Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

We celebrated at our house this morning. The kids had a great time opening presents and playing with all their new things. We met Nana and Papa for lunch at Wasabi. Not very traditional, but definitely yummy! We are having roast for dinner in honor of the Grinch. Phil is performing tonight in the Christmas Eve service at church, so we will get to attend for the first time ever.

Mickey Mouse Cameras!
A new game
Tea Party with princesses
Cars, Cars, and more Cars

Popcorn Paparazzi ~ Mama got a Stir Crazy popcorn maker for Christmas

Evie

It's 13 degrees outside, the kids are watching Playhouse Disney with runny noses, and I am catching up on Facebook and reading my favorite blogs. Some recent conversations about baby names and a blog by my friend Abe about his name led me to google our little girl's name this morning. In 2003 we could barely find any information on the name we had chosen, but today Google gave me 3,110,000 results.

We get asked about Evie's name a lot. The biggest one is what is her name? Her given name is Evie. Phil wanted to name her Evelyn Marie and call her Evie. I wasn't a fan of either name, but loved the nickname, so we compromised by using Evie and I got my pick as her middle name, Grace. We've met little girls named Evan and Evelyn with Evie as a nickname. The kids' cardiologist is Yvonne and her nickname was Evie when she was little. One of the guys in the lab at Children's Hospital has a daughter name Evangeline that he calls Evie. We have yet to meet another person with the name Evie. That may soon change however. According to thinkbabynames.com Evie is in the US top 1000 girls names this year for the first time since 1929. It is also gaining popularity in England, Scotland, and Australia. It was the number 15 top name in England last year.

I was trying to figure out why Evie came out of nowhere to suddenly be so popular in the UK, and Wikipedia found me this little gem. A song originally written and performed in the 1960's by Stevie Wright.






It was very interesting to find all these things online about "Evie." It is such a big deal to choose a name when you are expecting, but once the little one arrives and is given a name it no longer seems so important. We love our daughter's name, think it suits her very well, and hope she likes it as she grows up!

Christmas Cookies

I was really excited to find a Christmas cookie recipe that was milk and egg free this year. We made them with the kids, but when I mixed up the dough I was afraid it wasn't stiff enough to use the cookie cutters. It wasn't anything like the pictures in the magazine. It might be due to the fact that we had to use dairy free margarine instead of butter. The kids weren't nearly as disappointed as their mama though. They made shapes and rolled it with the rolling pin and then made little balls out of it. It wasn't what I wanted or expected, but the two little ones enjoyed it.

Field Trip

Evie went on her first field trip today with her preschool class. The kids all made reindeer shirts to wear today. She saw her friend Tyler come in the door and got very excited that they had matching shirts. I'm sure she was even more excited when all her friends showed up in the same shirt! We went to Homewood assisted living to visit and sing to the residents. Evie really enjoyed talking with the older ladies, and I really think I could have left her chatting for hours! Afterwards the class went to visit Santa and have lunch at the mall. Evie liked sitting on Santa's lap, but she was heartbroken when the cookies from Santa had milk and eggs in them. It was our first experience of being upset because she couldn't eat something. I wanted to cry right along with her, but I just promised her that I would let Santa know she needed a special cookie. After I dropped my carload off at preschool I went home and got her some leftover Divvies cookies from Disney World and wrapped them from Santa. She was so excited to tell me that Santa gave Mrs.Lemons some special cookies just for her.

The cute reindeer shirt~footprint for the body, handprints for the antlers, red thumbprint for the nose



