Disney Cruise Day 2 Nassau

We woke up raring to go on Monday morning.

We started with Mickey waffles.  

YaYa and Bob with their girls!  

Sister snagged a spot in the princess line.  

The girls were thrilled.

First up was Cinderella.

Her love of rodents is a bit suspect.

G actually jumped for joy!

 Next up was Ariel.

 I think she became much less interesting when she traded in her flipper for legs.  

Belle is okay with her ability to see past appearances.  

They ended with my favorite, Tiana.

She's sassy and determined, and runs her own restaurant.

Marrying Prince Naveen was kind of a side note.

 We were off the ship for a little day trip in Nassau to the Atlantis resort.  My sister has been wanting to visit Atlantis forever.

The water was breathtaking.

These two spent their time in the shade.

Meanwhile I fought the most ferocious of waves with G and C.

The waves were so strong that they stirred up more sand than I had ever seen.  When I stood up, the bottom of my suit looked like I was a model for Depends adult incontinence diapers.

That don't work.

G made sand angels.  

Bob treated everyone to coconut water!  

The waves were so rough that we bid the beach adieu for the safer area of the lagoon.

Unless you saw Jaws 3, and then the lagoon isn't that safe:)

YaYa and her girls hung out in the water.  

 Caroline needs activities. 

She likes to be busy.

That proves to be a bit more expensive.

My kid could just sit and fling sand around.

Katie rented a kayak for her.

G was her copilot.

 G was a great passenger in the glass bottom kayak.

Caroline is a very experienced kayaker.

After a few hours of sun we visited the Atlantis aquarium.

I do love aquariums.

This one was pretty amazing.

The entire resort was beautiful, but not as fabulous as the cost would indicate.

Just my opinion.  

After lunch on the island we rode the shuttle back and the kissing cousins told stories.

The girls got along wonderfully on the trip.

They can squabble, mostly because G likes to annoy the hell out of Caroline.

There was only a couple of scuffles, all instigated by my angel.

Dinner that night was at Animator's Palate, which included singing and dancing.

We watched the sun set from the deck.  

G wore her Elsa gown for the Frozen show that night.

I had to get over my dislike of princess gowns for this trip.

She has them for dress up, but I'm not one to let her wear them in public and look like a nut.

I made an exception for vacation.

The show was magical.

Amazing.

We were all in awe of the talent, costume, and scenery on stage.

No photography is allowed during the theater shows.

They are serious.

Like make you walk the plank and throw your ass overboard serious. 

We ended our night with a towel monkey! 

Disney Cruising Day 1

Hello friends!

We just returned from a 4 night cruise on Disney's Wonder that cruised to The Bahamas.  

This was my first cruise, and it was delightful!

This was definitely a trip that catered to Genevieve and Caroline, but all of us had a great time.

Sister Katie and I planned this back in February.  

Katie, Chip and Caroline were our neighbors in an interior stateroom.

YaYa and Bob lived it up with a verandah stateroom.

We didn't spend much time in our room, which was roughly the size of my closet!

We got on the boat around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Genevieve immediately wanted to check out the pool deck and show everyone her Ariel swimsuit.

After watching countless cruise videos on Youtube, Miss Priss was ready to hit the Dory splash pad.

It was tiny and the water was cold.

After all of her excitement, she lasted about 3 minutes in there.  

The girls spent all afternoon swimming.

G's swim lessons paid off!

She did really well.

Our first dinner was at Triton's restaurant.  This was my least favorite dining experience.  It was the only one that didn't include entertainment for the children.

At each dinner, the children were always served first.  The girls ate their meals and on the first night Katie checked them in at the Oceaneer Club.  This was the club for children that was included.  You can check your children in and check them out at your leisure.

They had tons of fun activities and the girls loved going there.

It made our meals quite enjoyable, since I didn't have to entertain my child!  

We ate at 5:45 each evening, and the girls played at the Oceaneer Club until we picked them up at 8:00 for the show.

On night one we saw The Golden Mickeys.  I've seen lots of Broadway shows, and this was definitely of that quality.

Katie bought the girls these wonderful Belle cups that lit up.  

That was fun to try to pack in my suitcase, let me tell you.

We all loved the show and G was up so late each night.

The show ended around 9:45 and our lady had to be carried to the room by her dear father.

She perked up when she found her towel bear on her bed and a chocolate! 

Our cabin had a queen size bed and a small couch that folded into a twin bed that was probably about 3-4 inches shorter than a regular twin.  

Guess who slept there the first two nights?

Her father.

She was too scared.

Even with us 2 feet away.

Trinity was a champ!

Spring Breaking

Spring Break Panama City Beach '97!

MTV and Spinnakers.

Just kidding.

I begged my parents to go to PCB during my senior year of high school for spring break.

I got down there and drank alcohol for the first time in my life.  I got toasted and then a bit ill.

Then I sobered up, and realized that having drunk people making out around me and finding sand in my bed at the Holiday Inn wasn't exactly my scene.

My friend Missy and I were rescued by her parents who drove from Gulf Shores to retrieve us after like 2 days.

She was a wuss like me.

Thank the lord.

That officially ended my one and only wild spring break experience.

Until now.

We started with a broken washing machine on Saturday.

G and I took dirty clothes back over to my old house, which is currently between tenants, for some old school laundering.

We stopped at for a cake pop.

She was wearing her spring finery.

