Fall Break!

Didn't school just start?  Seriously..now I'm writing about Fall Break?  That was the fastest 9 weeks ever for the girls!  It's really hard to believe the first quarter of the school year is done.  Phew!

The girls had a great first quarter.  This year seems to be a little more challenging with the new Common Core standards that state is using but the girls are doing great.  Jacob is having a great start to the Preschool year too.  We have a teacher we've had for Julia & Lily so we know her well and she knows our family well.  This year Jacob gets to do carpool for the first time and let me tell you - it's a little slice of heaven =).

So the girls are on break.  We're right in the middle of the 3 week break.  Last week we went to the beach, Emerald Isle, for a few days with Auntie Erin.  She and Tom had rented a GORGEOUS home right on the ocean and they were very generous in offering us to come for a few days to hang with them.  Unfortunately it rained and rained and poured and stormed most of the time we were there.  And even more unfortunately Erin pulled her back and was pretty much bed-ridden our entire visit.  But, we got to use the homes pool & hot tub quite a bit and got a little beach time in.  It was nice to be away for a few days.  We came home to soccer and dance and soccer and dance!

This week we're just hanging around the house.  Enjoying some playdates and sleepovers.  Apparently October didn't get the memo that it's supposed to be warm and gorgeous.  The past 3 days have been gloomy and COLD!  I had to turn my heat on!  In October!  What?!?  Anyways, the weather people have promised warmth will return tomorrow.  I hope so!  I usually love this track out because the weather is awesome!  Hmpf!

Soccer Saturdays

Three of our kids are playing soccer for our town's rec league this Fall.  This seemed like a brilliant idea back in the Spring when it was time to sign up.  Two the kids would play at the same park so surely some of their games/practices would overlap.  And soccer is always on Tues/Wed/Thurs so we shouldn't have too many conflicts.  Turns out I was wrong, dead wrong, about that!  Ha!  Turns out they got rid of an age group, added t-ball teams and a t-ball field and consolidated two soccer fields.  So the only practices that are ever at the same time are the ones at different fields.  Sigh.  Thankfully there are a couple neighborhood kids on Emma's team and we've got a carpool going.

Anyway the practice schedule may be a nightmare but the games are going great!  I'm so proud of my kiddos for playing hard each week.  Emma is playing with a bunch of girls who have clearly been playing soccer for quite some time.  She played one season when she was 4, got in the face with the ball playing goalie and hasn't played since.  She's really hanging in there with those girls and is more aggressive than I would have thought!  She enjoys playing defense and she really likes the girls she's playing with.  So far, it's been a great experience for her.

Julia is in her 3rd season.  She's doing great - mostly interested in the game and she scored her first goal of the season on Saturday!  She seems to be more interested when she's playing offense..when she's on defense it's not unusual to see her trying her cartwheels.

Jacob is playing on a U4 team.  And yeah..it's just like you imagine.  Packs of kids chasing the ball.  Maybe one or two kids really getting it and scoring and the rest of them sort of standing around or just running.  Jacob's been up and down with his interest in it.  He's disturbed when other kids kick his ball during practice but he's doing OK.  He seems very curious about baseball so maybe we'll try t-ball when he's five.

So Saturdays you'll find us at the soccer fields, cheering loudly (oh wait..that's just me) getting our game on!

Back to School

My three girls are back in school after a very fast 4 week summer vacation.  My oldest is in 4th grade, the middle daughter is in 3rd grade and my baby girl started Kindergarten.  The 4th grader is thrilled to be back in school.  She's just one of those kids who just loves, loves school.  She was a bit worried going into this school year because her besties all ended up in the class across the hall but she's made some new friends quickly and she really likes her teacher.  The teacher is young and hip and fun.  Her homework assignments are wacky "read to a pair of pants for 20 minutes" and Em thinks she's funky and cool.  

The third grader is happy to be back but won't admit it.  She's that kid that loves to be playing with friends and school is a major distraction in being able to do that.  She does like her teacher a lot and she's made some new friends in her class so it's not awful.  But she's still counting down the weeks until the next break.  

And then there's the Kindergartner.  This was her first full week of school in her class (the first week is a staggered entry and they only go one day).  She's excited to have several kids we know in her class.  The teacher is new to us and she comes very highly reviewed so we're thrilled to be in her her class.  Here are a few highlights of Julia's first week of Kindergarten:

First day:  Me:  Julia, tell me about your first day?  Julia:  "Well..I tried to kiss Sawyer (he's our neighbor and her table mate) and he fell out of his chair."  And then there was the discussion that you don't kiss anyone.  Especially at school!

Other gems from the week from Julia:  "That girl doesn't talk, only to her family so I told this other girl just to stick with me." "Kindergarten is just like preschool - we put our folder in the box and sit down and color."  "The bad thing about Kindergarten is you can't do the monkey bars.  Not until January."  "I have homework!!!  I'm so excited..I have homework just like sissies!"  LOVE this kid!!

Summer Update

So here we are..one more week of summer vacation for 3 of my kids!  This summer break FLEW by though I think 3 weeks is the perfect amount of time off of school!  One more week will be fine but I think we'll be ready for school to start on Monday.

The summer break has been great.  The girls all competed in our neighborhood swim team (go Killer Whales!).  It was our exhibition year and a great experience for the girls.  Julia was quite a little competitor in her age group, getting to swim in a few main events.  There were A LOT of 7-8 year old girls but Lily held her own and definitely improved over last year.  Emma was one of 4 9-10 year old girls and she worked really hard all summer to get better.  Once school got out she did two practices each day.  We had our swim awards this past weekend and Emma got the Most Determined Swimmer award.  She was pumped!   Julia took home "Brightest Smile"  They also all got a medal which I don't think Julia has taken off since Friday!

Emma and Lily have done a few camps this month.  Emma did a So You Think You Can Dance camp at a local studio which she loved and Lily did an art camp with two of her besties so she was in heaven.  Also they both had the opportunity to go with our church to sleep away camp - Camp Kid Jam.  It was 3 nights long at Wake Forest University and they each roomed with friends from church.  They had an absolutely fabulous time and both have resoundingly said they MUST GO BACK NEXT YEAR!  I was skeptical at first about them going away but I'm so, so glad that they got to go - such a great experience for the both of them.

