Disney World 2010

We had such a great time celebrating Mia's 2nd birthday at Disney World. Liz joined us, and we had so much fun! It's very possible the adults loved it more than the birthday girl! So many details and pictures to share...

We left Wednesday morning after breakfast. We played I Spy, we told jokes, the girls watched a movie; it was a good ride. We stopped in South Georgia at a Chick-fil-a that had a cool playground for the girls; once inside, my Uncle Randy came up and said hi! He was traveling with his job for a few days and ended up there too. Just a preview of how It's a Small World (hee hee). After lunch we expected a quiet ride while the girls napped, but unfortunately, that didn't happen; neither of them slept for more than a few minutes. We saw a lot of movies! We arrived in Orlando about 5:30, so we headed straight to Downtown Disney for the Rainforest Cafe. That was yummy! The girls were a little unsure of the animals "talking" to another during the rain storms, but pretty soon they were okay with it and actually enjoyed it. After dinner, we did a little shopping. First to the Christmas store where we picked up a couple of ornaments and then to the candy shop where I got the best Reece's Cup ever and Lily got a bag full of jelly beans. Everyone else shared a Ghiradelli ice cream while we enjoyed sitting outside on a beautiful evening. We were already loving the fact that there is virtually no crowd at Disney this time of year! Finally, on the way back to the car, we walked through a huge Disney store and had lots of fun trying on all the funny hats.

From here, we headed to our hotel. We were staying at Disney's Pop Century resort. We were in the 70's area which had lots of fun details to it. Mia loved the gigantic Mickey Mouse rotary phone in front while Lily loved the Twister game that we passed on the way to the food court.

We unpacked quickly and got the girls ready for bed. By this point, it was about 10 so they were exhausted (remember, no naps). We put Mia in her pack and play and then closed the little curtain that separated her area from the bedroom. Mia however didn't think going to sleep was a good plan right then though. She kept pulling back the curtain and saying "Hi Mommy! Hi Daddy! Hi Lily!" She looked adorable even though we really wanted her to go to sleep. At one point, Lily said "Mia, this is not funny. Go to sleep right now." Finally, we all conked out.

Thursday was actually Mia's birthday. They had given her a special birthday pin to wear. Every single Disney person we saw wished Mia a happy birthday which was pretty sweet. After a quick food court breakfast, we headed to the Magic Kingdom. While Ryan got a locker, Liz and I watched the girls climb into the old-fashion fire truck and sound the siren. They thought that was pretty cool. We had to start our rides at Dumbo; it's always a favorite.

From here we hit up It's a Small World, Flight of Peter Pan and the carousel.

 

After this Ryan, Lily and I rode Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster; she loves this ride.  Bama and Mia hung out on the side.

We decided to take a break for lunch at the deli on Main Street. As we finished up, Mickey's "Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It" parade started to go by; turns out November 18 is also Mickey and Minnie's birthday! We all had fun watching this and then dancing along to the music. As the parade was leaving, Mia blew a kiss to Woody from Toy Story; he pretended to catch it and swooned. Talk about making Mommy and Bama happy!

From here, we all headed back to the Pop Century for nap time; we had a big night ahead of us, and we wanted to be rested up. After nap time, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom.

As we were walking, we passed the face painting station. Lily couldn't resist, and she settled on getting a Cinderella tiara with cheek highlights and shiny lipstick. When Mia saw it, she really wanted one too, so we let her get a Minnie Mouse bow on her forehead. I couldn't believe how well they both sat there and let their faces get painted. They looked adorable! 

At 7:30, Mickey's Christmas Party started which was great. It started with a fun show in front of the castle which the girls loved. Then they made it snow which was awesome!!! After the show, we turned around and saw a great Christmas parade. It ended with Santa coming in on his sleigh. Talk about getting us ready for Christmas!

After this, Ryan, the girls and I went through Minnie's house and then went to meet Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White and their princes. Both girls walked right up to them, hugged them and talked to them. I was amazed! I thought it was so cute too that Mia kept pointing to Cinderella and saying "Rella! Rella!" This was a lot of fun!

As this finished up, the fireworks over the castle started which completely freaked out Lily, so we stayed inside Minnie's house while they went off. Finally, we all went back to the hotel. It was about 11. Can you believe I let my kids stay up like this?!

