legoland: the rest of our week

you didn't think i was coming back from legoland, did you?! it takes forever to churn out a blog post these days... in the midst of still slowly getting settled, school, and well, life... but here i am! the kids are still talking about our legoland trip like we just got back yesterday. it is usually the topic of conversation with any adult who asks how they're doing. here's a recap of the rest of our time at legoland... it's about as brief as i can make it! (more pictures here.)

this model of einstein's head was a-mazing! and huge. i think i read somewhere that it was one of the most complicated models to build. no doubt.
 
ethan was probably looking most forward to getting his driver's license at the driving school. after a little review of the rules and how to operate the car, ethan hopped in a yellow lego car and pushed the pedal to the metal! (very slow metal....)
   
it was hilarious to watch these kids zoom around a "real" street in their little cars! they had stop signs, traffic lights, and even a round about! my favorite moment was cheering on a little girl as she executed a perfect u-turn only to see her ram into the back of another car! ethan favored the round about... see him in his little yellow car?!
 
and heeeere he is with his driver's license! warning: this nifty souvenir costs extra. why were we even surprised by this? i have no idea. but he did not take that lanyard off his neck for the next two days, so i guess that was worth it. (does he have a clue where it is now?! nope. of course not.)
 
the guys ooohed and ahhhed over this ford explorer made out of more than 300,000 legos.
 
when legoland bought cypress gardens, they kept the ski show as a part of the park. this pirate show was near the top of my kids' favorites for the week. now, it was no cypress gardens amazing ski show.... but it was pretty cute. everybody loved seeing these minifigures come out on skis! (and you can see the island in the sky in the background.)
 
so there's the imperial soldiers who are helping this girl (miranda- caroline loved her, of course) protect the ship they took from the big, bad horrible captain brickbeard.... arrrrrrgh! i loved him!!
 
his pirate buddies did some flips and jumps on skis, and then they hopped on the pirate ship to try to take over the ship. lots of water was shot at the bad guys...
 
and eventually, brickbeard is chased around the lake by an inflatable shark. i'm pretty sure i snapped this at the shark part. ethan was crrrracking up. which cracked me up. :)
 
the island in the sky ride was also a cypress gardens original. it was neat to be able to see the whole park as the ride was slowly spinning around.
 
here you can see the setup for the ski show.
 
there was a "duploville" playground area set up for the younger kiddos... the girls could've stayed here all day!
 
caroline took her jr. driving school very seriously. this was the only picture where i caught a glimpse of a smile. she was 1 of only 2 drivers on her little road, so i don't know why she was so worried!
 
while ethan went to the driving school again, nana and i took the girls to get their faces painted. i could not stop laughing at amelia.... check out this look! :)
 
here are my little butterflies! i was pleased that the artwork stayed on very well for the whole day!
 
the girls wanted to pose with this pigeon lady. she was a little too busy catching pigeons for her dinner to smile.
 
caroline talked the whole day before about wanting to meet the princess in the kingdoms area, so after the face painting, we headed that way. and what did caroline say to the princess when she met her? absolutely NOTHING! this little chatterbox princess-lover gets completely dumbfounded in front of princesses every single time! i thought since this one wasn't a true disney princess, that caroline wouldn't clam up.... but she did. oh well. at least she posed for a picture...
 
brian and ethan had fun building these racers and testing them on the track.
 
legoland had beautiful scenery everywhere you turned.
 
the fireman show was a funny, slapstick routine that had my kids laughing the entire time.


and nana recorded the entire show on her iphone so we can watch "put the wet stuff on the hot stuff" anytime we want! :)

amelia discovered duplos on this trip.... and she loved them! they are perfect for her busy little hands, and her brother doesn't get upset when she knocks them over!
 
ethan got a kick out of meeting stormer, one of the hero factory guys (i think?).
 
the activity that ethan asked to return to the most was pharaoh's revenge. it was a two-level ball-shooter crazy house. he loved it. i broke a brand-new flip flop trying to climb up (and carry amelia up) the rope ramp. (did you know that a big fat band-aid will hold your flipflop together all day? my father-in-law is macgyver.)
 
and we all kept returning again and again to miniland.
 
