Day 2 - Magic Kindgom

On Thursday, April 19, we went to breakfast at 9am at the resort cafeteria. The food options were pretty good. I had raisin bran and breakfast potatoes for breakfast. The potatoes were awesome.  Cleo had Fruit Loops and bacon. Sidney had chocolate pancakes and bacon.  Roger had pancakes with berry sauce and bacon.   

We got to Magic Kingdom around 12:00pm.  It took so long because there are multiple steps involved prior to actually gaining entrance to the theme park.  First, we drove to the parking lot for Magic Kingdom. Then we took a tram to the park. Then we got on a monorail to get to the actual entrance to the park.  Then we had to go through security and then gain entrance to the park. For adults, they link up your fingerprint to your ticket each time you enter a park.  It’s a process.  We had a stroller for every child – we had lightweight strollers for Cleo and Sidney.   

Robin, Roger and I had created a list of kid-friendly rides that were appropriate for our kids’ ages.  We spent most of our time in Fantasyland.  

We went on Dumbo the Flying Elephant, the big merry-go-round, It’s a Small World, Mad Tea Party (spinning tea cup ride), and Peter Pan’s Flight.  We waited on line for 20-40 minutes for each ride.  After waiting on the line for Peter Pan’s Flight the longest, e.g., 40 minutes, Cleo decided right when we were about to get on that the ride looked “too dark” and refused to get on. She and I got off the line and scouted out a nearby gift shop.  We didn’t try to reason with her because there wasn’t time and there was no reason to force her to go on a ride if she did not want to.  Roger gets motion sickness and before we got on the tea cup ride I made fun of him.  Then, when we were actually on the ride, I felt sick and he was fine.  Man, that thing spins a lot even if you don’t spin it a lot. 

In Tomorrowland, we went on the Tomorrowland Speedway.  Then we had a snack at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland.  It started to rain really bad while we were eating. Once it let up a bit, we made our way to Cleo and Kaelin’s 4pm appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbido Boo Boutique for their princess make-overs.  The boutique was in Cinderella’s castle.  Around 4:10pm, Robin, Cleo, Kaelin and I were taken to a back room to change them into their princess outfits. Cleo dressed as Rapunzel from “Tangled” and Kaelin dressed as Princess Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog.”  Sidney fell asleep on our walk over to the boutique and slept in Roger’s arms during the entire salon appointment.  Marisol, Cleo’s stylist, was from San Salvador, El Salvador and was so incredibly nice.  Every Disney World worker’s name pin identifies where they were. The security fellow checking our bags when we went through security was from the Bronx and I said I was from Brooklyn and he gave my bag a very cursory inspection and said he trusted me because I was from NY. 

Sidney napping and Roger just closing his eyes - he's not asleep.

Cleo getting pixie dust sprinkled on her hair while she holds up a plastic face guard.

After the girls were beautified, we went across the walkway to the restaurant where we had a 5:25 reservation for dinner with the princesses.  During dinner, Cleo met Belle from Beauty & the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.  Cleo took pictures with each princess and they signed Cleo’s autograph book.  The princesses also signed Sidney and Kaelin’s autograph books but they did not take pictures with the princesses. 

Sidney took a picture with Belle and Ariel.  We are not sure why he selected those two princesses to be photographed with. 

My dinner was awesome. I had an arugula salad, vegetable cassoulet (garbanzo beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, zucchini, topped with bread crumbs), chef’s sampling of 3 desserts (almond cheesecake, chocolate mouse, fruit tart).  Cleo’s pizza was really good. Sidney did not eat his dinner but did eat some of Kaelin’s chicken nuggets.  Sidney ate a little of his decorate-your-own cupcake. 

After dinner, we strolled around a little and headed back home to the resort. We got back to the resort around 9:30pm. 





I apologize for the font issues.  More on the rest of our trip soon.

Day 1 - Arrival at Pop Century Resort in Disney World

On Wednesday, April 18, 2012, we arrived at our resort around 3:30pm and checked in. We dropped our stuff off in our room – it was quite small. Our resort was more of a motel resort than a hotel resort.  We went to Walmart to get me a hat because I forgot my awesome straw hat at home. We got some other things too, e.g., batteries.  Then, we went back to the room and by then Robin, Linda and Kaelin had arrived. 

