They say it's your birthday....

... it's my birthday too!  Ok, of course it's not.  My birthday is in December.  In Michigan.  But it was RYAN's BIRTHDAY, and we had fun celebrating with him!!!  To start with, Carly hung the card she made her dad on the kitchen cabinet.  A week ago.

Then when we got up, we found that Betty Caroline Crocker had been to visit our kitchen, too.  Sadly, she forgot that she isn't supposed to be baking muffins when not supervised by an adult, but it was the thought that counted, right??  Plus, muffins were yummy.  Apparently she didn't get her mad baking skills from her mother.  She DID, however, get the whole "easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission" thing from her mom.

Ryan's day REALLY started out with the 15 miles he ran for his marathon training... best time ever.  I told him he would be faster when he was 38!  With running out of the way, we headed to Tijuana Flats for lunch. The picture of the chips is for you, TRACY!  I know, mean.

Headed to Orlando for fun birthday getaway.  I'm telling you, last minute on hotels.com is where it is at for great hotel reservations!  This time we got a "Kids Suite" at a random hotel, and of course, our little nuts loved it!  You'd think it was THEIR birthday!  This one had a fort in the room for them...

Twin bed in the fort, and bunk beds... their "own tv" and gaming system. 

Ryan's pick for a Disney park, Hollywood Studios.  We got dessert at the Sci-Fi Drive In diner, which was very fun!  Ok, AND yummy.  Our waitress was kind enough to snap a photo...

The "Lights, Motors, Action" car show, which was excellent! 

And the Toy Story Ride, where Ryan got the best score, of course.  You don't have to let the kids win on your birthday!!!  Not that he ever lets them win, anyways...

The Rockin' Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror rounded out our afternoon at the park, followed by dinner at a very odd Chinese restaurant.  Ben and Carly picked out their own presents for their dad, and Carly had been planning her's out since May.  T-shirt from The Flats!!  Ryan wore it proudly!  I find it slightly disturbing, but I guess it adequately reflects the hot sauce he loves from there! 

On our way home this morning, we stopped at a Halloween store to try to find costume items (unsucessful), but Carly loved these glasses, and it was worth a photo... She is completely obsessed with the Peace sign (still not sure why, although she IS a very laid back, earth friendly girl) which she refers to herself as "Rockin' the Peace Sign" whenever she wears anything bearing said symbol... you know, which is daily.  Here she is Rockin' the Peace Sign via glasses.  Oh boy.



Happy Birthday RYAN!!!  We love you and love celebrating with you! 

Random Picture #2

It seems after the sad ending to the RAYS season, we needed something to smile about...
*an email forward sent to me by my friend.  And come on, it's HILARIOUS!  You are welcome!

My Life wth Shadow

*Another essay by Carly, who was instructed to write about her Summer Memories...  Photos if from Aunt Renae's blog... thanks for "letting" us lift it!

     As soon as I saw my Aunt Kristi with Shadow, I bolted outside like lightening bolt!  When I met Shadow,  she jumped on me like a kangaroo.  "Shadow! I'm all dirty now.  But I still love you.", I said.  Her eyes twinkled with joy and I knew I would play with her while I was in Michigan.  This dog cost $100 so I have to spend time with her!

     Shadow had brown eyes.  She had silky black fur that was as black as night.  She was a black labrador, she had a blazing red tongue.  She had a black nose, as black as a black berry.

     On Saturday at 10:47am they had a.... PET PARADE!!!!  The parade was very noisy.  We heard people clapping, cameras flashing.  I was a little bit scared.  Then all of a sudden Shadow started running fast as a cheetah!  We almost ran into the crowd!  But we managed not to go there.  They had an enormous line of animals.  There were three bunnies, 12 dogs, evena  mouse on a skateboard who on the funniest animal and a huge brown dog in his owner's t-shirt.  The prizes were free ice cream and five dollars.

     Ten days afer I came home, while I was playing "Speed Slice" on the Wii, my mom pulled me aside and told me, "Honey, something sad happened to Shadow.  She passed away, and they don't know what happened to her, she just passed away in her sleep."  I felt really really sad about Shadow.  I mean, I really did not get to spend a lot of time with her.  I'm really going to miss Shadow. 

*Sigh*  Losing Shadow was really sad for Carly, and seriously, she cried for about 2 days and it wasn't even our dog!  She finally said, "If I feel this sad, imagine how sad Isaiah and Adriana feel!!!" Her sweet little cousins, who saved up their money to buy Shadow.  It made her really want to pray for comfort for them... and their aunts and uncles in Florida really wanted to buy them another dog! 

Random Picture #1

Do not think for one minute that I did not want to run out there and scare him just to see if he really WOULD play dead!  Seriously, WHY is there a possum in my back yard running on the fence???

UPDATE:  Because it's so entertaining:  Comments from my Sister!

