Who's the Leader of the Club.......

MICKEY MOUSE!!!! We (When I say we, I mean "I") have been waiting for this vacation for years. We finally saved enough money to go on a Disney Cruise and to Disney World. I've always wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. I've heard such great things about them, but I am getting ahead of myself. First we visited Disney World. As we arrived my children reiterated to me - "NO CHARACTERS". For some reason they have become anti-character. At first I was a little sad and disappointed but after walking by several long, long lines of crying children waiting to snap a picture with a princess, I decided that "no characters" was not such a bad thing.

My parents met us at Disney World. We stayed at the Port Orleans hotel. The kids liked the New Orleans Jazz theme. We spent one day at each park then hopped on the cruise ship. We went on a 4 day three night cruise to Nassau, Bahamas and then Disney's Castaway Cay. We took the kids parasailing. Cassidy loved it, Ryan was a little less confident.

We had been informed by others that there would be a pirate night and we'd save ourselves a lot of money by bring our own pirate garb rather than buying it on the boat. I thought we had some of the cutest pirates and their costumes were very original. They each gathered together their own costume.

We all had a great time and would love to go again.

Ryan's first Scout Campout

Ryan turned 11 in February so he now gets to camp overnight. Nathan is his scout leader right now and there is only one other boy in their group but in a few months they will gain more. When I went to the scout store to buy his shirt I thought it looked kinda big but I know he's going to do a lot of growing in the next 5 years. (The truth is I don't want to have to put all those badges on another shirt) I didn't realize how big it was until he tucked it into his jeans. I now lovingly call it his scout dress. I love that the bottom of the sleeve is about at his waist. Isn't this a beautiful time in a boys life??? I can't wait until he is out of the gawky pre-teen phase. I'm hoping he's come out the other side of puberty as cute as he was when he was little. There's hope, right?

My Friend Colleen

This blog post is for my friend Colleen. If you do not know Collen, you really should get to know her. She is just like me except blond and she has 5 kids and is super crafty and she runs... okay so maybe she isn't exactly like me but our personalities are a lot alike. We used to live across the street from one another but then she moved, and then I moved and now we are several states away from one another. Thank goodness for Facebook, blogs and telephones!! (Remember when long distance cost a fortune?? I am grateful for cheep long distance calling too!) Anyway, for my birthday (37 in case you were wondering) Colleen sent me this cute necklace and earring set. I wear it ALL the time. It matches everything and I get lots of complements too. Thanks Colleen, you know me so well.

CAST-idy

Cassidy and a friend were rollerblading and Cassidy hit a crack in the driveway and went down. Oh the drama!! She was screaming and saying she hurt her arm. So we went inside and put some ice on it. (Ice and band-aids cure all) That night she was still complaining about it and she couldn't pull her sheet up over herself with that hand. I decided I'd better take her in to get an x-ray. The doctor said she didn't break it, or fracture it but had weakened it. He suggested we put it in a cast just to be safe so on St. Patrick's day, Cassidy chose a bright green Cast.

Six weeks later we went to have the cast removed. I asked Cassidy if she was nervous but she said she was just excited. During the 4 weeks it was on she acquired many signatures. For the first few days she carried around a sharpie for people to use to sign her cast.

I think she loved the attention of having a cast. I also think she enjoyed being waited on since there were a lot of things she couldn't do with a cast on. I was very excited when she got it off. Of course she wanted to save it. Luckily it wasn't too stinky. She still has it in her closet but I'm hoping we can throw it away soon. GROSS!!

Cassidy is an AMERICAN GIRL

When we moved into our Texas house Cassidy decided she wanted a puppy dog room. I was not thrilled with the idea so I put it off. Good thing I did!! She changed her mind about what style of room she wanted at least three times. When we were in Utah at Christmastime we found some really cute bedding and I talked Cass into an American Girl room. She loves American Girl and has several dolls. She always wants a place for all her dolls so we brought in a corner curio type unit that we had in my bedroom. She can fit two dolls on each shelf. (I told her that means she can't get anymore dolls, cause there is no more room.) Each doll also has a bed, although most dolls have to share their bed with another doll. We painted stars and used vinyl lettering to put each of the dolls names on a star. She was very happy with the way her room turned out and I was thrilled. It didn't take long to paint. I used that Home Depot paint with the primer already in it and even the red turned out great. I asked Cassidy if I could trade rooms with her because I loved her room so much. She just gave me "the look". ( I still need to paint the curio red) Seriously, how much do you LOVE the bedding!!!