Roger, Cleo, Kaelin, Sidney and I changed into bathing suits and went to the resort pool. That was a lot of fun. We forgot swimmer pull-ups which we bought a day later during our 2nd trip to Walmart.  Sidney wore his regular pull-up in the pool and it expanded like crazy to the point that he could barely walk because it was so huge.  Roger’s mom and sister came to the pool too but did not get in the water. 

After we took quickie showers, we went to dinner at Golden Corral.  The kids got pink cotton candy there, which Cleo loves.  Sidney and Kaelin only had a little but Cleo had hers and finished Sidney's too.

Then, we went to Downtown Disney to stroll around. Cleo got a big lollipop and Sidney got some Jelly Belly jellybeans. 

After Downtown Disney, we headed back to the resort.

Disney Here We Come!

A few shots of Cleo and Sidney in their Super Boy and Super Girl t-shirts.

 

 

Sidney enjoying his ice cream cone. He never finishes his dinner so it's very rare that he gets dessert. He relished every bite of it and his face got messier and more chocolatey the closer he got to being finished.

It's an ongoing battle for me to get the kids to not completely submerge their French Toast Sticks in syrup.  We showed them how to dip the Sticks but they insist on nearly submerging it before taking a bite.  Sidney does the same dunking with bacon. He told me this morning, "Mommy, I love bacon.  I love it!"  The other day I reminded Cleo to please dip her Stick and she said, "It's not really in my heart to dip."  I asked her to please look into her heart and find the ability to dip it.

The other day at breakfast Sidney informed me and Cleo that Ms. Naomi (one of his teachers) is coming to blow his house down. Cleo and I didn't really respond.  Sidney then asked Cleo why Ms. Houston (his other teacher) is coming to blow her house down. Cleo says, "You're the one who said it, not me." I suppose you had to be there but just listening to their interactions makes me smile.

Sidney sometimes wants plain bandaids for his cuts (the cuts are often quite healed but he insists on continuing to get a bandaid and ointment on the cut). I mean plain vs. Cars bandaids. Sometimes he wants Disney Princess bandaids.  He likes to mix things up a bit.   Tonight, he wanted a bandaid from this box of bandaids I found in the back of the cabinet under the sink. I told him he didn't want a bandaid from that box because they were old. He insisted and I found one that wasn't too old. He opened it and said, "I love it. I love this bandaid." He was so serious when he said it too.

We are all packed up for Disney World and Cleo and Sidney are super excited. We promise to take tons of pictures.  We will be there April 18 - 22.  It's a 7 hour drive down to Orlando.  Roger's mom, sister and our niece Kaelin are meeting us there. They live in Jacksonville, FL.  

Roger and I went to Disney World in 2006 to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. There's so much more involved when planning and packing for a trip with young kids.  Cleo and Kaelin have an appointment on Thursday, April 19 at 4pm at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo Salon. They will get their hair done and glitter put on them - no make-up or nail polish since Roger is opposed to it.  Cleo is wearing a Rapunzel gown and has a tiara, purse, necklace and wand to match. Sidney has an appointment to be made up as a pirate but if he's not open to it, we can cancel the reservation when we get to the salon. I doubt he will be open to it but he may surprise us.  After the salon, we have a 5:25 pm dinner reservation at Cinderella's Castle.

We have park hopper tickets so we will be able to go to any of the parks as many times as we want during the 3 days we have tickets for. We don't have tickets for April 18 and 22 since those are our travel days.

We return to Atlanta on Sunday, April 22. Then, on Monday, April 23, I have a 5:40am flight to Hilton Head (I have a stop over in Charlotte, NC). I return to Atlanta the next day around 9pm. I am going to one of my company's subsidiaries' annual sales meeting. It's a meeting I could not miss. I am presenting a section of my boss' presentation on Tuesday at 8am. I will practice it while I am in FL.  My boss will be at the annual sales meeting too.

I finally reached my goal weight.  I have not been at my goal weight since March 2011.  I am so happy. I attended a Weight Watchers meeting this afternoon. I needed to attend a meeting to help increase the chances of my staying on track while I am in Orlando.  I found out which resorts near our resort has a gym. I  probably will not have a chance to work out but I wanted to look into it and be prepared. I figure the kids won't nap long enough for me to work out or my feet will be too tired from walking around the parks.  I am bringing my work-out clothes just in case.  I don't think we need to let the kids nap but Roger thinks they will need a nap. I think they will be to pepped up on goofballs, sugar and excitement to calm down and nap.

