Magic Kingdom Take 2

Today we spent our second day at the Magic Kingdom. We really didn't need a second day after we got so much done the first day, but it was still fun to go back. We did not make the opening show today, but were there right around opening. We took the monorail in and then started our day again with Peter Pan. Then we moved onto Dumbo twice, Tomorrowland Speedway, Peter Pan, It's a Small World, Winnie the Poo, and by then the twins were tired, so we took the train around the park in hopes that they'd fall asleep. Arya fell asleep on the train, but not Eiley. Eiley did fall asleep while I carried her back to the stroller. Mema and Bepa watched all three kids as they took a nap and Cork and I went on the Stitch ride and Space Mountain twice. Once the twins joined the waking world again, we went on the Carousel, got pineapple Dole Whip, and saw the Bear Jamboree. The girls went to It's a Small World with Mema and Bepa while Cork and I went to the Haunted Mansion. We met up again and rode Winnie the Poo, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin three times, Pirates (Cork and Me during two of the magic carpet rides), the Castle projection show, Fireworks, Peter Pan, Carousel, Teacups, and then finished off our day with the Tomorrowland Speedway again.

My last ride on the speedway was hilarious. Eiley decided she didn't want to steer right before we drove out of the loading zone. I tried, but realized our steering didn't work very well, so we went the entire ride moving back and forth on the guide rail. Each time the car slammed into one side, it would bounce off toward the other side. Eiley was hanging onto me, so she wasn't thrown around too much. I don't know if she or I was laughing harder.

The girls wore their princess dresses all day today. I loved watching them today because they knew what was in store for them and they were so excited. I'm not sure if they or Cork and I had more fun.

Pina Aladas

Another gorgeous down day today. We spent all day by the pool, drinking "pina aladas". Yum. I even made some without rum for the twins. Even the ones with rum didn't have much rum in them, so it wasn't hard to keep drinking them in the sun.

Sometimes having kids is like having a puppy.

If she figures out how to get that back leg out of the way, she'd be able to take off.

We did not have trouble getting them to bed tonight. They were so tired.

My Arya

I brought one all matching outfit on our trip for the twins. They happily got dressed this morning, then ran into the living room yelling "My Arya" and "My Arya". It cracked me up that they knew that if they wore the same thing, people wouldn't know who was telling the truth.

We spent today soaking up some Florida sun and playing on a playground. It was a perfect relaxing day after yesterday's long day.

Magic Kingdom

We tackled the Magic Kingdom today. Arya and Eiley didn't know what to expect and I would say it took them an hour or so to get it, but once they understood what the park was about, they loved it. We parked our car and took the monorail to the park. We asked about sitting in the front, but that is no longer allowed. We got to the park early enough to watch the opening song and dance. When the gates opened at 9:00 am, we immediately went back to the Peter Pan ride. Between watching an Ap on Cork's phone and fast passes, we barely waited in any lines. We rode Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Dumbo twice, Goofy's roller coaster (Cork and Eiley), Space Mountain (Cork and me, not the kids), Carousel, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tiki Room, Jungle Boat Cruise, Thunder Mountain (3 times), got pineapple Dole Whip, The Magic Carpet of Aladdin, Pictures with Tinkerbell and a friend, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Small World, Peter Pan, Carousel, Light Parade, Ariel's Undersea Adventure, Fireworks, Peter Pan (just the line as the ride broke down), and the ferry back to the car. That's a crazy amount with two three year olds and an eight month old.

The twins went all day non stop. Arya thought about going on the Goofy coaster with Cork while I fed Zia and backed out before thye got on the ride. Eiley went with him, but was less than impressed. Both kids rode Pirates of the Caribbean with us, but had no desire to go again. We asked if they liked it and they said they liked the music, but not the ride. Cork and I were able to do Space Mountain because one parent can stand in line while the other stays with the kids and then the second parent can use the fast pass lane. We were able to ride Thunder Mountain because Mema and Bepa spent most of the day with us. Having a set of grandparents with made the trip much easier for us and more fun for all of us. It's so much fun to watch little kids discover the magic at Disney.

Ice Cream Sundae

We started our day today in Clearwater and planned on driving to Tampa, spending a few hours at the zoo, and then finishing our drive to Orlando. Eiley had a major meltdown in the car on the way to Tampa. We got a few blocks from the zoo and made the tough decision to skip it all together. We continued driving and went straight to Orlando. Both of the girls were disappointed, but in hindsight it was the best decision. They were so tired and really needed a day to rest before we tackled Disney.

After dinner, we headed to Downtown Disney. We spent a little time at the Lego store and some time at Ghiradelli.  The twins picked a mint chocolate sundae. Not what Cork or I would have picked, but we let them decide. I could only have a few bites, but it was surprisingly pretty good.

Zia refused to go to sleep at the hotel tonight. Our plan was to get the kids all well rested so they would be ready for Disney tomorrow. Zia refused to sleep and I ended up walking her around in the Ergo to knock her out. The other two were tired, but totally wired. We turned off the lights and they still wouldn't calm down. It was around 9:00 before they fell asleep.

A Big Playground

We had a long day today. We went to the beach after breakfast and walked around a lot. The twins were so cute to watch. They ran around in the water with their shoes off and found shells. It was a bit cool and overcast so we didn't swim. Eiley had her feet wet for probably ten minutes when she threw her shells down and announced that she was cold,  done with the beach, and doesn't like the beach. Good thing we didn't plan on spending all day there. We left after about 90 minutes, had lunch with their grandparents, and then took the kids swimming. All three had a blast in the pool. We were the only ones there, which was probably a good thing because the twins would have soaked anyone else there.

