Disney and the birthday

Over Miss C's birthday, we took a trip to the most magical place on earth....no, not Napa....Disney! We kind of had some concerns going this year because Little J is only 3 1/2 and we didn't know how well the both of them would do going all day long for 6 long days. We actually had planned on coming back to the room mid-day each day so they could "rest". Well, you know what happens to the best laid plans don't you? Despite going everyday, all day long, they did great! J and I were very surprised and in all, we had a fun vacation! I think it's definitely something we will do again this year (but I think we might add the cruise in too).

Here we are on the way!

The first afternoon we were there, we checked out Downtown Disney and then finished the day off by having dinner with Mickey and his friends. What a treat that was! It was a great way to start the week. The kids got so excited every time one of the characters came out to greet the tables. Definitely a big hit!

On our first afternoon out...

Meeting Minnie Mouse

The next day we ventured over to the Magic Kingdom. Disney tip #1: Don't go to the Magic Kingdom on a Monday. I guess that is the first place everyone wants to go when they arrive over the weekend. It was crowded (but actually not too bad) but the kids had a blast.

We spent the day riding all the rides, watching parades, and having a good time.

One of their favorite parts of the parade at Magic Kingdom.....Malificent!

That night, we were able to catch the electrical parade. I kind of remember the parade from when I was a kid. It was my favorite part of the whole day. The parade didn't start until 7ish (which is their bed time) but we had made the decision to stay for that and the fireworks after and pray the kids would be in decent moods the next day. It was the first time the kids had actually seen a fireworks show, and they loved it. At the start of the fire works, Tinkerbell came out of the castle and zip lined across the sky. The kids were in heaven. Leaving the park that night was not too fun, but it was well worth it!

The following day the boys played golf in the morning and we hung around the hotel slowly taking our time and recovering from the late night. We also bought the kids these autograph books that you take with you everyday and get signatures of all the characters. In my opinion, it's kind of lame, but the kids loved it. Every time we spotted one of the characters, we had to stop to get their autograph.

After the boys finished up, we headed to Epcot. We decided to only spend a 1/2 day there, but in hindsight, I wish we would have made it a full day. There aren't a lot of rides for the little ones, but they have fun things to see and do in each of the "countries" represented there. We didn't even make it through half of them before dinner and ended up missing a big chunk of the park. The highlight of the day was dinner with the princesses that evening. Miss C was in heaven. She's all about Sleeping Beauty right now, and it was fun for her to be able to meet her in person :)

Wednesday we hit the Animal Kingdom. That was another fun day filled with a safari ride, a jam session with African drummers, and dino land (by far one of their favorites).

Thursday was the big birthday and started off with opening a few presents at the hotel.

After breakfast, we headed back to the Magic Kindgom.

We rode a bunch of rides (Tomorrow land was one of their favorites) and had lunch at Cinderella's castle with all of the princesses. What a treat!

After lunch, we headed to one of the dress boutiques and let Miss C pick out an outfit. Doesn't she look like a princess?!

And one of Little J

Friday we headed to Hollywood Studios. Miss C insisted on wearing her Sleeping Beauty dress for the second day in a row. Who were we to stand in her way?

By far, they had the best ride there....the Toy Story ride. If you ever go, you must get on that ride! Little J also got a chance to meet Lightning McQueen. I will have to say, couldn't Disney step it up a little and make him more interactive? He didn't do anything...

Finally Saturday we did a 1/2 day at the Magic Kingdom to re-ride all of our favorites and then headed home that afternoon.

It was a great vacation!

