Disney...Day 2

This is a picture of the snack drawer in our hotel room. We filled one duffel bag with food from home...it was a great idea (thankyouverymuch)...the kids had plenty of food to hold them over between meals. Scott and I each carried a backpack through the parks filled with their favorite snacks...saved us a lot of money On Thursday, we went to Magic Kingdom. Bennett woke up feeling terrible and declared he did not want to leave the hotel room. I may have answered with something like "Disneyworld is the happiest place on earth and dammit we're going to act like it". Poor Ben. But seriously, Disney is hard enough to walk through feeling great...it wasn't nearly as fun for him considering he was sick, hates rides, and hates to walk. In fact, he told me if we ever go back, he's staying home with MauMau! Thankfully he started to feel better the next day.

I'll be honest, I was not a Disney enthusiast before our trip. It seemed like the worst vacation imaginable...tons of people, long lines, outrageous prices, and a schedule of daily events leaving absolutely no down time. But the minute I walked into Magic Kingdom, I was sold. Bigtime. This place is incredible. So clean and happy. Every "cast member" was super-friendly and helpful. The kids loved it too!

As soon as we arrived, the first parade started.

Ariel is Cate's favorite Disney princess. She was excited to hold her hand!

Carter and Brady loved all of the rollercoasters (especially Space Mountain)..they rode them over and over again. Few lines on Thursday! This picture was taken at Big Thunder Mountain. Bennett and I rode it together. He does not like rollercoasters but he rode it twice.

Parade #2. All of the characters walked over for Cate to give high-5's!

Every princess needs a light-up magic wand!

Carter and Aunt Fran waiting for the Electrical Parade

Scott and I did not love being at the parks at night. It was so dark and it made it hard to keep an eye on all of the kids. We had one scare (that I have probably forgotten to tell my mom about). During the night parade, Ben was sleeping in Cate's stroller....when it was over, we tried to wake him to load Cate up and head back to the hotel. Scott tried to get him up, but he wouldn't respond. We thought he was fake sleeping and Scott grabbed him by the front of his coat and lifted him out of the seat. Ben fell right back in, never waking up. Scott was about one second from calling for paramedics when Ben started to stir. Scared me to death! Scared Carter too..he is still talking about it!

At the end of Day 2, we decided 8 hours wasn't enough time for Magic Kingdom, so we decided to skip Epcot on Sunday and head back to MK.

Disney...Day 1

What's almost as overwhelming as Disneyworld itself? Sorting through over 500 vacation pictures.

So Team Smallie survived Disneyworld. Or better yet, Disneyworld survived Team Smallie. It was a fantastic six days...hopefully memories our kids will cherish forever. Our trip started with a 6:40 AM flight on Wednesday. Meaning, we needed to be at the airport by 5:30. And people, we were. That's right, we were on time. Miracles do happen. The flight was super-smooth and the kids were perfect. Don't know why I was so worried about it. Once we arrived in Orlando, we took the Magical Express bus to our hotel, checked in, and headed for Animal Kingdom.

Scott and I were ready for some Florida sun!

Catie Bug walking through the airport with her Minnie Mouse luggage MauMau bought her. So cute!

My little fish was so excited to see the pool that she jumped in and soaked herself. Quick change of clothes solved that problem :)

Ready for some fun! It was a bit chilly but the sun was out and the park was nearly empty (by Disney standards) Very few lines..it was perfect!

Our first character meeting...Chip 'n Dale.


Cate took great naps everyday. Even sleeping through front row at The Lion King musical...definitely a champion sleeper!

Getting a kiss from Minnie. Meeting the characters was her favorite part of the trip. I'm so glad she wasn't scared or shy. Although she was often mean to her brothers...hogging the spotlight and dictating where everyone stood during the pictures (and sometimes pushing them out of the way so she could "do this by myself")

Waiting for a parade. The parades were my favorite part of the parks.

All of the characters were so friendly

The safari at Animal Kingdom was a great ride.

Cate rode this at least six times.

Bennett and Carter were exhausted by the time we sat down to eat at Rainforest Cafe! Poor Ben was sick the first two days of the trip, but he was a real trooper.

Day 1 was a great success!!!

Bad Parenting

During our final hours at Disney, I had what some may consider a bad parenting moment. We were caught in a storm at the Wide World of Sports and decided to head back to our hotel to beat the crowd and make sure we made the airport bus in time. The tournament wasn't officially cancelled yet, but we knew the rain delay would push his final games back to our flight time, so we (and two others) threw in the white towel. Anyway, the walk from the complex to our bus was far. And did I mention it was raining? Hard? The dilemma...I only had three rain-ponchos. Six people, three ponchos. "This was a See-wee-us pwoblem" My solution....one for Carter, one for Brady, and one for....wait for it...wait for it....my Kate Spade bag! Sorry Ben, but like I told him...he would dry and leather stains! Don't judge :)

I have no idea why Scott is still smiling at this point! Carter was obviously mad about having to leave and possibly miss out on his final games.

