Fun times with the Mouse

On their last full day visiting, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom with Michele, John, and Lydia.  We left a little earlier than we usually do, for which I was grateful because it was waaaay crowded for a Monday after a holiday.  Yikes!  While John and Michele sorted out their tickets, the dumplings watched the steam engine train go by.  They couldn't resist waving to the passengers.

 In typical fashion, we grabbed Buzz fast passes and hit up the rest of Tomorrow Land.

 After grabbing lunch and fast passes for Ariel, we made our way to Dumbo and the Barnstormer.  The big girls rode the Barnstormer with Michele while Caleb and I rode Dumbo.  Havi napped.  Yay.

 Then we made a quick trip on the carousel and over to Ariel's Grotto.

 We finally made our way through Frontier Land and over to Adventure Land to ride Pirates,

Little did we know we had a few pirates in our own group.

 The park was all decorated for Christmas, but I only managed one photo of the decorations.  It was pretty dark when we left, so I really had to crank up my ISO.

We had such a fun time.  While we enjoy going to Disney with just the five of us, it's nice to change things up a bit and go with family or friends.  I just love seeing the cousins enjoy each other's company.  John, Michele, and Lydia's visit was just simply too short.  We loved having them hang with us for a few days.  We can't wait to see you all again.

Well, as I alluded to in my last post, we had a big weekend this past weekend.  Two guesses where we were.....yep, back with the Mouse. This time, though, we went camping at Fort Wilderness with friends of ours. Well, I will share more about those adventures in the next post!  I'll have to leave you hanging for now. Sorry! ;)

And the birthday celebration continued

Golly gee, I wish there were more hours in the day to get done what needs to get done these days.  Since that's not the case, I have gotten a bit behind in my blogging.  Anyway, to pick up where I left off last time...

Michele, John, and Lydia came down for a quick visit after Thanksgiving.  As such, we knew we would wait until the week after Havi's actual birthday to throw her a little party.  We spent the first few days of their stay just relaxing and enjoying the warm weather.  One afternoon, we headed over to our favorite park by the river.

Sunday afternoon was when we had her little party, just family.  My sister came with hers and her in-laws.  It was so cute to watch Caleb show Havi how to open a present.  Once she figured it out, she went to town. lol

For her birthday cake, I knew I wanted to make dark chocolate with a whipped vanilla buttercream and decorate it with a watercolor swirl effect.

The cake had sat out at room temp for a while.  So that's why the cutout slice in the photo above looks a little rough.  Although I love my swiss meringue buttercream to pieces, I knew that some people at the party prefer the sweeter traditional buttercream.  And since I only like to use that one sparingly when decorating (because it's so sweet), I chose to frost it using this simple watercolor swirl effect technique.  It was a winner.

Well, we did end up visiting the Mouse like I had said.  But those photos will have to wait because we have another busy weekend planned.  We had such a great visit with Michele, John, and Lydia.  I only wish it wasn't so short.  We love you guys!

Our Thanksgiving fun

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day celebration.  I know we sure did.  The weather cooperated, and it actually felt like Fall.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that I had wanted my sister to take a family photo for us for our Christmas card, and unfortunately had no winter clothes to fit Havi.  Yep.  Hand me downs from her cousin Leah were too small, and Madeline's winter clothes were too big.  So we had to roll with it.  And that kind of dictated what the rest of the family wore for the photo session. Nice, right?  Well, it worked out fine.  I snapped a few photos of the dumplings before my sister arrived to snap a photo of the five of us.  I will share the Christmas card here once it's been mailed (which might be a while because it still needs to be designed and ordered!)  But for now, I'll share this funny outtake.  

 In case you're wondering, this is Havi yelling "STOP!"  It's one of her new favorite words.  Well,that and "NO" and "MINE."  Aren't those fabulous new words? You're rocking the English acquistion, Havi!

Well, we managed to make it over to Andy's parent's house for the food and fun.  After eating a yummy meal, the kids went outside to play. It was chilly for us Floridians, with temps only in the mid 60s.  The kids played duck-duck-goose and plenty of other games with Lisa, Andy's brother's girlfriend.  She's a pediatric OT and consequently has a stash of games in the trunk of her car.  Fun fun fun!

 Josh was so cute trying to get back inside.  He just couldn't turn the knob, poor boy.

 Caleb thought it would be fun to have some races.  He might have had an advantage.

We had such a great time and are so thankful to have been invited. It's so much fun to watch all the kids (7 of them, plus an infant) play with each other.  Caleb and Josh are clearly outnumbered because they are the only two boys.  Yep.

Well, we have been spending the last few days chilling with Michele and John, my SIL and BIL, and my niece Lydia.  The cousins have had a blast playing with each other while we have intermittently dined on some delicious food while enjoying each other's company.  Yesterday we had a little birthday celebration for Havi at the house. (Remember I mentioned we would be celebrating twice?)  Patrick and I worked together to cook up a yummy mini feast.  I will be sure to share about it here once I catch a free moment.  

Well, we are headed to see the Mouse today, as I mentioned before.  No doubt, some fun will be had today! 

TTFN, as Tigger would say!  Ta Ta For Now!