Our our way to Disney World!

The alarm went off bright and early at 3:15am this morning, but rather than hitting snooze, we were excited to get up because we were flying to Orlando this morning for vacation!  As soon as we woke the boys up, they remembered that today was the day we were going to Mickey's house and they did a great job getting ready.

The place we park was busier than I thought they would be at 5:15am and it was raining which slowed things down a bit.  We felt a bit rushed (because we're early to our flight type of people), but we checked our bags and made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare.  We played a few games of Simon Says to try to get some of the wiggles and energy out of the boys.  Grandma was a good sport and played too.


We were all excited to get on the plane and on our way!




Karsten saw our luggage get on the plane - WHEW, at least we know they would make it to Atlanta!


Liam sat with Scott and I while Karsten sat with my parents.


Good thing the Easter bunny knew we were going on vacation and brought the boys headphones.  They made good use of them watching movies and playing games on the plane.


We had a super short layover in Atlanta (only enough time to hit the bathrooms), then we were on the plane to Orlando.  Since our bags were checked through to our hotel, we were on the Disney Magical Express bus to our hotel within 15-20 minutes of landing.  It went so smooth!


So excited to be here!


Disney has made a lot of improvements in the check-in process since we were there last.  Last time, the check-in took at least 20 minutes.  I completed online checkin, and when we arrived, they said I should have received a text telling me our room number and that it was ready.  If I had received thata, we wouldn't even have had to stop at the front desk because our Magic Bands were our room key and they were already active. For some reason, my phone doesn't receive text messages from companies, so I never received the message.  They told us our room number and we headed over to eat - we spent no more than 2 minutes at the front desk!


We were all more happy once we had food in our tummies.  We all have a tendancy to get a bit crabby when we're hungry.  :)

Check out those blue lips from the Frozen rice crispie!


After lunch, we picked up the stroller we rented and asked the bellman to send the water we ordered to our room. After we put all our stuff in the room, we were off again - who has time to relax in your room when there is so much to see!  We took a short boat ride over to Downtown Disney to hit the giant Disney store, Lego store and see what else was interesting.


It's always amazing what those Lego builders can do.  Buzz and Woody looked so real!


Papa wanted to get the boys a hat and they thought these would be a good choice.  I was about to say yes until I felt how heavy they were - I saw lots of whining our future with these hats 'my head is hot, I don't want to wear it.'  So, we took a few fun pictures with them but kept looking for the perfect hat.


The Disney store had so many things the boys 'really wanted'.  They hugged these giant Minnie and Mickey guys for a while but we eventually talked them out of them.  How the heck would we have gotten those guys home?


Another cool Lego display outside - it's the Seven Dwarfs!


The boys got to ride a little train while Shannon and I checked out a few other stores.


It looked like it was about to pour rain, so we headed over to see if we could get into our dinner reservation a bit early.  The boys asked if they could take a picture next to this 'guy'.  Karsten said he was going to sit on his birthday cake (aka top hat) which cracked me up.  I tried to tell him it was a hat and show him how it looked like a hat, but he was pretty pleased with his cake comment since it got several laughs.


After dinner, Karsten was fading quickly.  He tried to sleep on Grandma - poor Grandma, after this dinner, we realized that having both of the boys sit next to her makes for a very hectic dinner for her.  He wasn't really sleeping here, just pretending.


Karsten's fruit came in this tilted bowl, and once he was done, he kept tipping the edge of the bowl to try to get it to sit correctly.  He played with it for a minute or so until he saw me watching him and smiling.


Dinner was at Raglan Road where they had irish dancers.  They were amazing - it's hard to believe they can move their feet so quicly  They danced on a big stage but also brough this wood piece out to dance right behind us!


As soon as we put the boys in the stroller to head back to the hotel, Liam fell asleep. I had to get him out of the stroller on the boat ferry, but he still managed to stay asleep!
 

Liam woke up for a quick bath, then Grandma gave the boys the beatiful quilts she made them.


The quilts have minky super soft fabric on the back - they're soooo soft.  I may snag them to cuddle up with.


Up tomorrow - Magic Kingdom!

