The Johnsons at Epcot

We headed to Epcot on our first full day in Disney World. Mark and I had spent some time reading The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and the Tour Guide Mike website, and we had a tentative plan for each park. We even had spreadsheets (We are Disney Geeks!), although we managed to leave a few of them at home! We got off schedule first thing when we saw Daisy Duck signing autographs. We immediately got in line, and a new obsession was born! We were prepared with autograph books and clickable Sharpies. The children loved it!

After meeting Daisy, we headed to Soarin', which was my favorite ride. Everyone except Eli rode the ride. There were very mixed reviews. Bailey loved it, Isaac and Olivia were a bit alarmed, and Anna Grace came out in tears (the fireworks at the end did her in!). We spent time checking out The Seas with Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. Eli loved looking at the fish. After lunch, Mark took the older children to Mission Space and Test Track, while I took the three younger ones back for a nap (I think that I got the better end of the deal!).

We ate supper at the Coral Reef, which was very yummy! I had read some complaints about how loud it is, but since we are a bit loud ourselves, we fit right in! The children loved the smoothies, and the food was delicious. It was my favorite food of the week.

After dinner, we stood in line to meet Mickey Mouse and all of his pals. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald were all there. Eli was not patient enough to wait, so my dad stood in line for him and got autographs in his book.

Afterwards, we walked around the World Showcase. We got a nice overview, but we could have spent a lot more time checking out the exhibits. I read a quote that Epcot really stands for "Every Person Comes Out Tired" and I agree! There is a ton of walking! The highlight of the night for the children was getting to meet Aladdin and Jasmine.

The Johnsons Head to Disney!

We had planned to go to Disney World back in the fall of 2008, but we were blessed with the birth of Eli instead. Needless to say, we put our trip of for a couple of years. We decided back in January, that this would be the year that the Johnsons would visit Mickey at his house. We invited my parents and Mark's mom to go with us, so all ten of us geared up for a very memorable trip!

When we started, I had no idea how much time and thought goes into planning a Disney trip. I booked our trip in March through themagicforless.com, which I highly recommend. Disney offered free dining if you stayed at one of their resorts and bought tickets for the parks. Our free dining package included a snack, a counter service meal and a sit down meal for each day. I was very thankful not to have to "brown bag" our trip!

We chose to stay at a Value (cheap) resort -- The Pop Century. My frugal side would not allow me to go any higher than that! It more than met our needs. We had three rooms to house the ten of us.

I made reservations for our sit down meals 190 days before our trip. It was a bit of a stretch to think about our meals six months in advance -- it is a big enough challenge to plan our meals at home a week in advance! We wanted to have lunch at Cinderella's Castle, which books up months in advance. We also chose the Coral Reef at Epcot, the Crystal Palace character meal with Pooh and friends, and a meal at the O'hana restaurant at the Polynesian Resort.

We left when Mark got off work on September 10th and drove to Birmingham. That allowed us to get six hours of our fifteenish hour trip out of the way. We had been counting down the days for the past six months, and we were all excited that the day had finally arrived. We got up early the next day and made our way to Orlando. We hit construction, bad weather and Florida Gator traffic -- the trip seemed to take forever! We were so glad to finally pass under the magical Disney World sign!

To be continued...

My Brother's Wedding

Lovely Liv
Beautiful Bailey

Mark and His Lovely Mom

Our Little Man

A Sea of White and Khaki!

My brother Bo and his love Lindley got married a couple of weekends ago. I am thankful that we all had the opportunity to be there. Lindley has been a part of our lives for quite a few years, so it is nice to have her as an official part of our family. I look forward to seeing them grow old together!

The children were very excited about going to the wedding! We go to a very casual church now, so we do not often dress up. In fact, I had to go and buy "dress up" clothes for the boys. Bailey and Olivia had the very important job of handing out the programs, and they took it very seriously!

I did not get any pictures that did the bride and groom justice -- I look forward to seeing the professional photos. They were a lovely couple!

Warriors Path State Park, Continued

The Wardrobe

The Lamp Post

Mr. Tumnus' House

The Beavers' Lodge

Father Christmas' Sleigh

The trail ended with the white stag and another wardrobe to exit.

Warriors Path State Park had a trail based on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. It led you through the major scenes of the book. Each scene had a button you could push to hear the story. Isaac and Bailey have listened to the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre version of the story over and over, and all of the children have watched the movie numerous times, so the trail was a huge hit. Bailey keeps hoping that the next time we go back there will be a Prince Caspian Trail!

Warriors Path State Park

Mamaw is a jump in with both feet kind of Grandma. We love her!
Bailey has become quite a young lady!

