Happy Birthday Leah!

Guess who turned two at our house?? Our little Wee-Wee's officially celebrated her 2nd birthday on Friday, November 7th, much to the delight of all us-- but most particularly her siblings. We couldn't wait to help her par-tay!

 We started the day off by getting dressed in her very most favorite outfit-- Frozen shirt, Frozen skirt, Frozen shoes, and a My Little Pony headband. I just love that little grin! She operates most days either super happy, or super ticked-off, but the happy Leah more than makes up for Mt. Leah (her nickname for when her mood takes a nose-dive). And as we officially enter the Terrible Two's, it's quite often!

 We spent the morning playing at home, then a trip to the gym for mommy's class (where the kids all got to sing Happy Birthday to Leah at the Kids' Center), and then home to make some very special birthday cupcakes.

 Leah was more than happy to help taste-test the Elsa-blue frosting from the beater Mommy gave her! See that huge smile peeking behind all that frosting??

 The finished product! I wish I would have used a darker blue color for Anna's "dress" so it actually matched, but I think Olaf actually turned out the best. Leah was ga-ga for her girl Elsa! Shortly after we completed the cupcakes, Leah fell asleep for a quick birthday nap. 

 You can see how happy she was to be awake...NOT. She was totally ticked off and wanted nothing to do with presents, but Daddy finally got home and we were ready to head to dinner! Lucy and Zach were trying to coax her into unwrapping them.

 Now the wheels are turning... They're talking about toys and mentioning Elsa, after all...

 And now she can see the proof under all that birthday wrapping paper! Woohoo!

 Oh yeah! Now we're talking! Look at those eyes!

 Birthday Girl is finally happy now that she's discovered Elsa and Olaf, some more Disney princess babies, and SIX new pairs of princess high heeled shoes. Hooray for 2 year olds everywhere!

 We had big, BIG plans to eat at the brand-new-just-opened Chinese Asian Red Bowl Bistro, but after waiting and waiting 40 minutes (they'd told us 20 when we walked in) with three starving, bored kiddos we had to cut our losses and headed across the street to Chick fil A. I supposed it was definitely more Leah's style anyway, but I've been so antsy to try something (ANYTHING) new!

 Back at home Leah lined up her new princess babies, picked an Elsa cupcake, we lit her 2 candles, and sang "Happy Birthday." I don't think she was very sure what to think.  

At least that Frozen frosting was delish! She was a happy camper getting to end the night with a birthday cupcake and some fun new toys. 

I'm not sure how the last two years have flown by so fast, but I can't believe our little "baby" Leah is officially two years old and growing by the minute. She is SUCH a total joy to have in our family-- we love her silly grin, her plentiful hugs, her sweet little laugh, her crazy bedhead, and even her naughty temper tantrums. She truly has us all wrapped around her little finger, and our family would just not be complete without her. Happy Birthday Lee-Lee!! 

A Spooktacular Halloween!

I love Halloween! I know a lot of moms who hate the candy and the costumes and the scary decorations, but I have such fond memories of Halloween from when I was a kid, it only feels fair to try and make sure my kids feel the same! It was also a fun distraction to help blow away those post-vacation blues.

 We started by carving pumpkins Tuesday night which is our yearly tradition. We turned on "The Nightmare Before Christmas," gutted and scooped all the pumpkin guts out, and let each child pick a design. Lucy saved some seeds to bake later.

 I tried to find an Olaf pattern online, but you really seemed to need a long thin pumpkin for that, and Leah's baby pumpkin was just too teeny-tiny, so we carved a girl jack o'lantern with eye lashes.

She loved it! She kept wanting to turn out the lights to see it glowing-- and she also learned how to say "Happy Halloween" this week which was too cute. 

 Zach-O man wanted "fighting light sabers," which was right up Jonathan's alley, so that's exactly what they did. We like to keep things simple around here.

Naturally he decided to set up all of his Star Wars guys next to it, so that way the non-Star Wars fan would know what it was.

 Lucy is able to carve her own pumpkin now, which is great. She totally takes it all on-- scooping out the guts, tracing the design, and then finally carving it out. She did awesome!

