Happy Thanksgiving!

Lily had her Thanksgiving feast at school on Tuesday.  They were allowed to come dressed as a Pilgrim or an Indian.  Thankfully, Liz used her teaching experience to make an Indian outfit for Lily which made her super excited.  Of course, Mia wanted in on the action too.

 On Thanksgiving day, we went to Sid and Elaine's house to celebrate with a lot of my dad's family.  We are all glad that Meme was feeling well enough to come!

 Lily adores her Granna!

 Mia loves her too!

 Mom and Dad with their five grandchildren.

 On Friday, we kept with our tradition of putting up Christmas decorations.  The girls decorated their tree with ornaments they have made or picked as souvenirs.

 We put up our nativity scenes.  The girls' had fun putting their Little People one up in the living room.  Ryan and I put ours up in the dining room.  Mine is the one on the left; Meme brought it back from her visit to the Holy Land in the early 90's.  Ryan's was a gift from his grandmother, Grandmama; we both adored Grandmama (Mia is named after her), so bringing this out each year makes us smile as we think about her.

 The girls like putting up holiday stickers.

 We let the girls help us decorate our family tree this year.  I have to say it was nerve-wracking for us!  A lot of our ornaments are breakable and irreplaceable, and the girls were so excited, they weren't exactly careful with them.  Luckily, all the ornaments made it through.  I love putting up the ornaments because we have a great time reminiscing over the trips taken and the memories that came from it.  Such a fun time.

Bring on the Christmas season!

Happy Birthday Mia!

Last Sunday was Mia's 4th birthday.  I can't believe it!  This sweet girl adds so much joy and happiness to our lives.  She makes us laugh like no one else can.  I love talking with her as she explains how the world works in her mind; the expressions she makes are priceless!  She is so smart, funny, sweet and caring.  She lights up our world.

 

On Saturday evening, we had dinner at Figo with my parents.  Afterwards, we came back to our house for ice cream and to let Mia open her presents.  Mom and Dad wisely selected pirate gifts for Mia; the girl loves her pirates!  One of their gifts was a book about how to be a pirate; Mia really wants to learn!  She was very excited about this Jake light-up sword.

 She loves her talking Jake spyglass.

 On Sunday evening (her actual birthday), we had a small party with our friends, the Hendersons and the Rohans (though Julia, Claudia and Evelyn stayed home sick).  Mia loves The Grinch, so that was the theme we went with.  Her evite was titled "Little Mia Lou Who Turns Two More Than Two."  The message said "Every Who down in Whoville like birthdays a lot, but the Grinch, who lives just north of Whoville, did NOT...Please join us in celebrating and saving Mia's 4th birthday from...the Grinch who steals birthdays!!!"  We hung red and green snowflakes around the house to decorate, and Mia was happy to impersonate the Grinch in her new shirt.

 Our friends arrived, and we snacked on red and green M&M's and chips with guacamole for appetizers.  For dinner, Ryan grilled roast beast (pork tenderloin for the adults and hot dogs for the kids).  We also had Who Pudding (vanilla pudding), Cindy Lou Who red Jello, Max's Green Beans and the Mayor's Apple Cranberry Casserole.  To drink, I made Grinch juice (Sprite and Lime Sherbet).  We let the kids have a picnic dinner on Mount Crumpet while the cartoon version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas played.  They all seemed to enjoy it.

 For dessert, we had Grinch cupcakes.

 Our Grinch was as happy as could be!

 After dessert, Mia opened her gifts.  She was very excited to receive her stuffed Grinch and Max dolls from us!

 We let the kids release the balloons before they headed home for the evening.  What a fun celebration with good friends!

On Monday, Ryan took Mia to the doctor for her well-visit check-up.  At least, we thought it was a well-visit.  Turns out, she still has her ear infection.  We realized we hadn't finished giving her the amoxicillan since we had let Lily share it with her on the cruise; whoops.  We have started a new round that we'll follow through with.  They measured her at 3 feet, 3.75 inches (51%), weighed her at 39 pounds (78%), took her blood pressure at 100/70 and said her vision passed.  The doctor also asked her to draw a picture of herself.  She said Mia did a great job because she not only drew a person smiling with arms and legs, but she also put clothes on her; apparently, not all 4 year olds do this.  I imagine Mia has colored with Lily so much though that she knows what to do!  According to the doctor, our precious Mia is doing great!

 

Happy birthday sweet Mia!

A Few Extra Pictures

Ryan scanned in the professional pictures that we got while on the trip.  We also purchased the Photopass Plus package which gives us all 150+ images taken at the Disney parks plus their stock photos, but we haven't gone through to edit or select those yet.  I put the cruise pictures in their blog entries, but here are a few extra.

 

On our way into Islands of Adventure.

 Our princesses after Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

 Before breakfast at Ohana with our lays on.

 The four of us with Cinderella.

Fun times!

Day 10 - Castaway Cay

On Saturday, the boat was docked at Castaway Cay, their private island, all day.  After breakfast, we decided to head off the boat even though it was a little chilly that morning.

 The girls were happy as could be playing in the water; it was a little too cold for my taste (hey, we were there on November 10th!).  I absolutely love this picture that Ryan took of them playing in the gorgeous water.

 We had not brought one single beach toy with us, so we surprised them with these Nemo buckets that we purchased on the island (how convenient, right?).  They were pretty excited about them.

 Mia set right to work digging and covering herself with sand.

 Lily started building a sandcastle too.

 Liz and Ryan started looking for sand dollars in the water.  Liz braved the cold water to go out pretty deep looking for one!  Unfortunately, none were found.

The girls were content to play in the sand and stay in the shallow water.

