~ EPCOT - MONDAY, APRIL 12TH ~

Mia and I wore our "matching outfits" today from J*Crew - my very favorite store now for a while :) It is sooooooo much fun to shop for mother/daughter stuff...I digress! Anyhow, we woke early for our princess breakfast; which was at Epcot (Norway) - Mia was so very excited, that was until she encountered the princesses,than she became star struck!

Mia and Daddy at the resort!

Eddie wanted his picture taken everywhere!

I was enjoying my usually camera-shy boy this trip :)

Cinderella was gorgeous!

Anthony was sitting at the end of the kids table,

and whenever a princess came over

they went right to him :)

Cinderella, a true princess & mommy

Ariel with her "Sailors"

I loved how each princess was totally in character.

I just loved how Ariel called the boys "Sailors" !!

Snow White was my favorite

She had the true Squeaky, high voice!

China Princess!

After breakfast we hit the rides! A great memory I have of this day is going on "Soarin" with my boys! It was so relaxing and beautiful. We did the "child swap" and when I got off, Ed went on with the boys and I stayed with Mia - worked out great.

Epcot = beers in every country for the guys :)

3 Crazy kids!

Me, Mich & Barb

I do not want to forget to thank my wonderful girlfriends for

an amazing time together. All the craziness wouldn't have been

the same with out you (we missed you Deb!!!!)

There was some major flirting going on during this trip;

one of the flirts is seated in the middle!!

Ice cream stop!

While in Epcot Italy the girls started dancing to the live music - it was so adorable to watch and hear their laughs and squeals of delight :) I will try to post the video at the bottom of this post...

Lady & the Tramp

and some nutty kids :)

This one's for you Aunt Debbie!

Dinner was in Epcot Japan at a Hibachi restaurant; unfortunately our group was so large that our families had to sit seperately. The kids enjoyed watching our very animated chef perform and cook :) A very funny moment is when Mia picked up the chop sticks and asked "what these mommy?" Oh boy, the People's Republic of China would not be happy with me!! We all used chop sticks at our table (even Eddie for a little while) except for our China princess :)

We had about a 1/2 hour to spend in Epcot China - we almost bought zodiac t-shirts but changed our mind at the last minute. Mia enjoyed sitting in the panda display - as you can see :) The workers there (most from China) commented on how lucky she was to be with us. This always makes me uncomfortable - how do you explain how much joy this one little girl has brought to our family? I know we are the lucky ones beyond measure!!

Below is a video of Mia and Madison dancing to the live music in Epcot Italy:

BUSCH GARDENS - SUNDAY

We were all so excited to go to Busch Gardens, I haven't been since I was kid and I remember it being beautiful. It was almost an hours drive from our resort, but it went quickly.

Mommy "C" and Maddy

All my boys :)

Mia was loving the merry-go-rounds

(they make mommy dizzy!)

The boys in front of a tiger-busch-sculpture

There were so many of these gorgeous buschs', one of my

favorites, that I didn't get a picture of was the butterfly!

There were a lot of rollercoasters for the big kids, even my Eddie was able to go on most. He actually went on his first upside down rollercoaster, to mommys dismay! My little guy was so mature during this trip -he's really growing up!

Mia and Maddy

The little ones enjoyed the Sesame Safari rides - this area was geared towards this age group and they had a lot of fun there. Air Grover was a kiddie rollercoaster, or so they said, I thought it was a bit wild!! There was a huge treehouse for the kids to climb - it was a bit overwhelming and went so many different ways that it was hard to keep track of everyone!

Daddy and his little "cupcake"

Anthony loved all the twisty, turny rollercoasters and could not get enough. This was one of his favorite parks. He was really looking forward to seeing the flamingos, my boys LOVES these pink birds (for some reason). We didn't realize that you could pet them when the park first opens and we missed it :( Then when we tryed to go to the bird park, it was closed!! I was so disappointed for him - he was too, but went with the flow...there are more flamingos to come during our week!

While the dads and big kids went on one of the many rollercoasters, we took the little ones over to some rocks and animal sculptures to play around. Who needs a ride!

When we were almost done playing around, taking pictures and riding animals...we noticed the rocks were stamped with "please do not climb the rocks"

Ooooops!

We ended our day with a late Italian meal, which was delicious! I wasn't sure Mia would be able to handle it, it had been a long day, but she did great. Mia and Eddie fell asleep in the car on the way back to the resort - it was an exhausting and full day!

All in all BG was very pretty and had tons of rides for older kids. There was an area for the little ones, but these rides were what you could find at any fair. The Sesame area was very nice and had a mini flume ride and few others to go on.

Our first full day of our vacation was fun! We always have fun with the "C" family - things can get crazy with 12 of us walking around the park, but it just always seems to work :)

~ HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY EDDIE ~

We returned home late yesterday from our vacation and got everything together to celebrate our Eddie's birthday today - he is 7 years old!!!

