September?!?

Where does the time go??? Seriously...? Our fun summer is almost over as we gear up to get started back to Community Bible Study (CBS) next week and Maggie's full-time dance class begins tomorrow morning. We just got back from our Von Canon Family Reunion Road Trip ~ not an official reunion, but we managed to see 32 different family members/friends! I will post later with picture highlights, but just thought that I would tempt you with the stats...6 states, 11 days, and 3412 miles all without a dvd player or hand held device! Those girls are Super Star travelers!!! Gotta love the crazy fun, Von Canon Style!

Summer Dance Classes Begin!

Be prepared for more pictures of both the girls in this five week summer session dance class! Both of them love it!! Morgan's class is from 10:30 to 11:00 and then Maggie's class is from 11:00 to 11:45 back-to-back on Wednesdays.

Cow Appreciation Day!

Just in case you didn't know, today is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A! If you go in to one of their stores even remotely resembling a cow, you get FREE FOOD!! Gotta love that! All four of us ate lunch there today for $0.65 (the cost of upgrading the girls' fries to fruit cups)!! Yes folks, that's right...the reward for all of us wearing our "cow crowns" was a $21 discount on our meals! How cool is that!! Unfortunately, Fred had to sneak back to work before I was able to get a picture of all four of us, but here is one of the girls with their "Cow Crowns". Some people there were much more enthusiastic about their costumes, but if you know how I feel about Halloween at all, it shouldn't surprise you that we took the minimalist route. Maggie did get into it a little bit when the Publicity Manager of the store came around (the second time) and asked her to "Moo!" for her video camera...she bribed her by offering her a cow bell for her trouble! (That is what is hanging around her neck!)

Eat Mor Chickn!!

Break out your rulers!

Just to pique your interest...I have made a donation to the Pantene "Beautiful Lengths" campaign! Thanks for the information Trela...they will be happy to get my 11 inches I am sure, but would have accepted at least 8. Thanks also to Janine for referring me to Tonja! It was great fun!

Our Day at the Beach!

The girls and I went out last Saturday (06/28/08) to visit Lesley and Ty in Wilmington and hit the beach! We had a great time at Carolina Beach followed up with the obligatory post beach trip ice cream treat. Thanks to Jamie King for the suggestion of Squiggley's! If you head out this way, you definitely need to "get squiggled!" It is a local version of a "Blizzard" and had (almost)more chocolate (the one Maggie picked) than one person could handle.

There were no sunburns to report (minus one small triangle on my back that got missed and a few finger prints that remained on my front) on the girls! We enjoyed Chick-Fil-A lunch on the beach...mental note, amateurs should eat before arriving at the beach so as not to eat more sand than chicken. We all had a great time playing in the waves and building castles, although I have to admit that I was surprised by how much Morgan enjoyed the destruction of the castles!

Enjoy our shots below complements of me and Lesley.

Check out my Slide Show!

We Earned Our Ears!

Needless to say, my apologies for the long gap in posting. I would like to say that it won't happen again, but...it is hard to make promises like that! We have been very busy traveling lately and I promise to post at least an entry per trip and photos at http://www.voncanon.shutterfly.com/.

Let's start with our trip to Disney World! Chrissy and her girls, Hannah (on L below) and Margaret (on R below) came with us for the week. Gramma and Grampa were there for half our trip, too. A great time was had by all even though the initial reason for the trip was work (conferences) for Fred and Grampa!

Here is one (of almost a million!) shot from our trip to Disney World. Hannah, Morgan, Maggie, and Margaret are all wearing their matching shirts and ears. It was amazing that we could coordinate four independent girls to want to wear the same thing that morning! This picture was from our second (of two) days at the Magic Kingdom. The first was by far our most "efficient" day at the parks! Make sure you are sitting down, here is a sample of what our week was like...

