Disney World 2010 - Getting there 2

We decided that 1:30 pm would be a good time to eat lunch.  (We ate breakfast at 6:45 am at the airport) Although parents were famished, we were not about to wake up the girls.  So we drove until Casey woke up.  Unfortunately, Kathryn was still asleep and we would have to wake her up.  This involved a bit of crankiness (sleepy and hungry is not a good combo for Kathryn Hale).

But once we got a little bit of food in our bellies, we were in much better spirits.  

In all of my planning of this trip, I had forgotten to make an appointment for the girls at the Bippidi Boppidi Boutique.  They would transform the girls from little girls into princesses - hair, makeup, and nails.  While the girls were alseep in the car, I called and got a 5:50 pm appt for this day at Cinderella's castle.  (There are 2 boutique locations - Cinderella's castle and Downtown Disney.  The Castle blows Downtown Disney away!)

Casey in front of Steak and Shake.  Kathryn
wanted no part of this picture.

After lunch, we still had to drive a bit longer, check into our hotel, change clothes, catch a bus and make it to the Castle by 5:35 pm.  Disney suggests that you give yourself and hour and a half to get from anywhere within the park to a different location for appointment just in case.  We had several hours to do all of this, which sounds like a lot of time, but with 2 aspiring princesses in the back seat, it wasn't.  Our goal was to be on the bus by 4 pm.

Jeff is not only a better driver, he is a better photographer.  Since he was currently driving, this was the best picture that I could get with the camera and my arm out the window.  This is the entrance to the resort hotels.  Our hotel was located at the very end of the street, which normally would not have been an issue but we wanted to be on the bus in one hour and it was cutting it close.  

We stayed at the All Star Movies Resort in the 101 Dalmations section.  It was great.  It served our needs - which was to eat, sleep, and shower.  We would stay here again.  We really liked this hotel.  Jeff dropped me off at the front and I went inside to check us in (which was speedy).  We found where to park (needed a map to find our section of the hotel), unloaded, and found our room.  We quickly changed the girls into their Snow White dress up clothes and headed to catch the bus, which left for the parks every 15 - 20 minutes.    A friend of ours gave us a heads up to bring our own dress up clothes for the Boutique.  One of the options was to buy an outfit along with the beauty package ($$$$) so I appreciate the heads up.  

We made it to the bus with plenty of time to spare.  At this point in the picture, the girls had gotten up at 4:30 am, flew in a plane, slept in a car, and are about to board a bus to Disney World.  The time was 3:45 pm and we had quite a night ahead of us!

Disney World 2010 - getting there

There are so many pictures from Disney World (as one can imagine) so this post will take several entries.

We began our vacation by spending the night with Pop and Nana Smith because they live so close to DFW airport AND because our flight was leaving at 7-something am. This would force us to get up at 4:30 am. The girls were too excited to go to sleep right away that night, so I ended up sleeping with Kathryn and Jeff with Casey - still, little sleep occured that night.

These pictures weretaken at the McDonald's in the airport at 6:23 am.

At this point,we have already been up for almost 2 hours.

Some special friends gifted us with airline tickets that would fly us to Jacksonville, FL and once there, we would rent a car and drive the rest of the way to Orlando. We are very thankful.

This was the girls' first airplane flight. I personally had not flown in 11 years and things had changed a little since I had flown last. Since we were renting a car in Jacksonville, we brought the car seats for the girls to sit in on the plane. We checked one suitcase and carried on two small suitcases, two car seats, two backpacks, and two children. We were a sight to behold!

These pictures were taken at 9:25 am. We have been up for about 5 hours and not a very good night sleep. Noone slept on the airplane. I repeat. Noone in the Hale family slept on the airplane. That being said, the girls werewonderful during the flight. They watched movies on the ipod touch or one of our phones. We also brought the dvd player in case one of the parents wanted to watch something. Jeff had also gotten a princess marker coloring book for each girl which came in very handy when we could not have electronics on because of the landing.

These videos were taken at the end of the airplane ride.

Once we landed at the Jacksonville airport (which by the way is small and I like it because you can't get lost), it took a little bit of time to get our suitcase and get the car.

Kathryn was asleep before we got out of the airport.

Casey quickly followed.

Precious

Casey took ballet this year for the first time. The class is called Dancing Angels and they are a Christian based dance class. Casey has enjoyed going to ballet all year, but I believe the highlight of the year was the recital. All of the dances were performed to Christian songs.

