Back to Disney

And now back to our regularly scheduled blogging...

We all woke up bright and early Thursday morning...the guys couldn't wait to get to the golf tournament and the girls were excited to get to the Magic Kingdom!

We hoped on the monorail and enjoyed the short ride to the Magic Kingdom.

I was excited that Cinderella's Castle was open so that we were able to walk through it. It's been years since I've looked at the beautiful glass mosaics on the walls.

After our stroll through the castle, we were able to hop onto Cinderella's Golden Carousel. We only had to wait in line about 2 minutes, which was about all we (or should I say Sara) could stand.

Both of the girls loved it. At one point Emma took off her hat and waved it about her head, cowboy style, while yelling "yee haw!"

We had a 10 minute wait for Dumbo but Goldfish and playing with Mommy's sunglasses made the wait go by a little faster.

Then it was back to Winnie the Pooh's playground!

Sara continued to be quite curious about all the honey pots!

After some playtime, we visited Minnie's house. Here is a picture of Emma in Minnie's sewing room. Who knew Minnie was such a seamstress!

The girls took a minute to sit in Minnie's sun room. It was so cute!

We were about to get on the train when a castmember asked us if we would like to meet Mary Poppins. We followed her and had a wonderful time meeting Mary. She told Emma that she had blue eyes just like her friend Jane (the little girl from the movie). Mary also asked Emma if she would hold Polly (her umbrella...at least I think that's what she called it).
Sara yelled at Mary Poppins and gave her a dirty look. Oh well.

Sara did enjoy her time at the ToonTown playground. She collected some acorns and hid them in a tree.

We left the Magic Kingdom and traveled back to the Polynesian. After some lunch and a nap, the guys joined us for a trip to EPCOT.

This was the Food and Wine Festival's last weekend and they brought out the big name culinary celebrities. Here I am with Todd English. He owns a bunch of restaurants, and has been on Iron Chef America and Top Chef. I've also seen him recently carving a turkey with Martha Stewart!

We dined at the Biergarten Restaurant in the Germany Pavillion later that afternoon. Sara loved the pretzel bread (big surprise) and the white sausages.

Emma loved all the yummy German desserts that her Grandpa kept slipping her. Her favorites were the Bavarian Cheesecake and vanilla pudding with chocolate shavings (shown here).

One of the highlights of the evening was listening to the Oktoberfest Musikanten perform in their traditional lederhosen.

Here the girls perform their version of the "chicken dance."

Our next blog will include our trip to Playhouse Disney Live Onstage and our meeting with Mickey Mouse!

V is for...

VIRUS!

Marcus, Emma and Sara all started showing symptoms of a terrible stomach virus over last weekend. Sara started Friday night and Marcus and Emma joined in Sunday afternoon. The sick trio couldn't keep anything down and had no energy at all. We took the girls to the pediatrician Monday afternoon. They were all as pale as could be and poor Marcus had to man the bucket on the way to the doctors office. I'm surprised he didn't have to use it! Anyway...the nurses gave the girls some medication and started re-hydrating the girls. Emma did well but Sara ended up being admitted to the hospital Monday night for dehydration.

After the IV was inserted (a nightmare I never wish to revisit), Sara slept well and all her vital signs were normal throughout the night. Our pediatrician checked in on her Tuesday morning and said she's not sure what made everyone so sick but that if Sara kept some juice down, we could go home before lunch. We were discharged and Sara is doing really well! It's like she was never sick!

Marcus and Emma are still in need of some energy but are eating their bland food and sleeping well now too.

We are in the process of getting our house back to normal. I'm washing everything that will fit in the washing machine and dousing Lysol on everything else. I'll get back to blogging about our wonderful Disney trip soon!

Guess What?

We loaded up the "magic door" (our minivan) and headed back down to Orlando last week. Daddy and Grandpa invited us girls along to their annual PGA Golf Watching Weekend. Here are some pictures from our first evening at the Polynesian.

You can tell the girls are thrilled to be back! Emma's smile and Sara's expression are truly worth a thousand words!

Our rooms were on the first floor so we could take advantage of the beautiful grassy area right outside our sliding glass door! The girls loved it! You can tell that Sara was in motion in this picture! She never stops!

