Magic Kingdom

From Disney

Last week, the girls and I went to Magic Kingdom with Nana and Grumpy Waggett. It was Luci's first Disney experience, and the first one Brooke will remember. She did get to go when she was 8 months old, so maybe that's why she's so obsessed with Snow White?

From Disney

We headed up on a Friday and spent the day at Magic Kingdom. Brooke has been asking for months to go see Cinderella's castle and meet the princesses. We all had a fabulous time. Thanks to Grumpy, who spent over 2 hours waiting in line, Brooke and Luci got to meet Rapunzel and Flynn Rider. Luci made quite an impression on Rapunzel with her dancing in the grotto. Brooke was 'shy of' Flynn, and was a little nervous meeting Rapunzel and Flynn. But now she won't stop talking about it and tells us "next time, I won't be shy of Flynn. I will give him a big hug." While Grumpy waited in line, Nana took Brooke to the Celebrate street dance party and Brooke shook her tailfeathers with the Disney performers. I wish we got pictures of that. Brooke loved the parades - all 3 of them.

I waited in line so Brooke and Luci could meet Ariel and Eric. Luci saw Ariel and started chanting "Hug, Hug!" and when it was their turn, she walked right up to her and gave her a hug. Poor Eric got the cold shoulder though. Luci would only give him a high five! What a character she is.

From Disney

After all that line waiting, we weren't ready to drop another 75 minutes to meet the other princesses, but we did get to see Cinderella and Prince Charming, Snow White, Belle & Beast, Tiana & Prince Naveen, Peter Pan & Wendy, Woody &Jesse and Minnie &Mickey. Brooke and Luci also went on their first rides. They really both liked the carousel, but little exhausted Luci slept through Peter Pan and Snow White.

From Disney

The next day, Brooke wanted to head back to Disney (of course). Instead, we spent a little time at Downtown Disney and got a few little souvenirs for the girls. I'm sure it won't be long before Brooke twists our arm to go back to Disney.

'side

Luci and Brooke are always begging to play outside, or 'side, as Luci says. Now that we've had the safety gate installed around the pool, Matt has powerwashed the lanai and the weather has improved (we're spoiled here in FL and get cold when it drops below 70F), we're spending more time 'side. Tonight, the girls even got to dine al fresco. Here are some shots of the girls on the lanai, on our way to the adventure park near our house, and at our local farmer's market/farm.

From Weekend in Feb2011

From Weekend in Feb2011

From Weekend in Feb2011

From Weekend in Feb2011

Soft Rush Terrace

Well, this post is a little late in coming. I can't believe I haven't updated this blog since the summer, but if you had any idea what last semester was like for me, you would understand. I finally have a more reasonable teaching load, which is refreshing and helpful since we have a lot of work to do on our NEW house!

From Christmas and the New House

From Christmas and the New House

For those who haven't heard, we successfully managed to buy a house in Lakewood Ranch, FL. It's East of Bradenton, FL, , a reasonable commute for both Matt and me, and in a good school district. We had been looking and saving for a long time and we put an offer on a short sale last fall. Matt did a lot of leg work over the semester to make things work, and after 3 different closing dates, 3 different prices, a few surprises, and a move 2 days before Christmas - we finally got into our house. The closing date happened about 3 weeks later, and we're still feeling a sense of relief that it actually worked out. Our house still needs some TLC, including a full repainting and many minor repairs, but it has all the main features we were looking for.

Now that we have our own house, we are expecting to be open for visitors in short order. . . as long as you don't mind getting woken up at 5AM by Luci ;-).