The Magic Kingdom

As soon as we arrived at the Magic Kingdom we were greeted with some favorites... in the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It Parade. (If you are going to Disney I highly recommend this parade- it was a favorite of everyone in the family). The characters actually get off the floats and dance with the kids. (Pics of that later).

Woody and Jesse.

Donald and Minnie.

And, the castle. It was even more breathtaking as an adult than it was when I went as a kid.

As we entered the park- map and times brochure in hand- we were plagued with this question: "What to do first?"

More on that later.

The Trip to Florida...

Several of you have emailed or facebooked me and asked for the trip to Florida... I am sorry I have other responsibilities! ;) I will try to get a bunch up this week. Here we are on the way.

"Are we there yet?"

Despite how the picture looks - the kids did extremely well in the car. It was an easy drive, but a really boring drive. I95 may be the most boring road I have ever driven on.

Ethan was extremely eager to get there - probably because he understood the most.

Here he is full of joy!

Breakfast at the hotel before we head out to the parks.

At the first park, Hollywood Studios. Tina (my cousin) met us there to check us in - and then took off to do wedding stuff. It was only 9 in the morning and we were already very hot! Check out Isaac's happy face. He had just bought this mickey pen at the disney store.

First thing we did was Playhouse Disney Live. The twins LOVED it! It was the perfect age for them and starting the day out with the traditional characters was a good choice. We stayed at Hollywood Studios until about lunchtime. We were waiting around to use our FastPasses for the Toy Story Mania ride. (Awesome!). Whoever invented the FastPass system was a genius and obviously had experience with little kids. with a Fast Pass we only had to wait in line for about 5 minutes (as opposed to the traditional lines which were often over an hour for the popular rides).

So that's it for now folks... I will post our pictures from Day 1 at the Magic Kingdom later.

Lake Phelps

Over the 4th we traveled to John's Uncle's Lake House. It was about 5 hours from us toward the outer banks of NC. John and I had visited Uncle Paul and Aunt Susan there before - but it was the first time our children had been. It was an awesome weekend: perfect weather, delicious southern food (homemade biscuits every morning and the world's best pimento cheese), and relaxed family fun. Here is some of the fun we caught on film...

Ready for a fun day.

You can almost see it in the picture - but the bottom of Lake Phelps is sandy and the water is crystal clear. I grew up going to NC lakes and I have never seen any water as clear, clean or beautiful as this lake water.

The area is extremely rural... especially for this city girl!

We drove around one night looking for wild bears. Yeah, you can guess that was not my idea. Caroline (John's cousin) saw 16 wild bears the night before on the wildlife preserve. All we saw was birds and beautiful landscape.

The sunset on our bear hunt...

One of Ethan's favorite parts was riding in all the boats with his dad. Here they are in the kayak.

Lake Phelps is NC's second largest natural lake. One of the coolest things about the almost perfectly round lake - even in the very middle it is never deeper than 7 or 8 feet. The kids could walk VERY far out and still touch. They LOVED that. That adult you see is John standing about 30 feet from the dock.

This was taken on July 4th. As you can see- not boat in sight. Most of the lake is surrounded by Pettigrew State Park and can never be developed. There are only a handful of houses on the lake- and even on the most popular weekend of summer there were barely any boats out.

We were fortunate to have John's mom come with us (it is her brother's lake house). She is a huge help with the kids.

Pulling Isaac and Liv on the tube.

Off for a pedal boat ride. They LOVED this boat. Even more than the motor boat - but then again- John did all the work pedalling.

Thanks to Paul and Susan for an awesome weekend!

Just hanging out by the pool...

For the month of June we spent most of our days just hanging out at the pool. I grew up spending my summers at the pool and I love being able to give that to my kids too... the only downside is all the sunscreen required for my nearly albino (like thir mother) kids.

All three of the kids have grown leaps and bounds in their swimming ability this summer - but we are particularly proud of Ethan and the way he has taken to the water. I haven't captured it yet - but I need to get his diving board cannonball on film! Here is some of our summertime fun.

Playing Catch Up...

This is the most behind I have ever been in the world of blogging... but I am determined to catch up this week. The beginning of the summer went so slow... but these last weeks have been flying by. Stay tuned for more on Swimming at the Pool, Art Camp, Disney World, and My Cousin's Wedding.

Vacation Bible School

Several weeks ago the kids and I participated in Vacation Bible School at our church. This is one of the largest things the church pulls off all year - with about 250 kids and 100 volunteers. All three of the kids LOVE it and they spend the rest of the year singing the songs.

The kids are all split up into crews - with 5 or 6 kids in a crew. Each crew has a leader. This year Ethan was really fortunate to have an awesome leader - my dear friend, Meredith. Here he is with Crew #15. Kieran, Ethan, Marschall, Anna and Joshua.

Here we are in the craft classroom. I taught the craft station with my two friends, Kim and Amy. I really love teaching and seeing all the kids. I had rising 1st - 5th graders.

Check out the awesome decorations in our room (No, I did not do it- it was another group of volunteers;).

And, finally here we are during large group time. The kids sing and dance with a live worship team, watch funny skits, etc. This year to go with our "High Seas Adventure" theme the stage was decorated like a huge ship.

Marschall, Ethan and Kieran singing... "pat a neighbors back, pat a back next to ya, pat a neighbors back and sign along..."