Post-VBS Festivities

After church today they had a slip 'n slide and water slide set up on the church lawn for the kids who went to VBS. Gracie and Ella were super excited to have some wet, sloppy fun! Gracie's first time down the slip 'n slide was cute to watch! After that she got disgusted by the mud and grass that was accumulating on her feet and she didn't want to do it for much longer.

Now Ella on the other hand spent much time slipping and sliding. However, her version was a very tame and calculated one. She would pretty much just sit and scoot. She received much encouragement from the other kids!

This little boy actually decided to push Ella as he walked by. Maybe he thought she would want to gain momentum.

Some cuties in their swimming "suities!"

The water slide was a painful experience from what I heard. At the bottom you would hit the ground pretty hard and it hurt your behind!

Look at that gentle landing! It actually still hurt according to Gracie.

Ella didn't go down the water slide, but she crawled underneath it.

When all else fails, you head to the kiddie pool to cool off!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

We headed to Moberly today to celebrate my Mom's birthday. Dad and I worked together to fix her birthday meal, and then we ate a yummy cake Dad made.


Too bad the trick candles didn't work! She blew them out on her first try, and they never relit.

Papa and the girls decided to play a game with the tissue paper from one of Nana's gifts. My dad tore it into small pieces, put it in a bowl and then told the girls it was going to snow.

Well, it did snow, and the girls thought that it was wonderful!

Do you see the problem? Now there is "snow" all over the floor and it has to be picked up so that you can play the game over again. It's a flawed game. Thankfully the game ended that night at my parent's house and it hasn't had to be repeated at our house!

The excitement was relived a few more times, but then that game was put to rest!

Vacation - Day Six

Grandpa and Nana got the girls these cute Disney Princess dresses from the gift shop. They wanted to wear them home today.


Today was mostly devoted to packing, revisiting the gift shop for those final souvenirs, and traveling to the airport. We had to leave around 11 a.m. so there wasn't time for too much fun.


We got a little goofy waiting for the shuttle to the airport. I told Ella she was goofy and she replied, "I'm not Goofy. And I'm not Pluto either!"


You can tell they had a good trip. They were both great travelers and had a pretty good attitude the whole time also. The fighting will resume once we are home, I'm sure!


I let the girls sit together on the plane going home. It was funny to hear them retell their adventures from the trip. They will probably be doing that for quite a while.

Looking out the windows at those puffy clouds one final time!

Vacation - Day Five

Today we headed back to Hollywood Studios. Mickey Mouse shaped bushes are always fun to see!

We definitely had to go the "The Voyage of the Little Mermaid" for the girl's sake. It was really neat because you sat in a theatre seat like usual, but during the show you got rained on during the storm and there were also bubbles that came down from the ceiling at certain times. Gracie loved it. Ella loved it until Ursula was on stage, then she covered her eyes. She's still talking about that nasty old Ursula.

Hola, Handy Manny!

Manny didn't have his tools with him. :-(

This is in Toy Story land. The barrel of monkeys had escaped and they were stretched out across the road. Cute!

Annie and Leo from "The Little Einsteins" were also out today!

We met the Green Armyman in Toy Story land. (Not quite as cool as meeting Micky Mouse, but he still got to sign Gracie's autograph book!)

This is when all of us girls returned to Hollywood Studios after going back to the hotel for an afternoon swim. We hadn't done that all week. Maybe we felt a little refreshed, but it didn't last long. They guys stayed behind in Hollywood Studios.

Gracie and Ella both got small tiaras that they wanted to wear the rest of the trip! Too cute.

Buzz Lightyear was trying to tell Gracie she should twirl and dance like a princess since she had a tiara. He had to use body language instead of talking, so all he could do was spin around and then motion to her to spin around. It was comical watching Gracie try to understand him!

Buzz and Woody!!!

As usual, Ella pooped out! She didn't survive the line to meet Buzz and Woody.

