She's Five?

Wow, how we've come this far so fast is baffling. Elle turned five today on 10-10-10. What an absolute joy she's been for us and we're so grateful to be this spunky little girls parents. Elle recently told me that her two favorite things are Annie and Shirley Temple. She LOVES to sing and sings along to the entire Annie soundtrack, insisting each morning that I "go for a little drive" after dropping off the big kids at school just so she can keep singing in the car. P.S. that shiner she's sporting in the picture is thanks to my makeup artistry.

Naturally she wanted an Annie birthday party which at first was easier said than done. After a lot of brainstorming we finally came up with as Annie of a party as you can get. We invited our guests come dressed as orphans. Elle and her friend Cali got especially into the whole "tough kid" role. ...It was pretty entertaining.

We started off the party watching a few of the songs from the movie and the girls were encouraged to act out the scenes. They had a bunch of fun jumping around like the orphans do. Then we played Ms. Hannigan Says (think Simon says), orphan-orphan Annie (duck- duck goose), had a gunny sack jumping contest and a sweep the balloon relay race.

Here they all are, the whole crew. The party favor bags (or Chinese take-out boxes rather) were so much fun for me to put together. We found feather boas, giant old fashioned lollipops, a little toy mouse (hamster?), and a classic Hershey's bar; along with very l-o-u-d party horns (my apologies to the parents).

This little girl was pretty lucky. At the last minute I sent out the call to two of my friends who happen to be excellent seamstresses. Could they make an Annie dress in less than one week? My friend Sabra came to the rescue. We bought the fabric Tuesday, and she handed me this dress on Friday. Awesome, and it made for one happy 5 year old Elle. Thank you! Oh and that white dog she's holding? She named it Sandy, of course. :)

Elle's other big surprise was that she'd mentioned wanting a Barbie Jeep for months now. Every time she talked about it I told her they were just too expensive. I did however begin to check the local classified adds just in case. I found one with a new battery but the owners warned it was very "well loved". When I arrived to pick it up I was pretty disappointed with how sun bleached and worn out it looked. The woman selling it caught a glimpse of some school fundraising coupon books in the back of my car and offered to trade the jeep for one. I agreed and gave her the one I had bought. Long story short. The little jeep got put through a restoration and redecoration and it turned out fabulous! She was so surprised which made it all worth it.

After these quick five years have flown by, I still cant help but think of this little one once in a while, and remember how not too long ago she was still my little baby.

Happy Birthday Beautiful!

Beachy Keen

Ah yes, the relaxation only a sandy ocean beach can bring. It really is so wonderful to be around and because I've put off posting about all of this for so long; I'm now frantically trying to get caught up before Elle's rapidly approaching birthday. Which is the polar opposite of relaxing on said sandy beach. SO, these posts will have few words, but I did get through seven, count em SEVEN! posts tonight. May your strength be with you to endure getting through to the bottom.

Don't make fun of me for being dressed in the collage above. In my defense, I did get wet, just not until we'd taken a picture of course. I'm no dummy.

In the collage below you can see what it looks like when a storm blows in. I couldn't believe how drastic the change was, and very visible!

Ah yes, the family portrait the day we left. We tried and tried with a good intentioned employee to get one decent picture on the beach. Bless his heart, he couldn't figure out how to get the timing; which is why each of those pictures consist of someone staring at their feet or gazing off into the distance. Finally before we left, in one last stitch effort, I asked an nice man sitting with his toddler and baby if he could take one for us. One shot and bam, this is what we got. Thank you whoever you are! I did tweak the color to intensify it, but otherwise this was the work of an unrealized pro ;)

Air 88 degrees Water 85 degrees

Yes, the waters off the very most southern tip of FL really are that warm. The resort we stayed in had a daily temp report written on a chalk board where you rent your beach chairs. Did I mention I love this?

Here's some pictures of Elle "commanding the waves" She was so content and didn't even seem to mind the salty taste of the waves.

Here's Reesey, my little stud muffin boogie boarder. So much fun, and he was really good at it!

