7.4.12

We spent the Fourth at home this year, and we had a blast!  Tuesday afternoon the kids and I dressed up their bikes for the bike parade.  There was no contest this year, but it was really festive.  Here are Seth and Nickolas pre-parade:

Amelia wanted to ride her big girl bike, and she made it around the 1-mile loop, with only a handful of complaints about sore legs.

The pool opened at 10, and we shared a tent with our neighborhood buddies.  Amelia is no longer a swim team mascot.  She is now a lifeguard-in-training:

During each pool break, there was some sort of zany game.  The first was the t-shirt relay:

Later in the day, the lifeguards threw drinks and Airheads into pool.  Amelia is swimming about 90% of the time without her float on, but I made her wear her belt since it was all kids and no adults in the pool.  She grabbed a Dr. Pepper and got back out.  An older boy grabbed her an Airhead since they sunk to the bottom.

The last contest was the biggest splash contest.  Seth got out in the first round of his age bracket.  After the kids' contest was done, they did the daddy bracket.  Nathan made it to the finals, and then had a side-by-side splash off with this guy:

Nathan came in second.

Our original plan was to stay at the pool until 2.  At 4pm we finally packed up and dragged ourselves home.  We were all in bed by 9, and I know I didn't see 9:15.  It was great to have a full day at the pool.  We have been so busy, we're only able to fit in 2-hour swims here and there.

VBS

I waited until almost the last minute to sign the kids up for Vacation Bible School.  Within 12 hours I was asked to be a teacher, which I said I would do under two conditions: I would have flexibility if something came up with the house, and I would not be Amelia's teacher.  A day later, another teacher popped up and I was asked to be a floater.  All right.  On the first day of VBS, I was assigned the official title of snack helper.  Divvy-ing out snacks and making large amounts of Kool-Aid?  I can handle that.  The kids seemed to have a great time during the week, and they are still singing the theme song.

June swim meets

We missed the first swim meet while we were on vacation, but we have had three in the past two weeks.  The birthday cut-off is June 1st, so Seth is swimming in the 6U division, but that is fine, because he's gaining confidence by being one of the older kids in his group, and he gets to swim with his best buds:

Amelia and Michelle are finding plenty to occupy themselves with, and we're not having to bribe them as much with candy as we did last year!

In the last two meets, Seth has swam up in a 9-10 free relay.  His relay has of course come in last against all big boys, but the coaches have told him he's helping to get points for the team.  The past two meets he has had his best time in the individual free event.  On Tuesday he was only half a second shy of his dad's earliest documented time!  (Although in all honesty, he's got a ways to go with technique.  He's starting to let Nathan help him.  We'll see if that lasts.)

 The three amigos on Thursday:

The 9-10 relay is event number 74 of 80.  Normally we're done after event 22, and we don't stick around to watch the rest of the meet.  Thursday we stayed to the end, and the Aqua Demons won a home meet, which meant cannonballs in the pool and throwing the coaches in!  First post-meet celebration:

other June parties

My boys weren't the only ones celebrating in June.  The day after Seth's party, we met Elise and Chad in Statesville and Seth and Brian exchanged gifts.  Here is photographic evidence of Brian's very first Happy Meal:

We left for Disney the minute Mia's princess tea party birthday was over. Cinderella came and did crafts, played games, and sang for the girls (Amelia is in all yellow):

Last Saturday, Seth went to a classmate's birthday party.  A bunch of 7-year-olds and water squirters, they had a blast!

On Sunday, both kids went to little Michelle's gymnastics party.  The kids have never taken gymnastics, and now I feel like I should maybe sign them up.

Thursday, Amelia had her first ever non-family sleepover.  Seth has been swimming up in older events this week at swim team, and we didn't know how late the nights would get.  Kristal offered to let Amelia sleep over.  The first night she wanted to come home when she knew I was done at 9, but she was determined to try again.  Thursday night was a success, and the girls woke up to it being Michelle's birthday, and at that house, that means cake for breakfast!

skate party!

Life is crazy, and we wanted to make sure Seth's party didn't get lost in the shuffle this year.  The first weekend of June Seth had his birthday party at Skateland.  You'll never guess what he chose as the theme:  Angry Birds.  We weren't the only people who decided to party that day, and it was the busiest I've ever seen the skating rink.  Seth had a smart idea to have our whole family wear Angry Birds shirts.  Nathan's and mine were bright red, I think it made us easier to spot in the madness.  Here is Amelia with her BFF, Carley:

Some of Seth's friends (and relatives) were first time skaters, but Seth is a pro, because we have been going one night a month on school spirit night.  I think the next three pictures capture his personality at the rink:

Uncle B making his first-ever birthday party appearance!

 A bunch of sweaty, tired kids in need of refreshment!

