Best Halloween EVER

Monday, October 31, 2011 marks the best Halloween experience our family has had (unfortunately Matt had to miss it due to his 15 days of 12h shifts--but on the upside, his anti-motionsickness drug regimen gifted him an extraordinary flight).

The girls started out their day with festivities at Cimarron Montessori, which included a walk to a local nursing home, where the kids sang songs and put on a costume parade for, and then trick-or-treated from wonderful residents (and, having spent a semester of clinicals at a nursing home, I can only imagine what an absolute ray of sunshine this must have been for their day...I am such a sap, but it actually makes me tear up to think about how wonderful it must have been); then enjoyed an entire afternoon of pizza, crafts, partying, and movies.  The girls came home for a tasty dinner of mini mummy meatloaf, and then we were off to the base festivities!

I love a well-organized and safe event, and the base housing trick-or-treat was all that and then some.  The trick-or-treating hours were both stated and condensed (5:30-7:30pm), which I think inspired much broader participation.  An email was sent out instructing folks that did not wish to participate to leave their porch lights off.  Most folks participating actually sat on their patios/lawns to hand out candy, which gave the event a festive, friendly, block-party-esque atmosphere.

Heading out for some fun!

One of the commanders set up candy stations and a "pit-stop" with chili, cupcakes, drinks, and more; and the Enlisted Spouses Group served hot apple cider from a crock pot.  Security Forces and a team of volunteers, including McGruff the Crime Dog patrolled the streets and handed out safety coloring/goody packs to trick or treaters.

Thanks to a Halloween-day 50% off sale at Walgreens and no utility bills, giant inflatables garnished many yards...my kids are obsessed with these, so they were a huge hit!  It was such a fun and safe event.  The girls and I stayed out the entire two hours.  The kids walked a lot, but near the end of the evening, they curled up in our wagon with their favorite blankets, so it was a nice little workout for me, to boot!

Best decorated house of the night: spirited, but not scary...and that fence is not normally part of their yard--they really went all out (and I am sorry I did not capture the towering pillars they erected on either side!).

Thanks to Cimarron Montessori, Kenwood Manor Nursing Home, Vance AFB Family Housing, and anti-motionsickness drugs for a day of wonderful memories!  :o)

Weekends

Being employed once again REALLY has me appreciating the weekend.  The were times not too long ago (such as last week) where part of me entered each weekend with anxiety because it seemed like the competing expectations of all that "time" turned into crankiness/stress, but this weekend it was so nice to relax.  I did "movie night sleepovers" with the kids in the master bed on Friday and Saturday (never did it back-to-back before) so we could all sleep in and Matt could hit the sack early to recover from the week.  We still crammed a lot of activity in: a birthday party, pumpkin carving, decorating, unpacking (yes, still from our August move-in), and baking for the kids' school holiday parties (the girls will be wearing costumes to school tomorrow and walking to a local nursing home to sing holiday songs and put on a parade, before returning to their classrooms for a Halloween pizza party); plus Matt got in an afternoon of football/studying at the O'Club (Officer's Club--and the Giants won [yay/phew]) and still spent plenty of time with us.  :o)

Feeling very well rested and ready for the week ahead!!  This will be my first week at work without my predecessor, and I am very excited to get more of a handle on things.  Hopefully my base access card will be activated soon so I can actually log into the insurance and billing systems (otherwise I will be spending a *lot* of time collecting forms at the pharmacy).  :o)

Semi-homemade (as in, I used munchkins) Halloween cake pops for my youngest's class party.  Unfortunately, by the time I signed up for my oldest's, all that was left was the far less climatic vegetable tray.  Oh well, at least we are using a Mickey Mouse sectional serving plate and it includes whipped cream cheese for a dip (Big Sis' FAVORITE).  :o)

This was my first time making cake pops...and I am VERY glad I used munchkins because I messed up SO many times just with the decorating.  I can't imagine if I actually tried to make the balls, which are apparently even harder to get right on your first go-through.  There was actually a point where I had to wash off the iced-on faces with a paint brush because they started running, and another point where I had to redo the entire batch because a domino-effect ended up happening causing all the still-runny candy coatings to splotch together.  This is definitely a dessert I would like to get good at, though.  It is one of the girls' favorite treats and there are so many options in terms of just about everything (flavors, themes, etc.).

