Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Lunch at Cinderella's Castle!!


This was SO worth it for both the girls! I was afraid Cailey wouldn't like the princesses...and she's on the edge but she LOVED it! Kinsey just had so much fun and loved everything. She is what I think is the PERFECT age for Disney. At six they still love the characters/princesses and will remember how much they loved it when they're older. The lunch at the castle was so much better than breakfast at Epcot last time! The food was better, it was neat for the girls to get to explore the castle, and had giveaways that the girls loved. GREAT thing to do with my girls!


for lunch they had chicken, corn, potatoes, salad, and make your own sundaes.


meeting snow white, cinderella, aurora, belle (who we were surprised to see without her ball gown, and ariel.



Cailey cracked me up when they passed the wands and 'wishing stars' out. It was like she actually thought she'd be able to do something with it. I just LOVE the amazement on her face and the joy on Kinsey's face. I had a great time hanging out with my girlies:)!

November 2011

November 1- School, gave out lots of candy as incentive to get school done quickly, laura came to spend the night with the kiddos:), hung out with her while the kiddos played outside in the beautiful sunshine, still a bad cough so no walking, great girl/kid time, laughed a lot, and realized yet again how thankful i am for her!
**spaghetti

November 2- Said goodbye to the welch's, school, more candy for the kiddos (it'll last until disney then disappear), loved hearing kinsey read me clifford, took an unplanned three hour nap after listening to braden read...yikes!, kiddos played outside in the awesome sunny 64 degree weather, choir, and lots of playing with ephram.
**yummy bbq sandwiches with potatoes, broccoli, and carrots

November 3- school, met spruill's at the park to play for a couple of hours (LOVE that everyone has a playmate!), free afternoon to play outside for everyone..GREAT blue skies and cool weather, played with the kiddos tons, morgan kids came over while i hosted a super fun pampered chef party, was surprised for the first time...ever?? when katherine came over, and had a blast hanging out with friends while the kiddos played upstairs.
**bbq chicken/cheese quesadillas with cranberries and tomatoes

November 4- watched alex, co op, sent braden and cailey home with the megilligan's for a playdate, went to the mall for lunch with kelly, sent kinsey home for a playdate with her, had a quiet/surreal afternoon while the babies were napping, craft show with the fam, started the thankful tree, and haircuts for three youngest and daddy while cailey and i did super doubles at HT.
**BIG salad, peas, broccoli, apples (to balance the super unhealthy lunch everyone had:)

November 5- cheered braden on at his SUPER COLD 5K, very proud mama:), lots of support from his siblings, fun at the expo afterwards (including pizza!!), library together, kiddos read TONS of books and listened to books on tape, super doubles shopping with braden, girls spent all day playing outside in the gorg weather, smelled chili all day:), went to a frozen yogurt bar (impromptu) with the morgan's and had a great time laughing and watching the kids play outside afterwards!!
**Chili!!

Realized that kinsey prefers to go barefoot..even when it's 40 out. I had to tell her several times to put her socks and shoes BACK on...even at night!

LOVE that ephram says "picy" and "actually"!! He calls gum "picy" and will ask, "is it picy?" before he's given a new food:) (spicy). Also, if I ask him, "do you want to play?" he'll say, "I don't want to play, actually I want a candy"

November 6- church, crabtree together for lunch and a trip to the disney store for swag (for our big trip:), BIGGEST fit ever thrown by one of our children at the foodcourt (kinsey:(, math/english for big kids, awana where kinsey OFFICIALLY finished her awana book..though she really finished last week (Oct 30) but there was no awana that night b/c of Halloween) SUPER proud!!, choir, and shopping with brian.
**leftover chili, veggies

November 7- C25K with leslie, ran 1.7 with braden and KINSEY!!, braden ran more with Cailey and Brian (Cailey ran 2) (Braden 3), special breakfast, school, leg exercises/abs, klick's came for a picnic lunch, took kiddos to gymnastics while kelly stayed w/ the littles, sold the white table, cailey home with emilee then off to writing and starbucks before coming home to finish school, hip hop, scouts for braden, and grocery store with girls for more super doubles stuff.
**quesadillas, veggies

