Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Family Memo #1
Dear Patients 0,1&2,
Don't act confused you know who you are and I love you all dearly. I really do, so please do not take offense to this letter. Mommy is just tired, tired of almost 3 full weeks of snot, chicken pox, bronchitis, sinusitis, snot, ear infections (did you see the plural on that? Yes I am talking to you Charley!), snot, vomit, oh yes and my favorite of all of this, the goo-like snot cheesy substance that two of you have decided needs to now come out of your eyes!!! Did I mention the snot?! Mommy does not want to go to the doctor (again) this week, don't mean to keep singling you out Charley I know that you were a little late to the snot party. Thank GOD your doctor took pity on me today and just called your antibiotic in. I just wanted you all to also know that I have no clue why I haven't caught more then this weird half-illness thing from you sick people, but I think that you are ALL in on it!! I don't like it, I am tired of it!! Yes Chris, I have told my body to get sick or get off the pot! So far it is still only half listening!! ARGH!
Do I have to remind y'all that this weekend is Charlotte's birthday party?! Oh yeah, and NEXT week is Lizzie's WEDDING! Snot is not cute on a flower girl... OR THEIR DADDY! Ya'll need to get it together ASAP!
I love love love you!! I just want my healthy family back! Did I mention I am tired of all the snot?! I have been having nightmares about snot! It is like you ALL (yes you too Chris) have turned into Blob people.
Love,
Mommy :-)
PS BLOW YOUR NOSE!!! DID YOU WASH YOUR HANDS?!?!?!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Disney Day 3 Part 1
I don't want to get too far behind, I am afraid I will start to forget things. To keep moving forward Disney Day 3 will be in two parts. Video now, blog this evening!
Enjoy!!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Delay in The Replay
Old Team Henry had a Farm
EIEIO
And on that farm they had a CHICKEN
EIEIO
With a POX POX here (and on her back)
and a POX POX there (and on her tummy)
EVERYWHERE a POX POX
Oh and we think Chris may have the flu! Isn't that special! fabulous. truly. He has about 10 more minutes to take himself to the walk-in clinic before I send in reinforcements!
So far Lily only has a runny nose, and I am ok.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Day 2 Magic Kingdom With Video!!!
This was the night that we were too excited to sleep! One of the girls woke up around 3:30 in the morning because of a bad dream, Chris and I both thought it was time to go!! We did have to get going pretty early that day because I had scheduled us an early reservation for the Crystal Palace.
Once we got the girls up and dressed we found the invitations that Tinker Bell had dropped off over night. One was for Crystal Palace for breakfast, and the other was for Charlotte's very first hair cut! We got ourselves loaded down like two mules and headed out for our day.
We got all the way to the bus stop and while waiting, I thought that I had forgotten sunscreen. While I searched the bag Chris ran back to the room. Just as I found it, I saw him walking back with it. It was getting pretty late and I was getting worried that we weren't going to make it on time. When you don't rent a car you are at the mercy of the Disney Bus system. That could go one of two ways. That day it wasn't in our favor. Finally the bus arrived and we realized that we were the first bus stop! Sweet. The good with this is that we always had a place to sit, the bad is that we still needed to five other stops in the resort before we got on our way. Just as we were nearing the final stop Chris looked at me and went pale. He told me that we forgot Lily's Key to the world card. That is her ticket! ! !
We all got off the bus, we really weren't feeling the magic at all. We did luck out that there was a bus there that could take us back to our stop. Long, non-magical,story later we were BACK on the bus hitting all four other stops again. Finally we made it. We called in to the dining reservation line to let them know that we were running late, but that we were on our way. They told us they could hold the table for 20 mins, we were not that far off so all was still good.
We made it through security, and though the main gate. We as we started to round the circle we let the girls out of the stroller. We knew we were late already, so what was 5 extra minutes really going to mean?! Lily was so excited, when we got really close to the top of main street I ran a little ahead to get the picture of them seeing the castle for the first time. As you will see in the video it was a once in a lifetime moment! We decided to let them walk themselves down main street, there weren't many people at all. Lily is not used to us just letting her go ahead of us like that at all so she was a little slow to understand that it really was ok. Charlotte on the other hand, she pulled Lily down Main Street for the first 10 feet or so yelling 'come on Lilu come on!' LOL It sounds more like Nom when she says come, so it was really cute! We even had a few Cast Members stop and giggle at the two of them!!
