The End of Our Year of Disney

Mid-OBX trip, Bryan and I headed to Norfolk airport for our final departure to Orlando for the last trip in the year of Disney. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge Villas and absolutely loved our studio, the location, and the lounge at our hotel. Despite not having the kids with us, we spent the majority of our time at Magic Kingdom riding Space Mountain and its mountain friends. We did enjoy the other parks as well, had some drinks, watched some performers, and ate our way around the world. Thankfully our pedometers tracked us at 17 miles walking, just for Wednesday!

Below find a series of mostly selfies. You pretty much can't tell any difference between our locations for any of the pics so I have helpfully captioned them!

Norfolk Airport - Mickey Here We Come!

And it's the Monorail. Por favor manténgase alejado de las puertas.

We did a fastpass test for lunch at Be Our Guest. The food was only so-so but the castle rooms were super cool and Bryan met a new friend.

Look, someone took a pic for us! Leaving Beast's Castle

Nine Years later. We have this pic from our delayed honeymoon in August 2005.

Weren't we young and crazy then?

Wilderness Lodge. Seriously great. Go there. Rent DVC points. It was awesome!

Boat ride to Contemporary for our dinner at the very grown up California Grill. It was cool especially with the lightning storm that night.

Bryan surprised me with a special anniversary cake. We had decided to celebrate 10 years a few months early since we had the vacation now and no big plans in December!

The last day we had a few minutes to kill before our safari fast pass. I made Bryan wait in line with me for Mickey and Minnie. I love these two!

Another great trip to see our friends!

Our annual passes officially expire September 5th. All in all, I visited Disney five times in the last 365 days, not bad, especially given we live in MD and not FL. All good things have to come to an end though and I have promised Bryan we will take 2015 off at the very least. I even sold our double stroller this week so as not to be tempted to book another trip soon. With Noelle not so little any more and starting the big world of Kindergarten, and our bank account needing some rebuilding from our year of irresponsible spending, it is time for us to say goodbye for a bit and just soak up the memories! Will we ever do another year of Disney? Honestly, I'd be shocked if we didn't, but it is definitely time for us to enjoy life away from Florida and Mickey for awhile. Friends, you need to schedule trips instead and I'll plan your itineraries out to the minute for you though! I can even limit the walking to more like 8 miles a day if I like you :)

Outer Banks 2014

This August I was able to go to both of my happy places, the OBX and Disney. Ah! Our trip consisted of watching Noelle exhaust herself as she became better and better at swimming in the pool, eating massive amounts of food, keeping Kellen from running in to the ocean or pool with no regard for his inability to actually swim or stand in deep water, eating more food in the form of dessert, walks, watching the kids play like crazy, a few awesome games of pinochle, picture taking, and our aforementioned visit to the aquarium. When Bryan and I journeyed to Disney for a few days, the kids and my family had even more fun including playground visits, Kel's first mini golf experience, the ice cream store, crabbing, and more swimming adventures. I hope my mom rested and threw them in the basement or in front of a movie occasionally but I have my doubts! It was a great ten days. We might be done with Disney for awhile but I get to hit the OBX again in less than a month for another long weekend. Yay!

My mom got this alligator float and it was a hit. And remarkably still in great shape after our 10 days!

This guy is mad for the beach.

My swimming queen

My brother apparently said something hysterical at the turtle pond

Kellen's first trip to a real ice cream store. He was impressed. Apparently his vanilla milkshake ended up on the floor shortly after this excitement!

Golfing stars

This wagon was one of our best purchases. Ever.

Our last look at the ocean for this trip. But we'll be back!

Look mom/grandmom! I can kick!

My favorite look alikes

The love these two have for each other makes  my heart melt

My longtime CTY friend and her son joined us to eat crabs, play, and walk on the beach

Kellen was skeptical about family picture time

Even more skeptical here...

Fine mom. CHEESE!

Apparently when you eat massive amounts for 10 days you have unbelievable strength!

Crabbing!

Ok I had to pick. Either Kellen scowling or Noelle not sitting like a lady. I guess the quest for a Christmas card picture continues...

 

 

 

 

Sharks and Dinos

During our recent visit to the OBX we went to the NC Aquarium one last time before our membership expired. I think we actually were there 4 times during the year, and also got to the Maryland Zoo twice before they changed the passes mid-year to no longer have reciprocity, pretty good for our $70 membership!

Since our last visit, the aquarium added two cool areas, one permanent and one a visiting exhibit. The permanent area is one where they have live sea turtles recovering in tanks where staff explain what likely happened to the turtles and how they are treating them for future release. It was really cool. The other area was an outdoor exhibit with huge moving, roaring dinosaurs. It was awesome! That exhibit is only there for a few more days so don't go looking for it there next summer but we were so glad we got to see it.

The eight of us had a great morning down at the aquarium! It was so nice to be able to do something with my parents, brother, grandmother, and the Saxton four!

Don't fall in Kel, We just got here!

 

Checking out the swimming otters!

My little turtle doctor evaluating and treating her friend

The littlest turtle doctor

Stingray touch tank

Getting ready for the shark diver show

Digging for fossils

Come on. Can't we check out the dinos yet?

B's new BFF

My favorite little ones with our new friends

Which one looks most vicious?

Five!

I cannot believe I have a five year old. That is truly insane. Here is a little bit about Noelle, in her own words, as she turns five. I am pretty impressed at how similar her answers are from a year ago!

1. What is your favorite color? Yellow!
This has been her consistent favorite. We will finally be painting her room yellow this fall!

