Spring Break in pictures

St.Patrick's Day with the Ice Bears

 NIT tournament 

Gorgeous weather to play outside

Visit to the Sunsphere

Looking at UT from the Sunsphere

 1982...that was a million years ago!

Visit to the candy factory for some chocolate

Pizza and Monkey Ice in the park after a successful trip to the dentist

1st day of Spring at Rita's

Monster trucks and an act of kindness

I got tickets for the boys to see Monster Jam at Christmas and Andrew has been counting down the days until February 17th.  He has been so excited!  We got to go see Bounty Hunter and his driver the day before at Advanced Auto Parts.  Andrew knows a lot about monster trucks, but he managed to learn one more thing.  He asked the driver how you get into the truck since there are no doors.  The very simple answer is you climb in from underneath.  

While the guys went to watch trucks I let Evie choose what she wanted to do for a date night with mommy.  She picked Wasabi for dinner and a trip to McKay's to buy some new (used) books.  We had a great time and another family helped make our night even more special.  The couple that was sitting at our table along with their six children all went egg-free for the meal so Evie could eat from the grill.  She was so excited!  She loved being able to catch the rice that they toss into your mouth.  This is my least favorite part of the meal, but she was excited to try it.  Our cook made sure she caught it by making her close her eyes when she opened her mouth so he could get really close before tossing the rice.  Evie and I were both so appreciative of the family for eating egg-free with us.  She couldn't believe they were doing that just for her.  Years from now they will probably not remember us or their kind gesture, but I really don't think I will ever forget it.  It served as a reminder that a small act of kindness that isn't a big deal to me might make a big impact in someone else's life.  I've challenged myself to start looking for opportunities to do something nice for someone else, and I challenge you to do the same!   

Eating fried rice at Wasabi

Monster Jam!

Bounty Hunter

Happy Valentine's Day

I know this is very late, but it was cute and sweet so I want to remember it.  Evie has been talking about having a candlelight dinner for the past few weeks, so I decided Valentine's Day would be the perfect time to do it.  I got the table all set and called everyone in to eat.  Of course she was excited, but not for the reason I thought.  She said, "It's pretty and think how much energy we are saving by using candles."  I couldn't help but laugh at that point.  We wrapped up dinner with Corinthians 13:4-7.  While flowers and candy are wonderful, I want our kids to know what love is really about.  It's not easy to love the way the Bible tells us to, but it is definitely something to strive for.

Romantic Energy Efficient candle light dinner

Good as new!

Andrew got his cast taken off on Monday and got the great news that his xrays looked normal!  Other than having to sit out at recess and gym this wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it was going to be.  He made it 6 years before his first ER trip.  Maybe we can make it 6 more years before his next one!  Not holding my breath on that though.

Cast #1 survived for 2 weeks.  Apparently little boys are hard on casts and this was not surprising to KOC when I called to ask about a replacement.

 Cast #2

Completely healed!

 "No more cast" cookies!  

Allergy Free Mouse

As you know, we love Disney.  One of the many things we love about Disney is their willingness to work with special diets.  I recently had the chance to contribute a review to a website I used in planning our most recent trip to Disney World, Allergy Free Mouse.  If you have food allergies, are an allergy parent, or have friends with allergy kids I highly recommend this site as a planning tool for Disney World.  I submitted a post about our experience going on a Disney Cruise because there just isn't a ton of information out there about allergies onboard a cruise ship.  You can read it by clicking here.  It is part of a contest, so if you like it you can click the thumbs up button or the Facebook like button.  My kids would love to have $100 to spend at the Disney Store :)  Even if I don't win, I am thrilled to have been able to contribute something that may help another parent as they deal with food allergies.  I hope anyone who reads this site or my review will be encouraged.  Food allergies can be scary and exhausting, but thanks to modern medicine and special places like Disney they don't have to stop you from living a very full life!  