Carly's a Wonder

*Carly's teacher read them a book about a little boy who was learning about the Seven Wonders of the World and was wondering why there weren't any NEW wonders now... well, his friend encouraged him to find WONDERS in his own neighborhood and life, things that were really important to him.  (I'm sure I got that REALLY wrong, but you get the idea!)  So, her teacher then assigned them a project to find their OWN wonder, and write about it.  They had a week, and she immediately got busy, giving up Friday Free Time to get started on it... she was a little excited about her chosen subject matter!  Photo's by Carly.

Carly’s Story
MY BLANKET

     “Tap tap tap .”, said the sewing machine. My baby blanket is, well, a wonder to me. It’s one of the things I’ve loved, for my whole life. It only has two holes in it. That’s good!

     It all started out, in September 2001. My mom and my grandma wanted to make me a baby blanket . But they didn’t know whether or not I was a boy or a girl, so they thought ”red and yellow! Good for both.” So, they came out with a starry fabric on one side and the other side has bears on it.

     The day I was born. [November, XX ,2001 at 11:16 am] I received my baby blanket. All of my relatives were huddled around me asking “can I hold her, can I hold her?” My relatives yapped. I was so annoyed I wrapped my blanket around my head . I felt like a Baby Ninja. As soon as everyone left I went to bed in the hospital. I snuggled with my mom and my blanket. When I was 2 years old, my Dad was playing around with me and took my blanket and I started crying and I yelled “BLANKY!!!” I shouted and from that day on that was her name.

     Blanky helps me sleep in the night. I snuggle her close and she gives me a good feeling inside, something that calms me. So if any one tries to take her away from me, I would throw a fit! She also helps me when I’m scared or upset. I will never let go of my blanket and if I do it will be when I’m 90 years old !!!!!

*This girl really really loves her Blanky...

ALDS Game TWO

Have to focus on the positives, right?  Well, Game 2 was, well... huh.  WE had a good time.  By "We", I mean, the kids and I.  I think Ryan was a little bummed.  I know he enjoyed being at the Trop with his family, he always does!  But it goes without saying that he wanted to see his "Friends" take care of business:)

Ben picked a hankerchief for a souvenier... and it entertained him for the whole game!

The Rays have gone a little crazy with the Plaid... they repainted the Rays Team truck!

James Shields was pitching... he is one of Ryan's favorites.  And there was even an incident in our house a while back regarding someone pulling their sister down the stairs by her "Shields Shirt" and an injured foot which required a day off school and lots of ice.  So he's kind of famous in our house.

*sigh*  perhaps we were bummed (notice how I'm bummed now, too???) because this might be the last day we get to see Carl in a Rays uniform right in front of us.  His contract is up, and he's worth way more $$ than the Rays could pay him.  He's Ryan's all time favorite.  I'm thinking Ryan is not alone!

And to cheer us up... here's DJ Kitty.  We've decided (me and Carly, of course!!!) that you can NOT go wrong with DJ Kitty.  You are welcome for NOT posting his YouTube video.  It IS very funny, but out of respect for the McGregor Felines, I will not post it... if only we had thought of it ourselves!!!  Come on, Cassidy would have made an AWESOME DJ Kitty!  I'm sure he'd throw in a growl here and there, too!

Carly had the best time dancing around... entertaining the people beside us!

The sad ending. 

This might have been even sadder to me... Ryan was just unwilling to leave!  Those are VERY empty stands... I shouldn't be surprised.  He gets this way every year!  We DO love our time at the ball field, it is really great for our whole family.  However, I was getting nervous that they were going to make us clean up...

No one cares if you mess with the truck after everyone has gone home! 

ALDS Game ONE

 Our Boys managed to come in first place for the American League East and won themselves a spot in the Post Season... we entered our name into the lottery drawing to purchase Post Season tickets and were picked for the American League Division Series Games 1 and 2 tickets!  We enjoyed Game One this afternoon, even though we didn't enjoy the outcome:) 

We started out with a little tailgating lunch in the parking lot...

Starting Line Up...

Picture I took specifically for Evan Longoria.  That's him striking out.  In front of a packed house at Tropicana Field.  Which is what he wanted, right?  Although, I doubt he wanted to strike out. 

Not sure the outfield players are supposed to be hanging out like this...  ok, it was a commercial break.

Handsome McGregor Men...

 And the girls... wearing our matching sparkly pink Rays shirts!

Sad ending to the game...

As we were leaving,  we noticed that they had Matt Garza's motorcycle on display... The Rays organization had it custom made for him after his No Hitter this summer, the first in Ray's short history.

It's a Harley, and all the players signed it and there are some cool graphics on it...

We would have loved to see a win for the Rays, but they played some good baseball, and THAT is always fun!  We are never ready for the season to be over (even after 162 games!!!) so it is awesome to get a few more games in...