Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year, Ellie made each person in her class a bracelet. She thought about which colors they would like, and wrote each name carefully on the tags. She used sparkly pipe cleaners for her two teachers! 

Norah chose animal valentines for her classmates, and double checked multiple times in the student directory that she had not missed anyone.

Twin Day

Ellie dressed up for twin day with our neighbor and her BFF, Savannah. 

Last Day in FL

On our last day, we rented a car and drove to visit Mike's Aunt Cindy, cousin Leslie, and Grandad Caron in Madeira Beach. They live right on the water so it was wonderful to relax and enjoy the sun. Cindy was an amazing host and had plenty of snacks and drinks for us.  

Norah loves lobster, just like her daddy and MeMe.

Mike's Grandad has lived in the condo for a while and this was his first time coming down to the pool! We were honored and so happy to spend time with him at 96 years young.

Beautiful view!

Disney/Florida Trip Day 4

We got up really early and got on the express to head to Magic Kingdom. We had reservations at Be Our Guest, the Beauty and the Beast restaurant, for breakfast which meant we got into the park before it opened to the public, which was really fun. 

We got to see the "real rose" from Beauty and the Beast.

Since we got into the park early, we got to hop onto a few rides right after breakfast. We did It's a Small World (they had our names on the screen inside!).

Ellie didn't want to do any roller coasters, so Norah came with us on Thunder Mountain and the Seven Dwarves Mine train rides. It was so fun to do them with her!

When we left for the trip, we didn't have reservations for Ellie to go to the Bippity Boppity Boutique, and she was disappointed. But, Mike stopped in to see if they had any appointments that day and she was able to get one! She was beyond thrilled. Included was hair, makeup, nail polish, and a dress of her choice.

Afterwards, she insisted on riding the carousel, and really wanted to "sit sideways like a real princess" but it was against the rules.

We rode on the teacups and while the adults were trying to keep their lunch down, the girls had fun.

Then we went to see the parade. Ellie the princess waved to her fans. Throughout the day, employees who saw Ellie dressed as Elsa would say "Hello princess," and "It's so cold Elsa! Could you make it warmer?" She even got a free cup of ice cream from someone.

Good thing she brought her sleep mask from home to complete her day of princess pampering.

Disney/Florida Trip Day 3

Our day started with a character breakfast at our hotel. Then we headed to Epcot for the day!

In front of the "golf ball".

The girls relaxed and got their faces painted.

It was really chilly and windy until the mid-afternoon so thankfully a lot of the Epcot attractions were inside. The girls got to be part of a science show (and go onstage!) and our absolute favorite ride of the day was Soarin, where you travel the world and see landmarks from the air via video and it feels so realistic! We came back on the early side and spent some time resting/playing on the "beach" in front of our hotel.

Disney/Florida trip Day 2

The next day we got up and had "vacation cereal" for breakfast. Then we got on the bus to head to Animal Kingdom for the day! 

Norah and Meme both worked on their Wilderness Explorers books. Stationed around the park were employees who would give a small lesson on something and then ask you questions before giving a "badge" to put in your book. Norah took it seriously!

They chose animal print ears!

We saw some amazing animals on the Safari. Norah said the safari ride was her favorite part of the whole trip.

Norah went on a roller coaster ride with Mommy and Daddy while Ellie and MeMe waited.

We spent 20$ for the whole family to play Whack a Mole and the investment obviously paid off, because Mike won this purple stuffed dinosaur!

Ran into a couple of celebrities on the way out of the park. 

We went to O'Hana in the Polynesian resort for dinner. Not only was the food the best we had all trip, but we had a view of the castle in Magic Kingdom from our table, and we got to watch the firework show from our seats (music included)!