Christmas Festivities

Christmas holidays are always a blur of activities - especially with young kids! Here are some of those activities that have kept us so busy lately.

During the week of Thanksgiving, we always make a point of stopping in at the Festival of Trees. This is a wonderful event with dozens of beautifully decorated trees, a train, yummy gingerbread cookies, Santa, and crafts for the kids. Ethan insisted that this was his favorite tree of the entire exhibit and insisted on having his picture taken with it. We have no idea why this one is his favorite as there were so many little kid friendly trees decorated with games or in a movie theme!

Olivia posing by the Grinch exhibit. Both kids LOVE that movie and will routinely sing the songs from the show (although their version is a bit funnier!).

The black Star Wars Christmas tree has again been decorated. For those of you who do not know the story, Joe has been collecting Star Wars ornaments for about 15 years now. In the past, he would only be able to select a few to display so that there would be room for the rest of the ornaments. Now that we have more living space, we dedicate an entire (black!) tree to his collection. This year the showpiece is the Yoda tree-topper complete with a lighted lightsaber.

Did I mention that Joe loves Star Wars?

Now on to decorating the real tree. This one is in our front room and has the rest of the ornaments on display. Here are the kids hanging the first ornaments. We have observed that Ethan certainly had a favorite hanging spot on the tree as there are about 15 ornaments hanging from 3 branches.

The Santa hat tree topper. Joe and I started that tradition when we were first married (11 years ago!) as we did not have a star/angel/other topper. We always said the hat would be temporary, but I think I now need to realize that it is a tradition.

More ornaments!

After all decorating is done, the gingerbread house becomes a priority. We learned this year to assemble the house earlier in the day so that it has a chance to harden in time for the kids to decorate. Last year the house did not hold together so well!

Olivia took this picture. Her skills are definitely improving, as long as she aims first, and THEN you position yourself within the frame.

The two gingerbread artists.

What to do on a very very cold, snowy, icy, windy night? Go to the mall! No lines! Here are the kids visiting Santa. Olivia had quite a few items to tell him about from her list, and Ethan was able to remember some toys, too (even if Santa couldn't quite understand him!). I wonder how much longer Olivia will believe in Santa? I am thinking that the end is near for this belief. She asked Joe earlier in December if Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Great Pumpkin are in fact real. She was satisfied with the answer of the first 2 being real, but the last was made up for a television show!

The Christmas train at the mall. Since there were no lines, the kids were able to take a much longer than usual turn on this!

This past Saturday we also hosted a Christmas party for 60+ friends. The house was a complete mess of toys, but that is a small price to pay for the great time we had! Here is Olivia and some of her closest friends making crafts.

Just a small glimpse of the chaos. This was after starting some holiday shows for the kids, so they had begun to settle down some.

Catch Up Post

So much happens in the weeks after Halloween, so updating the blog took a backseat to the festivities! This will be an attempt to catch up on some little things we have been doing.

Olivia and Ethan being very snuggly with each other one morning. Those two really do complement each other...Ethan is such a boy and very opinionated and Olivia is a very accommodating, go with the flow big sister to him.

I loved Lite Brite as a child. It is so nice to see Olivia playing with hers!

We attended a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse stage event in early November. The kids had a great time, even though the show was not the best Disney production we have seen. This is a pretty neat shot of Olivia through her souvenir that she selected at the show.

Ethan and Olivia posing on stage after the show had finished. After the show, a swarm of kids started climbing onto the stage to get their pictures taken with the props. I guess we didn't think anything of it until security guards came rushing down (after 10 minutes!) to tell people to get down.

Ethan finger painting with Cool Whip.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Olivia's class held a Thanksgiving lunchtime show. They recited a poem and sang a song while dressed in costumes that they had designed. Olivia selected a Native American outfit, while her girlfriends in this picture had dressed as a Pilgrim. The girl on the right side of the picture is Olivia's best friend Abby.

Thanksgiving at my parent's house. The pre-feast ritual...eat food.

The anytime ritual...be silly with Uncle Thomas. Ethan adores Uncle Thomas. Basically, if you are willing to run around like crazy and be silly, Ethan will stay by your side all day!

Thanksgiving with Joe's entire family. Here the kids are playing Holiday Bingo that great aunt Kelli printed off of the computer. The only problem was that each kid had the same card! So, there was a large simultaneous shout of "bingo!"

Olivia, the girl of many talents.

All kids love boxes of any type!

Halloween 2009

Halloween has come and gone and now Christmas is right around the corner. With kids, Halloween is much more than just one day. The entire month seems to be full of Halloween activities for the kids, which is great since then they are able to show off their costume more than once!

