An Apology

I am posting today to say how sorry I am for being SOOOO incredibly slack with blogging. The past two and a half months or so have passed with warp speed and I am behind on everything. I had totally forgotten how much time, energy, and emotion that moving takes; and buying a new home is completely unchartered territory for independent melanie. YIKES! I have been overwhelmed and can't believe I have not even found the time to finish blogging about our Disney trip! One day I will catch up.....hopefully? I console myself by thinking about Melissa's blogs (both of them, which are up to date).....Margaret can look at her blogs and books and see her childhood memories if I continue down this overwhelmed and unorganized path. Melissa is over the top organized and timely. I wonder how she finds time to do it all, but she always seems to do it. I aspire to be a mom and blogger like her.
More posts to come in the next few weeks....after the move. FYI--we are completely out of the rental house, have been living with mom for a week and two days now and closing for the new house is SUPPOSED to happen tomorrow!! I pray that I do not lose my head before while waiting for everything to work out!

Day 3- Magic Kingdom

We began our second day of park fun by missing the early morning shuttle. We got to the Magic Kingdom around 10:45 and started out with a FAVORITE...."Mad Tea Party." Melissa, Elliott, Olivia, Margaret, and I all jammed into one pink teacup and spun so much that I thought we would all be sick. It was great. There will be funny pictures and maybe even a video from this crazy ride! Next we went through "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh." Olivia did not love this ride. She got really scared and screamed thought the second half of it. It was heartbreaking to see her so scared. Margaret LOVED it (the ride--not seeing O scared). We followed the the fear with "Mickey's PhilharMagic." This is a 3-D production and was amazing. Margaret was a bit miffed that she got a little wet, but liked the show! One of my favorites was next..."It's a Small World." Funny enough we got stuck on this ride too. We were stopped for several minutes in Margaret's favorite room--how lucky!! The girls were excited to ride "Cinderella's Carousel." We played in "Pooh's Playful Spot" for a little while before our AMAZING lunch at Cinderella's Castle. We were all thrilled to meet Cinderella and get pictures with her before going up for 3 course lunch for all eight of us. During a really tasty lunch, we met, got autographs and photographs with ALL of the other princesses! This was a very exciting event and Margaret announced that it was definitely her favorite part of the day! The "Haunted Mansion" was pretty scary, but we all did it. Olivia and Margaret were both scared, as they should have been. This is not a ride I would recommend for small children. We lightened things up a bit with the "Country Bear Jamboree." This was a show were funny looking bears with missing teeth sang country type songs. Funny stuff!
I was VERY excited to ride our first roller coaster!! YEAH!! There will also be some FUNNY pictures and video from this ride. Margaret was semi-terrified after we started going, as was Jonathan. I really did not make them ride because of my selfishness....I thought they would like it. In the end, Margaret said she did like it, "a little bit" but wanted to go on a smaller roller coaster where she would not get wet.
TO BE CONTINUED...this mama is tired!

Disney Vacation- Day 2 (Epcot)

Melissa and Elliott are professional planners. We are so lucky to have them to map things out for us. For our first official day of fun and magic we woke up early! We were at Epcot before it even opened and were among the first to enter the gates. The girls were delighted to see Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey as we waited for part of the park to open. The first ride was Soar--it was absolutely AMAZING!! This one is worth any wait in line....but we did not have to wait long! The special effects, including wonderful scents of oranges while we flew over orchards, were outstanding. Next we walked right onto the "Living with the Land" ride. It was neat and showed how to be one with the land and many gardening ideas for the future. I wish we would have taken more pictures. Next was "Nemo" then "Turtle Talk with Crush." These were very entertaining also, but by far the best part was that we walked onto every thing--NO LINES!! Our imaginations were tickled a little with "Journey into Imagination with Figment." After the first 6 rides, we traveled the world, beginning with Canada. Our favorite countries included: Moracco (lots of beautiful tiles and statues), France (yummy desert!), France (nice red wine and chocolate for mommy), and Mexico (Grand Fiesta Tour). We actually traveled through all of the previously stated countries and Norway, China, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. After out world tour, we ventured into space! Mom, Jonathan, Margaret and I were a little nervous when our spaceship stopped midflight (we were in the backwards leaning position--quite precarious). Margaret kept saying that she missed Earth and wondering if we would ever get to go home. We did get back to Earth.....thankfully and met some dinosours with "Ellen's Energy Adventure" next. This was a great show/ride that taught us all about enery. We tried to get a little more in, but after the Ellen ride, we were all really tired! We did not miss much at Epcot and had a GREAT day!

