Birthday Season

Jefferson had a great time celebrating his 4th birthday. Highlights are the awesome drum set he received, making his own bear "Greenie" at Build-A-Bear, his Mickey Mouse cake, and celebrating with friends at a Kidz Club Party.

Hannah's 9th birthday was exciting too, she did lots of celebrating; first with Gram and Pap, then her actual birthday, and last with a party with all her good friends.

All dressed up for her "fancy" party!

March is Mom's birthday month and we celebrated with a messy looking cake. She also got to celebrate with Thad at Melting Pot while Grandma H was here with the kids.

Many more things have been going on here, we'll get to that soon!

Christmas 2012

It's Christmas morning and Santa came!  He brought Leapster games for all the kids!

Another happy Christmas together, we are so blessed.

Grandma H gave Hannah roller skates, we've used them a lot already!  

Wait, what?  Coats at Kennywood?  We got to do Kennywood for Christmas.  It was super cold, but definitely worth it!

Gram and the kids at the Kennywood light show.

Aunt Juls and Uncle Tim have the best sled riding hill, where's the lift, huh?

Another year older, another Steeler's cake.  Happy Birthday Daddy!

So we had a wonderful Christmas season, filled with family, friends, gifts and goodies.  Love it!

Dress Up

Hannah, Ben and Jefferson are big on playing dress up, and not just for play. Halloween they were a baby dinosaur, a magician, and Merida the princess from Brave. Hannah didn't even need a wig, her hair worked just fine!

Jefferson was old enough this year to particpate in the little kids Christmas program. He was delighted to be a sheep and say "baaa".

Hannah and Ben sang in the choir for the Christmas musical "A Rockin Royal Christmas". They helped Watson uncover clues about whether baby Jesus was a king. Hannah had two parts: a dancer of King Herod, and an angel with several solos. She shone like the star she is!

All the kids did exceptional on stage and it's always a delight to watch them. Can't wait to see what next year will entail!

Disney: Part 3/3

(Start reading with Part 1.)

Hollywood Studios was up next and, with it, our first chance to meet some Disney characters.

We had reservations for a character lunch with a few stars from various Disney Junior shows.

Hannah and Ben were excited to meet fun characters like June from Little Einsteins.

Jefferson, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with the over-sized mutes and slid under the table when any of them came over to greet us.

He did warm up to Mater, though; probably because he was actual size.

Hollywood studios had many shows and rides, which we all enjoyed; but one of the kids' favorite attractions of the entire trip was the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.

And, as you may have guessed, we finished the day with another fireworks show and another conked-out three-year-old.

Our last park was Animal Kingdom and Groompa came back down to spend the day.  And, it wouldn't be much of an animal kingdom without, you know, animals.

Even though the animals were captive, the "safari" was pretty cool.  We even had to stop to wait for these rhinos to cross the trail.

Nothing brings out your primal instincts like bongo drums.

This is the "before" picture on our way to Expedition Everest.

There is no "after" picture because no one wants to see that.  Let's just say it's a good thing Groompa was there to help with the kids so that "Thad Dad" could go sit under the pavilion with the constant spray of mist behind the Rainforest Cafe.

Since Animal Kingdom closes early, the day did not end with Jefferson dozing off at a pyrotechnics display.  Instead, we went back to enjoy the resort's pool before saying good-bye to Groompa until Christmastime.

We actually bought a fifth day of tickets and spent the morning of our last day back at the Magic Kingdom taking on a few more rides and shows, buying souvenirs and using up the last of our meal plan snacks.

The last 24 hours of our vacation included rides on a bus, a tram, a monorail, a boat, a train, a car, a people-mover and an airplane.  Just eight hours after bidding farewell to Mickey, the kids were sleeping in their own beds - dreaming of magic and fairies.

Tomorrow we all get back to work and school and our normal routine, but our daydreams will still be filled with memories of the place where dreams come true.  And, yes, the kids are already asking when we're going back.