So this final week of break is another camp for Emma - Science in the Summer, a free (seriously!) camp at the library and filled with appointments - eye doc and dentist.  Hopefully we can squeeze some fun it too - a few more pool days, maybe a movie and some playdates with friends.

And only 7 more days of Julia asking how long until Kindergarten!

Summer's Here!

Since my girls in year round school our summer is finally beginning for all my kids!  We're a little late to the summer party and our party will be ending in just 4 weeks that's OK with me.  We have a lot of fun to pack into these next weeks.

This week Emma and Julia got to go to Ohio with Auntie Erin for a week of Auntie Camp!  They've had a blast and we've enjoyed some quiet while they've been gone.  It's amazing how much less laundry and dishes there are!  Lily has been moving from one playdate to the other and not having to share so she's been thrilled.

For the first time the girls are doing several camps.  Thanks to Groupon, Living Social and Twongo for making camps so affordable we've been able to take advantage of some great deals.  Next week Emma will go to a dance camp while Lily will go to an art camp.  The both older girls will go to sleep away camp for the first time with our church. Then they both have a science camp at our library.  (The little kids had camp in June and Jacob will go back in August).

So in between driving the girls to camps we have some fun planned - movies, pool dates and other playdates with friends.

They go back to school July 31st so it will be a short summer but hopefully a really good one!

Emma's Dances

Lily's Dances

Julia's Ballet

Julia's Ballet Dance!

Julia's Tap

Julia's Tap Routine!

Dancing Queens

My girls had their dance recital this weekend.  Oh was it fun!  All 3 of them chose to dance this year and even though Lily lost interest about 2 months ago she hung in there until the recital (well..technically I made her since we'd purchased the costume but still..she did it).  Julia now has a little bit of performance fever and says she wants to stay in dance so she can keep doing recitals.  Emma, who dreams of being a professional dancer, was in heaven.  She was full of energy and excitement all weekend.  

Julia took a tap/ballet class and was in 2 dances in the recital.  One dance was really early in the recital and then she went again towards the end.  So she got to watch a lot of it from the audience which she loved.  She also loved coming home and watching herself dance on the computer from the video we took.

Lily took at tap/ballet/jazz combo class and was in 3 dances.  Her costume was adorable and she look absolutely precious on stage.  What she lacked in remembering the dance she sure made up for in cuteness!

Emma takes a tap/ballet/jazz combo class and is also on the pre-team (pre competitive team) class.  She was in 7 dances - three for her combo class, the opening and finale, a dance with pre-team and a solo.  Emma first mentioned that she wanted to do a solo a few months ago.  I couldn't tell if she was serious or not but apparently she'd choreographed a dance.  She set up a private lesson with her dance teacher and LuGina seemed to think it was good enough for the recital though she encouraged her to change her song.  Emma did the dance for me at home and I was impressed that she was doing it.  Fast forward to Friday - we get to the dress rehearsal and it's time for Emma to practice her dance.  I was standing there to take pictures and OH MY GOODNESS was I blown away.  I was so emotional watching my girl out there dance.  She commanded the stage, used the stage and put tons of energy into the dance.  I just couldn't believe it.  The older girls on the team were so, so sweet and gave her tons of encouragement.  She was beaming!  

Saturday was recital day.  Emma was full of nervous energy all morning.  It's a good thing she had swim team to get some energy out!  Luckily her solo was the 6th dance of the recital.  I think I was more nervous than she was though!  I was a room mom but got to sneak in the back of the auditorium to watch her solo.  Again, she completely rocked it!  Again, I was crying - I was just so proud of my baby.  Not only did she have the confidence just to get out on stage but she made up the dance and then performed it flawlessly even adding in a split she hadn't done the night before!   I think what made me so emotional was just the confidence in getting out there and performing in front of 500 people.  I am just so amazed that at 9 years old she would get out there and do it.  I hope she always has that confidence!  

I'll post videos for anyone who wants to see them!

The Graduate

My youngest daughter graduated preschool last week.  Sniff..sniff.  I am just in awe of how quickly those years passed.  It really feels like it was yesterday that she started at preschool.  It also means that it was 5 years ago that we moved back to NC after living in MA.  I have such fond, fond memories of living there.  It's so hard to believe it was 5 years ago that we left.

After the graduation day here's the conversation I had with her:

Julia:  So I'm graduated Preschool now?
Me:  Yes!  Isn't that exciting?
Julia:  So Kindergarten starts tomorrow?
Me:  No baby..you're on summer break now.
Julia:   So Kindergarten starts the next week?
Me:  No..it starts on August 1 for you.
Julia:  WHAT?  NO!  That's a long, long time!
Me:  It's not that long..only 2 months
Julia:  But..that means I'm just home with you..it's forever..........................

Hmm..I have a feeling these next 2 months are going to fly.....

12 Years!

Sunday was our actual anniversary - 12 years!  It was wonderful to spend the weekend celebrating in style!  NYC is where we got engaged and we've been there together a number of times for special getaways.  Even better to wake up in the Presidential Suite!  

I slept in again and enjoyed a lazy morning.  Our flight was leaving at 4:45 so we had some time to do some exploring and decided to go out to Brooklyn to hang out with my brother and sister-in-law.  We took a cab out  to Brooklyn and got to see their apartment.  Real estate in the greater NYC area never ceases to amaze me!  Their apartment is in a very charming brownstone (the whole area reminded me of The Cosby Show setting - gracious I'm OLD).  It was at one time a single family home but has turned into 4 or so apartments.  Like I said it's very charming but a little old and smallish.  And their rent is comparable to our mortgage payment!  Yikes!  

We walked to a great restaurant where we had brunch.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day so we got to sit outside.  After great eats (maple bacon pancakes!) we set our for a nice walk around before we had to leave for the airport.  I loved Brooklyn!  I'd guess if, God forbid, we ever had to move to NYC I'd pick Brooklyn.  I love how you can walk everywhere!  We walked down to the promenade and what a view.  A great day!

