Disney Day 1

3 months ago we went on our first family trip to Disney. (side note: how has it been 3 months?, how is it march? and how is my daughter 51 inches?) We had an amazing time! We stayed at the Polynesian, took advantage of the on property hours for the parks, and since I booked it like a year in advance, I was able to make our "big" dinner/character meals an our own terms (by literally booking on the first day it was available to do so, six months out). I used Small World Vacations, which made things go very smoothly!

Day 1: Fly in at 8:30 am, using Disney's Magical Express, we were taken to our hotel, didn't have to worry about luggage, our room was ready and we headed off to the Magic Kingdom. Lunch at Tony's, walked out to a PARADE! saw the castle, hit It's A Small World, saw Mary Poppins and got our first autograph! From there we headed back to the Polynesian for the Aloha dinner. Molly fell asleep while we waited to be seated.

When I Grow Up

... I want to be like Aubrey - kind, inquisitive, loving, tenacious, and when she wants something or wants to do something, she will do it over and over and over again, no thought to how many times she failed, but excited for every time she does it better.
...I want to be like Molly - bold, smart, snuggly, where nothing is boring or easy but instead exciting and challenging - even breakfast. Someone who wants to be seen for who she is, flaws and all.

Overheard this Morning

Mommy: "Molly, what do you think you will do at school today".

Molly: "Mommy, am I at school right now"

Mommy: "no, you are at home"

Molly: "Then how am I supposed to know what I will be doing at school".

-----------------------

Aubrey: "When one "e" goes walking, the other does the talking."

Molly: "When one dog goes running the duck jumps in the pond"

Birthday Weekend Round Up

Aside from too much wine, lots of family and friend time, lots of sitting back and enjoying watching people do work for me... we did the following:

Family over dinner Friday night, I didn't lift a finger, and had too much wine! Thank you Fazzini's and my husband :)

Saturday - breakfast in bed, gymnastics, out to Brewer's Art with friends (and too much wine).

Sunday - Making Valentine's for Aubrey's school, getting ready for Super Bowl Party (and a very strong margarita)!

I contributed:

Mexican Chicken Dip

4 Chicken Breasts, cooked and shredded or cubed

8 oz sour ceram

1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup

small can (4oz) chopped green chilies

small onion chopped

2 cups Colby shredded

2 cups Monterey Jack shredded

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, serve with tortilla chips.

Loaded Baked Potato Dip

And I made Sea Glass Candy - very fun and easy!

Max

Last Week's Snow

Sisters Sledding!

Unsuccessful attempt at group picture

Why Daddy is More Fun Reason 312

New Year!

The White Hall Craigs have determined that our 2011 starts today, Feb 1. With the wonderful, marvelous, magical trip to Disney, putting in notice at one job, accepting another job, starting new job on Dec 22, Christmas, New Years, Aubrey's Tonsils out, Max diagnosed with cancer, and other miscellaneous general life events, we had no footing in January.

But, things have settled a little bit... a very little bit, but enough to take a deep breath and enjoy our healthy kids and each other.

I want to share some of our pics from Disney some recipes we have really enjoyed recently. And I need to figure out how to do that on my iPad :)

Annual Tree Getting

Our annual trek down the road to the Christmas Tree farm!

My girls!

Looking cute

Aubrey was deemed old enough to help saw.

Here she is finishing it off.

Tales From The Bus Part 1

I am thinking this might be a new series. Aubrey rides the bus to school in the morning. Kindergarteners have to sit in the first 2 rows. Somehow Aubrey has made friends with "older" girls... girls that might be in 3rd or 4th or even 5th grade.

Aubrey came home on Friday and told me that she learned a "Mommy Secret" from her friend Mae Mae. Mae Mae is her nickname and we have to call her that because there is a different Megan who is even older so she can be Megan and the little Megan can only be Mae Mae.

Apparently, Mae Mae told Aubrey that Mommy's know when their children are lying because when the child tells a lie, the child's face turns their favorite color (the childs). I acted SHOCKED that someone would give away such a powerful secret. Molly comes by and is doing something that I ask her about, and she lies and her face happens to be pink from exertion.

Aubrey's eyes get HUGE, she looks at me and says, "I must am going to be a mommy, 'cause I SAW that!"

I think I hurt an internal organ by holding in that laughter and walking away.

Just for you Dad!

GOAL!

Butterflies

Mermaid 1

Mermaid 2

Mermaids Together

Somehow

We went from this:

To This:

No one told me that this would happen and I never even remember blinking.

No one told me how much it would hurt or how proud I would be or how wonderful it is to watch.

Or how much I would need a slow motion button.

Daily Life

Today I made up a batch of Pomodoro Sauce - love that! I also made some Cheese and Sausage biscuits with leftover sausage from the weekend, they are in the freezer for quick breakfasts in the morning.

This very short week had us:

1) At our first Back to School Night! Exciting.

2) Practicing new routines with the bus and daycare

3) cleaning out junk drawers, garage, tupperware drawer, etc

4) Laundry - how is it possible to do 2 loads of laundry a day? I WISH I KNEW!

5) Trying to put together a plan of attack for the kids with a boys weekend coming up and a new job starting.

Boring, but our life.

This is Aubrey last Friday, LOVE this picture, don't know why!

Foggy River

On our way back from dropping Molly off at school, I asked Doug to stop so I could grab shots of the river near our house. I love the FOG!

