Disney "Dream" Vacation

Whew this summer is busy and flying by and hasn't left much time for blogging. But this is a virtual scrapbook for my girls and I want them to look back and remember these special times so I need to try and find time to update it. So here it goes...

The last week of April, we embarked on a truly once in a lifetime trip. We surprised the girls on Christmas morning and told them we were going on this amazing trip so waiting 5 months took a long time but finally it was time to go! We got on the Disney Dream ship in Cape Canaveral, FL. The ship was huge and even though there were a lot of people, it never seemed too crowded.

 One of the best parts about the cruise was the access to the characters. My girls love all the characters and we found them everywhere on the ship. We only had to wait in short lines and the characters were so amazing to the girls and so sweet.

 The first night, we had sail away party where all the characters came onto the ship and sang and danced. We couldn't wait to go. And please excuse our wristbands, they were sea bands for motion sickness.

We were so fortunate that my parents accompanied us on this trip. We got rooms next to each other and Ella actually stayed in their room. Traveling with them is so easy and makes things much more fun!

 The main deck had 2 large pools, a hot tub and a splash ground. Not to mention the huge movie screen that played Disney movies all day. My girls thought this was the best thing ever!

 This little firecracker had the time of life and acted like she owned the ship!

One of Ella's favorite things was the Aqua duck water slide on the ship. MG was too small to go but Ella and one of us went down it a ton of times! It was really fun!

 Hot tub fun!

MG meeting her hero, Minnie Mouse! I mean, check out her face, pure happiness!!

 We ran into Goofy "sleep walking" on the ship. The girls thought this was so hilarious and still talk about it all the time!

 Meeting more characters!

 One true surprise and highlights was meeting Elsa and Anna! We had heard they weren't going to be on the ship but then to our surprise they were on the ship! We signed up ahead of time for a special meet and greet time to meet them in Arrandale! :)

 Belle, another favorite for sure!

 Every cruise, they have pirate night so we ordered these cute shirts ahead of time and got some accessories before we left. They were giving us their "tough pirate look" in this picture.

 DeeDee and Papa went all out for pirate night! The girls thought it was so great!!

 Snuggles with Papa, such sweet memories!

 One of the only disappointments was the day at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. We had been looking forward to this day and heard amazing things about this island and we unfortunately had cloudy and cold weather on that day. But it didn't stop Ella and Mike from going down the water slide and playing in the cold water!

 Farewell party with all the characters in their pjs!

 This trip was truly unforgettable. I can't say enough good things about the Disney cruise, super clean ship, great rooms, outstanding service, etc. The girls had a great time in the kids club, playing detective and exploring the huge ship. I could on and on but just know this, we will be back again!

Next post, we left the ship and headed to Magic Kingdom for 2 days!

Sorry for the radio silence

I have sat down several times to update the blog and something always pulls me away. Now, it has been so long and we have been so busy, it is overwhelming where to begin so I am just going to take one adventure at a time. Our April and May have been the two busiest months since we have had kids. But they are all fun things, two beach trips, our first Disney adventure on the cruise and park and a golf tournament in Atlanta. We were on a streak where we were only home 1 weekend in 6 weeks, whew! But now we are home for a bit so hopefully I can catch up.

So, let's go back all the way to the beginning of April. We spent a glorious spring break week down at Seabrook for Easter. My aunt, uncle and cousin who live in DC came as well. My aunt is 15 years younger than my Dad so we have always been super close and I wish I saw her more often. My cousin Annie is a junior in high school and the girls just adored her!

This view never gets old! We were fortunate to have amazing weather for early April!

 Swimming in the outdoor heated pool with Uncle Court

 Miss Laura joined in the fun also

 Bathing beauty

 One really fun thing we did was go to the Firefly distillery. They made their own vodka and moonshine and we had a blast sampling everything.

 One of our favorite things to do at the beach is to attend the concerts at Freshfields village. They always have live bands and these girls LOVE to dance!!

 Learning to shag

 On Saturday, the golf course had an Easter egg hunt (about the 5th one of the season) and the girls had a blast. Ella loved meeting the Easter bunny but little sister was way too scared to pose with EB.

 But she loved collecting the eggs

 All that partying made this little one very tired. This literally never happens but she fell sleep in my arms on the back deck of the beach, heaven for both of us. And check out those eye lashes!

 The Easter Bunny got our note and made a special delivery to Seabrook. The girls loved hunting the eggs and finding their baskets. We all went to church after that and then back to enjoy one final day at the beach.

 Anytime we spend at the beach is always a great time!!

 And I am really going to try and hard and keep up the blog posts a little more frequently. Have a great weekend everyone, we are off to the pool!

Spring has (Finally) sprung

The winters are tough with little kids. I know, we are lucky to live in the south where our winters are so much better than other places but still, when it is rainy, snowy, icy and cold and we can't get out and play, we all go a little crazy. This winter was cold again and we two small weather incidents (one day of ice and one where they predicted tons of snow and we got 1 inch of slush). But we still ventured out to make the most of the mess. Sledding on boogie boards is how southerners sled!

 A couple trips down on the "sled" and the girls decided playing dress up inside was more their style. And then "the incident" occurred. We were at our good friends and neighbors house after sledding and I needed to bring Maddie home for a nap and she said that Ella could stay and play with Ellie and their other friend Anne Harrison. We returned after naps for dinner with our friends and then went home. Sarah (other mom) kept saying how good the girls were and how they played so well and were quiet. All was great until the next morning when I noticed something was different with Ella's hair. I was mortified to see bangs! When I asked her about it, she burst into tears and said she was playing hair dresser with Ellie and Anne Harrison and they cut her hair. What?!?! Not ok with mommy. A few quick texts to the other moms to find out, they found a clump of hair on the couch last night while they were cleaning up!! Seriously!! Other two girls were fine and Ella was the only victim. A couple days later, the real truth came out that Ella was in the chair and her friend Elie actually cut it and Ella didn't want her to but didn't want to hurt her feelings by telling her to stop. So, we have had long talks about what to do if someone wants you to do something you don't want to do but for now, we have bangs. Awesome because they grow out so quickly, not.

 This picture actually makes them look much better than they are. They are blunt and won't go back in a bow and pretty much drive me crazy every morning. 

Once the snow and ice melted, we celebrated our sweet MG turning 3! Mike's parents were in town for the big party. We had high hopes of having an outside party at our favorite park but of course, it decided to rain all day that day so back up plan was a pizza party instead. For a last minute thing, it ended up great.

This face gets me every time! 

 Can never get all of us looking at the camera, oh well.

 Ring around the rosy fun

 Our birthday girl had the best time with all of her buddies!

 Finally after all the yuckiness, the weather this week was fantastic and we took full advantage of it. We played outside every chance we got. Walking to playgrounds and swinging in short sleeves is the best ever after a cold winter.

 And playing hard outside makes for one tired girl. This was one day when I was trying to wake her up after a 2.5 hour nap and she was sound asleep. Even with a flash going off in her face, nothing. So, I had to pick her up to wake her. Poor girl would have slept all afternoon.

 But we were late to big sister's ballet and it was observation day. Ella loves dancing more than anything else and has the biggest smile on her face when she is doing it.

Mike went away for 4 days for a guys tennis trip this weekend so it was just me and the girls all alone. They were pretty good most of the time but we are all ready for Daddy to come home. On Friday night, we had movie night (in Christmas pjs obviously!)

I couldn't be more excited about this spring, we have so many fun things planned. Seabrook for Easter, our BIG trip to Disney and the disney cruise end of April and then another beach trip for Memorial Day. We will be busy busy busy this spring but I can't wait! Bring on the sun and warm weather!