We had arranged for a car to pick us up for the airport and we made it in plenty of time for our flight.  What a wonderful, wonderful weekend!!

I Heart NY

Ahh...got to sleep late in the heavenly room!  Paul got up and worked while I took advantage of not having kids bound in my bed at 6:45.  We grabbed a quick breakfast at the Concierge Lounge and took our time getting ready before heading out to explore the city.  We had tickets for the matinee of Sister Act and early dinner reservations but otherwise we had no agenda.  Last year we discovered Sprinkles Cupcake Bakery and it's relatively close to the hotel so we started the morning with cupcakes..I know..breakfast of champions.  

After we loaded up on sugar we headed up to 5th Ave and hit some popular shops.  FAO Schwartz, Bergdof's, Tiffanys (where my sweet husband completely indulged me) and American Girl (for the girls, of course) to name a few.  We made our way over to Times Square and hit the Disney Store.  It was under construction last year so I was interested to see what they had done to it.  In true Disney fashion it's pretty cool.  Anyways we nabbed some goodies for the kids and set off to find our theater.  We grabbed a quick snack before the show at Pieface, a cutie little joint right beside the Broadway Theater.  

Our seats were orchestra level which was great.  We were on the side but still good seats.  We thought the show looked good and Raven-Symone was the lead (Olivia!).  We had some very spirited ladies sitting behind us..they were very excited to be at a show and liked to comment on nearly every line.  At first they were pretty funny but their constant commentary got old.  Fast.  Fortunately the first act was great and fortunately the theater wasn't full.  At intermission Paul darted to some open seats and we relocated for the second act.  The show was fabulous.  Funny, entertaining and Raven is extremely talented.  She far exceeded my expectations.  We really really enjoyed it!

After the show we headed back over to our hotel to drop off our packages.  It sure seemed shorter on the map!  We dropped off our stuff and headed towards Lincoln Center to Rosa Mexicana where we had early dinner reservations.   We first ate at Rosa Mexicana last year with my family.  Paul can't stop thinking about their guacamole which happens to be The. Best. Guacamole. EVER.  They make it fresh right there at your table.  Seriously the stuff is appetizer crack.  So so good.  They also have delicious Sangria.  We were in heaven.  

After dinner we leisurely strolled back to the hotel.  Stopping at Wafels & Dings food truck, which Paul had really wanted to find last year.   We popped in a few stores but took our time getting back.  We got back to the hotel and chilled in our suite.  Pefect day!

The Big Apple - Day 1

Paul and I were lucky enough to get away to New York this past weekend to celebrate our 12 year anniversary.  My mom is so amazing at watching the kids - we are so, so lucky to have her willing and available to keep them (for the record, the rest of our family is pretty great too - Mom just happened to be the "lucky" one who got them this time).   We left them in capable hands and flew out on the first flight out Friday morning. Folks we got to NYC at 7:30 - that's how early our flight was (yawn).  Paul charmed the airline worker and somehow we got upgraded to First Class on the way up.  It was fabulous but hard to enjoy the full extent of first class goodness (i.e. cocktails) at 6am but it was a comfortable ride.  We got a taxi right away after landing at Laguardia and headed into the city!

We dropped off our luggage at the hotel and started walking around.  Our ultimate destination was South Street Seaport to the TKTS booth so we could see about getting discounted tickets to a Broadway show on Saturday afternoon.  We walked for a while stopping to indulge at Magnolia Bakery and finally we gave up and got a taxi the rest of the way.  We arrived at the booth 45 minutes before it opened and there was already a small line.  The wait was uneventful and we ended up scoring tickets to see Sister Act the next day.  We had lunch reservations at 12:30 at Gramercy Tavern so began the trek back toward midtown.  We got to walk through Chinatown and Little Italy on our walk.  It was pretty interesting and a little long.

Paul wanted to lunch at Gramercy Tavern after seeing special on it on the Travel Channel.  Apparently it's a pretty famous restaurant in the city.  It was good but it took a VERY long time to finish our meal...like hours.  Like twice they came over and said our timing seems to be off.  But, they ended up taking Paul's meal off our bill and giving me a free dessert so..you know..whatever.  After lunch we headed back to hotel to check in.  We were staying at the Waldorf Astoria (Paul travels a lot  = points = free stays = benefit to traveling).  We go to the Diamond Reception (see above..lots of travels) to check in.  We have to wait for a bit but finally they get to us.  There's some back story here which is really long and involved but let's just summarize by saying that last year we stayed there and it wasn't great so they invited us back.  We're checking in and the girl looks at our reservation and she's all like "oh my...Jordan really hooked you up, you're going to be surprised..I can't believe how much he hooked you up."  Paul and I keep looking at each other like "okay" what does this mean.  Finally Jordan, the manager, comes by and has to go specially make our keys (what the what??) and he escorts us to our room.  People we were on the 35th floor in the Presidential Suite.  Like THE Presidential Suite...apparently all the presidents who come to NYC to the Waldorf stay in this room.  It was CRAZY.  Ridiculous.  Like several thousand square feet.  A dining room.  Kitchen.  Seriously I'll do a separate post on this one.  So incredibly nice.  Paul and I kept looking at each other like "you sure you got the right people"  and "really..us??"  Insane.  And they sent up a bottle of wine.  We felt like we won the lottery!  We hung out in the room for a while contemplating if we were ever leaving but we managed to get in touch with my brother and made plans to meet up with him and his wife in Little Italy for drinks/dinner.

We took the subway to meet them which was an interesting experience.  We navigated the way pretty easily thanks to my brothers directions.  We found the restaurant with ease and enjoyed our time with Brad & Ginnie.  Brad was competing in a Tough Mudder race on Saturday and we had such an early morning that we didn't stay out too late but really enjoyed catching up with them.  We took the subway back and managed to make it to the hotel successfully!

Black and White

The other day I enjoyed some time with the older girls while the little ones were in preschool. We had gone to the bakery for a little treat before picking the little devils up. While we were walking back to the preschool started a conversation that turned pretty funny. It went down like this:

Lily (7): Mommy, what kind of shoes did you wear back in the old days?

