Blair's Winter Wonderland

Although everything did not turn out exactly how I had envisioned it, I think things looked pretty good overall.  These are the pictures I took with my phone so they aren't the best quality.  I should probably look into getting a nicer camera some day...

This is the beautiful shelter we were able to secure for the morning.  Blair's banner is one of my favorite decorations!  I used scrapbook paper and cut the letters out with my cricut.  The hanging snowflakes were from Menard's.

The food theme was brunch.  Instead of my typical fruit salad, I wanted to do something handheld.  Mini fruit pizzas were super easy and so pretty!  They were a hit!

After the last birthday party cake fiasco, I went with the ever-trustworthy Sam's Club for all things cake.  This round cake and thirty cupcakes came to a beautiful 28 dollars and they tasted delicious!  Please note that those strange little groupings of tiny balls on the "4" cake were a bad decision add-on on my part.  I should have left the original plain cake alone.  If only someone had been there to say, "Step away from the sprinkles!"

I wish you could see this better- my mom has a better picture so maybe I will swap this one out when I get her copy. Anyway, this was the hot chocolate bar.  My sickie brain forgot the whipped cream in the fridge at home, but the toppings we remembered were mini marshmallows, toffee bits, mint chocolate chips and chocolate jimmies.  As you can probably imagine, this station was highly frequented.

These were the centerpieces I made.  Mark collected the tree branches from his landscaping shop and we assembled them the night before.  I loved how they turned out.

I found these giant teal ornaments at Menard's (Who knew??)  and placed them on both sides of the fire.

Here is the birthday girl with her daddy and buddy, J.  They were taking advantage of the fire, of course!

So there you have it, everyone!  The only pictures my frostbitten fingers could manage that day are all right here for your viewing pleasure.  Like I said before, I'm just glad it's finally over!  Onto the next birthday party that is thankfully in the summer!

Oh Hey, Pink Eye! So Glad You Could Make It!

Phew!  Blair's birthday party is officially done and on the books!  What a whirlwind of a week leading up to the party!  I have to say, I'm so glad it's over.  Here is a recap...

We drove back into town around 1:15 AM on Tuesday morning.  Blair has Tuesday School every Tuesday morning and because we had been driving the entire day before, I decided that if the girls slept in, we would skip school.  Little Miss had other plans and got up at the regular time of 7:30, leaving us plenty of time to get ready for school.  No one could believe it when I told them we had pulled in just that morning a few hours earlier.  We managed to make it through the day fine, but I just didn't have the energy to do any party prep-- typical procrastinator.

Wednesday was much of the same, everyone just trying to get back into the daily groove.  Mark went to work and by the time he got home, I was ready to get out of the house and run some birthday errands.  He agreed and when I went into the bathroom to get myself ready to go, I noticed my right eye was very red.  I wear contacts, so red eyes aren't totally uncommon, but this was different and I knew at once that it was probably pink eye.  Since we had to get the cake ordered and some food purchased, I wore my glasses and we went anyway.

The next morning, I awoke with crusties around my eyelashes.  I went to Urgent Care and the doctor there confirmed my suspicions, giving me ointment and a heads up that it could show up in my other eye too.  At this point, I had developed a pretty yucky sinus cold that was also affecting my chest.  I really wanted to call off the party, or at least postpone it, but my parents had left MN to drive all the way out here just for the party and I couldn't cancel.  So I hoped the ointment worked, washed my hands, wore my glasses and went on with the show.

Friday morning, I woke up to a new surprise: the pink eye had now entered my left eye.  Also, my voice was very hoarse and my throat was on fire.  It was going to be a great day!  My parents had arrived safely the night before, so my mom and I went to work, getting the last of the groceries and baking up a storm.  I also made the birthday banner and centerpieces.  We worked long into the evening and were exhausted when bedtime finally came.

Saturday morning was the day of the party!  We rented out a local park shelter that had a lovely fireplace, complete with firewood.  The party started at 11, so my goal was to be there by 9 to start setting up.  Timing didn't work out that well and we didn't arrive until closer to 10.  The shelter is outdoors, but I figured by early March it wouldn't be miserably too cold, especially with a fire raging and a propane heater blowing.  I figured totally wrong as it was in the 20's that day.  Our fingers were freezing as we tried to hang banners and decorate things... my grand idea of how it would look did not come to fruition, but all things considered (freezing cold, I felt like trash, etc) it looked pretty nice.