i tried to snap pictures of everything in miniland, but i was interrupted (imagine that....) and didn't get some of miami beach, st. augustine, and daytona. otherwise, you can see all of miniland on my flickr set here.
this guy cracked me up-- reminded me of ME with the cameras around his neck, but the bags of money are foreign to me. :)
 
can you believe we got this picture at the end of the day?? i adore this picture of my children with their nana and pappy, who they adore so much.
 
and i'm pretty sure the feeling's mutual! what a silly bunch!
 
then i pushed it and wanted one of us. i mean, i had to get in a few pictures on this trip!
 
ethan continued to trade minifigs throughout the week, and he was so proud of his final trades.... a farmer guy and a very very cool british soldier (do those have a name??)
 
and as we exited the park, ethan made another final trade.... so here are his final final trades!
 
not sure what's going on with the basketball player's facepaint, but i was glad ethan ended up with the very very cool soldier. (i also liked the mime he had the day before, but brian strongly encouraged him to trade that one... brian has a thing against clowns and mimes!)

our week at legoland was such a fun one! the perfect mix of relaxing, exploring, and shopping. we can't wait to see you again, legoland!!
 

legoland!

we had a great first day at legoland today! brian's parents gave ethan this trip to legoland for his birthday in july, and we've been counting down the days ever since! even amelia could be heard over the weekend saying, "four days till wegowand!" we arrived very very late tuesday night, so we had a super slow morning and did not even attempt to get to the park before lunch. the sky looked like it could drop a storm on us any minute, so we figured the crowds would be low at legoland today. we were right! there was no waiting for any attractions that we rode, and the only time we waited all day was for the pizza buffet.
 
i hope for legoland's sake that today's light crowds were due to the weather, but we sure enjoyed how empty it was! we just hit the tip of the iceberg today... the big kids had a ball on the jousting ride-- they rode it twice in a row and were all smiles.
 
we all rode through a "safari", where the animals are made of legos. the creations were incredibly impressive, but the ride was so fast that you could not really stop and appreciate the details on the lego animals. we'll have to ride this one a few times to really see everything. i am not usually a fan of ostriches, but i loved the detail on their tails.

 
we had never seen a double-decker carousel, so of course we had to give it a spin.... a few times! caroline loved the sparkly horses!
 
pappy waited so long for us to ride the carousel that he turned into lego pappy!! nana and the kids did their best to wake him up....
 
OH! there's pappy!
 
ethan got a big kick out of trading minifigs with the ones on the workers' ("model citizens") name tags. he brought two very carefully selected minifigs from home, and they both were traded today! i have a feeling he'll be doing several more trades over the next few days.
 
miniland is definitely the crown jewel of legoland!
 
we did not see the whole display today.... it will definitely take us a few days to see it all, and then i'm sure we'll still miss some things! tomorrow, i am planning on pulling out the zoom lens to capture some of the details, but today, i just snapped away as i soaked it all in. these pictures will not do miniland justice. really, you have to be there, standing and looking at these replica cities constructed completely out of legos, to appreciate it. there are boats and jet skis zooming around the water, pirates hoisting up a donkey, and sea lions barking on a pier. ethan spent the most time watching the huge pirate ships fight the wind. i have to admit-- i did too! (below, you can see ethan trying to make the ship shoot the little boat riding by.)
     
and that is a minipeek at miniland! it's getting late, so i'm gonna pause here and get some rest for our full day tomorrow! i have my favorite pictures from today in a flickr set if your 6 year old son wants to see more. :)

my three minifigs had a fun, fun day and can't wait to go back tomorrow!
 

settling in

well, hello october! i am so glad to see you!  i am happy to say that we are almost at the end of unpacking boxes.   september was kind of like a black hole-time warp for me.  every day met me with the insurmountable task of getting settled, my first trimester nausea was in full swing, and i could not find my calendar.  i remember one day when i felt like we had been here for months, and i just couldn't believe we weren't more unpacked.... then it hit me that it was only september 14, two whole weeks since our move. it was gonna be ok.  and in the three weeks since that revelation, i am so thankful that we have indeed settled in!  we are so incredibly thankful to God to be where we are... and i am ready to soak up life in our new home and neighborhood.

