Congratulations, Quincy!

I am so proud of my sister, Quincy. Today she received her bachelor's degree. My parents are leaping for joy because their paying-for-college days are almost over (4 children down, 1 more to go). Quincy worked very hard to get this degree, and I am so happy for her. Congratulations, sis!

Back from the Bash

Well, the school year is almost over! We are on the home stretch now. This time of the year- the time between spring break and graduation- is always my busiest. It seems like I constantly have some school-related function to attend (Prom, Honor's Night, Baccalaureate, etc...). There is one school function, though, that I always look forward to- chaperoning the Senior trip to Grad Bash (Universal) or Grad Night (Disney). Even though the event is for the Seniors, there is one unbeatable perk for the chaperones. At Grad Bash chaperones get to use the fast lane to ride all of the rides while the students go through the regular queues. So, this ends up being the best time to ride the coasters (and you all know what a coaster fan I am).

We left last Friday morning to go to Universal Studios. After a trip to the mall, we arrived at Universal at 6:30 in the afternoon and stayed until 2:00 am. We all slept on the bus and were home by 6:00 am. It made for a long day, but it was totally worth it. As a bonus, I got to buy these cute Dr. Seuss shirts for Owen and Olivia at Universal. Olivia has really been into Dr. Seuss lately and so she loves that she and Owen get to dress like Thing 1 and Thing 2.

One of the Perks of Working at a Toy Store

When the kids and I got home today, Brian had a surprise waiting for Olivia in her room. Well, five surprises to be exact. Apparently they disassembled the Disney princess display at Toys R Us, and Brian snagged all five princesses. These lovely ladies now have a permanent home on the wall in Olivia's bedroom. Olivia could not be more thrilled with the new residents.

Easter 09

We had a very nice Easter this year. The kids slept until a reasonable hour (hooray), and then got up to find that the Easter Bunny had left goodies in their baskets. Both kids received a new toy, DVD, and a little bit of candy. Although it is not normal for the kids to have sweets in the morning, I did let Olivia eat the ears off of her chocolate Easter bunny before we started getting ready for church- BIG MISTAKE. As we were walking out the door to go to church Brian noticed that Olivia had chocolate all over her Easter dress- let me rephrase that- all over her white Easter dress. I still do not know where the chocolate came from. It had been over an hour since she had eaten the bunny ears, and I had washed her hands and face before dressing her. I guess she had spit some of the chocolate back up. Anyway, a last minute dress change was in order. Here are some pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes that were taken after church.

We went to Granny Buie's house after the church service for lunch and to hunt eggs. Owen and Olivia had had an Easter party and egg hunt at their daycare the week before, so they were practiced and ready to find some eggs. When the time to hunt eggs came, they sprang into action. Both found several eggs and had a really good time doing so.

Castaway Cay

Our last day of the cruise was spent on Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. The morning began early for me as I got up to run a 5K trail on the island (which was the most beautiful run I've ever done). After the run, I went back to the cabin to get ready for a long day at the beach. We stayed almost the entire day down on the island. Here are some pictures of our day in paradise.

Who did we see while on the beach? It was our favorite pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. We also saw the "Flying Dutchman" ship- which is now a permanent fixture at Castaway Cay.

After a day at the beach, we came back on the boat to get ready for dinner and the show. Owen had had a stomach ache the day before, and could not stay in the nursery. Therefore, he came with us to the show. I thought that his presence would be a total disaster. It was not- Owen actually watched the entire show and he liked it. I really underestimated his attention span. The show on the last night was called "Dreams" and it was the story of a girl's journey through her favorite Disney tales. The highlight of the show for our kids was the musical performance of "Under the Sea"- complete with puppets, bubbles, and people dancing around in turtle costumes.

Sadly, this night marked the end of our voyage on the Disney Wonder. The next morning we got up and were off of the ship by 8am. We had such a great vacation. Maybe one day we will be able to make a return trip on the Disney Wonder. After all- on the ship they don't say goodbye; they say "until we meet again".

Pirates IN the Caribbean

The third day of the cruise was the fun-day-at-sea. This was also Pirate night which meant a specially themed dinner and the Pirates IN the Caribbean deck party. All guests were encouraged to dress like pirates- and many did. I was excited because we were able to re-use our Halloween costumes (yay- I'm getting my money's worth out of those outfits).

The deck party didn't start until 9:45, so it was a really late night for us. Poor Owen slept through most of the deck party, which was surprising since the party was pretty loud. The crew and Disney characters led the dance party for about an hour and then the pirates (led by Captain Hook and Stitch) took over the dance party. At the end, Mickey zip-lined over the crowd to take control of the party and then there were fireworks. The party was a lot of fun and definitely worth staying up late for.

The Mickey Pool

Well, this is it- THE Mickey Pool. For those of you who do not know, the Mickey Pool has been a very important part of life in the Sanders house for several months now. The Mickey Pool has been a vital tool in helping potty train Olivia. I don't know how many times I have said "If you pee-pee in the potty you will get to go swimming in Mickey's pool, but if you don't you'll have to go in the baby splash area with Owen". I am proud to say that Olivia DID get to go swimming in Mickey's pool, and she enjoyed every minute of it.

As expected, Olivia spent a lot of time in the Mickey pool. After hours of swimming, she still did not want to get out. She even went down the waterslide once. I was really surprised that she did that. Every now and then she made it over to the baby splash area to see her brother. Owen didn't really get into the whole "getting wet" thing. He preferred to watch the other kids playing. I'm just glad that the Mickey Pool lived up to the hype.