Sadly, even though several of Blair's little pals were invited, only 3 came.  Some were out of town, others had family visiting, one was even being punished for being naughty and her punishment was that she couldn't come to the party.  Also, the original plan for the "fun" part of the party was that the kids could go sledding.  That was a no-go because even though there were small, light flakes falling, there was not nearly enough snow to sled on.  The party was supposed to go from 11-1, but because everyone was so cold (we spent the whole time huddled around the fireplace or the propane heater), things started to break up around 12:15.  I feel a little bit sad about how it all went down, but honestly, I was super cold myself and feeling completely awful that I couldn't wait to get out of there either.

Will it go down as the worst birthday party in history?  Maybe?  But amazingly, despite being cold and having so few friends show up, Little Miss wore a smile for most of the day and enjoyed being celebrated.  She happily played with her friends, ate her cupcake and explored the stone look-out "castle" behind the shelter.  For me, yes, it was just an awful day.  But to have made the birthday girl happy, despite everything else, that was worth it all.

Disney Pics

These pictures were taken with my phone, so don't judge their quality.  Also, my phone pooped out on me about three hours into the day so these were the only pictures we have, other than those that Disney Photo Pass took.  At least we have a few to help us always remember that day!

Meeting Alice, Tweedledee, Tweedledum and The White Rabbit

Getting ready to ride Dumbo!

Daddy rode with baby girl

The girls and I meeting Daisy Duck

This was so sweet!  I love how she is holding Minnie's face!

Baby girl wasn't shy at all!  She grabbed right onto Minnie's nose!

Just us girls with Minnie Mouse

Riding the Carousel

Daddy helped baby girl hang on

Classic shot in front of the castle

I hope you enjoyed the few pictures we have from that day!  We had such a great time and one day, we would love to go back and stay longer and see more!

Vacation, Part Two

You all have already heard about the beach part of our vacation, now is the time for the second half of the trip: Avon Park and Disney.

After our long day on the beach, we headed back to Mark's parents' place in Avon Park.  It was about an hour and a half drive and by the time we got there, baby girl had fallen asleep.  Not good considering it was already about 7 PM and her typical bedtime is 8.  She had a hard time falling asleep, especially being in a new place where she was sharing a room with all of us.  At first, Mark tried to take our oldest in to rest on the bed next to the pack-n-play, but baby girl wasn't having it.  Mark and Blair moved then into the living room where he parked on the couch and she was in her sleeping bag on the floor.  After baby girl finally settled down, I went into the room and slept on the bed.  It was a rough night's sleep between the coughing (both girls had coughs intermittently throughout the night), lack of AC, and girls waking up here and there.  You know those nights when each time you wake up, you hope it is time to get up, just so the night can be over?  Yep, it was one of those.

We had planned to stay with Mark's parents for Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights and heading back Tuesday.  However, after the night we had, we decided to bump up our days and hit Disney on Sunday instead of Monday.  With that, we also decided to get a hotel room for our night after Disney that wasn't far from the park and would be easier to leave from in the morning.  That meant, we only had one more night to stay with Mark's parents.  Thankfully, they put in the AC window unit in the living room that morning, so it was cooler that night and sleep was a bit easier.  There was still coughing, but at least it wasn't so sticky.

I'm getting ahead of myself though- before we went to sleep that night, we spent the day at a state park that featured walks through marshes and native Florida landscaping.  During the walk, we got to see a mommy alligator with her three babies!  It wasn't close enough to snap at us, but we did get a good view!  That was neat!  It was nice to get some exercise too.  We topped off our walk with some homemade sour orange ice cream that was sold inside the park lodge.  It tasted like a dreamsicle!  Since it was my actual birthday, Mark's parents kept the girls for us and sent us out on a date to Outback.  It had been a long time since we had been there- maybe since before having kids!  As we munched our Bloomin' Onion, we looked around the room and asked ourselves which of our friends we would like to retire with... it was an interesting conversation.  We enjoyed that time to ourselves celebrating my birthday.  Thanks, Mom and Dad Acker!

