Orlando

Yeah! We're back! We had a very fun time in Orlando. Because of Edward's hard work, he qualified for the American Family Insurance All-American Convention. He is 5 for 5 in qualifying for these trips, and we really appreciate all he does to get us there! Usually both of the evening functions/dinners are for the agent and spouse only, but because this year's destination was so kid-friendly, they also invited children. They had a fun carnival-themed evening - carnival games, limbo, balloon animals and swords, dancing, plate spinning, etc.
(I made the girls' cute little Minnie polka-dotted pillowcase dresses just for this event! I was happy with how they turned out, and they were super easy and quick to make!)

They had some fantastic face painters. Elizabeth was a lovely butterfly girl, Ross was a beast, Drew wanted a small Spiderman, and my biggest boy, Edward, even wanted to get in on the fun.

Mallory had the "Grip of Death" on me when her dad tried to talk to her for the first hour we were there. She wouldn't go any where near him for the first part of the night.

Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure

We had a really great time at Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure. The day we went to Islands of Adventure, the weather was great... for Orlando. It was still really hot and humid, but it was very cloudy & overcast. Yeah! The next day at Universal, was H.O.T., but we couldn't believe how uncrowded the park was! We were able to do everything we wanted and leave by 2:00 p.m. for an afternoon of swimming. We dragged Drew on a few rides, but he still isn't a ride kind of guy thanks to his Daddy. Mal, on the other hand, LOVED every ride she got to take part in. Ross decided to try to brave a few rides this time that he didn't try two years ago, and he was pretty happy he did. He especially loved the Mummy. He even said, "I really wish I would have ridden this last time." I said, "Ross. I tried to tell you you could do it last time, but you got mad that I tried to talk you into it."

Edward feeds Mallory to a T-Rex

This is the cute little Curious George play area. While I fed Mallory, I sent Edward over with the other three. I knew there was a water area, so I told them not to get soaked. What did I see when I walked over there? Edward telling Elizabeth where to stand and Elizabeth getting a HUGE bucket of water (think water park bucket size) dumped on her. All of the kids were dripping. Edward said, "They're having fun." True, but they wouldn't be having fun later as their wet shorts rubbed there legs raw. Actually, they did dry pretty quickly.

My favorite ride was the brand new Simpson's ride. Hilarious! We weren't allowed to watch the show growing up, and we don't allow our kids to watch it either. That being said, I'd forgotten how funny the Simpson's are! Those one-liners! My favorite was when we were getting in the cars (2 rows of 4), and Homer's voice is heard saying, "Find a seat please. It doesn't matter where you sit. All seats are the same, except for the good ones."

Mallory's sweet, unsuspecting face before the Jaws ride started ;)

JAWS!

She was in my lap before we were finished!

Dear sunglasses,

my how I loved you! Your comfortable grasp on my head was a match made in heaven. Your classy style received many a compliment from others. Best of all, I love that you only cost me $3. You're not supposed to pick favorites, but you were mine.

I tucked you tightly into my shirt when we rode The Mummy, just as I had the last time. It was my fault for not holding onto you, but Ross and Elizabeth were on either side of me, and I had both arms sprawled in front of them, a mother protecting her young. In slow motion, I saw you float in front of my face in the darkness as we plummeted down the first hill. I tried to grab you, but my cat-like reflexes just weren't a match for The Mummy. I imagine you are at the bottom of a near black room, accompanied by other sunglasses, hats, and coins. I could take Elizabeth's advice and ride it again, hoping to have the coaster hit you and send you flying back into my lap. R.I.P.

Deepest Sympathy,

Stephanie

Ricco Suave

Edward never shaves while on vacation. I did guilt him into doing it, though, one night before our first party. He was teasing us that he was going to just leave a mustache. Elizabeth was horrified. I crack up every time I look at this photo!

Fun in the sun

This is a picture of where we stayed. This picture only shows about half of the resort! It was massive. The three black looking columns in the center were some of the elevators. They weren't the ones we took to get to our room, but we rode them anyway (four times in a row to be exact - they were that cool!). They (very rapidly) went up to the 27th floor, and since they were all glass, the view was quite awesome!
You can't even imagine how big this pool was. I don't think I've ever seen a bigger one.

Miscellaneous pictures of swimming and sand at the resort

They had the perfect sized baby pool for Drew & Mal! That's where the three of us spent our time while the other three braved the bigger (colder!) pool and water slide.

Mallory did not care for the texture of the sand! She cried when her feet touched it. We should have an interesting beach vacation next month!