Wordless Wednesday - Budding Reader

From April 2015

Monkey one, Monkey two

Liam has always looked up to Karsten and mimicked things that he does.  Now that he's getting older, I'm seeing more of Karsten's facial expressions and mannerisms showing up in Liam.  He'll do things (positive and negative) that he sees Karsten doing.  In the next instant, he won't want anything to do with Karsten - it's always tough to tell what caused the strife.  Sometimes it can be as simple as one of them saying they wanted to play by themself.

They were playing with their bears tonight and Karsten started to show us how he could balance his on his nose 'like a seal'. Check out Liam watching Karsten to see exactly how he should do it.


It's fun to watch Liam develop his own personality that's interwoven with mannerisms and expressions that he picked up from Karsten.  I've even seen Liam make faces that I haven't seen Karsten make in a year - shows you how observant kids are to every little detail.

Reading together

During bedtime, usually I read to Liam and Scott reads to Karsten.  This way they can each choose their book, and for Karsten, he gets to practice reading.  Tonight, the boys wanted to read together.  They chose the Circus Boat, a book that was recommended by a coworker.  It's excellent and is becoming a new bedtime favorite.

Third row

When we got to church this morning, I let Karsten choose which pew we would sit in.  He went confidently past the pews in the back where we typically sit, past the pews in the middle where we sat recently, and right up to the third row from the front.  Ummm, ok.  When we sat down, I whispered that they had to be really good since Father could see them since he was sitting RIGHT there.  They did a pretty good job, we had to remind them to use their whisper voices several times, but that's not really different than any other kids at church.

The verdict?  The boys said they liked sitting where they could see better.  I'm not sure that has to be the third row, but we'll see.  Stay tuned!

Spring planting

After Liam's last swimming lesson, we stopped at a local nursery to get some manure to start prepping the garden for planting.  (That almost sounded like I knew what I was talking about, didn't it?)

The boys were entertained by a million new things to look at - seeds, bulbs, garden decorations, and this guy.  They got it individually, then they thought it was hilarious to do it together because it made the guy have two faces.


We asked them what veggies we should plant in our garden, and they chose carrots and green beans.  Carrots are a first for us, so we'll see how that works out, but we're always up to trying something new!

Happy Easter

On Easter morning, we got dressed and ready to go to my parents for breakfast before church.  That sneaky Easter bunny left these baskets for the boys.  They were thrilled to see Legos in their basket (I realize this picture doesn't portray 'happy' but they were!)
 

They weren't sure what the headphones were for, but when we showed them how you could connect them to the ipad then hear the movie in the headphones, they were excited.


There was time for a few games of marble bowling before breakfast.  My parents picked up the marble shooter and wooden bowling pins at the marble store, and my dad built this cool box to contain the game.  The boys have so much fun with this, and did well taking turns.


After breakfast, we got ready for church and headed outside for a few pictures with the promise of jelly beans for good smiles.






Liam wanted to sit on Karsten's lap which caused everyone to dissolve in a fit of giggles.






By the time we did group shots, the boys were getting tired of smiling and the promise of jelly beans was not compelling enough.


We still managed to get a few good shots although the smils were a bit forced.


Then we were off to church.  We went about 30 minutes before mass started since it gets so crowded, thankfully we don't have to go as early as we do at Christmas.  The boys did a great job being quiet which is always a gamble at church.

While we were gone at church, the Easter bunny finally made it to Grandma and Papa's house to hide eggs.


The Easter bunny hid Lego mini figures in a few special eggs.








It's a beautiful Easter day and we're so thankful for getting to spend it together!


The mini figures were a hit!


There was a slight moment of panic when Liam discovered his third mini-figure when Karsten hadn't found his third one yet.


Then they played with the mini figures for quite a while.  See all of those little pieces?  Each mini figure had five pieces - a hat or hair, a head, body, pants and an accessory.  When the Easter bunny was building six of these guys at the Lego store, I found it to be quite overwhelming.  So, as kids built mini-figures and abandoned them when their parents told them it was time to leave, I may have claimed their mini-figures as my own.  They were gone and not coming back, and I figured if they liked the guy, then my boys would as well!


Since they were so good at church, the boys got to open their present from Grandma and Papa rather than waiting until later in the day as originally planned.


Legos, Pez and candy - what a fun present!


Papa mentioned that the marble run would be a great place to build Legos since they would be confined.  The boys took that as an invitation to get started immediately.  It was a nice activity for an Easter afternoon.  I may have dozed off for a few minutes while the Legos were being built.