Me: I don't know...tennis shoes, flip flops..

Lily: YOU had flip flops?

Emma (9): Yeah but they were in black and white..like everything else...

Me: What? no..there was color..

Lily: You mean houses had color? Clothes had color?

I think Emma got confused looking at old pictures with my mom that because the pictures were black and white that meant the world was black and white...Oh..is it funny to hear their thoughts.

Debarkation Day

Well our last day of vacation came on Thursday. We were all sad to have to be heading home. Debarkation day begins very early in the morning with a 6:45 breakfast seating. Ugh it was hard to get up! We ate a good breakfast and said goodbye to our sweet serving team. I tell you 14 people at a table kept them busy with our seating! We got our luggage and through customs pretty quickly. And we were in the parking lot ready to leave by 8:00am! We said goodbye to Emma at the port as she was going to spend a few days at Camp Gagi. So the 5 of us piled in the car and headed north!

It wasn't too far into the trip when we needed some more coffee and we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts (Paul was really needing his coffee!). We happened to run into Tom & Erin at the gas station! We sort of caravaned with them for a bit until we got separated.

All in all the trip home wasn't awful. We did encounter some heavy traffic in SC but otherwise it was just long. We arrived home about 6pm.

We loved the vacation, loved the company! We can't wait to sail with Mickey again!!

Day At Sea

Our last full day on the cruise was a day at sea. Again, we slept late which was great. The kids needed it! Julia finally decided to get her hair braided so we got that scheduled. Paul and I also had reservations to eat at Palo, the adult only restaurant on board. It was delicious! After lunch Erin and I did a wine tasting which was very interesting. Then Emma & I did the Midship Detective Agency..where we solved the mystery of the missing puppies. The kids spent some time in the kids clubs which they really enjoyed. Emma just loved being up there. Jacob did too - which was great for all of us. While I was about the ship Paul and my mom hung out with the kids at the pool. We all met up for Bingo where Papa John was the big winner of the afternoon bringing home the ship jackpot! Jacob, however, was the biggest sleeper - literally falling asleep sitting up during the Bingo game! Poor guy - 7 days of Disney related activities and he just couldn't hang anymore.

Dinner was great as usual and after dinner Emma and Jacob again went to the kids clubs. Erin, mom and I took the other girls to Believe. I just love, love this show and so did everyone who was with us. It's just such a sweet show! After dinner we did some last minute shopping before the "Sea You Real Soon" finale show that the characters do. It's a sweet time and gave us a last opportunity to see some characters we'd missed earlier in the week like Tiana and Chip & Dale and Pluto. The girls loved it and were a little sad to know it was our last night on the ship. Paul and Jacob were pretty tired so they left us before the little show. Such a great day!

Castaway Cay/Pirate Night

Tuesday was my favorite day of the cruise: Castaway Cay. I love, love, love Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. It's also Pirate Night which is always fun. We got a late start out to the beach due to some very sleepy kids. Can't blame though - we've been keeping them going on this vacation! We finally made it out the island late morning and met up with Erin & Tom. We got our spot on the beach and the kids immediately ran into the water. And, luckily, Emma and Lily's new friends found us on the beach! The girls all had a great time playing and swimming together. We ate lunch together and after lunch Gagi found us. We didn't do much on the island since everyone was having such a great time just playing in the water and on the beach. Such a great day and the weather could not have been nicer!

We got back to the ship, played bingo and then got ready for Pirate Night. Such a fun night with lots of folks getting into the spirit and dressing up like a pirate. Paul and Jacob had pirate t-shirts, the girls weren't too interested and I dressed up a little. Jacob apparently had a really big day and literally feel asleep at the dinner table. None of our kids have done that before but literally we looked up and he was asleep. He spent most of dinner in Paul's lap getting a good snooze. That actually worked well though since it was going to be another late night.

After dinner we headed up for Mickey's Pirate Party. The kids all went to the kids club and Erin and I got some bff time until I got paged to go get them. Jacob and Emma decided to stay in the club longer but Julia & Lily wanted to hang with us (who wouldn't). So we took the girls shopping. I'm not sure what it is about those shops onboard - I could continue to shop in them all day long! After a bit of shopping it was time to go up on deck for the Fireworks! Always a fun show - Disney does fireworks right! The kids were excited and loved it more that they got to see their new friends up on deck. The show was fun and the music was great. The kids totally wore out though - you know they are tired when they ask to go to bed!

Nassau

The first full day of our cruise was a port in Nassau. We hadn't planned any excursions we didn't have to be any where at any certain time which was really nice. Lily got her hair braided that morning so after that we were free to explore. Lily ended up spending the morning with Tom & Erin on the island and the other kids went to the kids clubs so that left Paul & I with some time to explore. We took care of some Disney Vacation Club business then headed out. We had a couple shopping destinations in mind so we knew where we were headed. Nassau is OK but nothing special to me. I'd like sometime to go to Atlantis but next cruise if we don't do that I'll stay on the ship!

After a brief walk around Nassau we headed back to the boat for lunch. We collected the kids, ate and then headed up to the pool where we met up with Gagi, Erin & Lily. Paul and Tom wanted to go to a movie so that left us girls and the kids. The kids met up with their new friends and loved playing in the pool. Emma & I rode the Aquaduck together. The whole time she was screaming and saying "I want to get off..this is too scary." Then we got off and she said "let's go again!" Apparently we weren't the only folks who don't love Nassau because the pools got very crowded! We played all afternoon and that was great!

After the pool it was time for dinner. After dinner Emma, Lily and Jacob all went to the kids clubs. The girls met up with their friends again. The rest of us watched the Villains show. Another fun filled day!!

Cruise Day!