First up for us on Halloween weekend was carving the pumpkins. Olivia and Ethan were quite the helpers this year, although neither kid enjoyed scooping out the pumpkin "guts".

Ethan designed his pumpkin all by himself, including drawing the eyes on the pumpkin and instructing Joe on how to carve the nose/mouth/ears. For those of you who do not know Ethan very well, he is, let's say, opinionated. Joe did a good job carving a "happy scary mouth" according to Ethan's specifications.

Olivia drew her pumpkin face completely by herself and LOVED the result once Joe carved it. I think she took a cue from Picasso.

The kids and their finished results.

I volunteered to be a room parent for Olivia's kindergarten class this year, so I assisted with their fall party. Here is Olivia and friends sitting at their assigned table eating treats.

The kids then moved into the gym to play many fun games. Here is Olivia attempting to ring a pumpkin. Ethan loved being a part of the "big kid party" and did a very good job waiting for his turn at all of the games.

Olivia and friends playing the "waiter game" by walking with a balloon on a plate.

On the morning of Halloween we went to the Farmer's Market Halloween event (I am so going to miss my biweekly trips to the Farmer's Market!). The kids met Clifford and made many fun crafts.

Both kids also participated in the Halloween "parade" at the Farmer's Market. The kids are put into age groups and show off their costume to the crowd and to a panel of judges. The homemade costumes are always wonderful.

Halloween night! Ethan/Spiderman is ready to go trick or treating! I will miss him shouting "WEBS!" and then attempting to hold his hand in the correct Spiderman web shooting position every time he wore this costume. It was so cute to watch him work on getting his hand just right.

Olivia/Medusa showing off her costume. What 5 year old selects Medusa? She picked this costume by herself. I even waited one week to order it since I thought for sure she would change her mind. Olivia was even able to explain just who Medusa was, who killed her and how. She claims that she learned it from both Disney's Hercules movie and from a Backyardigan's episode. It was a great costume! I can't wait to see what she selects next year!

Silly faces!

Lighting the pumpkins before the kids and Joe set off for candy. I am the one who stays at home to answer the door. Someone needs to hand out the candy!

The kids and their loot. The rule is on Halloween night they can each eat as much as they want (which actually was not as much as one would think). Then they get 4 pieces per day until it is gone. Worked last year and seems to be a happy compromise thus far this year.

Aren't You a Little Short for a Storm Trooper?

Well, I guess I get to do this one (Joe). While Olivia, Kate, and Renee had their Princess Tea Party Day, Ethan, Jerome, and Joe went back to Hollywood Studios to watch the Jedi Training Academy show and spend some time. Thanks to our awesome connection, they got to have a personal meet and greet with some characters. While Ethan was pretty excited, the big kid got had a dream day and got to meet Darth Vader for a second time...the first being his fourth or fifth birthday party.

The Dark Side

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

All too easy. You will notice that the lightsaber Joe is holding is autographed. A gift from Lord Vader.

The Jedi and Sith put aside their differences for a picture.

Ethan battles the Empire.

Hollywood Studios is also home to Pixar. Here is Ethan meeting Buzz and Woody. He was pretty excited about this.

Ethan and Lightning McQueen.

Ethan really wanted to see what Mater had in his mouth. Guess Joe was equally curious.

The Green Army Man. Ethan was scared of these guys the first day through Hollywood Studios, but he couldn't wait to meet him the next time we saw him.

Of course what trip to Tatooine Traders would be complete without the family Star Wars photo. For the non-Star Wars inclined, Joe is Anakin, Kate is Padme (the parents), Ethan is Luke, and Olivia is Leia (their children). Luke pretty much whined throughout Episode IV and V, so we thought this pic appropriate. We just figured Ethan wanted to go into Tosche Station (is it wrong that I know the correct spelling) to pick up some power converters.

Random Disney Photos

The following are some random pictures that didn't quite fit into the "themes" of the previous blogs. (You know me and how I like to keep things organized!)

Ethan eating his first Mickey Mouse ice cream bar. I miss the ones Disney had when I was a kid...vanilla ice cream on the bottom and chocolate ice cream for the ears. Now they are much fancier being dipped in chocolate!

And Olivia enjoying her ice cream at the restaurant Hannah's Hideaway at our hotel (The Beach Club). The kid meals at Disney were much healthier than I had thought they would be. Kids could pick two items between carrot sticks, jello, apple slices, and fries, and there was always a non-fried entree offered. Joe and I had feared it would be hamburgers and fries all week long!