 After a couple of hours, the beach started to get more crowded as more people got off the boat and made their way over.  We decided it would be more fun to head back to the pool area of the ship; we were correct in our guess that the place would be practically deserted for the beach.  The girls were more than happy when they realized we were going back to the pool deck.  Back to the fun twirly slide!

 Hanging with my precious girls.

 We pretty much had the place to ourselves which was great.  While we swam, we also enjoyed Mary Poppins on the big screen.  Movie and a swim...what could be better?

 Having a blast!

 Lily enjoyed her short time in the hot tub.

 The girls also visited Nemo's Reef again for some more splashing fun.

Finally, it was time to pack up and head back in to wash up and take a late, short nap.  After the girls woke up, we watched a beautiful sunset off our balcony and got ready for our final dinner in the Enchanted Garden restaurant.

A few minutes into our dinner, Lily started getting very upset about her ear hurting.  Ryan took her back to our room to rest, eat room service and take some Amoxicillan (we still had some from Mia's dosage received earlier in the week).  Liz, Mia and I enjoyed our last dinner and then went back to the room to check on Ryan and Lily.  Thankfully Lily was feeling a little better, so we all went to see the "Dream" show in the theatre together.  It was a good show that had lots of great characters in it, so we all enjoyed that.  Unfortunately, after the show was over, it was time to head back to pack up and head to bed.

On Sunday morning, we finished packing the last few items and then headed off the boat back in Port Canaveral.  We made a quick stop for breakfast at McDonald's (we weren't willing to be ready and at the boat's breakfast at 6:45) and then headed on home which was a smooth ride. 

Our adventure had come to a close.  I have to say, this trip was pretty much everything I had been dreaming about for quite awhile.  Sure, of course there were a few not great moments when the girls got overly tired/hungry/whiny, but for the most part, they were so happy and excited to see and do everything.  I love seeing this world through their innocence and eyes, and Disney is a great place to experience this.  We're so glad Liz has a big birthday coming up, so we could all take this trip together and make tons of great family memories!



Day 9 - Nassau

On Friday morning around 9AM, the Dream docked in Nassau for the day.  We enjoyed breakfast at the Enchanted Garden restaurant and let a lot of the crowd off the boat.  Afterwards, Liz decided to hang out onboard while the four of us headed onto land.  We had decided not to do a pricey excursion, but we wanted to get off for a few minutes.  So we headed just past the dock and decided to go with a carriage ride.  The girls loved our horse "Jazzy" (except when he pooped as we walked).  At one point, Mia turned around and said "This is the funnest thing I ever done!"  They really enjoyed the ride around town.

 Documenting they were in the Bahamas.

 Ryan snapped this quick picture as we headed back towards the boat.

 It was a gorgeous day outside, so we returned to our room, put on our bathing suits and headed to the pool deck.  The girls absolutely loved playing up here!  They had a great little twisty yellow slide that they both rode again and again.  They also had an awesome slide for the adults called The Aquaduck (featuring Donald).  It is 14 stories above the water, and the tube goes out over the side of the boat and makes a huge circle around the boat, so you get some amazing views.  All three of us loved it!  The girls also loved playing in "Nemo's Reef" which is a neat little splash pad.

 You can splash or get soaking wet.

 They both enjoyed the little Mr. Rey slide in the Reef.

 Even Pearl squirted a little water.

 We ate lunch up by the pool and then headed back to our room for a nap; both girls were exhausted from so much playing in the water.  Liz was very kind to stay in the room while they napped, so Ryan and I could go see the 3D Wreck-It Ralph in the ship's movie theatre.  It was a cute movie!  After the movie, we went back to the room where Mia was just waking up.  By then, it was time to get ready for Pirate Night on the boat!  First up was meeting pirate Minnie.

 Then we all put on our pirate bandannas and met Pirate Mickey.

 We also had the chance to meet Captain Hook and Mr. Smee!

 After meeting all these fun pirates, we went down to dinner in Animator's Palette.  This was an amazing experience (with pretty good food too).  All around the restaurants, they have large screens on the wall.  Throughout the meal, the Nemo, Dori, Bruce and others swim by on the screen.  They also play a game with the fish who make shapes like in the movie and the guests try to guess what shape they are making.  Here they are making a camera.  The graphics on these screens were unbelievable.

 Dude Crush also makes an appearance on each screen, and he "talks" to the people at nearby tables.  At our screen, he tried to talk to Mia!  She turned shy, so Liz answered the questions (her name and how old she was) for her, but it was really cool to see how he would interact and respond to the answers given to him.  Disney magic at work!

 After dinner, Liz took the girls back to our room while Ryan and I made a little stop at the souvenir shop.  How could we celebrate pirate night without a Jake and Izzy doll?  The girls were thrilled!  This added another great element to their pirate ship playing on the bunk.

 Finally it was time for the Pirate Party on the pool deck.  Mickey and friends came out to teach everyone how to be real pirates (like saying "Aye Aye Captain!" when asked to do something by the captain).  It was a fun show to watch.

 Our new found pirate knowledge came in handy a few minutes later when Captain Hook and his gang came out to take over the ship.  Luckily we were able to help Mickey show him we were real pirates and Hook needed to leave!

When this show finished, Ryan took the girls back to our room to head to bed, but Liz and I went to see the "Villains" show in the theatre.  Their shows are so well-done, but I'm really grateful the girls didn't go to this one; it would have given them both nightmares as it was filled with nothing but the mean, scary-looking, villains of Disney movies.  When the show was over, I went back to the room to switch places with Ryan.  He went to enjoy the fireworks show off the side of the boat while I went on to bed.  Another fun day!