Turns out our luggage was already at the airport. Luckily, Scott and I had packed a change of clothes for the kids in our backpacks. As for the tournament, they decided to resume play after 1:00 and let shoot-outs decide the winners. But in the end, tornado warnings caused Disney to close the complex and they based the standings on points. Carter's team ended up in 6th place in the top division!

A Magical Trip.....

Disney was amazing. Really really amazing. I will tell all about it soon...(like after 90 loads of laundry and hopefully 8 hours of sleep!)

The Alarmist

Ms. Cate has started something that is not-so-great. She can often be heard screaming from the other room "HEEELLLLPPP" (although it sounds more like "hoowwwpp"). This usually forces us into a quick game of "rock paper scissors" to see who has to rescue her. We are laid back about it because it's always the same "emuhgency"....."my tv show is over" or "I can't find my pwincess book". My favorite is when she stomps into a room and declares "we have a see-wee-us pwoblem"...again, usually describing another tv issue or when Bennett has done something to tick her off. She has become very animated...always talking with her hands and I find it hilarious. Especially when she closes her eyes, raises her brows, and shakes her head. Cate is becoming quite the diva :)

She loves the snow...she was so excited when she looked out the window this morning!

This morning we went to the drop-in preschool class at ECC. They also opened a Thursday class, so we'll be going every week from now on. Cate absolutely loves it. In the picture above, she is calling MauMau to tell her about coyotes running in the fields by her house! And in the picture below, she is intently listening to Mr. Mark read a story

Diva? Yes. Style? No. When I got out of the shower, she was wearing four pairs of pjs and one dora and one minnie mouse sock.

Park

Last Monday, we made our first trip to the park. First trip on January 3. Ha! Anyway, it was a teachers institute day, so Scott had to go back to work, but the kids were given one extra vacation day. Ben and Carter chose to stay home, but me, Cate and Brady longed for some time in the sun, so we bundled up and headed to the park.

This may be my favorite picture of these two together. They're such a great brother-sister duo!

Toothless Brady. That other front tooth is just barely hanging on...soon he'll look really funny

Note to self: Do not dress Cate in white pants to go to the park. She always finds the dirt and rocks.

The Progression of the Ponytail

March 2009

Thursday night

These Are The Days Of Our Lives....

I finally got around to buying and filling out our 2011 calendar. It took me 92 minutes to fill in birthdays, school stuff, soccer, and other misc. crap. I avoided adding Scott's highschool baseball schedule...I was out of tissues and I'm sure it will make me cry...along with all three boys spring soccer schedules and Ben and Brady's baseball. We have lots of weekend sports trips scheduled too...Nashville for me in April (1/2 marathon w/Jen & Ness {girls, once it's noted on the blog, it's official, no going back!!}), Chicago for soccer, Memphis & Kentucky for baseball...should be another super-busy year. I chose a bright pink calendar this year to liven things up. It hangs prominently on the front of our fridge and everyone knows I am the only one who can write on it. Sharpie markers only. And the day CAN NOT be crossed off til after midnight...it's bad luck. The yearly fridge calendar is one of the most important things in our house and in case of fire, it's the third thing I grab on my way out the door (of course my external hard drive and photo albums are #1 & 2...sorry kids). Four more days til we leave for Disney!!! Let the list-making and packing begin :)

Dancing Queen

Brady: "What kind of dancer are you, Cate?"

Carter: "Uh, I don't think we want her to answer that"

Poor Bwady

"Poor Bwady, he so sad"-Cate. Today, Bennett was invited to go to dinner and Dave'nBusters with his friend, Bub. This made lil Brady very sad :( He's at a rough age where most of his friends are Bennett's friends, but they're more Bennett's friends than his. Does this make sense? When they're over here, they all play great together and Brady can definitely keep up, but when Ben is invited to their house, Brady feels left out. This always makes me feel terrible. Yes, I know Bennett deserves and needs to be with his friends by himself, but I also feel like we've created this problem. See, Brady plays 2-3 age groups up on his soccer and baseball teams, so he's actually on teams with kids in Bennett's class. And because he is one of the oldest in his kindergarten class and so used to being around older kids, he doesn't really relate to many of the boys in his class (the girls are a completely different story). Therefore, he doesn't have any friends his age that he hangs out with outside of school. I have no idea how to remedy this situation other than to tell him that his time will come when he gets to have his own sleepovers with his own friends and Bennett won't be invited. So, when Bennett is invited somewhere without Brady, we usually end up taking him wherever he chooses to go...today was ice skating. Ahhh, it's rough being the little brother! Brady eating a dilly bar that Grammy bribed him with after taking Bennett to the movies! It worked :) All suited up for a big roller hockey game against himself downstairs