Community fish

Today we acquired two new members to our family of 6: goldfish.  A neighbor posted some free ones on our Student Spouse FB group and I jumped at the chance, thinking about how excited the girls would be--and I am all about low-maintenance, but fun, pets.  When I went to pick them up this morning, I learned that we would be their third family.  Fish are not the easiest pets to PCS (permanent change of station) with, and pilot students/families are here about 12-15 months, tops--so they have been bouncing about from one house to the next.

Social networking sites like FB make community-style offerings so very much easier.  The other day, the same family who gave us the fish picked up a stack of cardboard boxes from our garage.  Our neighbors just became the third owners of a giant trampoline.  And there are easily 10-20 freebies (everything from laundry detergent to fences to pets [this week alone included our fish and a puppy]) posted on our FB group each week.

Here are our two new little guys:

Little Sis has named the smallest one "Princess Susie" (she names just about everything "Susie", including all her "Ariel" dolls, lol).  Big Sis has named the larger one "Dorothy", but Dorothy is going by "Wanda" for the Halloween season, since it is "a witch name".

The scorpion flight

Today I learned that the different flights within each squadron correspond with different animal patches.  Matt's S flight is "The Scorpions".  The other half of his 12-15 class is the R ("Rhinoceros") flight--which I was slightly wishing Matt had been assigned to, given our youngest daughter's intense love of rhinos, but that desire quickly abated when we saw that flight's charging rhino door logo, promoting Little Sis to scream and bolt away from "the angry rhino".  The scorpion logo looks more like a big--but calm and nonaggressive--bug...or lobster, as the kids see it.

The girls and I were gifted this insider perspective this afternoon, as all the UPT T6 flights hosted trick or treating for pilot students' and IPs' kids.  Each class decorated their part of the hall, some more spookily than others, and everyone's kids dressed up to trick or treat and spend some coveted time with their busy moms/dads.  I thought this was such a nice thing for the flights to do, as the UPT schedule is very grueling on families, and can be confusing to kids, due to its lack of regularity.  While a good number of the students are fresh-out-of-college newlyweds, there seem to be only 1-3 students per class with kids, so I was very touched and appreciative that the squadrons reached out to include the families in this way.

The girls, as Princess Jasmine and "Princess Jasmine's friend the Purple Butterfly Princess", posing with their dad, who is sporting an elephant cap (for a very economical version of Abu the monkey in elephant form).  I sported a similar cap--a tiger for an economical Raja.  :o)

The girls posing by a cute penguin pilot at the squadron entrance:

Next month, we are also looking forward to a "day in the life"-style open house/tour to get a better picture idea of what our Matt is going through.  Speaking of Matt, the poor guy threw up more times than he could count during his flight today and is officially on "air sickness cap", which means he is progressing toward the 3- and 5-day spin programs, but first gets to enjoy 3 days of flying while using anti-motionsickness pills--a treat that will hopefully breathe enough passion and enthusiasm for flying into him to last until he overcomes the airsickness obstacle!

1st episode of airsickness

Sooo...Matt had his second flight today, boasting more advanced maneuvers and higher G's (5, as opposed to 2).  He threw up three times, twice in the same bag d/t a slight lack of foresight on his part (he is responsible for stocking his own barf bags for each flight).  The girls and I came home from a base housing Halloween shindig around 8pm to find him sprawled on the floor, moaning a bit, with puffy eyes.  The girls jumped on his belly a bit (he has extremely unusual/quasi-violent bonding rituals with them), which he said actually helped.

He did manage to muster enough energy to entertain his flight that evening with a large study/chitchat session at our house, collapsing, however, within about 15 minutes after they left...and pretty much ruining my attempt at watching "Grey's Anatomy" tonight as the study session was in the family room, and as he has also taken to sleeping there, in our oversized recliner--due to snoring/dry throat and GI issues that are severely exacerbated when he lies flat.  Normally I wouldn't mind, particularly as the kids wound down fairly quickly, even after realizing company was here, and still managed to go to bed nicely.  However, this has been a pretty crazy-busy week for me as well...and I was really looking to multitask holiday cream cheese on wheat ghost sandwiches with "Grey's", "The Office", and possibly champagne.

On a more fun note, these are the cute cream cheese ghosts!  My oldest is bringing these and carrot sticks in for her class snack tomorrow.  :o)

Halloween festivities

In addition to base housing offering a number of fun events for residents (one of which we will be attending tomorrow), the base also seems to have at least one or two really nice family events per month.  This month, we enjoyed Oktoberfest and a kids' craft and story hour at the base library (the latter of which is close enough to our home that you can see it from the street corner...we took the wagon there this weekend!).

Oktoberfest: Matt's quote about the event was, "I actually feel sorry for people who aren't here."  (Granted, this sentiment was probably due more than anything to the limitless availability of gluten free food: chili, pickles, onions, and burgers and hot dogs--available without the bun.  He was in heaven.  Base housing dining events are much more rationed, lol--though still generous and delish!)

McGruff the Crime Dog and Sparky the Fire Dog made guest appearances:

Big sis got her wounds (from tripping on uneven pavement) tended by the base fire crew:

Pumpkin painting:

Lassoing: 

Posing, big time:

Potato sack race:

Searching for rubber band bracelets in pasta:

Big Sis & her winnings:

Little Miss was OBSESSED with this fan-driven duck-racing game:

Rocking out:

Kids craft & story time: 3 cute Halloween activities and 3 fun stories.

Hard at work:

Big Sis is very particular about modeling her projects exactly as laid out in the instructions...

Little Sis, not so much.

...
And to close, one last "life on base" plus: one of the many perks to no utility bills...Petunia's guiltless indulgence in electric blanket warmth!

Dollar ride!

Matt's dollar ride went splendidly.  To start, he flew during sunset, so the view must have been spectacular--although he didn't mention it, noting only that he needed to be landed before dark as night flying had not yet been tackled in his intimidating syllabus yet.  The best part is that he did not get airsick!!  Considering everyone else in his class did, this is some strong evidence of the Barany chair's capabilities.  He said that he "dry heaved" a bit at the end, but the episode was mild enough to be classified merely as what is "typical" of one's first flight in a jet.

I am thankful I got some pix of another guy's dollar ride yesterday, because I really did not capture Matt's well.  I had the zoom lens ready to go, but I have yet to figure out how to take good pictures when both lights and motion are combined and the aircraft lighting really blurred up every pic.  Photos aside, I am thrilled Matt's first flight was in the late afternoon, so the girls and I could enjoy it together.  There were about 5 planes up in the air at that time, so I didn't know exactly which one was his, but I went with my gut and picked one, telling the girls, "That's your daddy up there...flying!"  They were both extremely excited and giggly about this.  Such a different feel in saying that and actually letting them see him in the air, as opposed to just talking about it.  I know they will be beside themselves (as will I) in a few short weeks when we get to observe his first solo from the flight tower!

Dollar ride?

Although Matt did not get to complete his dollar ride today, due to some scheduling problems in the computer lab (he has some forms he needs to sign off on before he flies), he did get to watch all but 3 of his buddies take flight.  And every single one of them got airsick.  Which does not bode well for his evening ("evening", as in "after two meals") flight tomorrow.  On the upside, since it is in the 5-6pm timeframe, the girls will be home from school and I will be done with work--so we will all be able to hang out in the yard and try to guess which plane is his.  Provided he does not get too sick in the air, he will actually get to land the plane (the remainder of the flight is ride-along).

