle" got to go with us on the cruise.

Even though it was rainy and cold, they spent a good bit of time in the pool.

"Bombs away!"

"Big splash!"

The deck looked pretty at night.

This is the ships emblem.

The hot tub was nice in the chilly wind.

The wind was blowing so hard on the deck, I thought we'd float away.

"Check out my hair! I look like Johnny Test!"

Sierra was disappointed that this claw machine wasn't working.

This game was a winner for us. We got more bouncy balls (winner everytime)!

We had a little adult time when the kids went to kid club.

Nassau, Bahamas - our first stop.

We're ready to spend some money.

"How cool am I?"

We went in town to buy a few souvenirs. Shortly after this picture, the monsoon came in and it didn't stop raining.

We did snag a rum cake before heading back to the ship.

Sierra posing with some more pictures with Aloha.

Aloha climbing the rock wall. Sierra had to write in a journal about all of the adventures.

They clean up pretty good.

Daddy's girl.

Mom and her beautiful babies!

This is Sierra's "Can we have more soda" face.

"I'm ready to rock n roll."

"I can scream like a girl."

We played a little basketball on deck before going back to our room.

Our room attendant made us a towel monkey.

Aloha and Sierra's new parrot (her purchase in Nassau) came with us to the morning buffet.

We played a little ping pong on deck.

Kai didn't have a chance playing against Sierra and Aloha.

After two days of negotiating, Sierra finally decided to do the rock climbing wall (on the windiest day of the cruise).

She did great and made it all the way to the top.

We ice cream cones a few times a day!

Daddy acting silly on deck.

Sierra flying in the wind.

The wind was holding the towel up.

Batman!

Mom was bundled in two towels and long clothes while Kai and Sierra ran around in the windy/chilly deck in their wet bathing suits.

Leroy was glad to have us home.

Fall Activities (back to top)

We gave Sierra a horseback riding lesson for her birthday. Six months later, we finally took her for it. We also did a few, fun fall activities around town. Here are a few pictures.

Sierra loves horses.

Sierra finally learned to steer on her own.

Kai's horse kept falling asleep but when he woke him up, he could make him go in circles.

"Hi there!"

Kai's is finished grooming his horse.

Sierra is ready to brush hers.

We went to Downtown Disney one night. Kai and Sierra posed so Mom got some Halloween pictures.

Sierra loves glasses. She suckered Daddy into buying her a "real non-prescription" pair so they could look alike.

Sibling love.

We went to our friend's Halloween party.

Baby Kyle went with us.

Make a funny face.

Kai liked the smoke machine.

Sierra's project for school was the decorate pumpkins for your favorite book. Guess what hers was?

The book fair at school was on fall festival day. Sierra posed with Clifford the Big Red dog.

Sierra and her boyfriend, Brayden.

Kai and Sierra posing for mom.

"Who's creepier?"

We went to the Zoo Boo Bash, an annual tradition.

We met up with our cousins, David, Sherry, Katey, and Natalie.

Slinky nose.

Sierra and Katey always have a great time together.

"Will he make it across?"

Natalie's a cutie.

Slinky girls.

"Nice earrings, Kai."

Happy Halloween.

We have pictures of Kai and Sierra in front of this blow up every year since age 3.

The Orlando Magic put on a Flick or Treat event.

We had never done it before so we thought we'd give it a shot.

Kai and Sierra wore their Halloween shirts (alot of kids were in their costumes).

Patrick Ewing was passing out candy. He's huge.

Sierra chased down Stuff for a quick picture.

Jim is 6'1". this is a life size cut out of Dwight Howard. This shows you how tall he is.

They had cool decorations around.

Kai and Sierra under the slam dunk.

Coach VanGundey passed out candy and let us take a picture.

After trick or treating we went in the arena for the movie.

Sierra with a flaming pumpkin on her head.

Candy, candy, candy!

Stuff came out for a performance.

The Higgins' waiting for the movie.

Jim caught one of the t-shirts they shot in the audience.

"Here is comes!"

Monster's Inc was the movie.

Our pretty girl.

Kai is a handsome dude.

"Can you tell they're sick of getting their picture taken?"

"Gross, pumpkin guts."

"A few more handfuls..."

"Walla... our scary pumpkin."

Halloween (back to top)

Kai's cute costumes phases are over. He officially jumped to the dark side and insisted on being a zombie this year. Sierra decided to be Alvin from the Chipmunks. She loved her tail.