Magic Kingdom

We spent our first full day at the Magic Kingdom.  We headed there with James, Regent and their two girls Naomi and Lily.

Here's a cute shot of Olivia and Naomi as we were waiting for the shuttle.

Here's some shots of our magical day in the magic kingdom.

  The happiest place on earth, right?

Even though he didn't sleep as much as I would have liked, he was a trooper most of the day.  Such a good baby!

Noah at the Indy Speedway

Olivia met several princesses, and was in heaven!

Olivia and I happened to be walking by during one of the shows in front of the castle.  We stopped to watch, and saw lot of princesses, Mickey, Minnie, Peter Pan, and lots more.  Olivia was very worried anytime a villain made an appearance.

We hit all the must rides on everyone's list: space mountain, big thunder mountain, it's a small world, the carousel, winnie the pooh, dumbo, jungle cruise, tom sawyer island, mikey's philarmagic, buzz lighter's space ranger spin, monster's inc laugh floor, to name a few.

My one piece of advice for people is to learn about the fast-pass system and rider swap.  We hit all these rides, several multiple times, and I think the longest wait was ~20 minutes.  For the big attractions, we only waited like 5-10 minutes because we only went with fastpasses.  The boys were able to go on the Buzz ride four times, and never waited in a line.  We are also really strong advocates of getting to the park on time.  The boys (Sam, Harrison, Noah) rode 5 different rides between 9 and 10 am.

One thing we did do while at the magic kingdom was get silhouettes of the kids done.  This was one thing I remember getting done when I was kid at Disneyland (I need to find mine next time I'm at my parents house).  It's pretty amazing how they do it - they just cut the silhouette right from paper while you sit there.   And you get 2 copies mounted for $8, which I think is a steal.  And while we were having them done, the kids enjoyed watching the glass blower in the shop next door.

 The Magic Kingdom was amazing, but a bit overwhelming.  I think if we ever go again, we will try and spend more than just one day here, and take it a little more slowly. But since we were only there for four days, we did a park a day.  We had a great time, but we pushed through all day, and by the end of it all we were even more exhausted.  Here's a video of Olivia in the evening.  As you can see, she was having a ball.  And, yes, I did spend $15 on a Tinkerbell balloon, but I don't regret it at all.  It was the only thing she asked for all day, and it surprised us by lighting up when it got dark.  It became a great toy all week as it floated around the villa, and we took it home (sans helium, folded up in our suitcase).  It now hangs on Olivia's wall in her room.
 Levi lost it there at the end, and so we left just as the fireworks were going off.  Harrison was disappointed  but we could kind of see them as we waited for the bus.  Someday I'd like to see what Disney is like without an infant...


 Levi didn't sleep much during the day, so I was hoping he'd crash that night.  No such luck.  We had another sleepless night, and then headed to a much calmer day at Hollywood Studios.

Disney World

We had an amazing opportunity this fall to join with all of Sam's family at Walt Disney World.  The accommodations were given to GG (Grandma Grettle) by a friend, our flight was taken care of with frequent flyer miles, (thanks to Sam's travels and scoring some huge bonus points on our Delta Gold American Express accounts) and tickets to the parks were provided by GG and Grandpa.  What an amazing trip it was.

First of all, staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge was amazing.  We stayed in a Villa (there were 2 villas for the entire family, and we had just the right amount of space.)  They were HUGE.  3 master suites - each with it's own full bath + an extra full bath.  It was 2 stories, with a large living area down stairs, including a kitchen with a large table and bar area.  Upstairs also had a good sized living space, with a pull out couch.  Our kids slept here, so Sam and I were able to have a room to ourselves.  Levi slept (well, he didn't really do too much of that, but more on that later...) in a pack'n'play in the bathroom (Yes, the bathroom was that big) which was really nice that he had his own space.

Here's Olivia hangin' in the Villa.  

 It was also so nice to stay on site - there were shuttle buses to take us to all the parks and Downtown Disney  as well as a airport shuttle to take us to and from the airport.

Our flight out was great - no delays.  We had a really tight layover - 50 minutes I believe, and we ended up having to de-ice in Pasco, so I was pretty worried that we would get stranded in Salt Lake for extra time, but by some miracle our connecting gate was adjacent to where we came in, and we had no problems making the flight.

