we're still here

I have totally neglected the blog for various reasons
1.  Tim broke his ankle in July and used the computer to work from home for awhile.
2.  We moved our pictures to an external drive and sometimes I can't view the thumbnail photos which makes choosing pictures difficult.
3.  I can't upload pictures and watch Netflix at the same time.  Our internet connection stinks.
4.  Goldilocks started kindergarten, and I'm watching a baby during the week

I will try to update with pictures soon...

visit from friends

 My college friend, Amy, lives about an hour from us and brought her boys over to play one day.

 Our kids get along very well and it is always fun to catch up with friends!  My camera was NOT cooperating that day and all the pictures are blurry - boo!

80's night!

Devo guitarist w/flowerpot tray hat

 Our friends Marc and Kathy threw a birthday bash for Marc's 40th.  All of the guests came dressed up, 80s style and we had a lot of fun meeting new friends and seeing some old friends we used to go to church with.

$3 dress from Goodwill, crimped hair, blue eyeshadow

happy 40th Marc!

Father's Day 2011

Curly Bear's birthday

This summer we celebrated Curly's birthday with cousins and friends from church and school at a local park.  The kids had fun on the playground and we decorated the picnic pavilion with a Dr. Seuss theme.

 We weren't planning to open gifts during the party since we were having fun on the playground, but it started thundering and threatened to rain.  We passed out popsicles for everyone to enjoy and let
Curly Bear open the gifts

for me Mom?

We are very grateful for all of the friends and family who helped us celebrate!

Disney part 6

Our last day, we got up early and headed for early admission to Magic Kingdom.  We went straight to Fantasyland and got in line for Dumbo!

 Goldilocks favorite ride was the teacups, and we rode them twice!

 We rode the carousel

 While Papa bear stood in the line to meet Rapunzel, I took the girls to meet the fairy godmother.

 Finally, we met Rapunzel and Flynn.  "how long does it take to wash your hair?" "3 or 4 hours"

 We waved at Pooh and Tigger, Peter Pan, and Pinnochio during the day.

 Our last princess to meet was Tiana!

 After meeting Tiana and her prince, we went over to wait for the parade.  Donald gave Goldilocks and some other girls a big squeeze!

 We put Curly up on Papa Bear's shoulders and she had a blast waving at all of the characters

Curly completely conked out in her stroller after the parade was over.  She didn't even wake up when we put a Popsicle on her neck.  We decided to head back to the hotel to swim, eat dinner, and pack.  The last morning, we packed up our truck and took the boat over to downtown Disney for some souvenir shopping and lunch at Rainforest Cafe.  The food was delicious, but it was really noisy.  Curly HATED it.  She had her hands on her ears the whole time, and was scared of the occasional "rainstorm".  We had to get her lunch to go.  We were all sad to leave Disney and our "ho-tay-el"! 

Disney part 5

After the princess breakfast and meeting a few more characters we missed on the first day, we headed to Hollywood studios.  We ate some lunch and then went to watch the Beauty and the Beast show.  The girls loved it!

 We also saw the playhouse disney jr show - very fun!

 Met the Little Einsteins!!

We wore our 3D glasses and rode the toy story ride.  Goldilocks got the most points!

We also watched the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.  Curly fell sound asleep while we were waiting in line for this, and only watched part of it.  We went back to the "ho-tay-el" and had dinner with the cousins on their last night.

Disney Part 4

Monday morning, we got up and headed to Epcot for the princess breakfast. 

We had reservations for 9:25, but they sent us in around 8:45 since we were there early.

 Goldilocks walked with Ariel in the princess parade and Curly went with Cinderella

 Curly sang her favorite princess song from Sleeping Beauty's movie,  Goldilocks and Aurora joined in!

 After breakfast, Papa Bear chatted with an old coworker that was also at the breakfast (random!) and then we waited for Pixie Hollow to open so we could meet Tinkerbell.

 Next, we went to Epcot's character spot and met 5 characters at once!  The line was in an air conditioned room with big screen tvs playing some old classic cartoons.

Epcot truly is the best park to meet characters!