To help prepare for tomorrow, the girls and I took him for a late-night spin in the Barany chair and I fixed up some blandish meals for his lunch (roast beef, spinach, and onion dressing on a gluten free bun & gluten free spaghetti with seaweed, green beans, and tamari sauce).  He got a taste of what he is in for stress-wise today (not as bad as expected) and is grateful to have about 10 spins under his belt prior to his dollar ride (many guys with known airsickness still enter the program not having spun at all).

The non-student side of base was having some sort of exercise (simulated threat/emergency) today, which I got caught up in at work.  I had left the building briefly to go to Security Forces to turn in some paperwork so that one of these weeks I can gain computer access--and returned to find the clinic on lockdown, trapping me outside for about 25 minutes.  This lockout corresponded exactly to Matt's originally-scheduled flight time, so I took a ton of pictures of some other student's dollar ride (didn't find out about Matt's rescheduling until after the fact).

Need to make sure I have the zoom lens for tomorrow, lol!

We both got some much-needed sleep last night and are feeling much more optimistic about what lies ahead.  A brief convo with my oldest's teacher today about her progress in reading (she has just moved up to the hardest series in her kindergarten class--and read 10 pages on her own!) reaffirmed our choice in offering the kids a Montessori education.  The public school on base boasts rave reviews, and I know many folks whose children are very happy and successful there.  But it is hard to imagine my two thriving to this degree elsewhere.  The personalized emphasis of the Montessori child-paced teaching method and the intensive student-teacher interaction really pave the foundation for learning at exactly the right level and both girls are very very happy there.  I believe it offers the benefits of a homeschool environment in terms of personalization--with all the social/cultural-development benefits of a traditional school.

On another note, Tunia and I were chased on our walk tonight by something that looks exactly like this:

on our walk tonight!!  Naked mole rats are not native to this area, but whatever it was, it was hairless, with a short tail and buck teeth.  And it was chasing us.

ANYWAY, looking forward to watching and hearing about Matt's flight tomorrow!!

Stressors

So, Matt has his first flight in a jet tomorrow.  The stress level is noticeably amplified around here.  Matt is obviously worried about effectively combating the motion sickness thing, and I got my first taste of his pilot schedule this weekend...which I'm definitely not loving.  We have probably spent a total of about 4h with him since Friday night, and he has been studying/texting/scheduling/phoning/shopping/etc. for at least 50% of that time.  I know I am going to have to find a way to deal with it, but it is definitely hard for me to accept that he is going to be so noninvolved with the family for the next year or so.  Being that I will never have the opportunity to know how I would handle pilot training, I have to guard against my tendency to project how I balanced nursing school with parenthood into how I wish things were going to be around here.

A large part of the added stress (on top of what other students/spouses might encounter) is obviously coming from my desire to send the girls to the local (private) Montessori school, increasing our expenses and adding about an hour total of driving/gas time (15min each way) to our daily routine (as opposed to just walking my oldest to the kindergarten at the end of our block)--and necessitating me to work.  Further compelling me toward employment is my desire to not let the past 2 years of nursing/related education go to waste.  Things change quickly in the healthcare field and I certainly don't want my knowledge to go stale before I have a chance to use it.  Part of me sometimes wonders if it might have just been more practical for me to have gotten a part time job to help cover the bills during Matt's ASCP experience, because then I would a) have 2 yrs' recent work history under my belt and b) not have an almost-license sitting on my shoulder, begging me to do something with it.

I certainly don't like to complain, but it is also my intention to make this blog an accurate reflection of our pilot training experience, and as such, it is only fair to include the stressors!  Which have been flaring up for both of us this weekend, making everything seem a whole lot worse, lol.  I am sure in a day or two, things will subside--particularly after Matt finds out what he is in for as far as handling jet Gs and acrobatics go--and then things will be back to "normal".  :o)

S.E.R.E. training

The girls picked out some scrumptious nom noms from the New Orleans Insectarium during our recent trip down south, including a regular bug-shaped lollipop, a strawberry pop with a scorpion inside (kinda like a twisted tootsie pop)--and two boxed delights for their Dad:

The girls and I whipped up a baked egg delight for him this morning, which he heartily and good-naturedly woofed down.

