Disney - Day 2

We started our 2nd day with breakfast in Cinderella's castle. This was one of my favorite things that we did at Disney and Elyse's too! Elyse got to meet Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty (one of her favorites!), Ariel and Belle. All of the princesses were so sweet with Elyse, calling her princess and twirling her around. She loved it! All the girls got wishing stars and a wand and once all the princesses had made it around to all the tables they had a "Wishing Ceremony". The girls had to twirl their wands in the air and make a wish and they had twinkly lights going all around the ceiling during the wishing ceremony. It was all very magical =) Oh - I thought the food was great too - it's hard to beat fresh fruit and cream cheese stuffed french toast - yummy!

Elyse and I at breakfast.

Elyse and Kailey with their wands.

Elyse with Cinderella

Elyse with Snow White

Elyse giving Sleeping Beauty a hug

Elyse walking down the stairs in the castle after breakfast. I love this pic!

While the girls and grandpa were at breakfast, the boys explored Tomorrowland and we met up with them in Toon Town Fair. Elyse really wanted to meet Tinkerbell and friends, so Kailey and I stood in line with Elyse. Elyse got to meet Fawn, Tinkerbell and Terence. Fawn is the animal fairy and asked Elyse what was her favorite animal. Elyse said a kitty, of course, and Fawn took Elyse's wand and tried to turn Elyse into a kitty. Elyse thought this was so funny! Fawn told Elyse that her wand must be broken because it wasn't working. While we were in "Pixie Hollow" - Andrew discovered Goofy's Barnstormer - a kiddie roller coaster that he loved!!! He rode it 3 times that morning.

Fawn turning Elyse into a kitty.

Then we headed to Epcot. We took the monorail from the Magic Kingdom to Epcot - which the boys loved and was a nice change from the busses. While in Epcot we rode Nemo and saw Turtle Talk with Crush. We got fastpasses for Test Track and decided the kids (and us!) could really use a break from the heat. So, we headed back to the resort for lunch and naps. We returned to Epcot later in the afternoon, rode Test Track and then had dinner at Le Cellier in Canada. This must have been the day for great meals because I had a delicious Filet at dinner. I would highly recommend eating at Le Cellier, especially if you are a steak lover! I also got to try their Cheese soup - which was wonderful also. We got out of dinner just in time to get a spot to watch Illuminations. After Illuminations we got in line for Soarin - which was an hour long but so worth it! One of my favorite rides at Disney!! Tric and grandma took the boys on a few rides like Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land while we were waiting to ride Soarin. Everyone else headed back to the hotel after we got done with Soarin - but Jeff really wanted to ride Mission Space. So the kids and I waited while Jeff rode Mission Space. I'm glad he got to ride it because that was one of his favorite rides of the week.

Matt, Christopher, Tric and Kailey on the monorail

Jeff and the kids on the monorail

Grandma and Grandpa on the monorail

Stay tuned for Day 3 - Animal Kingdom!

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!