Chloe had the best Einstein hair the other day while jumping on the trampoline! 🙂
Our trampoline has been a never-ending source of enjoyment for the girls. One of the many perks of jumping your heart out is the static electricity generated….For comparison, below is an old picture of Nia, when she was about Chloe’s age.
Notice the change in scenery now that they’ve torn down all the trees around our property. Since the top picture was taken a few days ago, even the trees seen in the distant background are now all gone.
Finally! It seems like Chloe has been 3 for a year already…so it was really fun to celebrate her big-girlness and all that she has become this year!
We had a great time romping around at the Bounce-n-Play together as a family.
When we got home, we were joined by our dear friends the Alsop’s, who were visiting from VA Beach. It was a special treat to have them here for Chloe’s birthday, because Chloe has REALLY missed her sweet friend Alexis.
We ordered pizza (Chloe got to choose the dinner), I threw together a last minute cake and voila…it was a party! 🙂
Kylee, Alexis, Chloe, and Nia! What great sisters and friends!
The next day was her actual birthday and a Sunday. So, we saved presents to open before church and ate a yummy breakfast that she requested…Hootnanny Pancakes!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our dear CHLOE!! We love you so very much! You bring a sweet joy to our family with your hugs, kisses, laughter, and silly playfulness!
The looming construction that has been taunting us for years has finally reared it’s horrible head. The tractors came today and tore down EVERY tree in the forest behind our house this morning! I did everything aside from standing in front of them to try and stop it from happening. The drivers even called the manager to come out and talk to me. At that point, I had a glimmer of hope that I had just “saved the trees” or maybe just a few. But, after one sentence came out of his mouth I knew he didn’t care about the devastation our family and neighbors would feel about losing those trees. After several of his snide remarks about how the trees are on HIS property, I asked him to get out of MY yard.
I’ve been crying all day…I feel completely devastated and violated!! Our backyard is now a construction zone and there isn’t an ounce of shade to be enjoyed or “natural fence” to keep my kids from the craziness…and no more privacy…it’s just devastating.
They didn’t leave a single tree…not even one.
These are the trees that were left when I approached the tractors and asked if they were going to take down every tree. It was the last row of trees.
Gone!!
The trees were dense, 80 feet tall, and about 20 feet from our house.
This picture isn’t great…but on the bottom of the napkin I wrote, “I love you! Have a great day!”.
At the end of the day, when I was unpacking Nia’s lunchbox, I saw the napkin (which was unused) and above my notes Nia had written, “I love you, too! Thank you!”
It’s so fun to have a kid that is old enough to pass notes! 🙂
Filed under: Uncategorized — thebudgefamily @ 8:13 am
After a truly amazing week in Orlando, full of happy Disney memories, we packed up the minivan, and started the long drive home to Charlottesville. The plan was to make the whole drive home in one day, in an effort to consolidate the pain into one day instead of two. We got a later start than we had planned, and realized that our estimated time of arrival according to our trusty GPS was about 1 am. SOOO, in an effort to save some time, we decided to stop and get some fast food, and have the kids eat in the car while watching a movie (Disney, of course). To make a short story long, about a half hour after the kids ate, Chloe starting crying that she wasn’t feeling very well. Erin reached back to help her and Chloe threw up all over Erin’s arms and all over herself and carseat. Then Nia who was sitting right next to Chloe, took one look at her and started puking all over herself! (Remember that we were in an enclosed space with >8 hours of driving ahead of us!) We of course abruptly pulled over to the side of the road to attempt the clean up. Since neither trading in the minivan or dumping the girls into a bath were options, Erin began the cleanup process, while I scrambled to rummage through the back of the car to find all available wipes and changes of clothes, etc. We soon realized that the 4 wipes we had left were nowhere near enough wipes to even begin cleaning up the girls or the back of the van, and we dashed to the nearest truck stop. In the haste of it all, Erin yells for me to stop as she watched the pack n’ play shoot out the back of the minivan. I pulled over again while watching the Pack ‘n’ Play bounce down the side of the road in the rear view mirror (it now has a few not-so-subtle “character” marks in honor of the occasion). After retrieving our belongings from the side of the freeway (thankfully not from the middle of the road), and buying all of the wipes and Febreeze available at the truck stop (I gave them a tip for selling Febreeze), we began the process of cleaning. We had to pick the girls up and beg them to keep their legs together so the pile of puke didn’t drip or splat all over the van while we pulled them out to the parking lot. We stripped the girls naked in the parking lot and threw their clothes in a bag. Once they were clean and in new clothes, we were in the van regrouping and a flock of black birds swarmed down and started eating the girls puke! It was so disgusting, but that’s when we all started laughing and now when we talk about it all…we can’t help but cry laughing! Mercifully, whatever car-sickness or food poisoning that led to making this the most memorable car trip in Budge history left as quickly as it came, and the rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. We arrived home in the wee hours of the morning, and were extremely glad to be home!
