Day with Mommy

Lily's preschool is closed for a week due to teacher training before the next school year starts. Clay took last Wednesday and Thursday off to watch her, and I watched her last Friday, and also today and tomorrow. 

For those of you who may not know, we have a pretty awesome living situation. Places circled from left to right - our office (we happen to work in the same building on different floors), our church/Lily's preschool, our apartment.

So, work is only 3 lights down from our apartment, and our church is pretty much right across the street. We have gained about 2 hours together every day since moving here from Atlanta and no longer having such a long commute into the city. It's pretty awesome.

Anyway, the point of all that is Lily and I walked across the street this morning to say hi to Papa at his office, since the K-12 school is also at the same location as the preschool/church. Then we went to the playground for awhile.

It was pretty hot, so we only lasted about an hour before we headed back home. Lily took her nap, and I was able to clean practically the entire house during that time. Clay came home for lunch, and she woke up just in time to snuggle with him for a few minutes before he had to head back to the office.

She had ravioli for lunch, and of course, used the sauce as body paint. I was only able to entice her out of her prolonged bubble bath with the promise that we would make cookies on a stick.

Nana gave us this kit last week -

I've been thinking that she's old enough to help me do a little cooking for a while now, so we are finally getting around to it. Now if only I could make something happen with the matching aprons pattern that I have....

Stirring the eggs and butter.

Adding in the dry ingredients.

She did a lot of stirring, but when it was mommy's turn to stir she played some pretty awesome drum beats on my sugar and flour canisters.

So proud of the cookies!

Adding the sprinkles.

There are sprinkles all over her and all over the counter, and after tasting some, she could barely sprinkle them anymore because they were sticking to her hands, haha.

Finally eating one.

She looks way too grown up.

Now I have more to clean up ;)

I am making a casserole for dinner - pretty much the only casserole I will eat, and then maybe we will go swimming with daddy tonight.

I should just never go back to work ;)

Family Vacation 2012!!!

There isn't much that is more exciting than family vacation!

We left for Orlando on the morning of July 4th, and arrived around lunch time. Lily was wearing the cutest "uh-merr-lucan fuh-lag" dress - I should be punished for not getting pics of this. We (Nana, Papa, me, Clay, Lily) met Eric and his girlfriend at O'Charleys for lunch. Fort Meyers does not have one, and wow, I have really missed those cheese wedges. Then all of us met Jodi, Austin, and Jordan at the resort and spent the evening at the pool and then playing cards in the room.

Thursday morning we split into 2 groups:

Sea World group - Me, Lily, Papa, Jodi, Austin, and Jordan

Universal group - Clay, Eric, Nana, Michelle

Sea World-

Cousin love = no need for a double stroller.

That night we swam again and played more cards. Friday morning we went to a breakfast buffet before Eric and Michelle left.

Around the resort-

Pure joy-

Her uncle taught her how to do an evil laugh-

An attempt at family pictures-

They are making the same facial expression :)

We spent the rest of the day at the resort and Downtown Disney.

All 3 kids got airbrush tattoos, and even my dad got a huge dragon on his arm.

Nap at the pool-

T-Rex Cafe-



Lily was funny about the T-Rex. Normally when there is both a large and small version of something, she says it is the mommy and the baby. But, apparently, this T-Rex was the "daddy".



Saturday, we spent the day at Animal Kingdom. This was the first time for us to visit this park, and it is officially my favorite with kids, and my second favorite for no kids (probably nothing could ever beat Epcot). It is so full of shade, and the shows they have are really amazing.




Watching the gorillas.

 



This face means "don't even try to get me off this elephant".



Lily was pretty hilarious at the petting zoo. She was almost aggressive. She was going to pet all of those animals *excessively* and no one was going to stop her. She was even trying to grab them to keep them still whenever they would start walking.

Notice when she pokes him in the eye-

He decided to eat her hat a little - haha. Probably revenge for the eye poke.

Playing the drums in Africa-

Snack break with Nana.

Pick with Papa after the Lion King show - which she was obsessed with. Obsessed would be an understatement. This was amazing for adults also. Clay and I thought the price of the ticket for the park was worth it for this show alone.

Lily rode this ride 10 times and raved to us about going "up and down" and "round and round".

We ate at Rainforest Cafe near the park exit late that night.

After dinner we went back to the resort and swam really late. All the kids were up until 11pm, since it was our last night, and I have to say that all week, even with the potential meltdowns we could have had from doing 2 parks, they we perfect angels.

Sunday morning we were back at Donwtown Disney for lunch and the new spiderman movie.

We took a pic in front of the fountain near the theater because I love comparing pictures to see how Lily has grown.

Last year, in front of the same fountain at Downtown Disney-

The best part of the trip was having family together. Lily absolutely adores her cousins, and they love her just as much. She is still jabbering about them constantly, and I hope she gets to see them again soon.