Hockey and an (unrelated) injury

Fun stuff first!  We took the kids to their first hockey game last Saturday.  There was a legends game first and that was a good, calm introduction to hockey for the kids before the Ice Bears took to the ice.  They both had a great time!  Little did we know that we took our son to the hockey game with a broken leg.  Andrew was sliding across our wood floors and suddenly told us his foot hurt, but we told him he was okay.  He had complained all day that his leg hurt and he refused to walk into the Coliseum.  We all kept telling him he was fine.  When he didn't even want to go get some popcorn I finally looked at his foot again.  It was definitely swollen, so we carried him around the rest of the time.  We just thought he had sprained it because he could still walk around part of the day.  I called our pediatrician and the nurse on call said we had to take him for an xray if he was refusing to put weight on it.  Off we went to Children's just to be told that it was a sprained ankle so ice and rest it.  He was walking on it Sunday although there was lots of complaining about pain.  We got a call on Monday that surprised all of us.  Radiology had reviewed his xray and felt he had a fracture.  We needed to bring him back to the ER immediately to have it stabilized.  We were referred to an orthopedic doctor who confirmed it was a fracture on Wednesday.  From now on I am going to request a radiologist review xrays before we leave the hospital.  I know doctors are human, but I couldn't believe they sent us home with a broken leg!  If you are squeamish you may want to skip the last picture.  I texted it to a friend to ask for advice on what to do.  For future reference it is NOT normal for your child's leg to look like that and even if you think it is a sprain be safe and get it checked.

For a laugh:  Andrew's teacher emailed me that he wouldn't use the restroom at school on Tuesday with his boot on.  She wanted to check with me on that.  When I asked him about it he said Evie told him he couldn't.  Turns out that Evie told him he couldn't go to PE with his boot.  Say it out loud and you will see why he thought he couldn't go to the bathroom at school :)

 Yes, his awesome parents took him to a hockey game with a broken leg...

Evie with Auntie Laura and Uncle Robert.  Evie didn't really need a seat since she was on someone's lap the entire time!

 Hanging out at Children's in the emergency room watching Cars 2 at midnight

 Children's ER take two~getting a boot to stabilize the leg, and playing the ipod because we were both over being at the hospital at this point.

 Knoxville Orthopedic Clinic on Wednesday to confirm a fibula fracture and get a cast for 4 weeks

It really hasn't slowed him down too much 

Yikes!

runDisney

It was marathon weekend at Disney, so the kids got to participate in the runDisney Kids Races.  Evie ran the 400m dash and Andrew ran the 200m dash.  

 Warming up with Tony Horton

Disney Dining

We did the Dining Plan again on this trip and think it is definitely worth it.  If we went to Disney a lot then we might skip it, but the kids loved the character meals.  We managed to not eat many pizzas and hamburgers on the quick service this time around.  The best quick service meals we had were at Yak & Yeti in Animal Kingdom (delicious beef lo mein), Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney, and tacos and churros from Taqueria del Lago in Epcot.  Restaurant research definitely paid off!  Pizza Planet had our least favorite food, but it was neat that the kids got to go to Pizza Planet from Toy Story.  Disney is known for their accommodations for food allergies.  I have to say it was a little challenging in Epcot for us though.  Language barrier made it a little trickier in Mexico and the Garden Grille just didn't have substitutions.  The kids menu is chicken legs, broccoli, and mac n cheese.  The macaroni had egg so the kids were pretty disappointed with chicken and broccoli.  

Dining in Cinderella's Castle 

 Belle

 Aurora

 Chef Mickey's

 Minnie

 Dancing and waving napkins to celebrate with Mickey

 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella and her family

 Dancing with Prince Charming

 Allergy dessert awesomeness

 Banana split tower

 Garden Grille with Dale

 Farmer Mickey

 Chip

A very fun Pluto

Epcot

We only spent part of one day at Epcot, and it was our last day so we were tired.  We would have liked to have had more time there, but there weren't enough hours in our trip to see and do it all!  We had lunch in Mexico,went on rides, and had dinner in The Land.  We didn't even make it through all of the countries.  The kids loved it anyway, and don't even know they missed out on the World Showcase.  The bottom 5 pictures are PhotoPass. 

E & A in front of Spaceship Earth

E & A with Duffy, Mickey's bear that Minnie made him before he was going on a trip.  Evie had fun dressing the Duffy bear at our resort two mornings.

 Daisy Duck!  We had looked for her all week and found her in Epcot.