Soon we made the turn to get to the Crystal Palace. We went up to the front and checked in. We apologized all over our selves for being late. They told us not to worry, and we would be seated soon. We found a little bench and I was just about to start putting sunscreen on when they called The Christopher's Family. Well we really thought they just said Christopher, so we went in! Oops! Not us, but we got a great family picture and they gave the girls some paper confetti to play with. Just as we were about to see what was going on a nice woman came and asked if we were the Henry Family. Bingo!
Side- Note....
What I really loved about the Dining plan (other then it being FREE) was that when we checked in they asked what we would need highchair booster etc. When we got to our table every time we were all set up and ready to go! That really helped with the girls!
Once we got seated we were told how the Character Meals worked, ordered our drinks, and we set off to make the girls' plates. Not too long after that we saw the familiar face of Piglets! Lily about lept off of her chair! Charlotte did the same however for her it was more out of fright! The Characters here were great, a little fast at the table. We did have to wait a while for Eeyore and Pooh to come around. We just about left, but just as were about to give it up when they came around the corner. Once they signed we wrapped it up and headed over to Fantasy Land!
We didn't plan on riding the Tea Cups first, but the line was so short that we got on the very next time. That was the trend of the day. They only one we waited for was Dumbo... Charlotte calls him Dum-Dum LOL We only waited for him about 15 minutes! After him we went on to Pooh, Peter Pan, and It's a Small World. After that is was already about 12 pm and we hadn't gotten Charlotte's hair cut yet. We decided to make our way back to Main Street and find the Barber Shop.
I swear the Barber Shop is so small and tucked away, that if we didn't know exactly where to look we would have never seen it. It is very small, and we saw a lot of little bodies in the shop so Chris ran a little ahead to check out the wait. It turns out that it was just really that small and there was only one family ahead of us! We went in and enjoyed the very cool, much needed AC for a while. Did I mention that Florida is H O T?! I also take a medication that makes me sweat more then normal anyway so combine that with the heat that I am not used to... yeah fun times! So we cooled off and waited for our turn.
While waiting we started to hear music getting louder/closer to us! We had front row seats to the Mid-Day Parade!! The girls glued themselves to the windows watching and waving. Lily really lost it when the dancers would see them and wave back. Then we saw THEM... MICKEY and MINNIE!! We were waving and they waved back!! Charlotte was literally screeching 'Mittkey, Mittkey!!' and waving/clapping at them. It was great! She was still able to see them as she got her hair cut too!
I really can't believe how little the charge for this service. You really do every penny of the $14 dollars you spend. Chris and I both said that we would have paid double that in a heart beat! They were so gentle and kind to her. The first thing they did was cover her in Mickey stickers! To keep her hands busy! After a few minutes (hours in Charlotte's world) she became board with the stickers and so she was handed a Buzz Lightyear light up toy- she loved that thing!! Again though after a few minutes she was board so we moved onto bubbles! She really was very good though it. I was very worried about it for nothing. She hadn't liked anything being done to her hair/head until recently. She sat so very nice. They collected her hair for us and put it in tissue paper mixed with Mickey confetti! She was also given a large certificate, and mickey Ears that has 'First Hair Cut' embroidered on the back! Chris took a great video of her that I am going to post hopefully along with this post and video.
After we were all done in the Barber Shop we packed it up and headed back to our Villa. LOL I love to say that Villa, we are SOO not Villa people!! LOL
The plan was to go back and take a nap, so that we could make it to watch the firework show that night. Thankfully that all went according to plan! While the girls napped I walked over to the main building to send out my Fairy Godmother postcard for the another little girl, and I also sent one to Juice too! The girls did nap, but it was WAY too short. We figured we would head back over anyway and just take a one step at a time approach. Again the crowds were very light.
We made our way around to Mickey's Toon Town! This place is like Toddler heaven! The first thing we did was let Lily ride on the Barnstormer for the first time. By the time we left she will have rode it 5 times!! SHE LOVED IT!! After Chris and Lily finished on there we headed over to try to visit with the Princess' and Fairies! We were able to do the Princess' pretty quickly. Charlotte looks miserable in these pictures. She was... sorta. She had rubbed sunscreen in her eyes UGH! I know that hurts for sure. Even with that she stole the show while we were visiting with them. She was a ham!! When we were down Lily said the best thing. I told her that we were all done and she announced loudly 'Come on I want to meet somebody else!' LOL The whole room cracked up! We were going to get in line for the Fairies next but the wait was every bit of 45 minutes, we skipped that and tried for Mickey. That also had a very long line. Charlotte had caught a glimpse of the train pulling in the station, she loves trains! We hopped on, who knew how difficult it would be to get our huge stroller on? We did and rode all the way to Adventure Land.