Baked egg and vegetables with salsa, mexican waxworm, and salt & vinegar cricket topping:

He compared the crisped bugs to shrimp skin, which is also chitin-rich (and a great source of protein!), and noted that it is great practice for S.E.R.E. training (mandatory for Active Duty pilots prior to their first assignment), where he will be eating far worse.

Base housing perks

Instant playdates, thanks to the great, open backyard layout!!

Our next door neighbors are moving in a trampoline, so we will definitely have a kid-attracting setup here--perfect for our little social butterfly girls!

A tight squeeze

Matt revealed to me the other day that he has gained something like 16 pounds in the last year!!  I only wish I packed on extra weight as non-obviously as he does.  I am not entirely surprised, particularly as IFS and pilot training have taken their toll on him.  IFS' chow hall food reintroduced him to the high-sodium diet and unlimited quantities of food.  His first week back, it was not uncommon to see him take a bite of something and then add salt (via shaking the salt shaker directly into his open mouth).  We nipped this in the bud, as it is the girls' dream to consume straight salt (and, for that matter, butter), so I certainly didn't want this practice to appear to have parental endorsement.  His UPT schedule has also kept him extremely busy.  When he's not studying, while he does hit the gym, he is more often relaxing--and certainly not running as much as he used to (strength training is much more of a stress reliever for him).  I don't think it hit either of us that his physique had changed until he tried to squeeze into his chaps-style compression pants, fitted specially for him a few weeks back.  Yes, they are supposed to be snug, but we could barely zip them up--and he needs to be able to fit them over his flight suit!!

Ever since I started teasing him about his pirate eye study strategy, he likes to pay homage to it in pix:

Alas, I am sure the gain will be short-lived as, with the resumption of flight next week, he also needs to move back to the bland, gluten free, milk free diet he relied on to get through his solo in August.  Lots of bananas and oatmeal.  He has already asked me to send him with appropriate, meal-like sack lunches (but without meat, citrus, acidic, fatty, peanut butter, spicy ingredients), pretty much every day from here on out--but most definitely for his first 15 days, when the 12h on/12h off schedule is strictly adhered to and the guys cannot even head home for meals.  Guess I will have a lot of recipe googling to do this weekend!

Employment: making it work

As I've previously mentioned, finding employment as a pilot student's wife when you are also the primary caregiver of two younguns--and do not want to feel like your kids spend more time in school, at daycare, and with babysitters, than with their parents, is a feat in itself.  That challenge, for me, was compounded by the fact that I have been more or less unemployed for the past 5 years, that I may look like a nursing school dropout on my resume (thanks to my decision to leave UCO after my junior year to keep our family together during UPT), and that--while I have an LPN-equivalent education--I have no nursing or CNA experience or externships under my belt and I have yet to take/pass the NCLEX-PN.

By the grace of God, I have been blessed with wonderful fortune during my month-and-a-half-long job hunt.  While I certainly did not have a 100% success rate in apps --> interviews, for the three interviews I took part in (one at each of the two local hospitals, plus one at the base clinic), I was offered three positions.  I ended up turning down a full-time night job (3 days on, 3 days off, 12h shifts--or something to that effect) due to the uncertainty of Matt's schedule.  I am too low in the nursing hierarchy to affort a regular babysitter for one thing, and the idea of someone else putting the kids to bed at night or caring for them overnight--when my youngest still creeps into my bed every night around 2am--and my oldest around 6--went from seeming unappealing to being unacceptable in a matter of days.