She was so excited when she put on her ballet costume. She kept saying, "I can't wait to get on stage!"

We had a rehearsal that morning and then our family began coming over to the house so that we could go to the recital. On my side of the family, Sam, Sarah, Brian, Jill, Garrett, and Hailey were in attendance. On Jeff's side, Jack, Paula, Olivia, and aunt Pam were all able to come.

Hailey, Casey, and Olivia

For anyone who knows me, you know that I am not very girly. I don't really do much hair or makeup for that matter. I practiced and practiced doing Casey's hair for the recital. After a lot of gel, hairspray, bobby pins, and a hair net...it was finished.

She was very excited when she realized she was going to be able to wear lipstick for her dance.

A few practice moves, and we are ready to go.

Focused...

Then she spots daddy.

And here is the production...

Eye Surgery

***Disclaimer: The following pictures are not for the weak stomach *****

Although Kathryn's glasses are helping her vision (I hope), they did not help to strengthen her eye muscle. Her muscle was too tight and it was pulling her iris toward the outside corner of her eye (causing her to have a "wandering eye").

She had surgery Thursday morning, April 22. I thought the hardest part would be not giving her breakfast that morning. I was wrong. The hardest part was when she woke up from the drugs. She was mad. She wanted to get down from my lap but she couldn't because of the tubes in her leg. She would not drink anything and we couldn't leave until she drank something. She finally agreed to eat a popsicle and 3 popsicles later, we left.

These pictures were taken the same night that she had her surgery. If she looked at you straight ahead (like the first picture), you can't really see anything in her outer corner of her eye. You can see how red it was around her whole eye. However, if she looks in another direction, you can really see her eyeball (yuck.). It didn't seem to hurt her so that is good.

Now her eye is completely healed and we will go back to the eye dr in a few weeks to make sure everything is perfect.

The Preschool Picnic

Our preschool had a picnic/game time for all the preschool classes. Each class had a different color shirt. We brought a picnic lunch and then each class competed in different games against each other. Every class seemed to get in first place because we all got a ribbon. I don't know how that happened.

These are different pictures of the kids in Casey's class. Some will go to kindergarten with her next year, and others will be in the same district but at a different school. Some of these kids will go to a different district but go to church with us and we will see them there.

The "balancing an egg on the spoon game"

Here are several girls that Casey enjoyed spending her time with. We ended up the day with 2 snow cones and one change of clothes (Kathryn, of course). You can see at the bottom of the picture how Kathryn is eating the snow cone and that explains the change of clothes before we left. (Who eats a snow cone from the opposite rim from your mouth??? Kathryn Hale.)

Here is a video of the egg on the spoon game. The squeal at the end when Casey drops it is a typical Casey Hale squeal. I will miss that squeal one day.

The last party

The last birthday party Kathryn had for turning three happened at Pop and Nana Smith's house. We met Brian, Jill, Garrett, and Hailey there for the festivities. Kathryn got to get her nails painted for the first time. She was so excited. She talked me into doing her toes too.

Casey and Hailey worked on their own nails while I did Kathryn's nails. She did pretty good sitting still. She thought she was as big as Casey and Hailey.

Way too much sugar...

This is her princess pose.

S

3 years ago...

Three years ago, God gave us Kathryn Morgan Hale.

Today, she is 3 years old. It's so funny to go back to pictures three years ago and remember the season we were in. We couldn't imagine what a 3 year old Kathryn would look like.

We did not have a friends' party for Casey until she was 4, so we did the same with Kathryn. As it turned out, Kathryn had several parties. Her birthday landed on a school day so I made cake balls for the class.

Then we went to Jack and Paula's house to celebrate Olivia, Jack, and Kathryn's birthday.

Up until this point, Kathryn would hide her head on my shoulder every time we were at a party and someone would sing Happy Birthday. So we were not sure how she would do with her own Happy Birthday song. We had been practicing pretending it's other people's birthday (Casey's, daddy's, mommy's, and of course, bear's). It think it worked.

On her actual birthday, we ordered a small Cinderella cake. There is a lady who goes to our church who makes cakes. It is my favorite cake (besides one from a lady in East Texas!)

Casey talked up her birthday and was so excited for Kathryn to turn 3!

The following weekend we went to my parents' house to celebrate Kathryn's birthday (party # 3) with Brian, Jill, Garrett and Hailey. Kathryn got to paint her fingernails and toenails for the first time with the big girls. Pictures to come...