First day of school 2015

The blog has been sorely neglected, but at last it is time for a quick post!  After a wonderful summer of trips to the beach, trips to Grandma's house, trips up north, and lots of relaxing in between, Lillian and Caleb returned to school yesterday as 3rd and 1st graders, respectively.

The next day Liam and I started school.  I am teaching kindergarten music and music & motion 2-3 days a week, which I have done for the past two years.  Liam will be attending a 3-year old preschool two days a week and was so excited to go for the first time!

Fun Friday

Today I surprised Caleb by being the Mystery Reader in his classroom and taking him to lunch afterward.  It's not often enough that I get to have one-on-one time with him, so we really enjoyed our special time together!

Later in the evening the five of us returned to school for Family Fun Night.  The kids had a blast and the for the first time Liam was able to participate in more of the fun and games!

St. Patrick's day fun

We may not have much Irish blood in us, but we still take two days to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!  The fun started on Saturday at Holland's annual parade.

I love the expressions on the kids' faces in these next two pictures!

After some celebrating on Saturday, we continued the fun on St. Patrick's day with Lucky Charms for breakfast and four leaf clover waffles for dinner.  Can you tell our kids love breakfast?!

Lillian even rounded out the evening by making some green cookies in her easy bake oven!

Happy St. Patrick's day!

Disney trip: Magic Kingdom

Today was our last day at Walt Disney World.  We chose to spend an extra day at Magic Kingdom since there is so much to do and see.  We were all excited to return and see some of what we missed on Tuesday.  The excitement started as soon as we arrived and hopped on a magic carpet with Aladdin, Jasmine, and some spitting camels.

We were disappointed on Tuesday when we tried to ride the Pirates of Caribbean and it was shut down, so we were excited to finally ride it today.  The kids had fun and it brought back memories for Dan and me from our trips to Disney World as kids!

Next we made our way to Enchanted Tales with Belle, which was a lot of fun and gave the kids an opportunity to get involved in the storytelling and meet Belle!

We rode the Peter Pan ride once again and made our way to Tomorrowland to watch the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor show, eat lunch, and take a relaxing ride on the People Mover.

Next, we made our way to Fantasyland to ride the iconic Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride.  They recently renovated this ride to include a play area that can be utilized while you wait in line.  It's pure genius!

Dan and I decided to indulge in a little pick-me-up after that (and I neglected to pack an adequate number of snacks that day) so we wandered toward Main Street, USA to get some drinks and snacks from Starbucks.  Liam fell asleep in the stroller and caught some shuteye while the rest of us refueled.

Once we got our second wind, we decided to avoid the mid-afternoon lines and try our hand at the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.  

We split up after that so Lillian and I could ride Space Mountain again and the boys could finally ride the Astro Orbiter.  After lots of walking and exploring, everyone was starting to get hungry once again.  We knew we would be eating a late dinner at the house, so we opted to pick up some easy (and reasonably inexpensive) food at Casey's Corner.  Can you tell the boys were excited about their corn dog nuggets?

My sister-in-law Megan told us before our trip that Caleb would like Goofy's Barnstormer ride, so we simply had to check it out before leaving Disney World.

Just as she predicted, Caleb proudly announced that Goofy's Barnstormer was his favorite ride of our entire trip!

Our final FastPass+ reservation for the day was for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.  Unfortunately, the ride was shut down temporarily for routine maintenance.  Since it was already past 6:00 pm and there was no one of knowing when the ride would start up again, we opted to make the trek across the park to ride the Runaway Mine Train instead.  Afterward we high-tailed it to the front of the park, made a quick stop to pick up a souvenir for Caleb and, after getting thwarted by another parade, boarded the monorail and headed back to the house for dinner.  Phew!  The last hour at the park was a whirlwind, but we had an amazing day!

Disney trip: Animal Kingdom

We have been looking forward to today for quite some time!  Per my brother and sister-in-law's recommendation, we decided to book a character meal at the Tusker House restaurant at Animal Kingdom.  We had reservations for breakfast at 8:10, which meant we got to enter the park early.  We seized the opportunity to get a picture in front of the Tree of Life before the crowds arrived!

Upon arriving at the restaurant, our very friendly waiter, Billy, served us some of their signature drink, Jungle Juice, and gave us a rundown of the layout of the 50+ foods available on the buffet.  

We sampled much of the delicious food, enjoyed the African-themed atmosphere, and had personal visits from Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy!  The kids even got to join in on an impromptu parade inside the restaurant!

After stuffing our tummies with delicious food, we met up with family to go on the Kilamanjaro Safaris.  We saw many African animals and had a great tour guide!

After the safari the kids got to try out some African drums.

We kept our sweatshirts on while we were in the shade, but the forecast promised a beautiful afternoon!

Lillian and Poppy paused for a photo in front of the Tree of Life.

 

Lillian spotted the hippo on the Tree of Life! 

We split up for a little bit so that Dan, his dad, Lillian and I could ride Expedition Everest while the others went on the Safari train.

True to form, Lillian loved it!

Afterward we met up for lunch and were serenaded with our own personal song!

Caleb even joined in some dances with Chip and Dale. 

We rushed over to the Lion King Theatre to watch a great live performance.  Since we had used our FastPasses+, we got special seating and the kids even were invited to dance with some of the performers!  We had a great time!

After the show we took a quick bathroom break and rushed across the park to our second show of the day, Finding Nemo.  Both performances were great and, thankfully, Liam sat through them quite well.  We still had some more attractions we wanted to see before the park closed, so we made our way over to Dino Land.

If we had more time I would have loved to have seen more of the animals in Animal Kingdom.  But, it closed at 5:00 today, so we made our way back to the house.  It was a beautiful, fun, memorable day at Animal Kingdom!