NBA City

Edward's district manager treated all of his districts' qualifiers to a fun night at NBA City (think a basketball themed Chuck E. Cheese's for grown ups). He also treated all of the kids to unlimited games and a photo of them with an NBA star. Thanks, Richard!

Somehow I missed Drew taking part in the fun.

Ross dunked on Karl Malone & KG!

Elizabeth chose to dance with the Laker Girls. Charming.

Mallory hung with her pal Kobe for a while.

Welcome Back

This 18+ inch scratch was the first thing we saw when our shuttle bus deposited us at our van. Steam. Blew. From. My. Ears. We stayed at a hotel the night before we flew out which had a Park Sleep Fly option. Either someone keyed the van, or to me, it looks like someone propped a suitcase up against it and a zipper scratched it as it fell down. Either way, no note - nothing. With a scratch this size, someone had to know what they did. I'm not a confrontational person, but let me tell you, I've played out an imaginary scene in my mind many times of what I would say if I were to see the person. Arg!

Happy Birthday, Ross!

My baby boy turned 9 last week while we were on vacation (not too many kids get to spend their birthday in Orlando - Drew has already requested to go there for his)! Where does the time go?!? What a joy it was to welcome Ross into our life. He was born the summer before my last year of college. Thanks to the help of our amazing family and friends (Ross' aunts Jan Ellen and Katie, uncles Aaron and Mike, cousins Katie and Laura, and friend Briana - did I miss anyone?), I was able to carry a 12 hour load that first semester after he arrived, and I did my student teaching that second semester. While I enjoyed my students, it was torture to know I couldn't be with my baby all day! Graduation couldn't come soon enough so I could finally begin my career as a full-time Mommy!

9 Fun Facts About Ross

1. He is a MONKEY BOY!!!! He could climb before he could walk. I don't think there isn't anything that boy can't climb! As a baby, he tried to scale my parents' fireplace. He tried sinking his toes between the bricks. And monkeys are his favorite animal. He loves them.

2. He loves sports - wrestling, baseball, soccer! His favorite sport is whatever he is involved in at the time. And, he is a great sportsman. He always congratulates his opponents in wrestling.
When he plays catcher, he always picks up the bat for the boy from the other team. Etc.

3. He is my best eater. I can honestly say I can never remember him complaining about something I've made for dinner. Not a feat I can say about Elizabeth and Drew, that's for sure!

4. He is very confident about himself ;) - I think that might be the trait of a first born!

5. He is so gentle with babies. Not too many boys are interested in babies, but he is so sweet with them. He is often the first one that asks to hold a newborn (he gets that after his Momma).

6. He is absolutely AMAZING with numbers (he definitely gets that from his Daddy).

7. He has quite a memory. He can remember every little detail. I don't know why I ever question him about past events. He usually is right.

8. Girls are still taboo to him (YES!).

9. He is very easy to laugh (again, he gets that from me). When he gets very tickled (which is often) his rapid-fire laugh brings a smile to anyone who can hear him.

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Happy Birthdays!

Yesterday we celebrated my Mom's and Ross' birthdays. As my Aunt Cathy says, my Mom turned "plenty-nine" and also celebrated her 35th wedding anniversary on June 18th. She got to spend her very special day at Girls Camp with the teenage girls from church.

Ross turns 9 on Saturday. He's one lucky kid to spend his birthday in Orlando! I asked him if he wanted me to pack his gift for him to open on his actual birthday or open it before we leave. Of course he said he wants to open it before we leave!

I'm lucky to have these two awesome people in my life!

Feeling crafty

It's not often that I take time anymore to sew/craft etc. I've rediscovered my abilities after I recently went into a children's boutique, and upon seeing way too big of price tags, determined I could make just as cute of outfits for the kids for way less money.

Mallory was given a darling onesie when she was born from our dear Cousin Carrie. It is monogrammed with an "M" and has cute little pink rhinestones. I couldn't bear to pack this one up after she has outgrown it, so I was able to re-purpose it into a cute little dress. I am mostly pleased with how it turned out!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about some darling hairbows I found online and wanted to try to make. Here is my attempt:

Universal Studios, here we come!

We are starting to get organized and pack up for our trip to Orlando next week. Edward qualified for this trip at work (American Family Insurance). Since we just went to Disney World about a year and a half ago, we don't plan to go all out for this vacation. We plan on going to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure for several days. Other than that, we'll be hanging out at our resort. It looks like we'll have plenty to do there. We're pretty excited.

