Happy 5th Birthday Avery Raine

We escaped another birthday party. We gave Avery the option of a party or a trip to Disney and she chose Disney of course (yes!). The thought of 20, 5 year olds running around while I (we all know it would be me) attempt to occupy them scares the heck out of me.

We headed down early Monday morning to go to Chef Mickey. I had high hopes for this character meal and quite honestly it was kind of 'ehhhh'. I have no idea what the hoopla is over this place. Maybe it was because it was breakfast? Maybe the other meals are better? The food wasn't all that good. However, we (mostly Avery) did have fun seeing all the characters.

Here she is with Pluto. It was so cute, she told us he sniffed her.


Minnie stopped by along with Goofy, Mickey and Donald (not pictured).


The weather was not on our side. We toughed it out and walked around for 2 solid days in the on again off again rain.
This picture's caption is, "Are we having fun yet?"


Avery poses by the castle.

Mommy and Avery did the Playhouse Disney show by ourselves. For some reason Scott had no part of sitting on the floor for 30 mintues. This is us sitting on the floor waiting on the show to start.

Here is Avery waiting in the Toy Story Mania line. This ride is fun, but not sure it is really worth THAT wait.

Our friends Jay & Michelle came down for a day and hung out with us. They stayed with Avery so we could ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. Avery was seriously upset that she wasn't tall enough to ride the rollercoaster, so Michelle took her to get a Minnie tatoo. Avery loved it, and days later it is still on her arm.

This is us in the Rockin' Rollercoaster line. It's no surprise Scott is on the phone in almost every picture we took.

The birthday girl enjoying her breakfast at Animal Kingdom. It started out cloudy and chilly, but we managed to have a beautiful day.

It wouldn't be right to not get her face painted again. She loved the face paint.

Avery & Ava (they both have their tongues out).

Out friends Chris, Amy and Ava were also visiting Disney this week, so we met them the morning of Avery's birthday and played at Animal Kingdom. It was great to see them. Ava is turning 2 on the 8th. She is so adorable. The two of them together were precious. Ava kept holding Avery's hand. They were walking around together throughout part of the park holding hands. I didn't get a picture of that, but I hope Chris did!

After 2 days of solid rain, it finally broke and we had a beautiful evening. This is the view leaving Hollywood Studios one afternoon.

Avery and Mommy both did the face paint at Epcot one night.

This girl loves getting her face painted. We love it because she is so happy. Hmmm, maybe we should do this on a regular basis!

We found a great place to watch the fireworks at Epcot one night and the rain started coming down very hard. We decided 10 mintutes before the show to just head back to the hotel. She was whooped.

This was after her birthday meal. She was waving that wand and skipping all over the place (most likely from the TWO desserts).

This is the birthday girl enjoying dessert #1 at Cinderella's Castle.

Here she is heading out of the park and posing one last time in front of the castle.

Avery with Cinderella before our meal.

We were a slight bit dissapointed to only see the Fairy Godmother and two of the mice for the castle dinner. Apparently, all the princesses are out only during breakfast and lunch.

Princess Avery all worn out on her birthday. Heading back home to reality.

First Boat Trip of the Year

Last Sunday our friends invited us to go boating with them. The day started out cold and choppy on the water. As each hour went by the weather got better and better. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. The relaxation of being on the boat was something we all needed and enjoyed. The days are always too short when we are out on the water.

Life has been very hectic and stressful this month. I believe January 2010 has been more stressful than the entire year of 2009. I hope it tapers off soon (PLEASE!). I am welcoming February with open arms, as long as 'she' promises to be nice to me.

Tomorrow we head to Disney to celebrate Avery's 5th birthday. I finally got a point and shoot camera, so this time I will be taking Disney pics. We have decided to go bagless to the themeparks during our last few trips, so I have had any pictures to share. Booo.

Avery is super excited for tomorrow and I need to get packing - we leave VERY early in the morning.

I added a few pictures to the Photo A Day link to the right. I've been slacking again on the daily picture taking.

Here are some pictures from last Sunday's boat trip:


Napping on the boat. Scott was napping, Avery was faking it.


Heading back in after a lovely day.



Beautiful ending to the day.

