Spring...

We're back!  It's been crazy.  I'll fill you in on the crazy at some point, but here are some overviews of what has been happening since I last posted...

We stayed home for Spring Break, and did some local things.  It was so nice to be HOME.  My kids love the zoo and we spent the whole day there.  I love to see my children be gentle with God's creatures. Especially my rough and active boy!  He is always so sweet with the goats at the petting zoo.

Harry tried soccer for the first time!  He was great.  His only complaint was that other kids kept kicking him in the shins. Yeah, that's just how soccer goes, man. :)

Hannah went with her girl scouts troop to Sweet and Sassy--a boutique for little girls.  They were spending some of the money they earned from selling cookies.  After giving some to charity and putting the bulk of it into their girl scouts bank account, the girls were able to vote on a "fun" event to do together.  They unanimously chose to go to the boutique!  They got their hair fixed, nails painted, make up done and then got to do a run way debut in one of the outfits they had chosen.  At the very end, they rode around the block in a pink limousine!  They were super cute.  It was a fun way to end the year.  

That was our Spring!  I feel like we haven't slowed down since February.  Lots of activity, a few changes, and a fair amount of fun has transpired since then.  I look forward to updating everyone on our lives.

Dinner with Winnie the Pooh and friends

I saved one of my favorite events for last. One night we had dinner at the Magic Kingdom in the Crystal Palace. It was a character dinner, which means that characters from a certain movie would wander around and greet the children while they were eating.

Before we left for our trip, we asked each of the kids who they hoped to meet at Disney. Harry's immediate response was "Eeyore"! Harry has slept with a stuffed Eeyore since he was a baby. He recently told me, "Mama, I cherish Eeyore." Just want to make sure you get the full effect of how much this boy loves Eeyore.

We asked around when we got there, but were told that Eeyore did not come out very much and it was rare to get to meet him. We explained this to Harry and told him not to be too disappointed if he didn't get to meet Eeyore on this trip.

Imagine our happy surprise when we arrive at dinner to find that we will be dining with the characters from Winnie the Pooh! Harry was so excited! When Eeyore finally came to our table, he jumped up and gave him the biggest hug. He spent the rest of the night waving at him and ran to get a goodbye hug before we left. What a special treat!

Thank you, once again, Mimi and Pop, for the wonderful trip! We will cherish our memories of that week for years to come.

Epcot

The kids favorite park was probably the Magic Kingdom, but mine was Epcot. It had a few more "adult friendly" things to do, but the kids still had plenty of fun as well.

My favorite part was visiting different areas of the "world". Built around a lake, an entire section of Epcot is dedicated to different countries. We ate fish 'n' chips in England, pastries in France, lunch in Morocco, caramels in Germany, and dinner with the princesses in Norway. (I was attempting to eat my way around the world in a day). It was so much fun!

The princess dinner in Norway was especially fun to watch. Hannah was so excited to get to meet some of her favorite Disney characters. They each spent some time talking with both of the kids, which was fun to listen in on.

My favorite question came from Harry. He asked Snow White, "Why did you eat that poison apple???". She gave him a pretty good answer which seemed to satisfy his curiosity.

It was really sweet, watching them interact with characters they have watched in movies since they were little. All in all, the day we spent at Epcot was super fun! We have so many sweet memories stored up, just from that one day.

Magic Kingdom

We spent two days at the Magic Kingdom on our trip. I will have to say, I was very skeptical about Disney before I went. It seemed to me like it was mostly hype and that it couldn't be as good as the commercials make it out to be.

Wrong. It was amazing! My kids had the times of their lives at the Magic Kingdom! And the crazy part is, I did too! My sister hit the nail on the head when we were talking about our trip. She said, "It sounds like a mother designed the entire place." It really felt that way. The creators of this enterprise have taken every consideration in mind while planning the World of Disney.

Everything was as enjoyable as it could be--from the ease of the setup of the hotel rooms, to the food purchases and options, and all the way down to the "waiting in line" experience. Everything was so well thought out, that we were able to simply enjoy our family. I can't say enough good things about our trip!

I also can't say enough about how thankful I am to Mimi and Pop for taking us. The more people we talk to, the more we hear that our kids were at the "perfect" age to go. The reality of our finances are such that we would not have been able to go for many more years. If we had waited, we would have missed out on some precious memories! So thank you, thank you to our generous Mimi and Pop! We are so very grateful to you!

The Wonderful World of Disney

We just got back from a week at Disney World with Ken’s parents and brother. Sweet Mimi and Pop gave us this trip back in December as our family’s Christmas present. The kids had been happily anticipating all the wonderful things they would get to do, and not a one of us was disappointed! We are so thankful to Mimi and Pop for taking us and truly enjoyed our time with them and Uncle Jason (and all the Disney friends we go to see along the way). It will take me several posts to put our whole trip on the blog, we did so many fun things!

The first event we attended, the day we arrived, was a luau at one of the Disney resorts. The food was excellent and built around a fun Hawaiian theme. Then we watched a show of all sorts of fun things that included a hula lesson for Hannah, traditional Hawaiian dances and a dude throwing around fire. Not sure you can get much better than that!