Disney - Day 1

We had a wonderful trip to Disney that I can't possibly fit everything into one blog post so I am going to do a post for each day of our trip.

First off - we had a LONG car ride down to Florida but the kids did great! Thank goodness for portable DVD players!

Sunday night we spent some time at Downtown Disney. Although it was hot outside, it felt great to stretch our legs. We walked around, ate at T-rex (a dinosaur restaurant owned by the same company as Rainforest Cafe), shopped and had fun watching and dancing at the dance party. Christopher was really getting his groove on - unfortunately I forgot my camera - so I have no pics from Downtown Disney.

The next morning we woke up early so we could get to All Star Movies, check-in to get our park passes and head to Magic Kingdom. We had a great day exploring the Magic Kingdom. Some of the kids favorites from the day were It's a Small World, Buzz's Space Ranger Spin and the Indy Cars. We had dinner at Crystal Palace with Pooh and friends. The kids all enjoyed meeting the characters - although I have decided that character meals are far from relaxing! You are so busy taking pics and getting ready for the next character to come to your table that you hardly have time to eat! But they are a great way to meet the characters without having to stand in line and I would do them again.

The fireworks over Cinderella's castle were amazing! Elyse and I especially liked watching Tinkerbell fly from the castle to Tomorrowland! What a great way to end our day. It was a long and hot day but the kids were all troopers as we pushed them along from ride to ride. Andrew and Christopher both fell asleep as we were walking out of the park after the fireworks. Here are a few pics from our first day of fun!

Andrew and Elyse with Piglet.

With Eeyore

With Tigger

With Pooh

All the kids exploring the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.


Jeff and Andrew driving the Indy cars.

Kailey and Elyse on Dumbo.

Andrew on Dumbo - he was loving it!

Stay tuned for Day 2!

Wonderful Weekend

I have not been very good at this blogging thing - so here is my attempt to try and start posting more frequently.

We had a great weekend. I went out Friday night with my friend Jamie to celebrate her birthday and as usual we talked late into the night. Always nice to have some "girl time".

Saturday Elyse and I went to see Disney's Beauty and the Beast with Grace, Abby, Misti and Grandma. We went out to lunch and then to the show. I was especially excited because I thought we had great seats - we were in the first row in the balcony - so it would be easy for the girls to see without anyone in front of them. When we got to the show, we were told that they had closed the balcony (due to a low number of ticket sales) and that our seats had been upgraded to the mezzanine. We were not so sure about this - but it ended up being great. We were about 1/3 of the way up in the mezzanine and right in the center. And the best part was that no one sat directly in front of us - so it was very easy to see the entire stage! It was a great show and the girls all loved it!

Today Jeff and Andrew went fishing in the morning and we all went back out to the marina to enjoy the sunshine. The kids were so excited to get their suits on and play at the beach and in the water. Jeff worked on the boat - cleaning and such - while I enjoyed just sitting in my beach chair watching the kids play. It felt like summer! I'm ready for more days like that - hopefully this weather will continue into next weekend!

Tulip Time

We had a fun and busy Tulip Time week. I was dancing again this year and I think Elyse was my biggest fan! She came to watch me dance every time - even on the last night when it was a cloudy, cool and a little rainy. She even wore her costume every night, except for the last night. Besides dancing, the kids and I did the street scrubbing on Wed. and then stayed and watched the parade. We headed back downtown on Thursday to watch the Kinderparade. Next year Elyse will be able to march with her class in the Kinderparade! Unfortunately, Saturday was not a good parade day - very windy and cold - so we stayed home. And of course, it wouldn't be Tulip Time without a visit or 2 to the junk food vendors - yum!! Here are a few pics from our fun week.



Andrew didn't have his costume on this night - but I thought it was such a cute pic of the 2 kids.

Andrew loved filling the bucket up with water and then dumping it out when we were street scrubbing!

Elyse street scrubbing.

Christopher and Elyse before we started street scrubbing.

We met up with Dylan, Kenz and Christopher at the beginning of the parade route so we could all street scrub together. Here the kids are "practicing" their street scrubbing skills as they try and push the leftover rain water into the drain.

Elyse was into making silly faces this year when we were taking pics - so silly!


My beautiful little dutch girl!

Party in the USA!

The West Ottawa Competitive Dance Team held a clinic on a Saturday for K-5th grade girls. They learned a dance and then they performed at half-time of the basketball game this past Friday night. Elyse had a great time at the clinic. Here she is performing at the basketball game.

Christmas Fun

We had a fun-filled Christmas season! Both kids loved helping set up the Christmas tree and Andrew continued to rearrange the ornaments frequently.

