An Evening Stalking Princesses

We left the Magic Kingdom around 3:00 p.m., so that we could go back to the hotel and take naps. They were very much needed, as we had a very grouchy and pouty princess on our hands.

We then woke up and got ready to go to Epcot, where we could stalk princesses at the Norway Princess Dinner. Surprisingly, T balked at putting on a princess dress again, and instead chose her heart dress. She was also claiming not to want to go. Unfortunately, these are non-cancellable reservations...i.e. they charge you anyway if you fail to appear. Come hell or hight water, we were going!

Let's just say that my sister Aunt Dot's new nickname is "The Negotiator". She took responsibility of T and was able to "talk her down" from her near tantrum with a skill that rivaled the best police negotiator.

Once we got inside and T got a glimpse of the princesses, she was all smiles and grins. For those not in the know....here is T with Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast.
Here's T with Cinderella
T with Princess Aurora, aka Sleeping Beauty.
T with Ariel from the Little Mermaid. T was very concerned about the state of her feet, and asked Ariel if she had shoes on. Ariel was very accomodating and quickly lifted her skirts to show off her purple stage shoes.

T was thrilled.

Now we're back in the hotel, and all of the Bippity Boppity Boutique glamour has circled the drain of the bathtub and been washed away. Such is the fleeting nature of beauty.

Meanwhile, my feet feel like they're going to going to fall off and all my muscles in my body are getting progressively achier...not to mention my wallet that is hemoraging money as we speak. Such is disney. Luckily, I brought some pain pills to take the edge off.

On Wednesday, we're probably going to skip my coveted reservation in Canada, in favor of returning to the magic kingdom, sans princess get up. Therefore, we can sleep in and take it slow the whole day.

I'm off to go to sleep. Too tired to blog about the pictures below...I'll do that sometime in the future.

Ciao!

More Magic Kingdom

Bippity Boppity Boutique

Disney: Sun and Mon

We took off to Disney with a bit of a false start. We took my mom's car to their house first, then hit the road. Unfortunately, I forgot my purse in their house. We made it all the way to the Pompano Rest stop whereupon I realized what had happened when we went to fill up with gas...and their was no purse.

We finally made it to Disney and checked into our hotel. We're in the cheapest of disney hotels, if one can ever apply that adjective to anything Disney, and are pleasantly surprised. Its a true kids paradise. After check in , we headed out to Epcot. Here's a picture of T on a ride...right before she jumped into Dot's lap for the remainder of the ride.

Here's a picture of the Toy Story/Buzz Lightyear section of the hotel. As you can see, its filled with humongous characters from various movies...as we're in the All Star Movies Hotel. We're staying in the Herbie the LoveBug section. I'll try and get some pics of it tomorrow.

It has a kiddie pool, that's decorated like iceburgs. T went into the kiddie pool, and it was next to impossible to get her out. She had a blast!

On Monday, we went to Animal Kingdom park, and then met Aunt Ceci and the kids at Downtown disney for some ice cream and fun.

That's it for now...I'll report in again tomorrow.

Present from her mom

After the party we returned home, and I gave T the rest of my present. T will be having dinner with Cinderella while we're at Disney, and I thought this was the perfect give for the occasion. Especially since her old Cinderella dress is basically in tatters from all the washing and wearing.

Meanwhile, we can't get her out of this extravaganza!

Present and Cake time

As the pizzas were cooking, we let T open her gifts to keep the kids occupied. Usually, I'm not one for opening gifts at the party, but I needed to keep these kids occupied, so whatever works, huh?


T got a beautiful Tinkerbell outfit, Bendaroos, alot of petshop animals, a bottle of catsup (her favorite), and a cute outfit. She insisted on putting the tinkerbell outfit on immediately. The kid stripped so quick you'd think she was a professional.
Then it was CAKE TIME. Boy, did all the kids like their cake. I must say, it was DELICIOUS!! Spent an extra 3 bucks for vanilla pudding in the middle and boy was it worth it! I'll never again buy a birthday cake without it!

The Adults indulged in chicken wings, pizza, and Margaritas...which made the whole thing that much more fun for us!

Well, just that quickly, it was over. The joy of it all was that I could just

Walk. Away.

No muss, no fuss, no cleanup, just pack up the extra cake, goodie bags and balloons and walk away.

What absolute joy!

Now, we're busy packing for Disney. Estimated time of departure? Break of Dawn!

Princess and Party Mania

Luckily, the balloons fit in the van, and Leonor and I spent the first hour setting everything up. Luckily, the bar kept me well supplied with margaritas!

I was thrilled with all the decorations, and they looked better than I had imagined.
The kids all arrived around 1 p.m. About half were no-shows, but that was OK, we had more than enough fun with those who did show!

Everybody looked really cute in their costumes.
After making everyone pose for pics, they brought out stuff so that each child (and a few adults who wanted to join in) could make their own pizzas. They all did really well and had a blast doing it.
What is it about the tomato sauce that makes it the most fun to smear? After they added cheese, the pizzas were collected up and cooked in the brick oven, for all the kids to eat.

Ahoy Matey's

...getting ready to leave for the party. T is thrilled with the present Dot got her....Pearls from Manila like mama's and aunt dotty's. She insists on wearing them all the time. I foresee a tantrum on the horizon when she learns she can't wear them to school.


Party is at one, so crunch time has begun!

