Characters, Characters, and More Characters!

This year, it was all about the characters for Maya and Kai. Sure they enjoyed the rides, but the true joy came from meeting in person all of the characters that have starred in so many of their bedtime stories and TV shows.

When Maya met her first character (Alice), she was absolutely star struck. She actually had to look at me for the answer when Alice asked her how old she was. It was just precious.

It's Magic Time!

Today we visited the Magic Kingdom. What a magical place.

Happy First Birthday Ely!

We decided to celebrate our nephew's birthday a couple of weeks early since we were all together in Orlando for Disney. Ely was initially a bit hesitant, but soon seemed to understand the purpose of his "smash" cake.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELY...WE LOVE YOU!

Old Town

After arriving in Orlando on Friday afternoon, my dad thought it might be fun to let the kids ride a couple of rides at Old Town to give them a bit of a "pre-tast" of Disney. So we headed to Old Town which reminded me of walking down the streets of Key West.

At the end of the street was the "kiddy" section. It was like a ghost town as we were the only ones there. We would find someone wearing a red, Old Town shirt, tell him which ride we wanted to go on, and the emploee would open up that ride just for us. The kids had a great time with their cousin Ely and Didi and Papa.

We Made it to Orlando!

We hopped in our van as soon as Dom got home from work and drove straight through the night in route to Orlando. The kids were such troopers in the car and slept most of the way. We actually arrived at our destination in time for lunch.

We had rented a 6 bedroom house, but the pool heat was not working. The company didn't have another 6 bedroom available, but did have two houses (a 4 bed and a 5bed), each with its' own private pool, across the street from one another. They decided to give us both houses after stressing just how important the heated pool was to us (our kids were more excited about the pool than Disney!). To ensure that the pool heat would work, the maintenance staff turned the heat up to 95 so it felt as though we had a huge lovely hot tub (much needed for the 7:30a.m. swim when the temps were not much higher than the 50's.) Needless to say, the kids had a blast swimming, splashing, and jumping. Dom even jumped in for the early morning swim while the other adults happily watched from the sidelines.

The Puppet Show!

Kai's Haircut!

Kai has been longing for long hair. He says he wants to grow his hair long enough to put in a ponytail. At this point, his hair is just a mess and is beginning to look a bit like the old "mullet look".

All summer, I shaved his head to keep him cool and comfortable and since then, I have given him a couple of "trims" at home, much to his chagrin. When I approached him today and told him that he needed a haircut, Kai actually requested a hair dresser. What 3 year old requests a hairdresser?

So off to the kids salon we went. When the hairdresser asked me how I wanted Kai's hair to be cut, I told her that she better ask kai. Kai explained that he wanted it "around the ears and long on top". When the hairdresser asked him why he didn't like Mommy cutting his hair, Kai's exact words were...."she really doesn't do it very well". I thought the hairdresser was going to fall to the floor from laughing so hard.

I must admit, Christina did a much better job cutting Kai's hair and we will definately be going back in a couple months.

Fun at a Birthday Party!

The Ultimate Fort!

Snow Day!

Lots of snow = no school = sledding day!

Maya and Her Pottery Wheel!

The Fire Station and the Missing Pants!

Kai had one main wish for Christmas this year..."a real fire station that I can play with". He told us that he already had a firestation, but it was just a picture on his rug and wasn't much fun to play with.

On Christmas morning, the first thing he did as he ran to the living room to look at the tree was throw his arms up in the air and shout "I wonder which present is my fire station!". After all of the presents were open, a slightly deflated Kai quietly walked around the room and helped us open our presents. I said to him "Kai, was there anything that you really wanted this year for Christmas that you didn't get?". Holding back tears, he said..."yeah...a fire station". Fortunately, there was a small present still under the tree that had been missed. Kai opened it only to find a small fireman figure. A short note was attached and read..."If you want to see where I live, go downstairs...Love Santa". We all followed Kai down to the playroom where he found a mound of black garbage bags. Underneath was the coolest fire station that I've ever seen. Kai was beside himself and immediatly gave his fire station a big hug. He's been playing with it for hours and hours ever since.

Later that morning when he was talking to his Nanny, he told her that he had been really worried and thought he wasn't going to get his fire station.

I have to admit, this fire station is so cool. It is all wood and stands 3 stories tall, sporting a basketball court and helicopter pad on the top level. It came equipped with well-made, sturdy wooden furniture for each room. There's a bedroom, bathroom, office, living room, kitchen, barbecue area, and work-out room with a treadmill. It also came with an ambulance and firetruck with removable ladders.

The only thing that Dom and I just can't figure out is why the firemen are not wearing pants. There are 3 identical firemen that were included with this station and they are all pantless. I can't imagine it's very comfortable fighting fires with no pants.

Fireman Kai!