Puzzles

Sophia's been putting together a few puzzles this week. Each time she gets better and needs less help. She can do the princess one all by herself. She's almost mastered the cat one. The 5 Little Monkey one is missing a piece. Can you tell?

More Florida fun

There is so many more Florida stories I need to write about while they are fresh in my mind. Here's a few of them:

One night we headed out in the minivan with Rob and Christina to Epcot to watch the fireworks show from the parking lot. We almost had a great view, but instead we saw only a few above the tree line. It was fun to eat popcorn and finally use our third row seats in their tailgate position. Here's Lilly singing one of her favorite songs, Tomorrow, from the movie Annie.



Rob, Christina, Will and I played miniature golf one night without the girls. I'm really proud to say that all my time spent working at Putters really paid off for me this time. I won! Followed by Christina...and Will and Rob tied for last place.

Trying to take this photo was fun...I mean...no it wasn't!. I think there were 3 cameras going at the same time and the kids were a bit confused.

Lilly and Jack really got along well. Sophia enjoyed playing with Madeline in the pool. Terra seemed like she always had Baby Jonas in her lap. They all really got along well together.

A fun day

This morning the girls and I went to see a movie for $1.00 each. It was called Alpha and Omega. It was a story about two wolves from the opposite ends of the social pack structure that fall in love...and all the obstacles they have to overcome. It was cute.

After lunch we went to the library for a program put on by the Virginia Aquarium. All the kids go to listen to a story, play a few games including charades (although when Sophia was selected to act out an animal, she got up there and then decided she didn't want to play). She was all about touching the HUGE hissing cockroach and the enormous African beetle though! GROSS! She thought it was cool. Lilly opted not to touch.

Sophia wants to be vet when she's older. Well she used to want to be a vet. Now she wants to be the professor who trains vets to be vets!

Baby Jonas

The girls absolutely loved playing with and taking care of Baby Jonas (or BJ as Big Daddy calls him) while we were in Florida. Lilly especially.

Lilly has always loved playing with baby dolls. She gives them bottles, pushes them in the stroller, carries them around, puts them to bed, etc... (all the normal baby doll activities)...

Well, now that she had a chance to help take care of a real baby, she calls every baby doll Baby Jonas. She told me that she misses Baby Jonas and that he's so pretty.

Three boys and their wives

Rob & Christina, Mike & Misty and Will & I went out to dinner one night...it was so much fun.

I think we would all agree that the food was just so-so, but the company was fantastic!

I wish we all lived closer and could do it more often. By the way, all the cousins got along great too. The youngest is 10 months old and the oldest just turned 13.



Rob & Christina, getting married on Sept 3rd

Mike & Misty, preparing to celebrate 5 years of marriage

Will and Shirley, 1 month shy of our 8th anniversary

Midieval Times

Big Daddy took the whole family out to Midieval Times while we were in Florida. The girls really got into it...and we bought them the $1.00 flags to wave in support of our knight....and the flags both broke before the end of the show. I guess we should have gone with the $5 flags. Either way, our knight won the battle! We sat in the black and white section. We ate chicken, garlic bread, ribs, and potatoes with our hands. We drank our soup and "gulped" our wine. The girls really thought the horses were beautiful.

Sophia picked out a stuffed cat in a carry tote. Lilly choose a purple jewel necklace. Both were big hits!

Animal Kingdom

The first time we went to Animal Kingdom we were with Grancy, Big Daddy, Rob, Christina and Baby Jonas. We actually got rained out that day. Since we really only experienced a quarter of the park that day so we decided to return. Afterall, we had to take the safari ride. It was really cool. There were so many animals for the girls to see close up.

Some funny moments from the day(s)...
1) We parked at Magic Kingdom, unloaded the stroller and almost started the long process into the park when we realized we were at the wrong park. Oops...(easy fix)
2) Lilly and Sophia spent their souvenir money. Sophia picked out a stuffed cat from the Aristocats named Marie and Lilly picked out the Princess music box that Sophia still regrets not choosing.

The vacation is over....but another one begins.....

We just spent the last two weeks either vacationing in Florida, traveling to/from Florida or recovering from our trip (by far the most taxing part)! We're finally unpacked and caught up on our sleep, but tomorrow morning our next vacation begins -- Vacation Bible School that is! It's called "Shake It Up Cafe" and the theme is cooking. I'm teaching the preschool class (3s and 4s). Twenty of them actually! Lilly will be in the class with me and he rest of the Mini Muffins. Sophia's in the rising K class this year (I still can't believe she's going to be in Kindergarten!). Her class is the Banana Splits. She's going to have so much fun.

But...I have so much to write about Florida.

We had an uneventful drive to Kissimmee, Florida. It took us 14 hours, but we stopped quite a few times and let the girls get out an roam around a bit. We left at 5 AM on Saturday (July 2). We arrived that night around 8 PM. We spent our first full day (Sunday) at the rental house just relaxing by the pool. Sophia spent the entire day in the pool. In fact, she spent almost every waking moment in the pool if we weren't at one of the Disney World parks.

We went to Magic Kingdom three times and spent two days at Animal Kingdom. We definitely could have gone back to Magic Kingdom a few more times...if nothing else but to enjoy the fireworks another time. What a spectacular show! At one point, Tinkerbell flies out of the castle on a zipline rope and glides through the night sky...granting wishes I presume.

Another one of our favorite parts was the castle show and the parades. We times it perfect on our first day at Magic Kingdom. We arrived just five minutes before the castle show was about to begin. It was a fantastic way to be welcomed into the park. Some of the Princesses made an appearance and Sophia's eyes couldn't have gotten any bigger! During the afternoon parade on the first day there a super Giant Woody (from Toy Story) stuck his finger into Sophia's ear. She grinned so big.

We also met Rapunzel on the first day. The girls danced with her and then Sophia talked to her, hugged her and had her sign her autograph book. We forgot to ask her to sign Lilly's book. Lilly was too shy to give anyone a hug or to request an autograph, but I jumped right in and asked for her in every case except Rapunzel.

Lilly's favorite things about Magic Kingdom:
The rides (literally, all of them)!
The popsicles (they're GIANT sized)!

Sophia's favorite things:
Tinkerbell flying out of the castle AND the fireworks!
Driving her first car (I pressed the gas and she steered us back and forth slamming into the middle rail with every turn. I had to smile.)
The Carousel of Progress ride (she liked the mechanical dog)


My favorites:
It's a Small World ride
Watching Sophia's face light up over and over again.
Listening to Lilly experience an amazing fireworks show! She said WOW with amazement with every burst of light in the sky. It was adorable. You can kind of hear it in this movie. You have to listen for it, but you'll hear it really loud toward the end.



In addition to Rapunzel, Sophia also got to meet the following:

Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story)

Aurora, Sleeping Beauty

Belle, Beauty and the Beast

Cinderella

Pocahontas

Jiminy Cricket

Rafiki

Pooh

Eyeore

Tigger

And Pluto and Goofy, but I can't find that picture. I think it might have gotten deleted. Boo hoo.

Magic Kingdom was awesome. I already told the girls that we would go back every 5 years. I can't wait! Here are some images from the parade and the rides that we went on...

Cousins.....