Eddie, we are SO very proud of you honey!

You have such a sweet heart, you are so caring and loving...

you are also a real character and march to the beat of your own drummer!!

I hope you always do!

You are one of a kind, one of a very special kind honey :)

You were so very mature during our vacation- you walked all day every day and went on every rollercoaster you could - even on your very 1st upside down rollercoaster - to mommys dismay! You enjoyed everything! One of my very favorite moments was our last evening in Downtown Disney; you danced and twirled your little heart out to the live music. As we all walk along, you just danced, jumped and swayed between all 11 of us - you made us all smile, as usual :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY SWEET BOY!!!

WE ALL LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

~ VACATIONING PEOPLE ~

This is really just a quick "hello" to my friends and fans :) back home! We are SO busy, we are having SO much fun and the internet connection is SO slow :) We have been gone from 9am to close to 10 pm every night!!!

Sunday we experienced Busch Gardens to the fullest extent - All day long! The older kids loved the rollercoasters - not a ton for the little ones... We had the princess breakfast Monday morning - soooooooooo cute! Mia was busting out of her skin with excitement....that is until she saw the princesses...then she was Miss Shy-girl :) We are off to Seaworld today and tonight we have the Luau!!! Another late night - another day full of family and fun!!

~ RELAXING AND ENJOYING ~

We woke early (the mom & dad were up VERY early) and quickly got ready to leave. Mia was screeching with excitment, she could hardly control herself....it was adorable :) Poor Penny looked on as we got the suitcases together ~ oh, it was so sad. She will be taken care of by two very loving and wonderful people, but we all miss each other so much.

O.k., on to happy things ~ look at this view:

Our flight was a bit bumpy at take off, but it soon calmed down thank goodness ( I was a little nervous!) Anthony and Eddie sat together across from us and they did great - my boys are growing up ~ Mia did really well too and she just got a bit antsy towards the last 1/2 hour ~

my big boys

We've landed in Florida, but had to wait around a bit...
they lost Mia's car seat!!! They gave us a loaner until they
can (hopefully) figure out where her carseat is!

We are taking it easy today by the pool.
They have these great kid-friendly pools and they did not want to get out!

It is in the high 70's here - just beautiful~

Daddy got the kids these great tropical drinks.

We sat by the water and listened to waterfalls while sipping away ~

Aaaaaa, life is good :)

Daddy took Eddie and Mia to the playground around the bend

and Anthony and I had some great alone time. We laughed and talked and rocked in this big comfy swing ~ we had to force ourselves to get up and find the rest of our bunch :)

We are off to dinner and tomorrow we will meet up with the "C" family to go to Busch Gardens! I haven't been since I was a kid and we are all looking forward to our day :)

~ OFF ON VACATION ~

The excitement has been building ~
I've been asked many, many, many times when we're leaving~

So glad today has come, so my answer can be

"tomorrow we leave!!

"Hooray!"

We're just about all packed~

"HERE WE COME MICKEY MOUSE!!!"

I'm going to try to blog from Disney -

the kids are at such a good age, 11 yrs, 6 3/4 yrs and 4 yrs old to enjoy it all!

And, I'm sure there will be many, many memorable

(and knowing us, crazy )

moments that we will not want forget!

~ CATCHING UP ....AGAIN ~

Mia and I have really been enjoying the Spring (and even Summer!) weather the last few days. She just loves to ride her bike, her scooter, the swing - she's not picking, as long as she's outside :) She just puts her all in everything she does and smiles through it all ~ she's such a blessing and a cutie pie!! There were a few days that she was quiet the handful though, not sure if she wasn't getting enough sleep (in her new big girl bed...which I keep forgetting to post pictures of her new furniture!) or what was going on, but I'm happy to say she's back to her old self...



The other day we had a party at a Plastercraze place. Mia picked out ballet slippers (big smile here!) and then when asked which colors she wanted, she replied "pink" "purple" ~ another big smile here :) I just love that she is girly :)

Here she is sitting next to her buddy "G", they always seem

to sit next to each other :)
They played such simple games as Hot Potato, Freeze Dance & Limbo ~
the kids had a so much fun! The party consisted of the preschool class; which
was a great idea because the kids were all so familiar with each other and it was
nice to see them all interact :)

I took a few photos of Mia and her finished project when we got home.
When we put the ballet slippers down on the table she looked down at them and said:

"I SO proud!" How cute is that?!

Anthony had his opening day game and they won 14-2 ~ he's on a really good team again this year! My boy is just getting more mature and so much taller! But, he's not taller than his mommy....yet!

Anthony under his recent art project picture ~

My boy is talented!

Mia has been on cloud 9 lately...she can finally wear flip flops!! The correct way! Here's a video I shot to prove it:

AND: