E had a wonderful Kindergarten play on nursery rhymes. I am amazed at what those teachers do and am so grateful to them! E had a speaking part at the beginning, then did a cute little hand rhyme called Miss Sue. Here's the sweet video of the speaking part. Aunt Nancy, Mimi, and Nana all came to see her!
M turned 3 this March and we had a faaaaabbbulous Dora party! We had tattoos, coloring pages, and bracelet making inside, then went outside and had a real Dora adventure! We had maps and followed the trail until we got to the pinata that Swiper swiped! As you will see in the picture below, Drew graciously agreed to be Swiper again(he was Swiper when O had a Dora party when she was 3!) I love my husband, he is NOT AFRAID!! My camera battery died, so I don't have many pics of this, but it was a super fun party!
This is the absolute truth as I know it. You can buy the best of everything for your kids. You can buy them every gadget that hits the stores. You can take them to every Pixar film made. You can dress them in the most fabulous clothes. You can plan every second of their day with educational, fun, brain-stimulating activities. You can plan an extravagant trip to the most fun place on earth, with the best rides, characters, 3D movies-just a fantasy world. But every time you ask them, days later, what the best part of the trip/day, etc. was, they will almost always say something, that, to you, seems really small. Or simple. Those are the memories they keep with them. It's the unexpected detour for ice cream. Or the little dog you see on your way to the theme park. Or the snack you gave them in the car. Or the silly songs you sang that morning at breakfast.
So most of you heard that I won American Idol at Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Funny, some people thought this actually meant I made the show. I did not. But I will say, doing the one in Orlando reallllly felt real. I mean, the stage was amazing, I sang in front of 1000 people, and I had 3 judges truly critique me. So, though I'm 35 and won't ever be on the real thing, it sure felt pretty darn close. Competition wasn't too fierce, so I'm definitely not bragging. I mean, a 75 year old blind woman who sang "Crazy" by Patsy Cline nearly beat me. But it was fun! And hilarious! So, I won't embarass myself with the video of me actually singing, but here's a little clip of my interview before my performance. I'm especially fond of a tiny voice on the video saying, "that's my mommy!" See if you can catch it!
There's nothing important in these pictures, except that they are Hi-LAR-ious and I cry-laugh everytime I look at the succession! This was at Epcot in Turkey or somewhere like that. 
Waaaaayyyy back in February, we took a family vacation to kid (and parent!) paradise. Can you guess where we went???
My M looooooves Snow White and can actually quote almost the entire story for memory. So she was pretty pumped to meet her idol. Snow White said to her, "why hello, I'm Snow White, what is your name?" And M replied, "Snow White." She lives in her own little Fantasyland.
We were so excited that Mimi and PopPop got to go with us. Besides really enjoying their company and making great memories, they helped so much with M, because really, besides meeting the princesses and riding Dumbo, M was NOT a fan. NOT AT ALL.
Because Disney World is really a honeymoon when you're there (Ha! Note the sarcasm!) Drew and I just had to get a kiss in at Minnie's house. The kids were either really disturbed, or falling asleep, I'm not sure. And no, I have no idea why my booty is sticking out. Just a bad decision.
The best stuff is free, of course, so trying on different hats at the millions of kiosks was one of our favorite daily activities. We liked to joke with O that her teeth look exactly like Goofy's. She thought it was funny, don't get mad at me!!
Through all the rushing around, over-stimulation, and exhaustion, we all truly had a memorable, fantastic time. I'm hoping some permanent memories were made!!