One highlight of our Christmas season was a Happy Birthday Jesus party with our small group. We rented a building at a local farm and invited several other families to join us. We had lunch together and some birthday cake, went for a horse-drawn hay ride (not quite enough snow for the sleigh) while the snow fell and then got to feed some animals in the barn. The kids had a great time! Here is a link to some pics from the Happy Birthday Jesus party and some other Christmas fun.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=129795&id=559977367&l=cbca38f7f2

Another highlight was going on the North Pole Express with my family. We headed to the Steam Railroading Institute where the 1225 Engine from the Polar Express movie is stationed. In fact - all the "engine" sounds in The Polar Express movie are from this exact engine! This engine was supposed to take us to the north pole - but on it's first trip this season had some problems and therefore a different engine took us. We did get to sit in the engine - which the kids thought was fun. The train ride to the north pole was only about 45 min. or so and then we were able to enjoy some rides, see Santa and eat dinner before getting back on the train. The kids wore their jammies (just like in the movie) and we were served Hot Chocolate on the way to the north pole. It was another fun day! Here is a picture of Elyse and Andrew sitting on Santa's lap.



Here is a link to some pics from the North Pole Express.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132315&id=559977367&l=6665ca8666

We celebrated Christmas with Jeff's family on Christmas Eve and my family on Christmas day. We enjoyed spending time with both family's and watching the kids open their presents. The kids have really played well together the past couple of days - sharing their new toys, most of the time. Elyse's favorite is her FurReal kitty. Not sure what Andrew's favorite new toy is - either his Tool Bench or his Disney Cars stuff. To see more of our Christmas fun click on the link below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=132323&id=559977367&l=9c30aa04da
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas surrounded by family and friends!

Christmas Memories and Traditions

A friend of mine did a post on some of her favorite memories/traditions of Christmas. I thought I would steal the idea and do a similar post.

The Christmas tree: We always had a real tree growing up and Jeff and I continued this tradition up until a few years ago. I love walking through the woods looking for the perfect Christmas tree - but they are much more work. So - not only do we have a fake tree now - it is even pre-lit - it is wonderful! One of my favorite ornaments that I still have from when I was little is one that I made in sunday school. Here is a picture of it:

Presents: My favorite Christmas present was my Cabbage Patch Doll that I got when I was in 3rd grade. My wonderful grandparents risked life and limb to get one for me! I was so excited when I woke up Christmas morning and saw the box with the slightly slanted front and I knew it was my Cabbage Patch Doll!!! The other thing I must mention about presents - my brother and I were terrible because the minute my parents would leave the house - we would begin searching everywhere to find our Christmas presents! My parents thought we were so great at guessing what we were getting - but it was because we were such good hunters (or my mom wasn't so good at hiding things!). I must say - I did not find my Cabbage Patch Doll prior to Christmas morning - it really was a surprise!

Traditions: We started a new family tradition the year that Elyse was born. I wanted to do something "giving" during this season when it is so easy to focus on what we want. So - even though Elyse didn't know what was going on (she was only 3 months old) - I took her shopping for Toys for Tots. This has been our yearly tradition ever since. We took the kids shopping Thursday night and filled a cart full of fun toys. The kids each picked out a toy to put in the Toys for Tots box at the store and the rest of the toys Jeff took to school to add to the school's Toys for Tots collection. I hope this is a tradition that we keep for many years to come and that it is something that will help the kids think of others during the Christmas season.

We are so blessed and have much to be thankful for during this time of year - friends, family, food to eat, a warm house and most of all the gift of Baby Jesus! May He fill your hearts and homes with his love this Christmas season!

Locks of Love

Back in the summer - I talked to Elyse about getting her hair cut and donating it to Locks of Love. I had several reasons why I thought this would be a good idea. It took a long time to comb her hair and it was usually accompanied by whining and crying. Also - everywhere we went people would always say "She has the most beautiful hair!". So why not give another little girl the chance to have such beautiful hair -right?! After reading in the paper about a little girl who donated her hair to Locks of Love - I looked on-line to find out the requirements for donating. I also asked the gal who normally cuts Elyse's hair if she had ever cut someones hair for Locks of Love and she said yes and that Elyse would get a free haircut for donating! So - I talked to Elyse more about it - showed her pictures on the Locks of Love website of kids who needed wigs etc. Elyse loves her curls and she was worried that she wouldn't have any curls if she got her hair cut. I assured her that her hair would still be curly - it would just be shorter. We talked about the reasons why some kids don't have hair and what a wig was etc. Elyse asked if once the kids got a wig if that made them all better - oh if only it were that easy! I told her that it wouldn't make them better but it would make them feel better inside. So - Elyse said she was ok with getting her haircut. I decided to wait until after Halloween (since she was Sleeping Beauty for Halloween - I figured she needed to have long hair!). Friday was the big day. Here is the before picture - look at those long beautiful curls!!!

Miss Robin (our hairstylist, yes her name is Robin) - put Elyse's hair into 2 pigtails. When you donate, your hair has to be 10 inches and it has to be in ponytails or braids when it is cut.

Elyse holds one of the pigtails while Miss Robin cuts the other one.

2 pigtails for some other special little girl!

Miss Robin wet down Elyse's hair to get it to curl more after she got it cut. Here is Elyse under the dryer with the magazine she picked out to "read" - good thing she can't actually read!!

Looking through the magazine.

The new look - she looks so cute!!! She is so proud of her new haircut!!!

The last reason why I decided to have Elyse donate her hair to Locks of Love is in honor of my Aunt Mary. She was diagnosed with breast cancer this past summer and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. Aunt Mary - this Locks of Love donation is dedicated to you - We love you very much!!!