The adventures of Valie, Vickie, & Cameron

I just thought I'd share some of the things Valie talks about and thinks that just make me laugh. A while ago we were passing by a handicap sign and she asked me "why is there a picture of a person sitting on a toilet?" I had never looked at a handicap sign that way, but now that she said that I can see why she might think that. I explained it to her, but now whenever I pass the handicap stalls I think of Val.

She also told me and Cameron that she was never going to be two things, a smoker or a poacher.

And when we were in Disneyworld on the Spaceship Earth ride she wanted to know if Leonardo Di Vinci was homeless.

Let's see, oh, and lately she doesn't want to say any presents she would like for Christmas out loud, because then I would buy them, and she would know that she was getting them because she already told me she wanted them. So I'm just supposed to buy her whatever I would think she would like, so it's a total surprise. Oh Valie, gotta love her!

Valie went to visit Santa this week! Well, she actually saw him 4 times this week. Once with me, once with the Beach's, and twice with GG. So I guess Santa must really know what Val wants for Christmas.

Valie wanted to be fancy for Santa. She wore her "rockstar" outfit and insisted on "rockstar" hair to match.

Yeah, that took some time to do :)

Cameron was quite a lucky guy and able to celebrate his birthday multiple times this year. Unfortunately I only remembered to take pictures at his Simpson party. Everyone who knows Cam knows how deep his love for the Simpson's runs, so that is what I based one of his party's around. I had lots of fun with the details of this party. Most of them were only appreciated by the true die hard Simpson fans, but luckily the majority of my family and friends are just that.
Here's some highlights from the night.
Cam's birthday cake. Yes I made it, and now everyone knows how similar mine and Cameron's sense of humor actually is :)

Here he is, the man of the hour! I made him wear a pin that said "Birthday Boy", I'm so mean.

We played several very intense games that involved Simpson trivia. Cameron actually got all the questions right on almost everything!

My dear friends Sarah and Shawn dressed as Patty and Selma. I loved loved loved their "I Love McGyver" shirts

Signature Simpson drinks, "Duff Beer", "Buzz Cola", and "Squishee"

Here's a bit of the decor. I'm such a dork, I always forget to take lots of pictures! But my mom was so nice as to let us use her house for the party. She didn't complain one bit about turning her house into Springfield.

You can't have a real Simpson party without a cheese fountain! And lots of yummy things to dip in it, chips, polish sausage, tator tots, sausage balls, pretzels, etc. We also had chili cheese dogs!

Here is the photo that should show how much I love Cam. I was Marge! And YES the wig was awkward and itchy. I have a new found respect for Marge.

My cousins on the couch. Jaxon and Maddie were Bart Simpson and Jessica LoveJoy.

My Mom and Ken were troopers and wore Simpson T shirts. I told my Mom I'd give her 20 bucks to wear her shirt to work.

Here's Cam and Jim at the end of the party. I think they had their fill of Simpson mania.

My sweet Valie was dressed up as Lisa! Valie actually reminds me a lot of Lisa, intelligent, compassionate, loves unicorns.

I should of had a costume contest! My uncle Chad would have won. He was Comic Book Guy. He even had the long pony tail taped to the back of his head!

My family is so sweet to indulge my crazy party requests. My cousin Alex was dressed up as Apu and my Grandma was the crazy Cat Lady.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! &.....

Ok, I am a lazy blogger. I admit it. So here is a bunch of stuff that I've been meaning to put on the blog but haven't gotten around to it until now.

Cute Valie at pre school, writing in her journal and wearing her headdress.

All dressed up for school. She loves to be "fancy" for school, and yes that is a pirate medallion around her neck.

Mowing the lawn with Ashley.

Daddy is trying to teach her now so he can pass on the job.

Catching snowflakes

It's Halloween, let's wear bikinis!

Halloween Treats

Passing out candy as Ariel.

Playing in the leaves.

Valie's crazy candy organization. I remember sorting my candy as a kid, but she also makes patterns on the floor. I actually wasn't tall enough to get the whole picture. The candy covered our whole area rug and went all the way to the tv.

Valie as Mulan. This was what she wore to pre school. She changed her mind last minute (20 minutes before school!)

Carving pumpkins

I painted Valie and Ashley's faces and gave them fancy hair one day. They had fun but it took me about 2 hours to get them ready.

