6 of 52 - Dress Me Up!

The kids aren't in this shot with me, but we were playing dress up and this was the look they chose for me! Sometimes as a mom you have to get silly and be proud of it! So, this week, get silly with your kids!

********************52 Weeks********************
52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
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Hosted by Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans!

WordFUL Wednesday - Gal Pals

In the past few weeks, Cate has had a few fun encounters with her two little gal pals, Elizabeth and Brooke! It is fun to watch them interact at this age. I love seeing how excited she gets when they are around. They giggle, they play, they dance, and they dress up and pretend to be mommies. Oh, this is just so much fun!

This Wordful Wednesday has been hosted by Angie at SevEn cLoWn CirCuS!

My Little Picasso

This past Friday was Art Gallery Night at Max's preschool. It is an evening of viewing the childrens' art in a "gallery" sort of feel. They display the art and give the kids blue ribbons for superior effort. There is one dimensional art like painting or drawing and there is also three dimensional art such as sculpture. At the end of the evening, they have a raffle. You can buy raffle tickets for a class art piece. The proceeds go directly to the preschool program. Last year, we won the raffle for the class art piece and it is now hanging in our playroom.

This year, they also had the silent auction items that traditionally are at Gala Night (a black-tie fundraising event for the parents). However, this year there wasn't a Gala Night, so those silent auction items (similar to the class project, but overseen by the homeroom team) were were auctioned off at this event. These items can go for very high amounts. The starting bid is $100. Last year at the Gala, we won the class project. It was a platter with all the kids' handprints from Max's class and in the middle was a globe with the words, "He's got the whole world in His Hands". Since, by chance and good bidding, we got both class items, we didn't bid on this year's auction item (even though I really wanted to). I didn't want to become "THAT family" that gets all the class projects!

They also have cookies and juice for everyone. The kids walk around and admire their work! It is a very proud occasion for the both the children and adults. Max loves art and I hope we can continue to foster that passion in him. We are so proud of our little Picasso.

Here is Max (with a scary wierd smile) in front of his Peace sign sculpture.

Max's Heart Collage that won a first place ribbon!

The kids in front of the class project up for raffle. It was a trunk decoupaged with self portraits on the sides and on top it had photographs of the class from throughout the year in the classroom. A classmate of Max's won it this year!

Max's self portrait on the trunk.

This was the fantastic auction item. It was a cookie jar and cookbook. On the jar, each child used their pinky fingers to make the chocolate chips on "their" cookie. In the cookbook, each child contributed their favorite cookie recipe. On the page with their recipe was a photo of the child making his chocolate chips on the cookie jar! My dear friend, Kim (she went on the WDW trip with us) and I were on the homeroom team for Max and Matthew's class. She came up and executed this project. Kudos to her (and she also bid high enough to win it)!!!!

Each year, the children make crosses. This is his beautiful cross that is already hanging in a prominent place in our home!

Another piece of artwork by Max that was displayed on his class' wall!

Max and Matthew admiring their artwork and photos beneath it.

This year's Art Gallery Night Theme was "Dream It, Create It". So, this is their pictures "dreaming it".

The four kiddos after enjoying cookies and juice.

Max and several of his classmates waiting to start the auction/raffle portion of the program!

Mrs. Harris (Preschool Director) making the announcements of the raffle/auction winners. She is a wonderful lady who genuinely loves all the children and helps them become wonderful students and citizens. We love her and will miss seeing her next year when Max moves up to "the big kid school" aka Kindergarten! Max's kindergarten is at the same school just not in the preschool building!

In just a couple of weeks, Max will have his "Preschool Promotion" or graduation. I still can't believe what a big, intelligent, artistic, and loving boy he has become. I mean I never had a doubt he could be those things, but it is just happening so fast.

Update

We got our PhotoPass CD and so I have added some really GREAT pics to my previous posts. So, feel free to go back and browse through them to see the new photo additions.

My personal faves are the princess pics on this post.

Adios, Amigos!

Day 6 - Shopping at Downtown Disney/Check-out

So, our last day sadly arrived. As we woke up that day, it was raining and raining hard! Thank goodness we were leaving that day instead of heading to a park. Now, I still think running around in the parks during the rain is a lot of fun, but it probably wouldn't be as fun with three kids under the age of 5 (not all three mine, one is my niece)!

So, we checked out and checked our bags at the Magical Express stand (what a fantastic feature)! Then, since the rain was letting up a little bit, we headed to Downtown Disney to do our last minute souvenir shopping. This is one of my tips to friends...save your shopping until the last day and go to Downtown Disney. It is somewhere that you could go and have enough time to shop before an afternoon or evening flight. It also keeps you from having to haul a bunch of stuff around the parks (even though there is package delivery or pick-up at the parks for resort guests). Unless you are buying something "park specific", you can most likely find it at Downtown Disney.

