Spoiled Little Princesses

You see every once in awhile miracles do happen.  In this case it was that Grant and I received the best gift on earth...not to be invited to the happiest place on Earth.  Oh yes, my brave parents picked up the girls after school on Thursday afternoon and took them to Orlando until Sunday evening.  Considering we were not invited on this grand adventure I had to invite a guest blogger to recreate the three days of crazy for us.  Take it away YaYa...

Three days in spring - parents put in timeout and the Girlies gone wild like the animals on safari at Disney Animal Kingdom with their YaYa and Grr.  The safari was our last event of a three day marathon through the City Walk, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Animal Kingdom. 

The giraffes were beautiful; however each Girlie had a favorite animal they HAD to see, for Adelaide it was the zebra and Penelope a hippopotamus...a stuffed zebra and hippo were purchased in advance just in case the magic was no longer with us on day 3.

Occasionally little girls are eligible to be fish food.

Both Epcot and Animal Kingdom offer Nemo... the absolute best is the musical show at Animal Kingdom...anyone for a giant Crush?

Adelaide and Penelope showed their musical talents with an impromptu performance on the drums.

I can't wait for Nemo...

After the long lines at Disney, the dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom - with no lines, was a welcome site, round 1 and round 2!

One Grr - two Girlies.. trust me, they may not be large, but they were clearly in charge.

M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E... the character spot at Epcot hit the mark, we met Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.

Making sure that my two little Olaf's didn't melt was a very important job.  Mommy purchased the cutest little Olaf outfits - clearly unique and eye catching grabbing the attention of many and the envy of all!

Figment or Phigment of our imagination - I am not sure who had a better time creating music - Grr or Girlies.

My sweet, sweet child.

Penelope was very enthralled by the show - not surprising as this child has a Disney movie problem...

Is there something behind me? What fish..

Arriving at Epcot, with the iconic geodesic dome.  From this point forward was the mad dash to Norway in an effort to see the lovely Queen and Princess (Elsa and Ana) from Frozen.  By the time we arrived at the line to see Anna and Elsa the line was 3 hours long and that it would get up to 5 hours by the end of the day.  So here is your tip of the day, go into the gift area, sneak around the corner and there they are.

Even after long, long days and too short of a nap - my sweet Girlies were able to enjoy fine dining Italian style in their bathing suits.

Special outfits for the day at Magic Kingdom - not the only Etsy purchase on this trip - yes, we do find dressing the girls for the occasion to be fitting.  Some day they will revolt (if they have their mother's genes) but for now - they are just adorable and YaYa can't get enough of them.

Riding the wild stallion!  Hang on to me Grr.

Our Girlies had an idea but really got the full taste of what their weekend of fun was all about 15 minutes upon arrival at Magic Kingdom - that is Mickey on stage! And Minnie and all the Princesses you know of in one place. 

Pluto won the prize - they selected a photo with him over Minnie - we were all astonished at the choice.

We had to visit Cinderella's castle three times.  P is obsessed - or is it Snow White's castle.  Either way we know that there is a wicked Queen lurking about somewhere - life according to P.

With all of that Disney magic you might be wondering what the adults left at home did over the weekend.  After trying to call and get the status of the trip and being completely ignored we stopped worrying and went onto to enjoy a weekend completely alone at home.  There was pizza and beer, shrimp and beer and a little work had to be done at home too.  Now we just have to convince them they need to take them somewhere next year.

Grant's handywork

Set Sail

There is a whole lot of crazy happening at any moment of time when you work full time, have a husband who works time and half, live in a house of seven and have two children with their own needs.  So when we started to think about Spring Break and realized that we would be without childcare for a week our options were to take vacation and stay home with the girls or pack up the family and find a vacation destination.  As soon as I remembered that as much as I love my children, being home with them all week might just push me over the edge I immediately booked a cruise.

Two and a half hours in the car involving two screenings of Frozen and we were at Port Canaveral.   A short time later and we were on the ship, ate lunch and ready for a little pool time.

 Day two...what to do...what to do...oh yes, water play time.

 The girls started with the little slides, but then we moved onto the bigger options.

 Stop worrying, we didn't let the girls go down these, but Grant and I did.

 We did have medium slide races and Adelaide loved it.  We were also able to push Penelope down twice until the slide monitors realized how little the girls were and they put a stop to it.  P didn't care, but A threw a fit because she would have gone down all day if we let her and she was only short by about an inch.

No day in the sun is complete without some ice cream. 

Carnival isn't our favorite cruise line, but we do cruise them often for a few reasons 1. they are an inexpensive option compared to others, 2. passengers expect to see kids running around and 3. kids club starts at age 2 which is very important for Crazy Girl P and her very tired parents.

Small world story for you, one night at dinner P serenaded the dining room with her Frozen songs.  Next thing you know the little girl at the table next to us started singing with her.  Little girl's mom just happened to be a coworker of mine who is in our Lakeland office.  After that we saw the family everything, get on the elevator and there they were.  Drop the kids off at camp and yep there they were.

Pirate night at camp.

I should also mention that an advantage to cruising Carnival is that we have cruised so much that we get extra perks like free drinks and past guest parties.

Dancing on stage with all of the big kids, afterwards P refused to get off of the stage.  I smell trouble in my future.



Happy Girls

 Here we are in St Thomas, no matter how many times we visit these beautiful islands it always astounds me just how turquoise the water really is.  We weren't off of the ship too long due to the arrival time, the heat and Grant and I were there last year with some of our favorite travel companions Leah and Rich.

The girls kept yelling zombie!  Wonder where they learned that word...Grant.

She surrendered by this point.

The most exciting part of our trip had to be St Maarten.  We got off of the ship, caught the ferry to the main shopping and beach area on this side of the island and then we relaxed.  There was a little walking, no shopping (yes, you read that correctly) and lots of fun in the sun.

Best part of the day, A lost tooth number 2!!  Just ask her and she will tell you all about it.

At some point the vacation must end, but not before a few more days in the sun, dinners, naps and lots of little girl snuggles. 

Attack of the napkin mouse, watch out P.

Is that Colonel Sanders, nah just G wearing a hair bow.

Is this a happy kid or what?