Disney Vacation- Day 1

We decided to travel in a new and excited way for this trip! Margaret was thrilled several months ago when I booked train tickets for Margaret, Jonathan, and myself. Yes, Jonathan decided to take the WHOLE week off and travel with us to FL for Margaret's first REAL Disney experience!
So, Margaret and I spent Saturday getting ready and finally headed to Charleston Sat afternoon. It POURED down rain on us all the way down and as we unloaded the car. Margaret was thrilled to jump in puddles as I tried to unload the car. Jonathan arrived at the hotel just in time for a nice dinner. It was early to bed for everyone!!
We woke up just before 4 am to get ready to board the train at 5am. Despite a little anxiety on my part, we arrived on time, boarded and were off!! The train was very spacious and comfortable. I would definately travel by train again. Jonathan was wishing for a car about halfway through the trip on a slow part where he said he could "jog faster than we were going!"
All in all the trip was very enjoyable. We arrived in Florida just before 2 pm and were able to check into the resort early. It was a little COLD, but after a quick, late lunch, Margaret and I braved the very little heated pool and WATER SLIDE!! It was SOOO much fun. We ran back and forth between the slide and the hot tub....in order to avoid frost bite. Gug-Guh, Grandpa, EO, El, and Olivia arrived just before 5pm--they drove. Olivia was quick to join us in the pool. We convinced EO and El to join the fun....yeah!! They even did the water slide once each!
After we got the girls fed and bathed, Mom, Melissa and I ventured to Walmart for groceries. Yes, Walmart here takes just as long and is just as much fun as the one at home---UUUUGGG! We returned with plenty of food for the week and all crashed for the night. It had been a VERY long day!
Pictures will be added later =-)

Sophia and Chris' Rehearsal Dinner

The girls have been excited for MONTHS about being flower girls in our cousin Chris and Sophia's wedding. The big weekend finally arrived and the girls did great! Sophia was kind enough to give the girls jewelry boxes as their thank you gift. As Margaret opened hers, her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "This is what I dreamed of!!" It was so adorable. The boxes were filled with lots of fun jewelry and hair accessories....these will make for hours of fun!

County Fair

Anyone who has been to our neighboring county's fair, knows that it is rather small to say the least. Margaret and Olivia were both very excited about riding rides, eating cotton candy for the first time, and the animals. Maybe next year we will venture to the State Fair! We decided that this year we can get away with "what they don't know about, they won't miss." Phew!

First Cotton Candy--EVER!! O did not like it.

Driving the train

Amazed at the HUGE mama pig and her piglets--who were quite rough!
Sitting on a tractor, "Ike Gandaddy Oois"
Getting off of the Carousel--it was fast!

Please see LOTS more cute fair pics on Melissa's blog....she is so much better at this than I am!!! http://babydaysatthelake.blogspot.com

Oh--the things she says....

On the way home from the first Clemson game of the season,
Marg: "Mommy, I think Daddy is asleep!"
Me: He is--lets be quiet for a while. (she was talking a mile a minute to keep herself awake!)
Marg: "He is holding onto that thing (the oh **** handle) and we won't be able to lift him when we get back to Columbia if he is still asleep!" (she was actually really concerned!-- I almost laughed my head off!)

Over the past few days....I have tried to get back into exercising lately. I was talking to a friend on the phone about going running while Marg and I were on the way home. Her little ears pick up EVERYTHING even if she is singing or playing in the back seat. She got quiet and had a VERY concerned look on her face and asked:
"Mommy you can't go, I am little!" (I guess she thought I was going to leave her home alone!!
Then again later that day

Fast Fever means time for FOOTBALL FUN!!

Yeah--the fever that Margaret spiked (101) on Thursday after school and her play date was short lived. She was restful on Friday and then was ready to begin tailgate planning on Friday afternoon. Hooray! I was starting to think we would have to miss the first home game--BOO! Margaret was a great sport for all of the football fun, despite the HEAT we had a blast and she was very happy the Tigers WON!Margaret recieved her first Barbie--The Clemson Cheerleader- on the way up to the game. She was MORE than thrilled. You can see the video on Facebook if you are interested. Margaret was proud to sport a Tiger paw on her face--she later peeled it off thinking it was food stuck to her face! YIKES!A true tailgaiter...she was very helpful at set up and clean up! Once in the stadium, Margaret and Madeline were set to enjoy some football in the heat.

YES, someday she will kill me for posting this....thank goodness she is still little enough to take a potty break in the car instead of having to go to the Portapotty--GROSS!

Let's hope next weekend at Clemson will be even better than this one! GO TIGERS!

Happy BIrthday Uncle EL!

We love the lake and have so much fun when we are there. I will caption these photos soon! The look on her face tells how much fun we had!

We had a great Labor Day weekend at the lake celebrating Uncle Elliott's 31st birthday! Thanks Melissa and Elliott for LOTS of fun! Pictures will be addes soon....

Funnies....

My child is absolutely hilarious....
Today Margaret and I babysat for a patient of mine. When we (the baby and I) picked Marg up from school she was delighted. She very cheerfully announced as we were walking to the car, "If she (Zoe) needs a blanket, NO PROBLEM, she can use mine!"
about 3 seconds later, "If she can't sit up so well, NO PROBLEM, I've got a Bumbo!"
while driving home, "Today, Zoe will be Madeline's big sister. I will be Zoe's big sister!"
Margaret was very sweet and helpful with Zoe this afternoon! She was anxious to help throw away any and all diapers that I changed and peek at her MANY times during her nap.