Audge, a stud-muffin-et. The kids could've stayed out there forever if we let them. One downfall to salt water and sand-filled waves? They wash off your sunscreen. We were all a little pink the first day, but we learned our lesson.

We heart Epcot!

Another of Disney's triumphs! The amazing Epcot

As you'll see in the posts below, Epcot gives you a taste of different countries around the world. Here we are in "Italy". Now to save up for the real thing!

Fun fun days and equally fun nights!

Distant Places and Foreign Lands

Epcot Cont...

I rule with an iron fist

Couldn't resist snapping this of Elle, what a beauty!As in many of the parks, Disney goes above and beyond to replicate (and educate about) different parts of the world. We highly recommend it!

Animal Kingdom

Disney World has four main parks, not including the water parks... they are Massive, and no where near each other.. (ok, maybe they're near, it just takes a boat ride, ferry ride, bus ride or tram ride to get between them.) We duly devoted an entire day to the different parks with no illusion that we'd be "park hopping". That option, in my opinion is reserved for the California park. Anyway, Animal kingdom was by far my favorite. They do an amazing job turning different areas of the park into replicas of different areas of the world. And do a mighty fine job at it! See below, Mt. Everest.

So many amazing animals! One of my favorites was the "safari ride" in which you actually do see real animals.

Absolutely awesome

Happiest Place on Earth?

Quite possibly.

The nightly fireworks were SPECTACULAR!

Oh Boy, saved by your cowlick! All to ride this... I regret to say that when faced with riding this, I chickened out. Now that I'm a safe distance away I can say that I'm disappointed in myself for not riding it. DON'T you JUDGE me! You didn't hear the people screaming for their very lives... None the less, it went down in the books as a radical Father/Son thing, and they have me to thank.
More fun @ Universal

I love the look on the kids face in the background of Sam's picture. I'm pretty sure he's thinking something along the lines of.. You crazy!

Argh! And Oh how I love Cinderella's iconic dress!

Argh again! Oops, put it in two collages, oh well, the ride was great fun

On to Hogwarts!

Our first stop once we hit Orlando was Universal Studios. Home to the new Harry Potter Theme Park. This was an especially fun surprise now that Reese has taken to Harry Potter so much so that he claims it's his favorite, even surpassing Star Wars and Indiana Jones. For Reese, that's really saying something! This activity was also kept under wraps until we got there, It's just so much more fun that way.They really did an amazing job making this park incredibly accurate with the details in the books. ( So I'm told, I have yet to read them...) Every last thing seemed to be in place, down to the delicious butterbeer that can be purchased at the Three Broomsticks. It was like an amazingly yummy cream soda with a dollop of whipped cream goodness that causes the drink to bubble uncontrollably. The kids loved it, for all the obvious reasons... :)
Reese very early in the day decided he must have a broom and a wand for his souvenirs. Each of the kids had an allotted amount of spending money for the entire trip. Reese's allotment would be completely used up with the purchase of these two items. I did try to remind him that there would be Star Wars and other exciting things coming up at Disney World but to no avail, he decided to blow the whole amount in our first day. To his credit, I don't think he regretted his purchases; not even when faced with all the star wars memorabilia at Disney World. He was one Happy guy.

Even the selection of the wand from the shop was quite the procedure just like in the books. We had to wait in a LONG line and finally got into the wand shop where the shop keeper inquires about your birthday etc.. and then proceeds to let the wand "choose you". Reese ended up getting Harry's wand. To his delight.

Here you can see some magic happening in the wand shop, the inside of the Three Broomsticks, Zonko's the candy shop, complete with every-flavor beans and the puking pastilles. Then of course there was the biting books which the kids loved no doubt.

Inside the Hogwarts castle was a really fun ride ( Audrey's favorite, only after I forced her to go on it..) All the details were really incredible. Oh, and everyone who worked in the park spoke with an English accent.

It was a great start to our vacation. My only suggestion to anyone else thinking of going would be to not go at the end of August. It was H.O.T.!! But otherwise awesome!