Five

Happy 5th birthday Miss C! I can't believe you are five years old already. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital. You have brought us such joy over the past five years, beyond our wildest dreams. We have enjoyed watching you grow and become such a beautiful little girl. Over the past five years, we have learned that you are cautious and kind and show such concern for others and their well-being. You are cleaver and are always trying to outwit us and your brother. You love drawing, doodling and painting and will write on any piece of paper you find. Your favorite colors are pink and purple, but you are not overly girly. You have a little bit of a bossy streak, and I'm not sure where you get that from :). You are curious and ask a lot of questions. You have an acute attention to detail and can easily recognize when something is different or out of place. You are persistent, bordering on stubborn. You are sassy, and I love that about you. You have an infectious smile that just lights up the room. You are creative and love to learn and want to try new things. You are sensitive and can easily get your feelings hurt but are the first to recognize when someone else is hurting and offer sympathy. You are timid and prefer to be in smaller environments. But every once in awhile, you show such courage you truly make us proud. We marvel over how much you have grown over the past five years and what a lovely young lady you are becoming. You are beautiful. You are loved.

Happy 5th birthday!

Finishing up Halloween....

In the spirit of catching up, here are a few more from the fall that never got blogged. First up, Little J's class trip to the pumpkin farm. This is the third year I've gone with one of their preschool classes and we always have a good time. It was nice to be able to go this year with just him (usually I have both kids in tow).

Sitting with his class....notice how he's properly trained to look at me at all times when I have a camera in my hand!

Picking out the perfect pumpkin

A day or two later, I let them decorate the pumpkins with paint and glitter. That was at least a good hour of fun! Little J concentrating:

Miss C making her perfect pumpkin:

Little J had to make sure the whole thing was painted--even with me begging him to leave the bottom alone (because now blue paint is all over the table). Look at the kid, he had a hard time holding it up

The finished products

Finally a family trip to the pumpkin patch

A day later, pumpkin carving! These are all going to be in black and white because it was pitch dark and the color is awful. Never mind, they are super grainy from pushing the camera to it's limits!

While I've been waiting for over 2 hours to load all these photos (in addition to not being able to figure out how to make this blue font black), I finally took the plunge and set up a new blog.....hopefully I can get it customized in the next few days and start posting without frustration!

Almost 5

Getting ready for this little one to turn 5. Took her out yesterday to get a few of those 5 year old portraits. I just love her to pieces. More to come next week....

10 on Tuesday

Man, it's been a long time since I posted a 10 on Tuesday.....and actually on a Tuesday for that matter!

1. I'm glad it's halloween time because the cob webs that I haven't cleaned I can now pass off as decorations. That buys me another two weeks before it's just a dirty house with cobwebs :)

2. Miss C has been a little sassy lately. I'm not sure what's up, but she's got quite the attitude. Today she was telling me that all her toys are sooooooo boring. Somebody call social services. The poor kid doesn't have any good toys. So I tell her that we can just go ahead and throw them all away so that I can finally have a clean house. To which she replies, "OK mom. If you want a clean house and throw all my toys away, then i want YOU to throw away your picture frames." HA! The girl knows me so well. Went right for something she knows is important to me!

3. Speaking of picture frames, I'm working on getting a new shot of the two of them together. I don't have very many because it's such torture to get them to sit still, look nice, and take a half way decent photo. Usually they sense my frustration and end up acting like monkeys.

4. We went to visit my nephew for his first birthday last month. I can't believe he is a year old already! This is the only photo we got of the three of them together.

5. Little J is playing soccer for the fall. He's having a ball! It's the first time that he's played a sport without the parents having to participate. The first time Miss C did this, she was so upset. Little J, barely waved goodbye as he ran onto the field for the first practice. He is actually behaving and listening to the coach. Miracle!

6. We had a family trip to the beach last month too. Kind of a last minute end of summer get away. It was great and the kids had a good time. Miss C has become so confident in the water. Little J was a little afraid to go into the water at first and preferred to hang out in the sand, but by the second day, he was having a great time.

Did I mention Miss C was acting a little sassy lately?

