Spring Fling

Hard to believe another Spring Fling has come and gone!  This year, Em's class chose "Roar" by Katy Perry and they all learned a routine to go with it--we've seen it at least a thousand times over the past few weeks as Em perfected her moves.  The kids all wore jeans and a white shirt with sunglasses, and they looked super cute.  This is our little show-stealer before they went on stage with a couple of her friends, Hannah and Andrew.

Making Money

It seems like the last few times we've tried having a yard sale, we pull everything out in the driveway just long enough to get rained on, and this time was no different!  We didn't have a ton of stuff to sell this time, so we hadn't planned to be outside long.  Em really wanted a lemonade (and water) stand though, so we made lemonade the night before and she designed her own sign.  Then she set up her cups and cash register, and was ready to roll!  One lady actually paid her a dollar for a cup of water!

Exciting Easter Weekend

Our neighborhood had its annual Easter Egg hunt and cupcake contest on Saturday--I helped with the coordination, which meant Em could go over with me and have some extra time in the bounce house with a friend before it got crowded.  She was pretty excited about that!

Our Easter Bunny arrived on the back of a Harley!

After pictures with the Bunny, all the dads went out to hide the eggs (and the kids cheered them on from the clubhouse balcony).

This is Em's little friend Ella--they actually were in the same class when Em was at Gateway a couple of years ago.  They're the same age and will start kindergarten together this fall.  There are lots of kids Em's age in the neighborhood, so it's nice that she'll know some when she goes to the big school!

We split the kids into two groups for the egg hunt because there were a lot of really young kids who didn't have a fair shot with the bigger ones.

Everyone found plenty of eggs!

On Easter Sunday, we were on our way home from the grocery store and had bought a bag of carrots to stop and feed the horses.  There's a horse farm near our house and we sometimes pass it and talk about stopping to see them.  I've seen people out there before, so we decided to give it a shot.  We pulled out our carrots and the horses came right over to the fence.  After we fed them a few, we looked up to see a lady on a golf cart heading toward us--Mick was sure we were about to get in trouble, but it was too late to run, so we waited to see what she'd say.  As she got closer, we could tell she was waving and smiling.  She pulled up and said she was getting ready to saddle up one of the horses so her 5 year old daughter and her cousin could ride, and asked if Em wanted to ride too! Not a tough decision for our little animal lover.  Mick ran home to take the groceries back, and Em and I rode to the house with her on the golf cart.

When we got to the house, there were two little girls in a small fenced area with bunnies!  Em was ecstatic, and jumped right in.

Then the lady let us walk out with her to get Dakota, the black and white horse they'd ride.  Em wasn't the least bit shy--she is completely crazy about animals.

She took control and led Dakota back to the barn, talking the whole way.

She looked like a natural when she got in the saddle!

It didn't take her long to start asking for a horse.  We stayed almost two hours, and they invited us to come back any time we saw the gate open!  Southern hospitality at its finest :)!

That afternoon, we dyed eggs (better late than never!).

This was one of Em's masterpieces.

And Mick got to take some really fancy boiled eggs to work with his lunch this week!

Updates

It seems like it's been a while since I've updated on all the things Em is doing now!  Her class and her teachers this year have really been awesome--they've continued to give homework three nights each week and practice writing and reading a lot.

Em is very proud to be able to write her entire name now without needing to be reminded of the letters!

Over Easter week, they had a break from homework, but Em wanted me to make her some.  They're doing lots of rhyming word families and sight words, as well as some really simple math.  Here are a few of the worksheets I made for her--we also made some BINGO cards with sight words, and she gets really into that game if she can use M&Ms for her game pieces!

She can count to over 100 and can count by tens--she's been writing her alphabet (upper and lower case) for a while now, but can now write her numbers up past 20.  Once in a while, she'll still get a 2 or a 3 turned around.

Em has a terrific memory, and she can learn a song really quickly--she knows the words to all of her favorites and can pick up songs at school in one day!

Some of their homework lately has been little books with simple stories--so instead of doing different activities each night, they focus on being able to read through the book by the end of the week.  Em likes practicing her reading when we're reading to her before bed at night, and when she takes her time, she's actually really good at sounding out the words.

It's so hard to believe she'll be starting kindergarten this fall--she says she's ready, and we registered last month, so if we aren't ready now, we don't have much more time to get there!

Last Day - Magic Kingdom

A week sure flies by when you're having fun!  We weren't in a huge rush Friday morning to get to the park because we had done so much already--we stopped and had breakfast at The Roaring Forks in our hotel (a quicker, cook-to-order type place).  Em of course wanted the Mickey waffles--with chocolate chips, whipped cream and bacon!  What are vacations for if not to eat complete junk!?!

We caught the boat over to Magic Kingdom--this was something we really enjoyed about the Wilderness Lodge.  The boats ran every 15 minutes or so, and we almost always got a seat up front, which Em just loved.  Only about a 10 minute ride over to Magic Kingdom!

