#6

The youngest one turned 6 this summer.  For her party this year, we did a "mock" sleepover.  To explain, let me start by saying, I hate sleepovers.  Everyone is always up so late, keeping others not included in the sleepover, up so late, followed up by very tired and very grumpy little kids the next day.  Personally, I don't get why kids love them so much. 

So, since her mommy hates sleepovers and since she is only 6 anyway, we had a mock sleepover.  We started out at the pool.  Everyone showed up around 4 PM.  We swam for 2 hours. 

Then we got out, dried off and had pizza by the pool.  After pizza, we all went back to our house, changed into P.J.'s and had birthday cupcakes. 

 

Her cupcakes are supposed to look like watermelon. 

 

 

 

This girl was VERY excited the day was all about her. 

 

She is making some sort of exaggerated, excited noise here.

 

She calmed down a bit in order to blow out her candles.

 

 

After cupcakes, everyone went down to the basement for a movie. 

 

 



For their take home goody bag, everyone got to make their own cereal.  We had 5 different kinds of the kind of cereal mom won't usually let you have and they got to pick and choose the kinds they wanted to fill their box.  They also got a personalized bottle of milk to take home as well.  I thought since they weren't really sleeping over, we should continue the experience by sending them home with breakfast. 

After the movie, there was time to open gifts, pose for a group shot (unfortunately, one little girl had to leave early so she missed the picture), and go outside to catch lightening bugs while waiting for parents to pick them up at 9 PM. 

 

 

Overall, I think the party was a success.  And everyone got to bed at a decent hour. 

Sunflower Festival

 

The girls and I have had a busy summer. We just got back from 2 days with Nana in Montgomery, and before that a week in FL with Mimi and Papa. I'll get to those trips later. For now, here are some pictures from our visit to the Sunflower Festival in Rutledge, GA, a couple of weekends ago.
It has been raining here EVERY DARN DAY for about 3 weeks running, so it was nice to go east a bit and see some sun.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we have become so accustomed to the rain in our parts, we brought the umbrella just in case.  It turned out to be helpful even though it didn't rain.

 

I think Emily took this picture.

Emily and Abbi got to zip line.

 

Notice the look of terror on Abbi's face.

 

 

 

There were smiles afterward, so I think it was a success.

Our Vacation Part 3

Ok, so I figured since we are fixing to (yes, fixing to) go on another trip at which there will most certainly be a whole other glob of new pictures to share, I thought I should get on it and finish sharing the pics from our summer vacation.

In my last post, I shared pictures of our first day at Disney's Port Orleans.  Today, I'm sharing our second day.  The main event from day 2 was our character meal at Chef Mickey's.

  In case you are not in the know, Chef Mickey's is a restaurant situated in the lobby of the Contemporary Resort Hotel at Disney World.  This hotel is unique because you can ride the monorail right inside the hotel.  At Chef Mickey's you enjoy a buffet breakfast or dinner (in our case, breakfast) while stopping every so often to greet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.  And of course, to take lots of pictures.  So...

Donald came out a second time and did a little dance with the girls.

Then, of course, there was another cupcake for LeeAnne, the birthday girl.  I've lost count at this point.  I think it's cupcake #3.

 

This time, they brought out cup-cakes (cake in a cup) for Emily and Abbi too.

 

 

 

After our late breakfast at Chef Mickey's, rode the monorail around and did some hotel hopping. 

 

Daddy, acting silly on the monorail.

 

 

We also did a little bit of shopping so the girls could spend the Disney dollars Uncle Chris gave them for Christmas.

 

 

 

Then we went back to the hotel for a bit of swimming. 

 

Later that day, after dinner at our hotel, we headed to The Boardwalk, near Epcot.  The Boardwalk is meant to be an Atlantic City type boardwalk with games, and food, and restaurants and shops. 

 

We stopped to watch a sidewalk magician so a little show. 

 

 

We ended the day by getting to witness one of the prettiest sunsets I've seen in a while. 

 

 

 

The girls loved the Boardwalk and have already requested another visit next time we are in Florida.

 

The next day we headed back to Mimi and Papa's house, where we stayed for a few more nights.  I'll try to wrap up all the pics in the next post. 

 

 

 



Our Vacation, Part 2

So, as I mentioned in my last post, we drove to FL on a Saturday, had LeeAnne's birthday celebration at Uncle Chris' house on Sunday and then headed to Disney on Monday. 

Here are a few pictures from that leg of our trip;

We requested and got one of the newly renovated rooms at our hotel at Disney.  One of the new features was this Murphy bed the girls are sitting on.  Not so big for an adult, but just the right size for a kid. 

When the bed was closed, it created a bench seat.  (Plus there are drawers underneath for extra storage).

We stayed at Port Orleans, Riverside.  We've stayed here before and really like it.  Plus, it's one of the only Disney hotels that has enough beds for 5 in one room.

These 2 pictures (1 above and the 1 below) were taken on our hotel property.

Since LeeAnne's birthday was the day before, they gave her this birthday pin to wear.  She got lots of "Happy Birthday, LeeAnne's" during out stay. 

During our first day at Port Orleans, after checking everything out, we changed into our bathing suits and spent some time at the pool.  I didn't get any pool pictures because I don't like to leave my camera laying around the pool.  So, just know, we did a lot of swimming. 

Later that evening, we ate at one of our favorite Disney restaurants, Boma.  It's a restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Hotel.  We were a little early for our reservation, which was fine, because that gave us time to look around in some of the hotel shops.  And as is our Disney custom, we spent some time trying on all sorts of different hats.  I put these pictures in 2 collages since there are so many.

This is a shot from inside the Animal Kingdom Lodge Hotel

After trying on lots and lots of hats, we made our way out back, past some African art,

to the savanna that is behind the hotel.  Here you can see lots of animals, like...

Zebra,

                                                                 Pelicans,

some sort of cow type animal with enormous horns,

giraffe, and,

Ummm....I forget this animal...Wildebeests??

The kids looking at all the animals out back.

getting ready to eat....we are hungry!

We had informed the guest relations people when we made the reservation that it was LeeAnne's birthday, so they brought her a cupcake (this was cake #2, the first being at Chris' house).

This was my dessert.  Boma is a buffet style restaurant with LOTS of yummy choices.  This was my dessert buffet selection. 

 
We had a good first day at Disney.  Day 2, we got to meet some characters at Chef Mickey's.  I'll tell you about that next time....