When we were in the house I showed her my bedroom and told her how I lived alone and paid all of my own bills and really had a wild and fun life with Kashmir, God rest her soul.

I then shared that I prayed for a kind and smart man to love and that then I met her father.

Her response?

"Well, daddy isn't the smartest man in the world."

What a pill.

I have no idea how she comes up with what she says.

On Sunday we attended tiny church and then went shopping for a most exciting appliance.

Take a picture, momma.

Yes, yes, I will.

Two things that really know how to agitate.

On Monday we rolled south to Owensboro.

It is a 3 hour drive and my kid slept the final 25 minutes.

She asked me today for an iPad.

What the hell?

She spent an hour talking to her Rapunzel doll and playing during the ride.  Then she sang and talked to me for the other hour and a half.

I love that she can entertain herself with crayons and toys.

Like a real child.

Hells to the no on that iPad, sister.

Although my girl does love some TV.

I'm not that good.

We had dinner at Mellow Mushroom with Abby and Papi.

There was pizza throwing.

G really knows how to engage in conversation whilst eating bread knots.

Abby had her Easter banner flowing.

Owensboro's weather was beautiful and 76 degrees!

We shopped at KidStop, my all time favorite children's store.

It is just amazing.

G tried this dress, but she didn't say yes to this dress.

She got lots of new bows and some gold sandals.

Abby caved and bought her a doll.

We managed to visit Orange Leaf twice in 24 hours.

As you all know, I'm a cake person.

Froyo ain't my scene.

Abby and G can put it down.

They had their usual coconut and pineapple.

On Tuesday we kissed the grandparents goodbye and drove to Newburgh to see sister.

We visited Nicole and her gals.

Nic is 23 weeks preg and was in no mood for a picture.

Actually, she always hates pictures.

Caroline and Genevieve were fine with my paparazzi skills.

Caroline is 9 months older than G.

My child is gigantic!

Katie took us to a toy store and they had Mrs. Grossman stickers by the roll.

The last time I saw stickers by the roll was when I was a kid.

I had a slight sticker obsession.

I would stand in Kit & Kaboodle at the Keystone mall forever, select each sticker collage carefully, then fold along the perforated line and rip.

I can still hear the sound!

The funny thing was, I just hoarded them in a box and looked at them.

I didn't stick them anywhere.

Weird.

The only kid weirder than me was BFF Courtney.

We would sit and trade stickers in her cedar closet.

She would pull out stale Easter or Halloween candy for us to eat, depending on the time of year.

It was opposite of the time of year you would think.

If it was the fall/winter we would be eating old chalky chocolate bunnies.

Spring brought whiffs of hard ass candy corn.

Now I think Court was a bit of a hoarder.

I texted her this picture without any words.

Her quick response?

"Meet me in 10 in the cedar closet."

We both also collected Madame Alexander dolls that were for DISPLAY only.

Don't touch them! 

We finished up our visit with a viewing of Caroline's softball practice.

This little one found a mitt in the dugout and practiced her catching skills.

God help me if she actually wants to play.

More spring fun to come!

Gals About Town

We have been running around town lots lately.  My Aunt Cindi gave us tickets to see Peewinkle's Puppet Show last weekend at the Indiana State Museum.

G was giddy with excitement.  

She was mesmerized by the puppetry!

She loved it so much she demanded her own puppet, also known as a string puzzle for her mother.  

We brunched at The Garden Table.  We toasted with milk and the Gals Who Brunch champagne cocktail.

Sweet T had a Bloody Mary and manned the camera.

Our waiter tried showed Little Miss some balancing tricks.

This weekend Katie, Caroline, and mother came to visit for a night.  Katie did some damage in Tory Burch while the cousins iPadded.

Robby invited us over for a special 3D showing of Moana.  

In typical brother fashion, he purchased a DVD for the 3D TV that my dad gave him and a family set of 3D glasses.

G loved on Baby Robby.

Katie and Caroline bought popcorn at the movie theater before we left the mall.

The whole crew loved it!

On Sunday Mother treated us to a Beef and Boards experience.  We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, which is sister's favorite because she is a nerd and cheesy as hell.

It is bright and flashy and catchy.

I loved it as a kid.

Two other kids really loved it too.

Genevieve gave the whole experience a double high 5!

Li'l Robby

Last Sunday Li'l Robby was baptized!

We had a lovely morning as a family giving the baby some Jesus.

Trinity and I posed with our precious godson.

That's right, now I'm Godmother times two!

The joy of being the middle child means both older sister and younger brother think I'm the bee's knees.  

At least that's what I tell myself.  

Now Genevieve did not handle having her mother on the altar with the priest very well.

Shocking.

Even though I had explained to her that her father and I would be going up front and holding the baby beforehand, hearing it and actually seeing it are apparently two very different animals.

We were introduced at the beginning of mass and she climbed over the back of a pew into YaYa's arms while wailing "Mama!  Mama!" like she was 18 months old.

Embarrassing.

I ignored her and pretended that I didn't know who she was.

Thankfully the priest called the children to go to "tiny church" and she missed the baptism part.

I think we might have had a scene worthy of Sally Field if she had witnessed that!  

This precious babe did not make a peep during the entire mass, even when he was doused with the holy water.  

We ended the celebration with vittles and cake at Robby's house.  

The cake was decorated with Robert Mattew,

a common typo in the baking business.

Except it wasn't typed, it was written in icing.

Mother was thrilled.