dance "recital"

The girls have been taking dance on Tuesday evenings for the last couple of months. They had been dying to take a dance class for a long time, so I'm so glad we signed up.

Of course it's all about the leotard and tights and shoes (tap and ballet!). It's also about dancing with friends, so the girls were happy to share the experience with BFF and L from preschool. 

Tonight was the "recital". I put together a little mashup to send to Rob since he is traveling this week and missed it. 

We're looking forward to signing up again!

the two luckiest girls in the world

Once upon a time, two sweet, amazing little girls were born. 

And then suddenly they turned 5 years old. 

And their mother said, "how did that happen?!?!"

And the most wonderful and amazing family anyone could ask for said, let's all celebrate these spectacular girls. 

And we all said, "YES!"

---

After the girls were born 5 Novembers ago, I got it into my head that it would be fantastic to bring them to Disney World for their 5th birthday. November is great time to go; the weather is still warm, the crowd levels are low and we wouldn't have to take them out of school (just preschool). I am so glad we went ahead with the idea.

The girls are so blessed to have two amazing sets of grandparents and two awesome uncles. All of them accompanied us on our trip and it couldn't have been more perfect. We rented a 7 bedroom house 3 miles from Disney property and because each person/couple had their own bedrooms/bathrooms and we all shared a common room and pool, we all got the privacy we needed plus the group time that is so much fun.

The girls could not have been more excited for our own pool. We swam as much as we could and each of the girls showed off their amazing skills to the delight of the whole family. Little Pie was a little show off, diving for rings even when we were swimming after dark. She can't help herself but go under!

And if you ask the girls how their trip to Disney was, the first thing they will mention is that they got to sleep in a bunk bed. (After one night of sleeping on the top bunk, Little Pie determined she liked the bottom better, much to her sister's utter delight.)

Not only did we get to go on the trip with our amazing family, some other family and friends sent things with the girls to ensure they had a super special time. Magramma and Boompa send sweet cards with princess buttons and money for the girls to spend. They each picked out a princess watch (boy did we hear what time it was a lot!) and Belle and Cinderella Christmas ornaments so they will always remember this trip.

Also, BFF's mama sent some really special skirts that she MADE! The girls were sooooo excited to wear them. In fact, they thought they should wear them on the airplane. (favorite colors, red and yellow!!)

Um, is Little Bird not 16 in this picture?!?

Our first official day at the Disney parks was Sunday at Epcot to celebrate Papa's and Uncle Rye's birthdays. They were quite the sports allowing their day to basically be taken over by the girls. 

At Epcot, the girls got to meet two of their favorite princesses and the classic Disney characters, collecting all of their autographs. 

 

 When planning the trip months and months ago, I had made 6:30 reservations for our large party for dinner with the intent to watch the Illuminations show at 9. However, because Little Bird was suffering from little sleep the night before and a bit of a cold, she fell asleep at dinner and we left right after we scarfed down our food. It wasn't exactly what I was hoping for, but you can't plan everything (especially so far in advance!).

Rob and I took the girls to two parks by ourselves while the other group went to Universal Studios. We visited Magic Kingdom on Tuesday where we basically spent the day meeting characters and trying a few rides. 

We also caught a show, a parade and watched the evening fireworks display which lit up over the castle (already lit up for the Christmas season).

The four of us also visited Animal Kingdom on our own. The first thing we did was see the amazing Lion King show which was of Broadway caliber. It was pretty exciting to see. After that I was sort of let down by the place. It's like a zoo, which is fun, but the cost and crowd fighting isn't worth it. 

The safari ride was pretty cool, however, since we did get to see a lot of the animals.

We met some more characters...

And probably the coolest thing was a woman "dressed" as a tree, wandering around freaking people out.

 

Our off times from the parks were relaxed and fun. We swam, the girls played in their bunk bed room, we went out to eat, sat in the hot tub and played mini-golf. The girls had a blast with mini-golf and since nobody but us was out on the course, it wasn't stressful to get them to hurry up. 

They were super impressed with anyone who got a hole in one and requested their picture with each lucky person.

Nana got two holes-in-one!

And not to leave anybody out, the girls took pictures with the losers, um, the ones who didn't get a hole-in-one.

On November 8, the girls woke up early. They knew immediately that they were five years old. They kept saying they couldn't believe they were five. Nana, Gramma, the girls and I hopped in the car and headed to Magic Kingdom. We got to go in before the park opened because we had reservations at Cinderella's Castle for a special birthday breakfast. It was nice to walk around with a minimal crowd.

The girls met Cinderella before we sat down to eat.

While we were eating our (surprisingly delicious) breakfast, a few princesses walked around to meet and take pictures with each table.

And then the girls got a giant cupcake and we sang happy birthday to them.

We had a relaxing rest of the day wandering around Magic Kingdom with the rest of the family. Since we had had our fill of meeting characters, it was time to hit the rides. The girls were giddy to take everyone on the Carousel and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

Throughout the entire week, Little Pie was apprehensive about the rides, but she tried each one, liked each one and by the end of the week forgot she had ever been scared. We were so proud of her for trying something new. And I couldn't believe that she had declared Big Thunder Mountain Railroad her favorite ride.

The only ride she didn't go on was Splash Mountain, mostly because she was afraid of getting wet. And depending on who you were, you could have gotten soaked (Gramma) or stayed almost completely dry (me and Papa). But, Little Bird has no fear and was all set for Splash Mountain. She was giddy with excitement. She had no problem sitting in the front row, and after the ride, declared it awesome. And it was.

Our little princesses had an amazing vacation.

It was an amazing way for our little family to celebrate our girls.

And it was MAGICAL to be with everyone who loves the girls so much.

And they all lived happily ever after.

The End

welcome fall

Well, hello there. Long time no see. Just thought I would stop in with an update on our transition to the new season.

We celebrated the beginning of fall with some traditional fall activities. It certainly felt like fall this weekend and we were quite glad to partake in its festiveness.

Yikes, these two have grown like crazy.

Just how much have they grown?! Check it out!

It was such a gorgeous day and Rob and I reflected on how easy it was to be at the orchard this year, even though it was the busiest we had ever seen. We just sat back and watched them run all over the hay bales and slide down the (now pretty tiny) slides. We laughed that we used to be the parents that were scurrying around making sure their kids were safe. This year, our girls were the big kids!

The girls got painted faces again (of course they remembered from last year!). Little Bird chose her beloved frog (this time, it was catching a butterfly).

Little Pie chose a seasonally festive palm tree. Huh? She's dreaming of vacations apparently.

They rode the cow train again this year, remembering to grab their favorite cows: Gracie and Sadie (just like a couple of their babies).

The highlight of the day was picking apples ourselves. The girls kept telling Rob where the best apples were and asking him to pick them up to grab them. They thought their jobs to be very important.

Instead of heading home for dinner, we stopped at a hilarious drive-in. We had heard they had good burgers and shakes. The burgers and shakes were really good and we ended up having a blast playing after we ate. They have a cute little checkerboard dance floor and a juke box at your disposal. We danced the twist, hokey pokey and bunny hop. 

This place also had some random "toys" that anyone could play with. The girls thought it was the most fun place. Rob and I had fun too. It was fun to silly with the girls.

Also, Little Pie is an incredible Frisbee thrower. 

We're thinking about having her be our ringer for a Frisbee golf team. (Can you get scholarships for Frisbee golf?!)