Sunday morning = Cruise Day!! We packed up at All Star Music and had one more character meal before heading to Port Canaveral. We went over to the Grand Floridian to 1900 Park Fare for the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast. It's a buffet and features Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. The character interactions were great. Jacob loved seeing Pooh and Tigger and the Mad Hatter. He was not too keen on Alice or Mary Poppins. This disturbed Mary Poppins who was smitten with Jacob. She kept coming back to our table to try to get Jacob to talk to her. It never worked. Pretty funny. The kids enjoyed the interactions. I thought the food was good (yummy strawberry soup), Paul thought it wasn't his favorite but a fun morning. We love the Grand Floridian too - so beautiful! We also had some snack credits to use up so we popped into the Polynesian to use up those credits (still not sure how we had so many left). Then it was Port Canaveral or bust!

Our arrival time was scheduled for 11 - 11:30. We arrived right at 11am and got into the building pretty quickly. We got our key cards and we were boarding group 3..definitely an advantage in checking in online early. We thought about getting in line to get the kids registered for the kids clubs but it was so long we figured we'd wait until we got on the ship. We only waited maybe 15 minutes and then they called our boarding group. We were on the ship by 11:30! We walked around a bit and then headed up for to the kids clubs so we could register the kids. It didn't open until noon but we waited and met a nice family from California who had girls the exact same ages as Emma & Lily. The girls bonded pretty quickly and wanted to hang out the whole cruise. We finally got the kids registered and let them explore the amazing kids clubs areas. I wasn't sure Jacob was ever going to come out of Andy's room!

By the time we finished up there Erin & Tom had boarded! We met up with them and headed for lunch in Enchanted Garden. Gagi and Grampy were also on board so we met up with them too. After lunch our rooms were ready so we went to check them out. We had 2 adjoining inside staterooms and it was perfect for our family. The kids loved the virtual portholes! We went to a DVC Member meet up and got some fun goodies. And before we knew it it was time for the safety drill then the Sail Away party and dinner!

We met up with whole traveling party at dinner - Nana, Papa John, Mimi & Waggy, Gagi & Grampy and Erin & Tom. It was nice that we all got to sit together and we loved our servers! After dinner Emma & Jacob went to play in the kids clubs and then Julia, Lily, Paul and I went to the Golden Mickey's show. It's a fun show and the girls really liked it. It was a pretty late by that point so we finally collected Jacob and Emma - who didn't want to leave and headed back to our room. The kids always love coming back at night and seeing the bunk beds set up. A great day and a great way for our vacation to continue!

Epcot

Epcot was up for our Saturday adventure. Grampy decided he'd had enough of Disney for a while but Gagi was interested in coming along so she met us at our resort that morning. We had late(r) dinner reservations so we decided we didn't need to be there before opening - we'd just get there when we got there. We got to the park about 30 minutes after opening and it was a madhouse to get through bag search. Luckily Paul didn't have a bag and he took a few of the kids, got a stroller and headed to the Land to get Fastpasses for Soarin'. We finally met up over there and decided to the boat ride thing since there was no line before we had breakfast in their food court. The Living the Land was a cute ride - very interesting to see what Disney is doing with some of the crops. We then ate some breakfast in the food court..yummy cinnamon rolls!

We headed over to the Seas and did the Nemo ride and Turtle Talk with Crush - oh that's soo cute! We got a surprise after that when Tom & Erin decided to join us for the day! We had lunch reservations at Coral Reef and it was already lunchtime so we headed over. Luckily they were able to accommodate all of us. While we didn't get a great table we could still see the large aquarium. The food was good (the service..eh) but overall a good lunch. After lunch it was time for Soarin..one of our favorites. Emma decided to sit that one out so it was Paul, Lily, Julia and I. The girls loved it! After Soarin' Paul and Lily got to do Test Track (notice that Lily is first in line for all the thrill rides!). We then hit the World Showcase!

Unfortunately we only made it to Norway when a storm came up. We waited in the covered seating by the Norway bakery for a bit but it was so windy that we were still getting wet. So we holed up in the bakery for another bit..which was really fun with 4 kids. The rain let up a bit so we quickly walked to China where we walked through the shops for a while. Thankfully I had my trusty ponchos (Paul and Erin continually mock me for always bringing ponchos in my park bag but we finally needed them!) and we got them out and headed to Germany when the rain let up some more. We ate some snacks in Germany (darn you Werther's store and your caramel heaven) and waited some more for the rain to go away. Gagi decided she'd had enough of this and bailed on us. Thankfully the rain did finally let up and the sun came out. It ended being beautiful (and much cooler vs hot the day before) but it did take about 2 hours out of our day..boo. We continued around the World Showcase and got our Kim Possible Communicuffs. The girls LOVED doing this. All the action was in England but it was really cute and they were thrilled to solve the mystery. Tom & Erin left us at this point to go get some dinner. We still had some time to kill before our reservations at Le Cellier so we wandered back to Imagination and did Captian EO (mostly so we could sit down for a few minutes) and the Journey into Imagination. It was close to dinner time and we found a little playground so the kids could run for a bit (seriously not sure how they still had energy to run but whatever).

Our dinner was at Le Cellier and we were pretty excited to eat there after all I've heard about it. It did not disappoint. The food was so, so good! We had this delicious pretzel bread to start. Yummy goodness! The steak was just fabulous. Honestly, I thought the service was not spectacular but all in all a great, great meal. I had hoped to stay for Illuminations after dinner but Paul was exhausted and really ready to head back so we did. It was actually pretty smart since the buses get crowded after the fireworks. Unfortunately there was an accident and we had to wait a while on the bus but we finally made it back. Another great day!

Magic Kingdom

The kids slept great and everyone woke up in a good mood for our adventure to Magic Kingdom. We had breakfast reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table. I figured with the girls being 9, 7 and 5 my time for them to want to have breakfast with princesses is really dwindling and I really wanted Julia to remember seeing them. We didn't tell the kids where we were eating just that we were going to the MK for breakfast. Luckily our reservations were at a time that we got in early to MK but didn't have to get up too early!

