Random Stuff

I am not sure where my time goes but clearly it has not been going into the blog.  So here is a mish-mash of stuff that has been going on in our lives, in no particular order:

 We had a playdate with Amelia, who is in Audrey's class and lives in our neighborhood.  They were making and decorating cookies and making and decorating shrinky-dinks.

 This is way back from a day off for MLK and we went to the zoo with their friend Lauren and her mom Elizabeth.  It was a fun girls day!

 And while at the zoo, who did we run into?  Amelia and her family! Joys of living in a small town :)

 The girls getting ready to make a wish on the wish bone from a chicken.  Always a huge treat when it is still intact in the rotisserie chicken.

Also way back....here are the little posters that the girls made for the 100th day of school.  Brooke chose to do pennies (clever but those pennies were heavy and hard to stick) Audrey chose to do googlie eyes.

 Literacy Night at ZELC.  The theme was based off of a book about a mouse and a cookie.  Audrey was a bit more into acting like a mouse than Brooke.

 Here is a picture of Audrey's top tooth.  This tooth is the one that she cracked into a table back in June or July.  It has been loose and slowly scooting up into her gums.  I have been getting concerned about it - especially since I have heard that if there is an infection and it gets into the new permanent tooth then it can be ruined too.  And that would be super sad!  The dentist has looked at it and said that it will just fall out cause it is so loose.  However, since she has no bottom teeth she is not biting or putting any pressure on it at all. And she does not like to wiggle it.  Which leads us to the next picture....

 D pulled the tooth. Audrey was not happy.  But it was very loose and hardly bled at all.

She recovers quickly....especially when reminded that the tooth fairy would make a visit.  So for those keeping a tooth count: Audrey 3, Brooke 0.

Disney Vacation

Since we live in LA now, the girls got three days off from school for Mardi Gras (crazy huh!!)  And since they are 5 now, we - really mainly D- decided that it was the perfect time to take them to Disney.  So we made reservations ages ago and we went all out since we aren't planning to come back that often.  Stayed at Wilderness Lodge and really got fancy with the Deluxe Dining plan, which gives you three meals - which include an app, entree, and dessert - and 2 snacks per day per person!  So we ate a TON and really enjoyed it. I did a photo book - which I linked to on FB - so I'll just try to hit the highlights (though that will still be a humongo post) here.

Saturday: Drove.  All day.  Lots of movies.

Sunday: Arrived in Disney!

 

Picture of the resort - from the pool looking back

  

It was February and our resort only had an outdoor pool, so I thought that there was absolutely NO WAY we would need swimsuits.  So here are the girls in their new Disney swimsuits - neither of which really fits all that well.  Though we did swim 3 different times. We swam almost the whole first day as we were planning for it to take two days of driving to get there.  It does not.  So all day Sunday they swam and we visited with our friends the Bairds who just recently moved to FL.

 

Me and Stacy and our girls!

 Monday: First day at the park.  Started with Breakfast with Cinderella in her castle at 8:15.  Which we have declared to be the best way to start the trip.  We were done and ready for the park at 9.  By 10:30 we had basically ridden all of the rides in Fantasyland....without waiting at all really!  The one low note of the day was riding Thunder Mountain.  I was with Brooke and she screamed the whole time "I wish we had never gotten on this.  I want OFF!"  So that was not a success.  Audrey only liked it a tiny degree more.  We left to go back to nap (as Brooke fell asleep on the people mover), then went to the Grand Floridian for dinner, then back for the parade and fireworks.  An aside, I had the BEST burger I have ever eaten in my life that night for dinner.  Wow.

 Love this picture - especially since Tink is computer generated and they are just acting!

Tuesday: Back to Magic Kingdom for a few more autographs and to do Frontierland in the morning.  Then we went back to the resort for more swimming and naps.  We ended the day at Epcot (where D kept saying "so this is where all the alcohol is" ) with our fancy dinner at Reef...we had a primo table right next to the fish tank.  The girls enjoyed counting how many laps the giant stingray swam and discussing what our exit strategy would be if the tank were to break!! So funny!

