Princesses Galore

We spent days 2 and 3 at Magic Kingdom getting autographs and riding rides; which was perfect since the characters were Anna's favorite and the rides were Maddie's.



The longest line was waiting for Rapunzel where we were guaranteed an hour wait (which was of course worth it to the girls :)).





For lunch on day 3 I took the girls to Cinderella's Royal Table which was located inside of the castle. I had purchased the tickets as part of the girls' Christmas present and I was excited myself to actually go inside. The girls wore their princess dresses to the park and everything was going well until we got in line. I am not sure if it was the "oldness" of the castle or if Maddie thought it was a little scary but she cried most of the time wanting to go home :(. Once inside we got to see Cinderella and the girls had their picture taken (printed pics are given as part of the package, however our pictures were not so great). We then went upstairs to our table which was nicely decorated and surrounded by stained glass windows. The girls were served grapes and cheese for appetizer while they brought me a nice salad and hummus. The service, just like in all of Disney, was very friendly though it definitely felt a little rushed since they are continually bringing food. Princesses Snow White, Aurora and Belle came in periodically while we were eating and made their way to all of the tables for autographs and pictures.

Disney 2012

At the beginning of February we had a wonderful opportunity to spend a week at Disney with Opa (Erik's dad). We stayed on Disney at Old Key West which was a great villa style resort with big rooms.



Our place was the second floor pink balcony. This picture was taken when we rented a pontoon boat and cruised around the canal with captain Erik



The time of year was fabulous- small lines, the resort was quiet and we had no problem getting on the Disney transportation or making last minute dinner reservations.

Day 1: We spent at Hollywood Studios knowing that Maddie would enjoy seeing some Toy Story characters and doing the Toy Story Mania game. Maddie even wore her Jessie shirt for the occasion. Unfortunately Jessie wasn't there, she hangs out at Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.



We also watched a Disney Jr show with puppets, a live Beauty and the Beast show, did the Studio Backlot tour and played in the "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" movieset playground. After the afternoon parade we hopped a boat and headed to Epcot.

Epcot has been declared as Anna's favorite. I think it is because of all of the characters that one can meet there including a majority of the princesses.



After getting some autographs we finished up the evening with dinner in Italy and a family photo.

Go Duke Go!

Yesterday we had an opportunity to take the girls to their first Duke basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. I grew up going to the games with my dad so it was fun to be able to take the girls along. Maddie kept asking "What are they saying?" whenever the students would start a chant. The Cameron Crazies seemed to have toned things down a little (or at least for this game) so thankfully we escaped without learning any new words. Anna was fascinated with the score board and thought watching the game was fun but long. The girls did a great job cheering on Duke.

On our jaunt through campus to get to the stadium:



Getting ready:



Anna enjoying the popcorn:



Maddie doing her many faces:

Learning to Sew

For Christmas my toy was a sewing machine! Growing up my mom would make my Halloween costumes and some dresses and today she owns an embroidery business, so I've always been around sewing machines but never had I tried to use one. Mom got me a Brother CS 6000i and I quickly read through the manual. My sister-in-law was visiting after Christmas and she got me started by showing me how to thread the machine - sometimes reading the directions is not quite enough. After I practiced a little on an old sheet, the first project was a sock monkey which quickly turned into 3 since all of the cousins wanted one. They turned out much cuter than I anticipated.

It was nice having a beginning project that only took some old socks; there was no worry about messing up. The pattern came from here.



My next project was a hobo bag that I purchased as a complete kit from Michael's. The pattern itself isn't the best purse ever since it is a little flimsy but it was fun to sew and I even added some of my own embellishments with a metal snap and decorative stitching.



Then I moved on to skirts for the girls using a basic rectangle as a pattern. I have a ways to go to perfect the best way to put these together for this go around it involved taking my sewing machine apart since I locked up the motor :). But I hope by summertime to have some cute outfits made for the girls.

Christmas Wrap-up

I haven't done a great job of updating my blog, but my scrapbook for the year is done thanks to digital scrapbooking! So here's our Christmas in pictures.

The girls had a great time at Disney on Ice with Mimi watching Tiana, Cinderella and Rapunzel. We also made our yearly chocolates and had the annual Burckart/Horton dinner.



For months Maddie had been asking for a Jessie doll, from Toy Story, so her Christmas Eve morning (the way our current schedule works, its just easier to open our family presents Christmas Eve morning) was filled with Jessie items including a doll, shirt, pajamas and a hat of her own. Anna enjoyed opening some Barbies, Marble Run and a jewelry box she could decorate herself. Christmas morning the girls woke up to a giant cardboard box in the form of a house, it has since been beautifully painted.





On Christmas Eve we traveled to Burlington to have lunch with Pop & Divi, Uncle Kevin, Uncle David & Aunt Stephanie and cousins, Marley, Rainey and Henry.



Christmas Eve night we went to Danville, Virginia to spend some time with my mom's side of the family. Great Aunt Velner (in the Santa hat :)) is always entertaining and it is nice to catchup with those family members we only see once a year.



Christmas Day we traveled back to Burlington to open presents with Mimi (forgot my camera :( ) and have lunch with Divi's family.

It's interesting to go back and look at the pictures we took this year; I feel like so much is missing. I wish I had pictures of the family reading of the Christmas story (this year in the Jesus Storybook Bible), our nativity on the mantle, the Christmas tree overflowing with items for the food bank (thanks to generous co-workers), the daily advent time spent with the girls via the Jesse Tree as we daily anticipated Christ's birth. Hopefully next year :).

Merry Christmas!

from our family to yours...

Family Photo Session