Levi on the airplane.  He didn't sleep much, but he didn't cry too much either.

 At the airport we got right on the "Magical Express" which took us to our resort. When we arrived we could see giraffes, zebras and big horned ankole cattle out on the savannah outside our room.

Having been up since 4 AM that morning, we were all pretty exhausted, but decided to try and check out Downtown Disney.

That night the kids did a good job of going to sleep, but Levi could not settle down.  He's usually an excellent sleeper, so we were not prepared for this.  We would rock him to sleep, put him down, and then just when we'd drift off to sleep, he'd wake up screaming again.  This went on until 4 AM.  We were planning on getting to the Magic Kingdom the next day when it opened at 9 AM, but needless to say  that didn't quite happen.  We had a quick family picture in the morning with everyone that was there that day - we were only missing John, JaNae and Charlie as they had to leave Sunday.  But here's most of us:

I'm going to do a post on each park we visited, but for now, I'll leave you with this.  This is a book I put together to thank Grandpa and GG for the wonderful trip.  We really did have a spectacular time, and made wonderful memories.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

Lego Birthday Bash

Harrison and Noah had yet to ever have a friend birthday party - so I decided we'd do something this year.  For 3 years in a row we moved right before their birthdays, and then last year, I was pregnant and exhausted, and so it didn't happen.  Since their birthdays are so close together (8 days apart) and they share so many common interests and friends, and combined birthday seemed like the perfect solution. Noah's birthday landed on Saturday this year, so the party was on his birthday.  We would be leaving for Disney World the day after Harrison's birthday, so it was nice to get the celebrations done a week before. The theme for the party was easy - LEGOs.  They have both been obsessed for several years, and it made decorations easy - as we already own so many.

Diagon Alley, Quidditch, the haunted forrest and Toy Story were on the room separator.  

Ninjago on one shelf.

Star wars and City took over the mantel.  

We just tied strings to normal balloons, and pinned them to the ceiling for a floating balloon effect.  I've heard that helium is going to run out in our lifetime, so this may become a much more common alternative!

I made each of the boys a mini-figure shirt to wear to the party, but Noah opted for his Ninjago shirt he got for his birthday that morning.

I will admit to pinning lots of ideas on pinterest in the months and weeks leading up to their birthday.  One of my favorite ideas that I used was a lego pinata.  My favorite part about the whole thing was that it was a trap door pinata, so no stick or blindfold needed.

 Each boy took a turn pulling a string, but only one "magic" string released the candy inside: 

We also did  a "guess how many" lego jar. I was kind of surprised how little the boys inspected the the jar before guessing.  They we almost all way off, only one guess was anywhere close.  But still fun.

This, along with a "Design your own Mini-figure" were the activities we had going when they arrived.  I was surprised they actually enjoyed the coloring, at least for a little while.  I panicked for a moment realizing that some of these boys were 9, and were maybe above "coloring," but I guess the mini-figure idea was enough to keep it interesting.

We did a lego toss:

And create your own minifig.  We had bowls of heads, bodies, legs, and accessories, and they each came up with a creation:

Even Sam got in on the action:

I've decided the ideal birthday cake for kids is cupcakes.  I really hate having half a cake leftover, and extra cupcakes can easily be sent home with guests as a favor if they want.  They also seem to be easier to decorate.  For this I just molded some candy melts in lego shapes with some ice cube trays I got on amazon.  Simple.

Here's all the boys enjoying cake, ice cream and pizza, the birthday party staples!

And we ended the party with some Lego games, and Ninjago battles, of course.

For favors we did lego shaped candy, coloring books with lego crayons, and a birthday mini-figure.

which all fit nicely into their lego bag: 

Maybe I went a little overboard, but I think birthdays are a fun way for moms to release some creative energy, while celebrating their children at the same time.  I do like to follow a few guidelines to keep it under control - short and small.  Note we didn't have 30 boys running around our house.  We kept the invite list to 8 boys, and the party was  1 1/2 hours.  The boys had a great time, and so did their friends.  Maybe I wont wait another 9 years before throw them another one!