Having fun at Red Butte Gardens

Warning, prepare to drool. What can I say, we ate a lot of good stuff in Florida. Actually this isn't everything, sometimes we were so hungry I forgot to take a picture! But I did get lots of food shots, so here they are :) The captions are getting cut off and I don't know why so sorry about that. Slide.com and I have a very abusive and terrible relationship!

Vickie & Cameron: Valie, what holiday is in November?
Valie: We get a new president day!
Vickie & Cameron: Oh....well.....not quite what we were thinking, but okay.

Now I wouldn't say we are strongly political and talk about it all the time, but I guess we talk about it more than Thanksgiving :) I guess I'll have to give her a lesson on the Pilgrims and stuff this week.

Here's the rest of the pictures!

We're back from our vacation! We had so much fun and did so many things I don't think I can write about them all without filling the whole blog. We have a ton of pictures so I'm splitting the slide show into 2. First of all I have to tell the story of our dream upgrade. We were initially booked to stay at Coronado Springs Resort (a moderate $ hotel) for 5 nights and POP century (a value $ hotel) for 4 nights. But when we arrived at Coronado Springs they were all booked up so they transfered us to the Animal Kingdom Lodge (a deluxe $ resort). I was so distracted when they told me though because Valie had just fallen head first off of a bench and onto the marble lobby floor! She was ok but pretty shocked/embarrassed. So we got into a disney van and they drove us over to our new hotel and it was so beautiful. We had a savannah view and there were animals right outside our window! There are some pics on the slide show but it's kind of hard to distinguish our room view from the safari ride we went on. Anyway, it was amazing.
We went to all four of the parks, multiple times. There is so much to do everywhere, it's overwhelming. There are even activities at the hotels all throughout the day. My dear mom is the one who took us on this wonderful trip and she was such a trooper. Valie made sure her granny rode all of the thrill rides with her. Including Tower of Terror, Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, Space Mountain, Splash mountain, Mission Space, and Test track. But as much as Val loves the thrill rides we also went on almost all of the other rides as well.
One of the greatest things about our vacation was that we were on the dining plan. I made reservations 180 days in advance to make sure we got into the restaurants with the most yummy food :) Oh my goodness I'm so glad I did my research because we had some of the most amazing meals ever! But I'm saving all of the food pictures for another blog post, so stay tuned. I did put in a couple shots from the Hoop De Doo Review dinner show though.
We also met a ton of characters. There were some very obscure ones out and about so it was fun to meet ones you don't usually see, like king louis from the Jungle Book and the walrus from Alice and Wonderland.
My personal favorite thing we did was Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It's a special event where you buy tickets and they turn the Magic Kingdom into a Halloween lovers paradise. Everyone dresses up, Valie was tinkerbell, Cameron was Captain hook, and I was Peter Pan. And everyone goes trick or treating. We got so much candy, 13 pounds! It was insane. They had face painting and dance parties, which Valie loved. She could have stayed and danced the night away. There was also special Halloween fireworks and a Halloween parade. It was sooo fun!
I'm so glad we went in October because it was also the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. They had tons of booths and set ups that they don't normally. So there was tons to do and see in the World showcase.
Despite the fabulous time we had while on vacation, it is nice to be back home.

So we have been gearing up and preparing for our trip to Disney World! We leave Sunday and are super excited. Here's a shot of Valie, she's been counting down the days on her Mickey calander, and there are only a few days left! Also, here is our matching T shirts, incredibles of course :) Cam photoshopped the logo and then I printed them on transfer paper and ironed them onto the shirts. It was much more cost efficient than buying them from Disney.
While we are in Florida we are attending Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and we're all dressing up, so here's a pic of Valie's costume and just the hats to mine and Cameron's. I bet you can't guess who we are going to be:) No, the green hat isn't for Cam. I'm sparing him the humiliation of the green leggings. But since they are stylish for girls right now, I'm biting the bullet, because what would Captain hook and Tinkerbell do without Peter?
We will update you all on how the trip goes as soon as we get back!

Hello Everyone, the party pictures are finally posted. After many hours of fighting with the internet! Here's a preview but you have to go to the birthday blog to get the full slide show!

http://myvaliegirlbirthday.blogspot.com