Snow and Ice Days - 2011

Last week were the coldest days in the area in more than 15 years with tempatures in the teens and negative chill factors. The day AFTER Vince's birthday (thank goodness), snow and ice came down, coating the streets and keeping us indoors for the better part of 4 days. David's school was cancelled Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday, then Friday! I ended up working my busiest time of the month 100% from home.

For the most part, there was a bunch of ice and no snow, but Friday we got about half a foot of snow, enough to play in! So in the afternoon, we took the yard and had some fun.

I tried to recreate a picture from last year's snow storm (click here to see last year).

We did try to make a snowman but it ended up looking like a little bump in the snow :). Vince reminded us later that we forgot to put eyes and a nose and mouth and TEETH on our snowman. We had a small snowball fight too. David started throwing snowballs at Vince. Then I told David I was acting on behalf of Vince when I hit him because Vince couldn't do it right himself. Then Carmen got a snowball! Not nice daddy David!

That Sunday, the day before Vince's birthday, 2 days before the ice storm, the weather was beautiful and in the 70's. We took a family walk with our dog Leila while Vince rode his bike and then spent some time outside on the trampoline and playset. Only in Texas can you get both extremes in the same week!!

Disney take 2

How to sum up a 3 day disney trip in one post.... hmmmm... for the most part, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

In early January 2011, David ran the Disney marathon, and Vince & I, my parents, and cousin W tagged along to enjoy the wonderful world of Disney. We had 3 full days there and made the most of it.

Day 1 - We went to Disney Hollywood Studios, former MGM studios I believe, and took in many character sightings like Handy Mandy, Mickey, the Toy Story gang, Lighting McQueen, the Muppets, and the Incredibles. We also saw some great shows, like the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live, which just happens to be Vince's favorite show at the moment! (maybe because mommy emersed him in it right before the trip!).

Day 2 - We headed to the Magic Kingdom on Saturday. In hindsight, we might have taken in this park another day because apparently this was the place to be on a Saturday, even in January! (I would hate to see what this place is like in the summer). Although the lines were long, we managed to squeeze plenty in.

like "It's a Small World" ride... couldn't miss that one...

and Dumbo! worth the 45 minute wait?? Yes! Can't go to Disney and not ride Dumbo!

But we had the best time at night, when the majority of the crowds were enjoying the night parade. We chose an alternate path. We decided that that was the time to ride rides and see attractions, like the people movers, the Buzz lightyear ride, the actual ride in the Epcot ball, etc. My mom, Vince, and I visited Mickey's house and NO ONE was there. We walked right into a private room and had some intimate time with Mickey and Minnie, just us and them. It was awesome.

Day 3 - This was David's big marathon day so I took off to Epcot alone to catch a glimpse of David in action and the rest of the gang followed a couple hours later. We bought Vince's ears at Magic Kingdom the day before and Vince was happy to wear them all day!

Epcot is more of a learning enviroment but had plenty of fun too! Like the Nemo ride!

and my favorite, Talk Time with Crush! See Vince in the front with the ears?? Crush interacted with the kids sitting at the front and it was quite funny and entertaining...

best of all, Epcot wasn't very packed and we were able to ride several rides with no lines. The longest line we stood in was the Character Spot where we got to meet yet another Mickey, Minny, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald all in the same place! When we left Epcot, Vince says, "We didn't see Daisy Duck!" My little man is so observant!

It was a great trip. David didn't enjoy the parks with us since he did 39.3 miles in 2 days! We'll make sure to make a return visit with David and baby Carmen (who kind of was there too... I was 7 month pregnant) soon... not too soon, but soon!!

Disney - The Marathon & a Half

Crazy David signed up for the January 2011 “Goofy Challenge” in mid 2010. He always shoots for the stars with his goals and this was a no different. So in early January, we all packed up and headed to Orlando, Florida..

If you do the half marathon on Saturday, you get a Donald Duck medal. If you do the full marathon on Sunday, you get a Mickey medal. And if you do BOTH of them, you get a big Goofy Medal!!! Like I said. Crazy David!!

He did the half marathon (13.1 miles) in a very respectable 2:20 time (10 minutes faster than my fastest half marathon!). He took it slow too since this was a warm up for the next day. On Sunday he completed the full marathon (26.2 miles) in 5 hours and 45 minutes. That is really great considering he stood in line for 30 minutes taking pictures with characters...

he said he just had to stop and see "Princess Tiana":)

He had a real hard time with the last few miles because of an injured foot so he had to walk those too! But he finished!!! It was not a spectator friendly event because he ran through all the disney parks and started at 5:30am! But we were there to see him at the end at Epcot.

He did great and is an inspiration to see him reach his goals time after time (his ultimate goal would be an ironman). Makes me want to do a race... we'll see after this little girl is born :)

Vince's "real" 3rd birthday

I see how it can be confusing for a kid to have a birthday party one day when their real birthday is another day. So I tried to explain beforehand that Vince's party was just his birthday party and his real birthday was on Monday. So Monday morning as he's waking up I asked him what today was.... and he said, my "real" birthday!

So for his real birthday, mommy took him to McDonalds for pancakes and playtime before school. He does things a little backwards though, goes up the slides and down the stairs. It's okay as long as there are no other kids there!!

Then it was off to school! On Mondays, Vince is the only boy with 5 girls in his class. They all sang him happy birthday while they had cookies! I picked him up from school and one of Vince's friend's came over to play with him all afternoon. By 5:30, daddy, grandma, and grandpa came over to open presents from the 4 of us and we sang him happy birthday one last time with the remaining cake from his party!

Then it was off to finish celebrating at Itz's, a nearby pizza and play place. It was totally dead there and we really had the run of the place. Vince enjoyed a ride with daddy on the go-carts... I love they had a pink one! Vince kept his hands up the whole time while having fun!

Next it was time to mini-bowl. Vince needed a little help to get the balls all the way down the lane so we gladly helped. I like this next picture because sneaky David is lurking in the background and is ready to roll a ball from behind us!

We hit up some more fun rides before retiring for the night. He had a great day and ended it at home playing his his new vtech book reader. He is one spoiled child with his parents and grandparents by his side as he reaches these important birthday milestones!

PS... I am 32 weeks pregnant here. I'm pretty big, but this white, fitted shirt makes me look "real" big!