Disney World Day 2

Rise and Shine!  We have a princess breakfast to attend!  Julianna wore her purple princess dress so she could show each princess they were on her dress.  And she wanted her beautiful curly hair up.  Another fantastic tidbit about our hotel is that it is a 5 minute walk to Epcot!  Yeah!

Even though he had to eat with princesses, Jake was pretty excited to get to Epcot!  Before we left I was busy making the girls Disney dresses.  Jake said "mommy you make the girls all these clothes how about making me some shirts?"  Of course buddy!  So he picked out some designs.  I think this was his favorite.  Which he had to wear to Epcot the first day!  Yeah, he spilled red powerade down the front by noon.  Oh well!

We had a wonderful breakfast and met all kinds of princesses.  In the middle they do sort of a parade.  The princesses take the kids around the room.  When the time came Grace bolted for Ariel, I don't think she pushed anyone down but she definitely elbowed her way to the front to hold Ariel's hand!  She was not going to miss her chance to walk with royalty!

After breakfast we headed to our favorite Test Track!  The big kids love to design their own car and then ride 80 miles an hour around the track.  Super fun!

It was time for me to ride something with Julianna, so Jake and Brian went off in search of his mouse ears.  Every trip Jake buys mouse ears.  Every year they are different and always kind of out there.  People are always commenting about his ears.  This year was no different!  I think he picked the craziest ears ever!

I took the girls back to the hotel (again thankful for the 5 minute walk!) for naps.  Jake and Brian stayed behind to do some Agent P case solving.  He goes from country to country solving mysteries (and Brian gets to drink fun drinks and eat yummy food while he does it!)  It's win-win!

We met back up for dinner at the Biergarten.  They have a band that plays a show once every hour.  There is a dance floor so you know that is where the girls headed!  Grace kept coming back to check in but there were dancing fools.  They ever learned the chicken dance.  So fun to watch them!

After dinner we watched the fireworks and headed back to sleep.  Magic Kingdom tomorrow!!!

Disney World Day 1

We are back!  Ok, we were back on 5 days ago, but I have been doing laundry and recovering (yes it takes that long!).  As usual I am going to write about each day to make sure I document everything I remember.  This trip fell the week after Kindermart.  For those of you who don't know I co-chair a children's consignment sale at Julianna's preschool.  This year we had record breaking sales and made about $22,000 for the school!  I pretty proud of all those involved, it's an amazing (not to mention completely exhausting) week.  So when Brian mentioned leaving Saturday night after I was done I laughed.  No way!  Not this uber-organized, meticulous packer.  I can't leave it up to Brian to pack the car, kids, clean up the house, in order to leave as soon as I walked in the door.  But the more I thought about it the more I wanted to get to Disney World!

So Saturday morning I left it all in Brian's control.  He packed everything up, got the kids ready, cleaned up the house, and was ready to go.  We left as soon as I got home, booked a hotel on the way, added a day of tickets for Sunday, stopped once for dinner and before we knew it we were in Orlando!  Ready to start our 7 day adventure at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to head to our "real" hotel for the week.  The Beach Club.  Since we were there so early our room wasn't ready and we decided to head off to Animal Kingdom. We rode a few rides and found out that Julianna is 44 inches tall.  Which means she can ride BIG roller coasters.  Being a thrill seeker (and never wanting to be left out) she braved Mt Everest.

Then we rode Kali River Rapids and few more rides.  It was soooo hot!  We were ready to go and got a text our room was ready.  Perfect timing!  We headed back.  Now I picked this resort because they boasted a 3-acre water wonderland, complete with a huge water slide.  I figured it would be perfect for our little fishes (well Julianna is a mermaid, or a dolphin, or a shark depending on her mood) and it was!

We decided to check out the pool in the late afternoon.  Brian took Jake and Julianna down the water slide, then we all went down (no height limit...so you know Grace had to do it too).  Brian went down first and then Grace.  She came out backwards, and didn't really like it.  Then we just let Jake and Julianna do the water slide over, and over, and over.  I heard the lifeguard radio down to the one at the bottom.  Tell the little girl that just went down she can't dive head first into the slide.  Yep, that would be Julianna.  Of course!

After we pried them from the water slide we headed to bed for a good nights rest.  We had a Princess breakfast to look forward to!

Grace's turn!

Grace is starting her first year of "real" preschool.  She has been doing Mommy's morning out for 2 years and now its finally time for preschool!  It was a very tough decision but I decided to put Grace in a new school closer to our house.  It makes me so sad to leave the sweet and loving preschool Jake and Julianna went to but I know this was the best decision.  Its a great school and so far has been just as loving and fun as our other preschool.  

She was SO excited for her first day.  She picked out her dress and got her bag and stood on the steps and had HUGE smiles for the camera.  This girl is ready to go to school!

The best part of our new school is old friends!  Grace's very best friend Cadence is in her class.  She was super excited to see Cadence and ran over to give her a big hug.  

We all walked in together and I thought Grace was going to be sad.  She cried during the class visit so I figured this was going to be rough.  What was I thinking?  She didn't even look back.  Just walked right in the room like she owned it.  

Have tons of fun this year Gracie Grace!  We love you!

Julianna is a Panda!

Julianna our big 4 year old had her last first day of preschool!  She is in the Panda class this year, just like her big brother Jake.  She goes to school 5 days a week and is VERY excited about it!

Her first day of school she finally got to wear her new gym shoes (pink and purple AND they light up!).  She got a new school bag and picked out her ribbon.  She picked out her beautiful dress and asked me to do her hair like Anna.  She looked so pretty and excited.  She did NOT want to get her picture taken however.  For some reason I feel like she does that to me every year!  But we got a couple good ones.

She is getting to be such a big girl.  I can't believe next year she will go to Kindergarten.  Ah!  Have a great year out sweet Julianna!  We love you.

1st broken bone goes to...

Grace!

No surprise Grace is the first McNeely child to break a bone.  Let's see it was a Tuesday night and she was climbing up the slide in our playroom.  She decided it was a good idea to go over the top rather than through the whole.  I heard her jump into the middle and instantly start crying.  Jake was kind enough to replay the entire event.  But she was limping a little and not bothered by it after a while, so I figured I will worry about it tomorrow if she is still limping.

Of course, Wednesday morning rolls around and she is still limping...running, but limping.  So I take her in to see the doctor.  Doctor isn't convinced its broken so she thinks we should make an appointment with the orthopedist for Thursday morning.  If she is still limping take her, if not cancel.  Fantastic.

Thursday morning she is doing visibly better but her foot is turning in.  Not wanting to risk future damage Brian and I think we should go just in case.  Now, I had to make a stop at a friends house and while there Grace found the trampoline!  Grace is bouncing up and down and I think there is no way that leg is broken.

Well I was right, her leg was not broken.  The first bone in her little foot was.  I was definitely shocked when the doctor said it was broken.  Then she quickly said "no cast! Just a boot for 2 weeks."  Crisis averted!  But still that sweet little girl had to hobble around with that boot.

But she made it through.  We all did!  Because she learned quickly how to use that boot as a weapon!  2 weeks later she got a clean bill of health and we chanted "No more boot! No more boot!"

(Well she did have to wear it home because Mommy forgot her other shoe!)