WEEEEEEEEE!

Eli's favorite part was the water fountain. Here he and Anna Grace see how many germs they can come in contact with!

Mark's Mom took us to Warriors Path State Park while we were visiting with her last month. It was the best park that I have ever been to! It was designed so that all children, even those with disabilities could play. The rolling slide was the first thing that drew the kids in. I think that Anna Grace and Eli would have been content to hang out on the slide the whole time we were there. The rest of the play equipment was topnotch as well! There was a very shallow creek for the children to wade in, and a tree house overlooking the park. I have a feeling that the children will be asking to go back there whenever we go to visit Mamaw!

GrandBob's Little Helper

Eli loves his GrandBob! He followed him around while we were at their house. I am so thankful that my children have a close relationship with their grandparents despite the miles between us!

Eli Meets Taco Bell

We stopped at Taco Bell on our trip home from Tennessee. I ordered chips and cheese for all of the children. Eli loved the cheese dip. He really gets into his food!

Family Time

We love Uncle Wes and Aunt Rebecca!
We can now "officially" call Lindley "Aunt"!

Eli loves Uncle Bo!

The children and I spent ten days in Tennessee visiting our family this month. Mark had to work, so he joined us for the last few days of our trip. We had a great time staying with my parents and Mark's mom and visiting with family. My brother Bo (in the real world he is known as Bob, but that childhood name is stuck in my head!) and his love Lindley got married on the last day we were there. I am so glad we could be there! My brother Wes and his wife Rebecca flew in also, and we loved being with them. Family is precious, and I am so thankful for the time I can spend with mine!

I always underestimate how tiring it can be to be on vacation with the children. Eli displayed his fit throwing talents (he is an expert two year old, even though he is only 22 months!). It was nice to get back home and get everyone back into a "normal" routine and back into their normal beds! It takes several days for me to catch up.

Keys to a Good Night's Sleep

A Special Blankie + A John Deere = A Good Night's Sleep!

Hair

It is amazing how much time, effort and money is put into hair! People all over the world have an opinion on what makes hair look good. People all over my house have opinions on this very same topic! This week, the girls have been into having their hair braided (started by last weekend's prairie party). Anna Grace brushes and brushes her hair trying to make it straight. Olivia likes wearing hers in a ball on top of her head. Bailey has started fixing her hair by herself. And on and on.

Recently, Isaac has started to have an opinion about his hair. I guess it is a sign that he is growing up (or maybe he is just trying to drive me crazy...). He inherited his mom's curly hair, and it is bugging him (I feel his pain). He has decided that he wants to grow his hair out, especially on top. He has visions of flipping his bangs over to the side. Isaac is a pretty compliant guy, so I have been trying to give him his independence. I did finally put my foot down and took him to get a trim yesterday. Our hairdresser, Tyler, is a great guy, so I thought that he would be good to listen to what Isaac says and still give him a good haircut. After Isaac was in the chair, I remembered the fact that Tyler has long hair, and that he might side with Isaac on this one. He did trim him up on the sides and in the back. He then did something that thrilled Isaac's heart. He pulled out a flat iron. Isaac came out with straight bangs on top. He said, "This is my hair dream come true!" I suspect that I am going to have a hard time getting Isaac in the shower!

It reminds me of my favorite line from Charlotte's Web. Fern's mom had gone to see the family doctor because she was worried that Fern was spending too much time with the animals and claimed that they talked to her. The doctor wisely said, "There is a name for this. It is a childhood phase, and sadly, it passes all too quickly."

Apples!

A friend gave us a bag of apples last week, and we decided to make some applesauce. It was a totally new experience for us. We usually just have to open a jar to eat applesauce! We borrowed a Pampered Chef corer/peeler/slicer (which is a really neat doo-dad!), and set to work. Isaac was my right hand man -- he loved working the "heavy machinery". He did let Olivia take a few turns as well. It was a bit of adjustment for the children, who are used to the pretty apples that come in a bag at Walmart, to sort through the small, holey apples. They even discovered a worm or two. We were all amazed at how much the apples cooked down, and how little applesauce we actually ended up making. The applesauce was yummy, and making it was a good experience for us all!

The High Dive

Bailey has a bit of an adventurous streak in her. She loves the roller coasters and fast rides at Amusement parks. She has also developed a love for the high dive at the pool. Now that she has had swim lessons, we have given her a bit more freedom in the deep end. We went to a church pool party last week, and she spent a lot of time in line for the high dive. It has been a LONG time since I went off one myself, but I can still remember that feeling in the pit of my stomach looking down at the water. I kind of got that same feeling in my stomach seeing my little girl up their looking down. Bailey is growing up before my eyes!