Evie chatting with the ladies



She loved her antlers

The class with Santa

Friday @ Disney

Friday morning we went to the Magic Kingdom one last time to ride a few things we had missed and do our favorites again. We thought a Friday might be more crowded, but it was a chilly morning and apparently everyone chose to sleep in under the warm covers and we had the place to ourselves until lunch time. The only must-do that hadn't been done yet was Space Mountain. I can now say I've had the experience as an adult, but I don't think it is one I care to repeat. I'm not afraid of the dark or roller coasters, but the combination doesn't appeal to me at all. It started getting really crowded around 1:00, so we went back to rest up before dinner. We had dinner with Cinderella at 1900 Park Fare inside the Grand Floridian. The kids had been watching boats all week bring people to the Magic Kingdom, so we rode those instead of the monorail to dinner. Before going to eat, we had to check out the huge gingerbread house in the main building. It was so big that two people were working inside it selling cookies. Very impressive! At dinner we got to meet Cinderella, Prince Charming, Drizella, Anastasia, and Lady Tremaine. We were seated in the center of the restaurant and every hour Cinderella and Prince Charming come there to dance. They then pick a child to come dance with them. Evie got to dance with Prince Charming, which was so special. To her, he really is Prince Charming and not just some guy in a costume. It was one of my favorite moments from the entire trip. Phil and I dropped the kids back off at the room after dinner and headed to Epcot one last time to watch the fireworks. It was freezing cold, but we had a great time. We sampled Cokes from around the world and walked to Germany to have a cinnamon pretzel. It was a great last eveing at Disney!

Gingerbread house in the Grand Floridian

Evie and Prince Charming

Drizella talking to Andrew under the table; he was hiding in Papa's lap
Evie dancing with the prince

Fireworks at Epcot~Phil loved all of the explosions

Thursday @ Disney

We all took our time getting ready on Thursday morning. We were tired, it was raining, and we were under a tornado watch. Definitely not in a hurry to get to Epcot in those conditions, but we had lunch reservations with the princess so we were going. We got their around 10:30 decked out in ponchos and under umbrellas. We went to ride Nemo under the Seas and then started walking to Norway for lunch. The Akershus Royal Banquet was a crazy! There were so many people in there and everybody was trying to get out of the rain. It was fine once we got seated at our table, and the food was unexpectedly delicious. I was a little nervouse about eating Norwegian food. We got to meet Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, and Jasmine. The raining had finally quit by the time we left and we headed back to our resort to rest before dinner. We were having dinner at Chef Mickey's and decided to drive ourselves after the wait we had on Wednesday night at the bus stop. We ended up at the Magic Kingdom parking lot instead of the Contemporary Resort, but it worked out because the kids got the ride the monorail. The had been watching it run all week and were excited to get on it. Andrew calls it the mama-rail which was really cute. We got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald. We picked a good day to do double character dining because it was just not good weather for rides.

Belle and Evie

Evie and Aurora~her favorite princess

The "mama"-rail

Snow White with her apple

Andrew high fiving Minnie

Andrew, Mickey, and Evie

Wednesday @ Disney

We got up early and went back to Hollywood Studios on Wednesday morning. We got through the gates and watched their welcome show, then headed straight for Toy Story Midway Mania. Literally everyone else did the exact same thing. I got in the Fastpass line and got passes for 10:45. As I was waiting in line I was watching the return time flip through in 5 minute increments. It was incredible, but I was happy we were going to get to ride it without waiting an hour. We went to watch Playhouse Disney Live. The puppets were a little hard to see from the floor where we sat, but the kids loved it anyway. After the show we took Andrew to see Lighting and Mater again. On our way we got stopped in the street to let the Power Rangers drive out. Our kids have never seen the Power Rangers but they loved them. We had to come back an hour later to get in line for Evie to get a picture with the pink one. After lunch we watched Muppets 3D. Andrew did not like it. He kept saying the bee was going to get his nose. We decided to head back to the room after that. Nana and Papa took off for their night at Epcot, Andrew took a much needed nap, and Evie got to go swimming (outside in December!). We decided that Andrew really needed to see the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, so we ate dinner in Everything Pop and got in line for the MK bus. That was our worst bus experience while we were there. 59 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom, over twice as long as it should have taken. We finally made it there at 6:45. The parade started at 7, so we were worried about getting through the crowd, but we ended up just walking down Main Street while everyone else was crammed on the sidewalks to watch the parade. We rode 7 rides in 45 minutes with virtually no waiting. We got to stay on the roller coaster three times because no one else was waiting to get on. At 7:45 we went back down Main Street and stood near the exit to watch the fireworks. The view was great from there, it wasn't too crowded, and we got out quickly. It was also easier to see Tinkerbell "fly" off the castle from further away. The kids were so excited to have that special night with Mom and Dad.