This little stuffed wolf was one Em fell in love with at Animal Kingdom.  I convinced her to wait since I had seen the same wolf in the store window at our hotel.  One afternoon while she was napping, I went downstairs to buy him and surprise her, and couldn't find him anywhere except in the display window.  Come to find out, they no longer sold them and only had the three in the window--I found a really nice lady who unlocked the display and then had to search for a price because of course he didn't have a tag on him.  Em was thrilled to see him when she woke up, and went downstairs to thank the lady when I told her the story.  She named him Wet Nose :).

Once again, we got to the park early enough on Friday to get into some things with no wait, like Enchanted Tales with Belle.  Last year, Em got the role of Mrs. Potts, and she was determined to get a better part this year.  She was thrilled with Phillipe, the horse!

Of course, another ride on the carousel!

We saved a few rides for the last day, like the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, one of her favorites.

And the Jungle Cruise!

Em practiced her photography skills several times throughout the day--she's getting pretty good!

It took some convincing to get her to agree to the Haunted Mansion, and she was a little unsure for most of the ride, but later said it was her favorite!  A classic, for sure.

We couldn't convince her to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean again--the small drop startled her so much last year that it seems to be all she remembers!  I was a little disappointed because I love that ride, but we passed it up this time.

Em got into the "magic shots" and loved seeing them when we got home.

Peter Pan is still a favorite of hers, and he was in a different location this year, but she did want to meet him.  I got in line early before he was scheduled to appear and held our spot while Mick and Em explored the Swiss Family Treehouse.

We planned to head back to the hotel around 3pm to make sure we had time to get to the airport, but we made a couple of detours on the way to the exit.  Marie, the kitten from the Aristocats, had a fairly short line and Em wanted to meet her.

And then by chance, Mr. and Mrs. Easter Bunny were sort of hidden nearby with no line at all!

We took the boat back to the hotel just as it started to become really overcast.  Em stood out front and helped navigate our way.

The geyser was erupting as we got back, so we saw it one more time.

Literally as we were walking into the hotel, it started to pour down rain.  Our timing couldn't have been better!  We used the Magical Express Transportation from the airport, so we had dropped our bags off downstairs that morning and Disney checks them for you and takes them to the airline.  It's a free service they offer and makes the trip so easy!  We had about an hour before our bus was to take us to the airport, so Em enjoyed playing in the lobby a bit.

It's really a beautiful resort, and plenty to look at to keep her busy!

The bus ride to the airport took a lot longer than planned because of the pouring rain (and the fact that it was Friday afternoon traffic, I'm sure), but we got there and found out our flight was delayed anyway.  We ate dinner at the airport and boarded the flight to head home.  A terrific week and so much fun, but it was time to get home to our other two babies who surely missed us!

Day 4 - Epcot (and Em's 5th Birthday!)

Thursday was Em's actual birthday, and we had reservations at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall for breakfast at 10:30.  We were out really late the night before, so we took advantage of the late reservation and slept in a little.  Em decided she wanted to dress like Jasmine for her birthday.

This was also in the middle of the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, which meant all of these super cool, elaborate character topiaries everywhere.

We didn't realize Sven would be joining us in this picture until we got home!

We all decided to meet a few of the characters again this year.

There aren't many things in Epcot you can use a FastPass for, and Em refused to go on Soarin' again (the hang gliding simulation ride), so we used one for the character meet.

So glad we got the autograph book, because she loved it!

We all met Pluto last year but for some reason our pictures weren't on our Memory Maker account, so I was glad to meet him again this year.

Belle was the "featured" princess at the breakfast, so Em met her first. 

It's nice to be able to sit down and have a relaxed meal while you wait for the characters to come over--Princess Aurora came over first.

And then Snow White,

Em was getting her autograph pen ready for Ariel when they brought her a birthday cupcake!  At breakfast!

Ariel was the last princess to come over and visit.

Then they got all of the girls up and marched around the restaurant--Em loves doing this kind of stuff, and it's really cute to see all the little girls proudly showing off their costumes.

Duffy (Mickey Mouse's teddy bear, apparently) was not a character Em knew, but when she saw a big teddy bear doing pictures and autographs, she couldn't resist.  The line was short, so we jumped in.

We headed to Morocco to meet Aladdin and Jasmine--we actually waited longer for them than probably anything else we did.  Em had a good time making friends in line, and she talked Mick into buying her a gold lamp like the one the genie lives in!

It was worth the wait, because they really made a big deal over Em's outfit and got her to pose like Jasmine.  She loved meeting them!

After that, we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom and then the boat back to our hotel for our afternoon break (pool and nap!).  Here's Em making friends with someone else as we waited for the monorail.

We headed back to Epcot that night and did a few rides with no wait at all--Spaceship Earth, the Nemo ride, and then headed over to the World Showcase for Mexican food and the Illuminations fireworks show.

It actually didn't go so well, because Em didn't want to hear the fireworks and we were again too close.  This was probably the one night we kind of regretted going back to the park.  It just felt like we were running to get dinner, see the show (which we really didn't even see) and then to make it back to the bus for the hotel.

The park is beautiful at night though, and Em enjoyed it overall.