I hope none of our days at the parks turn out like this:

Funny Videos
This picture reminds me of our first trip to Disney World when Ross was 4, Elizabeth was 2, and I was 5 months pregnant with Drew. I was excited to take everyone on Splash Mountain.

As you can see, Elizabeth LOVED it, riding down the 10-story drop with her arms in the air. Ross had the living daylights scared out of him. My wonderful husband is NOT a roller coaster rider but was a good sport nonetheless. Edward kept his lips tightly shut so as not to 1.) scream like a 6 year old girl and 2.) toss his cookies.

Believe it or not, I talked Edward and Ross into going back on Splash Mountain when we went three years later. This time, I had a new victim, er, I mean participant in Drew. As you can see, he has the Grip of Death on me. Ross seemed to enjoy himself a little more this time, and Edward appeared to have fun. I think that smile isn't so genuine, but at least he rode it again. Elizabeth still had a blast, as did my neice Mary Catherine in the back. My Dad had to ride in the front in order to get the best view of everyone.
Stay tuned to see what rides I drag everyone on this time!

Happy Father's Day!

Put your hands in the air, and step away from the M&Ms

These are my new obsession. They are insane. I heard about how tasty these little green treasures are, so I had to give it a go. I bought a bag tonight, and I entered into a state of bliss. Think Girl-Scout-Thin-Mint-Cookie-Goodness. H.E.A.V.E.N.

NATURE IS SO COOL!

One day last week, I noticed several cars stopping at the end of our driveway. My first thought was, "Oh no. What have the kids done to our yard?" The two older ones were at summer school, so I figured it must not have been them. After a while I stepped out there to take some trash out, and I noticed a HUGE red tailed hawk. That thing was a monster. It had killed a rabbit (the same rabbit that has been destroying our new garden - we weren't too heartbroken). Our treetops were filled with other birds, chirping and screeching trying to scare it off. You'll notice in the video clip several of those birds were dive bombing the hawk, trying to get it out of the yard. It was very stoic and calm as it munched on its meal. It let me get pretty close. Drew and I watched it for about 10 minutes (along with many passerby that stopped to watch). Drew finally had to run and scare it off. What little boy could resist? It was quite awesome to watch it pick up the shredded meat and fly across our large lot to the trees at the back of our property. I felt like I was in the middle of a National Geographic program. Very cool!

Should I Join Bloggers Annonymous?

65%  

Lets101 - Free Online Dating

I took a survey like this about a year ago, and I was only 34% addicted to blogging. Oops!

Parading Around

This weekend was our community's annual celebration/carnival/festival. Let me tell you, it is a BIG EVENT in "this here neck of the woods." There are carnival rides, concerts, and a parade. Because of the, um how shall I say it, icky people that come out of the woodwork for this celebration, we told the kids we would only be attending the parade. We explained that since we are taking not one, but two big vacations this summer, we would forgo the amusement rides and save our money for our vacations (that and because of all of the dandy's that flock to our city).

The parade was LONG!!! We met my parents there, along with my Aunt Cathy, Uncle Steve, and cousins Katie, Jason, and their darling little Ellie. We always choose the shady spot at the beginning of the parade route. We do this for two reasons: 1. The wonderful shade from the June sun and 2. The parade participants load the kids up with their full bags of candy. It's a win-win!
These are a couple of the sights in the parade. Note the red utility truck below. It's contribution as far as decorations go is a lone yellow balloon duct taped to it's side. Way to go all out, fellas!

Batman & Robin

Best buddies/cousins/super heroes crusading to save the planet from evil!

"It's a small world, afterall..."

This is what I did last night after everyone had gone to bed:

Teenage Stephanie (It's actually pretty accurate, except I wasn't quite as freckly, and I didn't have such bags under my eyes *sigh*.)


Asian Stephanie


Black Stephanie









Asian Edward (Still very handsome!)

Black Edward (not so handsome, but scary!)

Old Edward (remind me to make him use sunscreen.)

Black Ross (hahahahah!)

Asian Ross

Grandpa Ross

Young Man Ross (looks like somebody needs some eye brow waxing!)

Black Elizabeth (cute!)

Grandma Elizabeth

Young lady

Asian Elizabeth (cute!)

Black Drew (with blond hair and blond eyebrows)

Asian Drew (looks like somebody needs some FOREHEAD waxing! Yikes!)

Teenage Drew (I hope he loses those baby teeth before then!)

Black baby Mallory

Asian Baby Mallory

Grandma Mallory

*I found this site at http://morph.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/transformer