We got off and walked around and found Pirates! We didn't give Lily much of a choice. We got on and told her if she didn't like it then she didn't have to do it again, but she was going to try it! LOL She loved it all, except in the very beginning when there is fog scene right before the little water fall. She didn't like that guy, and told us every 15 minutes for the rest of the night!! LOL
When we finished there we were all getting a little hungry. I had heard lots of great things about Casey's Hotdogs. YUMM-O they were right! After that it was getting close to firework time! We found a great place to sit to get a great view of Tinker Bell flying. While we waited a convinced Chris that the girls needed to have something that lit up! LOL The girls played with their new over-priced light up toy until it was time. Then we all sat together on the curb snuggled up sweating together and watched as a circle was completed in our life.
I didn't take one picture, Chris and I memorized every second. From Lily singing 'her song' (wishes theme) to Charlotte trying to catch the fireworks as they fell from the sky. It was wonderful, emotional, and something I will never forget.
Before the show started Chris and I agreed that we were going to hang back a little. We remembered the crush of people trying to get out. That did help, but wow that was a lot of people! Charlotte fell asleep before we got back to the room. It was a great day!!
Tomorrow all of our plans CHANGE!!! LOL
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
9/7/09-Day 1 Arrival With Video
The afternoon before Chris and I had finished packing. Once the girls went to bed there were only a few odds and ends to take care of. I will always make sure we pack this way, it went so much more smoother then I ever thought it would. We waited until it was just dark enough to load the van. We try not to draw too much attention that we are leaving. We showered and believe it or not we actually slept!!
When 4 am rolled around we had gotten about 6 hours of sleep! We knew we were going to need it! We finished taking the final items to the van. Then it was time to wake up the girls!! I had been telling Lily that she would know that we are really going to Disney the day we came in and it was still dark outside. When we went into get them, Charlotte stood right up and started saying hi, Lily took a minute to realize what was going on! It was a slow start for her!! They were very surprised by the shirts that Mickey left for them. Lily was VERY impressed that he knew her nickname!! Before we all knew it we were on the way to the airport!!
Even though it is more costly we like to park in the garage, here is the first of our little miss steps. We had parked in there when we visited and picked Lily up, so we thought we knew what we were doing. Some how we ended up going the wrong way on a service road. Thankfully we turned around and found the right entrance, found spot and parked. The original plan was for Chris to drop the girls, luggage, and I off at the terminal and then go park. But when we left that morning we were just so excited we decided to get rid of that plan and go all together on the shuttle. It actually worked out better then we thought it would. We did the curbside check in and made it through security in a matter of just a few minutes.
Thankfully on the other side of security we found well really Charlotte saw a little (very expensive) shop that had bananas and coffee perfect! We found our gate and waited. We tried to make sure that Lily had ample potty breaks before the plane took off, and had her in a pull-up just in case.
Before we knew it, it was time to board. We headed straight to the back. We figured that we would disturb less people in the back, and we were close to the bathroom. Lily had gotten a little nervous right before we boarded and told us that she now wanted to sit with me. She had been saying for a while that she wanted to sit with Chris. We told her that it was fine, but that once we got on she could not get up and change. She was fine with that. Charlotte stayed with Chris. We lost one of Charlotte's shoes getting to our seat. A flight attendant did help us find it. Take off was fine, we had both girls drink from their sippy cups to help with the pressure. Lily was still very nervous. I am glad that she stayed with me. I am always nervous during take off, so it was a nice distraction of getting her through it.
The flight was BUMPY to say the least. The girls really loved the airplane bags we made. That really helped pass the time. Charlotte actually fell asleep while we were landing. We were about 3/4 of the way there when Lily announces to me that she has to pee. I told her that we would when we landed, she said ok. About 2 secs later she tells me she has to go in a hurry. Funtimes. Did I mention the flight was bumpy? She and I made it through ok and with dry pants- thankfully. Once we got on the ground we gathered up ourselves and stroller and headed towards the nearest bathroom again just to make sure everything remained dry. After our bathroom stop, Lily was a little put of that Mickey and the castle were not right there. It took a lot of explaining, I still don't think that she really understood at that point... she got it crystal clear the nesx day!
It was only a matter of minutes for us to make our way to the Magical Express. We had everything we needed so we just breezed right through to the waiting area for our bus- thankfully it was indoors. FYI Florida is H O T! LOL It was less the 10 minutes and we were being greeted by our bus driver Hugo. The bus was empty, except for us and one other couple. Remember that bumpy plane ride?? Well the combo of that, heat, and now this wide ride to our resort had my motion sickness kicked up way high. It surprised both Chris and I because it had been so long since I had a problem with it. There is one picture from the Magical Express that I look pale as can be!! I had to keep my eyes closed during the last half of the ride, Lily kept asking Chris if I was sleepy! Too sweet!
