Disneyland Day One

When I tell you that this place is magical, really, you HAVE to see it to believe it.

And when I tell you that we all had a blast, we truly took it all in and had an amazing vacation.

We literally spent no less than 12 hours in the park each day and still had no meltdowns, great sleepers and overall, a happy group....means a success in my book. The kids did AMAZING. Amazing. Ava was just in awe and out to have a good time and Griff was happy as could be and would nap when it got to be too much. As long as we had snacks, we were golden.

Some pictures capturing our first day.

















Meeting the Princesses! The WHOLE reason we came to Disneyland was to meet the princesses. By asking around and figuring it out, we were able to avoid some major lines by arriving at 7:00 am before the park opens and avoid a lot of lines and waiting in Fantasyland, which put us 2nd in line for when the princesses were ready to meet and greet. Ava was so excited. She contains most of her happiness and showed her first nervous habit....playing with her hair and continually tucking it behind her ears. THAT'S how much these princesses mean to her. She was so nervous and giddy at the same time. What a dream come true for her. The princesses were so kind and really took their time talking and listening to the kids.


















Favorites for the Day--When one of the princesses asked Ava what her favorites were, she said "It's a small world", "Dumbo" and "Meeting the Princesses".
















Character Meet n Greet--There were opportunities all around the parks to meet Disney/Pixar characters and obtain autographs. Ava and Griffin were both excited to meet Tinkerbell and Terrance, Minnie and Mickey, among many many others.




























Jungle Cruise Tour--we took this tour to wind down and cool down. There are many rides like this that give you an opportunity to take a deep breath. The kids enjoyed seeing jungle animals.











Parades and Festivals--Mickey's SoundSational Parade and the Princess Coronation and Storytime

The parade had just about every character you could think of and the music was wonderful. The Princess Coronation allowed the kids to participate and dance with royalty.

Already exhausted....

Disneyland bound and we are already exhausted keeping up with the Griff at the airport and plane ride. Whew!

Updates

Ava:

-loves playing school, mommy/daughter, any pretend play.

-loves art; she will sit for a half hour coloring, drawing, cutting, etc.; her artwork is really good, too!

-loves her little brother. she has to be the first one in his room to get him up from naps and they both LOVE it. i give them a few minutes of alone time together. he, of course, eats. her. up.

-loves (finally!) her letters, sounds, and starting very basic words.

-loves staying up later in the summer and waking up a little later, which works somehow.

-loves little house on the prairie. we borrowed a video from the library and she loves to watch it. she is kind of obsessed with laura ingalls.


Griffin:

-loves to make vrrrrrrooom! noises when he pushes cars and airplanes around.

-loves hitting and whacking objects with plastic golf clubs.

-loves answering yes by nodding his head, it's so cute, too!

-loves, loves, loves to dance. i mean, if he wants to tell me he likes something....he dances. if he hears the slightest bit of music....he dances. any excuse to dance.

-loves playtime with sissy. to watch the two of them giggle is heartwarming and priceless.

14 month update

It continues to amaze me how much and how fast these little ones absorb, communicate and understand. At 14 months, Griffin is really starting to communicate, mostly through nonverbal language; either sign, pointing, nodding or grunting. He has a few words that we understand and probably are the only ones who understand, but will say "llll" for balloon and Elmo. He'll say "maw, maw, maw" for more. Of course there is "key kah" for Boo and I swear I've heard him say "Aya", but that's to be determined.

He is such a happy little guy, who wants just about everything that sissy wants or has, naturally. He has a hearty appetite and is still a little wary about vegetables.

He continues to be my snuggler and just nestled right in to my lap, head rested on my shoulder, to be rocked.

Griffin is starting to get a little orneriness about him and knows when he isn't supposed to do something and looks right at me with that smirk and twinkle in his eye, and does it anyway, hehe.

He's a smart one and picks up on things quickly. We are so lucky to have this little guy in our lives.

Good Times at the Lake

We've hit the big time! Having friends with a houseboat is the way to go. You know I kid, Beth. No, but in all seriousness we've been up to Lake Murray a few times this summer to hang with our fun friends and enjoy some lazy days on the lake. Ava loves the jet ski and jumping off from the dock. And as long as Griffin has snacks, he could sit in his float all day. Thanks Windel's for having us out, we had so much fun!

Summer Days, Drifting Away

As mid-July approaches, I just cannot believe that summer is about halfway over. We have been keeping busy as bees and thought I'd document some of our activities.

After watching Curious George one day, Ava was interested in pullies, a simple machine. We briefly talked about simple machines and decided to make one ourselves. We tied a string to two baskets and used each to deliver goods back and forth to one another, upstairs and down. She got a kick out of this. Several days later, she was downstairs and asked for a blanket. When I shot it down in our "pully", she thought that was the bee's knees.




We found this idea on my new favorite hobby, pinterest. It's chalk paint. At first, I didn't really get it, but once it dried (no pictures of that), it was really neat looking.



One day Aves asked me if she could make some shoes? Huh? Um, okay. So I asked her what she was talking about....we needed a plan. At first she wanted paper. I asked her what would happen if we used paper for shoes and she quickly concluded that wouldn't last. So she said we need something stronger. She had the fabric already picked out and that wasn't going to cut it. Suddenly it dawned on us at the same time! As we sat munching on our box of crackers, we seriously both looked around the room for something stronger than paper and voila! The cardboard box! She said it first and it was like she stole the thoughts right out of my head. We had a good laugh about that one. Next, I asked her what we should do next. It was neat to see her tell me each step the way she pictured it in her mind. We needed to trace her foot around the cardboard so it would fit her foot. Same with the fabric. She glued to fabric to the shoe and wanted to add a strip that would go across her toes. A little decoration with glitter glue and her mental creation became a tangible pair of shoes! She was so proud!




And of course, we made the OOBLECK, like any teacher's kid has, I'm sure. We had a fun and messy time with this!



We did a short little activity with milk and food coloring that I found online and cannot find the site to reference, and made really pretty swirly art. Ava had a great time with this one.

Cowboy!

I love how these pictures capture so much of his personality.

Likes

Interview with Ava at 4.4

1. Favorite Food: Peaches

1a. Favorite animal: Roly Poly

2. Favorite Sport: Football

3. Favorite Movie: Barbie and the Diamond Castle

3a. Favorite Holiday: American Day

4. Favorite thing about School: Ms. Lindsay

4a. Favorite thing about being home with mommy: Playing

5. Thing I do best: Drawing

6. Favorite color: Pink and Purple

7. What word describes you? A human

8. When I was a baby I used to: Walk

8a. What is your favorite thing about Griffin? I like when he does sour faces

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? A Cookie Scout. Oh, I mean a girl scout. Cookies!

10. My favorite memory: my Tulsa family

11. My favorite thing to play with daddy: Hide and Seek

12. My favorite thing to play with mommy: Go see a movie

13. A food I don’t like: Um, I don't like, hmmmm.....jalapenos

14. My best friend is: Mommy

15. If I could have one wish: To be a princess

Happy "American Day"

As Ava calls it.

We celebrated on Saturday night with some local friends and had a great time at the Freedom Festival and finding a nearby field to settle in and watch the fireworks. Ava and Griffin were both in awe of the fireworks and both did remarkably well for staying up until 11:00.