Vacation - Day 1

I can already tell I'm going to make multiple posts regarding our vacation.  Today is Day 1, and I already have about 130 pictures.  I'll spare you and try to whittle that number down.

Some cool pictures from our ride there . . .

Cool bridge we drove over in WV

Loved this "stair-stepper" picture of the Knight and the kids looking at a grasshopper they found

Once we arrived in Columbus, our first stop was Cap City Diner.  Someone had recommended it as a great place to eat -- so glad they did!  I had Pecan-crusted Pork Chops with an apple glaze -- UH-may-zing!  The Knight had a BBQ Chicken BLT and of all things, my Princess Sparkle ordered Meatloaf!  Apparently, they are pretty well known for it.

As we finished up, our waitress brought this delight to our table!  She said because it was our first time there, she wanted to give us their prize dessert . . . Seriously Big Chocolate Cake!  Seriously.  That's the name of the cake. HA!

 

Then we were off to Easton Mall -- land of the American Girl and Lego stores.

 

I don't even know how to describe this next part.  I know I can't do it justice.  The girls were ecstatic to say the least when they walked into the American Girl store!  They moved from display to display with wide eyes and giggles.

 

Butterfly's favorite doll -- Rebecca

The girls had worked hard to earn money and had saved up money for this trip. Some of the items they wanted weren't available at the store.  They decided to let their dolls have a day at the spa.  Each doll got washed and powdered, hair done and received a spa gift set to bring home.  Spa set included robe, mask, cucumber (stickers) and nail polish (stickers) in a cute mini AG bag.

McKenna getting her hair done.

Sparkle is thrilled with the fishtail braid

A bow is being added to Noel's hair

The anticipation is more than she can handle!

An adventure of a lifetime!

 Now for the Lego store.  Honestly, it was a huge disappointment.  There are more Lego Friends (girl Legos) available at Walmart.  The store was very small.  I had envisioned rows of selections -- not so.  The Lego sets lined three walls.  The last wall was pretty cool though.  Bud ended up buying a couple small things and then bought a small bucket of miscellaneous Legos that he picked from this wall.  Let me just say as the son of a master packer mom, this kid made out!  There was a set price for everything you could fit in the bucket.

He ended up with the small bucket of Legos, a Spiderman Lego keychain, a mini set to make a helicopter and a small set that included a truck, trailer and a boat that actually floats!

Bud paying for his Legos

Happy with his purchases

Butterfly couldn't wait to give Noel a spa treatment and pedicure

This poor kid was about ready to have a coronary over the day's excitement!!

Noel's pedicure

Since the dolls were pampered, us big girls decided to get pampered too!

Sparkle's nails

Sparkle's toe nails

Butterfly's nails

Butterfly's toe nails

 

THAT was one full day!  I think it's safe to say we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Great Start To 2013-2014 School Year~

Today has to go down in the win column.  It was a little chaotic with appointments, but the kids' attitudes were nothing less than stellar and the smoothness of the school day was {honestly} shocking!  I am overjoyed with how well the day went.

 

There were bumps along the way . . . Bud was "boring" out of his mind.  Kids were still working on school at 8:00 pm because of our appointments.  But if we could keep the essence of today throughout the whole school year, I will be one happy Momma!

 

Here are our 1st Day of School pictures . . .

 

In an effort to make this year a little more fun, I found these ideas on Pinterest.  Princess Sparkle kept chuckling at the sayings.  She asked where I got the ideas.  When I told her Pinterest, she said, "I thought so."

These outtakes of Bud were hilarious.  I had to share them.

 

Here's to a fun, productive, great school year!

Can't Believe She's 1!

Can't believe I didn't post for my niece's 1st birthday!  (Maybe I'll back date it to June before she's old enough to read -- HA!)  She is the most precious little human being you've ever seen!  Full of personality and bubbling over with happiness -- a perfect combination of her parents.  We love her dearly.  My kids can't get enough of her.

Here's a couple pictures from her "1st Birthday" photo shoot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BELLA!

It's Been Too Long

Ok. So it just took me 10 minutes to get logged in to my blog.  It's been so long since I posted that I couldn't remember my password to get in! {sigh}

Well, the short version of where we've been is . . . months ago, our beloved son spilled iced tea all over our laptop leaving us with no computer.  Believe it or not, it's still being repaired.  He really did a bang up job of it.  We've borrowed a laptop occasionally to get us through the end of the school year, then purchased and set up a stripped down desktop from a friend (still can't get Adobe Reader to load or the sound to work) and have also added the Knight's new "work" laptop with Windows 8 (with no MS Office products) to the collection.  Any of you who have used Windows 8 knows it makes your life miserable, and it's no fun trying to do anything on it.  Throw in a busy summer, and it's easy to see why there's been no blogging.

I'd love to rewind and catch up on everything we've been doing, but there may be one gi-gundo blog post summarizing our summer especially since we are starting school and going to take a mini vacation next week.