Florida getaway

We may have just taken the perfect family vacation.  I don't know that another trip can match it.  (Not that I'm going to stop trying.)

After watching Disney on Ice and catching Disney fever, I started planning a quick getaway to Florida.  I feel like the girls are at such fun ages for it and I didn't want to miss the window of opportunity for them to get caught up in the magic of Disney World.

I'm SO grateful that Andrew was up for my crazy adventure.  It was a whirlwind and we hardly stopped for the three days that we were down there.  It was absolutely exhausting and SO MUCH FUN.

We spent a day at the newly-opened Legoland Florida, 

 a day at the Magic Kingdom,

and a day at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  

The weather was gorgeous.  Two of the days were perfect--in the 80's and beautifully sunny.  We were sprinkled with rain showers off and on throughout our day at Magic Kingdom, but nothing too bad.  And we rarely had to wait in line for more than half an hour.  (Four times during all three days!)  It. was. awesome.

Here are some of our favorite memories...

Caroline:

 *Riding Cinderella's Golden Carousel

 *Meeting the people--especially Winnie the Pooh

*Sticking her head in the Lego lion's mouth

*Watching Philharmagic

Whitney:

*Getting to meet all the characters--especially Mickey Mouse

*Riding Toy Story Mania

 *Watching Fantasmic

*Riding The Dragon at Legoland

Brandon:

*Walking through Miniland at Legoland

*Space Mountain

*Rock 'n Rollercoaster

*Tower of Terror

Me:  

 *Taking in the whole environment of Legoland--SO cool.

*Watching the nighttime show at Magic Kingdom where they lit up the castle in crazy colors

*Being able to ride fun and scary rides WITH Brandon.  Yes!!

*Seeing how well Care Bear did on Toy Story Mania and how much she loved it.

 *Watching Whitney have a blast during the line for Winnie the Pooh's ride

 and on the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playset.  

She enjoyed the rides,

 but seemed to have just as much fun off the rides.

Drew: 

*Watching the girls meet the princesses

*Watching Andrea and Brandon ride the Technic roller coaster at Legoland

*Watching The Little Mermaid show with the girls

*Watching Philharmagic

Bidding farwell to some old friends

Check this out.

I bought these shoes when I was in dental hygiene school.

I think it was 1999.

That makes them older than Brandon!

I bought them at either Ross or Burlington Coat Factory.

I think I paid ten bucks.

They have been the best shoes!  They are comfy, easy to slide on, and go with a lot of different outfits.  (Or at least I told myself that they did.)  But it was time to send them off to that great shoe store in the sky.  The bottoms had worn out so that they could get little pebbles stuck inside of them and then my shoes would rattle.  That might be fun for a two-year-old, but not so much for me.  I kept holding on to them because I couldn't find a decent pair of clogs to replace them for less than $40.  So I waited.  And waited.  And, finally, this week I found a pair on clearance at a Sears that is closing down.  $15.  That's more like it.  But it's going to take a while for them to grow on me.  They feel kinda slippery and not nearly as comfortable.  If I sprain my ankle in the near future, you'll know what to blame.

Sweetheart Dance 2012

With all of the upcoming trips we have planned, Andrew and I decided we wanted to keep Valentine's Day low key (read:  cheap) this year.  We were in luck, because the High Point Stake held their first-ever adult sweetheart dance.  Yes!  Free and FUN!  It was a country-western theme and they had a live band.  Awesome.

Andrew took a few minutes to warm up to the idea.

(Since when he is he hesitant about DANCING?)

But we had a blast showing off all three 

of our country swing moves.

We also had lots of line dances.

SO fun to hang out with so many of our church friends at the same time.

(And somehow I missed Bouathong and Clark in this pic.)

I'm hoping this becomes an annual tradition.

Shelley and Michael (who organized it) might have other ideas.

Kids' activities

*Whit wanted to try cheerleading at school again this year.  She has a new coach and new squad members.  Sometimes she gets a little shy, but for the most part is having a great time.

Coach Jackie would be proud:  she's smiling!

They go out on the floor to cheer after each quarter of the basketball game.

Looking good...

and having fun.

*Brandon finished up his basketball season.  They're team went 4-4, which was pretty good considering they started off 1-3.  But they lost their first game of the tournament.  

Going for the block

His specialties this season were blocks, rebounds, and steals,

but he did make a couple of baskets.  Like this one.

Love the nonchalant block here.

Also love this mid-air block attempt

Solid defense

It was an eye-opening season and we see that he's going to have to work his tail off if he wants to make the middle school team.  He has one more year before he can try it, so we'll see how that works out.

*Caroline had Circus Day at school.  Poor Brandon was home sick the day before, so I had to throw together a costume last minute.  She told me she wanted to dress up as a tiger.  Here's what we came up with:

*Caroline also started gymnastics!  She is so excited about it and LOVED her first day.  She keeps asking if it's time to go back yet. 

 A balloon coordination game

Straddle roll

Balance beam

Handstand

Hanging on the rings

So, I'm not sure if this is part of their marketing strategy or not, but the instructor raved to me about how well Caroline did at the end.  "She hasn't taken any sort of gymnastics before?  She did REALLY well for her first time.  Do you see gymnastics in her future?"  I was taken aback.  She's three.  And, besides, there are lots of 6-ft gymnasts, right?

Out of the Mouths of Babes--January

1/13--Caroline had a head cold this month that affected her hearing.  We felt like we had a little old lady living with us.  She was constantly asking us to speak up.  I felt bad for her.  Today she was feeling better and told Andrew, "Dad, I can hear!"  He told her, "That's great!" And she immediately asked, "What???"  I guess the problem isn't completely resolved.

1/14--I was telling Caroline about her Hispanic heritage.  I said, "You're one-fourth Mexican."  She looked confused and said, "I'm not Maximus!"

1/26--Caroline was working on some school sheets.  Brandon was looking at the illustrations and wanted to know:

"Why do they have beer in a preschool book?"

The straw makes me think it's supposed to be something else,

but he's got a point.

1/26--Our favorite way to pass the time while we're waiting in the dentist office is to play MASH--an old fortune-telling game I used to play when I was a kid.  Here was one of Caroline's fortunes:

When she grows up, she's going to be a leashmaker who marries Gavin and lives in a mansion with their 87 children and their pet chinchilla.

Last month, when we were waiting for Disney on Ice to start, we came up with Princess Mash.  We call it MACH (Mansion, Apartment, Castle, House)

Care Bear's princess fortune:  When she grows up, she's going to be Sleeping Beauty.  She'll marry Prince Charming and they'll live in a mansion with their 75 children and their pet Pascal.  Their villain will be the Voo Doo Man from Princess and the Frog.

1/28--When I explained to Care Bear that I'm a dental hygienist, she said, "You don't clean teeth anymore.  You're just a normal mom.  Who gets dressed every day.  And works out."

1/28--We were up at the tennis courts and Whitney was practicing hitting the ball over the net.  After missing her first several, she was very excited to get one over.  Andrew told her, "Great job, Whit.  You're getting better."  She corrected him, "No.  I'm getting AWESOME!"

 

She's also learning parkour from her big brother.

*Random photos of the month*

A sign we saw at a gift shop in Charlotte:

 

Cracked me up.

Cute girls on bikes

 Silly mom trying to ride Whit's bike.

(Note that these were taken in JANUARY

with short sleeves and capris.  I've LOVED this "winter.")

The tree rope swing is still hanging in there.

B practicing jumping over things.

The random moments Care Bear asks me to photograph:

her holding a piece of folded red paper.

The kids broke into spontaneous dance while we were

eating post-report-card frozen yogurt.