I just love walking into Magic Kingdom early in the morning! I don't know..I'm such a Disney nerd that just walking in takes me to a happy place. It was great to get pictures of the kids in front of the castle without a gazillion people behind us. We get to the castle to check in and were a few minutes early and since it was right when the park opened we sent Paul on the first Fast Pass mission of the day: Space Mountain. We got in line for pictures with Cinderella (advantage to being a family of 6? Two photo packages! Score!). We got one with the girls and Cinderella (Jacob refused to participate) and then we did a whole family one. Then we promptly got to go upstairs for our meal. We at there before for lunch but this was our first breakfast. The food was very good and I especially loved how our served called me "Queen." Julia was in heaven - she loved, loved seeing all the princesses and even my "we're over princesses" older girls were pretty excited to get autographs and have their pictures taken with them! Jacob was pretty entertained too - I think it was the plastic sword that sold him on the experience. He took pictures with some of the princesses but not all. Snow White was pretty smitten with him and left a huge lipstick mark on his forehead where she kissed him. Pretty cute.

After breakfast we headed to Space Mountain. I rode first with Lily and Paul was going to ride with Julia. However, after I did it I thought it might be a little too much for Julia so Lily got to ride twice. She loved it. Meanwhile we got to see Stitch who tried to eat Jacob's pen. Which freaked Jacob out and he then refused to get his picture with him. Every time we saw Stitch Jacob said he had too many teeth and was going to bite him. We also had a another surprise - Gagi and Grampy joined us for the day! They had also come to FL early and decided to come with us. We were grateful for the help since it was a super crowded day and that brought our adult to kid ratio up to 1:1. Even though the park was super crowded we were still able to do quite a bit of rides without waiting in too many lines. Thank goodness for Fastpasses! We did Peter Pan, Small World, Buzz Lightyear (Jacob loved, loved this), Jungle Cruise, rode the train and saw some favorite characters. We did sucked into waiting forever to see Fairies. The girls really really wanted to see the fairies - when we got to the meet & greet the line was 20 min - it was hot and it was in the shade so we decided to wait. Well turns out the 20 minutes was about 50 minutes..a family of 20, yes 20 had one person wait in line then they all came when it was time to see the fairies. Really, really annoying. Turns out the 2 fairies we saw were Tinkerbell and Terrence. While it was a good meet & greet - the characters were fun and interactive - I'd have not preferred to spend an hour out of my day there! Oh well..the girls were thrilled! We also got to spend some time shopping which made Lily pretty happy. That girl loves to shop. We had some fun snacks at the Main St. Bakery and then said goodbye to Gagi and Grampy.

We had plans to meet up with some great friends for dinner at the Wilderness Lodge. We met them on our cruise last year and they were spending a couple days at Disney after their family cruise so the timing was great. We rode the boat over to the Lodge - Jacob loved this - funny how the monorail, train and boat were some of his favorites. Our friends have 3 kids, including a girl who is the same age as Lily. It took the girls a bit to get to know each other but then they had a great time together. We ate at Whispering Canyon which we loved! It's a fun place to eat and the kids meals included milkshakes to drink which they really enjoyed. It's one of those restaurants where the servers are entertaining and it's very loud..so it was perfect for our families! The food was good too. After dinner we hung out in the lobby catching up with our friends for a long time. We'd considered going back to MK for the fireworks (or at least me & the girls) but we ended up going back to Animal Kingdom Lodge where our friends were staying to see the resort and hang out some more. By the way Animal Kingdom Lodge is gorgeous! We walked out the back deck where there was a cast member handing out binoculars. You could see some giraffes hanging out. So cool! We really enjoyed hanging out with the Cohens - good food and great company!!

Our friends had a car so they drove us back to our resort which was nice. And of course the kids were beyond exhausted but what a great day!

Get Up We're Going to Disney World!!

We'd been planning our vacation for this year forever. It was a 4 night Disney cruise - you know we LOVE a Disney cruise and a bunch of our family decided to tag along. Literally we started planning over a year ago s it seemed forever in the making! About 7 months ago when Disney announced Free Dining for March dates I mentioned to Paul that, in the name of research for my job, we ought to go down to Florida a few days early and go to the parks. Since we've cruised the past few Disney vacations we've had it's been a while since we've been to the parks. Paul initially dismissed my idea but eventually came around (as is true of most of my ideas), since it was, you know, in the name of research for my job (i.e. tax write off). We decided to keep the extra trip a secret from the kids which was really easy to do up until the day before we left! Ha! At exactly 7am 180 days before our trip I made all our dining reservations and scored some of the hottest restaurants in all of Lake Buena Vista. Then the countdown began.

Erin & Tom decided to come down a few days early too and then they decided to drive to FL and our house happened to be a good stopping point and saved them some $$ on a hotel room. So they arrived on Wed. 3/28. We told the kids they were just stopping by on their way to Disney and Lily promptly started begging to go with them. I started packing that day (I told the kids I might as well pack since I was doing laundry and they seemed to buy it). It was a bit hard to sneak extra clothes into a separate suitcase and all was going swimmingly until the 9 year old had to ask. I told her I was breaking up the clothes in case a bag got lost. She looked slightly perplexed but didn't ask further questions. Phew!

Erin & Tom arrived at dinner time and we enjoyed a nice visit with them that evening as we packed up the car after the kids went to bed. The plan was to be up at 4am and leave in time to be at Dunkin Donuts for their 5am opening to get donuts and coffee for the road. We got up and got the last minute stuff packed and then began the rounds of waking up the kids. We started with Lily and I really wanted to video the whole thing but I'd already packed the little video camera (which I never used) so I tried my phone. Needless to say it didn't come out good. Boo hoo. Anyway..Paul woke up Lily and said "we decided to go ahead and go to Disney today..want to get up and go?" She sort of looked at him funny then said Ok and gave him a hug. It was pretty cute. I think had she been more awake we'd have had some more excitement but it was 4:35am. Next we woke up Emma and Julia and they pretty much had the same reaction.."ok..let's go." Then we got Jacob and just put him in the car. Paul had this great idea that they were going to just go back to sleep since it was so early. Apparently he'd forgotten these were our children he was talking about...the no sleep in the car kids. And 5 minutes after we started the journey they were wide awake and Emma was talking a mile a minute. Good plan pops.