On Friday, we headed to Epcot, and we were greeted by Daisy upon arrival. We started out at the Finding Nemo ride which was cute, and then headed to Turtle Talk with Crush which was awesome. From here, we headed over to the countries. where we had a yummy meal in France. After this, we met Aurora and Belle in France, Jasmine and Aladdin in Morocco and then Pooh and Rabbit in the UK. While in the UK, we watched a really funny comedy troupe put on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Lily and Ryan also found a new Charlie and Lola book which made Lily's day. After this, Ryan, Lily and I went on Soarin which was really cool. It really was amazing. We all loved it. Mia napped in the stroller for a few minutes, so we decided not to go back but just push through the day; in hindsight, this probably wasn't our best move because she was pretty whiny and fussy the rest of the day, but we made it.

When Mia woke up, we went to an area and met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy. Both girls had a lot of fun here though Mia seemed a little unsure of Pluto and his big nose. Right after meeting them, we decided to have a little ice cream break; we all enjoyed this! After our break, we visited China where we walked through the temple and saw the terra cotta army which was pretty cool. Then we went through Germany where we saw Snow White. When we walked up to her she said "Well happy birthday Mia! By chance, did I meet you last night at Mickey's Christmas Party?" to which I surprisingly said "You did." She said "I thought so. I remember my prince and I talked about Lily and Mia being from The Princess Diaries. Well, it's lovely to see you both again" and then proceeded to talk to them some more. With all the kids she meets each day, I was very impressed she remembered our girls! 

After this, we played on the drums at The Outpost which both girls loved; they love music and noise so this was a great combination for them! We decided it was time to call it quits at this point; both girls were utterly exhausted. As we were leaving, we went out front where Ryan found the picture of us that is etched into the walls in front of Epcot; it was something they were doing the first time we visited together in 1998 while on Spring Break visiting David and Jan. It was so funny to see our picture from so long along; Lily thought it was pretty cool! The four of us headed back to have dinner at the hotel, take baths and then went to bed. We put Mia down at 7 and she didn't make a peep for 12 hours.

On Saturday, we decided to head back to Magic Kingdom. We wanted to do a few more activities that we didn't fit in on Thursday. We started at the teacups; both girls loved this ride. They wanted Ryan to spin them as fast he could! After the teacups we stopped by to get new face painting. This time both girls got Sleeping Beauty tiaras painted on and shiny lipstick; they looked pretty cute!

We then rode the race cars, and Lily was thrilled that she got to drive her and Ryan's car (she didn't know that it's on a set track). Lily and Mia shared a yummy smoothie to take a little break.

At this point, Ryan took Lily over to ride the Astro Orbiter and People Mover rides; she loved both of them. While they did that, Liz, Mia and I headed over to watch people on Splash Mountain and then we enjoyed the Country Bear Jamboree. Mia was fascinated by the talking bears and deer heads on the wall!  By this point, it was lunch time, so we all met back up and ate at the Diamond Horseshoe restaurant which was a nice little break. After lunch, Liz was so kind to take Mia back to the hotel for a nap; we had learned our lesson yesterday about no napping! While they were gone, Ryan, Lily and I had lots of fun together. Lily had seen a Disney World ad at some point, and had talked multiple times about wanting to ride "the fast train" as she called it; we know it as Big Thunder Railroad. I didn't want to tell her the real name because she is scared of thunder, and I didn't want her to not try the ride because of the name. She LOVED it. We rode it twice!

After this, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean which she wasn't a huge fan of, but it didn't scare her. We rode Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride next which was very similar to Dumbo, so she enjoyed that. Next it was back to the teacups; she couldn't get enough. After this, we did the Buzz Lightyear ride which was fun but not worth the 50 minute wait. We then relaxed on the People Mover which gave some great views of the park.

After this, we met back up with Liz and Mia in front of the castle for a show which we all enjoyed. This show had all the princesses and their princes in it which Lily loved. It also has the witch from Sleeping Beauty in it; she came out in and left in fire and smoke. Lily kept asking why the mean lady was there; she has never seen Sleeping Beauty so she doesn't know there is a "mean lady" in it.

After this, it was dinner time and then back to the People Mover while Ryan got some ice cream to share. We had a little bit of time left, so we went to The Laugh Floor which is based on Monsters Inc, a movie I think is really cute. It was a pretty neat little show where they told some funny jokes. Lily is really into jokes right now, so I know she enjoyed it.