Finally after months of planning we made the turn into Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa!! This place is mammoth. They dropped us off at the main entrance and since we had done the online check in it was very smooth. We didn't get our request of rooms, but I am so glad we didn't fight it. They told us that we could have bell services drive us to our room or we could walk. I had quite enough of motorized transportation so we walked it. Again I am so glad that we didn't get what we asked for. We were located within sight of a bus stop and literally 50 feet one of the quiet pools. Over the week Lily called this pool the red pool!
We made it around to our what Lily called our 'Yellow Disney Home'. It was beautiful, big and jut wonderful. More then enough room for us to spread out. Once we had another potty break we decided to head over to Downtown Disney to get some lunch. We took the boat over. I think the girls rode every possible mode of transportation that day!! Chris and I forgot what day it was. Being Labor Day it was packed to say the least. The girls started to become cranky so waiting too long wasn't an option so ended up having lunch at McDonald's. Not as magical as I had hoped, but they were happy. We shopped a little on our way back to the boat. We rode back on the boat and got the girls down for a needed nap.
They slept so hard that they didn't even notice that our Garden Grocer order was delivered! When they did wake up we had a snack and then headed to the pool. This was a favorite! They had horse heads that sprayed water and a pool. We stayed for a while until everyone was starting to get hungry again. We headed back to the room to get dried off.
*** This is where the first of our mishaps begins. While we were in the bathroom drying off Chris left and in her excitement Charlotte tripped over her towel and fell head first into the tile floor. O M G!!! She is wailing. Chris and I are trying to check her over to see how bad it was. I hate rope you walk as a parent to freak out or not freak out. We choose the latter, although we were a nervous wreak watching over her.
We made it over the Artist Palette for dinner, all the while checking Charlotte for signs of a head injury. She continued to be ok. After dinner we headed back and gave the girls a bath. While they were bathing *Mickey visited our room and left brand new PJ's and stuffed Mickey's for both girls. After *Mickey was done I went into tell the girls that someone had been in our room and left what seemed to be a present for them. Lily yelled out 'Was it Santa??' LOL. I told her I didn't know for sure and that she had to get out of the tub to see. That helped wrap the tubby up quick!! Out they shot, and found the surprise. Lily was floored, and Charlotte kept yelling 'Mittkey' What was really great is that she noticed the night gown was from the Disney Store. The same one we told her didn't come in her size, we told her that Mickey knew she really liked it and had it made in her size. After a few minutes she told me 'Mickey made this for me, see it says Poose on the back!' It was really great!
After the new PJ's were put on it was into bed, the next day we see the Castle!!
Monday, September 14, 2009
We are home :-( Preview Of Things to Come
We made it back safe, sound and sad. Lily kept saying on the plane, 'but I love disney so much I no want to leave' and giving me the saddest sad face ever! Charlotte slept again on the way, which is good she really needed it. Lily did too but she was just to geared up. When we landed we thought that the pilot took us to La Auroa airport (Guatemala)... my adoptive Mommies understand what I mean... ;-) it was rough!
I didn't get to blog really at all for several reasons. First of all by the time we got the girls to sleep each night, we literally fell into our bed and slept. The few times I did try, the connection was just too slow. We really didn't want to keep spending $10/day to be aggervated. It is all coming very soon. I am going to do a day by day entry.
I will say though that we really didn't think that Charlotte would get much from this trip. We had talked about it and excepted it. We had no clue how wrong we were going to be! Charlotte just loved it. Truth be told she didn't love all of the non-face charactars or any of them that looked 'mean'. But she just had a blast! Pool is her new favorite word!
We had our 3 bad things happen, well four. I have a long Thank You Memos, to write to a Mr. Michael Francis we really hope that you enjoyed your trip!! Southwest Baggage Handlers and the USPS> insert HEAVY sarcasm. In that chaos, I have a big thanks to Charlotte and her big Daddy head. We are able to make jokes about all of the above now.
We made a lifetime worth of memories in just 7 days, Chris and I will never be able to look at each other w/out giggling about an Uncle Jim dying, Lily turns pink faced each time we mention her Prince Charming, and why Charlotte came home with 4 new 'babies' .
Stay tuned... Unless I can convince Chris he really needs tomorrow off, I will have to wait until nap, oh yes there will be nap tomorrow!! LOL
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Live From Walt Disney World!
