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Right after Alex got out of school, we went to Florida for our first Disney World Family Vacation. We left very early on a Wednesday morning to try to give us some time to play once we arrived. We arrived and got checked in to the Bay Lake Towers Resort Hotel. Our room was nice and had a patio view that faced the Magic Kingdom. That was a great thing to have especially to see the Magic Kingdom fireworks every night. After checking in we went over to the Magic Kingdom. Dinner was at the Crystal Palace and was a character dinner with the Pooh characters.

Thursday morning was a character breakfast at Chef Mickey’s with the classic characters. Anne decided she didn’t really like the characters too close to her, but it was okay if they sat down with her. We then set off for Animal Kingdom. One of the first things we did was ride the Safari tour and got to see a lot of the animals. One of the best coasters on the entire trip was Hidden Everest at Animal Kingdom, we really enjoyed it. We did cut short our visit to Animal Kingdom because Anne had an appointment to have a princess makeover that afternoon, the dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table. Anne spent the afternoon getting princess pretty and having dinner with Mom and the princesses, while Dad and Alex visited DisneyQuest to play video games. I think everyone had a great time. The day was topped off by a trip to the pool area and fireworks.

Friday morning was the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast with Mary Poppins, The Mad Hatter, and Alice at the Grand Floridian Hotel. We got a cab from there and went to Sea World for the Day. It was very hot that day, so by afternoon time we were all ready to come back to the hotel. After resting for a bit we went to Downtown DIsney for an early dinner at Planet Hollywood. The kids enjoyed playing with the Lego’s at the Lego store, and we all enjoyed shopping at World of Disney.

Saturday was Hollywood Studios day. We had a character breakfast with some of the Play House Disney characters. It was Star Wars weekend so it was very very busy. We decided not to do the autographs of pictures with Star Wars because the lines were just too long. We did enjoy the Lights, Motors, Action show and the kids liked the Playhouse Disney show. We ended the day back at the Magic Kingdom to hit some of the other areas we missed.

Sunday morning was one of the best character breakfasts I think. It was the O’Hana breakfast at the Polynesian Resort. Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto were there but the food was really good. The morning we spent at Epcot. We didn’t want to do the whole park, so we just did a few things, then came back to the hotel to rest. Really hot day that day. In the evening we went to Magic Kingdom and did some more of the Park. We did Magic Kingdom little by little to make sure we got to see everything we wanted to.

Monday was go home day, so breakfast was Chef Mickey’s again since it was close, then packing to come home. After getting checked in to the airline at the hotel and getting rid of our luggage we headed back to Magic Kingdom to finish the rest of the park. We had a little time to shop before we headed back to the hotel to catch our bus to the airport. We had a lot of fun, and we all were very very tired. Next time we go we are going to plan on the kids being old enough to ride every ride and maybe have Grandma and GPappy come.

Photos will go in in the Photo Gallery ASAP, so if they aren’t there, they soon will be.

Photo Gallery

Sorry the update has taken so long, but things got busy with the end of the year and then vacation right away. Anne and Alex had a joint Tae Kwon Do birthday party at Seagull Black Belt Academy. It was very fun and lots of kids learned new things. Alex is currently a blue belt, Anne is currently a Little Dragons orange belt, and mom is a green belt. Alex had a music program called DinoStars that was very fun. Alex continues to play goalie for the Harambe Wembley Futbol Club. Anne had her tap/ballet recital and was really cute. Her class had the only boy in the school, and he was Anne’s best friend in the class. Alex finished out the school year with excellent grades and we are excited to see what next year brings. Our Florida Disney Vacation update and pictures is my next project so hang tight and they will be here soon.

Here is a link to the updated Photo Gallery pictures (not including Florida Vacation pictures).

Photo Gallery

With birthdays for Anne and Alex this month we got portraits done. Of course it was a tough decision and I bought too many as always. After both birthdays are over we will post all the birthday stuff, but for now here are the pictures we purchased.

