Disney Day 3 (Monday)

The forecast for today wasn't looking too good - it was supposed to rain. We headed out to Epcot though and wanted to get in as much as possible before the rain started.

Our first ride was Mission to Mars. I was going to take the girls and Paul was going to stay with Joey. The ride was really neat, but I think I had my first panic attack ever on this ride. They kept giving us warnings for people who don't like dark and enclosed places. Aside from them wishing they'd stop saying it so Alli wouldn't get scared, I didn't give it much thought. Then it was our turn to get in and the girls and I were in our own little capsule and they shut the doors and we had to bring this retraint down over our heads and it fit against our chest. Well, all of a sudden I freaked. I seriously thought I was going to lose it. I was looking for a panic button or something to get the doors to open up. Unfortunately, there wasn't one. I think it started because I was nervous about getting to Alli if she was scared - you really couldn't move in this ride. Thankfully though, once the ride started, we were looking up into a blue sky and it made it seem more open (at least in my mind) and I started to breathe easier and in the end, we all really enjoyed it.


After, Paul and Em went on the Test Track - it was supposed to simulate the safety tests they put cars through. While they were on that, Alli, Joey and I roamed around Innoventions. Here they are racing to put together a storm safety kit.

Paul and Em loved the test track ride so much, Paul got me a fast pass so I could go too. It was fun!



Soon after this, the showers started, so we thought we'd grab some lunch. We rode the boat over to the World Showcase and ate in the American section (we're real adventurers when it comes to food, aren't we). The rain was pretty heavy so we kept trying to find things indoors, so we road the boat back and then decided to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. We are really getting use out of our park hopper tickets lol.

We wanted to get to Magic Kingdom for their afternoon parade (unfortunately, we missed the Superbowl parade). We made it, thanks to a rain delay, but they didn't have the full fledged parade, they did a rainy day one.

Here are the girls and I in our rain ponchos.

After the parade, we had our first character dinner. It was dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table, right in the castle. We first got to me Cinderella and get her autograph and pictures with her, then we went upstairs for a delicious dinner. Paul and I had prime rib - yum! During dinner, the Fairy Godmother and mice came up for some singing and pictures. I don't have a picture of us with Cinderella since this was part of the package - they took pictures and then printed out some 8x10s and 4x6s for us to take home.

After dinner we ran over and met Ariel. Em says she's not into princesses anymore, but she was excited to see Ariel. Ariel has always been Em's favorite and Cinderella has always been Alli's favorite.

We wanted to hang out at the park for the SpectoMagic parade - which we were hoping would still take place - the rain was still hanging on. While waiting, we decided to do some shopping. We've discovered on this trip that Alli loves shopping. She could look around these shops forever. The girls picked out some Mickey (well, I guess Minnie) ears and Em got earrings and Alli got a necklace. For Joey, we found a little matchbox car that looked like nemo and a little Disney Transportation bus. Here are the girls modeling their new "ears".

And, finally, the rain stopped and the parade went on. It was so cool. They dim all the lights on main street and then all the floats and characters were lit up. Finally, Joey didn't cry!!! Yay!! I think this was our first day of not torturing him.

Disney Day 2 (Sunday)

After breakfast we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios for the morning. We saw Pluto right when we entered the park and stopped to get his autograph - Joe, of course, stayed far away with daddy (he did wave back to goofy though).





They had this fun little playground called Honey I Shrunk the Kids. It was great for the kids and parents. We could climb through "ant tunnels", climb through spider webs and take a ride on an ant.







Then the girls were in heaven when we got to see a street show of High School Musical 3. The performers sang songs from the latest movie. Recognize the little girl in the next two pictures? Emily got picked to go up and dance along to one of the songs.

We hoped Joey would be excited seeing the Cars characters, but even Lightening McQueen scared him. The poor boy, I feel like we're traumatizing him with this trip.

We went back to the hotel in the afternoon so Joey could nap and Paul took the girls swimming in the pool. Afterwards, we went to Epcot for dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant. It was a nice restaurant with a huge acquarium. Then we went to see Turtle Talk with Crush from Nemo. That was a really funny show.

Afterwards, we took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. Their was a Wishes Fireworks show that we wanted to see. The castle (and the rest of the park) looked so pretty all lit up at night.

We caught a performance by the characters at the castle (our timing was working out perfectly for everything today). Of course, Joey cried through most of it again.

We went on the Dumbo ride and the carousel while we were waiting for the show.

