March 17 - Happy St. Paddy's Day

Hello everyone! We got back home around 6pm last night from our spring break vacation and yes-we had an absolutely AMAZING time. I'm going to break up the trip into a few different blog posts, so be sure to check back every few days this week for new pictures. 

We started our journey last Friday around 1pm. We drove around 500 miles to Pensacola and stopped there for the night. Julia brought her "children" Jacob (formerly known as Raggedy Andy), O (full name is Wiggles but she nicknamed him O...your guess on that is as good as mine) and Anna. She held Anna most of the trip in her lap and buckled the others into the middle seat. She was insistent they were buckled in for their safely. The kids were great in the car and watched a lot of movies. After a good night sleep, we drove the rest of the way to Disney (about 370 miles) with a quick stop in Gainesville to pick up a stroller (I ordered it a few days before we left and couldn't get home delivery in time, so we had it delivered to Jill's house). We showed the kids Julia's first house and they had fun playing with one of Jill's cats, Jack. After putting the stroller together, we were back on the road and checked into our hotel around 5pm and wow-our hotel was amazing. We stayed at Disney's Wilderness Lodge which is modeled after national park lodges. I realized when I was downloading pictures for this post that I didn't take any photos of the lobby, but google the hotel and check it out. Gorgeous. 

Disney now has Magic Bands (which are waterproof wristbands that have RFID chips) that are used for just about everything: checking into the hotel, getting into the parks, fast pass, opening room door and paying for things (food, etc). You can customize the color for everyone in the family and provide privileges. For example, JD and I were the only ones with purchase power (requires a PIN so if a band is lost, no one can use it) while Julia's and Luke's could only open the room door and be used for entry into the parks as well as fast pass. So, how were the bands? Awesome. We had no issues with them the entire trip. Checking in was a breeze-I was literally checked in in about 3 minutes. Another fabulous thing? I booked the cheapest room available for imagine our surprise when we had a view of the lake and the dock. It was stunning! After dropping off our bags, we headed to the pool for a quick swim. Amazingly, we ran into the Root family who was staying into the hotel that night before they headed out on a cruise the following day. Everyone swam together and then we all had dinner. 

Next post: Magic Kingdom!

And we are off!

Jacob and O

Naptime

Movies = Happy Girl

Playing with Jack

Fun at Jill's House

Old Neighborhood

Pool Time!

Julia and Emma

March 6 - Daisy Scouts

A lot of people ask about Julia's Girl Scout troop. What do we do? How often do we meet? How many girls participate? We currently meet once a month (the last Thursday from 6:30-7:30pm) and there are 6 kindergartners. We start off each meeting by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, the Girl Scout Promise and the Girl Scout Law. As a Daisy, the girls first earn the Promise Center patch by learning the GS Promise. Then they earn the following petals (they have 2 years to earn them):

• Honesty and Fair
• Friendly and Helpful
• Considerate and Caring
• Courageous and Strong
• Responsible for what I Say and Do
• Respect Myself and Others
• Respect Authority
• Use Resources Wisely
• Make the World a Better Place
• Be a Sister to every Girl Scout

After the GS Law, we read a story out of our Daisy books about one of the above themes, have a snack and then do a related activity. In November we focused on learning the GS Promise (earning the center patch). In December we worked on being Considerate and Caring (making cards and ornaments for a local retirement center). In January the girls worked on being Honest and Fair (played a lot of games) while last week, they worked on Respecting Myself and Others. We did an activity focused on good and bad manners and then had a princess tea party where their practiced good manners. We aren't the most active troop (some troops meet several times a month) but we have fun!

Here are the posters they made about manners

Delicious treats for the little princesses

March 4 - Strep-a-Thon

3 weeks ago: Julia was sick with strep
2 weeks ago: JD was sick with strep
1 week ago: I was sick with strep
This week...you guessed it: Luke is sick with strep. 

We are so ready to be over strep. The house has been disinfected so many times and I've done so many loads of laundry...it is time for the Yamo's to be healthy. Did you hear that germs? We are done with you. Be gone!

In fun news, Julia's teacher won tickets to a private American Girl function and gave us the tickets. We went Saturday evening and it was quite the experience. We've never been to a store before and the only thing I knew about the dolls were their price point (expensive). The entire store was closed down for the event, the 'unveiling' of their new doll, Isabelle. They had waiters catering the event with veggie skewers, sliders, there was an elaborate dessert table. They had personal shoppers available for our "shopping experience." A local ballet theater also did a Nutcracker production, which was fun. We had a blast, although Julia was upset when I refused to buy her a doll (they are over $115! For a DOLL!! Insanity!!!).

In other news, the weather here is crazy lately. It was 77 on Sunday, we had a high of 40 yesterday and right now it is 35 and raining. 

Here are some pics of Julia at the store playing with the "Itty Bitty Baby" doll and the accessories. 

Here is Luke yesterday at the doctors. He was up since 4am but still had a smile on his face!

Luke, Julia and her BFF Siddhant at a birthday party for a neighbor and classmate from their class

February 24 - Countdown to Disney

Happy Monday everyone! Our Disney trip is less than 2 weeks ago and to say the kids are excited is an understatement. Julia checks her Disney fairy calendar every night and announces how many days until we leave. Our customized wristbands arrived last week (they have RFID tags and we can use them to check into the hotel, open our hotel room door, serve as entry into the parks, pretty cool) and we set up our fast passes over the weekend. They are also really excited about the road trip because it means they can watch movies for almost 2 days straight. Less than 2 weeks to go!

