Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

We stopped in at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique that transforms little girls into princesses to ask if we could make an appointment.  They said they normally schedule the appointments a week out, but magically found an open slot for Chloe.  She got to pick out which hairstyle she wanted first.

She sat so still and waited patiently while her 'maid' was getting everything ready.

There were crazy hairstyles made with gel during the princess transformation process.

I thought it was cute how she squooshed up her face while the eye shadow was being applied.

And the pursed lips for the lip gloss.

She was getting some special sparkly gems for her face and being the bizarre little Bean that she is, she asked to have them placed on her nose.

But the ladies eventually talked her into placing the 'jewels' on her cheek.

She wasn't quite sure what the face shield was for, so Chloe smooshed her lips and nose into it and made silly faces at us.  Because she's our little smoosh.

I think she was pretty amazed at how different she looked with her hair pulled back and big pink curls and braids coming out of the back.

Chloe even got a special princess sash.

Walking out of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, she was just strutting and shaking that hair from side to side.

Like "Look at me world, I'm a princess!"

She wasn't worried about messing up her hair at all and immediately tried on some Minnie ears with a veil behind it.  Chloe liked that too because then there was more to shake from side to side behind her.

She knew she was cute!

This transformation took an hour and a half and almost $70.  We were fascinated that they had packages that cost $250 per child.  And.  That parents paid for that!  Amazing!

Welcome to the Magic Kingdom!

We didn't have much of a plan for the first day, other than to just get to the Magic Kingdom.  Before we even got out of the neighborhood, we saw these long legged cranes.

Disney really knows how to build up the suspense!  Long stretches of highway lead to Disney.  Then there is this initial welcome.

And then another to go through the toll plaza where you pay for parking.

The kids liked riding on the tram from the parking lot to the loading dock for either the Monorail or the ferry.

They wanted to ride the ferry boat and very patiently waited for it to arrive and pick us up.

Bean was soooo excited.

 The kids wanted a picture with Daddy as we rode on the ferry boat across the pond and over to the Magic Kingdom.

Christmas garlands and wreathes galore welcomed us to Main Street at the Magic Kingdom.

Cinderella's castle was so humongous and beautiful.  Wish Disney let people walk through it!

The kids had fun on Aladdin's Flying Carpets because they could control whether or not the carpet went up or down during the first half of the ride.  There were also dragons that would randomly spit water at us as we flew by....this elicited lots of giggles from the girl child.

She loved having the wind in her hair and flying so fast on the ride.  

I liked this!

This was in the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse which I thought was majorly cool.  It reminded me of how much I loved the movie when I was growing up and how I always imagined what it would be like to live in such a large treehouse.  The kids were less than impressed and ready to get through it so we could go on other rides.

Owen asked me to take this picture of him after he hopped up on a ledge next to some picnic tables where we ate cookie ice cream sandwiches and funnel cakes.  Disney makes sure there is food available every where you turn!

Thanksgiving Day

Doesn't Dylan look sad?  He didn't want us to leave.  He was giving me those sad eyes before I took him to the kennel on Tuesday afternoon, but he had a lot of fun playing all day with other dogs.

We left for Orlando early Wednesday morning in our minivan and Grandma Suzanney's car.  A normally 8 hour drive took us almost 12 with holiday traffic.  It was a long, tiring day of driving but we made it safely.  I caught one break from driving for almost two hours and spent most of it sleeping in the passenger seat, although I did manage to get this one pic of Spanish moss.  I love Spanish moss!

The next morning, we headed over to Clearwater Beach.  The kids found sand to play in as soon as we stopped and covered their feet and legs in it while we tried to find a good seafood restaurant that would be open on Thanksgiving Day.

The local police were very friendly and took time on their beach golf cart/dune buggy to ride up the beach a mile to see if one of the good restaurants was open...and it was!  They weren't serving seafood yet, but the breakfast menu was very tasty!  It was warm enough to eat outside on the patio.  In short sleeves!  And shorts!

And the lighting was great for pics while we waited for our meals.  Yay! 

My huevos rancheros were most delicious and I ate everything on my plate.  :)

Afterwards, we walked down the little alley next to the restaurant and straight onto the beach.  Grandma Eloise hung out in the shade and watched the rest of us play in the water.

It was definitely warm enough for bare feet!

As I was walking up to the rest of the crew, I spotted a dolphin barely 30 feet from the shore.

I let Todd know what I saw and he quickly pointed the dolphins out to the kids.

It was so neat seeing dolphins so close and that were in their own habitat and not a big tank of water!

We didn't bring the kids' swim suits, but they had an absolute blast playing in the water and going up to their waists.

They ran.  They splashed.  They had so.  Much.  Fun.

Even the seagulls played along with them while the kids pretended to fly through the water.

We got some good beach pics of the kids with Grandma Suzanney.

And with Papa Wenzel and Grandma Sharon.

Towards the end, the kids started digging holes in the sand, transporting wet sand, making up rules and building hunks and mounds of sand castles.

It was so hard leaving this gorgeous weather and beach to go back to the rental house in Davenport, but we had to get a turkey in the oven if we wanted to eat Thanksgiving dinner on time.

And so we did.  We had a feast set out before us with two clean kids in their pajamas and a bunch of adults sighing with happiness over a fantastically wonderful day spent together.  This will be a hard Thanksgiving Day to beat.  And wishes were voiced to do this again next year.

We may just have to do that.  Thanksgiving spent on the beach, in the 80s, close to dolphins and with two happy kids doesn't get much better.  Unless of course, we had ALL of the grandparents with us to celebrate this day of thanks.

We Built a New Deck!

We have been talking for months about what to do with the back porch.  The stain that I painted and sponged onto the concrete slab has worn away and very unevenly.  It didn't look very nice and the back pain from bending over to maintain it every year wasn't worth it anymore.  So we decided to build a deck over it.

The kids wanted to help, but there wasn't much for them to do at the start.  So they climbed up on the smaller shed to show us how tall they were when stretching for the sky.  And you know they're taller if they hold a shovel over their head, right? :D

Owen helped supervise Papa in anchoring the 2x4's and also helped put some of the 2x4s into place.

We started close to lunch time on Saturday and the last board was cut and screwed into place by 4pm on Sunday.  We used the bare minimum of screws on each board while putting it together to move quickly.  Over the next few days, Dave went back and finished putting in the rest of the screws.

We think it turned out great and now it's easier for Maggie to go in/out the dog door without such a big drop out of the kitchen.  I will have to stain and seal it in the spring and will probably match up the dark color of the support beams for the upper deck.  

BIG THANKS to Papa Wenzel for helping plan and build this deck and to Grandma Sharon for helping keep the kids occupied during the building of it!