So, speaking of souvenirs...here are some of ours.

The beautiful watch that my parents bought me (Thanks, Mom and Dad)

My new camera strap for my Nikon D40!

My family decals for the car...sadly, they didn't have a "dad" decal at any location I looked...maybe in November!

My reusable shopping bag!

Cate's Precious Moment for her collection. It is perfect...the boy has sandy blond hair like Max and the little girl is blond with pigtails like Cate!

My new coffee mug for morning carpool drop-off. The back says "Mornings AREN'T magical!"

Then, the rain began to pick up again, so we decided to head back to the hotel and hang out until our Magical Express back to the airport. By the time the bus arrived, the rain had pretty much stopped and therefore our flight was pretty much on time.

Until next time (November for me and my college program roomies)...I'll miss you WDW!

I hope you have enjoyed all my Disney posts. Tomorrow, back to more regular posts about life around this ol' place!

Our Journey Around the World

Day 5 - Hotel Pool/Epcot World Showcase

So, today we decided to take the kids "around the world" and they didn't even need passports!

MAYAN TEMPLE

AKA Our hotel pool which is fashioned after the old ruins around the Mayan Temples. Max loved the water slide and Cate loved the baby pool with water sprouts! My niece Madison also loved the water. She was so calm!


MEXICO

We took Max on the new refurbished ride in the Mexico pavilion as the Three Caballeros try to find Donald. It was a little lame for adults, but Max seemed to like it!

NORWAY

Max was very curious about all the pictures of Viking boats and oil rigs on the murals in the cue for the Maelstrom ride. He was a bit weary of the trolls but still liked it! I got this great shot of my parents outside the entrance to the ride. They apparently got a good shot of me in a Viking headress, but as of right now, I don't have that image to share....oh, darn!!!

CHINA

The kids loved the marionettes outside the China pavilion. The dragon topiaries were among some of my favorites in the park for the International Flower and Garden Festival that I mentioned in a previous post.
SOUTH SEAS

aka a play area between China and Germany. There were great topiaries of Captain Hook and Tick Tock Croc and lots of fun nautical things for kids to play with and around!

GERMANY

My brother grabbed a quick beer here, but since we were coming back here for dinner, we walked past and went on to the next country.

ITALY

Here in Italy, they had some fun street performers putting on a show "Romeo and Edna" with audience members. Max and Cate got a great spot right up front and watched the whole thing without getting up! It was very cute. There was also a topiary of Lady and the Tramp! As we left, both kids wanted to ride in the stroller. So, instead of them fighting over who would ride, we put Cate on Max's lap. What a few seconds earlier was upsetting them both turned into pure fun for both of them!
USA

We got to the American Adventure about 20 minutes before the show began and went into the rotunda area. It was air conditioned and the Voices of Liberty were about to begin. We got seats on the floor right up front. Cate was so taken with these singers that she wanted to go up and sing with them (almost causing a meltdown), but after they were done, we got her picture with one of them.
The movie/audio-animatronics in the American Adventure is one of my favorites in Epcot. Both kids sat through it and it prompted some interesting questions from Max. We just told him to ask Papa, since he is a retired American History teacher.

MOROCCO

We saw the Genie here, but the line was too long to get an autograph, but we managed to get this quick snapshot as he walked next to the line. After listening to some music by the band "Mo-Rockin", we made our way back to Germany for our dinner reservations.

GERMANY

For our last meal as a large group, we went to Biergarten. It is a wonderful, music filled, buffet restaurant. You sit at long tables (sometimes with other families) and help yourself to the delicious buffet of German food. If you like sauerkraut, brats and beer...this is your place. Several times during the day (check your times guide) the Oktoberfest occurs and musicians come out to entertain the dining crowd. The kids loved this. They stood and danced and pretended to play instruments. At the end of the performance, they invite the guests down to the dance floor to join in dancing! We had a great time!

AFRICA

aka Village Traders area with artwork from Australia, Africa, and India. Max's friend had his face painted in Magic Kingdom earlier in the day with his family. So, Max wanted his face painted, too! So, my brother graciously offered to get it done for him. He chose...go figure...a pirate face! Cate also wanted to get her face painted, but we weren't sure she would sit still, so the girl just put a cute heart on her cheek!

After his face painting, Max, my mom and my sister-in-law and I went to Test Track again (my mom and sister-in-law had wanted to ride it the first day but were watching the little girls). We had gotten fast passes as we entered the parks earlier in the day. As we rode it one last time, the rest of the crew went to France, and United Kingdom.

CANADA

They went to see the "O, Canada" film in the Canada Pavilion while waiting for us. Afterwards, Matt took this beautiful shot of the Canadian gardens outside Le Cellier (one of our top restaurant picks in the parks). They then grabbed some amazing spots to watch Illuminations. We met up with them for this phenomenal show to end our memorable vacation!

What a way to top it off!