Another Day Has Come

We have reached yet another milestone in the ClanMcCarter household. It is a Sunday morning at 10:10 AM and one of my children (I suspect it is Evan) has just woken up. This is not out of the ordinary nor miraculous, but the fact that he headed directly to the bathroom and turned on the shower and got into it without a single reminder is truly one of those indescribable Christmas miracles.

Wow!

The Day Has Come

I have officially run out of Picasa storage. :-(

If I delete photos, they won't show up on my older blog posts. :-(

If I continue to blog on this blog, I can't post photos and then you only get to read my rantings which might not be so much fun. 
:-(

Deciding if I want to set up a whole new blog with a new email address is quite the conundrum. :-(

Do I have the energy for ClanMcCarter 2.0?

I think I do. Stay tuned.

Photo Book

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Reality Does Not Bite

I am sat on my sofa uploading photos to Shutterfly so I can create a few photo books this afternoon before a coupon expires. It is a miserable rainy day and I am reminiscing of days in England: cold feet, a cuppa on the side table, the pitter patter of rain on the window. However, my internet speed is incredible. I am uploading photos at lightning speed. This fact jars me back into reality because this is not England where internet crawls at a snail's pace especially on rainy days. This is America where the internet rocks. For this, I am thankful.

Flo.rida

Last weekend, the kids had a four-day holiday due to the coincidence of end of marking period and Election Day so Owen, Finn and I did what any smart Marylanders would and headed to Florida to visit family. Craig and Evan are the worker types and couldn't come. 

 Owen immediately decided he loved Florida because they have reptiles.

We got to spend a couple of days at Uncle Pete's house and enjoyed a beautiful day at the beach. Then we headed back to Orlando to conquer Universal Studios and Universal Islands of Adventures. Pete and his girls, Taylor and Samantha, came along. They even got to play hookie from school which gave the other kids a chance to catch up.

 The kids had lots of cousin time and I think they all enjoyed it.

First, Finn warmed up on a smaller roller coaster. He was hooked. Owen is not 100% sold, but tolerates the smaller ones just like his Mom.

 The Twister ride almost scorched our eyebrows off. Seriously.

 We saw the parade and it was pretty good. Nothing like Disney though.

Hi, Lorax!

 Hi, Spongebob.

We sat in a great spot. The entertainment was great and they had pogo stick jumpers which entertained the kids...

 Boing!

 as did the confetti.

It is Movember after all.

 We went to Despicable Me. Minions are so cute.

 The next day, we headed to Islands of Adventure.

 I just love Dr. Seuss.

 But we all really love Harry Potter.

 Hogsmeade was pretty darn awesome even if it was pretty darn crowded.

 Yowsa!

 The butterbeer was interesting. We decided it was cream soda with a vanilla foam topping.

 Of course, I had to visit the Owl Post office.

 Pretty fake aqueduct

 Hello, Buckbeak!

 Turtles in the moat

 Owen thoroughly enjoyed the aftermath of the Jurassic Park water slide.

The Magneto Electron ride was Owen and Sam's speed whilst waiting for the braver (crazier?) group to disembark the super fast and insane roller coaster zooming over our heads.

We had a great time.

Egg-citing News

On Thursday, I found these in our hen house!

 It seems our girl, Patty, was the first to start laying. The eggs are a greenish-blue pastel in color and very pretty.

 I promptly made breakfast.

 It was very delicious. Fresh eggs really do taste so much better than supermarket eggs.

Later that afternoon, I found a third, brown egg. I am not sure whose it is. My guess is that it is Theola's, our Rhode Island Red. In the past three days, we have received five eggs. Yesterday, Patty laid and egg in Owen's hand! Yes, really.  

 Also yesterday, I hatched a plan of my own. I was a craft vendor for the first time ever. It was fun and I made a decent profit.

Post-Halloween Post

As I type, Owen is seated across the table from me completing homework that was assigned on Halloween night (ikr?) and he is having a serious morning after candy fest hypoglycemic crash. Oh the joy, the rapture.

 We were once again excited for Halloween. I think the kids were definitely eager to participate last year, but this year, they are really happy to be back for the awesomely all-American extravaganza. Owen has honestly been preparing his costume for a month now. Here are some photos of my trick or treaters for the non-Facebook set.

Owen was a Dovakiin from Skyrim, an online game that all of his friends know about so they can be impressed for me as I have no clue. Owen went out with friends to their neighborhood and then returned with them to our neighborhood for some double dipping. He made and designed this costume all by himself. I sewed the fur.

As an aside, I miss the UK and the Design and Technology class at the senior school. Owen would have loved it this year! However, I am glad they have removed it from our middle school curriculum here because the class was really lame when Evan had to take it.

 

Finn, my typical laconic teen, actually had a plan a week in advance! He is Slenderman from the online game, Slender, and this costume was much easier to put together, thankfully. Craig calls him the Finnvisible Man.

He went trick or treating with a GIRL who rides his bus and lives down the street. They stopped by and she is adorable, out-going, shorter than Finn with Hermoine Granger hair, and her name is Megan.

Evan left his trick-or-treating days behind in 2007. He won't even answer the door to give out candy. Sigh.
 

I need to pack because the trick or treaters and I are headed to Florida tomorrow to visit my brother-in-law for the long weekend.

I am planning to vote this afternoon and will take the kids so they can witness Democracy (and a Democrat) in action.