The cold Texas weather (it does get down to the 20s and 30s here...occasionally!) seems to be gone and we've had a beautiful last few weeks. We went to the zoo last weekend with our neighbors and the kids had a great time. After the zoo, we took the train ride around the park and saw a really neat house made out of sticks (a creation by a local artist). The kids spent about 45min running around in it, it was definitely unique. 

Funny story to start your Monday...
JD has been telling Luke he needs to eat lots of food to grow hair on his chest. We were out to east a few weeks ago and Luke downed 3 slices of pizza. A few minutes later Luke said: 

"It's not happening?!" - Luke
"What's not happening?" - JD
"The hair. It isn't growing on my chest. Where is it?" - Luke
JD and I almost fell over laughing. JD told him it will be about 10-15 years. Hehe. 

Little Golfer

Waiting to see the train at the park

Cheeta!

Girls at the Zoo

February 18 - George Washington

5min ago..

"Mom! Guess what? We learned all about George Washington today. Tomorrow we are going to learn about Abraham Lincoln." - Julia

"That's great. What did you learn about George Washington?" - Mommy

"A lot of stuff but the most interesting is that he wore a WHITE WIG!" - Julia (giggling)

February 12 - Can I Call You Chris?

Thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes. I had a great day! Julia and JD baked a delicious cake, spoiled me with fun gifts and JD and I even went out to dinner (just the two of us..first time we've been out on a date since June). Our new babysitter (Christina) is the older sister of a girl from Julia's girl scout troop. Luckily the kids (and Amelia) loved her. While she was here Luke asked her "Christina? Do you mind if I call you Chris?" and asked her to jump in the bath with them! Meanwhile, Julia was busy showing off her hula hooping skills. Her new favorite activity is hula hooping, she does it before breakfast, while watching tv and before bed. She's worked her way up to two hoops at a time. 

Last Saturday was the school fair at the elementary school and the kids had a blast. I manned a booth for several hours while the kids enjoyed the activities with JD. They especially loved the bounce houses. After the fair, the kids went to Siddhant's birthday party (he is one of Julia's best friends from kindergarten). The kids made their own pizzas and cupcakes and really enjoyed themselves!

Julia & Siddhant

Ice Cream Headache

February 2 - Little Rider

See this little dude? This little dude started riding his bike yesterday without training wheels. He's only 3 years old!! So proud. Go Luke go!!

January 31 - Push Down and Twist

Thursday morning marked day 3 of Julia's fever. I decided to take to the doctor and it turns out she has strep. She was back to her normal energetic self about 12h after the first dose of antibiotics and she was happy to be back at school today with her friends. Someone who is not happy he's not sick....

"Luke, what are you doing?" - mommy

"I'm looking for medicine." - Luke

"You don't need medicine. You aren't sick." - mommy

"Well...(he pauses and looks around)...I have a cough (he forces himself to couch). - Luke

"Hmm, that doesn't sound too good. I know just the thing to make that better." - mommy

I turn around to get some juice out of the fridge, then see the little rascal trying to pour children's Advil into a measuring cup...

"Oh my goodness. What are you doing? How did you get the lid off that? Get down right now." - mommy

"This? I just pushed the lid down and twisted and it came off." - my too handy for his own good 3 year old

"Here, drink this." - I hand him 1 tablespoon of orange juice

"You want me to drink this? This is just juice. This isn't medicine." - handy man Luke

"You can have this or you can have nothing." - mommy

"Well, I don't want it!" - now grumpy Luke

10min later....

"Where is that juice medicine? I want to drink it now."

Love these kids!

January 29 - Cold Day

Do you feel the chill in the air? It's 30 degrees in Houston with the "potential" for snow and freezing rain. All schools (and NASA!) were closed yesterday "in preparation." Nothing happened other than a little rain for 30min or so and school is delayed today for another 2 hours just in case. I'm sitting in my office and other than being chilly, it's a beautiful day. 

Watching Curious George

She insisted in helping me with the dishes the other night

Napping for the first time in years (she has a cold)

January 21 - Busted!

Luke is quite the chatterbox these days. His favorite questions are "How does that work?" and "How do you build that?" He also loves to use catch phrases that he doesn't really understand when to use. The popular ones this week are 'Busted!', 'You started it!' and 'Well, daddy (or mommy) said I could do it' (whenever we tell him no or not to do something). We were sitting down at dinner the other night and JD asked him if he wanted a napkin. Luke stood up in his chair pointed to him and yelled 'BUSTED!' Last week it was 'Do you want some more milk little buddy' and he responds 'You started it!' It is absolutely hilarious. 

Funny Julia story from the other day:

"Hey, when is Ella getting here" - Julia
"Who?" - Mommy
"You know, our babysitter, Cinderella? She goes be Ella?"
"Hmm...not sure. Who is she watching?" - Mommy
"Duh, Aurora. She's only 2 and cannot be left alone." - Julia
"Aurora, okay. I forgot about her. Is she watching you too?" - Mommy
"Me? Mom, I'm 18 and I don't need a sitter anymore. Ella, she's 16 so she's the perfect age." - Julia

Too funny! I love these two!

Valentine Project Julia and I worked on for the mantel 

Rock Star Girls (they named themselves this)