After all this fun, we headed back to Main Street and scored awesome seats for the Spectromagic Electric Parade. We had about an hour wait, but the girls did great. Liz and Mia went for a little walk while Lily and I shared some popcorn. Liz also bought the girls cool light-up spinners which they loved (and they are still playing with them). Just before the parade, an employees came around to entertain the kids. They drew hopscotch boards on the cement and handed out hula hoops. I couldn't believe Lily ran out and got a hula hoop; she had fun playing with it for a bit. Finally the parade started, and it was spectacular! I love how everything is so bright with lights. The girls were fascinated. They waved at all the characters, and Mia blew kisses. When Alice went by and waved to them, Mia started pointing to herself and saying "Mia! Mia!" Then she pointed to Lily and said "Lily! Lily!" She is so polite to introduce herself! Lily would get very excited whenever any of the characters waved to them or even looked their direction. We all loved this! This wore the girls out though as both fell asleep on the bus ride back to the hotel, but both went back to sleep easily.

 

 

Sunday morning arrived, and we quickly packed up our things. We had 8:40 reservations at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary Hotel. First of all, the meal was delicious. All sorts of yummy fresh fruits, breakfast meats, pancakes, Mickey Mouse waffles...yum! Second, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald walk around dressed as chefs, and they stop at every table for a few minutes. Goofy was enamoured by Mia and had lots of fun with her. Minnie gave both girls kisses which made them giggle. Also, the staff brought Mia a cupcake out with a Mickey Mouse face on it. She thoroughly enjoyed it; that is certainly a breakfast treat! As we were leaving, they started playing some music, so Mia started dancing which entertained several people around us; Goofy saw her and gave her another big hug too. As we were leaving, Lily asked me where Pete was. He's in a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes, so she wondered why he wasn't at breakfast.

 

After breakfast we took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian hotel where we marveled at the beautiful decorations and the amazing gingerbread house. We took a few pictures in front of their enormous Christmas tree. We also checked out their terrace and their upscale Victoria & Albert restaurant. Finally, we knew it was time to go. We took the monorail back to the Contemporary and headed home. We arrived about 7.5 hours later, and it was a fairly easy ride back.

This was such a wonderful way to celebrate sweet Mia's birthday. I think both girls had a fantastic time. I asked Lily what her favorite part was and she said "the fast train and seeing all the chefs" which refers to Big Thunder Railroad and the Chef Mickey's breakfast. I asked what she thought Mia's favorite part was and she quickly said "the teacups" which is very possibly correct. More than anything, I loved seeing how much the girls were loving this. The excitement on their faces was definitely my favorite part (with Big Thunder Railroad coming in second). We made so many great memories on this trip, and that's what I'll remember. I think the entire trip was a hit!

Happy 2nd Birthday Mia!

I cannot believe Mia turned two last Thursday! Oh, this precious little girl lights up our world every single day. To celebrate her big day, we went to Disney World last Wednesday to Sunday and had a blast! She did a great job of telling all the characters that she is "TWO!" while holding up two fingers. I have tons of pictures and details, but that is for another post that will be completed soon. For now, let me tell you about sweet Mia...

We had her two year old check-up today which went very well. She weighs 26 pounds, 6 ounces which is the 40th percentile. At 34 inches she is in the 50th percentile for height. Her head is 18.5 inches which puts her in the 40th percentile for head circumference. She did not have to have any shots today because she received her flu shot a few weeks ago. She had her toe pricked to test her iron level though (it came back normal). Mia just looked at the nurse like "What in the world? Are you crazy?" She didn't cry, but she kept pointing to her band aide and saying "Boo boo toe." Mia talked throughout almost the entire appointment. She played with my cell phone a lot; she would open it up, put it to her ear and say "Hi Daddy. (Pause) Bye-bye!" multiple times. She pointed out all her body parts to Dr. White and followed Dr. White's directions very well. At one point, Dr. White said "I can see she is very bright. Most two years old cannot talk this much or this well." Her verbal development over the last couple of months has really been astonishing. Dr. White gave her a thorough check up and declared she is doing well.