November 8- woke up super sore, brian home sick, school, gorg weather, watched g&e, kiddos played outside all evening, cailey had piano, took other three to last 2 super doubles trip..best one yet!, and went on a date with kinsey to bring groceries to LM:).
**chicken and dumpling casserole, green beans, mixed veggies, fruit for dessert

November 9- day2 with leslie, ran 2.14 with all the kiddos and they did awesome! (cailey and braden ran ahead at their own paces and circled up...so they ran farther while i stayed with kinsey who fell twice but finished:), special breakfast, school, lots of outside play, 10 loads of laundry done and put away, cleaned the house, read and listened to the 3 biggest read, started packing for disney, choir for 3 oldest, ran errands with brian for trip, got HT deals, and had lots of "disney breaks"..similar to birthday breaks:)
**twice baked potatoes with the 'fixins', broccoli, hamburgers

November 10- packed for Disney, school, cleaned, Morgan girls came over and all the kiddos had a ball laughing and having stair races with pillowcases while I packed their backpack presents which took hours:).


November 11- co op, AHG, watched Alex all day, Braden had a play date with Caden all afternoon, cleaned out the van with cailey, packed the van, legacy finale, last minute errands, and early to bed.

November 12- 4:15 am wake up! Headed to Disney, presents every hour, super fun nine hour car ride, magic kingdom once we arrived and stayed late!

November 13- woke to a full day of riding rides at magic kingdom! Great day at Disney!

November 14- early arrival to animal kingdom, safari, all the rides, Everest with kiddos once....then the two oldest did it at least five more times, cailey didn't feel great...got meds from first aid (who knew??), saw all the great shows, left to go to magic kingdom at 4, more rides, parade and fireworks.

November 15- Hollywood studios day! Backlot tour, more great shows, sick cailey:(, other two did the tower of terror! Kinsey came out crying, broken down rockin roller coaster:(, better cailey, star wars, shopping, downtown Disney for the night, rainforest cafe for dinner, dj leading dancing/games for kiddos while mommy shopped:)

November 16- another full day at magic kingdom, least crowded day so far, tons of rides, no waiting, c&b got stuck on splash mountain for 30 minutes alone! (when there was only a five min wait), calmed cailey, more rides, surprised the girls with lunch at cinderella's castle...so neat!, more rides, stayed for castle lighting then came ack so sick Braden (pink eye and a headache) could go to bed while cailey and daddy went to the RK (arcade;)

November 17- went to Epcot for the day, braden had pink eye, rides all morning until kiddos had their homeschool class for three hours )12:45-3:45) while we walked around the countries and went on a couple boat rides with ephram, bought him mickey mouse ice cream:), met characters with e, more rides with the kiddos, met TONS of princesses with the girls, youngest three ate japanese food for dinner while cailey had a slushie, watched the illuminations show, and went to bed late!

November 18- Surprised the kiddos with Chef Mickey's for breakfast where they all LOVED the food and LOVED meeting the characters, Magic Kingdom for rides, parades, castle lighting show, more rides, and stayed until closing.

November 19- went to Hollywood Studios early hours for Cailey and I to ride the Rock N' Roller Coaster (since it was broken the day we went...won't be going on again but she LOVED it!), then the oldest two rode Tower of Terror, moved on to Magic Kingdom where everyone went on their favorite rides again (space mountain, thunder, splash, dumbo) and then watched another parade before going on the people mover one more time and leaving:(, drove home and did school and awana in the car, got home around 10.

November 20- sick day, catch up day, school, started decorating for Christmas, awana where kinsey did her ENTIRE book review!, and choir.

November 21- cailey was throwing up all night the night before and
** LOVE that ephram walks in the room and says, "Welcome Back!" or when one of us gets home he says it. Thinking it's from the people mover at disney but OH SO cute!

November 22- super sick brian, school...plus make up, packed for MD, canceled our leaving for tonight, had a quick sweet visit from laura c., dead car battery, computer crashed...not the best day ever.

November 23- drove up to MD, felt sick when we got here, did school with the kiddos, went to bed super early (4pm) while brian and mom took care of the kiddos, woke up around 9 and hung out with mom for an hour, kiddos loved pizza night and playing together.

November 24- three oldest ran 2.3 miles, went to cvs for awesome deals, still didn't feel awesome, listened to lots of piano, played tons of games with the kiddos...taught the oldest two clue, helped mom clean/cook, played with ephram a bunch...monkey in the middle with frank:), and ate a yummy dinner and hung out together.