And then it was 9pm and time for the Wishes show to start. All I can say is WOW!!! The fireworks were amazing and went with the music. Paul, Emily and I LOVED it. I had found earplugs for Alli (Joey wouldn't keep his in), so she was able to tolerate it and Joey just screamed through it. He is NEVER going to want to come back to Disney, I tell you. He's going to think it's the Scariest place on earth!. I can't really blame them with the fireworks though - I hated them too when I was their age - I used to scream at all the 4th of July fireworks.

Disney Day 1

Originally, our flight for Disney was at 4pm Saturday, but Paul had found out that the 8am direct flight still had a lot of openings, so we were going to try and fly standby. All week he was calling to get updates and every time he called he get different answers...it was so frustrating. Anyway, the last call looked good, so we decided to give it a try.

My mom dropped us off at the airport and we found out there were a lot of open seats, it was just most of them were in the emergency exit row and kids could not sit there. They made a few announcements asking if anyone would be willing and, finally, just as the last passengers were boarding, someone switched and they were a party of four. It worked out perfectly. It was me and the 3 kids in one row (Em was across the aisle) and Paul right in front of me.

Thankfully, the flight was uneventful - I really hate flying. The kids were good too. The girls played their DS, we read and Em wrote in her journal (part of her homework for school). During takeoff, Joey kept asking if we were upside down yet....and I kept telling him, we never want to be upside down :) that wouldn't be good at all.

We arrived and took the Magical express shuttle to the hotel. It was so nice, we dropped off our luggage in Rochester and didn't have to worry about it again. They brought everything right to our room. We're staying at the Carribbean beach resort - it's really nice. When we arrived, our room wasn't ready, but we were able to get our park tickets, so we decided to head over to Animal Kingdom.

We were able to get a family picture in front of the tree of life, which is one of the first things you see when you enter the park.

We were all starving, so we decided to get some lunch first. Walking along, you see these birds EVERYWHERE. They're just walking along with the rest of us.

Well, Alli didn't like them that much and she especially didn't like all the ducks that were around the dining tables. Whenever one would walk near our table, she would freak out!

We, of course, had to get some autographs. This was Brer Bear and we also saw Brer Rabbit. Honestly, I don't know who the heck they are, but it's fun. Alli is actually getting her own autographs and posing for pictures this trip. When we were here in 2005, she wanted no part of the characters (except Cinderella). This trip, Joey has taken over the fear of the characters. Boy does he freak out when he sees one. Paul has to go so far away when we're getting autographs or Joey just cries and cries - poor little man.

Here are Paul and the kids with their bug glasses on as we're waiting to get into the 3d Bugs Life Show. If we hadn't freaked out Joey enough with the characters, we sure sent him over the edge with this one. He even took his 3d glasses off, but was still scared during the show. It didn't help that they sprayed the audience with water (just lightly), had "bugs" crawl under your seat and wasps coming at your back.

After traumatizing Joey with the bugs, we headed on the safari ride. Thankfully he liked that. It was a great ride and we got to see lots of animals - giraffes, elephants, cheetah, flamingos, rhinos, lion and lots more.

After the safari ride, we decided to head back to the hotel, see our room and take a nap since we had all gotten up so early for the flight. Afterwards, we went to Epcot for their illuminations show.

Joey was fascinated by the "Big Ball". We went on a really cool ride inside the big ball and did the finding nemo ride before the show. The night had actually gotten pretty cold - the girls were freezing -really, we all were. Florida nights got a lot colder than we were expecting!!!!

The illuminations show was really cool. There was a huge explosion of fire (we could feel the heat across the lake) and lots of fireworks. There was even a huge illuminated globe that circled the lake. Paul and I loved it - the kids - especially Alli and Joey not so much. Joey and Alli take after their mommy - they HATE fireworks. I love them now, but hated them as a kid.

Our first day at Disney was wonderful and such an unexpected bonus! We got to see so much more than we had expected having gotten on the earlier flight. We're really looking forward to the rest of the week - we just hope it warms up a bit (but as I keep reminding Paul...it's warmer than Rochester!).

So Excited!!

A few months ago (well, really it started a couple of years ago), I decided I wanted to go back to school to become a teacher. I just didn't feel that accounting was the right career choice for me anymore. I wanted to do something that I felt was really making a difference in the world. I've really enjoyed working in the girls' classrooms and teaching religion, so I looked into the programs available. I found a masters program at St. John Fisher adn applied. Well, I found out today that I got accepted!!! I'm SO excited. The best part is, all of my undergraduate coursework met the requirements so I don't need to take any classes before starting.

So, beginning in the Fall, I will be going back to school. I'm a little nervous about keeping up with classes, homework, the kids schedules and activities, but I know it will work out.

Trying to Beat the Winter Blues

Ok, after this past week, I'm really getting tired of winter (and, I know, we still have a LONG way to go). We started to get those single digit temperatures with subzero windchills - I just hate that freezing cold - I can handle the 30s, even 20s, but that's about it.

