those little legs gave out...

...and we brought the stroller with us on our evening trip to Epcot.  I tried to get Amelia to dress up for the night, but she refused.  We headed straight to Norway, where a three-course meal awaited us.  But first, we had a meet and greet with Belle!

Throughout the course of dinner, we met all the "old school" princesses:

We missed a thunderstorm during dinner, and afterwards we rode the Maelstrom ride.  Here's Seth showing off his Norwegian roots!

We took a second stroll around the countries.  This is my new favorite picture:

Then it was time to ride Soarin' again, and when we finished, Epcot's light and firework show was just beginning.  We watched it from afar as we headed to the bus to beat the crowd.  We didn't mind missing some things, that just means we'll have to go back again another time!

Soarin' on Wednesday

To Seth's delight, on Wednesday we hopped on a bus to Epcot.  We headed straight to get Fast Passes for a ride called Soarin', and then we had the morning to play.  Here are the boys on the Finding Nemo ride:

 Seth's are friends, not food!

Epcot doesn't offer a lot of shade, and it was apparent right away that Amelia was over the whole walking everywhere thing.  We had a snack and made our way to story time...to our delight, it was Jasmine this time!

We made a quick loop through all the countries, and as I was setting up a picture of the kids, a management-level-looking Epcot employee came up and told us all to get in the picture.  Okay!

We hit the jackpot and met several characters with no line about midway around...

...and then we made our way back to the front for Soarin'.  It was neat, but I guess I was expecting more given all the hype.  In fact, the kids liked it so much, we got another Fast Pass on our way out!  Amelia was just barely tall enough to ride it, but she loved it!

Hollywood Studios

Tuesday morning we took a bus to Hollywood Studios (Seth had been really hoping for Epcot).  The kids and I had never been there, and Nathan not since high school, so it was fun to explore.  The very first show we saw was the Little Mermaid:

Then we went to a Disney Junior show (quick family pic as we waited for it to start):

We did a few more things and then ate lunch with the Disney Junior characters.  We met Jake (of Neverland Pirates fame), June (from Little Einsteins), Handy Manny, and Special Agent Oso:

Before we left the park, we got a second set of Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania, a neat 3D ride our whole family liked.  Here are the goofballs after the ride:

We had pizza for dinner, and realized we were very close to two characters with a fairly short line (it was hard to justify standing in long lines to meet characters when we were seeing so many at meals).  Here is a picture Amelia took while we were waiting:

 Pops was so jealous, we met Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater!

It had rained during naptime, which cooled things off nicely and scared off the crowds, so we did almost as many things in the evening as we did during the day.  We decided to save the night show for another trip and went back to Downtown Disney for a little bit.  It ended up being a late night; we had to wake the kids up the next day!

Magic Monday

I had planned out our vacation with AAA, so we knew each day where we were going, although we kept the surprises coming by not telling the kids (Seth can read, so he was always able to figure it out).  Monday we headed to the Magic Kingdom.  From the resort, you can get there by bus or by boat:

We went on lots and lots of rides the first day, hitting Nathan's least favorite ride very early in the day:

Lookin' fancy, Dumbo ride!

This time we got the dining plan option that allowed us to eat meals with characters.  The kids had fun having easy access to pictures and signatures, but I think next time we'll go back to quick service so we have more flexibility to our days.

That afternoon we headed back to the resort for a couple hours and got some pool time in.  We rode the boat back to the Magic Kingdom, rode some more rides, and left at the start of the parade to beat the rush.  Here is a picture of Cinderella's castle...it was always so hot, we never stopped to take a family picture in front of any of the main photo ops!

downtown Disney

Come on folks, 

 let's go exploring!

(Do you see the Mickey's in the doorways?)  Sunday night we took a bus to Downtown Disney to eat and shop.  We ate at the Rainforest Cafe again, and did some damage at the main Disney store.  Here is the first of many silly pictures taken during the week:

our accomodations

We stayed at the Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge, which was fantastic.  There was a stream that started in the lobby, which trickled down to this:

Every day we hit the pool for a quick cool down before rest time.  Yes, that is a water slide in the rocks.  :)

I think our type of room is usually saved for vacation club members.  It was a little walk to transportation and to the main lodge, but it came with a huge bonus feature were weren't expecting...a washer and dryer!  We would have been four funky people by the end of the week without it!  Here is a quick tour...our bedroom:

 View from our bedroom into the three-part bathroom:

Full kitchen...we kept the fridge stocked with cold drinks, and housekeeping ran the dishwasher every day!  The kids slept on the sleeper-sofa, it worked out perfect for us.