I love cold!

I might be one of the only people I know that absolutely LOVES this cold weather.
I'm not sure why - maybe it's because I grew up in an area that had moderately cold weather. Something about it is just nostalgic to me. I love having hot drinks, wearing sweaters and curling up under blankets by the fire (wish we had working fireplaces). Most of all, I love not sweating or ever being hot. I think I live in the wrong state because soon enough it will be blazing hot.

This weekend we are packing up the Christmas decorations. We have so much Christmas stuff, it is exhausting. It's been a great day though, it feels good to be productive.

Tonight we are going out to dinner (yay!) and to see the Princess and the Frog again (well, again for Avery, but a first for us).

Here are a few recent pics.


This is Fergus (Fergie) outside the kitchen window. He wants to come in because it was 32* outside. I've been keeping them in the bathroom on cold nights and turning a heating pad on for them outside during the day.


In a nutshell....these are two nuts.


Avery poses with citrus (I have no idea what this particular citrus is, we have at least 10 different varieties in the yard).


We are in the "I can dress myself" stage. Luckily, we didn't leave the house until the outfit changed!

Merry Christmas & Happy 2010!

It's been awhile and a lot has happened. Too much to blog about, but we have been super busy (as Avery would say). The holiday "break" started back on December 18th. Avery had her Winter Program at school that morning. She did a really great job singing all the songs. She takes it so seriously - it's quite comical. Afterwards we had lunch with Nanny (Scott's mom) and Nanny took Avery for the night so we could enjoy our company holiday party. What a crazy fun night we had! It's a good thing it only happens once a year! Unfortunately, work was more demanding than I thought it would be that week, so thankfully Nanny was able to help us out again.

The week after Christmas Grandad and DD came to visit (I don't have ANY pictures?!). We had a great visit with them. Hopefully DD will send some pictures from her camera.

We have spent most of the last week hanging around the house doing little projects. On NYE we were in bed by 9PM (besides waking up all night from the fireworks). The next day, we took our annual traditional trip to Cross Creek to eat dinner at The Yearling Restaurant and listen to Willie Green play the blues. We tried to stay up and watch the Gators tromp over Cincy, but we had to get to bed somewhat early because we had a big day planned at Dinsey on the 2nd. We did a 7am-7pm full day at 2 parks. We spent the morning at Hollywood Studios and then headed over to Epcot for a late lunch and a few hours at the park. Avery had been asking to get her face painted, so when we found a place she was excited. Without hesitation she chose the kitty princess option. I thought for sure it would be sleeping beauty, but nope, she was set of the kitty princess. The weather was very chilly that day, but we wore lots of layers and hung out in the sun as much as we could when we were outside. What a great day for us all!

The Kitty Princess at Epcot :-) We are waiting for our table at England - mmmmmm Shepherd's Pie.

Here is part of the class during the Winter Program with her school. Avery is in the middle row fourth from the left.

Christmas Eve

Santa's Key to get in the front door - we thought we'd spare him the trouble of having to figure out which chimney to come down - not to mention, our chimney's are kind of old.

Avery puts the key on the door for Santa

Looking for Santa one last time before heading to bed.

Mommy Juice on Christmas Eve

Santa ate the cookies and the reindeer at the carrots!

He left presents under the tree too!

Stockings - Tinkerbell bubble bath

She got a purple guitar

Mommy got a gift from Edward (Twilight).

Riding her new bike

And scooter

We thought the bike/scooter weres her favorite presents until she received the Cool School program.

Gator / FSU Gameday

Where's Tebow?

We had planned to watch the game at home, but wanted to get into the rivalry mood by walking up to campus to partake in some pre-game festivities.
We walked around campus and had lunch before heading over to the Gator Walk Saturday.

Gooooo Gators! Now do the same thing to BAMA, please!


Heading to Steamers for lunch (it's a Scott thing).


Avery HAD to have eye blacks. She loved them.


Avery wearing James' Gator hat looking for Tebow while being held by Youssouf.


Sea of Gators


Some guys from the team

Gameday Crew

We got to see lots of crazy characters!

Big Hulk arm beer holder

A kid in the trash can!

Super Tebow plays BEER PONG!