Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween! We had a holiday weekend with our little pumpkins!This year our "pumpkins" had to be our family (according to Megan) - so we each got our own. In order... baby Nicole pumpkin, Daddy Pumpkin, Mommy Pumpkin, and Megan Pumpkin.

Megan was not too thrilled with the pumpkin carving... she is so like her momma and is very smell sensitive. Megan got one hand of "gooey slimy gunk" out and then had to leave the table because she about threw up. Thankfully, mommy is the family carver and I was able to get it done. Although she couldn't help with the insides.... she did design the face and was quite happy with the results of the Megan pumpkin.

We started our Halloween celebrations on Saturday when we got together with my family so all the cousins could go trick-or-treating at Grandma and Granddad's house.

Ummmm... Nicole wasn't so sure about being left there with princesses and ninja's.... what's a fairy to do?

But the bigger girls made sure to show off all their princess qualities and moves.

The Ninja's showed their powerful and lightening quick moves...Once the mommy fairy picked up the baby fairy... all was right in the world again.

The little fairy was ready to fly away and spread happy magic wherever she went (as long as mommy went with her)...

Tonight we redressed up our little fairy and princess again and hit the pavement to do a little trick-or-treating.

That cute little fairy was super sweet, even after being squeezed into her outfit..... I bought this before she was even born (when it was clearanced last Halloween at Gymboree) and it is way too small for her... but we made it work! Once the sun started to go down, we headed out.... The princess led the way!!!!

And Nicole followed along in her awesome little setup! She was afraid her wings might get tired so she hitched a ride....

Daddy and Megan continued on after we finished our little cul-de-sacish area... And as you can see, Nicole had a great time on her first Halloween!

And now we get to look forward to setting up all those limits on Halloween candy. And working on self-control so that Mommy and Daddy don't go fishing for all the good stuff.

Day 1 of Disney

Megan, how excited are you about going to Disney World?
This excited...... And Nicole, are you excited?

Oh Yeah... so excited that she fell asleep during the ride to the park and was totally out for our grand entrance to the World Of Dreams!

It was super special to be able to have my parents with us for our trip.Megan's favorite part of the trip was seeing all the Disney characters... we saw every parade (at least twice)...

We had a great time on our first ride... Dumbo (Or Jumbo, as Megan calls it). Even Nicole seemed to like it.

When we weren't on rides, Nicole was a great little trooper and just kicked back and enjoyed the ride (and people watching).

Megan loved Cinderellas Golden Carousel.

And we ran into characters all over the place. Her favorite "impromptu" characters were Drizella, Anastasia, and Lady Tremaine---- those are Cinderella's mean stepsisters and stepmother. Megan was so taken with them but very cautious as well... after all, they were mean in the book. If you ask her now she'll tell you they were nice to her, but mean to Cinderella.

It was really sweet that she was so taken with them - Cinderella is actually the only Disney story that Megan knows. All the others have scary parts and she won't even listen to the books. Now that she has a "personal connection", I am excited to watch the movie with her.

After we finally pulled her away from Cinderella's family - we all rode, "It's a Small World" which of course everyone enjoyed.

Then it was onto other characters.... Megan was so taken with Minnie Mouse's house.

Then.... she got to meet the big guy and girl in person!!!!!

She just loved them and didn't want to say goodbye. She gave them both lots of hugs and kisses - it was very very sweet!

And Nicole.... we'll see just took it all in and smiled - a LOT!

Tom and Megan raced.....

And in the midst of all that fun.... more parades and shows. The "Dreams" show on the castle step was Megan's favorite.... Everytime we'd hear it starting, she'd beg to go see it again.

And it was generally a good break for Nicole as well.

The first day was a blast.... My little princess ended up singing herself to sleep on the bus ride back to the hotel (with Grandma as her pillow).

And Nicole (who slept a lot at the park), kept Granddad occupied with smiles and giggles.

Once we got back to the hotel, everyone crashed....

And that was just the first day!!!!!

Downtown Disney

We started out our time in the wonderful world of Disney, at Downtown Disney. We stayed in a great hotel that is literally across the the street from Downtown Disney - that made it a great "down time" stop. I think Megan would've loved a few more days to go and just play there. It was pretty amusing to realize that Megan really doesn't know many Disney characters. She's never seen a whole movie - they scare her. So she'd see a character (or statue) and want her picture taken and then would ask, "who is this?"

But the real draw was that it's an interactive toy store....

And it's got fun kid friendly places to eat - like The Rainforest Cafe. I wanted to go back to the Dinosaur restaurant, but we'll have to save that for another trip.

All the adults had a great time just watching Megan take it all in. Here's Granddad and Grandma (on her nifty scooter) with Nicole - we were watching Megan and Tom on the carousel.

And of course... the hostess with the mostest....

Nicole was so excited to see characters that she knows - she was all smiles!

Megan loved the lego area outside the lego store. And Nicole wanted to help her out.

And Nicole really gets into her building work.....

My parents were fabulous (thanks for joining us Grandma and Granddad).... if you look over their shoulder you'll see the Lego sea serpent that dwells in the lake in Downtown Disney.

And Megan was so excited to see the Princess store.... she was building up all her excitement for her actual trip to see Cinderella in her castle.

And since Nicole is a little small to really get all that excited about the princesses, she hung with Grandma!

I have almost a thousand pictures of our short trip to Disney.... but I'm working to get them posted before Halloween.

The Magic Begins

Oh the MAGIC of Disney...
Ours began this morning with a fabulous breakfast with a few of Megan's "new best friends..let's just say she has no fear of "characters" - regardless of their towering personalities...She even got out there with Goofy and did the "hot dog dance."Somehow I missed a good Pluto picture..... Nicole loved them from afar!If they got too close, she'd do her shy head turn with that look that says, "if I don't see them, they don't see me!!!!!"

After breakfast we headed to the pool/splashpad!It was early and still very very very cold! But we braved the water and even swam with the whales. That look on Granddad's face is him saying, "Good Lord, this water is freezing... this is love Megan, this is love!"Grandma got the better end of the stick!Fortunately, Megan found a friend who was as unphased by the water temp as she was...And Nicole, who never got in, was as happy as a lark once she'd had her little poolside nap!After all that fun, we got the girls down for naps... I'll tell you that is the hardest part of vacationing - working out naps and sleeping all in 1 room. Thankfully with adjoining rooms with my parents, we can work it out to keep the door open and I can take out one girl to get another asleep. But when it's wake up time.... Nicole was all about waking her big sister up!

That's Megan's set up.... an air matress shoved between the couch and a sideways coffee table (last night she rolled off the mattress and under the coffee table... that was a rude 3 am wakeup call.

And all that fun was before we even left the hotel..... You know there is so much more coming!