We are so madly in love with our little Amelia. She cracks us up often. Here are a few miscellaneous facts about her right now that I want to remember. She loves her songs (when she says "songs" she scrunches up her nose and it's really cute to see) which are the Cedarmont Kids DVD's and CD's that we listen to. She can actually sing along to several of the shorter lines, and she can finish the last word of almost every line. She really enjoys brushing her teeth throughout the day; she goes running into the bathroom yelling "teeth! teeth!" Her favorite words right now are "Did it!" For instance, she will put the lid back on a jar or put her shoes on. Then she looks up triumphantly and proclaims "Did it!" I love how proud of herself she is. She is also a big fan of the word "Mine!" We are working on learning to share which is not something that comes naturally. She is not a fan of the word "no" and she can get quite upset when you say that to her; she has a good bit of drama in her. She loves to play with balls, play dough and craft items. She has fun playing in the pretend kitchen. She has a great time when she sits in the baby doll stroller and Lily pushes it around. Really, she loves to play just about any game with Lily; Mia adores her. She loves to imitate everyone, but especially Lily. If she sees Lily doing somersaults across the floor, you can believe that Mia will start doing them too! In fact, she uses the word "too" a lot. We often hear "gummies too!" or "milk too!" or "book too!" She is good at making funny faces; she does a great gorilla that you'll have to see for yourself! It's really fun to simply watch her play. You can see the wheels turning in her head, and she is fascinating to watch.

She is still a very good eater. Some of her favorites foods right now: gummy snacks, mandarin oranges, bananas, mango, watermelon, waffles, yogurt (we hear "go-gurt" almost every morning as she runs to get a spoon from the drawer), noodle soup, Meme's vegetable soup, goldfish (or "Feesh" as she calls them), burritos with black beans, salsa, sour cream, cheese and rice on it from Moes and spinach ravioli with wild mushroom sauce from Figo. It's really pretty amazing to me what she can put down at a meal. I'm a little surprised she doesn't weigh more, but then again, she is constantly on the go, so she burns a lot of calories. She also enjoys milk, juice and water to drink.

One of my favorite things is to say a prayer with her each evening before bed. She folds her little hands together, and I'll say "Dear Jesus, thank you" and then Mia says "Daddy. Mommy. Lily. Mia. Bama." Oh it's precious to hear. She also likes to wave to the shadows her nightlight makes and tell them goodnight. We usually read a couple of books together too. Her current favorite seems to be "Brown Bear, Brown Bear." When it gets to the part that says "Black sheep, black sheep, what do you see?" she joyfully replies "Mia!"

She is very attached to her Glow Worm Doll. "Glo" as we call her is constantly with her at the house and often in the car. In fact, we have three of them and Mia typically sleeps with at least two of them. None of them play music anymore. Every morning when she wakes up, Mia likes to throw them out of her crib; they stop playing music after only a week or so of this. She likes to play with other dolls and toys, but she finds great comfort in Glo and asks for her whenever she is tired or upset.

Something she recently started that cracks me up is knock-knock jokes. Lily loves to tell knock-knock jokes with us, and Mia has picked up on that. So here's how that goes with her:
Mia: Knock knock.
Me: Who's there?
Mia: Nana (which means banana)
Me: Banana who?
Mia starts laughing. She has heard Lily's version which uses an orange and says "orange you glad I didn't say banana?" so this is Mia's take on that joke. She's going to be a jokester one day!

Mia is such an adventurous, playful, super smart, funny, happy and all-around adorable little girl. These past two years have absolutely flown by. We are so blessed to have her in our lives, and we cannot wait to see what her future holds!

Family Pictures

When we went to Birmingham a few weeks ago, an old sorority sister of mine named Ann Wade Parrish met us at Samford to take our annual family photos. I like to have them made between the girls' birthdays each year. I think they turned out fantastic! Following are some of my favorites. Wow, it was difficult to narrow it down!

Our funny girls make us laugh!

Such sweethearts!

This is in front of Divinity Chapel which is where Ryan proposed to me.

 

 I love my family so much!

New Words

Mia says new words all the time now which is so much fun to hear.  Yesterday, she said two things that absolutely melted my heart though.  First, Ryan was leading her through our little routine where we say "Daddy loves..." and Mia throws her hands in the air and happily proclaims "ME!"  We then do this with Mommy loves, Lily loves, etc.  So, Ryan asked Mia "who else loves Mia?" and she replied "Baby Jesus."  We had her say it over and over because it was sweet.  Second, after church last night, we picked Mia up from the nursery.  When the teacher brought her to the door, she said "Mia, tell Mommy and Daddy what you are thankful for."  She beamed and said "Bible!"  Oh my goodness, I want to eat this little girl up she is so precious!  I can't get enough of her!

