Annabel dropped out of her Fall dance class because…well, I don’t really know why.  And when I say she dropped out, I really mean I ended it after four weeks of listening to her whine and cry and complain the minute we walked into the room and I put on her ballet slippers.

It was really strange because she LOVED ballet just 6 months earlier.  She loved the leotard and the pink tights and putting her hair up in a bun.  She loved the music and the new friends and learning to pirouette.  But that passion was gone.  I think it was the combination of a brand new ballet studio and that she had just started preschool. There was a lot of change.  It was so sad because she told me she didn’t like dancing anymore.  That broke my heart.  I know she loves to dance because she is constantly singing and twirling around our house 24/7.   I guess she didn’t like dancing in a class setting.  And I didn’t want her to stay in a dance class just because I wanted her to.  I did hate the idea of quitting, but it was costing me money to have her sit in the corner with a pout and just watch the other girls have fun.  SHE was supposed to be having fun! And she wasn’t.

Fast forward to January and I thought I would try dance again.  I signed her up for a class at the first ballet studio she attended.  She was hesitant the first few weeks and wanted me to sit in the corner of the room while they practiced.  Luckily this studio was super laid back so they were fine with that.  And, eventually, she was comfortable again and went it alone while I stayed in the waiting area.

It’s so funny how little moments with kids become HUGE accomplishments.  After stressing for weeks over why she didn’t like dance anymore, suddenly I was back at a place where she was dancing again and was 100% fine.   Last week was the final dance recital and she did awesome.  Not only because she remembered most of the steps, but because she was HAPPY.

And that’s what it’s always all about.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day One HERE.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day Two – Magic Kingdom HERE.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day Three – Epcot HERE.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day Four – Animal Kingdom HERE.

One of the best parts of going to Hollywood Studios was the ride over on a Disney bus!  Daniel LOVES buses, so that was a special treat for him.  But before we headed out on our new adventure, we had some early morning breakfast plans with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy at Chef Mickey’s restaurant in Disney’s Contemporary Resort.

This was our second time visiting Chef Mickey’s and the breakfast buffet is so yummy.  (The chocolate croissants are so good…MAYBE I had two.)  It’s also a great way to meet all our favorite buddies at one place.

Then we were off on our bus to Hollywood Studios!  We arrived a little after 9:30 AM and headed right to our most important meet-and-greet of the day: Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars!

Mater and McQueen were positioned WAY in the back of the park and there were no crowds at the time.  So we decided to hang out and take some fun studio back lot photos.

Then we saw some really awesome live shows: Disney Junior, Beauty and the Beast, and the Extreme Stunt Show.  The kids had a blast.  Especially since it was time for lunch at Toy Story‘s Pizza Planet!

For some reason my two kiddies refused to go on the super popular Toy Story Mania ride.  They thought it looked a little scary.  But it is definitely on the list for the next visit.  And so is the Little Mermaid ride which was so crowded.  We were hot and tired and ready to take a short hotel nap before our Mickey’s Backyard BBQ dinner at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort.  We stuffed ourselves with chicken and ribs and all the fixins’ while listening to a live band play all our country favorites.  Annabel and Daniel danced with Mickey and Minnie and even did some hula hooping.  We had so much fun that we forget to take photos!  After our Mickey ice cream bar dessert, we took the boat back to the Wilderness Lodge to rest up for our final day at Disney World.

Mother Nature threatened us with rain and thunderstorms all weekend long, but we ended up with sunshine and perfect temperatures.  Sure there was some rain here and there, but it was just enough to cool things down and create some fun puddles for the kids.

My parents were in town from Maryland for three days and the kids were so thrilled to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa.  They saw Daniel play in a T-ball game and hit off the pitch.  We took them to Jacksonville Beach and ate some crabs by the water.  We went to our local town center and tossed wish pennies in the fountain.  And the rest of the time was spent hanging out and catching up.  Oh, and checking out their hotel room which, for some reason, was one of the highlights for the kids.

All in all, an A+ weekend.

Here we go!  Sometimes I think I love Nickelodeon’s The Fresh Beat Band more than my two kiddies.  The songs are so darn catchy!  They are always smiling!  (How do they smile like that?)  I was very excited when I found out the foursome would be heading out on their very first national concert tour this year.  It would be Daniel’s and Annabel’s very first concert!