 The girls had the LONGEST conversation with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen.  It was adorable!

 Since it was Valentine's week, all of the princes were out with the princesses.  It was a treat for sure!  And since we have watched Tangled a ton of times, they were very excited to see Rapunzel and Flynn.

 

Here we are enjoying some of our snacks from the dining plan!

Wednesday:  D's BIRTHDAY!  And let me tell you, they make a big deal if you wear a 'it's my birthday' button - which D obediently did for Mon - Wed.   Started our day with a breakfast with Chef Mickey.  Then we headed to Hollywood Studios.  It was enjoyable but the girls kept asking when we were going to go on rides.  Though the highlights were the Disney Jr puppet show, the Beauty and the Beast show, and the Toy Story ride (probably one of the best of the whole trip.)  We had lunch at Mama Melrose's which was super YUMMY!! and originally planned to stay for the Fantasmic show.  But the weather was looking awful and the girls really wanted to swim one more time.  So we headed home 5ish to swim - until the rain came pouring down.  And lucky D got to have a birthday meal of snacks on our hotel floor :)

 They loved Minnie!  And Audrey was so excited to show her shirt to Minnie.

 How cute is that spaghetti and meatball cupcake?? And let me tell you it was delish!

 We saw another parade!  They really like the Incredibles (and I like her cause she is way hippy, makes me feel good) and D kept remarking how he liked the fact that all of the characters were wearing safety harnesses up on the floats!

 Celebrating D's birthday!

Thursday: Began with breakfast at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  This was a rough start as we had trouble finding where to go - turns out we were totally in the wrong place - and I was totally stressing cause we were running a little late.  And then once there, realized that I had forgotten to take my insulin that morning.  But after eating, I woofed it down so I could go back to the hotel, and meeting back up at Animal Kingdom, it all improved.  Though we were hampered by the pretty much all day rain which ranged from drizzle to full out downpour. And we made two tactical errors while at Animal Kingdom - the bug's life 3-d movie (which Audrey basically cried and screamed that she wanted to leave - thank heavens she was in my lap and did not feel the sting or scurrying bugs!) and then we immediately went to the Dinosaur ride.  Oh. My. Word.  Not for sweet little girls.  More crying and screaming.  Fortunately all was recovered once we were on the triceratops ride. (think flying dumbo but this time with a dino).  After a late lunch, we headed back to Epcot to find the super elusive Belle.  The one princess that we had not encountered yet.  And of course here in the rain, the girls convinced us it was the PERFECT time to finally get their faces painted.  We ended the day with a yummy meal at the nice restaurant in our hotel.

 The family "on safari."

 Finding Belle!

 Working hard to keep the rain off of their newly painted faces.

 Audrey with her Venetian mask

Brooke as Princess Kitty

Friday: Our last day!!  We spent the day back at Magic Kingdom where we redid all of the favorite rides.  If you ask the girls what their favorite part of Disney was they will respond "the rides and the characters." When pressed they will say the Tea Cups and Peter Pan. For Lunch we had our last character experience at the Crystal Palace with Pooh Bear and friends.  Our last planned activity was dinner at Camp Wilderness for the Hoop Dee Doo Review.  The show was super cute and the girls loved it.  The food was just eh. 

 Brooke became obsessed with getting a picture with Alice...not sure why exactly as the one time they saw the movie they were terrified.

 Riding on the Magic Carpet ride...again!

 I just love this picture!!  Poor Eeyore is trying so hard to write and Audrey is just so cute holding his ear :)

 Love love love the tea cups!! D, not so much.

Playing the washboard at the end of the Hoop Dee Doo Review.

Saturday: Drove all day home

Photo Shoot

Back in January, I bought two new cameras - a little one and my new big (nice) camera.  Two months in and I am not that impressed with the little one but I love my big camera.  So I have been taking some pictures around the house just to practice getting used to the cameras.  And for some reason, Audrey decided that she wanted to do a photo shoot.  It was so cute.  Here are some of the best ones.  And I will preface this by saying that she did all of these poses herself - with no prompting from me.  And I do realize that Audrey's shirt is way too small :)

Visit from the J's and more Mardi Gras...