November 25- black friday shopping with the family at Tyson's corner, got some good deals, loved being with the fam, mom worked then came home and played games with the kiddos and i,

November 26- mom was sick:(. cleaned the house for her, packed up, helped out mom, kiddos did trash or treat with dad, then went to the park with brian, played games, and drove home after dinner.

November 27- church, day of NO activities, lots of outside play, kiddos added their ornaments to the tree, and watched Rudolph together.

November 28- was up all night thinking tricia was in labor..only to get the phone call in the morning!, frances and kelly watched the kiddos so I could go to the hospital all day to pray and help...then snuggle a PRECIOUS Landon David, kelly dropped off the youngest two who met landon, picked up the kiddos only to rush the girls to dance class then braden went to scouts and we read Christmas books/sang together.

November 29- school at the eshleman's while we house sat all day long, met leslie and kids at cfa for dinner with the girls, had a GREAT time laughing and catching up, and had a great talk/listened to cailey about how she doesn't feel like an 'ordinary usual' girl:). love my talks with cailey:)!

November 30- early walking, school, major cleaning day (finally...yay!!), wrapped some gifts, took the kiddos to see Landon at the hospital where cailey was smitten:), a little more school, lots of outside play, lots of cleaning, and lots of reading Christmas books.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Magic Kingdom...again:)

We went to Magic Kingdom all day Wednesday until closing....the girls had a princess lunch while the boys rode on their favorite rides:). It was another super fun day!


this sculpture was outside of our hotel and cailey automatically layed down in the ear...which i loved:)

race cars! ephram LOVED his first ride in it!



ephram really loved the teacups and would just belly laugh when brian spun them around so quickly! braden, on the other hand, didn't like the fast spinning..but did like the ride:).

they all really enjoyed the castle show..brian is ready for them the change it up a little:).


brian got brave and rode Thunder Mountain with the kiddos!! i was so proud of him!


as ephram is watching me blog he saw this picture and sang, "it's a small world after all"
we all LOVE small world and rode on in many times:)...great lesson on cultures!


LOVE it!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Downtown Disney


we took a bus from Hollywood Studios to Downtown Disney for some dinner and shopping. love this picture of the girls..my dream for sweet sisters (though a RARE moment). cailey was teaching her a hand game.

we didn't have to ride the bus much this time since we could get most places by the monorail but when we did they sure loved it:). so funny!


ephram wanted to do 'nosies' with pluto!


kinsey loves beauty and the beast and wanted a picture in front of the brooms...with her beauty shirt on. then we went to rainforest cafe for dinner....they loved the aquariums and ambiance.


i spent my time looking around in shops with the boys while the girls went to a 'dance/charades/simon says' party in front of the water. they LOVE those kinds of things and the boys loved looking around the shops with me.


the lego creations were amazing!


the potato head is for nonny:)

another great night with the fam:)!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Hollywood Studios


We went to Hollywood Studios on Tuesday and did everything we could possibly do! We watched The Little Mermaid, went on the backlot tour, did the Toy Story Ride, watched The Muppets, saw the parade, watched the Beauty and the Beast Show, did the Star Wars ride plus everything else...covered it all!








I don't do Tower of Terror. Brian doesn't do Tower of Terror. Cailey was feeling sick that whole day (but was a TROOPER!)...great day for shows! SO Brian sent these two by themselves. It's the before and after pictures...needless to say that Kinsey did NOT like the ride. poor thing. Braden, however, loved it:).

We weren't able to do the Rockin' Roller Coaster that day because it broke just as our turn came but I promised Cailey we'd go back before we left Disney.




The gun that Ephram is holding was a GREAT thing to have the whole time! We bought it after The Pirates ride in MK (it was cheap) and would bring it everyday. It seriously kept him entertained if we had to wait or ride the bus, etc. GREAT purchase! The second we got home I wrapped it up and will be giving it to him for Christmas. Can't wait for him to open it:)!

The parade at HS was super fun for the kids because it had tons of characters that they wouldn't normally see. Characters from Monsters, Inc, UP, Toy Story 3, etc.


cheap treat...the mickey pops came in packs for each child to have one. they are standing in front of tower of terror!

we saw this on our way out of the park