Orlando!

Every June Don has a show to work in Orlando, and for the past 3 years, the kids and I have joined him for that and a little fun at Magic Kingdom.  Each year we discuss whether we want to make it an annual thing, mostly because we don't want to over-indulge our kids. Prior to his yearly visit, we could count on one hand how many times we had each visited Disney, and we would really like to make it a very special thing for our kids as well - not to mention that it is ridiculously expensive to go, even for a day.  But each year, we're so ready to get out of town for a few days, that we do it any way.  For the second year in a row, I drove down with the kids (alone). For the second year in a row, I swore I would never do it again. To quote Mason - "why didn't we fly in an airplane, Mommy." Good question, kid.  Never the less, it was fun.

Here we are dining at Waffle House on the way down.  Maybe Mason wasn't the happiest camper at this point.

We slept at a Hampton Inn in nowheresville GA. The kids were adamant that we had stayed there before. I tried to explain that all Hampton Inns looked alike. To no avail.

And finally we arrived at the Gaylord Palms (aka Paradise). 

I lost Mason at the pool within the first 3 minutes of being there. Some nice lady with a walkie-talkie returned him to me. He was so distraught that I couldn't even get onto him for not staying with me. Needless to say, he stuck close the rest of the trip.

The pool was amazing! There was even an onsite water park.  True to form, Mason went down all 4 water slides and Kate stuck to the short ones. 

We take a very laid back approach to Disney, unlike probably 98% of the people there. We only do one park on one day, and we didn't even walk into Frontier land or Adventure land this year. Yeah, maybe that's not getting your money's worth, but my sanity was in tact at the end of the day.

Of course M enjoyed the roller coaster, but he also had to ride this. Driving these cars is probably my least favorite thing to do at Disney. They're hot and slow, but he loved it. He also doesn't follow the "no bumping the car in front of you" rule. Wait... that's Don.

I think we may have found a replacement for the navy Crocs. He hasn't asked to wear them since we got home. Yay!!

On day 2 we went to Sea World!! They loved it. Espeically Kate, who says that given the choice, she'd rather go to Sea World than Disney.  What?! Yep. Maybe we're getting past the princess stage. I mean, she did wear her Cinderella dress, but took it off before we even entered Magic Kingdom.

Sea World was rainy - here we are before the deluge.

And then we headed home!

Besties

I think I've blogged once or twice before about Kate's bestie, Brynn.  They've been buds since 1 year old preschool at Lexington Methodist. Brynn was always the shy one and Kate was definitely not, but they both loved to talk and were fast friends.  We see Brynn and her brother Will (and the rest of the fam) about 2 or 3 times a year.  One of those times (if vacations don't interfere) is Vacation Bible School in Lexington.  Kate and Mason get spoiled by Nan and Pop for the week, and Kate gets to hang out with Brynn every morning at VBS. What a special time.  Here they are, wearing the "Best Friends" necklace that Kate got for Brynnie.  Sweet, sweet friends!

Because It's Been A While

I love to blog. I really do. I know that you wouldn't know it based on the fact that I haven't blogged in oh, 8 months.  I resolve to change that on a regular basis and it goes nowhere. I love to document our family time. Writing can be cathartic. But then there's this whole thing called life, that slows down for no one.  And I always seem to be trying to catch up or just keep my head above water. So, I'm not going to promise my once prolific 1 post a day, but maybe we'll start with one a week. And I'm somewhat of a perfectionist in some respects, but I will NOT avoid posting just because I can't post about everything. So... here's the first in a series of life snipits.

Kate finished kindergarten. She's awesome, y'all.  And if you know me, you know I don't use "y'all" very often. It just seemed apropos.  I can't explain it, and most of you will never know, but this kid is different. She's sensitive and cries easily sometimes, like all 6 year olds. But she SIX. If you spend any time around Kate, you forget that. We also don't have anything to compare her to (other than Mason), so I'm not really sure what average 6 year olds are like. She finished Kindergarten. She loved every single moment of it. I hope that she always loves to learn as much as she does now. I hear she could "read and write the room" like no other.

Here she is. Last day of K5.

 And then there's the Moo. He turned 4 on May 14th.  He's still the most tenderhearted boy around. You want my last Skittle? Ok! (With a smile on his face). He also laughs in the face of trouble. This makes discipline a little tough until you figure out what motivates him. He loves TV (Rescue Bots), trucks (fire trucks are his favorite), construction sites, candy, being outside, nature walks, and he's been picking up a lot of bugs lately. He smiles and giggles a lot. Sometimes he's hard to read because he laughs when he's happy or when he's in trouble or when he's scared. I guess there are worse things. Please don't ever ask him to wear shoes other than navy blue Crocs. He's wearing other ones in this photo... but only because I "couldn't find" the navy ones.

And most of the time, they get along famously.