On our first night at Disney, we went to dinner at Chef Mickey's as an "introduction to the characters" for the kids. Minnie Mouse was both the first and last character we encountered on our trip. Olivia was beyond excited that Minnie gave her a hug.

The family with Donald Duck (ignore me trying to get Ethan to look at the camera!). Donald is Ethan's favorite, and he was in awe of him at this meal!

The family and Pluto. Olivia had already started to get the hang of the autograph book at this point.

Mickey Mouse!

Olivia quickly learned that Mickey Mouse ears are everywhere! I couldn't imagine being the chef making these tiny ears and then perfectly placing them on the mousse. Olivia enjoyed looking for hidden mouse ears for the entire vacation, and became very good at spotting random ones (some of which were so random only she could see them!)

Grandma, grandpa, and the kids with Goofy. This picture became a theme for Olivia. Every time we would see Goofy during the vacation, she would hold out her hair and make a goofy face.

This is Olivia driving the sunken pirate ship at The Beach Club. It really was a wonderful hotel in the Epcot region. The pool/lazy river/water slides were amazing. One of the pools was a sand bottom pool, which is one of only five in the world, plus there was a beach next to that pool for the kids to play on. I recommend this hotel to anyone! (In the background you can see the Dolphin Hotel where Joe and I stayed on our honeymoon).

A view of the sunken pirate ship pool, with The Beach Club in the background.

The view from our room. This pool was quieter than the other pools at the hotel. It was nice for a quick dip!

On our last night at Disney, we went to the Hoop de doo Review at Fort Wilderness. It was a really funny show (although most of the humor was over the kids' heads) and the food was good, too...buckets of fried chicken and ribs. Here is Joe helping Ethan play the washboard.

The morning we left we attended the Cape May character breakfast in our hotel. We just couldn't go a day with seeing characters! The waiter took this group shot of us with Donald Duck. In the autograph book, Donald always signs "Donald Duck #1". Olivia told him at this meal that he "is not #1". It is funny to see how the masked characters fake a pout! Olivia had to console him about that remark.

Olivia, Ethan, and Goofy all being goofy.

And finally, the kids giving Minnie Mouse a hug goodbye. We will definitely go back to Disney World someday.....

Disney's Magic Kingdom

Magical magical magical. No matter how old you are, the Magic Kingdom remains magical. We made about 3 trips to this park during our vacation, and that still didn't seem like enough time as we skipped Frontierland completely to spend time elsewhere. Olivia and Ethan's favorite ride of the entire vacation was "It's a Small World". We rode it 5 times total. This is my favorite ride, too (nostalgia from childhood), although Joe HATES this ride. He did a very good job "enjoying" it for the kids' sake. Other great attractions were Mickey's Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, and Haunted Mansion. Both kids really enjoyed Dumbo and Magic Carpets of Aladdin, too.

Ethan posing with "the baseball pumpkin" along the Main Street USA.

Joe and kids posing with Daisy Duck.

Such a classic Cinderella Castle picture.

Olivia outside of the Dumbo ride, the first ride we enjoyed at Disney.

Joe and Olivia on Dumbo.

Grandpa by himself on Dumbo. Just kidding, Ethan is somewhere behind the fence pole.

Ethan, grandma, and Olivia on Dumbo. Ethan enjoyed this ride so much that the one stuffed animal he was allowed to buy was a Dumbo.

As mentioned in previous blogs, it was HOT at Disney. Our character lunch at the Crystal Palace was a very welcome reprieve. Here is Olivia, Ethan, and Winnie the Pooh.

Joe, Eeyore, Ethan, and Olivia.

Ethan, Olivia, Tigger, and grandma. Ethan was bouncing with Tigger saying "boing, boing".

Ethan, Piglet, Olivia, and grandma. I must admit that the kids did excellent at these character meals. They did a great job staying at the table until it was their turn with the character. I had pictured Ethan running wild through the restaurants and ruining everyone else's pictures with the characters!`1

Olivia with Peter Pan. I must say, of all the characters we encountered, he was the bossiest. He was definitely in charge of keeping the almost nonexistent line moving quickly. For some reason, Ethan hid from Peter Pan and wouldn't take his picture with him. Maybe because we had just gone on the Peter Pan's Flight ride, and it scared him.

Ethan playing in the Ariel's Grotto splash park. The line to see Ariel the mermaid (as opposed to when she is in human form) was one of the longest we encountered on our vacation. It was 45 minutes, but the kids had a good time in the water park area while grandma and grandpa stood in line. The bad thing was, there was absolutely no shade so we were roasting!

Olivia imitating the Ariel statue. There will be no picture of us with Ariel in this blog as we just had a photo pass picture taken with her and no candids. I know all of you were really wanting to see us with yet another character!