 The following night, Wednesday, the kids had their very last fall baseball game. It was great weather-- down in the 70's and not a bit windy. Lucy had gotten some spectacular hits in the previous couple of games-- she can really knock it to the outfield with the right pitch! Unfortunately tonight there wasn't a very good pitcher so she just got some grounders.  

 Little dude waiting for his turn to bat next!

 Zach got a GREAT hit his second time up to bat! He got really good contact and line-drived it straight to the pitcher. Nice! After only two innings we had to cut it short and head over to ward's Trunk or Treat party at 7 p.m. before they closed off the parking lot! It was a very busy night!  

 You can tell we really got into things by my super festive trunk (NOT)-- I really should start putting Lucy in charge of this stuff since she is our creative one! Two Elsa's ready for candy! One little girl walked by and was like, "There's Elsa, Oh! And there's Elsa Jr.!"

 Zach dressed up as the Cap. He met up with some primary friends and we didn't see him again until the bitter end!

 All tanked up on sugar and with buckets full of candy, and one panicked mom ready to get some kids home to BED. Too late and too crazy to do this activity on a school night if you ask me, but we survived!

 Friday was the real deal, and Lucy was dressed to the nines ready to celebrate in style at school. She had her press-on monster nails from Grandma Cardon all ready to go the night before.

 Here she is! Pumpkin tights, jack o'lantern shirt, and pumpkin scarf-- she was ready for her class Halloween party. Zach got to do "pumpkin math" in kindergarten where they gut pumpkins and count how many seeds they can find, and then they watch "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin" movie. Zach told me he doesn't like Charlie Brown because he has "that skin hair" (meaning he's kind of bald). Ha!

 Friday night I made a special Halloween dinner for the kids before heading out to go trick or treating. Wearing orange is about as "dressed up" as I ever get. Maybe one of these years I'll surprise my kids and go all out!

 Viper Venom, Frog's Blood, Bat Blood, and Spider Venom to drink. I told Zach I'd brewed some potions while he was at school, so he really thought if he drank it he'd turn into what it said. He wouldn't partake until I promised him it was just root beer. I love that little guy! 

 We played the Haunted Mansion background music, dined on mummy dogs and chili, and had Halloween donuts for dessert. Yum!

 Cheese!

 The kids couldn't wait to get outside to start trick or treating, so as soon as we'd cleaned up dinner they booked it outside to meet up with our neighbors Josh and Luke to see if we could all go together. It was quite a bit colder by Friday, so Lucy decided to be Hermione since it was a warmer costume and she didn't want to have to wear a coat over her Elsa dress. We did her hair "frizzy" and she looked PERFECT in her new robe and scarf! 

 Next door neighbor Josh was Harry Potter. The dynamic duo (with a pretty sweet photo bomb from Yoda)!

 The Cap is back! This time with his trusty shield.

 Miss Leah as Elsa Jr. I actually let Leah wear her costume all day because we'd been battling over it all week, and I figured if not today then when else! The babysitters at the gym were so excited to see her all dressed up! She was too cute and so excited to show off her Elsa dress. 

 The beautiful Elsa shoes that caused such a stir at the gym that Friday. Nobody could believe how expertly she walked in those little high heels. They have no idea about Leah and shoes, I guess.

 HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2014

 The trick or treaters in action! Since we went with Josh and Luke's parents, and their friends (who had 4 kids) we just kind of tagged along. They were die-hards! We did several streets (maybe 2 miles total) and the kids raked in the candy.  

 Way, way, way too much candy for three little ghoulies to have all to themselves! Zach was ready to go swimming in it when we got home!

Aaaahhhh! After letting them have free reign that evening, we convinced them to combine their three stashes and it has since been gathered up and hidden by mom, and metered out one by one since then. We may have candy until next October. Happy Halloween!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

So, let me just begin by saying I love Disney-- I feel loyal to them and the work they do; nobody, and I mean nobody, does it quite like Disney! Their attention to detail, their level of creativity and their dedication to pushing the boundaries of imagination are hard to top. Consequently my theme-park standards are pretty darn high. Add that to the fact that I'm a pretty ardent Harry Potter fan. I mean, I've read the entire series (all seven books) at least five or six times. Indeed, if I have another son some day, I've already decided we're naming him Harry!

