Summer happenings

It's summer and we've been busy!

We had to say goodbye to a very dear teacher and friend, Miss Mary. In February she discovered what she thought was an ulcer was actually cancer. Just a little over 4 months later, she passed away. We will miss her so very much, especially her circle times.

Ben "graduated" from elementary school. I'd show you a picture, but our computer crashed and I didn't back those pictures backed-up before the crash, so this one will have to do.

Claire finished her last year of preschool. She's very excited about moving up to Kindergarten.

We picked strawberries.

Kate didn't want to pick. She liked strawberries last year, but has forgotten that she likes them this year so she won't eat or pick them. She did want to be fashionable while being in the fields though.

We saw this beautiful rainbow on our way to

Disney World.

We stayed in the cabins at Fort Wilderness and I loved having a full kitchen, bus/boat service to the parks and not having to stay in a regular, noisy hotel. We highly recommend staying there!!!

We went to all the parks except the Animal Kingdom as Kate is rather afraid of many big animals right now and a trip to the zoo right before we left for Disney World was a disaster to say the least.The girls and I ate breakfast with several princesses.

That was fun, although every time I put food in my mouth, I had to hop up and take a picture. Kate had a really good time, she just insisted in looking at the ground for every picture.

We ate ice cream every day. That is actually something we do any time we go on a trip away from home. Otherwise the kids usually only get ice cream on Sundays. I'm mean like that. One neat thing happened regarding this daily treat though. On our first day in the parks, The Magic Kingdom to be exact, we had placed our ice cream order and I went to pay, but the guy behind the counter said, "It is your family's first visit so it will be no charge." What a nice and pleasant surprise! (He knew it was our kids first visit because all the kids had buttons that said, "My first visit" that were given to us by the hotel.)

If you have plans to go to Walt Disney World, I highly recommend checking out the book The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2010 from your local library. I would also recommend subscribing to their website touring plans.com . They have these plans that you follow step by step when visiting the parks that help cut down on the waiting in line and they really worked! The longest lines we waited in were only 30 minute waits, and there were only three of those!

One of those rides was Toy Story Mania which had that long of a wait just for the fast pass machines! Actually we wouldn't have had to wait that long had I not made a wrong turn when we got into the park. That messed us up a bit, but we got where we needed to be and rode one of the most favorite rides of our trip. It was definitely worth the wait. Soarin was another favorite as well as Star Tours.

Well Macy didn't much like Star Tours, but she liked these cute Ewoks that made their way home with us. Meet Sammy and Teepo.

It was very hot and humid. Here is Claire signing the word hot. Actually she was just talking while I took this picture and my friend who knows sign language told me it looked like she was signing hot.

I think we rode on the Buzz Lightyear ride the most.

It was fun, although we all decided it was a distant second to Toy Story Mania.

Yes, I'm wearing sunglasses inside a dark ride. It was for the picture. I was trying to look cool. I hate the way I look when taking pictures of myself, so I'm hiding behind my sunglasses.

Of course I made everyone dress up the same. Not every day, just the days we went to the Magic Kingdom. It made it easier to keep track of everyone.

We visited Japan. Not really, but we did go to EPCOT and ate some yummy Japanese food. Macy decided that EPCOT really stands for "Every Person Comes Out Tired".

We decided we really needed two days for each park. We only did that for the Magic Kingdom. We'll have to save up some more money and go back. Everyone was for that!

We spent one morning at the restaurant pictured above. It was much louder than I had remembered from our previous Florida trip when Ben was 4, Macy was 2 and Eleanor was 7 months old. We didn't spend as much time here as we had before because the free stuff was mainly for little kids and no one wanted to spend all their money on the highly expensive games. It was hard to watch Ben struggle with the realization that he spent two dollars and was only going to get to play two video games instead of the 8 or so he thought he was going to get to play. Lesson learned.

We're home now, but we've had fun playing with my new birthday present-a Wii! Actually I haven't had much of a chance to play, but as soon as fair items are entered, I should have more time for things like that. The kids are happy to help me break it in.

Did I mention the fair? Yes, I did. It's just a little over thirty days away and of course there is a lot to do. Probably won't be able to enter any photos due to the computer crash, but that's okay as there were only a couple that were possible contenders anyway. Hopefully the kids got some good Disney shots. I have a little over 180 preemie blankets to finish up for this year's "You be the Judge" contest. A few things to finish up sewing wise and I need to decide if I will bake anything. Still not sure about that. It will be the first year that I get to help with the entering of items from other fair goers. Should be fun!