Cruisin' With "Ickey Mouse" (Part 1)

Cline had a long stretch off of work at the end of June, so we splurged and took the family on a Disney Cruise.  We'd heard great things about it, and wanted to use this window of opportunity to do something a little different before the new baby is born in the Fall.  This is the first time since we've had kids that our family can sleep fairly comfortably in one hotel room, if need be.  Disney wouldn't let us cram into one room, however, so we were extra comfortable in 2 adjoining rooms!  We opted for a 4 day cruise that took us to Nassau, Bahamas, Castaway Cay, and included a full day and a half at sea to enjoy the sea.  It was seriously the most relaxing vacation we've been on with kids!!  It was every bit as much fun as going to Disney World, but much less work!  The lines for the characters were much shorter.  The surroundings were not nearly as crowded, and there were plenty of places to cool off comfortably when needed.  The food was spectacular, with plenty of delicious options, already paid for without having to calculate how many "meals" and "snacks" you had left, as is the case with the Disney Dining Plan.  They had child care on the boat, which I didn't plan to use, but once I laid eyes on it, and saw the security they had in place, I was completely comfortable allowing them to give Cline and I a short break from the kids for 2 dinners.  I was against the idea of leaving my kids with "strangers," but the set up was much more like a day camp or vacation bible school setting.  Plus, the older kids were begging to go, so how could I refuse??  Enjoy the pictures!

 Ready to board the ship!

 Donald Duck greeted us in the lobby of the ship as soon as we arrived!  No wait at all!

 Then we spotted Princess Tiana one floor up as we were finding our way around.  Again, no wait!

 Home for 4 days!

 We ran into Minnie after dinner on our first night.  Cline got a little sea sick as the ship picked up speed in the evening, but was much better the next morning.

 They had a princess gathering with all of the major princesses.  The kids got much more time with each princess than they normally do at the parks, and the lines were minimal!

 We woke up on our first morning pulling into Nassau.  We could see Atlantis across the water, and it looked impressive.  We walked around the downtown area a little, searching for a local canvas painting or other meaningful keepsake.  It was hot, the kids were fussy and not happy, and so many people kept trying to sell us things or services.  We made it about an hour or so before we decided to just go back to the boat.  I did find my canvas painting on our way out of the market that housed the passport-check area, though, so I'd call our stop a success!

 The beaches looked beautiful!!  But you had to pay to go to any of them, so we decided to just enjoy the ship.

Hanging out with Donald on the way to dinner!

 Dinner at Animator's Palate.  This place was really neat - the shark in the back ground swam across the screen every once in a while.  Crush from Finding Nemo came to the screen and personally talked to our section of the restaurant.

 Loving the port hole benches outside the restaurants!

The waiters at the restaurants consistently offered the kids "Mickey Mouse Ketchup."  They loved it!  They just used the bottled ketchup to make the blob into a circle with 2 ears.  Elizabeth especially loved the "ickey mouse ketchup," and we still have to decorate our plates with it at home, now!

Funny Things They Say

A couple of weeks ago, each of the girls said the funniest thing!!  I remembered to post them on Facebook while they were fresh in my mind, so here they are for the official family record.

 

Conversation between Christa and Mommy during our bedtime reading routine:

So, Christa has been fascinated with all things baby since we told her she was getting another sibling. The "Your Pregnancy Week by Week" book now lives on the table next to her bed, and we look at it together every week or so. She wants to see what the baby looks like and hear about how big the baby is, etc. I was reading some quick facts for her from the chapter, and it mentioned that at 22 weeks, I should be feeling better now. Christa laughed and replied, "Is that a joke???"

Well, I actually am feeling better these days, but I guess I'm not hiding the exhaustion quite as we'll as I thought!

 Conversation between Daddy and Abby Kate at local gift shop:
AK: Daddy, look at these dolls! Can we have them?
Cline: No, we just got a new toy for doing swimming lessons, and I don't think you need another one today.
AK: Mutters something in a disappointed, whiny voice along the lines of "But I want it" while slumping her shoulders.
Cline: I know. It must be so hard to have parents that are never nice to you and never let you have nice things.
AK: (suddenly animated again) That's not true!! Mommy is *sometimes* nice to *Christa*!

Elizabeth expresses her opinion:
E: I want car wash.
Me: Not right now. We just went through the car wash yesterday, and you were scared of it.
E: Ballerina car wash. (What we call the spinning cleaner scrubbers after the spaghetti noodle ones in the car wash).
Me: No, we have to go home now.
E: Car is nasty. Want ballerina car wash. Car is nasty!

Wow - insulted by the 2 year old!

I sure love my girls!  They each have so much personality! 

Father's Day (and random pictures)

So, these pictures are in reverse order for some reason, but they were taken within a few days of each other, so they'll work.  Enjoy!

 I caught Elizabeth sleeping in her car seat with both hands behind her head.  She used to sleep like that a lot of as a baby, so I tried to get a good picture of it, but she started to move her right hand as I was snapping the shot.

 See??  Blast from the past!