Instead, I accepted a part-time insurance specialist position at the base clinic for a contractor.  I love the flexibility of this job--which I started yesterday.  Basically, I need to commit to 4h/d, 5d/wk--but can also move my schedule to 5h/d, 4d/wk, intermittently, to enable me to take off on base family days and attend the girls' school functions, etc.  I am also getting extensive training working with Microsoft Office software (which I am already pretty proficient with) and working with insurance companies (which can be very beneficial down the road in a variety of nursing positions, particularly those in clinics), plus I LOVE organizational busy-type work.  I have also never really had an office job, but always sort of wanted one, thinking it may enhance my already strong adoration of the sitcom "The Office".  :o)

Couple that with a dream position (for me, anyway) at a local hospital.  I go for my physical/drug screen on Monday, and then will take two days off from my insurance job for orientation--and then I get to work as a flex clinic Med Assistant (and later as an LPN).  Basically, the flex position is like the nurse equivalent of a substitute teacher, and my recruiter said there are always hours available--to the point where it can become essentially a full-time job (without benefits--which I am not after anyway, thanks to Matt's AF Active Duty status).  I am beyond excited as I have been dying to enter the nursing field, but didn't want to do it at the expense of quality time with the kids.  I am hoping to maybe do 1 full shift per weekend and 1 half shift per week...or something like that.  Can't wait to see what's available!!  :o)

The kids are excited too.  My part time job pays just enough to cover their Montessori education, and enables my youngest to move to a slightly longer daily program (basically she gets to stay for lunch and nap--which she has been DYING to do--and which makes her much more even-tempered at home...normally she only likes to nap for non-family members--so she has been exhausted many days by 5pm prior to starting her school nap schedule).  The flexibility of these jobs also keeps me available to take the girls to swim lessons at the Y and to maintain my new position as a Daisy Scout leader (yikes!!).

IPs have it pretty nice

In addition to collecting cute, personalized dollars from each first-timer they take up in the air (as a "tip" for their services), Matt informed me this evening that the IPs (instructor pilots) also get a hefty supply of student-funded beer the first day of each class rotation; presumably to poke a bit of fun at the "stress" of indoctrinating a bunch of newbies/commercial pilots to the most intensive pilot training experience out there.

I think, however, that the students are a bit more stressed about it!!  Although, given the fact that a large chunk of them are newly of-age college grads, I think presenting the IPs with a large amount of alcohol is probably the safer bet.  In our month and a half here, I have only seen one bashed-up car display by the base entrance (where D.U.I. accidents are "recreated" to encourage the 0-0-1-3 base policy [0 underage drinking, 0 drinking and driving, 1 drink/hour, 3 drinks/night]), which is *extremely* impressive, considering the stats at some of our other bases, particularly our overseas ones.

Pet lover?

I need to give some *MAJOR* props to the hubby.  While he didn't seem to know what to do with himself as we headed out on our roadtrip to Louisiana last Thursday (although I suspected XBox, followed by studies), but it seems to have been filled with studies, followed by pet time, instead!  :o)

Petunia did not have any wetting accidents in the house when we were gone, only one BM in each bedroom, plus one in the bathroom--which is expected as that is her main MO in terms of expressing anxiety related to change.  The most impressive examples of his deepened relationship with the critters are:

1) Normally, Kumi's nocturnal activities (noisy spinning...hedgehogs apparently can cover 5-8mi/night) drive Matt insane--to the point where we had to move the Kumster to the laundry room and keep the light on all night/off all day (hedgehogs are very sensitive to light and their prey instincts cause them to hide and only wheel-run/eat under the cover of darkness) to get him on a more sleep-friendly schedule.  Our first night back, after Kumi was already ready-to-roll for a night of sleep, Matt mentioned, blushing a little (underscoring his affection), that it would be alright for Kumi to move back to his normal schedule so he could enjoy himself more!  :o)  xo

2) Normally, it is like pulling teeth to get Matt to take Tunia out to potty (although he is also normally the most grouchy if she accidents).  When he lets me "sleep in" on the weekends, my time is always cut short when I hear Tunia's pitter-pattering feet across the floor, because I know he will not walk her.  However, I was out for a walk with the girls this evening, when--lo and behold--strolling our way was a very handsome young man with a very trim middle-aged dachshund.  I was beside myself with pleasure when Matt nonchalantly stated, "Taking Petunia out is part of my afternoon routine now.  It's just what I do.  Petunia even slept with me last night."

