Cold weather days and crutches

We've had some pretty cold days in February which has forced us to stay in quite a bit.  I've also been on crutches for the past five weeks (awful!!!) which has also kept us in.  I've had a stress fracture for eternity that will not heal, one more week of crutches and I'm hoping this thing is on the mend.  Here's what our days have looked like:

Four year old makeovers.

A tiny bit of snow which was more like a thick layer of ice.

This really happened one morning.  Sweet cuddles during Mickey Mouse.

Crazy 8 games.

Lots and lots of dress up, especially with Mom's clothes.

This is 'Olaf' from Frozen, the girl is obsessed!

Dishes "helper" ha, ha!!

Story time in Joshua's play box.

Carting Joshua back and forth to drop off and pick Quinn up from school.

And most recently some spring weather and of course, more dress up!

Looking forward to spring time and warmer weather- I'm sure I'll regret that comment in July though!!

Thinkery

The Austin Children's museum has moved and is now called the Thinkery.  What a cool place!  Everything is hands on and we found lots of interesting thing to play with for both kiddos.  A good two hours later and we were exhausted!

We stayed painting the glass wall for ever.  When else can we paint a wall and get messy?

The neatest magnet block wall.

Remember light brights?  This room was a giant light bright, too fun!

Both kids got a kick out of watching their shadows while hula hooping.

This was upstairs in the water play area.  Joshua was soaking wet and full of paint, evidence of a good time, right?!?

Disneyworld 2013

Wow!!!! What a fun trip!  We arrived in Orlando on December 27th (on a 4.5 hour flight from Phoenix on which neither kid slept a wink!) and stayed through to January 2.  This was another trip earned by Jaime through Edward Jones and was so fun and different.  We had a few organized dinners with Edward Jones in which several Disney characters made appearances.  Quinn of course loved Mickey and Minnie and Joshua loved Woody.

We spent three whole days at Magic Kingdom!  There is so much to do there and for our kids this place was so magical and fun which kept us there.  One of the days there we had reservations for dinner in Cinderella's magic castle- wow!!! This place made Quinn smile ear to ear as she was literally starstruck by the princesses.  

We had a great time getting on as many rides as we could while at Magic Kingdom:

We also had another dinner planned at Magic Kingdom at Mickey's Backyard BBQ.  This was so fun!! The kids were able to dance around with Mickey and Minnie and they really thought this was the best thing ever!

The next day they both picked out a Muckey and Minnie toy at Magic Kingdom.  

Joshua picked out a little stuffed Mickey and a Mickey twirling light.  He really played with that light as we walked all over the parks.

We finally ventured on to Hollywood Studios where we saw some great shows.  The kids really, really enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast show:

We ran into Mader and Lightening McQueen, Joshua was super excited!! But then he quickly became really sad when he realized he wasn't going to be able to actually get in Mader. 😞

It's not some real Pina fun without a little face painting!

We spent a day in Animal Kingdom and were met by some light rain all day.  Quinn had no problem with her rain poncho but trying to get it on Joshua was quite the task- he was not happy about it!

We saw the best Lion King show while there, we were in awe!!

We had a fantastic time while there and hope to go back again!

Preparing for Christmas 2013

Wow, is it really already 2014?? The holidays felt like they flew by this year but we truly enjoyed our time with friends and family.  The holidays are so magical and fun with young children, here are some of the things we did to get ready for Christmas around here:

Quinn and I worked on a gingerbread house.  Joshua was content playing with his tractors while taking breaks to nibble on the goods for the house!

We set up our tree and this year all four of us helped.  It really was fun putting the ornaments on together!

Our Elf returned this year and both kids were super excited to search for her every morning.  Quinn was really anxious about it and sometimes would stumble around at 2 am hunting for her!

We had breakfast with Santa at the Great Hills country club and were the first ones to show up, literally (Jaime's a very punctual being).  So when we walked in Joshua saw Santa across the room and yelled "Hi Santa!!!".  He then eagerly climbed up on Santa's lap and played with his beard.  Throughout breakfast Joshua yelled "Santa!! Hi Santa!!".  Quinn was more timid and sweetly whispered to Santa that she wanted a bow and arrow.

Quinn had her Christmas program at school and belted out every word to every song.

She is top center in this pic.

Here she is with her two teachers Ms. JJ and Ms. Karen.  They really wear matching shirts every day!

We had an early Christmas with Mama Rose and Papa James since we were going to be in Phoenix with my family for the actual holiday.  The kiddos were in heaven with their new toys!

Then it was off to Phoenix for Christmas and Disneyworld after!