Saturday, July 31, 2010

Dance Camp Performance




Here are the girls in their 2 little performances after their dance camp this past week. Mary Clare is an ark-builder in the first video, a bird in the 2nd, and Ellie is a squirrel in both! Long videos but I'm sure some family members will enjoy :)



Thursday, July 29, 2010

California Vacation-Day 5

Day 5 was a Disneyland recovery day, but we still had a lot of fun back in San Diego!

Addison loved her monogrammed Minnie ears we brought from Disney!


Ellie tried them too. Such a ham!


For lunch we went out to the Seaport Village shopping/restaurant area. So much fun!

Addi was hanging out in her stroller waiting for lunch.


Ellie gazing out at the water


Mary Clare and a cute pose :)


This only made Mommy panic a little bit!


Oh that yummy Greek food!


Addi and her daddy!


The kids' favorite thing was watching the balloon artist. No simple swords and flowers for him; he was making Dora, Spiderman, etc. Really talented guy!





That evening we took a walk to the park. Love this shot of the girl-cousins!


and I love photos of my big hubby with the little kids :)


Steven Joseph got a bubble gun at Disneyland. It was the popular toy of the park!




These close-ups of Addison are just so sweet.



Ellie doing monkey bars with her purse!


Steven and Brice tried their hands at the monkey bars. Not quite high enough for them!



While trying to get some good photo shots I knocked my head on a metal bar. Steven had the kind idea to photograph me in my misery!


Then we went back to Brice and Allison's to have our first experience with the wii!

Look at those dancers!



Another fun day in Cali!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Everyday

I now interrupt these vacation posts to bring you some everyday photos and update on our boring life back in Texas!

I'm trying to learn to use the camera better. It's actually been cooperating really well since we went to California, so maybe it won't need to go in for repairs after all!

I was working on A mode, trying to get a blurry background...but all I got was a blurry book, LOL!

We are back to homeschooling a few days a week, and Mary Clare is getting more excited about reading. On this day she read to her siblings as well as the 6 friends they had over to play! I was so proud of her! I'm happy with our Mother of Divine Grace lesson plans for her 2nd grade curriculum, and Ellie is progressing well just doing her reading (100 Easy Lessons), writing (Handwriting Without Tears), and arithmetic (Math U See). A few more weeks and our homeschool activities will be starting. We had a big mom's planning meeting on Friday night and I didn't get home until 1:00am! We homeschooling mamas know how to party!

On Saturday we finally made it out to see our friends' new home in the country. Their house is beautiful and it's so much fun for the kids to get to spend time in the fresh country air! Steven Joseph kept saying he was not going to go out in the tractor because he was scared of the cows, but he worked himself up and went on the ride with the crew! It was so nice to have time to just sit and visit with friends; we all get so busy, especially with Steven's work schedule, that it's nice to have an evening to relax and enjoy each other!


The girls got some new dresses and headbands for church, and NeNe got them new purses. Here they are modeling after Sunday Mass :)


The girls have started Dance Camp in the mornings this week. They love it! It was so nice to go thrifting with just Steven Joseph, and to have a little "break" with only one child. But he missed his sisters terribly and had several hysterical fits about silly things. Hopefully he'll do better tomorrow!

And a quick Baby update. I'm now 29 weeks and am still having my weekly injections to ward off contractions. Last week my belly measured at 32 weeks, so it looks like I'm growing a big one! We still can't believe we'll be meeting this little guy or gal in about 8-9 weeks...and we still don't have names picked out either. We usually have a "name talk" about once a week but don't really get anywhere. I think I realized that it's my turn to choose a name though, since he picked Mary Clare and Steven Joseph while I chose Elizabeth Ann Marie. Feel free to post any name ideas for us! (as you can tell we prefer traditional saint names) I'm all ears!

Have a great week! More CA photos to come...

Sunday, July 25, 2010

California Vacation-Day 4-DISNEYLAND!

Monday morning was the big day!

We woke up and walked down the street to IHOP. Too bad it was double-the-normal-price IHOP and the kids were too excited to eat!


We got to use our Give A Day Volunteer vouchers for free tickets for Steven, Mary Clare, and me. We forgot MC's birth certificate (she needed ID but I forgot until I was on the plane), but thankfully they still gave her a free ticket! We were all smiles walking down Main Street right when it opened at 8:00am. All the employees were out waving to everyone, such a happy memory!

Took the kids straight through the castle while Steven tried out Space Mountain by himself.


The teacups were our first ride!


Then we met back up with Daddy and went on the Alice in Wonderland ride (a bit scary), and then headed for Buzz Lightyear. Ellie got scared and changed her mind so we waited outside for the others. Here she is inspecting the map:


Then we went to meet Tinkerbell!


We waited in a long line for the Nemo Submarine ride.


Love this one of Steven and Steven waiting in line!


We headed over to Mickey's Toon Town and went through Mickey's house.
Then we got to meet him!


Daddy and Steven Joseph went on Mickey's Gadget Roller Coaster while the girls and I walked around Toon Town. Here they are in Goofy's car...


We waited a little while in line to meet Minnie.
Here's the whole fam, all smiles with Minnie!


Minnie's House


After Toon Town, we took the train back to the front and walked back to the hotel to eat some leftovers for lunch, have a short rest time, and check out of the hotel. Then we walked back to Disney for some more afternoon fun! It was pretty hot in the afternoon but we tried to keep cool in the gift stores and other shady spots.

Here we were watching the afternoon parade.


Mommy and kids by the castle


The kids loved the Dumbo ride!


Steven and Steven went on to try the Matterhorn Bobsled roller coaster. Stevie kept repeating how he went on a big roller coaster with Daddy and saw scary snowmen!

The girls, on the other hand, shied away from the coasters and went to watch the Princess Ball!





We rushed out to get in line to meet the "real" Princesses! This was definitely a highlight. Even Steven Joseph enjoyed meeting them and kept responding to questions about his name or age with, "Me big boy."

Belle


Ariel was lots of fun. Belle had given the girls a message to tell Ariel, so they were excited to pass it on!


Ariel was telling SJ that boys always kiss a princess' hand when they say goodbye. He laughed and ran away! Ellie used this new knowledge to try to get a kiss from a friend (7yr old boy!) who came over last week, LOL!


We had yet to watch the Princess and the Frog, but checked it out when we got home to find that this princess is named Tiana.


It's a Small World was a highlight for all of us, except Daddy who claimed it should be called "It's a Long World"


We got some dinner, and wandered around a bit, went on the Pooh ride and Jungle Cruise (the kids were terrified). Stevie fell asleep before 9 in the stroller. Then we watched the amazing light show and firework show! Phenomenal!


Finally as it was nearing 11pm, we walked back to our car for the long drive back to San Diego. The kids all fell asleep right away!


A long, full, fun day with memories to last a lifetime. Thanks, Disney!
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