Hannah Montana Hair

Since T likes dressing up so much, in a fit of disney-outlet frenzy I purchased T a Hannah Montana wig. While T really isn't a fan of Hannah, she's so digging the hair! The kid looks so stinkin cute in it I almost peed in my pants laughing.
She immediately wanted a pony tail, like aunt dottie's.

God, this kid kills me.

Update: the kid was starting to love her wig so much I was getting worried she'd want to wear it outside the house. She was already talking about disney. Anyway, that's scratched now, as T has pronounced that the wig "make me itchy".

Mom is breathing a sigh of relief!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR!!!!!

We started the day putting on our special birthday shirt. T was particularly impressed because on Sesame Street, the number of the day was the number "4". Coincidence? I think not!
I dropped T off at daycare, and then drove to my mom's to take her for an MRI. Although that took way too long, it all went well. I was worried that she wouldn't be able to stay in the machine for the whole time. But, they let me stay in the room with her during the test, and hold her hand.

Dot was able to pick up the cake, cheese doodles, and juice boxes (the perfect toddler party meal) and I was able to meet her at the daycare for the Tinkerbell Party.

T was so excited she could barely sit still.
Here's T with her two teachers, Miss Susan and Miss Cynthia. Miss Cynthia is deaf, and communicates by reading lips. She's teaching all the kids sign language. I LOVE it. T can do all her letters in sign language, and even corrects me when I get it all wrong.
All the little boys and girls seemed to really enjoy the party. After, we drove out to pick up the schoolbus from the dealership. They could find nothing wrong with the brakes. Figures. Anyway, they went over them with a fine tooth comb and pronounced them fine, so we have to live with that. I'm just happy to have it back in time to pick up the 30 balloons that are being blown up for the party tomorrow. Shoving those things in my mom's teeny tiny car would have been impossible.

So ends our day. I'm going to attempt to get a good night's sleep in anticipation for the big day tomorrow.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl. Mommy hopes all your hopes and dreams come true!

What Now??

So, I've had no time to sort out what's salvagable in my freezer and what is not. I've been busy with other things. I got the schoolbus back from the shop, and it was running great. Problem is, I'm not sure if it will stop.

I was driving along, minding my own business and not really accelerating, but more riding the brake. A car goes to stop in front of me, and I push harder on the brake...and it basically goes to the floor yet the damn schoolbus was not stopping. Yes, similar to some 1950's Hitchcock triller or bad "B" movie, my brakes FAILED. I started pumping them, and luckily they came back. However, it scared the tar out of me. Luckily, I was far enough away from that car in front that no accident occurred.

For the rest of the journey, there was also no incident, but I think the brakes seemed "soft". Don't know if I'm being paranoid or what. Needless to say, the thing was towed back to the dealership this morning, and I'm driving around in my mom's car...still. The dealership had convinced me that the brakes needed service, when the schoolbus was in earlier in the week for the engine work, and they screwed something up. No word yet on what the problem is. However I was like a crazy woman on the phone with them this morning, voicing my complaints. I'm insisting that only the shop manager work on my car, as clearly the kids are screwing things up.

I'm trying not to dwell on it. What if it had happened at an intersection with T in the car and I blew through a red light...possibly causing some unsuspecting soul to Tbone my car...perhaps on T's side.?????? I can't even contemplate such a disaster.

Anyway, I'm hoping to get the thing back either Friday or Saturday. We'll see.

Meanwhile, poor T was just playing on the jungle gym. She had left one of her tiny gardening gloves on my chair, and went to put it on. Unbeknownst to both of us, there was a lizard inside. Scared the bejesus out of her, poor thing.

So, after my nice relaxing day in the Keys...we're jinxed with the freezer fiasco, the brake incident, and the lizard scare. I knew I should have never blogged and bragged about my relaxing day.

The fates just couldn't resist. I really hope that's my "3" things.

Why I Love Florida

Had to go down to the Keys today to take a sworn statement on an investigation. That's about 2 hours south. Finished the statement about 1:30 - 2:00, and the court reporter and I had a little lunch at a roadside cafe/grill recommended by a local before driving back north.


This was our view as we were vegging out, eating absolutely DELICIOUS fresh seafood (I had the lobster tacos), and escaping from the frenetic pace of the city.

Fabulous!

UPDATE: As of 9:00 p.m. tonight, I go into my kitchen and what do I find? The damn freezer door open. Its been open anywhere from 2 - 4 hours. Lots of stuff is melted and water is on the kitchen floor from melted ice leaking out of the ice machine.

T is in big trouble. So much for my relaxing day!

Bendaroos and Fleas...

Our friend Ruth, ever the close reader, quickly noticed an opportunity to get T a present, and while out shopping today spied a box of Bendaroos.



SCORE!



I know T will be particularly excited to receive this gift.


Meanwhile, I'm very worried. Other close readers of this blog will remember last summer's fiasco with The Fleas. Despite having no pets, the crawl space under my house got infested and were chewing up both T and me. DISGUSTING! I blame the semi-wild neighborhood cats.


Anyway, after having Orkin out 3 times and putting grates over the holes in my crawlspace under the house. Problem was solved.



Maybe not so much. I've seen a cat hanging around our house again lately. A cat from a creepy house down the street that absolutely STINKS when one walks too near it from dirty cat. Thank god I'm not next door! Anyway, T has SEVEN...yes you read that right...SEVEN frickin bites on her. Hard to know if they're fleas or misquito. Once again, GROSS. You can see 4 of the bites in this pic.



We'll be watching this more closely in the future!