So happy to see him bonding with the pets, and I know they must have helped a lot with stress relief when we were not around for distraction this weekend!  :o)

Headin' back home

Our last morning in Louisiana was as action-packed and fun as the rest of our trip...

Little Miss making custom mini frittatas with her Tita while Big Sis sleeps in...

Craft time...making badges for an epic series of races from the sofa to guest bedroom...a challenge Big Sis conjured up en route to New Orleans yesterday...

Showing off their badges...

What will more than likely be our last outdoor swim of the season in an incredible apartment complex pool (probably the nicest apartments we've ever been too...but then again we don't have much to compare against, as our first apartment complex also housed a registered sex offender and our most recent one had such poor construction that our chain-smoking neighbor's ciggy smoke constantly wafted through our walls...Matt ended up filling all noticeable cracks [around pipes, etc.] with foam spray insulation)...

Halloween cupcakes...


and a well-received introduction to "The Sound of Music" and "The Muppet Show"!

We left LA around 2pm, expecting to set foot on base around 1am that evening.  However, as previously mentioned, every time we plan to do a trip over two days, it ends up taking one--and vice versa.  The drive back was really dragging, and the girls were not up for another sleepover in the car.  Around 10pm, we stopped at a Holiday Inn Express outside Dallas and rested up, prepared to knock out the final 5.5h tomorrow.

Plus, walking in the front door, tired, and possibly cranky, in the wee hours of the morning on the first day of Matt's last week of academics--Sim-filled, and weather test-including, would not likely get it off to its optimal start!  ;o)  From the sound of it, Matt enjoyed unparalleled study time and chair flying (going through the motions of/visualizing full flight itineraries in your head, while sitting in a chair) over the weekend, trumping even the amount he enjoyed during our excursion to Chuck E. Cheese earlier this month.  He is developing a great group of study partners--definitely pairing with among the most motivated and dedicated in his class--as opposed to the most outing/party-hardy, as I'd feared he would awhile back.  Glad he was able to make the most of his time--and very impressed that he passed up XBox sessions for time with the pets!!

New Orleans, Tiana style

A major bonus to visiting family in Louisiana is that New Orleans is also home to my oldest's favorite Disney character, Princess Tiana.  My sister-in-law and her fiance were wonderful enough to prepare a one-of-a-kind Princess tour of the city!

Here is the awesome preview site they made for the girls, comparing scenes and characters from "The Princess and the Frog" to their real-life inspirations/bases.

Highlights from the day include:

A visit to the bug museum (not exactly Princess and the Frog, but VERY preschool/kindergarten!!).  Both girls entered, 100% against the idea of bug consumption--and both ended up gorging out on candied bugs!

My oldest's fave was the waxworm fondue:

My youngest preferred toasted waxworm fudge:

We even picked up some seasoned worms (chili) and crickets (salt & vinegar) for Daddy to try!

Next on the list was some Cajun dining for lunch!  We enjoyed turtle soup, blackened gator, grilled cheese, & popcorn shrimp.

After checking out some street performers, artists, and the St. Louis Cathedral--where Tiana and Naveen were married, we enjoyed Cafe Du Monde's famous beignets--the very pastry Tiana baked when saving up to buy her own restaurant at the start of the movie!!

Local artistry:

The Cathedral:

Beignets!

The day ended with a mini corn maze, a walk down the Mississippi, and dinner at a gorgeous WWII Museum, where we got to meet my fiance-in-law's folks--and also check out one of the many gorgeous places the happy couple is considering for their future wedding!  :o)

Somehow, this place didn't scare them!!

 

Strolling toward & along the Mississippi:

Louis' Riverboat!

My first po' boy (fried oysters) at the WWII Museum.  It was delish!

Can't wait to visit--with Matt--when his schedule permits!!