Posing with a power ranger

Minnie's Birthday at Playhouse Disney

Our bowling pin swimming pool

Tuesday @ Disney

Tuesday morning we headed back to the Magic Kingdom and watched the MK welcome again. We rode the train to Frontierland and started going on rides again. The kids were so excited to not have to wait at all for the first hour. We went into Toontown to meet Mickey and Minnie and the kids rode their first rollercoaster, giggling the whole time. We had lunch reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table and on our way to the castle we just happened to run into her stepsisters in Belle's garden and got to meet them and Lady Tremaine. Lunch was an incredible experience. We got to have our pictures made with Cinderella and then went up the castle stairs to the dining hall. The chef came out and let us choose dishes that would work for the kids. We were there for two hours and got to meet Snow White, Mary Poppins, Aurora, and Belle. The girls got wands and the boys got swords plus they both got wishing stars. Evie loved meeting all the princesses, but Andrew wasn't crazy about getting hugs or pictures with them. Snow White tried to give him a hug, and he showed her his sword. It was too funny. This was probably our favorite meal of the whole trip. I had to call 180 days in advance at 7 am on the dot to get this reservation because it is nearly impossible to get in, but I am so glad I did. After lunch we headed back to our resort to let the kids get some rest. Phil and I went to Downtown Disney to check out the shops and Kevin and Teresa went to see the Osborne Lights at Hollywood Studios when we got back.

Magic Kingdom WelcomeMinnie, Evie, Mickey, Andrew

Evie with Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella

Evie with Cinderella in her castle

Andrew and his sword at Cinderella's Royal Table

Evie and Snow White

Monday @ Disney

We were all so tired from Sunday, we got a late start on Monday. We got to Hollywood Studios around 9:30 and knew our first stop needed to be the new Toy Story ride. As we were walking to it, we spotted Daisy and Minnie. I decided I would just fast pass toy story while the kids waited, but the fast pass return time was between 3:45 and 4:45 and I knew the kids wouldn't last six hours in park. The standby time was 70 minutes and I knew that wasn't going to happen either, so we decided to just try again another day. After Daisy and Minnie we went in search of Lightning and Mater. I knew they were in Louigi's Garage, but that wasn't on the map. We asked a cast member and finally found it stuck back in a corner. The line was really short, so I guess most people didn't even know it was there. This was one of a handful of must-do's for our family on this trip, and Andrew was fascinated by them. We got to have lunch at Hollywood & Vine with the Little Einsteins and JoJo & Goliath. Our kids don't even watch JoJo, but they both just loved Goliath when he came to our table and gave him lots of hugs. Every 10 minutes a cast member would come out and encourage the kids to get up and dance. Andrew is not usually big on participating in these kinds of things, but by the third time he was the first one up there. I was completely impressed with how Disney handles food allergies. This lunch was a buffet, so a chef came and took me through the buffet line and helped me pick out all the foods the kids could eat. We headed back to our room after lunch and both kids took a 2 hour nap.

Phil and I decided to take Evie on a special date night to the Magic Kingdom to see the SpectroMagic parade and Wishes fireworks. We wanted her to be able to see these, but we were pretty sure Andrew couldn't handle the waiting. We let her watch the Dreams show at the castle again, got dinner to go, and found a spot to watch the parade. As we were walking, a cast member came over and gave us a Tinkerbell pin. He saw my UNCC alumni shirt and payed a fellow alum a visit. We didn't do the pin trading while at Disney, but Evie was excited to have a Tink pin. She liked the parade, but she really loved the fireworks.

Daisy, Evie, and Minnie

Andrew hugging Goliath

Evie, June, and Andrew

Phil, Evie, and Andrew with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater


Evie and Daddy on our date night

The iced castle