Ethan and Olivia wearing their new mouse ear hats that they designed themselves. And if one goes to Disney, you of course have to get the classic mouse ear balloons!

Ethan with his Mickey Mouse stickers. On his cheeks. I don't ask why anymore.

Ethan, Pinnochio, and Olivia.

Olivia was so happy to meet Cinderella's Fairy Godmother! On our first visit to the park, we saw her but the line to her had been closed. So for the second visit we made sure to get in line before she was escorted away!

Ethan with a suit of armor inside Cinderella's Castle. Another tradition of my family's...we have always eaten in Cinderella's Castle on our Disney trips. However, this was the first time that characters have been present, and each one is presented to the crowd as a sort of show. In the past, it was just a nice meal inside the castle.

The family meeting Cinderella for the only time on the vacation. The other princesses are more common to meet elsewhere.

Ethan, Snow White, and Olivia. Snow White was so enamored of Ethan she gave him a big kiss on the cheek (to be seen in later pictures).

Ethan, Princess Aurora, and Olivia. When Sleeping Beauty saw that Ethan had received a kiss from Snow White, she planted one of her own on his forehead.

Ethan, Jasmine, and Olivia. Jasmine did not give Ethan a kiss. Instead her comment was "he's a wild one isn't he?" I had to agree with her as at the time he was attempting to sword fight with her with the plastic sword he received when we were seated (Olivia received a magic wand).

Ethan, Belle, and Olivia. Belle was dismayed when she heard Olivia liked Gaston in the movie!

My assumption was proven correct...Ethan is a prince charming. Here are the kisses from Aurora (forehead) and Snow White (cheek). He was so proud of these kisses, too, when we showed them to him in the mirror.

Olivia "wearing" the chocolate crown that came on her ice cream sundae. The little details that Disney would do were amazing.

Olivia and Ethan in front of Minnie's Country House in Toontown Fair. Olivia is holding the stuffed animal she selected, a Princess Minnie doll.

The two thinkers.

Olivia was captured along with Zurg at the end of the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin ride! Grandma scored the highest among the six of us on this.

One final shot of the kids in front of the Magic Kingdom entrance.

Some pictures from the "Wishes" show that was performed in front of Cinderella's Castle. All of the live shows we saw were excellent.

Disney's Epcot

Epcot has always been one of my favorite Disney parks (although it is not a favorite of Joe's). Our hotel, The Beach Club, was literally a 5 minute walk to Epcot, so we went to this park more than the others. However, it seems that I took this for granted and forgot to take many key pictures around the park (including the "giant ball" as Ethan called it - how did I forget to take a picture of that???).

On our first trip to Epcot, we ate at Akershus for the Princess breakfast. Upon arrival, we were instantly greeted by Belle. The more "formal" picture with Belle was taken by the photo pass person (great service for taking pics of the entire family!). As always, Olivia had her autograph book ready!

The kids posing with Snow White. Each Snow White that we met would speak in the trademark high pitched voice from the movie. All characters were very impressive with their mannerisms and way of speaking. Ethan is completely convinced that each character he met was real, and while Olivia is not as certain about that, I think on some level she wants to believe it to be true.

Sleeping Beauty was always my favorite princess, so I had to pose in this picture, too.

Ariel was wonderful for this breakfast. She was amazed by all things human, and even used the "dingle hopper" (the fork for those of you who have not seen The Little Mermaid) as a comb. She was amazed when Olivia showed her the correct usage of the fork. Ariel was also quick on her feet...Olivia had been to Ariel's Grotto the day before and had met Ariel the mermaid. At this breakfast, Olivia said "I met you yesterday. Don't you remember my name is Olivia?" To which this Ariel replied "oh you humans are always changing clothes and confusing me! I remember you!" It was a really sweet exchange to listen to.

The kids posing with Jasmine, Olivia's favorite princess.

Olivia posing with her 3D glasses and giant purple sucker before entering the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" show.

Ethan, with his 3D glasses but minus his giant orange sucker, before the show.

Posing in front of the entrance to "The Seas With Nemo and Friends" ride. Olivia and Ethan really like this movie, so they loved all of the Nemo attractions.

Posing with Alice in Wonderland in the England area of World Showcase. We just missed Mary Poppins.

Olivia playing in the fountain in the French courtyard, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Olivia imitating Marie from The Aristocats.

Olivia meeting Belle and the Beast (Ethan was not in the mood to pose with the Beast). Belle had a lengthy conversation with Olivia about her shoes (Olivia's shoes had jewels all over them and are fancy looking). Belle stooped down for a closer look at them, and then requested that the Beast buy her 2 pairs just like them. Olivia thought that was the best.

