Sweet Caroline

Ah- we have had the best weather for the past two weeks, but it’s back to normal now, which let’s be honest- in SC isn’t bad either.  Took our first boat ride of 2018 the other night, it was glorious.  My $15 Halloween costumes have gotten lots of use this year .... boys had super hero day last Friday- so cute! We had a fun couples night out Friday to celebrate some birthdays and didn’t get one pic- urgh! But, it was good times nonetheless.  Saturday was filled with errands, house chores and a birthday party. But, I did take my girl for some one on one time and she got her first big girl pedicure- she loved it!💗 We hung out with friends Saturday night- low key- played some games while the kids ran wild.  Gah- cuties!! On Sunday- we cleaned, played, and shopped. Everyone was in bed by 8:30🙌🏻 Another $15 Halloween costume being used - this time it was kindergartens turn for superhero day.  Happy Tuesday!!  The countdown is on until we leave for the Bahamas!

For the big 6, we rented rooms at the embassy suites for C and a few of her friends- thankfully one of my besties stayed with me to manage the chaos;-).  An indoor pool + pizza + cake + movie+ free breakfast buffet- these girls were in heaven!! The boys and my nephew joined for a bit but left after cake and presents. It was a tad crazy, but my girl had the time of her life! And that’s a wrap on birthday festivities!!

We celebrated our girls birthday ALL weekend long! I’ll separate her party into another post :-) celebrations started with me surprising her at lunch Friday at school, where she got to wear the bday crown all day and bring cupcakes for her class. Friday night was family night- we’ve started the tradition of going out with just the five of us and letting the birthday kid pick where- collins chose to go to Frankie’s for the second year in a row and we finished with dinner at Liberty on the lake! Sweet girl almost fell asleep at the dinner table too;-)  Saturday was filled with house chores and play time until her actual party - which was a spend the night at a hotel with an indoor swimming pool! We were a weeeee bit tired Sunday- C napped for two hours!! But, the show must go on... we had grandparents over for celebrations Sunday afternoon. And by 9 pm we were all out! It was a wonderful weekend!! Happy Monday!

My girl will be SIX years old tomorrow and for  some reason each year makes my heart constrict a little more, it gets harder and harder to fathom that my first baby is now SIX.  That means we are 1/3 of the way thru her “home years” ….. and if the next 12 go anything like the first 6…I’ll be packing her up for college before Christmas…. It’s hard on a mama, this growing up so fast thing.  I have to remind myself that when you are little time does NOT fly by like it does when you are older… that for her, days and weeks are long and luxurious…otherwise it makes me feel like I’ve got to do more, teach more, love more, guide more… every day because it goes by TOO fast. We have our times with our girl, she has definitely “come into her own” with the independence that kindergarten has brought, there’s much more sass than I would prefer and definitely too much whining.  But, that’s something we work on day in and day out, isn’t that the case for most young kids?  (please tell me it is).  BUT,

We chose to do animal kingdom for day 2- and I’ll say it wasn’t my favorite. (Or the kids) it’s fun- but imo- for the ages my kids are at now- it’s more of a half day park- or best if you are doing park hopper passes. I think there’s just SO much that young kids can do and love at magic kingdom It’s hard to compare. We did Hollywood studios one day and two days at magic kingdom when we went two years ago, so we wanted to give another park a try. Maybe by our next trip we will go for park hopper passses and get in Epcot too! There were only three rides that the boys could do- i guess I should have researched that more- oops. But, they did really enjoy the lion king show and the finding Nemo show and those are 30 and 40 min Long respectively. We started the day with fastpasses for Everest (colls HATED- I can’t even with that face she made!!), the safari and the river journey ride in pandora.  (Which by the way- the river journey ride was totally boring- pretty scenery but nothing to it a

We had such a wonderful quick Disney trip the other weekend! Mikey wasn’t necessarily on board with going again just two years after our first trip- but I really wanted the boys to experience the magic of Disney while they are still SO in love with Mickey. So a short trip made us both happy!  We spent our first day in Magic Kingdom and it was perfect. We were able to do so much - of course there were plenty of rides we didn’t get to- but the kids don’t know that. My favorite is the parades and shows- and we were able to watch the big parade at 3, see the move it shake it dance party, and watch the light show and fireworks at the castle- pure magic! We had fast passes for space mountain (colls first time and she LOVED it), buzz lightyear, and pirates of the carribean. The boys favorite was barnstormer. We also hit up little mermaid, mickeys philharmagic show (another fav), tea cups, enchanted tales with belle, meeting Ariel at the grottoc, the race cars, and the “dumbo” ride at Tomorrow