Margaret also announced to me that she needed to get Vivian's address so I can "put it in the TomTom and get there for her birthday party". Obviously there was birthday talk today and it was discussed that Vivian and Megan have b-days on the same day or sometime close together. Margaret announced " I have to go to Megan's party! I can't let her down because she is my best friend!" She thought it would be a good idea to send some other friends (with a video camera) to Vivian's party and we could take a video camera to Megan's party and then it would be like everyone got to go to both. THis was actually a LONG and detailed conversation on her part. She wanted to figure out how it would all happen! I wonder what those girls talked about today to get all of this into Margaret's head.....their birthdays are not until December! It was all TOOO funny!

First Day of 4 Year Old Kindergarden

Margaret is very exciting about enjoying another great year at St. Andrews! Her first day was yesterday.....Madeline was up and dressed early and ready for school too! When Margaret got to her new class, her teacher, "Miss" DeLynn got a very special chair for Madeline to sit in. Margaret was reluctant to tell me about her day....as she said "All I did was just WORK!" I later found out that she also had lots of fun. I ran into Megan and Will coming in on their first day as I left Margaret's classroom. Margaret said that Megan is still her best friend, even though they can't sit at the same table this year!

Painting by Numbers

Margaret has discovered the joy of painting and creating art! We have started afternoon art lately and Margaret and I both have really enjoyed it! In these pictures, Margaret is working on her first paint by numbers picture to give to her Cousin Anne. The picture has two horses in it and Margaret wanted to give it to Cousin Anne as a good luck gift since she was riding in a horse show this past weekend. Today we painted watercolor princesses. Margaret is quite a budding artist and it is a lot of fun!!

"We Match!"

Margaret was very excited the a week or so ago when we got dressed for church and matched! We had to snap a picture....I sometimes feel like I have a minature little me following behind and on this day our clothes were even alike! Thanks Auntie Emily for the dress!! If only we had Alexandra to match with us!!!

Magical Purple Princess Fairy

Margaret has been laying out her clothes each night before she goes to bed since she is now an "all grown up 4 year old"......During my first week of school, Margaret stayed with her Mimi while I worked, since her school did not start until yesterday. On night she was very excited to set her outfit out on her ottoman....she planned to be a "Magical Purple Princess Fairy." Margaret asked her Mimi close her eyes as I dropped her off so she could get her wings on before she even got in the house (she had to take them off to fit in her car seat). I snuck in her room to take this picture after she fell asleep the night before she became a Magical Purple Princess Fairy!

Happy Birthday Morgan!

We really enjoyed attending Morgan's B-day party on Sunday afternoon! Pictures are coming soon!

Funny Stuff!

Obviously, chocolate fountain that was at Olivia b-day several weeks ago and at Morgan's b-day this past Sunday made quite an impression on Margaret. This morning, as she was groggily waking up, she explained that she was dreaming and dreamt she
"was at a chocolate factory. I was covered in chocolate and someone took a picture of me and put it on the chocolate fountain." She promptly put her head back down and I really thought she had fallen back to sleep. When she heard me in the room again, she said, "When it gets cold and icy, we can get my roller skates and we can skate at Big Water. You know it will be all icy." I told her that I thought she was sleeping and she announced that she WAS NOT and that she was just thinking about lots of neat ideas! Later she relayed this "neat idea" to Jonathan and she changed the "roller skates" to "ice skates." If it EVER gets cold enough for Big Water to freeze over we will SURELY take a picture of her skating on the ice--HA!

A glimpse into the future....

Last week, while kicking off the tax free weekend, Margaret and I went for her to get fitted for her flower girl dress. Margaret is very excited about being a flower girl with Olivia in my cousin Chris' wedding in October. We were very excited that the actual dress (in white) was at the store. Margaret tried it on and felt like a princess as she twirled around on the platform in front of the big mirrors. She did several poses saying, "This is what Cinderella would do!" Not only did Margaret do a great job at the Bridal shop, but she tried on a zillion other outfits, dresses.... and was very patient as be shopped for most of the day! My little girl is growing up and appears to like shopping!! YEAH!!!!

Big Water

Our last vacation of the summer was a relaxing few days in a little cabin at Big Water. Melissa and Olivia joined us and we had a few other visitors in and out. The girls love playing in the water, picnicing on the porch, and playing in the loft of the cabin.
I can't wait to add some of Melissa's pics.....she took MANY more than I did and I am I am sure they are better!!

Margaret's Broken Heart

When Jonathan was putting Margaret to bed last night she announced out of no where.....
"John Christian is not my boyfriend anymore."
Jonathan: "Why?"
Marg: "Because he lives all the way in California."
Jonathan: "He will be back before you know it."
Marg (in a reportedly self defeated sort of tone): "He won't be back until I'm 8! He was practically my husband!"
Then a few minutes later......
"You what I am going to be when I grow up? "
Jonathan: "What?"
Marg: "A firefighter"
Jonathan: "Why?"
Marg: "So I can fight the fires in California."

Jonathan said she went to sleep shortly after that. How can I mend her little broken heart? Who in the world would have thought she would miss JC so much? They really did not hang out very often....I guess some of this is her drama, but it sure does come up often! FYI--I think JC will be back before Margaret is 8, right Rebecca?

Creating Fairy Wonderland