Sunday morning, we got up bright and early to pack our things into the car and head over to Disney!  I was not feeling well- I woke up with a headache (I get migraines quite often).  We got on the road and stopped at the first McDonald's we found.  After some orange juice, medicine and a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit, I started to feel better and by then, we had arrived at "the happiest place on earth."  We got into the park around 9:30 and hit the ground running.  First, Blair and I got "Happy Birthday" buttons so that everyone would know we were there celebrating.  Next, we headed toward Fantasyland, a new area of the park.  Before we got there, we stopped to meet Alice in Wonderland, Tweedledee and Tweedledum and The White Rabbit.  Blair liked that and so did I!  Then we hit the Dumbo ride and after that, walked over to meet Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse.  At that point, we had purchased an autograph book and pen for signatures, so we have a few in there.  Mark took Blair on the Tea Cup ride and I took her on the Speedway cars.  Mark took Blair to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory while baby girl slept in her stroller with me.  Then we got a Fast Pass for The Little Mermaid ride and rode It's a Small World and the carousal while we waited.  After Ariel, we caught a parade by the castle and I headed over to get a Fast Pass for Mickey and the Princesses.  It turns out I was given confusing information and got the wrong Fast Pass, but Blair was so excited to meet the princesses, so we waited in line to do that, which was worth it when we saw her with them.  She met Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, as well as Mickey Mouse.  She just told me this morning that meeting them was her favorite thing about Disney, so I'm glad we waited the half hour we did.  We came out just in time to see another parade and the girls loved it, of course.  Next, we headed over to Tom Sawyer's Island, which was geared more for older kids, but Mark and I wanted to see it anyway.  Blair was pretty scared in the cave- it was pretty dark in there!  And it didn't help that the people going through in front of us were scaring each other and shouting.  We had dinner at Pecos Bill's and it was super expensive, but we were hungry.  Our last "land" of the day was Adventureland.  Here, we rode the jungle boat, Aladdin's magic carpets and climbed up the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse.  I bought a Christmas ornament quickly, just before the light show on the Cinderella's Castle began.  It was pretty amazing.  In order to beat the crowds out, we opted to skip the fireworks and headed back to the car.  It was a really long, but totally awesome day!  Definitely Blair's most memorable birthday!  I'm thankful we were able to get there with the girls!

Both girls were completely exhausted and fell asleep in the car on the drive over to the hotel.  We were able to get them right into bed and move everything up to the room without them ever waking up.  That night, we all slept like babies.

The next morning, I awoke again with a migraine- this one was not going to go away without a fight.  Mark was a trooper and packed everything up, including the girls.  We stopped at a Chickfila and the migraine got the best of me- I got sick in a bag after eating a little.  I then proceeded to sleep off and on for several hours and finally around 1 PM, I was feeling better.  I hate those darn migraines.  They come when I don't expect them or at the worst possible times.  I try to manage them with minimal medicine, but if they continue to torture me, I might have to get something stronger like my mom uses (my mom and grandma both get them as well).

The drive home went all right.  We made it home by 1:15 AM and were happy to sleep in our own beds again.  Thanks for reading about our vacation!  It's hard not to ramble... sometimes I tried to control that and other times, not so much.  I will add some pictures to another post.  Time to get baby girl out of bed!    

Vacation, Part One

Hi Readers!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post (I know you were dying with anticipation!), but this girl has been too busy traveling to sit down and write!  Fear not!  The time has come for me to indulge you all about said trip!  Here we go!

We left town on Tuesday afternoon last week- we chose Tuesday because our oldest goes to a local preschool on Tuesday mornings and I wanted to make sure she didn't miss it.  She loves going and I love that she goes!  Win-win.  The drive down was slated for around 15 hours, so it was going to be a long night.  The girls did pretty well in the car overall!  There were some tears and the expected whining, but they did sleep a lot and only really melted down about 20 minutes from our final destination.  We dropped them off with Grandma and Grandpa with their things and instructions and later that day, drove over to our private vacation getaway.

We finally decided to stay at The Harrington House on Anna Maria Island, FL.  It is a B&B with other properties surrounding the main house- we stayed in one of those.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  I told Mark that I would love to retire in a place just like that- it had master suites with their own baths, a good sized kitchen, dining and living rooms, and even a washer and dryer.  It was decorated perfectly and had lovely finishes.  I was in heaven.  Even though our place wasn't directly on the beach, we just had to walk across the road and enter the parking lot to the main house which led around to the pool and deck that was right there on the beach.  I liked the quiet privacy of being away from the main house better anyway.  That is what a good vacation is for parents, right?  P&Q.  Call us crazy, but we took full advantage of that... to the point where we each slept in our own beds.  There were two, so why not?  We had the best night's sleep we had had in weeks, let me tell you!!  No one heard a snore, felt a toss or turn, got too hot or cold, ah... it was amazing and much needed.