The first weekend in February, we had our first visit from my dad and Jane.  It was fun to show them around our small town.  And since we are in LA, there was a fun Mardi Gras parade to go to!  After the parade - which was marred only slightly when Audrey got hit in the head with some beads and was bleeding just a bit - the girls were so excited to decorate our house with all of the beads from the parade.  It actually turned out quite cute!

 Hanging out getting ready for the parade!

 I tried to get a cute shot with the capitol in the background but you can't really see it....but certainly got a cute picture of Jane and the girls!

 Me and the other moms- Elizabeth, Amanda, and Robin- at the parade.

 Some of our bead decorations that the girls did.

 They took the job of decorating the chandelier very seriously...and thought it was great fun to stand on the table.

 The girls before school on Mardi Gras day - which was not really on Mardi Gras because there was no school on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Mardi Gras.

Mardi Gras

So here in LA, Mardi Gras is huge....but in a fun, kid-friendly way.  We went to Mardi Gras parades two weekends in a row down in Baton Rouge.  The floats and marching bands were super cool and the kids loved getting tons of beads, cups, stuffed animals, and various lighted up things.   And the girls had a week long unit learning about Mardi Gras - making masks and eating king cake (Audrey's class made theirs by frosting and sprinkling glazed donuts - how cute!)  And to complete the experience the kindergarteners had a parade for the pre-k kids.  Each of the kindergarten classes had a theme for their krewe and they decorated wagons.  So cute!

Me and some of the girls -Robin, Elizabeth, and Trisha

 The kids getting ready to catch some beads.  They immediately got the idea about yelling "Throw me something!"

 The family decked out in our Mardi Gras colors

 One of the floats in the parade

 Our friends at the parade

 The girls trying to get some beads.

Some of the wagons for the parade at school

Best Dinner Conversations Ever

I am so far behind on our blog and it is totally stressing me out-which goes to show you just how nice my life is as a SAHM if this is my biggest stresser.

I like to go chronologically but our dinner last night was so funny that I am throwing caution to the wind and blogging about it now.

To set the scene, I will preface this by sawing the girls were totally amped up last night. Bouncing off the walls as if they had eaten nothing but sugar all day. Just being so darn funny.....which I am fully aware will not really translate into my retelling here. But trust me that it was close to tears rolling down the face funny at the time.

So during our nightly debriefing about school we were asking the girls what they learned about Louisiana, which is the topic they are studying this week. They both remembered that the pelican was the state bird. Audrey described the state flower (magnolia). Then they both started to talk about the state dog - something brown and leopardy. Which I told them was ridiculous. There was no such thing as a state dog. Lots of discussion and a trip to google and it turns out that there is in fact a state dog of Louisiana. Who knew? Other than the people currently learning about it!? ( FYI the dog is the catahoula leopard dog)

So we are all cracked up about that. Then I ask Audrey (cause B had already answered it) "what is the Capitol of the state of Louisiana?" To which she quickly and seriously replied "mom that's easy. It's the state Capitol." Well how to you argue with that?

We then moved on to discussing Brooke's homework - filling up a cookie jar with C words. She and I had come up with 10 words earlier. And all three of us were trying to remember them to tell D. So we are naming them - cat, cup, colors, crown. And then Audrey busts out with (don't read if you don't like crude) Cock. Darren and I almost fell to the floor. Which is exactly how you should react when your kid says something inappropriate that you don't want repeated.

We finally recover and are talking about riding the bus in the morning because A has a dr appointment and was not going to be there. So our of the blue Brooke says "mrs Pad (their bus driver though I really believe her name is pat but they are adamant that it is pad) looks like a vampire". Say what?

Just another night at the Hadden house! And here is a totally non related picture.