Welcome Baby Charlotte EPCOT Night

My good friend Becky offered to put together an event to celebrate Charlotte’s birth. Instead of doing a shower, we decided on a night out in Orlando with the girls. So early Saturday morning, Jen and I headed down to Orlando and met up with Becky and Janey then we all headed to EPCOT for the evening.

Getting ready to catch the tram

Becky (and her baby boy due in May) & me now

And here we are back in 2003 at my rehearsal dinner. We met before then, but that was pre-digital camera for me.

Becky and I met through CCH when I was a senior at UF and we lived together the year before either of us got married so we did a lot of wedding planning together.

Janey and Jen.

Janey and I went to the same high school, became good friends in college, and lived together for two years. Jen and I met at CCH and even though we never really lived together, she was part of the Arbor Park 12 too so it was pretty close.

Since we were all friends in college, it was kind of a mini-reunion and SO fun to spend time with this group.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday. And by the time we got to EPCOT, the crowds weren’t bad at all.

Jen, me, and Janey at the entrance

And one of us from 2001 when we were in India together. (Look, we’re in the right order!) It’s hard to believe that it was 10 years ago. I remember this day so well. It was the day Jen fell in manure in her dry clean only Ann Taylor skirt.

Anyway, we wanted to go on Soarin’ but the line was pretty long so we went on Journey into the Imagination. It was completely different from what I remembered the ride being like as a kid.

Jen made a Figment

After that, we headed over for a 1986 flashback to Captain EO.

Captain EO is a 3D movie starring Michael Jackson that’s been brought back.

To say Jen was excited is an understatement.

Ready with our glasses.

Captain EO is awful, but awful in a hilarious kind of way. The seats actually bounce when Michael Jackson dances. And Michael Jackson shoots lightning out of his hands. And Angelica Houston shows up at the end. So weird.

The park was especially beautiful since they’re getting ready for the Flower and Garden Festival.

Walking through Canada on our way to dinner

And a quick stop in England. We have a picture of us in a phone booth from when we were in London on our way home from India. I’d post it, but you can hardly see any of us in it since we were crammed in behind the guys.

Peter Pan and Hook topiaries

On our way to France

Janey’s wedding pictures came to the park with us so I wanted to take a picture of them. It reminded us of this little guy:

Oh, the meat locker…

And back to EPCOT…

We ate dinner at Chefs de France.

At the table…I took a couple of Becky & Jen too…where’d those go, Becky? :-)

The restaurant was really elegant

Outside, there were street performers stacking and climbing chairs.

Jen’s French Onion Soup with a bit of gruyere cheese.

Lobster Bisque

Look, Remy from Ratatouille was there! I love Disney touches and Jen had totally called this one when we walked into the restaurant.

We shared a cheese plate

After that, we had our main dishes, but I managed to not get a pic of the chicken, potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and tomato that Jen and I shared.

For dessert we shared crème brulee…

…and chocolate puffs

After dinner we headed over to watch the France movie

Then we walked through the rest of the countries. Becky stopped in Japan for the most delicious snow cone ever.

Janey, Jen and I rode Maelstrom while Becky waited for us. Jotul made Jen’s wood burning stove and apparently they’re based in Norway.

After that, we met up with Becky again and headed over to Soarin’. The wait was only 30 minutes at that point so we got in line. We got to ride it twice since we were the last group on for the night. So fun! I love the smells.

And if you’re wondering about the rest of the family, Jonathan stayed home with the older two and Charlotte stayed with my mom and dad while I was out that evening.

Dad even flew solo for a few hours until my mom got home from a conference. He’s a pretty great grandpa!

Jen and I spent the night at my parents house. The next morning we relaxed and got ready and then went to breakfast at Sweet Tomatoes.

We ate so much food this weekend

From there, we headed to the Mall at Millenia and did some browsing. While there, I got a call from Jonathan that Rosemary had a hurt elbow (it ended up just being nursemaid’s elbow and was quickly fixed at peds afterhours) so Jen and I headed back to Gainesville.

That night, Jen came back over to watch the Oscars. I’d seen a total of 3 of the movies nominated but was excited that Jack Kelly and Mr. Darcy won. It was a good year for the Brits.

Even with the excitement of Rosemary’s arm, it was a great weekend with dear friends. The conversation kept flowing and we laughed so much. I feel pretty lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.

Sewing Night

When you live in a relatively small house and all the bedrooms are actually used as bedrooms, you have to be a bit creative when it comes to how you use the space. For instance, my sewing cabinet is also my nightstand and I keep almost all of my crafting and sewing supplies under the bed. That means, whenever I sew or really do anything crafty, it makes a huge mess in our bedroom.

Case in point.

I did get it all put away by the time we went to bed. But goodness, it would be nice to have a craft room where I could just finish a project and not have another half hour clean up ahead of me.

Despite the mess though, the swim/bath wraps for Rosemary’s friends ended up super cute.

And so did the hooded towel for a MOPS give-away. Although, initially it looked a little too much like a hooded white sheet when I had Ben try it out, so I made the top a little less pointy. That helped. :-)

A Day at the Park

It’s been gorgeous here in Gainesville and we’ve been heading over to the park throughout the week to enjoy the outdoors a bit.

Rosemary learned how to slide down the pole on her own! And isn’t her outfit awesome? She picked it out herself. On days that we don’t have big plans she can wear whatever she wants. The only things I had her change were the pink striped pants she’d originally picked.

Charlotte stayed with me in the wrap.

Rosemary made a friend at the park. They were there for about 10 minutes just chatting about everything from pre-kindergarten to cousins.

A Day in Our Life

Here’s a little glimpse into a typical day at home…

Our day kicks off between 6:30 and 7am. The kids are allowed to come get us at 7. Even Ben knows how to read the clock now and look for the 7. :-)

You may or may not find the kids in swimsuits…

…even if it’s barely 8 and only 45 degrees outside.

The living room will be sprinkled with pillows that double as lily pads or rocks or some other object. (this is actually pretty tidy for the living room once the kids are up)

This is a bit more like it. Stools, blankets, pillows and toys - all part of some elaborate story they’ve worked up.

The other day, Rosemary treated me to a puppet show. Ben wasn’t too into it

There are lots of baby kisses throughout the day. From big sister…

…and from big brother.

There are lots of sweet baby looks.

And this little one can sleep through anything.

Such a sweetheart.

There’s lots of baby holding.

I even get to hold her a bit. :-)

Rosemary will sometime draw pictures, or in this case, she’ll draw out her interpretation for the formula for the area of a circle. (We’re not teaching her this and she drew it completely out of the blue, she heard it from kids who had memorized it at a class we visited a couple weeks ago…it cracked me up).

When it’s warm enough, we eat outside.

We thank God for the food.

Rosemary and Ben climb trees

Charlotte enjoys the time outside too with a nap and soaks up some vitamin D

Ben gets some of his wiggles out. I think we’re finally hitting the ‘terrible twos’ with Ben. He’s getting to be so rambunctious.

And this ‘little’ one can just about climb the tree completely on her own now.

After lunch, we wind things down and all three of the kids take naps or have quiet time in their beds. By the time they get up, it’s almost time for Jonathan to get home. The days really do fly.

This is the first time since we’ve had kids where I’ve had more days at home than at work during the week so it’s been a bit of an adjustment. I’m trying to make sure I don’t tip the balance scale too far to the housekeeping side and let the mom side slip. The days are certainly full and almost always fun with these 3.