More on all of this when we return.

Have a good week!

Easter Fun

We had a really nice Easter.  Last week, Cleo and Sidney's school had an Easter hat parade on April 4 and then an Easter egg hunt and class parties on April 5.  Roger attended the hat parade and we both attended the class parties.  I don't have pictures on the camera so I cannot load them up right now. Saturday, Roger made Easter cookies with Cleo.

We dyed eggs on Saturday after the kids got up from their naps.

Here's the display of all our Easter preparations.  Cleo and Sidney glued stickers and sequins to the eggs.

Here are Cleo and Sidney in their Easter Sunday finery.

After 7am sunrise Easter service on Sunday, we went home and changed into comfortable clothes. Then we met Shellie, EJ and Eric for brunch.  It was great to see them. They were visiting Atlanta for the weekend.  Addison was with Craig & Nikki and their daughter Sydney.  Then we went home and the kids napped. I cooked up some pasta caprese (angel hair, mozzarella cheese, basil and grape tomatoes). I also steamed some vegetables. I made it to bring to Easter dinner at Craig & Nikki's house.

We got to Craig and Nikki's house around at 3pm. The Easter egg hunt started around 4:30pm.  We ate around 5pm.  It was a really nice spread.  There was lamb, sweet potato soufflé, rosemary potatoes, salad, almond pound cake, rum punch, homemade yeast rolls which were so fantastic I had two.

When we were getting in the car to leave, Sidney told me he had a good time playing with the big boys.  He and Cleo got to play a lot with the other kids. They had a nice time.

We got home around 9pm and gave the kids baths.  They were exhausted when we got them up this morning.  We had gotten them up around 5:30am on Sunday so they were ready to go to bed on time.

Hopscotch & Water fun

Saturday, we went clothes shopping at Cumberland Mall for the 2nd weekend in a row. During the week we realized that we needed some additional items that we didn't get last week.  We got the kids some clothes at H&M - shorts for Sidney, capris & t-shirts for Cleo.  We had a 20% off coupon so that helped. We got Sidney some Thomas the Train sunglasses and cute deck shoes at Payless. I had a 20% coupon and I get 5% off every purchase because I signed up on-line for their rewards program.  We got the kids pizza from Sbarro's and Roger and I had food from Taco Bell. I had a 7 layer burrito without rice.  It's 13 WW points plus.  Sidney loves pepperoni pizza. He especially likes the pepperoni so we have to coax him to eat the actual pizza.  Cleo ate a whole cheese slice by herself.  Roger got beef tacos and Sidney ate a lot of 2 of them.  We will have to have taco night soon.  Cleo had some of Roger's tacos too but when asked if she wanted us to make them at home she quickly replied, "no."  The food court at this mall has little tables that are perfect for Sidney and Cleo.  We sit with them at the kiddie table.

We then headed to Babies R Us to get Cleo some black shoes for her graduation outfit.  The largest size they carry in dress shoes is size 11 and she can still fit that size.  In sneakers she's size 11.5.

We headed home to let the kids have naps.  During their naps I ran errands. I got baby wipes and detergent from BJs. I got pull-ups and diapers from Target.  I got a Disney Princess umbrella stroller from Shoppers World, I had a coupon so it was 20% off of $19.99.  Today at Babies R Us I got a blue camouflage pattern with  wild animals for Sidney. It was $29.99, no coupon. :-(  Roger is going to look for cheaper umbrella strollers at Dollar General - it's not a dollar store but has good bargains.  We need strollers for Disney World.

After the kids got up from naps, we played a little. Then had dinner and baths and watched Robots for movie night.  After the kids went to bed I watched Bridesmaids, my new favorite movie now that it's on HBO and I can watch it all the time. I watched it again last night.

Sunday, we went to church.  Then we went to Publix for food shopping. Then, home for lunch. Cleo always eats her lunch. Sidney usually takes one look at the food, says he's not hungry and that he wants to take a nap.  So, I took him up for his nap. Cleo ate and Roger took her up to her room for her nap.  I went to the gym during their nap.

After the kids' naps, we went out front and had a mini picnic on the porch. Cleo ate strawberries and drank water. Sidney ate apple slices and Chex Mix (original) and drank water. I drank water. Roger did not drink any water.