Since the freezing temps were going to begin on Wednesday, I wanted to get outdoors with the kids while the weather was still decent. We built this snowman and we had fun making snow angels and then Alli and Joey bombarded me with a snowball fight. Of course, when we went in, we warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate.





Once the freezing temps started, I knew we'd be hibernating in the house for a few days. I wasn't exactly planning on starting potty training right now since we leave for Disney in a couple of weeks, but I walked by the bathroom and found Joey with his pants down trying to get himself on the potty. Well, I couldn't discourage him, so we broke open the big boy undies Santa brought and decided to give it a try. He has done amazingly well. We have had about one accident a day, but that's not too bad. He still seems reall into it, so hopefully he'll be potty trained soon. Here he is modeling his big boy undies.



Friday night, we decided to have a movie night. The kids brought their sleeping bags into the family room, I made some popcorn and we watched Wall-E. Paul didn't like it, but Em & Alli really did. What I saw of it (I ended up falling a sleep for part of it) I thought was ok.



Saturday Paul went to the Syracuse vs Notre Dame basketball game with my dad, brother inlaw Ryan, Uncle and cousin. Syracuse won (Paul was excited, but the rest weren't). And on Sunday, all the girls on Paul's side of the family went to paint some pottery at Mud About You. It was so much fun. I painted a birthday plate for us to use on our birthdays, Em painted a mug and Alli painted a little hugs & kisses box it was called. We spent most of the afternoon there and we can't wait to pick up our pieces next week to see how they turned out.

Week in review

Well, this was our first full week back to school and work. I'm always a little sad when breaks are over, but it is nice to get back to our usual routine. The girls were very excited to get back to school and see their friends. This is them bright and early Monday morning on their way out to the bus.



We're still having fun playing with our Wii. Alli plays it so much more than I would have thought - and she's really good. She kicked my butt in golf (the game actually told me to give up since I was doing so bad - can you believe it). She also loves the Wii fit. I don't know how well you can see it in the picture, but my mii is actually asleep - I guess I don't play enough - ha ha!



Grandma & Grandpa Soups had given Joey this stacking doll (I don't know the right name for it) and he has had so much fun with it. He calls the smallest doll, the baby and he'll take it apart and ask whoever will listen, "Do you think this is the baby?"......"No"........"Do you think this is the baby?" And this will continue on until you get to the smallest. Then he'll stack them back up again. He loves it.



Alli is really becoming quite the little reader. She's able to read so many more words on her own now. Every few weeks she brings home a new book that she's completed in school to read to us. This was a book she brought home from school this week.



Friday night we went ice skating in Manhattan Square Park. It was fun. We tried putting Joey in skates and he loved walking around in the little waiting room in his skates, but freaked when we tried putting him on the ice. So, Paul and I just took turns sitting with him while the other one skated with the girls. Em did a great job skating on her own. Alli, started off needing a lot of support, but by the end was skating all on her own.

On Saturday, I registered Joey for preschool for next fall. I can't believe it - I feel like he was just a newborn and now we're registering him for school - Yikes! I took him with me to the open house and he really had fun playing with the other kids and all the toys. But, when I asked him on the way home if he liked his new school, he said "No". He's too much.

Then in the afternoon, for my grandma's Christmas present, the girls and I took her to a movie (and we were supposed to go to dinner, but that was postponed because of a snow storm). We went to see Marly & Me. It was a really cute movie. I could relate to so much of it with having our own yellow lab, Molly. Molly was never nearly as bad as Marly, but there were definite similarities.

Today the girls and I went to our cousin's Leslie's baby shower. It was a fun shower and we can't wait for the arrival of little baby Carson. Here's a picture of the excited mom & dad to be.

Ringing in the New Year!!

The girls were so excited for the last day of 2008. Our friends the Rider's always have a fun New Years Eve party. They have a countdown a little early for the kids. Every year, it gets a little later as the kids get older. It used to be at 8pm and now this year it was 9:30, or a little after. They've got party hats and noise makers for the kids - which of course they love - it's a little deafening for the parents, but it's fun.

Here are the girls "ringing in the new year" at 9:30.



On the drive home the girls really wanted to try and stay up until midnight, so we'd decided to let them try. They got in the jammies and we watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve trying to stay awake. As you can see from the pictures below, Paul and Alli didn't make it. And, they were OUT - I kept trying to wake them up when they started the countdown and they didn't budge.

It was just Emily and I. She was tired, but I think she was excited and proud of herself for making it till midnight. One funny thing though - she was grossed out by the long kiss Dick Clark gave his wife at midnight lol.

Happy 2009!!!