Thankfully we had Erin and Tom caravaning with us. So the girls ended up switching cars and every stop mixing it up quite a bit. We had a lot of stops too but we made it, without incident to Walt Disney World by about 3:30pm! We weren't staying at the same resort so we bid farewll to them at their resort, Coronado Springs and then we headed to our luxurious accommodations at the All Star Music Resort. The family suite we stayed in was not fancy but fit the bill and the kids loved it! Two kids shared a bed - Jacob & Emma and Lily & Julia both got pull outs.

For dinner Thursday night we went to O'Hana at the Polynesian. Oh. My. Goodness was it good. Now we knew we were headed to Disney in the middle of Spring Break madness but I have to say it wasn't as bad as I expected. We arrived a few minutes before our scheduled dinner time and promptly at the scheduled time they called us back. O'hana has some really delicious food and the service was excellent. It quickly became one of our favs at Disney!

After dinner we rode the monorail back to Magic Kindgom and then the bus to our resort where Julia promptly fell asleep. It was a really long day but we were all so happy to be there it didn't matter. Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly and excited about our next day adventure to Magic Kingdom.

She's 9

My oldest turned 9 this week...9...I still can not believe it. How did she get to 9 so quickly. Isn't it funny how when you are going through certain stages you think it lasts forever yet looking back it really went by fast. She was only an only child for a short time so honestly her babyhood is a blur. Those poor first-borns it's all trial and error and I remember as much as I wanted that baby girl I had no idea what I was doing with her. Poor thing. Despite us she's turned out to be a fabulous young lady - very sweet and nurturing. Kind to everyone (who is not her parents or brother or sisters). Tries hard. Loves to dance. Loves school. While it's sad in a way that the years are passing so quickly I'm excited to see what the future holds for her.

In the Car

So we're in the car yesterday morning after being at running club (the kids..not me) and Jacob and Julia start talking a mile a minute. It goes something like this:

Julia: Mommy...where are we going now?

Jacob: Mommy..what are we doing?

Julia: Mommy..I'm hungry

Jacob: Mommy..I need a drink..

Jacob: Mommy....Mommy...Mommy...um...what can we do?

Me: Stop saying mommy - I'm right here - just talk to me...stop starting every single sentence with Mommy...

(pause)

Jacob: Ms Lori...I'm hungry

Abandonment

I feel like I've unintentionally abandoned my blog! Ugh! I had such good intentions for really keeping it up this year and yeah...that so has not happened. What has happened? Jacob stopped napping (I know..I'm still in mourning), my workload increased, no cleaning fairies stopped by my house, I have no house elves to make dinner and apparently these 5 other people I live need me to cook for them or they will starve, my kids like to do activities and I can't say no to volunteering. That, in a nutshell, sums up my life. Or in one word: busy. Unfortunately blogging is at the bottom the to-do list.

Today, however, I find myself with a bit of time this morning. Rarely on a Saturday is there no where we have to be and a certain time. And it's only a couple more weeks of this since soccer season is about to start and then we move right into swim season.

So..I'm playing catch up this morning. I have a few blog-worthy stories to tell so here goes....

Finally Friday

Whew..it's been a long 2 weeks. Paul's traveled 3 nights last week and 3 nights this week. That makes for a long week. Single parenthood is not for the faint of heart. At all. Thankfully he's home for the next few weeks. I think.

So..what's been going on with us? Lily got her hair cut last night. Probably her 6th haircut in her 7 1/2 years. She wanted a big haircut. So Paul took her when he got home last night and cut probably 5"(if not more) off her beautiful blonde curly hair. It's still blond and beautiful but not as curly, more wavy looking now. I didn't think I was attached to her hair but apparently, I was. I miss the long hair. It's going to take a long time for me to get used to her with shorter hair. And I told Julia she was never getting a haircut. Ever.

We're in throes of Girl Scout cooking selling & delivering. The weekends have been busy with Cookie Booths and trying to deliver the 200+ boxes of cookies in our dining room. And keeping the children from eating full boxes of cookies at one sitting.

We're also in the middle of our big fundraising campaign for our school. We do 2 fundraisers a year - a carnival in the fall and Boosterthon Fun Run in the Spring. It's going well and the girls are loving it. Thanks to all our family who has supported them!

Work is going well for me - I'm incredibly thankful for all the referrals I've been getting. I can't thank my friends enough!

Oh - Paul got a promotion - he's a Regional Compliance Manager now - a step up from what he was doing before. It will be less travel but also less flexibility in his schedule. It's all good though!!

I think that's about it - a quick update on us!

Fabulous 5

Julia is finding 5 to be the perfect age. As the youngest girl in our family she's often trying to do everything her big sisters do. Now that she's turned 5 and on her way to kindergarten (in 6 months as reminds me often) she's found a confidence to tackle some physical things her sisters can do. First, the monkey bars. She's longed to do the monkey bars on our neighborhood playground for years. She's watched her two sisters master them and she couldn't wait to try them. Since we're having the weirdest, warmest"winter" we hit the playground the other day. She said:"I'm 5..it's time to try the monkey bars." She did and she crossed them. Quickly. Like she's been doing it all her life.

This week another, Win-Spring-ter day she decided she was ready to ride the 2 wheeler. She's tried on a couple other occasions but just wasn't quite there. I hear her call me from the garage.."Mommy, come help me ride the 2 wheeler. (pause) That's OK Mommy, I don't need your help." I go out there and she's riding the 2 wheeler. Like she's been doing it for months. And fast. Still a little trouble braking but she's got the concept. Her sisters were impressed and I think a little shocked. They quickly did the math and realized they were 6 (and well into Kindergarten or First Grade) when they learned to ride.

Clearly this kid has some motivation. Now on to learning to read..her next goal!

