avery's 5th birthday

On September 14, Avery turned 5.
In the Magic Kingdom.
To celebrate, we treated her to breakfast with Cinderella and the Princesses in the Magic Kingdom.

Avery was so excited to be dining with the Princesses in the castle.

Charlie was excited about breakfast.

But was not so excited about waiting for it.

The Princesses came out one by one, and each one greeted us at our table - taking time to give Avery a hug, and pose for a picture or two.
Sometime during breakfast, the waiter brought Avery a special treat - her own lighted cupcake.

When Ariel saw her cupcake, she said, "Cupcakes for breakfast? Oh man... all I had this morning was seaweed!"

Charlie greeted every princess with the same look... which made me giggle. The Ladies make my brave little man a shy quiet guy.
Who knew?

Belle was one of our favorites. When Charlie asked her where the Beast was, she answered by saying, "The Beast went on a beastly run this morning... and he is taking a bath."

At the end of Breakfast, Avery made a special wish with her wishing star and magic wand.
Ariel helped her close her eyes to make her birthday wish...

And... Charlie got... a sword. A sword.
Giving Charlie a large object that is designed to be used as a weapon can only lead to certain disaster.
And multiple injuries requiring swift medical assistance.
They may need to reconsider that idea.
And my Charlie may be the reason for that.

It was such a fun experience for the family.
But my favorite Princess was definitely our sweet little 5 year old princess.

Days 6 and 7: disney blizzard beach and typhoon lagoon

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the days we went to Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon at Disney World... I'm too tired and too far behind in blogging to even attempt to be clever or witty.

So here 'ya go:

Charlie loved playing in the sand at Typhoon Lagoon.

 We played in the wave pool, hung out in the lazy river together, and then hung out in the little kid's area of the park.

They were both worn out from their busy, busy day.

The next day, we went to Blizzard Beach (another Disney water park made to look like a Ski Resort that melted in the Florida sun). The kids really enjoyed the melting snowmen at the front of the park.

Personally, I liked Blizzard Beach a little better than Typhoon Lagoon. We spent a lot of time in the kid's area there with our little guys. The play area had lots of sand to play in and several smaller water slides that even Charlie enjoyed.

After our busy day at Blizzard Beach we headed to Downtown Disney for shopping.
Look at that Lego girl!

Then we fed another crazy squirrel like 7 french fries. He was practically eating out of our hand. I probably should have been afraid of Rabies or something, but I just couldn't get over how close the little guy was!

Plus, everyone knows that squirrels at Disney don't have Rabies. They probably have to have background checks and full physicals.
I love Disney.
I miss Disney...
Humph.

Disney Day 2: Hollywood Studios

On Monday, we went to Hollywood Studios where we had lunch reservations for the Play 'N Dine character meal at Hollywood and Vine.

While we were waiting to be seated Avery and Charlie found a way to peek inside. They kept yelling, "oooh! I see Oso!" and "There's Handy Manny!".

When were finally seated, Avery and Charlie were greeted by some of their favorite Disney Junior characters.

The lunch was an "American style buffet". 

The food was good, but not awesome. 

Avery and Charlie got lots of mac and cheese and chicken nuggets, so they were happy. 

David and I agreed that while the food wasn't out of this world, the dining experience and atmosphere was. Overall, we definitely felt like we got our money's worth. 

Each character came to the table throughout the meal to spend time interacting with our kids. Every 15 minutes or so, a cast member would come out and sing and dance with the kids. They sang lots of songs from the Disney Junior t.v. shows. 

It was a huge hit with my little guys.

After lunch, we went to the park to check out the Disney Junior show.

 

Then we let the kids play in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area.

Avery loved the rope web so much that she decided to do it on her own. 

Without telling us. 

She just disappeared. 

David and I finally found her at the top of the web. 

It was the most terrifying 1 and a half minutes of my life. 

That's when we decided that maybe it was time for a crash course on stranger danger and what to do when you can't find your mom and dad. Just remembering it makes me a little sick to my stomach. Ugh.

Later, we saw the Beauty and the Beast stage show. 

But by that time, it was hot, hot, hot. And raining. And hot.

 So unbelievably hot.

 So we decided that maybe it was time for an ice cream break.

 

After ice cream, we thought that a visit with Woody and Buzz would do us good.

