Vivian's Dance Recital

Our little ballerina participated in her second dance recital this spring.  Since last year was a daddy-and-daughter dance (see Vivian's Dance Recital), this was Vivian's first time performing solo, and she danced beautifully, of course.  This year's theme was Peter Pan, with Vivian's class dancing as pirates.  As you can see from the photos below, she has really good form for a four-year-old.  Vivi was especially excited that Mimi Joanne was able to join us for the recital.  Afterwards, we presented Vivian with a bouquet of flowers and treated her to lunch (along with several of her classmates) at the Silver Diner.  Now that she has a year of ballet behind her, Vivian has been asking to take tap lessons.  Mommy and daddy may have to say yes, if only to keep their daughter from tap dancing all over the house.  Well done, Vivi, we're all so proud of you!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day 2014

Elise and the kids traveled to Howell, Michigan to spend Memorial Day weekend with Mimi Pauline (Bryant stayed behind to catch up on some house projects).  Just before departing, we learned that Henry had been selected as the "superstar of the week" at school, which meant he got to keep the class mascot—Mr. Wise the Owl—for the long weekend.  Fortunately, Mr. Wise did not require an extra seat on the plane.  Once in Howell, Henry, Vivian and Mr. Wise enjoyed a weekend full of activities, including a trip to the Howell Nature Center (where they got to see a real life snowy owl) and a visit to the Detroit Zoo.  The water play area at the Howell Nature Center was an especially big hit (see the photos below).  Back at Mimi Pauline's house, the kids enjoyed riding around in Mimi's green gator, petting the neighbors' horses and catching up with the resident Labradors.  Below are some photos from the long weekend—be sure to keep an eye out for Mr. Wise!

 

  

  

 

  

Easter 2014

We spent Easter with Mimi and Paw Paw in Alabama.  It was our first time back in Mobile since our ill-fated beach trip of 2012 (see Labor Day 2012).  This time the weather was perfect, and we took advantage of the spring sunshine with lots of outdoor activities.  On Easter morning, Henry and Vivian awoke to discover that the Easter Bunny had brought them roller skates!  After a few turns around the neighborhood, we went to church with Mimi and Paw Paw and spent the rest of the day playing with Bryant's childhood toys (check out the vintage sit-n-spin below).  The next day we headed to Dauphin Island for a day at the beach.  We planned to stay only a few hours but ended up spending most of the afternoon playing in the sand.  On the way home, we stopped at The Mariner restaurant and picked up some fried Gulf seafood for dinner.  The beach was hard to top, but we came close with a visit to Alligator Alley in Baldwin County the next day.  We were expecting a tourist trap, but this place was beautifully maintained and very informative--well worth the hour drive across the bay to get there.  We just missed the 1:00pm feeding but were still able to see some massive gators.  On the way over, we stopped at the "world famous" Dew Drop Inn for chili dogs and fried onion rings.  The only thing we needed to complete our Mobile visit was some of Mimi's sausage balls--and we had those on our last day (see Things We Like: Sausage Balls).  By the time we got back to Washington, the kids were already asking when we could visit again.

Planting jelly beans to grow into lollypops (see below).



  

 

 

 

  

Hanging out at Mimi and Paw Paw's house.

 

 

 

Fun in the sun at Dauphin Island.

 

"Captain Crunch"—the biggest gator at the farm.

Disney World 2014

Like lemmings to the sea, we marched off to Orlando in January for what has become our annual visit to the House of Mouse.  This trip was significantly shorter than past visits.  With Henry in Kindergarten, we’ve had to limit our travels to school breaks.   A teacher in-service day tacked onto the long MLK weekend provided a four-day window for our yearly Disney fix.  We could visit during spring break or summer, but as experienced WDW travelers, we knew to avoid those high crowd seasons.  As an added bonus, Mimi and Paw Paw joined us for the long weekend.

The weather was unusually cold for Orlando, which made for some chilly mornings at the resort bus stop but also helped keep the crowd levels down (MLK weekend is a popular time for Floridians to visit).  Despite the compressed time frame, we hit all of our favorite attractions/restaurants: Cinderella’s Royal Table, Pirates of the Caribbean, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Soarin’, Maelstrom, and Oktoberfest in Germany.  We also returned to the Be Our Guest restaurant for dinner and were lucky enough to be seated in the mysterious West Wing.  Henry graduated to the grown-up roller coasters on this trip and tackled both Expedition Everest (Animal Kingdom) and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom).  The former proved a bit too scary—not so much the coaster as the Yeti that jumps out at the end.  However, his favorite ride remains the Barnstormer in Magic Kingdom (check out the video below).  Vivian was fortunate—very fortunate—to meet two of her favorite princesses: Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  We heard the wait to see them could be as long as five (5) hours!  Miraculously, the line moved faster than anticipated, and it only took about 50 mins for Vivian’s turn.  She was the last visit before Elsa went home for the day—we were that close.  Mimi and Paw Paw gamely joined us for what they figured (between visits with kids and grand kids) to be their 20th+ trip to WDW.  We packed a lot into those three days.  On our last night in the park, we stayed until 9pm and saw Main Street Electrical Parade—something we have never done before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And check out these videos from our trip:

New Year's in Huntsville

Morris cousins photo-op

We flew to Huntsville at the end of Christmas break to visit with Uncle Kevin, Aunt Templa and the girls.  Mimi Joanne drove up from Mobile to be with us.  We discovered that Baby Regan is no longer a baby and is very fond of her uncle; she climbed right up into Bryant's lap.  As always, Henry and Vivian enjoyed seeing their older cousins.  While we were in town, we visited the local children’s museum and all went to the movies one afternoon (Walking with Dinosaurs for Henry, Micah and Rylan and Frozen for Vivian and Regan).  Mimi bravely agreed to watch all five grandchildren one evening while Bryant, Elise, Kevin and Templa went for dinner and drinks with their cousins Carrie and Quitman Turner.  We are especially grateful to our Alabama peeps for introducing us to the Nook, which we later learned is ranked as one of the best bars in the country.  Below are some photos of our brief visit to Huntsville.