tales from a far-land

For a very long time, Madilyn has wanted to lose her first tooth.  It seemed like every day one of the kids in her class would lose their first tooth or even second tooth.  Madi was getting very discouraged.  And then it happened.  At the end January, she had a wiggly tooth.  She was so excited. And for the next week or so, it slowly started to wiggle more and more.  Madilyn lost her first tooth on a Wednesday afternoon in math class.  Josh picked her up from school that day and Madi showed him the gap in her teeth.  However, when he asked to see the tooth, Madilyn broke into tears.  She didn't have it.  It literally was lost in math class.  It fell to the ground and she couldn't find it.  She was so distraught. What was she going to leave for the tooth fairy?  Luckily, we informed her that she should just write the tooth fairy a note explaining the situation and I am sure the tooth fairy would understand.  And so she...

At the end of January, Aiden experienced another childhood rite of passage.  A cast!  We are not 100% sure how he fractured his elbow, but the story that we were told involves a Saturday play date with some of his friends and the playroom couch.  He may or may not have fallen off of the couch. He may or may not have been pushed off of the couch.  Or they may or may not have been wrestling on the couch.  Either way, after two days of icing, ace bandaging, and medicating the situation, we decided that a trip to the urgent care was in order where it was determined that he did, in fact, fracture his elbow.  The urgent care visit was a less that optimal experience.  In fact, it was miserable.  After we found out he did have a fractured elbow, they recommended a semi-permanent cast until we could visit an orthopedic surgeon.  Aiden didn't want to get the semi-permanent cast.  He fought the entire process.  At one point, the nurse even to...

We are more than halfway through the school year and the Farrell-Landers kids still love school. And, more importantly, they are excelling in all of their subjects and classes.  For Period 3, they both qualified for the 90s Club again.  We are so proud of them.  They love learning.  They love seeing their friends everyday.  And they still enjoy doing their homework.  I am not saying that we haven't had our homework challenges, but they seem to understand that it is an important part of learning and school.  Here are a couple of tidbits about the kids and school: Madilyn Favorite subjects in school are art, math and humanities Eats lunch with Natalie and Kai Uses "pixie dust" to get 100% on her math tests Loves to read.  She is currently reading level 2 chapter books.  Her favorite chapter book series is Junie B. Jones. Aiden Favorite subjects in school are engineering and music Eats lunch with Wyatt and Olivia Aims to be on green...

Day four was the best day of the trip.  It was a rainy one and came with some challenges, but it was still the BEST! Josh was supposed to run his half marathon early Saturday morning.  However, Mother Nature didn't want that to happen.  RunDisney cancelled the entire run due to rain and lighting.  Josh was disappointed he wasn't able to run, but that also meant that he wasn't sore nor did he have to run in the rain. Our rainy morning started with breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table.  While at breakfast, we had the opportunity to visit with Cinderella, Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Ariel and Jasmine. Madilyn was in heaven.  Aiden was presented with a prince's sword, so he was pretty content as well. After breakfast, we darted over to the Seven Dwarfs Mine ride.  This is the only ride that we really wanted to ride that I couldn't obtain a Fast Pass.  Luckily, the rain helped detour people away from the park and we were ...