While we waited in line, Avery and Charlie posed for the camera.

 Charlie thought the line was way too long.

 But cheered up when he saw his friends Woody and Buzz.

We rode the Toy Story Mania ride and then had dinner at Pizza Planet before heading home for the evening.

Charlie was definitely worn out.

Avery's favorites:

All of it. I just asked her and she said that she loved all of it.

Charlie's favorites:

Toy Story Mania and The Disney Junior show.

georgia on my mind.

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled to Atlanta with our friends The Malahy's.

The trip there was unbelievably long. Due, in part, to the actual mileage from our home to our destination, but mainly because we made approximately one bathroom stop every 20 minutes.
No seriously.
No. Seriously.

Thank you, God for Crackerbarrel.
 And portable DVD players.

And...washable markers.

By the way - Take a good look at the stylin' outfit Avery has on in the next picture. It's from The Avery Tillman Summer Traveling Collection.

Four-year-olds have some amazing taste in clothing, don't you think?

I'm guessing that those pants are like 2 sizes too small. At least.
They are supposed to be full-length pants.
Niiiice.

She was so happy to be wearing it.
And if I would let her, she'd be wearing it every day of the year. Rain, shine, sleet, hail - those pants would be on her body.
In fact, she's wearing those pants at this very moment - sitting right next to me here on the couch.
Hey, Pants. Good to see 'ya again...

When we arrived in Atlanta, we went straight to Hotel De Malahy. Josh's parents were super generous to allow our motley crew to stay in their home during our visit and we tried our best to keep our kids from totally destroying it.
I'd say that we were mildly successful regarding the non-destruction of said home, but I'm not sure that we were able to do the same for their sense of peace and quiet.
That was definitely destroyed within the first 5 seconds of our arrival.

My friend Maribeth and I had one main objective for our trip: to go to the famed Scott Antique Market.
So, early one morning, we left the kids and the husbands to their own devices and took the hour long drive to the market.
The market did not disappoint.
Not only did it not disappoint... it was just a little bit of Heaven here on Earth.
It was the mecca of antiquiness...the utopia of vintage...and a bunch of other analogies I'm not smart enough to come up with.

Normally, there are 3300 vendor booths.
That's three THOUSAND three HUNDRED vendor booths.
There are two gigantic buildings full of lovelies. In order to go from one gigantic building to the next one, you have to get on a shuttle.
on. a. shuttle.
In addition to the two gigantic buildings, there's a large outdoor space that houses tons more vendors and a big 'ol building full of fabulously rusty and dusty junky stuff.
Maribeth and I were totally overwhelmed. I think we looked at each other in total disbelief and said, "oh. my. goodness" at least 15 times.

And, oh, what I would have given for a U-Haul to carry one of these home...

 Here's a few pictures of what I could fit into my SUV - and my budget...

While the mommas' main objective was to do a little antiquing, the little ladies' had a different objective.

Avery was beside herself with excitement.

 

She took no time to pick out her very first American Girl doll.

And look! Charlie found his doppelganger there. Kinda eerie, huh?

Here he is feeding a sweet little baby doll...

 

And here he is banging the sweet baby doll's head against the wall while grunting, "Ugh! Argh! Ouch!".

 

That's Charlie.

Avery was completely thrilled to take her new doll out of the store.

And Charlie was completely thrilled to take off his shoes. 

In the middle of the mall.

During our trip, we did a little outlet mall shopping, ate some good food, spent the day at Ikea, and went to visit Passion City church.

Where---stop it --- Matt Redman was leading worship that night. 

Yes. That's what I said.

And Christy Nockels was singing background vocals.

And Louie Giglio gave an awesome message.

I can't even say how cool it was.

It was so cool.

So unbelievably cool.

On the drive home, we stopped at one of our favorite places to eat in Nashville -  Loveless Cafe . I had every single bit some of this...

 

(fried green tomato BLT)

David got their ahh-mazing fried chicken, the kid's got the mac and cheese, and everyone had way too many homemade biscuits and a little of this...

oh my.

Loveless makes my heart happy...but my arteries are glad that we don't live in Nashville.

Our Atlanta trip was just what the doctor ordered. We totally needed this great little getaway....and Maribeth and I are already planning our next trip to Scott Antique Market- and devising a plan for getting our hands on a gigantic U-Haul or two.