we have a little welcoming committee that greets us on our back doorstep or our roof (like a herd of elephants) most nights...


here they are having a saturday morning breakfast of cheerios on our next-door neighbor's patio.



a couple of our neighbors have been feeding these varmits, so they like to hang around our backyard at night.  don't even comment and tell me they're cute. brian's ideal plan for them is (ahem) a city code violation, so pappy is working on getting some traps so we can take these pesky little critters out to the country.  not sure if they feed them cheerios in the country, though...

in other news, i chopped caroline's hair a few weeks ago!  bathtime de-tangling was nearing torture for both of us, and her curls were usually just a big ole' mess.  she was all for trying a new haircut, so i just went to town... hoping i wouldn't mess it up too much. here's a little ways into it. i was honestly going for a good bit longer, but caroline moved, and here's what we got!


i didn't get a great "after" shot-- caroline is eating something here.  this is after her post-haircut bath. she LOVED that it took no time to wash her hair!


i was hoping caroline's curls would bounce back up since there's less weight on her hair now, but i'm afraid i cut off most of the curls. here's what i mean by "bounce back up": this is 3 years ago-- the last time her hair was this short.


it will still get pretty curly around her face, but the back is mostly smooth and turned under.  again, this is not a great "after" picture, but this shows her hair dry.


caroline was completely happy with her haircut, and while i was a little sad to see her long curls go, i must say that it is so nice to not be dealing with the tangles! i am curious if the curls will come back with next summer's humidity or a little longer length.... we will just have to wait and see.   caroline is not the least bit concerned about losing most of her curls. as long as she is wearing a dress or skirt and has at least 75 accessories on her person at any given time, she is as happy as a lark. and her definition of "accessory" is a broad one.

i'm working on snapping some pictures of the house to share. it is definitely a work in progress, so we'll see what actually makes it on here! :)  in the meantime, this little girl wants to say hello one more time.


she is surely keeping me on my toes these days.... amelia is talking up a storm and is into everything (she has a hayday in this den of chaos!).  she loves to sing praise and worship songs with me, which just melts this momma's heart.  and while we are not officially potty-training until after our upcoming trip, amelia is getting pretty accurate and going poop on the potty! (sorry, i know that came without warning after praise and worship songs! ha!)  her favorite term of endearment these days is "mr. pricklepants", and she is overjoyed anytime she sees an "american flag! american flag!" she is definitely my most snuggly child, and she's in the running for being the loudest as well. :)

we did not forget to bring ethan with us when we moved--- he is here and is growing like a weed!  i just have not taken any pictures of him lately.  he has lost his second tooth and is as excited as ever to be back in the swing of school.  he loves having his own room and is counting down the days till we go to legoland!

and last but certainly not least, our may 2012 baby is 9 1/2 weeks! i am feeling so much better these days-- praise God! as is expected, my energy is definitely less, but i am thankful to be able to go most days without feeling nauseous. i have never been one to argue with taking a nap, so when i read the following in my prenatal handbook from the doctor's office, i cheered:

Take time to lie down and rest with your feet up whenever you feel tired or fatigued. Getting into a habit of a regular afternoon nap is a good way for you to maintain normal energy levels during the pregnancy.
well, whatever you say doc! alrighty... gotta get back to those last boxes before my prescribed afternoon nap! see ya soon!

the icing on the cake

brian's birthday kind of got lost in the process of moving (among other things we've yet to find), so we had a little belated celebration last week. anybody who knows brian knows that he is not a cake guy... unless it's a bonafide american cookie company cake. he's had the exact. same. cake. every single year. so why bother to even look at the cake? that's obviously what everyone was thinking this year. here's a shot of our birthday crowd singing to the birthday boy. you can see brian's dad is about to flip out the lights.... but wait! brian's grandmother seated at the table actually read the cake!


when the birthday song ended, i asked, "has anybody even read the cake?" natalie was a fast reader. :) everybody else was a little confused... and surprised!


ok... those are the smiles we were hoping to see!
 
so much for boring cookie cakes! :)
 
we are so excited to be expecting a precious addition to our family in may 2012! praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.            -Psalm 139:13-16