7. The kids love to watch J leave for work in the morning. Unfortunately it's a little chilly in the morning this time of year to head out in this attire

8. Today I was asking Miss C what she wanted for her birthday this year since it's right around the corner. She was telling me she wanted Strawberry Shortcake and something called a pillow pet. I have no idea what this pillow pet thing is. At first I thought maybe she was just saying those things because her friend, A, told us that is what she wanted for her birthday (A's birthday is two weeks before Miss C's). But she was able to tell me that a pillow pet is where you put your pajamas in. Huh. Doesn't sound too fun, so maybe I'm missing something. I guess I better read up on the hot new toys this year. Little J told that for his birthday he wanted Halloween candy. Sounds easy enough :)

9. The kids are already getting excited for Christmas this year. I actually can't wait for it this time around. I think they are finally old enough to really enjoy it. They have been so excited for Halloween and all the decorations around the house. I can only imagine that Christmas is going to be even better. Their excitement really makes me want to get into the holiday spirit.

10. Can't believe I made it to 10! The kids are doing well in school. On Monday we met Little J's class and went to the pumpkin patch. I attended a back to school night a week ago and the teachers said he is an absolute joy in class. One teacher even described him as "suave". I'm not really sure what that means, but I'm glad he is behaving. Sucks that I probably get the brunt of the bad attitude when he's at home. I wish he behaved as well at home as he apparently does at school. He talks about his little friends a lot and overall seems to be having a great experience. I'm so thankful for that!

I have a looth tooth

I took the kiddos to the dentist last month for their bi annual visit. Miss C did great last time, so I wasn't so nervous about taking her. Little J, well, that was a different story. So I wasn't necessarily looking forward to having to take him again. In the days leading up to the visit, he seemed to be ok....even looking forward to going. We role play dentist a lot in this house and we read lots of books about it, so a visit to the real dentist shouldn't be a big deal. He ended up doing great. It was like a totally different kid this time. They even thought he would be ok with the x-rays, but decided to wait another 6 months before they were necessary. Here is my big boy telling them how it was all going to go down before the appointment started (yes, literally. He made sure to tell them exactly what was going to happen that visit)

And then getting his teeth cleaned. He tried to lick the dental floss when they flossed his teeth...I guess he likes the taste of it.

Then it was Miss C's turn. She had been looking forward to this visit for months. She had a very important question she wanted to ask the dentist....did she have a loose tooth? A lot of her friends are starting to have wiggly teeth and she has been dying to have a loose tooth of her own. We talk about the tooth fairy constantly around this house. Yesterday she told me she hopes the tooth fairy will leave her a $1. As I was getting ready to say, "I'm sure she will," she changed her mind and requested $20. What?! How about your lucky to get a $1 and we'll leave it at that. I'm pretty sure I got a quarter when I lost my teeth so a $1 is more than enough.

The cleaning went well, as expected.

After the cleaning, she was waiting for the dentist to come count her teeth and give the final word on whether or not they have any sugar bugs. She could have cared less about how many teeth she had or if she had any sugar bugs. All she wanted to know is if she had a loose tooth. Can you see her excitement?!

Well, the dentist has confirmed she has two slightly loose teeth. And I do mean slightly. It's the bottom left and top left. They barely move when you try to wiggle them, but they do move (and I was certainly skeptical leaving the appointment). And that is all that mattered to her. If you could have seen the smile on her face! She was so proud and couldn't stop talking about it (and still hasn't stopped talking about it 3 weeks later).

The dentist said it would probably be awhile before they actually fell out (may be up to 4-6 months). Two days ago she asked me to wiggle her teeth again. Lo and behold, the bottom left one is noticeably wigglier. I almost can't believe it. I mean, it's really wiggly. I can't believe in just a few short weeks it's really gotten loose. Granted it still may be another couple of months before she looses it, but it's confirmed that we definitely have a loose tooth. If you happen to walk by her on the street, she'll probably tell you about it. She's that excited :)

Me, not so much. I'm kind of sad that she's growing up so fast. I've really noticed in the last 6-8 months how much of a little girl she is becoming. And now she's about to lose her baby teeth. Last night I told her to stop growing up. She looked at me and told me, "I can't." I know it's inevitable, but why does it have to happen now?!