wildlife

We just got back from a week-long family vacation.  We saw lots of wildlife.  We saw two hawks on the losing end of an encounter with windshields (not ours) within an hour of each other on I-95, lizards, a snake (type unknown because we weren't getting close enough to find out), frogs, ducks, other waterfowl, deer, the armadillo that resided on our hotel property,

...and a mouse:

Yes, we pulled off our big surprise, making it all the way to the entrance signs for Disney World before the kids figured it out.  Amelia was in denial for a few minutes that we weren't going to the beach, but she quickly absorbed our enthusiasm.  We had a great time...I'll be back soon with stories from our adventure!

rising second grader

 

It's official; Seth has two years of elementary school under his belt.  It's been a year full of lots of unexpected changes, but he has done well.  He has been forced to "go with the flow", which is definitely not one of his strong suits.  I am amazed at his little brain.  He has aced almost every spelling test, which have included challenge words like "organism" and "hospitality".  He is a math whiz and reads ahead of grade level.  I can tell he works quickly because there are always little doodles (mostly of Angry Birds) on the backs of his worksheets.  He has made a good buddy and has learned to ignore the "rough kids" whose behavior bothered him so bad at the beginning of the year.  School ended on Thursday, and I'm so excited to have Seth around all the time!  

First Grade Carnival

Yesterday was Seth's end-of-year party.  The entire first grade participated in a carnival, with 12 stations.  (Ours were Angry Birds themed, and I don't want to brag, but we were a hit, second only to the Sonic ice cream sundaes!)  Sherri made the boxes, I painted the pigs and birds:

 The kids had a blast!

All last week, I kept telling myself, "It doesn't matter if they're ugly.  A bunch of first graders are going to destroy them in two hours."  But everything held up well, and the entire set is going to be put in storage as a ready-made game for Family Fun Night in the fall!

I mostly stayed at our station (it was a nice way to see other moms I don't get to see very often!), but I did sneak off every once in awhile to take some pictures.  Go, Seth, go!

I was SURE this wasn't going to end well, but Seth didn't end up in tears, even when he ended up in the bottom of the heap!

After the face painting/hair spray station:

This was our other event, the golden egg race.

Afterwards, we had a pizza party in the classroom.  Amelia went over to a friend's house for the day, and today I'm repaying the favor so her mom can go to the kindergarten party.

her wonderful teachers

 

Last day of school pictures with her teachers...we miss you already!

Amelia's first week of summer

Last Friday, I picked up a very sad girl from preschool.  I did not expect the amount of tears shed by Amelia after her last day.  The long weekend was exactly what we needed to recharge our batteries.  I decided Tuesday we would spend a quiet day at home after an early trip to the Y.  Bad idea.  It was nearly impossible to get anything done.  Wednesday, we went to the pool prior to swim practice.  Amelia was playing in the shallow end with Seth, got out a little farther than she was comfortable with, and panicked.  I jumped in and gave her a push so she could swim to the side.  When she grabbed onto the ladder, she said, "Hey, Mom!  You're not wussy anymore!  You got in the water!"  Did I just get tricked?  Thursday while we were at the Y, she invited all her friends for a lunch date at Chik-fil-a.  And then she refused to eat until her friends got there, which of course they didn't, because none of the mommies had been consulted!  Luckily we have a busy weekend ahead of us and two long playdates already on the calendar for next week.  We'll blink twice and Seth will be out of school!  (Hopefully that makes things better and not worse!)

Where's the Beef?

The other day, Bryan tagged me in this picture on FB:

No, I did not road trip over the holiday weekend with my brother.  I gave him this shirt for his birthday.  There is a story behind it.  While we lived in Florida, our summer vacation was a long trip to northern Minnesota to see our grandparents.  It usually happened around the Fourth of July, and usually most of our cousins were there at least part of the time we were there.  In 1984 (I only figured out the year because I just saw online what year the commercial is from), there happened to be a large group of us, and someone had the wise idea to go out to the only restaurant on the lake in town.  We had a loooong table (or two) off to one side, and naturally it took longer than usual to get our food.  When the waitress checked in on us, Bryan (age 3) chimed in, "Where's the Beef?" and had every adult in the room in stitches.  Here is the commercial if you need to refresh your memory.  Bryan, I'm glad you like the shirt, and the best part about it is, part of the purchase went to an adoption charity!

back in the pool...