Lots of things going on already this year. I can’t believe it’s February already. With the huge Christmas snow storm, then the bone chilling cold Alex actually had an extra week for Christmas break! He is enjoying playing Futsal (indoor soccer basically) and staying in shape for his new all boys soccer team this spring. We also had to take Alex to the eye doctor, turns out he needed glasses and could be a little color blind. So he picked out his own glasses and wears them all the time now.

Alex just finished testing for his High Green Belt in Tae Kwon Do. Hopefully if I do this right the video of his testing will work!

 

Anne is busy with her dance class and is loving the Little Dragons Tae Kwon Do class too. She almost is ready for her Little Dragons yellow belt. Since their birthdays are so close they decided to have a joint Tae Kwon Do birthday party this year. It will be fun! Nothing much different with the rest of us. Dan still losing weight and looks awesome!

Well, where did I leave off? Hmmm…oh yes, Halloween time. We had a great Halloween with Grandma and GPappy here this year. We all dressed up and it was a lot of fun. Alex and GPappy were both Darth Vader, Anne was a witch (a good one of course,) Grandma and I dressed up too.

Anne joined Alex and I in Tae Kwon Do and is now in the Little Dragons class. She is still enjoying her dance class too. What a cutie!

Something fun that Alex and I did was go to Star Wars in Concert. It was Alex’s first big concert type event and he really enjoyed it. They had the music from all 6 movies put with a big screen and special effects and the host was the guy who played C3PO. They also had original movie props, and people dressed in original uniforms that you could take pictures with. It was really cool. One other thing Alex is doing is playing Futsal this winter. It is basically indoor soccer with a weighted ball so it doesn’t bounce.

Christmas was really fun again this year and we loved having all the company with us. We had our first Christmas at Uncle Jon and Aunt Kelly’s house, then Grandma and GPappy came to our house for Christmas. The kids had fun helping daddy put up decorations outside and they were a great help inside too. We baked out traditional sugar cookies and everyone got messy in the end (of course!). Alex read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas with GPappy and Anne, it was quite comical in the end. After santa had come and all the gifts were opened, Alex played his new DS Bakugan game and Anne played Barbies all day. It was a great day.

Hope everyone had a happy holidays and stays warm through all this darn cold and snow!

Since we haven’t done much with the website in a long time we decided to try a few new things. Hopefully it will work and we will be posting updates and pictures more often.

This year Alex is in 6 and doing well in first grade. He is always busy either bowling in a League, playing on the Viati soccer team (mostly playing goalie), or active in Tae Kwon Do. Other than the normal school and home life. Alex recently received his green belt in Tae Kwon Do. One of Alex’s favorite things is to read, and for anyone who knows his mother, I’m thrilled!

Anne is 3 and is always busy and loud. She found her voice and always uses it. LOL She started dance class earlier and loves doing the tumbling and ballet part. She isn’t quite sure she likes tap because she is always falling down. She has become quite the girl in that she love to play with her dolls and barbies, but she likes to take her brother down any time she can.

 

Dan had a tough summer with a shoulder injury, then learning of his High Blood Pressure, but has turned it around all for the better and is doing remarkably well. Still working for Cerner and Bowling most everything is the same.

As for me, I’m still a stay at home mom and love it. Do I ever want to go back to teaching? Some days yes, most days no. I Love being there for my family. I too joined Alex in Tae Kwon Do and surprisingly really enjoy it. I recently received my orange belt. Alex loves the fact that he is higher rank than me.  We both recently competed in the AKTA National Championship Tournament. Alex placed 3rd in Form and 3rd in Sparring. I placed  3rd in Form, and 2nd in Sparring. 

 

 

Hopefully I will be able to keep up more often, keep checking back!

Time certainly flies. Alex is now 5, and Anne is now 2. Everyone is doing well and we are getting ready to sign Alex up for kindergarten. Mom still loves being home, and Dad is still the same. So not much to report. More pictures are coming.

Our web server had a hard drive crash. We are working on getting everything back up and running as soon as we can.