 Elizabeth loves to dance to "ballewina music."  She has learned where we keep the outfits, and regularly asks for help putting them on so she can dance.  She loves an Angelina Ballerina cd, and looks adorable putting one hand in the air and strutting around in circles.

 She also loves for me to "take picture" while she is performing!

 Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

I honestly don't even remember how we celebrated Father's Day this year, other than going to church and letting Cline pick the girl's outfits.  He does love for all of us to match as a family :)

Making Room for Baby!

Adding a boy to the family has already proven to be a big task around here!!  With 3 of our 4 upstairs rooms decked out in girl stuff, we had a lot of work to do to create a room that could be painted blue!  I wanted to make sure I got pictures of the girls' rooms, and especially Elizabeth's nursery, before I rearranged the entire upstairs.  Unfortunately, Cline had dismantled most of Elizabeth's nursery before I realized that I didn't have a single picture of it.  He was a great sport about it, though, when I asked him to put it back together to get pictures of it.  Hee hee.  I will completely own that "crazy mom moment" on my part, but in my defense, it only took him about 10 minutes (if that) to put the furniture back in the room the way it was!

 Christa and Abby Kate have been sleeping in the same room for some time!  That made it fairly easy to divide Christa's big girl furniture between their room and Elizabeth's room for E to grow into.  A simple addition of a closet bar and a second dresser gave me just the right amount of space to keep all of their clothes neat and organzied!

 And, the re-created girl nursery - totally worth this picture :)

 The wall hangings were LaLa's dress, bonnet, and booties from when she was a baby!  Cline's grandmother is a very organized person who does a great job keeping these keepsakes in great condition for us to enjoy!

And the crib!  We're in no hurry to move Elizabeth out of the crib, since she is a great sleeper, and asks to go to bed sometimes!  She has a big girl bed in there now, though, when she's ready, and a new (to her) girly dresser, since we took the baby furniture for the baby.  After this simple re-arranging, we were ready to paint the nursery blue!  I'll post pictures of it, once it's all put together. 

Spring Recital

After we got through the end of the school year, we had to immediately get ready to wrap up the remaining activities of the school year!  Spring Recital was a very busy weekend, after finishing school on Thursday, a late night birthday party with friends for Mommy on Friday night, Cousins William and Charlie's birthday party on Saturday, followed immediately by Spring Recital, followed immediately by an engagement party for Uncle Chris and Catherine!  Whew!  It was a fun weekend, though, and we made it to everything on time, thanks to the help of grandparents and babysitters!

 Dress rehearsal - Abby Kate was soooooo excited to be an "American Girl."  She couldn't wait to wear her "American Girl" costume, and she just knew that LaLa (who LOVES the 4th of July) would love her costume and performance!

 She loved waving the flag to the music!

 Abby Kate's tap routine was a cute 50's song!!

 Christa's ballet performance was really sweet!  The theme of the show was "eMotions," so all of the songs were about feeling "Brave" or "Snazzy" or a variety of other emotions.  It was a really cute show!

 Christa's tap number was "Come on Get Happy."

 Christa, and one of her best friends, Taylor at dress rehearsal!

 Two cute little dancers!

 I always take my pictures at dress rehearsal so that I can enjoy the live performance without worrying about my camera.  My wonderful father in law (who had many years of photographing plays that Cline and his brothers were in) happily snaps lots of photos during the live show (when the cute background is up).  So, I end up with lots of dance pictures, and the live show ones are sometimes blurry.  You get the idea, though!

And that completes a great school year of fun, learning, and great activities with great people!

The VERY Last Day of Kindergarten

OK, last post about Kindergarten, already :)  I finally downloaded the last couple of months worth of pictures from my camera(s), and realized I hadn't posted the kids' end of the year program.  It was adorable, as it always is!!

 Christa made covers for the slide show DVDs she gave her friends as graduation presents.  They turned out adorably!!  I still need to get her to make one for her own copy....

 Two sweet girls ready to finish out the year!

 Obligatory "last day of school" picture with Mommy...

 ... and Daddy!

 Abby Kate in Mrs. Allison's class for the last time.

 Christa and her friends, ready for their patriotic song in the show.  All of the girls in the class had taken ballet at the same studio last year, so everyone had matching costumes!  Love getting our money's worth out of those things!

 Yep, I think she's ready for First Grade :)

 Abby Kate's class sang the cutest song, "My Mother is a Baker."  Abby Kate was the sister, who was a singer, who sings "la da dee da and too dool dee doo..."  Abby Kate insisted it was more like "loddledeedoddledeetoodledeedoo."  She did great!

 She was so sassy when she practiced at home!

 Christa memorized a line for her program, but she was one of the first ones up, and we had to scramble to get our cameras out in time to catch her.

Christa was a ribbon dancer in her patriotic performance.

 The grand finale!

 Yep, we're pretty proud of our girls!

 Picture with the grandparents.

Christa with Lilly, Adeline, and Avery - 3 of her closest friends this year!

 Kindergarten Graduation.  The kids began by singing several sweet songs about graduating!

 Then, each child received their "diploma."  We celebrated with an ice cream social afterwards!