Mother's Day

Girls Planting Flowers

with Daddy!

Poser

Bubble Popper

Crazy Girl

Good Morning GTaw!

Good Morning GTaw!

Look at our Daffodils about to bloom!

Cape May

The girls and I were invited on a trip with another mom and her 2 year old daughter. We all packed into the minivan on a Friday afternoon and headed to Cape May, NJ. Took about 4 hours and was an easy drive.

We stayed at the Grand Hotel and the reason - INDOOR POOL! We hit the Cape May Zoo (awesome), we swam, we hit a Chinese all you can eat buffet (Aubrey may have put them out of business), and we swam. Aubrey, Molly, and I hit the pool on Saturday afternoon for 3 hours. My girls are part fish.

My phone died and I was completely disconnected for the weekend. The girls had my full attention and we all needed it.

They crack me up!

Awesome Zoo!

Goat Tongue

Black Swan

Disney Prep and Small Details

OK, so probably not "tricks"... but things I think helped us out.

1) I purchased on sale t-shirts from Disneystore.com for the girls and I, this helped tell them where we were going, and we wore them on our first day there.

2) I also picked up autograph books (for cheaper than they sell in the parks, for the same book).

3) And Princess PJ's... all on sale and free shipping

4) And I handed these out over the course of the trip, so the kids got stuff and I didn't go poor.

5) I packed individual packs of goldfish, pretzels, and nutragrain bars knowing we may have to wait or be out and about when one of the girls (or I) was run down.

6) I also brought Tinkerbell Tupperware cups with lids that I kept stocked with water for the girls.

We did splurge on Princess dresses and accessories at the park. Lots of folks had mentioned packing your Disney dresses to take with you - ours were all beat up and in fact none fit Aubrey anymore so getting news for dinner with Cinderella make it that much more magical. The girls really took their time and looked at everything in the store over and over and over again.

We all want to go back and it really was amazing how well run the parks and resorts are.

Disney - Our Last Day!

Edge of the seat aren't ya. We packed up, went to the Grand Floridian, had breakfast at 1900 Park Fair with Mary Poppins, Alice, Mad Hatter, Pooh, and Tigger. We then headed to Hollywood Studios. We hit up Toy Story - AWESOME! (it was raining, we had a 5pm flight, and we were there a bit later than we hoped, we were running to get to Fast Pass at Toy Story. I asked a lady in a suit with a name tag if we were going the right way, she asked why the hurry, I explained, she handed us 4 fast passes for 9am hour!!!). We were able to hit Tower of Terror - which Aubrey and I will never forgive Doug for making us do. Walked around the different sets, saw a parade, saw a street show - which the girls loved, and then headed out!

Disney Day 4 - POOL Day!

After all the excitement of the past few days, we laid low at the pool on Saturday. We swam, played in sand, relaxed, napped, and then headed to Mickey's Back Yard Bar B Que - one of the highlights of the trip. The girls loved dancing with Mickey, Minnie, and other characters and we loved that they served beer!

Disney Day 3

Are you exhausted yet? I am! But up early we headed to Epcot for the Princess Breakfast in Norway! The girls loved it. And wow, tons of food! One of the best values we found there. After that we did Soarin' and can't say enough good things about this ride. Girls loved it too. We walked around all of Epcot, had lunch at the Japanese Steak House, did Test Track, met Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Daisey and Donald! Then, home for a nap... a much much needed nap! We got gussied up and headed to the Very Merry Christmas Party and Parade! We met Repunzel and Flynn Rider, we road Splash Mountain 3 more times (or they did, it was too cold for me), Thunder Mountain, Fireworks, SNOW!, and a fabulous parade.

During the parade Aubrey was called out to by SANTA! Woody, and other various characters. It was so cool!

Disney Day 2

We started early with the Magic Kingdom "magic hours" for guests staying on property. We went right to It's A Small World and rode it twice with no wait. We got fancy Mouse Ears, went on the Snow White ride, enjoyed walking through the castle, and then headed over to Splash Mountain.

It was 40 degrees and cold, and we road Splash Mountain twice, without having to get out of the boat... did I mention it was cold? We also road Thunder Mountain and the girls will tell you that is their favorite favorite!

We road Pirates, Jungle Cruise, met Pirate Goofy, hit up the fancy dress store and the girls picked up Disney Dresses for our very exciting and super fantastic Royal Ballroom Dinner! It was amazing. We loved it. Can't say enough about the service and magicalness of that dinner!

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