With Christmas becoming a blur and sliding into the rearview mirror I thought I would post some pictures of some of the memories and things my girls had fun with this Christmas season…
Christmas began with the trip to see the Christmas Lights at the Zoo
We all took in a Christmas Play downtown in the historic Dock Street Theater,
It was by our favorite 1st grader, and her name starts with J and that stands for none other
than Junie B. Jones herself!
The kids had a coupla skirmishes with LAnA, our Santa’s elf.
Here, she helped herself to the chocolate covered popcorn overnight.
And while I understand we are not supposed to touch her (or she flies back to the North Pole) I did take the liberty to reseal the popcorn to help with its freshness.
Well LAnA did not take too kindly to that !
(she tends to overreact sometimes)
And picked up the cheese knife let us know not to touch her things any more!
Well Christmas eve came.
The girls had parts in their church’s Christmas story performance.
Skylar played Mary…
our Skylar playing the part of Mary
Little D. played and an Angel..
Our Angel playing the part of an Angel (in her new dress)
Seriously, that’s what they cast her for.
And because of the numbers of youth in our church I was even cast (voluntold) as a Wiseman!
I thought that role may really require some acting on my part…
I apologize. I have all but shut this blog down. it has just been like work trying to crank a post out lately. Like tonight, dinner, wash heads for lice on both kids, laundry, pay bills and now write. And what I have found is when I am tired my typing just goes out the window! …. have you seen it?
But I got tired of looking at the 3-year-old Christmas retread, which was my last post, every time I checked out my blog and I just had to fix that.
So I wanted to tell you about our latest trip to theMagic Kingdom in Orlando, FL that we took for a Valentine’s weekend (Mr. Romance!) and try to liven this blog up with some smiles and some color.
Actually I thought I would try to spread our trip across three blog posts as the Disney photographers and I have a gazillion photos to harass you with. Tonight, however, my eyes are already starting to close, I can’t find my typing, and the creative juices have about dried up.
So I thought I would just be your guide around Disney’s Animal Kingdom once again and let some pictures do the talking for me….
Forgive me?
Oh, and another thing, this baby probably isn’t going to get proofed to well tonight either. Its late. So all you grammar Nazi’s out there can you please cut me a break just this one time?
OK, so Valentine’s Weekend is actually a pretty big weekend at the Magic Kingdom.
Accordingly all the parks opened an hour early. BUT! Not everyone knew that! Which was pretty cool for the day we did visit the Magic Kingdom theme park.
At the Animal Kingdom we arrived about an hour early, knowing they actually let you in the park… a little ways at least, 30 minute early.
We opted to hang on the fringes of the park at the Rain Forest Cafe, browsing through their souvy shop, practiced telling the kids NO, and listened to a talking tree.
The Rain Forest Cafe is so cool, isn’t it?
Well we walked right up to the big main gate(s) by the Tree of Life as the opening hour drew near.
Tree of Life and some colorful birds flying in to open the park
The Tree of Life, I’m not quite sure what it is but it has a lot of very interesting carvings all around the tree. Our Disney photographer for the Memory Maker perk told us then, when the park opens a flock of parrots actually fly in to rest in the tree of life and that opens the park.
Say what?
Parrots fly into the Tree Of Life to open the day in the Animal Kingdom
That was pretty cool I thought. Then we turned around to start our day and almost tripped over a few Disney celebrities rough-housing a bit before the crowds got too big.
Hakuna Matata!
The Animal Kingdom is really similar to Tampa’s Busch Gardens with the animals and rides. The most sought after ride is actually a safari, the Kilimanjaro Safari. So we hit that first while we were over in Africa.
I love Africa! I love the fun African music.
These guys were fun!
While in Africa you can also walk through some large zoo like exhibits; elephants, lions, birds, gators, and even a large spread for a family of gorillas.
So you can either take a jeep ride safari or take a leisurely stroll through Africa and take your time sightseeing the animals.
But Africa is not the only thrill or continent at the Animal Kingdom for that matter. After we saw lots of the wild life in Africa we toured Asia next. Asia, now, is the place for the real thrill seeker! It is the home to Mt. Everest!
The Mt Everest Expeditionwas Skylar’s first roller coaster ride last summer. She did not like it! Maybe it was speeding to the top only to find the tracks were all torn up and mangled. Or maybe it was seeing a glimpse of the Abominable Snowman yelling and taunting us.
What ever it was, she was NOT going up the Expedition Everest ride this trip and risk life and limb!
The Expedition Everest ride is my, as well as the house favorite roller coaster at Disney. Here is a little of the Abominable and what she missed:
Yea, maybe a little intense for a five-year old.
After the ride and a creative, musical, incredible puppet-show thingy presentation of Nemo we hiked back over to Africa to one of my favorite places we ate at last June, the Tusker House.
The Tusker House is an African themed buffet. And it is really good!
Did I tell you I like an all-you-can eat buffet?
This buffet however is a Disney character themed restaurant which means some of the lovable Disney characters come over so you can get your picture taken with them.
Me and the rest of the family acting Goofy!
That also means these buffets are triple the cost of a normal buffet (get on the meal plan)
And….
AND!!!
They have a dessert buffet, filled with lots of, dozens of, hundreds of tiny desserts you can sample.