After taking the monorail in from the parking lot, we arrived at the Magic Kingdom for the first time about 5-10 minutes before the afternoon parade was hitting the Central Square and was able to stake out a good spot in the shade at the very end of the parade route. Then saw the “Magic Dreams” Show on Cinderella’s Castle’s stage. Headed on back to Fantasyland (via potty for Morgan!) where we rode: Mad Tea Party (with no wait once for Morgan and I, then 2 more times for Chrissy and the other girls), grabbed a fast pass for Mickey’s Philharmagic Show and then immediately grabbed another round of fast passes for Peter Pan’s ride, rode Small World twice (Margaret wouldn’t ride it the first time), stood in line (snacked on dinner from the cooler) and met Ariel at her grotto, hit the potty again for Morgan, then did the two fast pass rides, then the Carousel (no wait), then rode the Dumbo ride (“5 minute” wait), then Pooh’s Many Adventures ride (“5 minute” wait!), walked through Cinderella’s Castle to see the mosaics, and then the park was “closing” (for the Pirates and Princess Party) at 7pm. I lost my sunglasses somewhere near the end of the madness, but other than that it was smooth sailing. We all piled into the ferry for a relaxing ride back to the parking lot. On the way back to the hotel we stopped for gas and milkshakes (and the potty again!), but no gum (we were still on Disney property where no gum is sold), we stopped by the Hilton to pickup Gramma's phone (which had gotten left in their taxi), then finally back to the Grande Lakes Marriott with worn out little (and big) girls for a late bedtime.

This is a picture of the view from our rooms! All the trees in the bottom left are hiding part of the "Lazy River" pool! This Marriott was a vacation in itself...

Whew! That was 9 rides, a character meeting, 2 shows, a parade and 3 documented potty breaks! I am exhausted from reliving that! Keep in mind that this was just Wednesday afternoon and evening...there were five other days!!! All told, in the six days we hit all four parks and Downtown Disney, focused on seeing the many Broadwayesque shows, trading pins, hitting the "kid spots" and meeting characters (32 of them)! It was so much fun! Although I am not quite ready to commit to going every year (as Fred had suggested) it is definitely something that we are all looking forward to doing again! What a magical place...

Father's Day Weekend

These are going to be a little out of order, but I do want to be able to share some of the latest fun we have been having! I have a bunch of videos, and want to get you all caught up!

What better way to spend Father's Day weekend than at a Church Softball Tournament?! There aren't any pictures of all the Dads actually playing, I am usually busy with the score book or keeping track of kids! For just our team there was a total of 20 children! It wasn't the best tournament for the team if you are counting wins/losses, but we all had a ton of fun ~ Rain Delay included! By the end of the rain delay, Morgan and her friend Skylar were stripping out of their wet clothes...the pictures stopped before the girls did!!

One year ago...

It is hard to believe it, but a whole year has gone by since these shots...where does the time go?

Take 2 of these, and call me in the morning!

This is a clip from last week when we ate at Texas Steakhouse. Maggie went first and "rode" like a pro, but this just tickled me to no end! Laughter is the best medicine, right? So, here is your dose for whatever ails ya'!

By the way, this is my favorite part of the blog...I can now share video clips without stuffing inboxes! Enjoy!

Good Night!

Today was a "Banner Day!"

So I thought that I would start a blog to acknowledge the special occassion.

Morgan did both pees and poopies on the potty today! Two separate trips, but all today...and all initiated by her! "Mommy, I need to go potty." Followed immediately of course by me dropping everything and following her quickly to the bathroom. She is not exclusively using the potty (she is still wearing diapers), but I am now willing to put money on the fact that she will be potty trained out of size 3 diapers! No pressure of course from me, but "Hooray!!"

By the way, the above meets my criteria for potty training: I am not the one who is trained...she is ~ she told me when she needed to go, was able to get herself there, get on and off the potty on her own, (including pulling down her own pants and taking off her own diaper ~ sorry folks, no video of that, but priceless nonetheless!) flushed, and washed her hands (her favorite part!). Maggie of course was the proud big sister and was thrilled to bring her 3 M&Ms today as her reward for a job well done (without ever asking for one for herself)!

Anyway, that's all the news thats fit to print! ...and maybe more!

Good Night!