Parents are busy. It’s a constant game of Frogger. You have to keep moving or you’ll get run over by a car, a bus or giant log. You learn early on as a parent that you have to pace yourself. Parenting after all is a marathon. This past weekend, however, was a sprint and we are still recovering. I just need a little high-five after completing this adventure. Someone help me out. No one?
It started last Wednesday with a weird late-night work schedule and a kid with a fever. He was well-enough to go to school Thursday.
Thursday night I helped host a happy hour fundraiser for my friends Joe & Amanda. If you haven’t checked out their story, you need to. We had a great turnout and raised good money to help with their medical expenses. I really hope they’ll be home from Houston soon.
#JoeStrong Happy Hour!
Friday was another day of work and then we were off to the races! I picked up the little man from school, dropped the dog we are watching at my mom’s for the weekend, off to pick up Brendan’s friend (which was a surprise) then back to the school to get Brendan from chorus. We skipped out on football practice then drove down to Disney to check into our hotel room. From there we boarded a bus to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2013
You’ll notice my husband missing from all the pictures. He was working all weekend for the Wine and Dine Marathon events. So we got to take advantage of his on-site hotel room while we worked all night and then came back to sleep during the day for about 5 hours. Race weekends are tough on our family – but at least we get some small perks out of it! So I managed three boys by myself at the Magic Kingdom. Thankfully, they were great and had an amazing time. Brendan’s friend Matt hadn’t been to the Magic Kingdom since he was about 5, so it was exciting to see the park through his eyes. He was so excited about everything that it even made my kids realize how great the park is, since they are spoiled and are there often.
We got back to the hotel around midnight and were fast asleep. All the boys woke up around 8 a.m. and went straight to the amazing pool.
Crazy boys in the Disney pool.
Pool time was cut short because we had to head over to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex for Brendan’s 1-mile race! He finished with a great time just under 8 minutes. We love the Disney races because they are just so organized.
My little runner.
From there we had to pack up and head back home. Each child was going to a sleepover. Brendan went tailgating at the UCF game and Patick had a birthday party. That also meant we had to shop for a birthday present! So we hit the mall, bought what we needed to, I managed a quick shower before dropping off the boys and then downtown for the Danny Treanor retirement party! I’ve worked with Danny at News 13 for the past 10 years. He’s a great guy, really funny and a genuinely good guy.
Me and Julie – We saw each other three times this week!!
Orlando weather folks out to honor Danny!
Danny and Marla
Sunday morning we were on the move again. Patrick had been at a sleepover Saturday night and the birthday boy got sick. Like, throwing up in the middle of the night in a tent sort of sick. The assumption was they ate too much junk food. Then Patrick started throwing up around 4am. So after picking him up and getting his brother, we went back down to our hotel room and took a nice big family nap. Patrick seemed to be better after the nap so we hit Epcot to try to enjoy the last day of the Food and Wine Festival. First though, we had to help my husband with some post-RunDisney work, thus turning my car into an official (and temporary) RunDisney car.
My car was turned into an official Run Disney car.
This was only our second time there this year – that tells you just how busy we’ve been! It’s our favorite thing and we haven’t been able to make it work this year.
Epcot International Food & Wine Festival – 2013.
We ate, we drank and we rocked out to Big Bag Voodoo Daddy with some awesome third row seats. After a great time, we went back to the resort to meet-up with my old college roommate Todd. He works on the Monday Night Football crew and was in Tampa for the game. We had a great time catching up and hearing his crazy stories. He is currently driving a school bus from Tampa back to Michigan for the campground he also owns. So yeah – that about sums up Todd.
Monday was a day of doctor’s appointments for me – things I’ve been putting off for awhile…and then Monday night was lazy night. Neither of the boys were feeling great and we skipped all extracurricular activities and just went to bed. Until about 4am when Brendan started throwing up. Apparently was Patrick had was more then just too much junkfood. Some stomach bug is going around school and is taking down everyone. Fingers crossed I’m avoiding it! I’ve spent the entire day cleaning the house and doing massive loads of laundry. And I cannot wait to hit the pillow again tonight!
This week, I’m slowing things down. It was great fun, but I’d really like to have a lazy weekend for a change and start putting up Christmas decorations!!!!
