Animal Kingdom

We started off this day with the 3-D movie, It's Tough to Be a Bug. I never realized it was so scary~more tears and screams of terror from my child! The Lion King show cheered her up and the safari ride was her favorite. Dinosaur~not her favorite. Actually, she rated it the worse ride of the whole trip, so you can imagine the tears and screams. Her parents should have known better! We left Animal Kingdom early due to the rain, but it was cleared up enough by 7:00 to head to the pool to cap off the night.

Epcot

Out first day at Disney we headed to Epcot. We were the first in line and headed straight for Soaring, along with everyone else in the park. As we were rushing into line, Reesi even fell down. I was afraid she would get trampled, but we swept her up quickly and kept moving. Larry was working the fast passes that day and we got to ride Soaring three times. We ate dinner with the princesses and saved the biggest ride for last, Test Track. Reesi is a cautious girl and she wasn't too excited about this ride, but being the brave six year old she agreed to go. The first three quarters of the ride were fine, but the last part was a bit too fast for her and she lost it. Big tears. I guess some people just aren't cut out for thrilling rides!

Road Trip!!

Larry, Reesi, and I packed up for a long road trip to Disney World. Since Elye won't sit in her stroller longer than 5 minutes she spent the week at Mimi and Papoo's. On Sunday the three of us loaded up for our 12 hour ride. We broke up the monotony with a stop in Atlanta at Ikea and Varsity's. This was my first trip to Ikea with a mission to buy the cardboard magazine holders for $1.99 for five. How I wish I would have had several hours and several hundreds to spend! But I was in and out in ten minutes with only $20 worth of book boxes to show for it.

We then stopped at Varsity's for lunch. The plan was for Larry and I to both eat a hamburger and share a chili dog. Larry took one bite of the chili dog and never stopped. He went back to get one for me since he didn't share. He came back with two. Just thinking about that chili dog makes me hungry again! Not the friendliest service, but great chili dogs.

The rest of the road trip was filled with music, Jerry Seinfeld stand-up, Itouch games, drawing, and a short movie. We even got to our hotel with enough time for a late night swim at our Holiday Inn. Tomorrow, Epcot!

Grace Talked Her Into It!

Great shot focused on the kids getting their haircut in the background.

It's the only one I got and barely looked through the viewfinder when I took it since it was nap time, we had been there for 45 minutes, and little E. was climbing in the foot spa tub trying to play with the bath salts!

Reesi, Elye, Grace, and I went to the mall yesterday to beat the heat by playing indoors. On the way Grace starting talking about Reesi getting her ears pierced. She convinced her it wouldn't hurt and she should do it today. Reesi agreed to think about it while we were at the mall. After playing and having lunch, Reesi decided that today was the day. I was actually in shock that Reesi would ever purposely put herself through pain. This is the girl the couldn't walk for several hours after her kindergarten shots. She's just not the toughest one of the bunch. So we home and got the camera headed to Divas and Dudes. We ended up having to wait 45 minutes to get her ears done! I was not very happy with the place for several reasons, but I won't go into that here. The lady who actually did them was super sweet and did a great job. Reesi didn't even seem nervous during that 45 minute wait. However, since there was only one lady who could do the piercing, that meant she had to do them one at a time. After the first one there were big tears and big cries. We tried to comfort her with a sucker, but she just said she wanted to get it over with. It broke my heart to watch her little body trembling waiting for the second piercing. But she finally did it and 3 minutes later was fine. She is so excited and is making sure she takes excellent care of them. My baby girl is growing up.

Granny's 75!

Tonight we celebrated Granny Snoddy's birthday over at Karen's house. We all ate, the girls (Grace and Lyla came) swam, and Elye rocked and sang for us all(in her own language). Happy Birthday, Granny!

E. at 15

This is my favorite face you make every time something is surprising or exciting.

It makes me laugh every time.

Elye, at 15 months you . . .

-are jabbering constantly. Every once in a while there are actually words mixed in. Some of your new words are shoe, gank goo (thank you), Mimi (when she is around you just walked around yelling it every time you need/want something),ah, maa (ah, man-I didn't realize this, but apparently I say this phrase frequently when I drop something or mess something up) . . .

-you love to be outside.

-hate to play alone in the house. This means I get very little done with you around.

-throw fits. You threw your head back on the concrete at the pool the other week. I thought you were going to have a concussion! However, around our house you have learned to throw your head back slowly.

-absolutely love music and dancing!

-are already down to one nap a day, 2-3 hour afternoon nap.

-ride-a-horsey is a favorite game. You always fall down before we even get to that part in the song.

-give out real kisses.

-can be pretty ornery (pulling hair, scratching faces), but all your cuteness makes up for it.

-weigh 19 pounds and 2 ounces (4th percentile)

-are 30.25 inches tall (40th percentile)

-have a head circ. of 17.72 inches (25th percentile)

Afternoon on the Harpeth

Reesi, getting a lesson on skipping rocks from the master.

"Ooooh," said Elye.

I love this concoction that was built for the rope swing.

Larry joked that I used to be adventurous and would have gone off the swing.

I think it's not that I was scared, but I really didn't want to have to ride home soaking wet in dirty water.

I guess I am officially old.

Shelby Street Bridge

Reesi and her ginormous sunflower she grew. Ironically, she name it Daisy.

As you can tell, Elye was not feeling like cooperating that night.

The girls and I left Larry alone for almost a week, so when I got home we were ready for some family time. Saturday night Larry had to swing by Shelby fields so we decided to make a night of it. We went downtown to hit Satco and walk the Shelby Street Bridge. It was a busy night downtown with arm-banded American Idol hopefuls taking a break from the try-outs and some unidentified concert on the Riverfront. On our way back to our car we decided to let the girls play in the water in front of the Capital. We had no towel or extra clothes. Reesi rode home in wet undies and a dry shirt found in the bottom of the stroller and Elye rocked the white trash diaper look, but they didn't care a bit. They just loved the water. Even though Elye screamed and cried most of the car ride there and back and would only ride in her stroller 25% of the time, it was still a fabulous family night.