We made it safe and sound! Lots of stories and pics to share, I am very VERY tired, and we have a VERY early reservation tomorrow morning. So I will just share this, the girls are in HEAVEN! They have been so great! OK I am going to stop there b/c I have to get a shower and bed, and if I keep going that isn't going to happen!! We have a long break built into tomorrow afternoon, so I will catch up then!!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Disney Show and Tell 2
Lily waiting for her special pancakes, just being her cute self!!
There he is!! We are a wee-bit Mickey crazy around here!!
This is the shirt we made for the Not So Scary Halloween Party. They do have a costume that we are taking, but this is to change into if they get too hot.
I LOVE these!! We don't like to put their real names on them, so we used their nicknames! This is for Lily. We call her Poose so often she says it is her other name!!
This is for Charley. We have called her Puddle Duck for SO long now! We do because of they way she dances. She looks like a duck splashing in a puddle! We have shortened it now to Puddle! They have no clue about these. When they get up on Monday they will be out from Mickey!
These are the insides to the invites!
Hollywood and Vine Lunch
Akershus- Lunch
Crystal Palace Breakfast Our First Day!!
For Charlotte's first hair cut
For Lily's Princess makeover at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique!
Halloween Party!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Disney Show and Tell 1
Now for Lily... she is a Cindy girl through and through! She has been 'wearing' glass slippers around the house now for a week! We had made her book already, but when we made Charlotte's we realized how dark and adult it was. It was fancy for a 30 year old not a 3 year old. I talked with Chris and explained that I did love what we had made for her, but I wanted to make it more Fancy Nancy Fancy! This is what we came up with! It has her two favorite things, Cinderella and flowers.
Each book is made of acrylic covered in scrapbook paper/vellum. For the inside we used clip art to make a card for each character we would see. Then watermarked them and printed them on blank 4x6 index cards. I was worried that if a character pushed too hard with the sharpie
would bleed through, so I used 6x6 scrapbook paper, cut the bottom with scissors that make the fancy design. Then we used velcro to attach a pen to each book. One afternoon the girls and I sat and drew pictures on about 11 index cards that we also put in the book as autograph pages. When we were done I asked Lily what each picture was and wrote what she said on the back. For Charlotte, there was one she pointed to and said Rocket, but for the rest I put her age on.
We will be lunching in Hollywood Studios at Hollywood and Vine with Little Einsteins, and JoJo!
This one is for breakfast at the Grand Floridian. This one has Alice, Mad Hatter, and Mary Poppins!
We will be lunching in Norway with the Princess's... this will be following Lily's makeover!
Charlotte's first haircut, she REALLY needs it! LOL
We had gone back and forth SO many times on whether we would visit Animal Kingdom or not. Charlotte sealed the deal when she freaked out over the animals on youtube one night. I was about to snag us a breakfast at Tusker House with Mickey, Donald and gang!
Our very first morning, and the only reservation I didn't move around is for Crystal Palace. The reason this one is so important is because we can get into Magic Kingdom BEFORE it opens! Only people with early ressie's will be there. Can we say PHOTO OP!! LOL
This is another one we went back and forth with. When we got the call about her Pre-school, we thought it would be a great Big Girl thing for her- Charlotte can't do it this time. It is only for kids 3 and over. She HAS NO CLUE we are going to be doing this. On that day when we are done we will be going to Epcot for Lunch with the princess's.
This one is still in the maybe column, although we are leaning more towards yes. Magic Kingdom has a Halloween party/parade/fireworks. We can also trick-or-treat. We are holding off just a little longer till we see what TS Erika is going to do, and we see how the girls are holding up. This is at night, and we have planned for that day to be a pool/rest day. We will see for this one.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
We're going on a trip!
The video sums up the excitement in our house right now!! All 4 of us are singing it!! Well Charlotte dances and squeals, but you get the point.
Much more coming soon!!
PS Charlotte is going SO much better this morning. Her eye is now a tiny bit swollen and red, nothing at all like yesterday. Wahoo for that! :0)
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
She is A One Eyed, One Horned
Spider bitten little Charlotte baby!!
I hate nature! LOL She woke up yesterday with 3 bites on her left arm and one/two on her eyelid. She swells SO bad with any insect bite. I gave her Benadryl and crossed my fingers. After her nap it was larger, I called into the doctor to see if there was anything else I could do for her. They told me to up the Benadryl dose and to put a tiny bit of cortisone on it. This morning she woke up looking like this. Sigh.. We are going to the doctor this afternoon, they told me to bring her in if it got worse. One of the three on her arm is also really nasty looking. More later!
