Sydney's 5!

Sydney's birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so we had a family party at out house. We had dinner, cupcakes and icecream, and a lot of fun! It was nice to celebrate with those we love.




Although we didn't have a formal party, we did have a modified "play date" a few days before her birthday at Monkey Joe's. Sydney invited her two little friends from church, and a little girl from her class at school. They had a great time playing, and we had pizza too.




I can't believe she is already 5! It seem like just last week I was begging the baby in my belly to "please come out tonight," and now she is already in school. She is very creative. She loves to draw and make crafts. She loves to sing, dance, and make up stories.




When she brings home pictures from school, the descriptions aren't just "a girl and rain," but "This is a little girl who loves to play outside. Today it is raining, so she is really sad." The picture will be a picture of a girl with a frown, surrounded by large blue dots of rain.




She is very kind, and always willing to help. She has a beautiful smile, and a cute little laugh. She is the best big sister, and a great first daughter.

Snow!

So, Sydney said it just isn't Christmas without snow, and it starting snowing late Christmas night. We woke up the next morning to play in the "snow." It didn't stick around too long, and by the time a snowman was erected, our yard was more "leaf-covered" and less "snow-kissed."

Sydney wanted the snow to come back, and a few weeks later it really came - with a whole lotta ice too. The snow started falling on Sunday night, and by Monday morning you couldn't leave your house. Not that the snow (5-7 inches) was so crippling, but the ice was unbelievable! People here just aren't prepared for this type of weather since it is so rare.

We went out and played for a little while before Donnie had to get back to real life. He had an important trip, but we couldn't get out of our driveway, so he packed up his hiking backpack, and set out on foot to catch the Marta train to the airport. He sat at the airport all day, and was finally rerouted through Salt Lake, where he spent the night, before heading on to Orange County. He was there all week, so he missed the craziness around here.

Sydney and Jaxy had a great time. School was closed the entire week, so we took it pretty easy around here. In fact, we had no choice but to take it easy, as we could not get our driveway clear until Friday. There was plenty of fun around here with the snow and ice - our neighbors used the car-less roads covered in ice as sledding hills.

We had power, blankets, and plenty of food, but when Papa Johns starting delivering again Friday, we jumped on the chance to have something I didn't have to cook :)

We went a little stir-crazy in the house all week, and it was really hard for me without Donnie and adult conversation. I was happy when Saturday rolled around and we made it out of the house (to Target), and Donnie came home.

In summation, I hope Sydney never asks for snow again :)

We decided to take the kids to Disney World over Christmas break – it was awesome! We stayed on site at the All Star Movie Resort (and we had a dining plan, which was free with the hotel, but saved SO MUCH money), for 5 days, and bought the park hopper tickets.

We were really excited. This was the first time for the kids, so we weren’t sure what they would think of the whole trip. Jaxon was thrilled from the very first step onto the bus (our hotel had shuttles to each park); Sydney, on the other hand, took a little work. The first few hours were spent like this:

ME: Sydney this is the happiest place on earth, so you better start acting like it!
SYDNEY: Blah! I don’t want to do this. Everything is scary…

Donnie helped her work through the attitude (hers, not mine), and by dinner time on day one, she agreed that this was, indeed, the happiest place on earth.

My grandmother joined us on Sunday and stayed until we came home on Thursday. It was so great to have her there. She was Sydney’s ride partner, and helped her to get excited about the different rides – especially “It’s a Small World.”

We would all spend the day at the parks, and then after dinner, we put the kids to bed (with Grandma in charge), and Donnie and I went back out to ride the “big” rides. It worked out perfectly! We saw shows and rode most of the rides/attractions with the whole fam, and then hit the major roller coasters at night when the lines were better, and we didn’t have to entertain the kids while they were tired.

The time went by way too fast; I guess that means we had a fun time :) Sydney is already begging us to go back, “how about we go to Disney World for my next school break?”

We have A LOT of pictures, so we are going to break this up into a few posts :)

Disney World part 2

Blogger is not cooperating with me and the spacing with pictures/info is all messed up. So, rather than spend another hour trying to fix it, just read the "captions" at the top and then scroll through for the pictures.

Jaxy was adamant about riding with Daddy on every ride, which worked out well (smallest person with person with longest legs :))


Aladdin's magic carpets was one of Sudney's favorites - and Pirates of the Caribbean is the other...


When we rode the tea cups, Donnie was nice enough to spin us super fast!


Sydney loved the Cinderella statue by the castle (Cinderella is her favorite princess).


The water at Epcot was a source of fascination - so was Captain EO, which was weird, even for Michael Jackson.


The Norweigian troll scared Jaxy, but Grandma toughed it out.


At Hollywood Studios they had an amazing light display - complete with fake snow!

At Animal Kingdom, Jaxy played a few carnival games and won a medium prize all on his own! Sydney opted for having a Cinderella crown painted on her cute little face.

Each park had Christmas trees. This is at Animal Kingdom.

Our hotel had two buildings dedicated to Toy Story - complete with giant statues. Jaxy was in heaven!

While Jaxy braved the roller coaster in Toon Town ("The Barnstormer"), Sydney went to meet the princesses. Pochahontas was actually at Animal Kingdom...

Sydney hung around with Grandma a lot. Here they are in front of Cinderella's castle and at Minnie's house for tea.

The Pink Pig

We took the kids to ride the Pnk Pig last night. Sydney really looks forward to it each year. Every time we drive past Lenox Square she asks if it's close to Christmas yet so that we can ride the pig. Jaxy just likes any train - pink or not.



After the Pink Pig we went to a hibachi restaurant. It was the first time for the kids. Jaxon loved the "fire", but Sydney hid on the floor until I could assure her that the volcano fire had stopped.



She recovered quickly when she saw the broccoli and carrots on her plate (she gave the mushrooms and shrimp to Donnie, so everyone was happy). Jaxon and Sydney both liked using chopsticks, and they really liked the dipping sauces.


All in all it was a fun night.

Just smile and say okay

On Wednesday we told Sydney we would be meeting with her teacher the next day for a parent-teacher conference. We told her that we were going to talk about her. She then looked at me and said, "My teacher might tell you that I have been bad, but you just smile and say 'okay', and then don't really listen to her."

After I managed to check my laughter, I began to worry. We were not sure what to expect when we met with her teacher. Thankfully, the conference went well, and Sydney is doing a great job at school. Her teacher said she listens well and follows rules (why not at home?!), she is doing great with her numbers, letters, sight words, and math with manipulatives.

She loves art time, and she is very creative. Ms. Parker said that all of the kids have too explain their pictures so that they can lable them (to show the state Pre-K board when they check up on the program). She said most kids will say, "that's me," or "that's a dog." Sydney likes to tell a story: "This is a little girl who loves to play outside, but she is sad today because it is raining,"
That picture was a girl with a frown and large blue dots (rain) all over the place.

Most of her pictures were that way. Sydney has always been very creative - and a little dramatic too :-).

The only thing she really needs to work is resting time. Sydney refuses to lay on her mat and sleep, so she sneaks books under her blanket and "reads" while everyone naps. She hasn't willfully napped for me in 3 years, so I'm not much help there.

O Christmas Tree

We took the kids to pick out a live tree this year. They had a lot of fun, but it was really, REALLY cold, so we didn't spend too much time at the lot. Luckily, we were able to find the perfect tree pretty quickly.

The man re-cut our tree, and tied it to the roof of the car. He handed Sydney and Jaxon a string each and told them to "hold on tight so tthe tree doesn't fall off." Sydney thought it was funny, but Jaxy took it pretty seriously.

We decorated the tree the next day, after school.