Two very unhappy kids not wanting to pose in front of Neptune's Fountain in the Italian Pavilion.

Joe and I posing under Germany's "The Romantic Road" street sign.

I put this picture of The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in China's Pavilion in here because 1) it was a beautiful building, inside and out, and none of the family had ever gone inside of it before; and 2) it is the site where we completely lost Olivia for several minutes. We were in a complete panic running around the outside of the building looking for her, shouting her name, etc. The greeter at the entrance of the building was wonderful in assisting us and when grandma found Olivia inside the hall with another family, this greeter made sure that she was returned to me (I guess he didn't trust that Olivia knew grandma!). This wonderful family in the hall was sitting with her and keeping her calm until we "claimed" her. Whew. It had been an awful 5 minutes.

As per my family's tradition, we ate at the San Angel Inn in Epcot's Mexico. Not a single trip to Disney has gone by that we have not eaten here. The food is wonderful, and as you can see the atmosphere is equally wonderful. Plus, we had a table right next to the river in front of the pyramid. For the dinner, Ethan was so exhausted from not napping that he curled up into a ball on his chair and slept through the entire meal. Olivia, however, spent the entire meal waving to every boat of passengers that passed by on the river. This is also the location of Olivia and Ethan's second favorite ride of the entire trip, the "Gran Fiesta Tour" with the Three Caballeros (Donald Duck, Jose Carioca, and Panchito). We literally rode this ride 4 times in a row, which is not difficult to do since there is never a line.

On a different day, we ate at Marakesh in Morocco. The food was wonderful, and there was a dinner show with a belly dancer and Moroccan musicians. The dancer brought the children onto the floor to teach them some belly dancing moves. Thank goodness she did not pull the adults onto the floor too!

After Marakesh, the kids were able to meet Jasmine and Aladdin. These two characters hold special significance to Joe and I, since our first official date was to see the movie Aladdin. Olivia even showed Aladdin her new belly dancing moves, and he gave her a special sticker in her autograph book for the dancing.

Ethan and Olivia showing off their passport masks in the Mexico Pavilion (under the "amigos" sign).

Disney's MGM/Hollywood Studios

Our family spent half of a scorching hot day at "the Studio" during our recent trip to Disney. This is Joe's favorite park, and while his "Vader pics" will not appear in this posting, it was still a very Star Wars day.

Here is the entrance of the park, looking at Mickey's sorcerer hat.

This kids posing by the Fantasia garden.

Joe was so proud to know that his hands are the same size as George Lucas'.

Olivia "trying on" Minnie Mouse's shoes.

Joe and the kids in front of the entrance to the Star Tours ride. We did not go on this ride as it is not at all for young kids (very very jerky - made me sick when I went on it on our honeymoon!).

Joe wondering where the speeder bike has disappeared to? He had the kids all excited to pose on it (it was here when we went to Disney in 1998), and we can only assume that it has been moved to a more secure location?

Outside of Tatooine Traders; otherwise known as a store that Joe doesn't mind spending an hour in looking at memorabilia.

Olivia and Ethan having a lightsaber duel in Tatooine Traders.

The Beauty and the Beast show was fantastic! Of course, having VIP 4th row seats doesn't hurt! (thanks Jamie!)

Joe and Olivia giving Ethan a "tickle torture" while waiting for our table at Hollywood and Vine.

JoJo from JoJo's Circus with the kids. As they do not watch this show, we are not exactly sure who this is!

We do, however, know Leo from the Little Einsteins! He is Ethan's favorite of the Little Einsteins.

The kids posing with June from the Little Einsteins. She is Olivia's favorite as she is the ballet dancer in the group and "wears a fancy purple dress and a headband". Olivia intentionally wore her purple dress on this day to look fancy like June.

This is Goliath from JoJo's Circus. Again, we did not really know who this lion is, but the kids were still excited to see a character!

The kids playing in the Hollywood and Vine restaurant.

The Little Mermaid live show. This was also a good show, even though this part with Ursula really scared Ethan!

I love the Muppets' water fountain! We ended the day by going to the Muppet 3D Vision show. Ethan left his 3D glasses on with no problem (just buried his face into my chest when something scared him) but Olivia would not wear her 3D glasses to any of the shows. Which means that when the audience laughed/screamed/whatever she would tug on my arm and loudly ask what was happening. Every time. Even though we loved the Muppets' show, we agreed that Toy Story Mania was the best ride at the park, and definitely in the top 5 best rides at all of Disney.