This was at the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area. It was very neat and I wish we could have let Gracie play longer. It was about to close when we got there.

A spider web climbing net. Believe me, that's the only kind of spider web this girl of mine would willingly go near! Like mother, like daughter!

A re energized Ella!

Uncle Dana and Gracie in front of a fake wall of San Francisco from a movie set.

This picture makes me think of the front of the apt's on the show "227" from when I was a kid. Or maybe even "The Cosby Show." I don't know what movie or TV show they were actually from.

Gracie with her "twin" Gracie from Maine. They were such good buddies and had a hard time saying good-bye after their last swim together. My Gracie returned to the room still crying with puffy, blood-shot eyes. It was horrible for a while! She said, "She was my best friend....and I even lover her."

I took this picture only because after I released their hair buns from the day, their hair looked identical in it's thickness, volume and curl. It's amazing to me how similar their hair is!

Vacation - Day Four

I couldn't miss the opportunity to take a picture of Gracie with the doorman at our hotel. Every morning he would open the door, refer to the girls as princesses and hand them a gold (okay it was cheap plastic) coin. It brought a smile to their faces everyday!

We headed back into the Magic Kingdom today. Gracie promptly got in line with Brent to ride Thunder Mountain, which is the only roller coaster she thought looked tame enough for her tender tummy. Ella however got in line to meet Princess Jasmine and Aladdin. As usual, she was so sweet with the characters.

We all met back up to ride the Magic Carpet ride, complete with an expectorating camel.

By now we were good and toasty, so we headed to the Hall of Presidents which was an air conditioned show about the Presidents of the United States.

While we were waiting for the show Ella informed me that she had to go potty. I took her to search for the nearest bathroom. By the time we found a bathroom and made it back to the show, they had already escorted our group in. Ella and I decided to hang out on the shaded porch and rock in the rocking chairs.

Sorry for the view of London, France and Ella's underpants, but I liked these pictures. She was laughing hysterically in all of these pics, but instead it looks like she's crying her eyes out.

We finally had luck finding Peter Pan and Wendy Darling. They were in the show at Cinderella's Castle that we had seen, so we knew they were probably out and about sometime. Today was our lucky day!

As we were meeting Peter Pan, Wendy mentioned that it was sprinkling. Well it was only a few minutes later that the skies broke loose as we were heading to our supper reservation. Dana and Dad were the only ones spared from the downpour as they went ahead to the restaurant instead of waiting for us at one of Ella's near-famous bathroom stops. (Maybe I shouldn't have potty-trained before we headed to Disney World!) :-)

After supper a drenched Ella pooped out on the train ride. She was one tired chick to fall asleep in those noisy conditions!

Drowned Rat #2 was wearing my poncho in case it started up again!

The final stop for the day was to meet the fairies. We had to stand in a ridiculously long line which barely crept along. I'm sure it felt like it took longer since we were nearing bedtime! When we were finally at the front of the line a guide explained to us that as we walked down the hallway to meet the fairies we would slowly begin shrinking. He told the girls they would notice the objects on the walls around us growing as we were shrinking. It was a wonderful illusion that Gracie was in complete awe of. Once we were shrunk down to fairy size we got to enter a room with the 3 fairies. The first fairy had us hop over to her nook, so this picture shows Gracie hopping over to Fawn's nook.

Here is Fawn signing Gracie's autograph book.

Fawn with Gracie and Ella - two little girls who were in Heaven!

The infamous Tinker Bell! She loved Ella's light-up Dora sandals!

Saying good-bye to Tinker Bell

Rosetta was the last fairy to meet from Pixie Hollow.

As we exited the room we had to go through a door that helped us grow. Gracie was a little sad to become her normal size again. :-)

We decided to leave the Magic Kingdom via the monorail since we hadn't ridden it all week. I took a picture of the castle all lit up at night. It's truly spectacular to see!

Tonight it was a little sad to think that tomorrow would be our last day!