Our stop on the Fresh Beat Band Live in Concert! tour was yesterday at the historic Florida Theatre in downtown Jacksonville.  It was at the hardcore party time of 4:00 PM in the afternoon.  We decided in the car that Annabel would like Kiki.  Daniel would like Twist.  I would like Shout. (He’s my fav so..YAY) and Daddy would like Marina.  (Although Daddy likes Kiki a lot too.)

Before we sat down in our orchestra seats, Annabel picked out a purple concert T-shirt and both kids got the mandatory blinkie light stick thingie.

Then it was time for the show to begin!  The kiddies danced and sang along to all their favorite songs.  Twist even came THISCLOSE to us when he grooved down the aisle.

Of course it all ended with my favorite song.  I couldn’t hold back my excitement.  (Yep.  That’s me screaming in the background.) It was a super fun concert.  And an even greater memory.  Thanks, Fresh Beats!

After a nearly TWO MONTH hiatus, Glee is back!  And Quinn is alive! (But in a wheelchair.)  I loved the “don’t text and drive” message throughout the episode. Finn and Rachel are NOT married (yet.)  And I didn’t think there could be someone cuter than Blaine (Darren Criss), but say “hello” to Blaine’s big brother Cooper, played by the adorably handsome Matt Bomer.  Yowza.  Or as Kurt (Chris Colfer) said, “The best looking man in North America.”

Fox

My favorite moment of last night’s return episode was the tense brotherly performance of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know.”  This isn’t the first time I’ve liked the Glee version better than the original.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day One HERE.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day Two – Magic Kingdom HERE.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day Three – Epcot HERE.

I was so excited to finally see Animal Kingdom.  I have a serious obsession with giraffes and the kids knew I was eagerly awaiting the Animal Kingdom’s popular Kilimanjaro Safaris Expedition.  After checking out the amazing Tree of Life, we went straight to Africa to FastPass the Safari.  The Africa landscape design was so breathtaking.  I felt like I was there.  We walked through a downtown marketplace complete with old buildings and open air restaurants.  It was really cool.  And it turned out that the Safari line was short so we didn’t need to FastPass at all!

We boarded the jeep and off we went in search of animals.  I saw my beloved giraffes!  They crossed the path right in front of us.  And the other animals were pretty amazing too.

After the jeep tour we continued on and did a walking tour of the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.  The kids loved the birds and we saw a Mama and baby gorilla.

We stopped for a quick snack and then went to Finding Nemo – The Musical.  It was one of Annabel’s favorite shows so we let her buy a Nemo stuffed toy and she didn’t let go of it the entire day.  We then visited DinoLand U.S.A. to check out the The Boneyard play area and ride the TriceraTop Spin.  Daniel then wanted a dinosaur toy as his Animal Kingdom treat.  We got that and then went to our lunch reservation at Asia’s Yak & Yeti restaurant.  We were starving!

Yum-O!  I highly recommend this place.  It was also a nice change of pace to enjoy some table-service Asian food.  Hubbie and I shared some Ahi tuna and pot stickers and then I had a delicious crispy honey chicken dish.  They saved the best for last because the fried wontons for dessert were AMAZING.  Daniel loved the vegetable lo-mein and Annabel loved the kids ice cream sundae.  Note:  We were on the Disney Dining Plan which allowed us to get appetizers and dessert at our meals.  It was fun to sample everything.  The plan also includes daily snacks and most of the places we went to did accept the plan.

After lunch we noticed the character meet-and-greet tent did not have a long line so we took a second to meet the adorable Pooh, Eeyore, and Tigger.

I don’t know why we went to see the Bug’s Life “It’s Tough to be a Bug” 3-D movie because I had read that it was scary for the little ones.  And it was!  It was dark and there were stinging hornets and big black spiders falling from the ceiling. Everyone was screaming and the kids hated it.  Thank goodness it was only 8 minutes long.  Then Hubbie had to leave to use his FastPass for the Expedition Everest roller coaster so the kids and I went to the Festival of the Lion King.

Lion King was another great live performance show and we had the perfect end seats to enjoy all the beautiful set changes and acrobatics.  It was raining when we left, so Daddy met us at the exit with some Disney rain ponchos.  The cloud burst lasted five minutes, but we were tired and decided to head out and spend the rest of the afternoon lounging around our Wilderness Lodge resort.

Annabel and I found some comfy pool chairs and I enjoyed a cocktail while she enjoyed an orange smoothie. Daniel and Daddy spent an hour in the pool and Daniel went down the water slide about fifty times.  Then we used some of our Disney dining points for a room service dinner in our pajamas.  It was the perfect ending to another fun day.