5 Years Ago

Five years ago I was laying in a hospital bed in Milford, MA staring at this precious, tiny baby girl who came exactly on her due date and changed our lives in ways we couldn't imagine. Her story actually starts over 6 years ago when we decided that we were ready to go for it in terms of having a 3rd baby. Why not? I always wanted a big family I told Paul. Also adding, you know it has to be even numbers so if we have a 3rd we're also having a 4th. Somehow Paul agreed and we got lucky - so lucky, getting pregnant the first time trying. All was swell until I went in for my 12 week appointment and they couldn't find the babies heartbeat. Worst day of my life. Fast forward 3 months and we figured I'd healed (at least physically) and we'd try again. I got pregnant again. I was MUCH more cautious and I'm sure drove Paul absolutely crazy. I refused to do anything strenuous (like vacuuming) until I was like 24 weeks pregnant. And with 2 toddlers at home it was interesting to say the least. It was also winter, in New England with my family in NC and my husband working over an hour away from our home. I've never had so much anxiety. I begged, pleaded and even scored my OB a wii (this was 5 years ago when they were new and very in demand) to try to get her to plan my induction so I would know exactly when this precious baby would be born. No luck. As usual, God had different plans in mind. It was the weekend before my due date and my mom came up - thinking surely I would have the baby soon. Thankfully her timing was perfect. On Monday night we went to bed like usual. I remember a few days before having contractions but they never got organized. That night I awoke about midnight (gee..the older she gets the harder it is to remember the little details) with some contractions. They were pretty tough but I remember not wanting to wake Paul up just yet. Finally I decided to wake him up and have him help time them to see if this was it. This part I'll never forget - he got up to go to the bathroom and heard a POP. I had no idea what it was but I ran to the bathroom and realized it was my water breaking. Thankfully I made it to the toilet! Ha! I remember yelling to Paul to call the doctor and having to repeat the number several times. I then remember going to tell my mom we were leaving and heading to the hospital. I think was around 2:30am (ish). I remember that on the car ride the contractions started hurting in a way that I had never felt and as soon as we walked into the ER I begged them to call for my epidural. I got settled in a room and asked everyone who walked near me to please, please get the epidural. The doctor came in to check on me and I wasn't dilated too much. Finally I got the epidural (though it seemed like it took forever. It did not.). And literally about 20 min after I got the epidural I needed to push. And a few minutes later our precious baby was born.

We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl with her. Emma (who was 3 at the time) was convinced it was a girl. She would tell anyone it was a girl and her name was going to be Julia. When we did indeed have a baby girl it only seemed right to name her Julia. Claire was just a name we liked and it seemed to fit. On January 23, 2007 at 4:31am Julia Claire was welcomed into our family.

Fabulous Forty!

My dear husband turned 40 on the 18th. 40. Oh my. Not that I AT ALL think 40 is old since I clearly knocking on 40's door but wow..just how did time pass that quickly that many of my friends are turning 40. I vividly remember my parents turning 40 and now that's us?? Can't. Get. Over. It.

But anyway, I digress...my husband. 40. So I decided I needed to throw him a party. A surprise party. Yes..this was a good idea. I had toyed with the idea for months but kept putting it in the back of my mind since January was so far away. Ha. Once you get to December 1 January gets here in about a blink of an eye. But I managed to get a date, do a Facebook event and mentally start preparing. I'm so bad at being sneaky so this was really hard for me. Thankfully my BFF agreed to come to town to help me with everything. Thanks to pinterest we got some great ideas. And many thanks to my friend Angela who made the most amazing cake! Everything was set! The hard part was keeping Paul out of the house for the day. Thankfully his work was busy and we had planned for him to pick up Emma from camp and take her to her dance class. We decide that we are going to send him for pizza before he comes home. We decide on Mellow Mushroom knowing they will be super busy on a Friday night and we were right. I get some angry texts from Paul about how busy they were all the while giggling about it with our friends!

Finally he makes it home and I think he was a little surprised! Not shocked but surprised. He said he had an inkling that something was going on - I think I called him one too many times that day at work. Nonetheless it was a great evening with great friends celebrating Fabulous 40!

We celebrated on Saturday evening with dinner at the Melting Pot with Erin and Tom. What a treat! So yummy!

His actually birthday was a little quieter - we met for lunch at Tribecca Tavern. For dinner we grilled steaks and had some of his favorite sides: grilled Brussels sprouts and cheesy grits. And it was the 10 year anniversary of the German Chocolate Cake. A very great night! I hope his year is off to a great start!

Winter Break

I can't believe it's 3 weeks into the new year and I haven't blogged yet. Clearly I'm not doing well on my resolution to keep up the blog better! Fail! Oh well..I'm going to play a little catch up this morning on what's been happening at our house since the start of the year.

Track Out. That's pretty much it. My older kids have not been to school since Dec. 21. Yes, that's like nearly 5 weeks ago. The break has for been great - I really can not complain. It just feels like FOREVER since we've been at school. And when 2 kids are out of school it just feels like our whole routine is thrown off. And generally..my family likes routine. Nonetheless the days have been filled and good. The first week of the official track out Julia and Jacob headed back to school (and seriously Wake Co. what is up with all the Mondays off in Jan??) and the girls and I got some fun shopping time. The second week both girls did camp which was a new experience for us. Generally we just hang out during track outs but since this one was so long Paul & I decided they would benefit from doing a camp. Lily did an art camp at the town of Cary Art Center which was great. She loved it! Emma, not so much into art did a sports camp at Sport2Sport. We found an awesome deal thanks go Living Social and Emma LOVED it. She came home exhausted every day and loved getting to do all sorts of sports. It was a perfect week for them! We also had visitors that week - my BFF and her hubs came to visit! It was great! And..in a "I can't believe I said yes" moment the girls went back to Ohio with them for a week at Camp Auntie Erin's house. Yep..they've spent all week in Ohio and I miss them like CRAZY. They are coming home today and I can't wait!

The little kids have seemed a little lost without them here this week. We've spent a ton of time at home since we weren't running people all over the planet to activities and it's been nice. Really nice. Just the break we needed. I've been armed with trashbags and boxes getting this house organized and cleaned up. Paul's gave me some house cleaning groupons for Christmas but I felt like I needed to clean a bit before cashing in. Well now is the time..can't wait!

It's back to school, back to craziness on Monday (and Julia's 5th birthday). I think we're all ready. Also? Our next track out brings our big family vacation so let's get it started!