Animal Kingdom and Epcot

After dance class on Saturday we headed over to Animal Kingdom. We haven't been to this park since Memorial Day weekend, and decided to spend a few hours over there. We met up with 2 families for the day. It was beautiful weather and the park wasn't that crowded. We always head to Africa first and get fast-passes for the Safari ride. We rode the train to Rafiki's Planet Watch and saw Pocahontas. Then it was time for the Safari. The rhinos were rolling in the mud and the girls thought it was hilarious.

We decided to head towards Dinoland and ride the Dinosaur ride and let the kids play in the Dig. On our way we met up with Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger. We also saw Pluto and Goofy.

After the Dig it was time for the parade. We've taught the girls to put their hands out when a character walks by and they'll give you a high-five. They loved it! After the parade we went to the Festival of the Lion King show. It was just us girls while the guys hung out at Pizzafari and had a drink!

After the show it was closing time for the park, but none of us wanted to go home since it was only 5 pm, so we decided to drive over to Epcot to walk around the World Showcase and have dinner. We started in Mexico (they have an awesome little bar inside Mexico) and walked all the way around. We got the kids dinner in America and carried it over to Morocco where we ate outside. Morroco is our favorite place to eat!
We stopped at a few places, got a few drinks, bought a few pins and headed out. We had an awesome time hanging with everyone! We're excited to be heading back to Epcot soon for the Flower and Garden Festival. I already have matching dresses for the girls!

Sweetheart Dance

Mady attended her first real father/daughter dance on Friday night. The school sponsored a Sweetheart Dance in the cafeteria with a DJ, snacks, and photographer. Of course I had to walk in with them and check everything out. Mady had a great time dancing with her friends, but never danced with Jacob! Oh well! She lasted about an hour and then headed to Sonic afterwards for an icee!

Storytime with Santa

The city of Oviedo sponsored a night with Santa at Riverside Park where kids could listen to a story read by Santa, make crafts, eat cookies, and get their picture taken. It was free, but you had to register in advance. After a long day at the Magic Kingdom, we raced over to the park to have storytime. Jacob and KK met up with us. The storytime was cute and the girls enjoyed making bracelets and talking to Santa. KK still wasn't too sure about it, but did stand for a picture. We even got our picture taken for the Oviedo/Winter Springs Lifestyles Magazine. Mady's friend Meghan had her picture in the magazine, too.

Gingerbread House Party

I love throwing parties, and I knew I wanted to throw a Christmas party. I wanted something unique and away from the ordinary, decorate cookies kinda party. While scouring the internet looking at invitations I found the cutest gingerbread men invites. I now had my theme, and what goes better with gingerbread men than gingerbread houses! I have a super easy way of creating and decorating houses that I knew a bunch of 2, 3, and 4 year olds could handle. We invited all our best friends and their families to our house on December 5 for our party. In total we had 8 families, plus all their kids. I wanted something unique for dinner, as well as kid-friendly so we had a hot dog bar. I think it was a major hit with all of the different toppings! For favors I found cute gingerbread men paper bags and filled them with a gingerbread man ornament, a gingerbread man children's book, gingerbread man soap, and a gingerbread man cookie cutter. The kids had an absolute blast creating their houses and the parents enjoyed helping their kids!

Weekend Getaway!

This weekend we traveled to St. Augustine to stay for the weekend. We knew it was going to be too cold to go to the beach, but we were excited to just get out of town for the weekend. The Pearsons came with us, but Stephen had to go to Jax for the weekend to visit his father so it was a girls' weekend, plus Jacob!

On Friday we arrived around 5:30 and headed straight to one of our favorite restaurants, South Beach Grille. We love this restaurant and it was still light out enough for the girls to see the ocean from our table. On Saturday we headed to the outlets to do some shopping and then went out to the beach so the girls could play in the sand. They had an absolute blast and the weather was great! After naps we headed to another one of our favorite restaurants, Creekside. The girls enjoyed eating at the restaurant and watching 2 raccoons right outside the window by our table! That night we decided to take a carriage ride throughout St. Augustine. Believe it or not, we've never taken the girls on a carriage ride in St. Augustine. We brought our blankets and enjoyed looking at the lights and hearing the history.