Anna Grace

Anna Grace was watering our plants with water from the wading pools. Every time she passed by my chair, she wanted me to take her picture. I ended up with four or five pictures of Anna Grace carrying water. She and I are quite the opposite. I have no desire to have anyone take a picture of me in a swimsuit. Aah the joy of being a little girl...

Our Littlest Water Soldier

Eli loved our water fight. He was not the least bit afraid to get water in his face! His favorite part was throwing water on Mommy and Daddy!

Friday Night Water Fight!

The Refueling Area

Friday nights are Family Night at our house. We had nachos for supper, and then the children wanted to have a water fight with their Daddy. Being the great daddy that he is, he agreed. I kept a camera in my hands, so I was exempt (a pretty good strategy, if I do say so myself!). Isaac filled up our wading pools, and they were all set!

Each of our children have different water fight personalities. Isaac took it very seriously! He was very focused on dumping as much water on his daddy as possible. Bailey preferred to act as a refueler, helping all sides in the war. Olivia acquired a high tech weapon (also known as a pool noodle, that she used to blow out water at her dad). Anna Grace splashed around most of the time. Eli walked around with a measuring cup of water. He ended up dumping it on his own head most of the time. He did not get the memo about not getting the picture taker wet, so I ended up with some wet legs!

We had fallen into a rut of watching television most Family Nights, so it was nice to do something different. Cheap fun and the grass got a drink at the same time!

Johnson Men

I snapped this picture of the men of our family during Bailey's birthday party. They wisely chose to stay outside with the other dads and brothers during most of the party. There was too much "girl stuff" going on inside!

Bailey's Birthday, Observed

Little Party on the Prairie

The Birthday Girls


Quilt Cookies

The Birthday Cake

Yummy Food

Bailey turned eight back at the beginning of July. We had a family celebration then, but we celebrated with friends this past weekend. Her friend Mary Anna turns eight later this month, and they both like American Girl Dolls, so we decided to have a combined party for them. The girls both have a Kirsten doll, so we had a prairie party. Thirteen little ladies came to help them celebrate.

As the girls came in, they each decorated a square sugar cookie. We put all of the cookies together, to make a cookie quilt (which was eaten later, of course!). The girls then made handkerchief dolls and decorated wooden spoons. Next on the agenda was square dancing, which was a hoot to watch! Mary Anna's great uncle played the fiddle.

The girls had worked up quite an appetite, so it was time to eat! The menu included corn on the cob, sandwiches, chips, strawberries, raw veggies and dip. For desert we had the birthday cake (decorated beautifully by Mary Anna's mom Melissa), cookies, old fashioned candy and homemade peach ice cream (my favorite food of the night!).

The girls recieved lots of nice presents, and had a great time with their friends. Best of all, they made wonderful memories they will treasure for a very long time! Praise God for friends!

Swim Lessons!

I have not been a good swim lesson mom! In fact, it has been one of those things that made me feel a bit guilty, so I pushed it to the back of my mind! I enrolled Isaac and Bailey in swim lessons several years ago, when Anna Grace was a baby. I dutifully drove across town every afternoon during rush hour traffic for a week. We had a thirty minute lesson, which we shared with our friends Jadon and Jonas. Bailey and Jonas refused to get in the water, so Isaac and Jadon had some personalized attention. While they were in class, I got to chase Olivia and keep Anna Grace happy. I think the experience scarred me, because after that, I shuddered every time I heard the words swim and lesson in the same sentence.

After that I kept putting swim lessons off. My friend Tanya gave Bailey unofficial swim lessons two summers ago when she came to visit. Last winter, the children started asking to take them. It was easy to promise back in January when there was snow on the ground. It started to get warmer, and I kept procrastinating on calling. Taking five children to a pool everyday for a week made me feel tired!

Finally, I called and set up lessons for the last week in July. Our lessons were about 25 minutes away in Cave City. Our teacher was a sweet college student who was great with the kids. We were the only people at the pool, which was nice. There was also a fenced in baby pool, which was perfect for Eli to splash in while the others were in the big pool. We had a private lesson for an hour. Anna Grace got the first fifteen minutes, and she worked on beginning things like putting her face in the water and floating. The others had forty-five minutes. The worked on a couple of different strokes, as well as tredding water and diving.

Overall, the swim lessons were much less painful than I had anticipated. The children learned a lot, and had lots of fun. Maybe I am over my swim lesson phobia!