On Monday, I signed Seth up for swim team.  It's super cheap, so even if our house does sell sometime soon (send us some good vibes, people!), we'll get our money's worth out of it.  He was very excited to get back in the pool, but the coach's instructions still seem to go in one ear and out the other.  The baby pool is open during practice, so Amelia and her buddies are already causing all sorts of mayhem every afternoon.  The pool officially opens today, and we'll be headed there shortly.  Thankfully Nathan isn't afraid of cold water, because I'm more than happy just to put my feet in until we've had several 90+ degree days in a row.  Plus, my turn will come once school is out and I'm the only mommy sitting on a noodle playing lifeguard for diving board jumps!

ladies love lil' Seth

 

Sweet Charlotte has been in Seth's class the past two years.  I love that girl!  She will barrel me over with a hug if I'm not ready for her!  Seth was invited to her party last Sunday at Build-A-Bear in the mall.  He was the only boy there, but he didn't mind hanging out with his lady friends.  He built a cute monkey and named it Banana Splits.  Then they walked over to the carousel, where Seth and Ella-Brooke rode together on a bench, because he could "see the rest of those girls in class tomorrow."  Afterwards, I got this picture of the lovebirds acting nutty.  

preschool picnic

Last Friday was Amelia's class picnic at a local park.  The weather was much cooler than we are accustomed to having end-of-year picnics in!  Amelia loves her little class, and the kids had a great time playing all morning.  Amelia has been begging to do water balloons lately, and then last thing I want to do right now is spend an hour filling up balloons for five minutes of fun, only to have balloon litter all over our yard, so I volunteered to bring water balloons to her party.  I spent almost an hour filling them up, and they lasted about three minutes, but the kids had fun, and then we made a big game of cleaning up all the pieces. (That is skinny-minnie in her teeny-'kini in the front.  I swear my kids eat.  A lot.) 

At the picnic, we celebrated the summer birthdays.  Amelia and several of her friends made faux-candles in their cupcakes using pretzel sticks.

The teachers made a wonderful book of pictures and artwork from this past year.  It is so fun to see how she is at school.  Only two more days of school for her; this year her summer starts almost two weeks before Seth's!

surprises

When I was a kid, my dad would come home a day early from a long business trip unexpectedly (I fell for it every time!) or my grandparents (who lived between 425 and 2000 miles away) would --surprise-- be in the audience of a school function.  I am a planner, so nowadays I would much rather have a concrete plan than to be surprised (trying really hard to be patient this spring...)

This past weekend, my parents were headed for a getaway in the mountains.  At last minute, they decided to leave a day early and have a sleepover here, which was fine, because the house is (almost) always clean right now.  I didn't tell the kids, I just asked Seth to open up the garage door.  They were so excited about their surprise visitors!  It was a quick visit, with my parents leaving the same time we left for preschool.  But after seeing the kids' reactions, it makes me VERY excited for next month, because Nathan and I have a big surprise up our sleeves for the kids!

puddle jumpers

It started raining Sunday night, and it rained, and rained, and rained on Monday morning.  I picked up the girls after lunch bunch and we went over to Kim's house for a little playdate.  Kim lives at the end of a long gravel drive which was full of mud puddles.  The girls had a ball splashing in them, until they realized that they weren't just wet, they were filthy!

We stripped them down to their undies and everyone wore one of Carley's sundresses, and then they gave themselves mani/pedis.  So cute!

Jogging for Jonah

Last Saturday I ran in my first 5k of the year, Jogging for Jonah, yes, the same Jonah from Jonah's EB Auction that I participate in every year.  To make it extra special, our friends Tim and Tiff came up for an overnight trip, and Tiff ran her very first 5k.  It was pretty incredible how much they had going on for a first-time event.  In addition to the 5k and fun run, there were bounce houses, fire trucks, a raffle, and butterflies you could sign (good job, Seth):

You can read Patrice's post about the day here.  Tanglewood constructed a new paved trail last fall, and the route selected was about as kind as you can be inside the park (or anywhere around here, for that matter).  Tiff killed it, and beat me by about 40 seconds.  We both had mommy-brains and forgot our watches, but downloaded an app on our phones to track our race.  I accidentally deleted mine two seconds after crossing the finish line, but Tiff says hers charted the race as 3.4 miles.

I don't know if you can read our shirts, but they say "Rockstar Mom".  They were sold at our local running store for Mother's Day.  It's a perfect shirt for pilates too, I washed it and wore it again on Monday!

camping

The boys went camping...in the backyard.  I think Nathan's picture fulling picks up on the hilarity of the situation:

But, it didn't rain, and it was a beautiful evening, and it was fun to sit down in the tent and read while the kids watched movies. I didn't have any chocolate for s'mores, so we improved by using Chips Ahoy cookies to sandwich the (microwaved) marshmallows.  Based on the fact that I threw away an empty cookie container the next morning, I think you could call the treat a hit!  I read a bedtime book and then headed upstairs for an evening to myself (which unfortunately involved cleaning the bottom of the oven because dinner had cooked over).  By 9:45 I was joined by a little girl who couldn't fall asleep outside.  At 6:45 the boys headed in, ready for breakfast!