The happiest place on earth

One of my 101 goals was to take the girls to Disney World.  With only a little over a year left living in Florida, we figured it was time!  Abbie and Ellie are the perfect age to really enjoy it, plus they are able to go on most of the rides!

To be honest, I had a lot of internal struggles about buying our tickets to Disney.  From the beginning, I had planned to buy the Florida 4-day pass.  That way, we could spend one day at each park and then be done with it all - no more pressure to go all the time to make season passes "worth it".  However, we have several friends who have seasonal (or annual/no-blackout) passes to Disney, and I was feeling a bit of pressure to follow suit.  As a result, I hated myself for feeling that pressure, since I'm not usually into "keeping up with the Joneses".  Most of the time, I really didn't mind not having the passes. I was fine seeing my friends go frequently, we would just stay home and have fun ourselves. However, sometimes I would feel guilty like I was maybe depriving my children of some magical childhood adventure - we may never live in Florida again, after all.  I was also feeling a lot of anxiety about packing everything into one day at each park with the 4-day pass.  What if it rained?  What if someone was sick on the ONE day we were supposed to go?  What if... what if...??  It was killing me.  And THEN... I started feeling guilty that I was feeling guilty.  I was disgusted with myself for thinking that "depriving" my children of Disney was even a problem.  Because it's not.  I NEVER went to Disney growing up, and neither did most of my friends.  Even still, all these anxieties and guilty feelings were building up and I couldn't stand it.  I'm not a "guilt-feeling" mom.  I don't guilt trip myself very often.  I think I'm a good mom and I do my best.  But, for some reason this was really getting to me.  I was putting way more thought into it than I wanted to.

In the end, it was my sister who saved the day.  Emma called me and said that they are hoping to surprise their kids with a trip to Disney next December (at the end of this year), and that she would love for us to come.  Right away, I knew that of course we would, and it made the most sense for us to go ahead and just buy the seasonal passes (we can go any time, any day, except some blackout dates, which is basically the whole summer but it's miserably hot then, anyway!).  That way, we could take some day trips here and there as a family, or with friends, and then we could go for a good chunk of a week next December with Emma's family.  It will definitely be worth it.

So, when I went down for my Disney 10k race in January, I bought our tickets.  Garrett drove the girls down that Saturday morning and we met up after my race and took the kids to Magic Kingdom.

I'm not sure why these pictures uploaded like this and I'm too lazy to crop them, but I just loved when the girls met the princesses:

All in all, a very magical day!  I really loved the Magic Kingdom and I'm excited to go back again! It was so much fun to see the magic through my kids' eyes.  I will admit, I got a little nervous when Ellie got scared during the thunder/lightning part of the Winnie-the-Pooh ride (our first ride!), but thankfully she got a little better as the day progressed. :)  

We also went to Animal Kingdom (a few weeks later), which was also okay but not my favorite.  It was a lot more zoo-like than I thought it would be (yes I know it's called "Animal Kingdom" but I thought there would be more rides/attractions, rather than mostly just a big zoo).  It started pouring around 3:30pm so we had to cut our day there short, but hey we can go back any time so it's not a big deal!

So... if ANYONE has been considering a trip to Disney World in the next year, please let us know!  We would love to come down and meet up for a day! :)

Lately

Olivia, waiting for Abbie to get home from school:

My helpers at Trader Joe's... Ellie was pretending to be a statue

 I was trying to clean my floors and Olivia kept walking behind me... aren't those the cutest little footprints?

I decided to make a heart quilt for Valentine's Day, and here's the top. I don't have many Valentine's decorations so I thought this would be a fun thing to have.  However, when I posted it on my quilting Instagram account, there was a lot of interest and I ended up selling this one and getting a custom order for another one!  Guess I'll have to make a third if I want to keep one!  Maybe for next year....

Playing around is so much more fun than going to sleep!

Yummy doughnuts with chocolate!

We have had an abundance of leaves in our yard lately!  Garrett finally did a big clean-up a few weeks ago, and another one last week.  Hopefully we are nearly done!  Last week (the second major clean-up) we filled over 25 bags of leaves!  It's pretty insane (and annoying!).  But I have to admit, sometimes it's nice to get out and do some manual labor, especially in gorgeous Florida winter weather.

This is Olivia's reaction when Daddy leaves to go for a run.  Poor little daddy's girl.

A successfully dirty day at the park!

Ellie wanted a braid just like Elsa's:

Someone found the chocolate chips:

Sharing Daddy's ice cream:

Garrett brought home balloons for the girls for Valentine's Day:

Another park day!  We go pretty much every afternoon for at least a couple hours.  In fact, we've gotten to the point where, if we are there for less than at least 90 minutes, my kids can't believe we are leaving "so early!!  We just got here!!"  Our longest day yet was a couple Saturdays ago when a bunch of the husbands were working.  My friends and I went to one playground for about 3 hours in the morning, then met up again later at another park for around 4 hours.  It was glorious.  Both playgrounds are within a mile of our house and each has its own perks.

Ellie, reading outside:

I'm realizing that I really need to break out my camera more when Abbie is home!  It seems like most of my pictures are taken when she is at school or off playing in the fields at the playground.  Olivia is always by me, so she's definitely in the majority of the pictures.  Ellie's also around more.

All in all, it's been a wonderful winter, full of playgrounds and friends.  I admit, I'm dreading summer a bit.  The pool is so much more work and a lot more stressful than the playground, but it's one of our only outdoor options during May-Sept.  But, it's our last Florida summer so we will make the best of it!

Happy Birthday, Abbie!

Abbie turned SEVEN in January!

How did my baby get so old?

Here's the note that Garrett left for her that day.  Abbie's birthday was on a Sunday, but Garrett worked a 14-hour day on Saturday and a 14-hour day on Sunday, so... he literally did not see her between Friday night and Monday night!  He felt pretty badly but what can you do.

She was really excited about her new soccer ball:

And some window clings!

We didn't do too much to celebrate on her actual birthday (since it was Sunday & Garrett was gone), besides a special breakfast and dinner.  On Monday night we went out to dinner with some friends at Cici's Pizza, per Abbie's request.  She had gone for another friend's birthday party the month before and had been raving to Ellie about the arcade ever since.  Both girls were over the moon to be there.

                                      

I love so many things about Abbie, but here are seven:

1. She is so creative.  She has big ideas for how to decorate for things, how to celebrate things, and how things should be.  I love this about her.

2. She is such a great big sister.  Olivia adores her.  I love walking into a room and finding her reading books to Ellie and Olivia.  So cute.

3. She's smart.  She aces all her tests and does all her homework perfectly (even if she resists having to do it!)

4. She's a great artist.  Several months ago when we went to the school to find out who her first grade teacher was going to be, another teacher found out who she was and said, "Abbie Woodbury!  I have heard about you!  I've heard that you are a wonderful artist!"  She was so happy, it was adorable.

5. This is similar to being a good big sister, but all little kids love Abbie.  When we go to the playground, they flock to her and follow her around like the Pied Piper.  She makes up little games with them, keeps them safe on the playground, and pushes them on the swings.

6. She is a great soccer player and a great dancer, too.

7. She loves to help me.  Help me cook, help me do the dishes, help me sew.  She loves to learn and try new things.

Happy 7th Birthday, Abbie.  We love you!!