We started our week at Akershus in Epcot, with a super fun breakfast with the Princesses. Nia, Chloe, Loren, and I woke up early and it was totally worth it! This was one of the trip’s biggest highlights for the girls. I mean, where else can you go and talk with Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, and Cinderella, all before the park even opened?! We got our first feel for why both parents and kids love Disney, as we were truly treated like royalty. When we had our first “photo shoot” opportunity with Belle, our camera battery ran out of juice, and in the craziness, Nia and Chloe forgot to get her autograph. Erin simply mentioned this to one of the cast members, and VOILA! “Your majesty, come right this way…” The next moment she was standing in front of the line with the girls for another photo opportunity and book signing. We love Disney!
We celebrated Chloe’s birthday (2 weeks early). She received a cupcake, and a special birthday card signed by all the Disney princesses!
After breakfast, and a stroll around the park, we rode on “Soarin.” Chloe got to ride, even though she was about 1 mm shorter than the height requirement, so we went about 3 times. This ended up being her favorite ride of the week. She still talks about how much she loved flying over California, and seeing Tinker Bell at the end! Next, we got to meet Mickey, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, and Minnie. Eli was so excited, he slept through the whole thing.
Another highlight was talking with Crush, the turtle. Crush called on Nia to answer a question, which was really fun!
In China, we got to see an impressive acrobat show, and Eli and the girls got to meet Mulan. She was very sweet with Eli, and left quite an impression on him, consisting of a huge red lipstick smacker on his forhead, which he wore for the rest of the day! (Nia was pretty embarrassed by it all, and kept asking us to wash it off!)
Aladdin and Jasmine couldn’t understand why we didn’t just ride our magic carpet to Disneyworld instead of driving. He had a good point. I think we’ll get one before our next trip.
For dinner, we ate an expensive japanese restaurant. It’s always fun to have knives and other random cooking utensils flying through the air in front of you while your food is cooking. Chloe again got the royal birthday treatment, which included a chef’s hat, and a free dessert that she couldn’t eat (tiramasu).
MAGIC KINGDOM (Day 1)
The Magic Kingdom was decorated for Halloween the first day we went. It was fun to see all the jack-o-lanterns and fall colors.
We hit Space Mountain first thing and Nia went on it at least 3 times…she loved it! Chloe, Eli, and Erin had fun hanging out with Chip and Dale. 🙂
Magic Kingdom is certainly named well–for the kiddos, this place is pure nonstop magic! They would have loved every minute of the day, even if they never went on a ride.
We got a birthday button for Chloe, which she wore throughout the week. This was a real highlight for her and all of us. Every time a cast member saw her they called out, “Happy Birthday, Chloe!” It made her feel like a million bucks and just added to the many reasons why we are converted to Disney!
Minnie Mouse was arguably the very best part of our whole trip! One of the parades stopped right in front of where we were standing, and Minnie gave such special attention to Chloe and Nia, that we all instantly fell in love with her. Minnie became Chloe’s favorite Disney character for the rest of the week, and made 2 little girls very happy.
This is such a great picture of the whole group of party animals! Mike, Chelsea, Melanie, Lynn, Don, and us! 🙂
Luckily, we only got reminded once during the week that Florida isn’t a desert. We thought we were pretty prepared with our 80 cent panchos from Walmart, but they just didn’t seem to cover very much during the monsoon. It only lasted for an hour or so, but left us all drenched to the bone for the remainder of the day, with puddles in the bottoms of our shoes! Eli took it in stride, however, and would have none of being under a a pancho. Every 2 seconds, he would pull the pancho off the stroller, until he was completely soaked, and we just gave in. He loved being in the rain, prompting more than one dirty look from other parents for not keeping him dry.
It’s entertaining to just walk around in the Magic Kingdom. Every little minute detail has been thought through and carefully presented. Like these amazing Mickey and Minnie candied apples!
We took the kids home early for a good nights sleep and Erin went back to enjoy the Electrical Parade and a little window shopping.
The mosaic story of Cinderella located in Cinderella’s castle. Beautiful!
ANIMAL KINGDOM
We loooooved Animal Kingdom! We got there early enough to enjoy the parks opening festivities and then we headed straight for Everest! Nia rode it 2 times on the very front seat. She survived but says she doesn’t EVER want to do that again! Loren and I thought it was BRILLIANT!