First Dance Class

Olivia had her first dance class on Monday.  She's quite the little dancer around the house, and she's been asking to take a dance class.  It took me a while to find the class I wanted her to take - these were my criteria: low key, low commitment, during the morning and something that wouldn't break the bank.  The limiting qualification was that it was in the morning - most dance classes, even for preschoolers, are held the the evenings or on Saturday, which was a no-go for me.  We did find an "academy of ballet" that had classes in the morning, but it seemed a little to formal for what we were looking for (and pricey to boot!)  Finally we found a class held in someone's home, that seems to be just the right fit for us.  She loves her dance clothes, and so I have to keep them put away, or she'd be wearing them every possible moment.  She posed for a few pictures right before her first day:

One funny story: I had purchased the ballet skirt, tights and a black leotard at a yard sale over a year ago (along with some tap shoes which are still too big.)  But she needed a pink leotard and some ballet slippers for her class.  I was running some errands at target, and noticed they had a ballet section in the girls department, where I picked up an extra pair of tights, the pink leo, and some slippers.  When I got home,  I had Olivia try it all on, and that's when I noticed the "ballet" slippers were more like house slippers than anything you would wear to dance class.  After talking to another mom whose daughter is in the class, I decided to return the shoes to target and order some from amazon.  The only problem was they wouldn't arrive in time for class.  I knew the teacher was really easy going, and she had mentioned that the girls didn't even need slippers, so I wasn't worried.  But as Olivia was following her new teacher into their dance room on the first day, she explained, "I don't have any ballet shoes today.  They're on order."  Just the way she said it sounded so grown up, and made me laugh!  

Olivia's First Day of Preschool

First Day of Preschool

2012

Olivia is going to her first year of "real" preschool this year.  After a year of Joy School with moms in the neighborhood, she's now going to the same preschool Noah did when we first moved here.  She was so excited, and I don't think she even thought there was any reason to be nervous.  Her best bud is in her class with her, as well as so other familiar faces.  She is loving preschool, and every morning she asks if it's a school day - I think she'd be happy going every day of the week, but I'm savoring my time with her before real school starts next year, so she's just going twice a week.  

Her brothers gave her the "shiner" on her lip!  It was somewhat unintentional, but it started with Olivia asking for a fight.  She's a fire-y one, alright!

She insists on picking her own clothes each day.  I only make her change if it's truly  clashing.  She certainly has strong opinions about almost everything.

Millions of Peaches

This was my first attempt at canning, so it was a learning process - I had no idea how much you really need to "stuff" the jars.  So, as you can see, some jars are holding less than their capacity...

So, there weren't quite a million, but it seemed like that many.  On labor day Sam noticed that a local farm still had you-pick peaches.  At $.60/pound, we thought it might be good to finally put some canning supplies we had laying around to good use.  I told Sam to pick about 3 apple boxes worth, thinking that would be enough to can a few batches, and have plenty for fresh eating. Well, he came home with 80 lbs worth of peaches!  Just in case you are wondering, 80 lbs of a peaches equals:

24 Quarts and 11 pints of canned peaches
15 pints of jam
6 half pints of freezer jam
2 quart bags of frozen peaches
1 batch of fruit leather (which failed...)
2 batches of baby food
1 peach crisp
and as many fresh peaches as you and your family of 6 can eat in 4 days, with more to spare!


Next time I think we'll pick a few less peaches...  Sam was a wonderful help in the kitchen with all the canning, and the kids are already enjoying them for after school snacks.

A Fresh Start

The First Day of School

2012

Harrison, 4th grade

Noah, 1st Grade

  As I mentioned before, Harrison will be going to another new school this year, so the boys will be at different schools.  Thankfully, they provide a bus, which picks Harrison up at our home school, so Noah and Harrison still ride the bus together.  Harrison was glad to be returning to a class-full of familiar faces for once, and a friend from church also joined his class this year, so that's nice for him.  Noah was hesitant about starting school this year, but quickly got over that when he realized his best bud was going to be in the same class this year.  The boys both seemed to have settled into their new routines nicely, and both come home with reports of a "great" day.