Enter the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios! I wasn't sure what to expect, but let me tell you, every one of those high expectations were either met or exceeded! I was SO glad we got to check it out!

Our sweet little Lucy is also a devoted HP fan, and has read the first five books all by herself. This was the definition of a dream come true! We got there literally as the park was opening and headed straight for Hogsmeade! The window displays all along the street were SO much fun to look at! We could have window shopped all day, finding new things we hadn't noticed before. It was just like the pages from the book had come alive! Here are the chocolate frogs from Honeyduke's.

Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans!

Spell books in front of Olivander's Wand Shop.

Tasting butter beer for the very first time (which was absolutely delicious!). Buttery, rich, and caramel-y. Mmmm. This girl was in HEAVEN! Love the foam on her upper lip.

You can see how empty it was since we were there right at opening-- we literally had the streets to ourselves for about an hour. It was perfect. 

After window shopping for a bit we headed straight for the Hogwart's castle-- which was so amazing! There is a really neat ride inside that takes you on a broomstick ride with Harry Potter throughout scenes from the book. The castle was really cool inside too-- the line went through the Herbology classroom, the Great Hall, Dumbledore's office, the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom (where the naughty pixies make it snow), all while there are portraits talking to you along the walls!  

We checked out Filch's Emporium right after the ride, and Lucy was ready to hop onto her very own quidditch broom.

Hagrid's "monster book" from his Care of Magical Creatures class-- Lucy even remembered you were supposed to pet along its spine to put him to sleep! 

Picking out which of the four Houses' accessories they would buy!

Miss Lucy's early birthday present-- an authentic Harry Potter Gryffindor robe! Wohoo!

From the moment we got there I'd been dying to check out the goodies from Honeyduke's, and they didn't disappoint! I think Jon was a little bit scared when he saw the manic look in my eyes-- I could have tried one of everything!

We started with the treacle fudge (kinda weird, but Harry's favorite), pumpkin pasties, cauldron cakes, and chocolate frogs. I snuck a few extras in while Lucy wasn't looking for some future stocking stuffers, but shhh! Don't tell her...

It was so fun to taste and try so many of the goodies featured in the books that we'd read about-- Luce and I didn't want to leave!

Family picture in front of the Hogwart's Express-- the real train connects Hogsmeade to the new park at Diagon Alley, but unfortunately we didn't buy tickets to that part. Next time!

As lunch time drew near, we decided to eat at the Three Broomsticks-- a local business owned by Madam Rosmerta as the story goes, and got to choose from a menu of British pub foods and authentic pumpkin juice, as they didn't serve soda since it was deemed "muggle" food.

Leah noshed on mac and cheese (not sure if that's a local delicacy), but she was sure happy!

Jon and I got the fish and chips-- which were delish, and made all the better because of the setting we got to eat them in. After lunch we decided we'd better take a peek at the other areas of the park like Dr. Seussland, and the Marvel Comic Land-- which were both very cool, but honestly, we came for Harry Potter, and it didn't take us long to head right back!

As you can see Hogsmeade just got busier and busier as the day wore on, but we wanted to spend as much time as possible pretending to be residents of the wizarding world!

They, of course, featured wands you could buy-- and again, for the Harry Potter freak like Lucy and I, we loved looking at every character's individual wand. Lucy received Hermione's as her very own, and Zach decided someday he'd like Harry Potter's.

And that was it! Poor Leah, who'd been dragged through park after park all week long eventually reached her limit, and I think we were all happy to finish before dark this time. We'd seen and done just about as much as we could handle-- and with many, many souvenirs in hand, officially finished our fantastic Florida vacation. Miss Lucy couldn't have been happier to end on such a high note-- and went to sleep that night with dreams of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. And maybe, just maybe, she'll get her very own Owl Post inviting her to arrive at Platform 9 3/4 to be the next Hogwart's student in 2015!