Disney has really made this park feel like you’ve entered another country and it was absolutely gorgeous!
The Lion King and Finding Nemo shows were unreal and so much fun to see!
The kids were on day 3 of our adventure and they were feeling a little wiped out midway through the day. Look at poor Chloe! She was sitting on Loren’s shoulders and when I took this picture she could barely keep her eyes open, and they were nearly crossed with tiredness!
We got to see the cutest baby gorilla and the whole family. They were pretty close to us and we spent a good 30 minutes just watching them.
The afternoon parade was super fun and we were at the perfect spot to see all the characters and be able to hug and shake hands with them.
We also went on the safari ride and now the bug has been planted…maybe we’ll actually get to Africa someday! The ride was awesome!
A baobab tree (straight out of Le Petit Prince)
Before leaving the park, we went on the Kali River Rapids and got completely drenched! The girls thought is was hilarious that I was soaked from head to toe. We enjoyed the closing songs and dancing and then were home early for a good nights rest!
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
We were so excited to see Beauty and the Beast! We loved it, although it would have been even better if we had seen it before the Finding Nemo and Lion King shows. They were hard acts to follow!
It ended up being another rainy day, but it was off and on and we were still able to fully enjoy everything.
We had great seats for the afternoon parade and the girls went down and danced with all the characters. Our favorites were Sully and the green army men!
The muppet show was super fun, but a little scary for Chloe…4D shows are definitely a little trippy!
Nia’s favorite ride ended up being the Tower of Terror!
We stayed late to watch Fantasmic (and we froze our bums off), but it was awesome and worth it!
MAGIC KINGDOM (day 2)
Getting to any of the parks right before opening time is definitely worth it, as all the Disney characters come to welcome you!
On our last day of the week, we went back to the Magic Kingdom and discovered that within just a few days, the entire park had been transformed into a Christmas wonderland! All the fall/halloween decorations were gone. The mums had been pulled up from the ground and poinsettia’s were in their place! Garland, wreaths, etc.! Unbelievable! All the little Disney fairies had been working hard at night, because it was truly amazing to see the transformation in such a short amount of time!
Eli had quite a few admirers, and was an AMAZING trooper throughout our week at Disney. I don’t know how we would have made it if he hadn’t been so happy and content to soak in the sights from his stroller day in and day out.
“Tink” has been Chloe’s all-time FAVORITE character, and she was over the moon excited to meet her in person! To meet the fairies, you first have to shrink down to their size, which the girls thoroughly enjoyed.
Mickey and Minnie’s houses are great fun. You can find mouse ears in all sorts of unexpected places…
Walt Disney World Railroad Express was a huge highlight for all of us!
The kids enjoyed several shows and parades throughout the day to top off an absolutely incredible week of bliss!
Aaaaahhh…the Magic Kingdom at night!
Goodbye for now to our happy place! We’re already trying to figure out how we can get back! We will miss you until then!
We arrived in FL and the day after was Halloween. Halloween was on a Sunday this year, the attempt to go to church was thwarted when there was no one at the church building…so we all spent the day chilling at our hotel, sleeping, watching movies, etc. to regroup from our big road trip adventure.
To our surprise, we had some fun visitors show up at our door Halloween morning all decked out for the occasion! They even brought the rest of us some fun disguises.
Oh my goodness…look at those “Billy Bob” teeth!
Later in the eveing the kids got to go trick-or-treating at Oma’s hotel door. They wore their gross teeth and glasses as costumes and their bags were full after just one door! Now that’s how Halloween should be!
Eli was the most festive in our bunch. His smile matches his Jack-o-lantern outfit…he only has a few teeth to show off these days! 🙂 What a cutie!
We were off to Florida for the biggest adventure of our lives! At least that’s how it felt to this rooky family. We’ve been saving and saving for an awesome week at Walt Disney World and driving there was all part of the fun.
During the 13 + hours there, we did a lot of this!
And thankfully a lot of this, too!
We left right after school on Friday and drove half the distance to Savannah, Georgia. We arrived there at 1am and got a little sleep to boost our energy a bit. We ate a continental breakfast the next morning with all the other travelers (one was from Ireland which was fun for me!) and then we were off to finish up our first road trip together.
All in all it was a huge success and pretty painless. Phew!!
We arrived in Orlando, FL and were met shortly after by Loren’s family Oma, Papa Don, Aunt Melanie, Uncle Mike, and Chelsea! It was an awesome start to a great week!
the budge family 