I take that back...we were able to stop her for a photo opportunity on the beach.

While we waited for our seating at Ohana, we watched some traditional Hawaiian dancers with musical accompaniment.

Emma got into the action and danced along with them!

Thank goodness I had these chopsticks in my bag! (I think they were from the sushi we ate with Aunt Beth on one of our other Disney trips) They kept Sara occupied for a few minutes so the rest of us could finish up our delicious Polynesian feast!

Emma loved taking pictures with her new digital camera from Grandma and Grandpa. Just wait until you see some of those pictures!

Grandpa and Daddy are "busy" watching the girls in the lobby!

The girls were happy trying out each of the little seats around this table. I think Emma sat on each little stool at least twice!

Wyland, the marine artist, was also in the lobby that night painting. He has a gallery in the Polynesian so I guess he dropped by to check on things and sign pieces of his artwork.

Watch out for our first full day coming soon!

Fall Festival

Emma made this cute pumpkin shirt at school. Everyone in her class wore their shirt when they had their party on Thursday.

We got all dolled up Friday night to attend our church's Fall Festival. Here comes Cinder-emma!

And here is Snow Whine! Sara didn't seem to mind putting on her dress this time. Guess we'll have to change her name to Sara White!

After picking up Grandma and Grandpa, we decided to do the Cupcake Walk first. (Note to self: Next year, eat first and then go over to the cupcake walk.) Poor Daddy had to carry those cupcakes all over the place! Sara didn't seem to care if she won a cupcake or not. She just liked walking around and stopping when the music stopped.

We also stopped by the Duck Pond. Each duck has a symbol on the bottom that corresponds to the type of candy you can get. Sara didn't care about that either. She won a Tootsie Roll and threw it back into the pool.

The girls also enjoyed going fishing. (I'm not sure who the glowing hand on the bottom left belongs to.)


Sara's pole got stuck so Daddy had to help out. He got a round of applause!

Super Cooper made an appearance at the Fall Festival too!

Grandma and Grandpa were lots of help! Boy, did we need it!

Back home! We forgot to take a family picture but thanks to the timer on the camera we got a great shot...and everyone is looking at the camera! That hardly ever happens!

Fall is in the Air!

The title of this entry has nothing to do with the pics I'm going to be posting but I'm just loving this weather! Anyway...

I should have brought this huge box out of Sara's closet sooner! The girls were sitting in it, pretending it was their boat, when their Daddy walked by. He decided it would make a better sports car!

They "drove" all over the house...stopping every so often for the motor to recharge (he was pulling 65 pounds of absolute dead weight). They had a blast until the "car" started ripping down the side. You just can't get good quality products anymore!

Sara taught me a valuable lesson: don't leave a clean load of folded laundry just sitting on the floor. To illustrate her point, she piled her babies in and then sat on top of them.

Lesson learned! Thanks Sara!

Golf 101

Golf 102

I love the way Emma yells "hey" at the ball when she can't hit it!

Pumpkin Patch 2008

We took our annual trek to the Pumpkin Patch Saturday morning.

And we're walking...we're walking.

Time for a photo shoot. Look to the right!

Great! Now look down and pretend that we aren't telling you to actually look at us and leave the pumpkins alone.

Super! Now we need you to smile! One out of two isn't too bad.

Now, switch places and smile! Emma, nice touch with the little squash! Sara, I love the way you've placed your finger on your chin. Very intellectual pose!

Okay! Let's add Daddy into the mix!

And switch! It's Mommy's turn! Sara, don't run off just yet!

Thank goodness that's over with! Now we get to selecting our pumpkin! How does this one look?

Emma likes this one because it has a long stem.

Sara is drawn to the one that weighs as much as she does.

And heave ho!

After we paid for our pumpkin, the teenager working the booth gave each of the girls a small pumpkin. Sara took it and then put it down. I guess she thought she was shoplifting. Emma was very taken with her little pumpkin though. If I get really adventurous, we might paint the little pumpkins later in the week.

Emma and I worked on drawing pumpkins when we got him. I tried to show her that she could take her basic Mickey drawing and turn it into a pumpkin. Her pumpkin is over her shoulder. It reminds me of an Indian but it was a great first try!