we interrupt this blog.......

To bring you pictures from our snow day......

vacation pictures will resume tomorrow.

BTW - Emily DID have school today. Which is hilarious because they had a snow day almost two weeks ago - and there was at least TWICE as much snow today. Gotta love it!

vacation. days three and four.

On our third day of vacation we left Atlanta around 8am. It was about an eight hour drive - that's with stops for gas and food. We got to our room, ate a dinner/snack, and took off for Downtown Disney...we took the boat instead of the bus. It seemed much more exciting. And it was, but, dang, it was FREEZING. And, in case you were wondering, YES, we took the bus, not the boat, back to the hotel.



Downtown Disney was CROWDED. Wall to wall people in the LEGO store. Emily picked out a new house building set. Eric loaded up on a la carte Lego parts. I tried to keep Paige out of trouble. She, Paige, picked out a stuffed "Lumpy" - from the Heffalump movie. Lumpy is no longer with us...but I'll go into that a bit later.

We went back to the room around 9ish and set the alarm for a wake up at 6:30am. The park opened at 9am, and we wanted to squeeze every possible minute out of the day at the Magic Kingdom that we could.


Waiting for the gates to open. The Mayor of Disney comes out and they do this song and dance, Mickey and all the others arrive on the train, throw out some fairy dust, and the park opens. It was very Disney. And of course, I got all teary. I am such a Disney sap.


First stop was the Teacups.



Then the cars.



Dumbo.
And the Carousel. We rode this THREE times.

Nap time...see Lumpy??

Emily on her second roller coaster of the day. She rode on Thunder Mountain earlier...her first time, and she LOVED it.

Then, we had lunch at the Crystal Palace. If you have never eaten there, I highly recommend it. It's buffet style, but the food is AWESOME. Really. They have the BEST pickles. And mashed potatoes, salad, chicken, steak.....No kidding. AND, the characters - Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet - come right to your table. And since it's the CRYSTAL palace, the roof is all windows, so the light is DIVINE. They do this parade around the whole restaurant where the kids get follow them and wave their napkins in the air. Emily loved it all. The only thing is, it's a lot of distraction, and apparently this leads to little children not eating much. Oh well. It's my favorite place to eat at Disney, and if we don't get to go there, my visit is just not complete.

Paige loved all the characters. And even though Emily doesn't really remember, she was still an old hat at knowing what to do. I did ask her at one point if she knew that they weren't real, and she did, but she said it was still pretty cool.









Then we went on the people mover. I know, not the most exciting. But we like it.

And we met Mickey and Minnie. My children look totally disheveled. Must have been that 45 minute wait.....


Carousel again.....

Eric took this while Emily and I rode on Big Thunder Mountain again.

I know it's cheesy and corny, but that place is just so MAGICAL. Every few minutes the castle changes color. Very enjoyable to watch while waiting for the fireworks show.

And can I just say....the fireworks....AMAZING. It's set to music. Tinkerbell flies above you on a zip line that starts out at the top of the castle. And I cried. Big surprise right?

So, at the end of the night, we rode the Teacups one more time, the Carousel one more time, watched the SpectroMagic parade with the girls on our shoulders...OUCH...and left.

I won't go into too much detail, but after waiting about 15 minutes for a bus, we finally were able to get on one, and have seats....right across from a child who had apparently had a bit too much fun at the Magic Kingdom. His fun spilled out of him and all over the floor. EWWWWWWWW!! So, we plugged our noses, and waited, not so patiently, for our stop. I was so concerned with just getting off that bus, and not stepping in the "fun", that I didn't notice that Paige dropped her precious Lumpy somewhere on the bus. I realized this about halfway back to the room. Emily was very upset about it. Paige didn't even notice. Oh well.

It was a messy way to end a perfectly wonderful day. But, the magic was still there. I have missed Disneyworld so much, and we all can't wait to go back!

vacation. days one thru two.

So, we have spent the past week on a whirlwind tour of Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. Over 3,000 miles logged in the car. We only had a few mishaps - I'll go into those later - but, for the most part - it was a wonderful trip.

There's lots of stories, so I will be posting all week. Stay tuned......