I between lunch and the pool, we took the kids to a safety fair across the street from our hotel. The girls saw a bounce house and wanted to go jump. There was a really nice playground there, so we spent a good chunk of time on the equipment. I wish we had a park like this one around us. It had so many things I had never seen before and the ground was super soft.

She's so close, but not quite there.

Beaching It

We finished our drive to Florida today and were able to have dinner with Grandpa Dale and Grandma Mona, saw the sunset on the beach, and drove around Clearwater. It was very nice to spend some time with Cork's dad and let the girls run wild. They were very squirrelly after two days in the car.

Another Long Drive

We spent sixteen hours in the car today. I love my kids, but by the end I really wanted to give them the middle finger. We were all ready to get to our hotel by the time we got there. Zia was the calmest of the three.

Baby Time Out

Eiley wrote all over our ottoman today with a pink pen. When I found it, she happily told me her baby had done it and that baby was in a time out. I think our putting toys on a time out just back fired. In my mind, she knows writing on the ottoman is wrong. In her mind, she's playing with the baby...or something. I have no idea. She's three and just about everything she does that isn't good behavior doesn't make sense to me.

We're getting ready for our trip. All of the girls are helping, Zia included. We've had some ice and rain storms lately. Cork walked out on the driveway today and fell. I thought he fell flat on his back and was very concerned. Thankfully he sort of caught himself on his elbow and managed to just get a bruise and not to really hurt himself.

Bobbing for Oranges

I like peeling oranges when they're warm rather than straight out of the refrigerator because it's so much easier.  I put some in warm water today so I could peel them and for some reason thought it was a good idea to teach the twins how to bob for oranges. Two soaked heads later, we started to throw objects in the bowl to see if they'd sink or float. It made a huge mess and lots of stuff that shouldn't have gone in the bowl did, but it was a good learning experience.

I think our games today wore them out.

Zia wasn't worn out though. She took a 20 minute afternoon nap and was ready to go again. She's so close to standing.

I was on the phone for a couple minutes today and the twins removed all the DVDs from the tv stand and did this with them.

Band Aids

It's doctor, nurse, and dentist week at the twins' school. They got the cutest little doctor's bags from their teachers. One of the things in it was bandaids. I let them put bandaids all over me. I forgot they were on until we had run a bunch of errands and they started to itch.

The twins made a project at school with candy hearts glued onto it. I caught them eating the candy off of the project today. Yuck and LOL. I can't say that I never ate food from school projects when I was their age.

Almost Standing

We saw Zia try to pull herself to standing in the crib in our room today. She wasn't quite vertical, but was pretty close. It's a good thing the crib she sleeps in is lowered already or we'd be doing that this week.

A Cough and A Puke

Arya threw up tonight. That's two weekends in a row someone has puked. Thankfully I think hers was just from coughing so hard and gagging. She didn't throw up that much and only did it once. Too bad it was in my bed. Maybe I shouldn't laugh, but it was on Cork's side, so if there was any lingering puke smell I didn't have to smell it.

Do you like my pile of laundry in the background? I hate folding and usually do not do it until the kids go to bed. They pulled socks out of the baskets and put them on the dance babies.

Boots

Yum! Who wouldn't want to eat a boot?

Birthdays

Eiley was talking to her stuffed animals today. "You getting so big. And heavier. You tell me if dat too tight." She was pretending to lock the animal into a carseat.

The twins are 3.5 years old and Zia is 8 months old today. Zia isn't crawling and has no teeth. Both of which make me happy. I'm in no hurry for her to grow up. She's so social. She thrives on attention out in public. She's always trying to get people to look at her, making noises to attract attention, and sticking her tongue out. She's adorable and gets the attention she's looking for most of the time. I get told all the time that she looks like a Gerber baby.

Bye Bye Infant Seat

This is what happens when the girls eat smoothies around their toys. It wasn't on purpose, but of course I had to take a picture of it.

Miss Zia will be moving into her convertible car seat in a day or two. One of her infant seats just expired and we want her int he convertible one for our trip. I'm going to miss lugging this thing around when she's asleep, but I take her out of it so often and I won't miss trying to take her out of it in the car.

Arya took my picture today while I fed Zia. She did a great job. She turned the camera on and everything. I left it sitting on the end table after taking the above photo.

Can you see how red her mouth is? She got ahold of some of A&E's art work and was chewing on paper with marker on it. Yum.

Back to Normal

Everything is back to normal around here. Our house guests are gone and we're back to our normal routine. Now I just have to get the house back together and get ready for our trip.

Baptism

Zia was finally baptized today. We apparently like to do things fashionably late around here. We had a great ceremony and a day spent with lots of family, including the girls' cousins. They had a ball together, even the smallest ones.

Puke

At least this one is happy today. We have a bunch of guests this weekend for Zia's baptism and Eiley is puking. Fun times. Hopefully no one else gets it.

Cork drank a beer last night and left the empty can on the kitchen counter. I heard the kids fighting before school this morning. When I went to investigate, I found them fighting over the can of beer. Both wanted to try to get the last sip of beer they thought was in the can. The last thing I needed was them to go to school smelling like beer, especially with the giant bruise on Eiley's chin.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

The girls purposely soaked the mirror today, so I made them clean it. They did a pretty good job. I may have found another chore for them to do.

We had a really nice snow fall today. Everything is gorgeous and white. Cork got home from work early to finish his day from home.  He took the kids outside to play in the snow for a bit before dinner. He pulled them around the block on a toboggan, built a snowman (sort of) and just played around in general. The snow man's bottom level collapsed when the middle layer was put on. At dinner, the girls kept talking about how the snow man had died.