After the snack, we played hopscotch. Cleo is very agile and good at the game. I was so impressed.

Look at my big girl balance!

Go Cleo go!

Isn't is cute how Sidney is holding Roger's ear?  Check out Sidney in his favorite "Zebras" t-shirt.

Roger helped Sidney with his hopscotch game.

Sidney squinting in the sun.  We traced the kids in chalk on our driveway.  Sidney is standing in front of the outline of Cleo.  He wanted to color in her outline but we told him he had to color in his own.

Isak will be happy to know that we watered our poor, thirsty tree. We need someone to cut off the branches that have grown all down the trunk.

Cleo asked Roger to turn the hose into a "sprinkler" so he did. It was in the low 80s on Sunday and quite sunny so they enjoyed cooling off a bit. 

After we came inside we dried the kids off and prepared for dinner (salmon, tofu, rice, sweet potatoes, spinach salad).   I ate tofu, sweet potatoes and salad.  Sidney and Cleo had tofu too. They both like sweet potatoes but in moderation. I have been eating them a lot lately. I slice them relatively thin, put spices and a little olive oil on them and bake them until some of them are crispy - at least on one side. They're not thin like chips but not thick either. They are very filling and taste really good.  For the past few weeks I have been making them to bring as a healthy starch to work for lunch.

Before dinner, Cleo and Sidney rediscovered two race cars that we got them. Sidney's is orange and Cleo's is blue.  Sidney said to Cleo while they were playing, "Cleo, you're my friend?"  Cleo said yes and he said, "okay, good."

Last night when I was putting Sidney to bed, he somehow got some of his booger on his lip. He told me he had a boogie on his lip and I told him not to eat it. He said, "Yummy boogie. Boogie tastes yummy." I reminded him not to eat them next time.

Sidney was diagnosed with asthma this past week.  He doesn't have the severe kind. We have to give him albuterol and pulmicort 2 times a day via his nebulizer.  It takes around 20 minutes to administer it. Roger does it in the morning and I do it when we get home from daycare.  I like to do it because it's a quiet time with Sidney and he's super chill and just sits there. Most of the time he likes to hold the mask but this afternoon he held his orange race car - it's around 6 inches long, not one of the small ones.

Sidney is starting soccer at daycare.  He did a trial the past 2 weeks and he enjoyed it.  Cleo is still doing soccer and ballet.

Cleo is learning math at school and is getting good at addition.  She is getting better at subtraction. Her penmanship continues to be exceptional.

For Easter, Cleo is wearing a pretty light pink dress with florets on the skirt part.  Sidney is wearing a blue plaid shirt with pink patterned bow tie - Roger selected that combo. Sidney will wear a navy jacket and khaki pants as well.  We are going to a 7 am church service. Our normal service is 8am.  Later, we are going to our friend Nikki and Craig's house for a 3pm Easter egg hunt and 4pm dinner. I will be sure to take lots of pictures and post them.  Nikki and Craig have 3 kids, one son who is a little older than Cleo and twins (boy and girl) who will be 5 in August.

This week, Cleo & Sidney's school is having an Easter hat parade on Weds., an Easter egg hunt on Thursday and class parties on Thursday.  I am going to attend the Easter egg hunt. This week is also Spring break for the public schools so some kids are out of school. Cleo's teacher is not giving homework this week. Sidney has homework this week.

We need to get a new wading pool for our deck. The one we have has a crack in it.  The L.A. Fitness gym I go to at lunch time is next door to a  Babies R Us/Toys R Us. I may go to the gym tomorrow so I can check out the pools then.

I went to the gym today during lunch time - I did the rotating step mill for 30 minutes. If I haven't written about this cardio machine before, I must tell you that it is the best workout ever. After 15 minutes I am dripping sweat.  After 30 I am crazy sweaty.  Normally I do 45 minutes but I was running late today. After 45 minute, I can barely walk afterward.  It's awesome.  I earn 6 WW activity points when I do 45 minutes.  I slacked off going to the gym for 1-1/2  weeks but now I am getting back on track. I am still unmotivated to work out at home.  I cannot believe I have had P90X for 10 months and I only did 2 workouts.  I will start doing it soon.  It's understandable that the Beach Bodies company that sells it makes a bazillion dollars because there are so many people who buy it thinking they will use it.

Have a good week!