The Big Apple - Part One

Josie turned 6-years-old in April and the tradition in our family is to get a special trip with mommy to New York City when you turn 6, so this was her year! She chose her cousin Anna as the friend she wanted to take with her and we had a ball.

We left bright and early from Tampa at o'dark thirty - here we are a little bleary-eyed but ready for our big adventure:

Since we arrived early and the girls were hungry we ventured out first for some food. After a delicious lunch at the Vietnamese restaurant around the corner from Papa's apartment (where we were staying) we headed over another block to Crumbs, a specialty cupcake place, for a very special dessert. Josie's cupcake was literally almost as big as her face! She had her heart set on the "Cosmopolitan" because it was so pretty - even though it was a cupcake made to taste like a liquor drink and I was pretty sure she wasn't going to like it. Nevertheless, she insisted it was the one she wanted so it was the one she got. We all voted Anna's choice of a vanilla with strawberry icing as the better-tasting choice.


The girls surprised us by being amazing little shoppers. We didn't really have an itinerary for the afternoon as our flight had originally been scheduled to arrive much later, so we just browsed the sales. Anna and Josie LOVED it! And we weren't even shopping for them!!


Here they are with our bags on the stoop at the apartment.
It eventually started raining - but that didn't stop us!
We thought it would be a good idea to go to Central Park and have them hide under the toadstool with Alice in Wonderland to wait out the storm:
It eventually did stop raining and we had a lovely stroll through one of the most beautiful parks in the world, in my humble opinion:

It started drizzling again so we took a break from the rain in the famous FAO Schwarz toy store. They girls were dazzled!
Of course we took them to play on the big floor piano:
Finally it was time to get some dinner. Ali found this great diner where the waitstaff all aspire to be on Broadway some day so they sing show tunes in between serving the tables - here are the girls out front:
They could really belt out some tunes:
Josie was enthralled!!
We requested that they sing a song from Joseph since the girls have been diligently listening to it in the car and practicing for their performance in Wellington. When the guy started singing he came all the way upstairs to our table, got Josie's hand, led her downstairs and onto a table where she belted out the entire song with him! It was so cute and I was laughing so hard and was so proud of her that I was crying. She did a great job and was the only kid in the entire restaurant who got to sing with the staff. The audience raved and Josie ATE IT UP!! She is a born performer.


That concludes our first day in the big city - I'll post more tomorrow!!

Fun at Fort Wilderness

As I wrote in the last post, staying at Fort Wilderness was great for our family. After our first day at Blizzard Beach we all gathered for a cookout on Mama and Papa's deck.

Will and Jen with Will and Josh

Me and Ali with Dad

Lilly, Meggie and Katie

Anna and Stacy

Hope and Ellie

After dinner we loaded up on the golf carts and headed to the campfire to cook s'mores and meet Chip and Dale.

Ali and Stacy on their cart.

Our golf cart convoy.

The whole gaggle of kids!

Katie, Samantha, Lilly, Meggie, Anna, Josie, Chris, Josh, Will, Ellie, Jude and Lucien

Before we could assemble the s'mores we had to roast our marshmallows. . .



Ellie just discovered s'mores on this trip and she REALLY liked them! For you Kiwi's who may not know what a s'more is it is a roasted marshmallow sandwiched between two graham crackers with some chocolate and it is yummy. We really need to see about getting New Zealand grocery stores to stock graham crackers!

Brad and Lucien

Brian and Will

Our group enjoying dessert

After the campfire the show begins and the kids get to meet Chip and Dale:

The Magic Kingdom

We had SO much fun at Disney this year!! I have about a million pictures so I've decided to break them up into at least two posts. Every year my dad and Jayne take us all to Disney World for two days and every year it's like an invasion of whatever color shirt we're all wearing - this year blue. It is such a blast to get to all be together with our kids and watch them experience the magic that is Disney - and this year I felt like a kid again myself. We usually go at Christmas, but with Shannon and her family and our family living overseas they graciously changed the date to July so we could all be there. I was apprehensive about doing Disney in the middle of summer, but I have to say that most of us thought it was our best year yet!

We spent our first park day at Blizzard Beach, one of Disney's water parks. I don't have pictures from that because I was too busy having a blast and reliving my own childhood with the girls, and I didn't want to risk getting my good camera wet. I was grateful that sweet Hope came with us - it not only was a huge help with Ellie in particular, but it also gave me a chance to play. All the girls love, love, loved it - and the big girls relished their freedom as the four of them (Meggie, Katie, Samantha and Lilly) got to wander the park alone for awhile.

We stayed in Fort Wilderness - I'll post some photos from there in the next post - and it was fantastic. We took up 5 cabins and practically had our own little cul-de-sac! It was so close to the Magic Kingdom that we were able to go home for a rest/swim in the middle of the day and then head back over for the late afternoon and evening.

Anyhoo - here are some fun pictures from our day in the Magic Kingdom:

The girls after they rode with Uncle Brian on the teacups - Lilly looking a bit queesy!

Samantha, Anna, Josie, Lilly, Katie, Meggie and Ellie with Stitch.

Many of our gang - Jayne, Meggie, Stacy, Lilly, Anna, Ali, Dad, Katie, Shannon, Ellie, Josie, Hope, Ellie and Brian.

Hope, Ellie, Anna and Josie head off on the Pooh Bear ride.

The kids table at dinner - Josh sat at the big table.

Me and my girls.

The two who made the whole trip possible - Dad and Jayne.

Ellie LOVED the roller coasters - all the girls did.

The day we left we had lunch first at the Fort Wilderness Lodge - the meal itself was one of the highlights of the trip as the waiters were hilarious, there was no problem with the kids being loud and rowdy, there were even horse races around the restaurant! Dad decided to eat at the kids table - here he is with all of them but unfortunately you can't really see Chris and Will.

Katie is well-known in our family for drinking a LOT and loving soda. She kept asking for refills of her diet coke until finally the waiter brought her this:
Everyone thought it was really funny that I got to drive home with her after she drank this - and she did her very best to finish it off! Surprisingly we made it home without a bathroom stop, but there was a lot of energy in the car thanks to the excessive amounts of caffeine.