Well Rested....

Looking back through our Disney pictures it became obvious that Cate's ability to sleep through anything and everything could be a learned behavior taught to her by none other than her big brother Carter. Even on our busy Florida trip, Carter never missed a nap!

He slept through The Lion King musical at Animal Kingdom.....

dinner at Rainforest Cafe......

on the 'its a smallworld' ride

through one of the parades at Magic Kingdom.....

on a random street at Hollywood Studios. Someone actually ran up to him to make sure he was ok :).........

back at Magic Kingdom....

Naps not noted: two planes rides, each and every bus ride the entire week, electrical parade...the list goes on and on

Snow!

Mother Nature dumped almost 12 inches of snow on us last week. Our city shuts down with just a few inches, so it was no surprise that school was cancelled Thursday and Friday. (And still today...5 days after the snowfall...the school sidewalks have not been cleared. Don't even get me started.....). Around here, Cate and Murphy are the only two that enjoy playing in the snow. The boys turned down several invitations to go sledding..just not their thing.... we're ready for spring!

Disney...Day 6 {final day}

Monday was our final day in Florida. Boo hoo. And it was a wet one. Carter's 8:30am game started on time, but was called right after half-time because of lightening. Then the rain started. Hard, cold rain....with no end in sight. Our flight was at 3 and the bus for the airport was leaving our hotel at 12, so we knew we probably weren't going to be able to stay for anymore games if they decided to resume play. We headed back to the hotel in the midst of a downpour. Three ponchos...three boys....one Kate Spade leather purse...sorry Bennett :) Once back to the hotel, we received word that the tournament would try and restart after 1pm if it stopped raining. No way we could do that, so off to the airport we went. Our bus driver to the airport was so dorky but Brady just loved him! He belly-laughed at all of his awful jokes. It was so funny.

Bunch of wet dogs trying to catch a bus. Love that Carter is still wearing his pink soccer shoes, yellow poncho, and pulling Cate's minnie mouse luggage. HAHA!

Cate in fresh clothes...waiting for our Magical Express bus.

The gang enjoying our last meal together...Chili's at the airport. YUM-O

A lady sitting next to us just happened to be a balloon lady! She whipped out her tools and created the coolest balloon characters I've ever seen. Cate loved her mermaid!

Scott apparently has a thing for laying on the floor at airports. I think he was just exhausted from having to drag six of us through security. Carter, of course, was randomly picked to be isolated in a glass box and searched...Scott had to go in with him. I was just waiting for him to break out his impressions of a mime in a box. I think at this point Fun Scott had left the building!

Everyone made it onto the plane in plenty of time and I'm happy to report everyone slept the entire flight. Well, except for Brady, but he was sitting with Fran and Bau Bau so his non-stop talking didn't wake me :) Tomorrow I'll post my final disney post (final..promise!).

Disney...Day 5

At this point, I had completely lost all track of days and time! On Sunday, Carter had an early soccer game and because they won, they didn't play again until Monday morning. We loved Magic Kingdom so much on Thursday, that we decided to skip Epcot and head back there Sunday afternoon. And it was crowded. Nowhere near as crowded as what it is during "peak season", but so much more so than Thursday. Thankfully, the weather was perfect...my kids would never have survived had it been really cold or super hot. Rides lines averaged about 45 minutes. Eh. We did get to see another parade, fireworks, and ride the rides we missed on Thurs. And Cate finally got to meet the princesses!Bennett took over camera duties during the fireworks

Every night when we got back to the hotel, Carter and Brady headed to the arcade and Bennett stayed back to watch tv and chill. On our last night, we had to pack all of our crap (no small feat)...Bennett managed to fall asleep on a bed full of souvenirs and suitcases.

Disney...Day 4

On Saturday, Carter had three soccer games...you know, the whole reason we went to Disney :) His games were at 9, 10, & 12 at the Wide World of Sports Complex. That place is amazing. And crazy busy. Along with over 500 3v3 soccer teams, they were also hosting the NCAA national championship cheerleading finals (Carter was thrilled!) and a baseball tournament at their stadium. The weather was fantastic and Scott finally got to wear shorts and a short-sleeved shirt...something he's been longing for since September!

View of the endless soccer fields

Carter's team won their first two games 12-3 & 9-1, and lost their 3rd game. They then won their Sunday morning game against Chivas (who were REALLY good) which put them into the quarterfinals on Sunday). In order to play in the Disney tournament, they had to qualify in the top group of teams at a tournament in Arkansas last summer.

Zach, Nick, Carter, Ian, and Austin....Flying Dutchemen

When Cate walked into the baseball stadium, she yelled "Daddy, this is your favorite show"!!!!!!!!! In this picture, she's showing me how much she loves sunshine!

After the games, we headed back to the hotel and let the kids (and Scott) swim. The air was cool, but the pools were heated. I couldn't believe how many people were swimming late at night when the temps were in the 30's.

Saturday night, we made our way to Downtown Disney. We had dinner at T-REX which is from the same company as Rainforest Cafe. It was really cool and the food was awesome

Cate sporting her new Minnie Mouse shoes and shirt :)

Octopus hanging from the ceiling.


Bennett was finally feeling much much better. Just in time for Brady to get sick

Disney...Day 3

By day 3, I couldn't believe we had already been to two parks. What a whirlwind! On Friday, we spent the day at Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). This was Carter's favorite park. He loved Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Rollercoaster. Thankfully, it wasn't too crowded and he could ride them each several times.

Carter really surprised me on this trip. I thought he would be bored and complain about the parks, but he enjoyed everything...even the characters!

Hollywood Studios is where Cate got a little tyrant-like about having her pictures taken alone. When it was our turn with Donald and Daisy, she shoved Carter and Ben out of the way so she could be in the middle.
We didn't really attempt group pictures after that!

She kept saying she and Piglet had the same outfit on!

Beauty and the Beast was a great show (and we had front row!). Disney does everything up right! Cate love love loved it! Brady was enthralled with the dancers ability to change costumes so fast!

A lot of the rides/shows were pretty intense..something I didn't think about before going. Cate wasn't scared of anything..made things so much easier!
Indiana Jones

Toy Story ride.

Bennett and I started pin-trading. I bought six different pins and wore them on a lanyard all week. Every Disney employee ("cast member") had on belt packs with different pins and you could trade with them. It was a lot of fun! (and addicting!)

There's something about Disneyworld that makes you want to open your wallet and buy everything in every store! I resisted the charm of this hat...barely.

Day 3 was another great success! Bennett was feeling better and the weather was awesome!!