Day One: We left home at 5am, for Woodstock, GA. It was a pretty uneventful trip....until we got close to the Georgia border. And then, it began to SNOW. Lots and lots of SNOW. Cars were going off the highway all around us. Luckily, we arrived at our friends house unscathed. Very dangerous driving conditions...but BEAUTIFUL scenery.



Day Two: The next morning, when we woke up, it was a beautiful, sunny day. Hailey, Emily's buddy, REALLY wanted to go out and play in the snow...and when you don't get this kind of snow very often, who could blame her, right? Of course, we were completely unprepared. I had left all of our warm jackets, gloves, hats, scarves and boots at home. Oops. But, we got creative, and Emily made do with my gloves, a few extra pairs of socks, and insulated Crocs. Paige and I stayed inside.









It was a nice, restful day after all that driving. It was also nice to be able to spend time with our good friends who we don't see often enough.

A side note: about two hours after our arrival, I took a tumble down the stairs...wood stairs...while holding Paige. Paige was fine. I was a little bruised all down my left side. No permanent damage done. But, as you will be able to see in my following posts....definitely a theme for our trip.

Days three and four tomorrow.....stay tuned. DisneyWorld, and Emily's very exciting "run-in" with a moving vehicle.

Giggly Girls

Emily and Paige were playing a guessing game this afternoon with M&M's. Emily little giggle was so dang cute, I just had to share.

After watching herself in the video, she, Emily, proclaimed that she doesn't really sound like that. Um, yes you do. Her giggle is her signature trait. It sounds almost exactly the same today as it did when she was just a wee one. And I, for one, am so glad about that.

The Daily Adventures of Paige

This is Paige's new baby. Paige is obsessed with babies. And they don't have to be in doll form - obviously. You have seen her with the marshmallows. This particular baby she "built" all by herself. She had been dragging the Pink Lego box of Emily's all around with her this morning, begging me to open it. I finally relented and let her play with the contents. First thing she did was build this baby.

She even put in in the little Lego house - built at an earlier time by Emily.

When she tried to put the "Mommy" Lego piece in with the baby, and it didn't fit, Paige sort of threw a fit.

And then was cross with me for documenting it all on camera.

So she hid.

But not for long.

And the happy, go lucky kid returned.

Later on, after I put away the camera she took the Lego baby downstairs, put it in her shopping cart - swaddled up in her bunny blankie - and took it for a walk. She and the Lego baby sat with me as I made some salsa, sneaking tomatoes out of the bowl for both her and the baby. She even tried to sneak some jalapeno, and ended up burning her lips before I saw what she was doing. "Mommy, dats too spicy for me!"

She and the Lego baby had lunch together. The Lego baby, according to Paige, does not like turkey. "She wikes da cheese."

She wanted to take a nap with the Lego baby, but I told her that she was much too fragile. Amazingly, she was OK with that.

This kid. I am so OK with her.

cute girls

I truly think that taking pictures - GOOD pictures - is like a drug. Once you get one REALLY good shot, you cannot stop. I am forever trying to get the next REALLY good shot. And sometimes, I really annoy my subjects. I know you are going to be shocked by this...but I had to BRIBE and THREATEN Emily to take this one picture.

But the upshot is this: Paige could not be outdone by her BIG sister, so SHE felt the need to be a part of things. Usually, she wants nothing to do with the camera. Yesterday, I got lucky.

OH MY GOODNESS, how Paige LOVES her big sister. She wants to be just like her. If Emily is wearing boots, Paige wants to wear them too. If Emily is acting crazy at dinnertime, you can multiply that also by TWO.

When Emily is at school - there's pretty much only one place she wants to be...Emily's room. I found her there this morning - she snuck in while I was indisposed - rocking out with the microphone.

I've been spotted......
Have a LOVELY day!

brown eyes my foot...

There was a discussion this past weekend in which Paige's eyes were referred to as brown. I give you EXHIBIT A. And, no, I did not photoshop the color. Now, yes, they do have flecks of brown in them - as do mine, and Eric's - but those are green eyes. Pretty green eyes, I think. And, no, I have nothing against brown eyes - I like brown eyes very much....

And since Eric and I BOTH have green/blue eyes.....how would she get the brown ones anyway? Our mail carrier is a LADY, and we don't have a milkman. :)


(Yes, I know it's a possibility - but a rare one at that. Especially because only one out of the four of our parents carries the brown eyed gene)

Have a GREAT Monday.