2. What is your favorite toy? Baby Belle
Noelle also has Baby Rapunzel, Baby Ariel, and Baby Cinderella. I think she is princess babied out.

3. What is your favorite fruit and vegetable? Watermelon and Edamame
Really, this kid eats pretty much everything. I love it!

4. What is your favorite tv show? Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Doc McStuffins
Thankfully she has no patience for Peppa Pig these days. If only her brother was over it!

5. What is your favorite movie? Tangled
Or Beauty and the Beast, or Frozen, or any other Disney movie...

6. What is your favorite thing to wear?  A Dress
Good thing she just got like 8 for her birthday

7. What is your favorite animal? Dolphins
Sensing a beach influence on this one?

8. What is your favorite song? Let It Go
Her and every other 5 year old...

9. What is your favorite book? How To Spot Flower Fairies
This is the worst book ever. Do not buy it. Whoever gave it to us should apologize!

10. Who is your best friend? Julia
And Maeve and Lily. And even some boys like Henry and Will have recently made the list.

11. What is your favorite snack? Pretzel Goldfish

12. What is your favorite drink? Milk

13. What is your favorite breakfast? Blueberry Waffles
Both my kids would eat these every day. See Bryan's pregnancy post for the probable cause. We have at least graduated to the nutrigrain ones although I am sure those are still filled with tons of yuck they shouldn't have.

14. What is your favorite lunch? Peanut Butter and Jelly

15. What is your favorite dinner? Pizza

16. What is your favorite game? Checkers
I didn't even know she knew this was a game.

17. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play Tag
I think this is because she is a speed demon.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Mother's Day
This cracks me up. Her answer two years in a row, despite us not celebrating it really.

19. What do you sleep with at night? My baby blanket
And all her babies and Violet still hangs out in bed too.

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Doctor
Dr. Marlo has a lot of influence on this girl these days. I haven't told her her hero is actually a nurse practitioner and not an MD. Good news honey -you can help people without 7 billion dollars worth of loans and malpractice insurance, and a few less years of school/residency!

Happy 5th Birthday, Noelle! We love you and can't wait to see the great things you do this year!

Another Princess Party

On Saturday we hosted five little princess (plus one extra small princess and a prince) to celebrate Noelle turning five. The girls came over to play, eat pizza, sing, and have a cupcake.

I thought this event would be low key and tame. I didn't count on how loud and crazy five girls could be for 2.5 hours! They ran around the house like wild women (mostly in their dainty princess gowns), pushed each other in the various kid vehicles (all of which were too small for them at this point!), and played the most interesting game of hide and seek I have ever seen. The princess jewelry set I had gotten for them to do in lieu of giving out party favor bags entertained them about 12 minutes. Otherwise, they ran. It was pretty amusing and great to see two of Noelle's school friends and two of her friends from the mom group we have been in since she was a baby all get along so well. It gives me hope for Kindergarten after all!

The weather was gorgeous, the girls had fun, and all I had to do was make pizza and cupcakes and cut up some fruit and veggies. Despite being louder than I anticipated, it was still pretty low key on effort so I'll take it.

Proud of my cupcake creations. Homemade chocolate cupcakes with yellow frosting as requested. Thank you pinterest for helping me find princess cupcake toppers for easy download!

My favorite princess.

Silly Princesses

Happy Birthday To You!

We let Kellen come to the party too. He was really only interested in the cupcake. 

I can't believe my baby is already going to be 5. Stay tuned for her real birthday next weekend down in the OBX!

Kindergarten, Here We Come

Noelle has been excited for Kindergarten since May. She sings this little song from her preschool graduation all the time. And academically she is super prepared. She can count, do basic math, knows her seasons, calendar, etc., and can do some reading and writing. She will be pretty much the youngest in her class since she turns 5 about 15 days before the age cutoff, but she is tall and smart so we have been all about her starting in a few weeks.

Tonight I took Noelle to a local library for their Kindergarten, here we come program. It was extremely well done as the librarian told them about what to expect to see in the classroom, what their book bags would carry, what they can and can't bring to school, and then read stories, had them do dances, and even did a little puppet show about going to school on day one. After that, a bus driver took over and talked about riding the bus and bus safety before having the kids practice getting in a line and checking out the inside of the bus. It really was excellent.

Twenty kids went to the program. I am pretty sure 19 loved it. Noelle burst in to tears about 10 minutes in. I could tell she needed to go potty (night is always tough for her) since she couldn't stay still in crisscross applesauce position like they wanted her to. She wouldn't ask to go so I finally pulled her out to take her during one dance when I saw her start crying.

In the bathroom she told me in teary gulps that it was too scary. And that she is worried about needing to go potty. And that she'll have a new teacher and no friends. I convinced her to go back in to the class and she did do better. She never danced or rose her hand but she smiled a few times and whispered some responses under her breath. She wanted her picture taken next to the bus as we left so I am taking that as a good sign, even though she knows Ms. Rose will be driving her in a car four days a week.

After the program, Noelle told me more about how scary Kindergarten sounds. I did my best to reassure her. I am thankful for gradual Kindergarten entry since Bryan and I will be with her on day one but am a little worried. We know about 10 kids starting at the school with her. With 6 kindergarten classes, the odds are good that at least one of the 10 will be in her class. I am hoping and praying so since I'll know she will do better if she has a friendly face! I am also hoping our appointment with Dr. Marlo next week will help to reassure her on the potty front. Since Dr. Marlo pretty much works magic, I am confident she can get my big girl feeling okay about that part of school.

So Kindergarten, ready or not, here we come. Please be kind to us! Three weeks til I have an elementary school student!