(sigh) I put on five pounds walking around Disney that weekend…
I love a dessert buffet
Yes, good people, I had a few. I had a few too many! They had to cut me off!
But everyone enjoyed the Tusker House, the good food, Disney characters and desserts. Everyone was all smiles!
We can walk it off, right?
We walked it right around the corner to the Lion King Show.
“Hakuna Matata! Right? That’s their motto!”
“Whats a Motto?”
“I don’t know. What’s a motto with you?”
This show was our family’s favorite show too. It wasn’t a musical like you would think of. It was a great monkey gymnastics, singing, circus, character shout outs extravaganza. Check this out, your kids will love it….
Well our kids did love it! Again, all smiles!
We rode a few more rides and then headed back to the Rain Forest Cafe for dinner. It was a great first day on our Valentine’s Vacation getaway (we don’t celebrate Valentines at our house.)
I have a few more days to share with you. So stay tuned. If you have any questions about visiting the Magic Kingdom, ‘where everything is magical’, let me know..
If you are like me, you check your stats regularly.
If you have two kids in your blog and are like me, you check to see what the ‘Clicks‘ are that get clicked on each day.
Today I had a bit of a surprise.
The first Click was on the poem Hug O’ War, from Shel Silverstein’s book ‘Where the Sidewalk Ends’. That poem, along with Snowball, from our past Bedtime Stories, are popular or common searches that lead people to my blog in 3D.
(take a look to the right and see)
Now, want to see a coincidence?
I clicked on the other ‘Click‘ to see what else someone clicked at….
Can you believe it? The summer is dwindling down and slipping away..
We were tying up some last family type things before the first week of school.
Last week Mom’s work had another great Family / Employee appreciation day. Her company always does a great job in making a nice outing on a Saturday. So we got all dressed up for the event.
The day was filled with fun; fun video games, fun with waterslides…
Even fun with a Talent Competition….
We had to cool down with a great Sno Ball, ahh, Sno Cone
Now when I was a kid peddling sno balls with my friend in our wagon we never gave out straws with the sno balls. Here, Skye just heads right for the syrup with her straw. If we would have handed out straws when I was a kid we could have charged for refills or had a lot more business!
The following Sunday we decided to cool off in the pool with one of our ‘soon to be famous’ Cannonball Competitions!
We had a lot of fun splashing the water out of the pool.
Yes, the pool. It’s been a long hard fight (working with contractors is a nightmare!) to get this pool up and running this summer. But it’s finally ready to use and enjoy.
She’s waited a long time for her pool…and her magic carpet ride
It looks like the pool is finally coming alive. And this is one of my favorite retreats now at night…
Hiding beneath the water, watching the cascading lights on both the floor of the pool and the ceiling of the water. Swimming peacefully alone at night has been such an escape; refreshing, relaxing and rewarding. If you are looking for me after dark (and the kids go are in bed) you might find me here.
Monday then was the first day of school! Yayyyy!
Dylan was ready……
Her ‘Bunny’ travels everywhere with her evidently..
Poor Skylar had a fever of 104 though and sat out her two first days. But after several trips to the doctors we got her feeling better and with that fun smile on her face.
Happy first day of Kindergarten Skylar!
And YOUR beginning of a great scholastic career too!
Only 16 more years till I can retire…..
Happy Weekend everyone!
Don’t forget to dance and have fun like no one is watching!
I wanted to share something that appeared in my Inbox this morning from the American Lung Association’s Event Planner, Margaret Ann Mabry:
‘Hey Andy! I hope you all are having a great week! I just looked at the stats for the Climb, and Dylan is only $15 away from $500!! I’m so impressed. Please let her know that everyone who raises $500 gets a special recognition at the Climb. I appreciate all you guys are doing! Can’t wait to see you both on Saturday.”
Margaret Ann Mabry | Development Manager
American Lung Association in South Carolina
44-A Markfield Drive | Charleston, SC 29407
Isn’t that so cool?
So I wanted to take a minute a publicly thank all our family and friends who have supported little Dylan in her fundraising efforts for the Lung Association. There have been several very very generous gifts to Dylan that have really ‘Wow’d’ us. So thank you to everyone for your kindness and love!
And $15.00 more dollars till she hits the $500 donation mark!
Can you believe that?
I have never done that. It would take me 3 years to raise that much for the ALA. She currently is the 4th highest fundraiser (follow her goal HEREor you can add to it HERE) of all the participating climbers this year. As a team, I Can Beat My Daddyis currently in 6th place, thanks largely to the love shown to Dylan.
Not bad for her first year.
And if you haven’t been following along closely, she actually did that promo spot on the local country music station,
But her first radio experience didn’t end there. She was given a tour of the radio station, shown how a radio station actually runs its music on air (very interesting I thought) and then given some radio swag like a Taylor Swift concert t-shirt….
…and the promise to go out on the radio’s customer appreciation catamaran that Sunday.
Again, pretty cool for a little 7 year old.
What Is next for this girl?
Thanks to Garrett and Margaret Ann for getting Dylan on the air! A few of you have suggested, with her fun smile and charm, she would actually be better suited for TV. Hmmmmmmm….
Wish her, I mean, us well on Saturday. And thanks again for all your generosity and the love!
YOU are awesome!
If you are interested on where all the donations go to for our Lung Association Stairclimb you can check here for the good news it brings to lung cancer suffers, clean air lovers and kids with asthma.