While we weren't staying in the main house, we still had access to every amenity offered: pool (we never had time to use it, but man, was it warm!), mouth-watering breakfast (day one: yummy omelet, toast, fruit; day two: french toast with ginger peach compote and fruit), beach chairs, bicycles, movies, afternoon cookies, coffee anytime, etc).  We spent the first morning sleeping in until we woke up on our own (surprisingly, this was 8 AM.  We had gone to bed at 9:30 the night before because we were wiped from the drive down, so that might have something to do with our early rising).  Next we headed over to the main house to eat our scrumptious breakfast on the deck, watching the beach-walkers, sailboats, pelicans diving and stingrays jumping.  We decided to take a walk on the beach ourselves for a bit before heading out on bicycles to explore the island.  It was so fun and relaxing to ride up and down the streets and experiencing the island this way.  It would be a pretty place to retire, but probably way too expensive.  Besides, we've got a whole lot of living to do before retirement anyway!  We rode our bikes to the main shopping drive and checked out the little boutiques, looking for a few small souvenirs for the girls.

After a day in the sun on our bikes, we were tired and sunburned.  It was almost dinner time and I had a craving for some Cuban food since we were down in FL and it would likely be authentic.  A little google search led me to Jose's Real Cuban Food in nearby Bradenton.  Reviews said the food was tasty and the place had been featured on The Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, which sold me because I enjoy that show and always wish I could try the places he finds.  Mark got the Cuban sampler platter that had different kinds of meats and sides and I got the Cuban sandwich... it was so yummy and huge!  I could only eat half, so we took the rest with us.  On the way back to AMI, we stopped in a place called Bealls Outlet (kind of like Marshall's or TJMaxx), because we didn't have kids and that makes shopping more fun.  We both found some cute, inexpensive things, including shoes and shorts for Mark, sunglasses and a few shirts for me.  Their winter clothes were clearanced so I got some great deals and I still get to wear them because winter is still going strong here at home.  We ended the evening back at the house and tried to soak up every last moment of quiet left before seeing the girls the next morning.  

The next morning was a little less leisurely as we were trying to pack up and eat breakfast before check out and Mark's parents' arrival.  The plan was for the them to bring the girls out and for us to enjoy the beautiful beach for the day with them.  The Harrington House gave us permission to continue to use the facilities for the day, even after check out, so we were able to use their towels and chairs and their bathroom.  That came in super handy throughout the day!  The girls loved the beach!  Baby girl tried to eat the sand and crushed up shells several times.  We took the girls for a beach stroll with the heavy-duty double jogger.  My oldest and I played in the Gulf- it was chilly at first, but we got used to it pretty fast!  Mark buried her in the sand, which she loved.  The seagulls hovered overhead for much of the time and took advantage of every dropped goldfish cracker or corn puff.  We decided to give them the whole bag of corn puffs because the humidity had made them taste less than appetizing.  Once they caught wind of free lunch, they surrounded us and fearlessly scavenged anything they saw, including the rest of my Cuban sandwich that was in my hand on its way to my mouth!  It was crazy!  But the girls LOVED feeding the birds so I guess it was worth my taste bud's sacrifice.

All in all, the first part of our vacation went wonderfully!  It was a great gift to get those precious hours of alone time with my Mark man, followed by a spectacular day on the beach with our sweet little family.  Oh, how I love them!  Also awesome was the weather- it was perfect and we couldn't ask for better!  Thank you, Lord, for these special memories!  These first 30 years of my life have been such a blessing and I am grateful!

Who wouldn't want to stay here?? 

This is my bedroom, ha ha. 

Here is the living room

This is Mark's bedroom

Beautiful sunset!

Jose's Real Cuban Food, Bradenton, FL

Our last beach day

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Baby girl, exploring the sand

I love the beach!

Thanks for reading!  Come back soon for the second part of our vacation!  We will be heading for a short visit to Avon Park, FL, followed by our day in Disney World!