Now wait a minute, Easter 2012.  We have an update.  Daniel just lost his very first baby tooth!  He’s a little bit sad, but very excited to use his new tooth fairy pillow.  Go, Bean!  (Oh my.  I just noticed the baby picture in the background.  My heart.)

This year I had two school Easter bonnet parades, egg hunts, and class parties to attend.  And they were on the same day.  First, it was Daniel’s school celebration where I helped coordinate the fun. Then I was off to Annabel’s school to enjoy the rest of the morning with her.

Our Easter Sunday has been wonderful.The kids woke to Easter baskets filled with candy.  We went to a beautiful church service.  We had brunch with the Easter bunny (our new tradition!)  The kids watched Winnie the Pooh (another tradition) and we had Easter dinner with GG .  We stuffed ourselves with Honey Baked ham, Polish kielbasa, hard boiled eggs, fresh veggies, and GG’s strawberry apple pie.  And with all this chocolate I’ve been shoveling into my mouth, I’ll need two days to recover.

I hope you had a blessed day with family and loved ones.

Last night was 80s night on American Idol!  My two favorite Idol contestants, Phillip Phillips and Colton Dixon, did not disappoint.  The boys are on fire this season!

Here’s Colton’s version of Cindy Lauper’s “Time After Time,” one of my favorite 80s songs. He made it so current and cool.

Phillip sang “That’s All” by Genesis and he did a great job.  But I really loved his duet with Elise Testone on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty.  I felt like I was watching a concert.  Check it out below.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day One HERE.

You can read The Disney Diaries: Day Two – Magic Kingdom HERE.

Daniel was very excited when we rode the Disney monorail to Epcot because the monorail is one of his favorite “rides.”  We arrived at Epcot around 9:30 AM and went directly to “Future World.”  First on our list was to FastPass the Test Track ride.  Then we went to check out The Seas with Nemo & Friends.  We rode in a “clamobile” through the deep seas looking for Nemo. Then right next door we had some Turtle Talk with Crush.  It’s a live show where kids can have a conversation with the cool turtle from “Finding Nemo.”  It was really amazing and the kids went nuts for the “dude”-talking turtle.  He even answered Annabel’s question: How old are you?  (Answer: 150 years old.)

Then it was time for Test Track.  It’s a high-speed vehicle simulation ride.  I always get a little nervous when I see the “heart condition” signs next to a ride so I asked the attendant if it was scary. He said “No.”  But I would say it was a LITTLE scary but definitely a whole lot of fun.  We all loved it.  It’s now Daniel’s favorite ride.  The lady sitting next to Annabel could not believe how brave she was.  All Annabel said the entire time was “Wheee!”  She also said the ride messed up her hair.

We were lucky to be in Epcot during the International Flower and Garden Festival.  There were lots of cool character topiaries to check out and some fun garden mazes.  There was Bambi’s Butterfly House which the kids didn’t want to leave.   But we were on a mission to visit all eleven countries in the World Showcase!

We managed to visit every single country.  (We stayed in some countries longer than others.  Italy!  Japan!) I promised the kids they could pick out a small token from each country we visited.  It was tough to find ANYTHING under ten dollars so we collected a lot of flags, magnets, and pins.  Annabel did pick up a really cute Hello Kitty doll from Japan and Daniel loved the gummy candies from Germany.  We all loved the pretzels in Germany too.  Oh, and I loved the German beer.  We also had a delicious lunch in Italy with an amazing bottle of Italian white wine. This might be why we ended up with 2 flags from Norway and nothing from Morocco.  Ha.

There were also some neat street performers and musicians to entertain us as we strolled along.  We were definitely exhausted after leaving the last country, but we wanted to go back to Future World for two final rides:  Journey Into Imagination with Figment and Soarin’.  The Figment ride was cute and has the iconic purple dragon that Annabel just loved.  But I wish I would have skipped Soarin’.  Annabel and Daddy loved it. Mama and Daniel did not.  It’s basically a movie that makes you feel like you are hang-gliding.  I almost vomited my pasta from Italy.  I kept my eyes closed most of the time.

All in all, I would recommend Epcot for kids.  It can be fun for little ones.  We picked up the Epcot Passport at the entrance gift shop so the kids could get a stamp from each country.  We had to find the “Kidcot” stand and the country representative would stamp their book and write a fun note too.  It’s a great keepsake from our first visit to Epcot.

Now I can’t wait to go back and sample more of the food and beverages.  I didn’t get a chance to get my sweet pastry treat from France.  Next time.  Definitely.