 Here are the cupcakes I made for the party:

And the goodie bags:

I don't think Seth could have had a better party.  Thanks to all the family and neighbors who made his day great!

lucky #7

This year we didn't have "party week" as we usually do.  Nathan's birthday fell on Father's Day, so we had a daddy day with pool time, lots of sports on TV, and a home-cooked meal.  Seth's birthday was on a Wednesday.  He slept in because he had his first swim meet the night before.  I made cake batter pancakes (something that was fun to try but I won't make a habit of!), and then it was time to head to swim team practice.  As we were getting ready, Seth asked if we could bring a treat, so we got some munchkins to share with the team.  Then we came home, packed a picnic, and headed back to the pool.  We had the pool virtually to ourselves and Seth's favorite guard/coach was on duty.  By 12:30, all of pool buddies had joined us.

What Seth wanted to do for his birthday was to go bowling in uptown Charlotte.  So we headed down there, dragging his presents with us:

 He got lots of clothes, and lots of fun stuff!

We didn't think to get reservations ahead of time for bowling, and there were no lanes available.  So plan B quickly became seeing Madagascar 3 in 3D.  We got our tickets, and then ate a quick dinner at Five Guys.  We ended up having the entire theater to ourselves, and it was really swanky, so it turned out to be a pretty cool family outing.  

creatures featured

The kids didn't believe us when we told them we were packing up and not coming back to the resort.  We somehow loaded everything up, got a quick-service breakfast to go, checked out, drove over to Animal Kingdom and arrived before the park officially opened.  Our route through the park last time worked well, so we did it again, and headed straight back to the safari ride.

I thought we saw a lot of animals last time, but we saw even more this time, and some of them came very close, like this giraffe.

 Ostrich on Amelia's side!

 Seth asked for me to take this picture.  Love it.

We rode the train to the conservation center, knowing that the petting zoo was closed, and were rewarded with a short line to meet Pocahontas!

 We ate lunch at the Tusker House and were greeted at the door by Donald Duck:

 Inside, we met Daisy, Goofy, and Mickey!

The rest of our day was almost identical to our last trip, minus visiting the character signature area.  We didn't even go to any new shows, although this time the whole family rode the rapids ride, and we put our ponchos to use a second time!  Amelia was just barely tall enough to ride it and had to sit in a special seat, but she liked it so much that we have promised her she can ride it two times next time.

We hit the road and ran into Friday-afternoon Orlando commuter traffic.  We found a Mexican dive with awesome food in northern Florida and spent the night in southern Georgia, and slept like rocks in our room with the noisy AC.

It was a great trip, and I don't think any of us were really glad to get home.

better when we're together

Seth and Nathan showed up just after we had entered the "inner circle" to meet Merida.  Ask and you shall receive; they let the boys in!  Seth shot an arrow and met Merida with Amelia. 

We then stopped for a lemonade slushie break in the shade, and out walked Alice and Mr. Rabbit!  Alice was super friendly.  I'm 95% sure she moonlighted as Aurora the night before.

I love this picture!

We also ate lunch together at Ray's Cosmic Cafe, and saw three shows, including the interactive Monsters Inc. show.  Nathan texted Seth's go-to joke while we were in line, and they used it in the show!  Also, Nathan was put in the hot seat and had to be "invisible" whenever they put a light on him.  Hilarious!

After pool time and a nap, we ate dinner at the Liberty Tavern (eh), and it poured buckets of rain while we were eating.  We cracked out our ponchos for the first time, and by the time we rode Pirates, the rain had stopped.  It was nice that we had our ponchos on, because we got really wet that time riding in the front row!  We stayed for the electric parade and watched the fireworks on the boat ride back.  Or Nathan and I did; the kids both fell asleep!

PS-the title of this post makes me sad.  I want to go back to vacation!

divide and conquer

Thursday morning we hopped a boat back to Magic Kingdom.  Seth REALLY wanted to ride roller coasters, and Amelia REALLY did not.  So Nathan and I decided we'd split up, checking in with each other every hour or so, and it worked out perfectly every single time.  Plus the park opened at 8am, so we had an extra hour to play. 

While the boys started out with the Barnstormer, we started out with the carousel...

We met up with the boys for a little bit, rode two rides and saw a show (all by 9am), and then they headed off to ride Splash Mountain, and we walked right on to "It's a Small World" and then waited in line for about 45 minutes to meet Merida, the princess in the new movie, Brave. Amelia was completely content to people watch while we waited.  After having a snack together as a family, the boys were off to ride Thunder Mountain and Amelia and I waited about 20 minutes to meet Tiana.  A little more restless this time, Amelia played with my phone, and I found these gems later in the day:

Amelia and Tiana had a really nice conversation, and one part I overheard was, "Amelias do not kiss frogs!"

We met up with the boys again for a while, and after lunch we went our separate ways one last time so the boys could ride Space Mountain and we could meet Rapunzel.  We waited in line for an hour to meet her, and it was hot as heck, but the girls in front of us in line were Disney employees at the park on their day off, and they held our place for us so I could buy us some water.  I think that was exactly how Amelia wanted to spend her day.  

Here are pictures from the boys' morning.  After Splash Mountain:

Space Mountain was closed on their first attempt to ride, so they rode the Toy Story ride instead (while we were waiting in line for Rapunzel):

The boys came back and we were still in line for Rapnnzel.  I sent them over to get fast passes to meet Mickey, and Nathan came back with this picture. Showoffs!  Walked right up and met Mary Poppins!