The Bus

Aubrey road the bus for her first full day of Kindergarten. Is it wrong that I want to call the school and make sure she got there? With her lunch box? And her smile still in tact?

Headed down the driveway.

The girls!

I love that Aubrey turned back here - since she didn't once she got on the bus!

The bus driver told Aubrey to turn so I could take a picture :)

I cried.

Maryland State Fair 2010 Edition

Different visit this year as the girls were older, we went with friends, we went later in the evening than past years. We didn't hit the Cow Palace, see the horses, see the Scales, or any other building. We did see the petting area, and eat in the Maryland area (my favorite). And we rode rides. And we made our kids cry because the games people would pretend to hand the kids a beanbag or dart and then pull it away when we wouldn't hand over our life savings.

And of course the ice cream. ICE CREAM that is so good, so good you can't describe. From milk, from cows, that we SAW get milked (or so I like to believe).

Notable fact, first year at the fair WITHOUT A STROLLER!

Pics from my phone cause I left my camera in the car...

Molly and Aubrey

The crew.

Molly and Sarah

Aubrey and Sydney

Sydney and Aubrey

First Day - Kind Of

Aubrey and I went to kindergarten today. In our district we have gradual entry - so today 1/2 the kids and their parents came to school to get supplies sorted, cubbies set up, see the classroom, do activities, etc. Tomorrow, no school, half days Wed and Thurs and THEN on Friday, I am apparently supposed to put my child on a bus - without a car seat or adult - and let her go off on a 45 minute bus ride, WITHOUT ME, to school. Where she will apparently find her way to her class and have a full day of school.

I am pretty sure THAT is when I will loose it.

Also, SERIOUSLY? Haven't I spent the last 5+ years making sure my daughter doesn't

1. go into the street
2. talk to strangers much less GET IN A MOVING VEHICLE with one and
3. go anywhere without her carseat, a helmet, MY HAND?

OK, I need to take a deep breath and go lay down. Ok, back. Sorry about that.

In her classroom.

Right before we left.

I told her not to do her fake smile and this is the face she gave me.

We met Daddy for lunch.

And then we got her nails and toes done.

Hot Shrimp Dip Recipe

I was looking for a shrimp dip to take to a party yesterday - but didn't want to have to go buy any ingredients.

Here is what I put together:

1 bag of frozen shrimp, defrosted, tails removed, chopped up

1 green pepper, diced

1 onion, diced

some minced garlic

some old bay

Toss all of that in a pan on the stove to soften the pepper/onion

1 cup of softened cream cheese

1/2 cup of sour cream

a bunch more old bay

Mix together in large bowl

Once the mix on the stove looks softened, use a slatted spoon to move it into the bowl with the cream cheese mixture (I tried to leave out as much of the "water" as possible).

Toss in a handful of grated cheese (I used cheddar, mont/jack would have been good as well).

Mix.

Place into pie dish or 8X8 baking dish. Sprinkle top with more cheese and old bay on top of that.

Place in 350 oven for 30 minutes.

I served with Sea Salt Bagel Chips --> Tostitos worked too!

Working Mom Again

After a fabulous summer I will be heading back to work. We had a once in a lifetime summer! Now, back to reality - a brand new reality for all of us. Aubrey in kindergarten. Molly in "school" without her sister. Mommy in a new job. Daddy juggling the schedules.

In trying to get organized for the school year I put together a multi-week meal plan, a big list of to do's and worked to get well "baby" check ups scheduled, dentist appointments scheduled, everyone signed up for the appropriate activities, etc. I was shocked to see the county school schedule and realize how many days Aubrey has off between the first day of school and Christmas (10 for those counting). (NOTE: I took the school year county from the website, copied it into Excel, posted it on Google Documents and shared with my husband).

Tonight for dinner we had Chicken Strips, Maryland Corn, and Edamame. I made a 1/2 batch at lunch and wouldn't share with the girls, so at dinner they asked me to make some for them to try and they DEVOURED what I made. Aubrey even asked if she would be lucky enough to get something like that in her lunch box. Um, SURE!

We had a friend over for a few hours today, I gotta say, FOUR YEAR OLDS ARE HARD WORK -well worth all the fun, but HARD WORK!

WOW, how boring is this post?

Back in the Swing

Aubrey had her first soccer practice tonight. We needed a quick turnaround dinner to get there by 6 so I made Bow Tie Lasagna and to celebrate we had Sprinkle Cookies after practice.

Yeah, I don't know this is either.

And Molly has to pose too.

The Blue Turtles (the kids picked the name)

Aubrey was "so very sweaty" so she took off her team shirt :)

And We're Back

This week I:

• unpacked from being away for a month
• grocery shopped
• back to school list shopping - 16 glue sticks? REALLY?!?!
• Suit shopping - with girls in tow
• 3 phone interviews
• 2 in person interviews
• 2 trips to Severna Park (for babysitters)
• full day with girls friends at the house
• pool
• collected all the girls clothes (summer and fall), plus the clothes packed for our trip, loaded into the guest room, sorted, folded and put away
• collected 6 bags of toys hidden away and the kids haven't noticed.
• went to a chiropractor
• stressed about and dreamed about providing healthy lunches, daily, for Aubrey

This week I did NOT:

• Bake
• Cook
• Read
• Take pictures
• blog
• exercise (see above chiropractor - back pain!)
• sew
• craft
• deal with medical forms for kindergarten

See how this is totally not as blog worthy as Maine?