Leaving for our Disney Cruise!!

I think we all woke up with a little disbelief that our extremely long awaited trip had arrived.  We didn't have to leave home until 11:00 so I tried to occupy the kids with swimming (rose and henry swam for about 5 minutes and Paige for about 10 seconds).  Rose was definitely the most excited and put the last sticker on our countdown chart.

Loaded everyone up in the car.  It felt quite nice to leave in the daytime while we were well rested.  As much as I love leaving instantly in the dark, it allowed us to get hours more sleep!

We always take pictures in the parking garage while we wait for mike to park the car.  No car seats or strollers this time!!!

 The airport went quite smoothly and we visited the lounge for a quick lunch before boarding our huge plane.  Lately there has been one massive plane either going to or coming home from Orlando.  Fun though because Mike and I sat with Henry and the girls sat alone.

 It was super weird yet exciting for the kids to find the shuttle bus to take us to the hotel.  As henry had on car seat he wore a seatbelt which seemed really unsafe as we zipped along the highway.

Everyone was super excited to get to the hotel and were pointing out that it had the same S symbol as our usual Orlando hotel, although this one was the Sheraton Orlando Suites.  I'd definitely stay there again as it had enough room for the 5 of us without needing 2 rooms.  Everyone proceeded to argue over who was sleeping where and we forced the girls to sleep on the pull out couch even though they claimed they wouldn't sleep.  It was literally the biggest bed option though.  It was "too bouncy" they said, which is what made me feel like it was a perfect option for their light weight!! sheesh.  We ordered room service and let them watch non stop Disney shows to calm them down.

I'm not sure I slept whatsoever that entire night, but the next morning we made sure to pack up everything (except one iPad as we discovered on the ship the next day), and headed down to breakfast.  Rose was super excited to discover the make-your-own waffle station which was exactly the same as one on this video she had watched a million times.  All of the kids needed their own, which ended up being a massive waste of waffle as they were so huge.

As we were sitting at breakfast Rose says to me, "Im pretty sure this is the best day of my life", and my heart could barely handle it.

Wow

Wow, I have not blogged in an insanely long time. I don't find it to be the therapeutic thing it once was when Paige was a baby, and I just needed to get out my thoughts and frustrations.  Now it's a bit time consuming, especially since it was just summer and all 3 kids were home.  If I had time to myself I generally felt like reading or getting ready for our summer vacation!
So anyway, I will skip forward through everyones birthday pics, random summer fun, swimming, etc. and skip forward to our Disney Cruise while it is still fresh in my mind.  I will try to go back and reflect on the rest of the summer afterward....

Sophie!!!!!!

A long overdue post about the birth of Sophie Claire Davoren, Amanda and James' sweet little girl! (She was born in January back when I wasn't blogging, and then when we returned home from Florida I promptly started blogging about the trip as to not forget, and then well, you know how these things go). She is so so so sweet!!  The kids are looking forward until her crawling days!

Every time we see her she is so cute I can barely handle it.  I can't wait to babysit her some time! Amanda and James are doing great as new parents and are handling everything really well.

A birthday party for 2!

We had a family birthday party for Henry and Rose.  Henry was dressed up in a party outfit but disappeared about 5 minutes after everyone came over and emerged in his preferred outfit of a Snow White dress.  Then when we were going to eat he took it off so it wouldn't get dirty and continued the party in underwear.  Because Henry didn't have a party with friends like Rose did, we made all of the decorations and the cake themed for Henry's birthday.  

Birthday girl!

Our determined energetic little girl is getting big! 6 years old!!

 We got Rose a balance beam for her birthday!!

Party at Amazing Adventures!

Her favourite dinner: burgers and Caesar  salad

Rose almost 6

making our own memes

Henry-isms

A few things Henry says that I don't want to forget:

The way he says "hair" and "here". He adds an "L" sound to the end--"Hairl", "here-l"

Henry tried on a dress or some sort of fancy thing and then said, "Prince charming!" about himself.

After watching "Inside Out" over and over again he clutched 2 Elsa dolls and said, "My core memories"

Random fun!

Every so often I remember about the blog, and then i realize I should make the effort to blast off a few posts.  I love having the memories, but I also love reading in my spare time, or doing 2 new courses I signed up for ("Dog emotion and Cognition", and "Palaeontology: Theropod Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds"---yes more randomness, but this is the stuff I love). Anyway, I feel like I have forgotten to blog so many things so I'll just have to catch up on major events, birthdays, etc.  I even missed the birth of my niece Sophie!! I guess because when we got home from Florida all I thought about doing was writing about the trip.  Sigh.  Life. 

Here's the first time Henry wore gloves this entire winter.  And it was at the very end!!!

I felt sorry for Scout one day so I let her come with us on the school run, and then I took her to the dog park.

Finally took Rose to replace her bowl that I broke.

So many dresses. 

Painting eggs

 New egg painting technique with crayons.