Sunday we headed into St. Augustine again for lunch at the Florida Cracker Cafe and visited the Oldest Schoolhouse. The girls liked the little tour and received a diploma at the end. No trip to St. George Street is complete without a trip to Kilwins. Even in the cold weather the girls loved their ice cream and we got Mady's two teachers chocolate, carmel covered apples. I thought it was a cute gift since they're apples for the teachers. Everyone knows when you're a teacher you always get apple-themed gifts! At least this was edible and from Kilwins!

We headed back to the condo around 3 and packed the rest of our stuff. We had a great weekend, the girls were on their absolute best behavior and we finally got out of Oviedo!

See Anything Missing??? and other things...

Our November was pretty low key. Every weekend went something like this: ballet, UCF football game, SEC football on tv, etc... The Saturday before Thanksgiving we had an early Thanksgiving with my dad's side of the family. Thank goodness we did, because we really didn't get to do much on the actual day.

On October 22nd we received a referral to an ENT and Infectious Disease doctor for Mady. We've been battling frequent fevers for 3 years now and we finally decided that she needed to see 2 specialists. After 2 weeks of doctor visits and bloodwork trips everyone was in agreement to have her tonsils and adenoids out. I knew immediately that I wanted to do it the Monday of Thanksgiving since we'd already be home and I wouldn't have to miss work and Mady wouldn't have to miss much school. The surgery was scheduled and exactly one month later from the initial referral, Mady had the surgery. Everything went well and we brought her home to rest. It was a horrible recovery with Mady ending up at APH for excessive bleeding into her stomach and weight loss. We stayed the night and then she returned to school the following Wednesday.

November wasn't all that bad... I did throw an amazing baby shower for my dear friend Kim (who is due any day now) and we did get out of the house to see Tangled (even though Mady fell asleep 3/4 of the way through because of her meds). We had a very nice, low key Thanksgiving with some friends at their house where Mady could rest and Jacob was able to sneak off to his brother's house for a few hours and spend some time with his family.

Busch Gardens Baby!

On the last Friday of Winter Break, Jacob and I decided to take Mady to Busch Gardens for the day. She has the free preschool pass that they offered in 2010, and they extended it through 2011. Jacob and I do the "pay for a day, come back all year" fun card and it works out pretty inexpensive! Unfortunately, Jacob wasn't feeling well and couldn't make it, so our besties stepped in and came with us for the day. No, we did not bring KK. She's not quite ready for the almost 2 hour car ride and then day at the park outing!We headed to Safari of Fun first to experience all the Sesame Street rides and show. The park was so empty that sometimes the girls were the only ones on the ride! We then headed to Timbuktu to ride the original kiddie rides, rode the train to see the animals, and then walked through the Edge of Africa to see the lions and hippos. We couldn't believe a.) how awesome and empty the park was, and b.) how close-up the lions and hippo were. Of course I didn't take any pictures of the animals, but it was pretty unbelievable. We will definitely make our way back to Busch Gardens, especially now since we have our fun cards!

PJ and Pet Day and Other Weekend Happenings...

I am far behind on my blogging, but my plan is to use my MLK holiday to update November and December. November doesn't have much, but we did A LOT in December. I decided I would just start January now since it's 1/2 way through the month and I'm not behind, yet!

On Friday Mady's class had a pet show to complete their study on pets. Thank goodness it was not an actual "bring in you pet" show, because everyone knows I am anti-pet. Even Mady will tell you she doesn't want a dog because "we already have KK". Sad, but true. So, we thought about it for a few days and then Mady finally decided to bring in her Barbie dog in the carrier. I thought it was perfect and she looked so cute bringing it in its own little carrier. It was also PJ day and Mady was super excited about this! She knew instantly that she was going to wear her Tinkerbell pjs. I love that I'm right next door to her and can pop over and see her during these special events! Next year I will have an intern so I can still stay involved!

On Saturday I took Mady to her usual ballet class and asked the teacher if KK could try out for the class since technically she's only 2 1/2 and the class is for 3-5 year olds. I spoke with the teacher afterwards and KK was allowed to stay. Thank goodness because she LOVES doing anything her big sister does and wants so badly to dance with her sister.

On Sunday we headed to the Brevard Zoo to check out the animals. The Brevard Zoo is awesome and we try to make it over there about 2 times a year. Most of the animals were out, except for the giraffes. They didn't want anything to do with us and our crackers. The girls were disappointed that they didn't get to feed them, but they got over it quickly.

Next weekend we are headed up to the condo in St. Augustine to see the lights and also eat at our favorite restaurants. We've been cooped up in this house way too long with Mady's surgery and Jacob's procedure that we are excited to GET OUT!