The raspberries are finally ripe!

The raspberries started to turn a little bit red last week.  For the last 7 days I have heard 14 times per day how badly the boys wanted to pick the raspberries.  I told them if I caught them they would be cut off from TV for a week!

Finally today they are ripe, a lovely deep purple.  They picked berries to their hearts content.  And ate berries to their hearts content.  I will make jam tomorrow, after they have eaten enough that they don't want to eat anymore.

You can see in the pictures as well that the grapes are doing well this year.  I am somewhat scared of the fall for all of the grapes I am going to have to deal with.  I cut them back to what I thought was half last year but they obviously love to get cut back.

I want to ride my bike!

It's official, all of the Imes boys can now ride a two wheeler without training wheels.  Jay insisted we needed a video as proof for Nathan's posterity!

Jay's big day

Jay has been a little scared of riding a bike without training wheels.  One of the families from church that has 4 boys came by last night and offered us some of their old bikes.  Jay shyly asked if he could have the blue one.  I reminded him that it didn't have training wheels on it.  This morning before school he got up and rode his new bike.  No help and no training wheels!

To add to the excitement, Jay got his first loose tooth.  Unlike Carson, who can have a loose tooth for weeks! Jay wiggled it and wiggled it all day long and it came out at supper time!  Yay, Jay!

What we learned this week at school...

Jay had a productive week.  This is what he learned at school.

Sunday afternoon Snowcones

Nathan is proud of his 10L of snow!

Nathan was so excited for the new snow fall as it makes a good supply for his snow cone fetish.  After church, Jay has taken to changing in to his pyjamas and then heading downstairs to beg to watch movies.  Carson just changes and begs for movies.  Nathan typically changes and begs for movies but today he asked to go play outside.  About 1/2 hour later he rang the doorbell so I would help him with the door and he had his "ice cream bucket' full of snow to make snow cones.  His intention was that he and his brothers be able to finish all the snow in his bucket!

Thankfully they are restricted to 2 flavors with each "cone".  They each had about 5 of these things though!

(I left for work shortly after this sugarfest)

Universal Studios

The Blues Brothers!

Nathan enjoying the Blues Brothers! 

Shaking their tail feathers!

Jaws!  - They took the ride out so this is the only place you get to see Jaws in Florida. 

Jay with his "Funky" shades!   We came across a couple that were wandering through the park trying to engage the visitors.  They asked to trade Jay his sunglasses and were going to take Nathan in trade.  Jay thought they were cool and thought it was a great trade.  In the end he gave them back and we got to keep Nathan.

Carson and Uncle Jay with the Blues Brothers! 

Shaggy signing autographs!

Posing for a picture with Scooby & Shaggy!

Doc Brown & Uncle Jason 

Meeting Shrek and Princess Fiona!

The official picture with the "Royal" couple - in all the other pictures Shrek was covering Nathan's face with his hand.

MIB!

Being Silly!

Uncle Jason channelling his inner Doc.

Disney!

We decided to take a family trip to Disney World in November.   With much planning, and agreement from the boys, we left on Halloween.  The boys were excited for their "first" plane ride.  Carson & Nathan have both been on planes but were just too little to remember.  With the craziness at the US airports, we did not take any pictures in the airport or on the plane.  They were a little sad that the pilots didn't give them candy but they got over it!

Day One - Magic Kingdom

We hit the park and planned on going to one end and working our way through the park methodically.  We got stopped waiting in line to see Merida, from Brave.  This was our view of Cinderella's castle while we were waiting to see Merida.

Merida with the boys, showing their muscles.
Merida was the only princess that the boys stood in line to meet during our whole trip to Disney (although they did get a picture with Princess Fiona at Universal!) 

They don't look too happy here, do they?

Eating Disney ice cream!
We were waiting for the park parade at Animal Kingdom to start and having a little snack break.

Up and trying to attract everyone's attention for high 5's along the parade route.

Phineas & Ferb 

The boys with a green soldier from Toy Story.

Mickey!

Goofy's Barnstormer - all the boys loved this rollercoaster.  We timed it well to go on back to back on our first day.  I sent 'the boys' back on while I tried to get a good shot of them coming through the billboard.  

Piglet!  aka Piggy
We went for dinner with Winnie-the-Pooh & Friends.  Piglet was a little "brighter" than we expected him to be.

 The boys loved the fact that the characters came to our table while were eating and would pose for pictures with us.

Tigger!  Nathan and Tigger were having a little game of nose poking!  Nathan poked Tigger and he would pat him back on the nose.

HEE-WHORE!
So, it turns out that Nathan's favorite Disney character is Eeyore.  Only he calls him Hee-Whore.   I wish I could get him on tape saying it as there is nothing quite like it!
You can see here how excited he was to give him a hug as he is lunging at poor Eeyore.  The best part of the whole story though is that Nathan was quietly eating and out of the corner of his eye he saw Eeyore coming.  He half turned, slapped Uncle Jason and jumped up out of his chair as he announced, "HEE-WHORE!"

I will admit that I was a little annoyed at having to pay $37 per person for food at the character dinner, however, Nathan's response to the characters made it worth every cent!   Next time we go we will do breakfast - apparently the waffles are Mickey shaped!

Stitch at Downtown Disney