Getting Married

Ryan and Lily were watching a cartoon together yesterday morning, and at one point Ryan said "I love you Lily."  She replied "I love you too Daddy.  Can I marry you?"  We think this stems from her asking me why people get married, and I say it's because they love each other very much.  Ryan said "I'm already married to Mommy" to which Lily asked "But when I get older can I marry you?"  Ryan reiterated that he's already married to me, and Lily seemed okay with that.  I can only pray that someday Lily and Mia are blessed to find men as wonderful as their Daddy.

Our Birmingham Weekend

We had such a great long weekend in Birmingham!  On Thursday afternoon, the four of us headed over and arrived just before dinnertime.  Ryan and I love to eat at our old favorites each time we go back, so we visited Gianos.  It's a little deli in Vestavia where we ate probably twice a week while at Samford.  The funny thing is, every time we go back, the owner asks how we've been and has said he misses us!  It was just as good as we remembered.  Afterwards, we visited a new place called The Yogurt Tap which was neat.  They have a dozen different flavors of yogurt plus many, many toppings to choose from.  We all enjoyed it.

On Friday morning, we met a sorority sister of mine named Ann Wade Parrish at Samford.  Ann Wade is an excellent photographer.  She took lots of pictures of the girls and our family all over Samford's campus.  I can't wait to see them!  I'll be sure to post some once she sends them to us.  After the pictures, we went to Milos for their famous burgers and sweet tea; yum!  After Milos, we stopped by a local playground that is awesome.  Lily describes it as looking like a castle which is true.  They had a great time climbing and sliding until a hail storm came out of nowhere and we scampered back to the car.  From here we went home to put the girls down for their naps.  Once they were down, Ryan and I went to a new bookstore called 2nd and Charles.  It's a concept store by Books A Million that basically buys books, DVDs, CDs, and games from individuals and resells them.  It was great!  We found tons of good items for the girls which is always fun.  From here we went to Lifeway Christian and found a few things too; I love Christmas shopping!  After shopping we went to the movie theatre and watched "Red."  It was a pretty good movie, and we really enjoyed going out to a movie; it's been way too long.  By this point, we were hungry and we couldn't resist the call of Dreamland.  As they say "Ain't nothing like 'em nowhere" and that is so true!  To finish the evening, we headed to Brookwood Mall to walk around and enjoy a Great American Cookie.  We ran into an old friend named Sam Duffy while we were there, so it was nice to catch up with him.  What a fun day!

On Saturday morning, we visited Ranch House for breakfast; this is always a favorite with us.  After breakfast, we went out to Patton Creek and looked around for awhile, then we went back to Liz's to watch some of the Florida game.  A little after noon we headed back up to Samford for Homecoming.  We walked around a bit until we came across Daniel and Courtney Cox.  Daniel and Ryan were fraternity brothers and Ryan and Courtney had grown up together.  We always have a lot of fun visiting with them, and they also had their precious son, Clayton, with them.  It was great to catch up with them.  While we were there, we also caught up with Amy Doblestein and a few other old acquaintances.  We hung out with Daniel through the first half of the Samford game and decided to head on out; it was really pretty chilly, and we wanted to see the Alabama versus LSU game.  We enjoyed hanging out with family while watching the game.  Towards the end of the game, Ryan and I went to Jackson's for dinner.  The best part of any meal there is always dessert; tonight we had s'mores which were awesome.  We did a little more Christmas shopping at The Summit afterwards and decided to call it a night.

This morning we enjoyed another relaxing morning, and then went to Shades Mountain Baptist for church.  Ryan grew up here, and we both attended during college, so it's always nice to go back here.  We were able to visit with our friend Emily for a bit afterwards which was great.  The girls had lots of fun in their Sunday School classes; Lily told me later she made a new friend in her class.  She couldn't remember her name, but she said she wore a pink dress and they played with the balls on the playground together.  After church we went to lunch at Baha Burgers which was a delicious treat (seriously, we ate our way through Birmingham this weekend!).  With the time change this weekend and going into Central time, the girls were really off schedule by this point, so we headed on back to Atlanta.  Both girls were asleep before we hit I-20, and they slept for about 2 hours of the 2.5 hour trip.

This was such a wonderful and fun weekend.  We really appreciate all the babysitting Liz did so Ryan and I could relax and enjoy time together as relived lots of fun memories.  I know the girls had a blast hanging out with Bama!  They went to parks, ponds, playgrounds, restaurants and shops together.  The girls love getting to see and try new things, so this was great for them.  We look forward to going back soon!