Virginia & DC vacation!

Sarae, Tia and I hit the road on April 30th and headed up to Virginia. Tia had never been there, so we planned on seeing as many historic sites as we could fit in, along with catching up with friends. We stayed in a great condo (thanks to my sister and her husband for getting us such a great deal!)in Williamsburg, Virginia. We toured Williamsburg Saturday and half a day Sunday and then headed up to D.C. to see Marsha. Marsha had worked 18 days straight and I am afraid did not get much of a rest on her one day off since she took us on a whirlwind tour of D.C. Monday, we went to the Washington Zoo, Arlington Cemetary, Smithsonian (Natural History and Tia ran to the Archives for a quick peek at the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution), White House briefing room (yes we got to stand where the President stands when addressing the reporters!), and wrapped the day up by running around the monuments. The next morning we got to tour Marsha's work at NBC studios. We left Marsha and headed to Monticello and ended the day back in Williamsburg. Wednesday we toured two plantation houses - Berkely and Shirley. Found out the heir to Shirley is an eligible bachelor in his 40's. Tia and I thought it would be a great idea for he and I to meet, but unfortunately, it wasn't like a Harlequin romance book and he never appeared on the scene. Thursday we went to my hometown of Petersburg to see Blandford Church. This church was made into a monument for the Confederate soldiers and Tiffany was commissioned to make 15 stained glass windows - beautiful! Besides Marsha, we also got to see Mr. & Mrs. Durham, Duff, Lisa, Michelle, Jack, Megan, Kay, Kendall and Kary during this trip. Catching up with everyone made this trip extra special! A special thank you to Duff for loaning us his GPS, it made getting around the state much easier!

Happy 4th Birthday Sarae!

Happy 4th Birthday Sarae!

It's taken me a while, but I am finally posting pictures from Sarae's birthday party that was held on March 6th. We had a beautiful day for the party and had lots of fun. Thanks to mom and Tia for helping set up, Jim and Dana for grilling and Vanessa for setting up, taking names and cleaning up. Sarae had a great time with all of her friends and was worn out by the end of the day. The theme was Diamond Castle Barbie, which has two main characters - Alexa and Liana. The afternoon before the party, when I went to put her birthday cakes together, I realized I had neglected to measure the Barbie dolls and the height of the cakes. After momentarily kicking myself, I cut holes in the cake board, decorated a box and cut holes in the box as well and set the cake board on top of the box. This way the Barbies legs could dangle down into the box. I was so proud of figuring this out I am posting the pictures. Hope everyone's spring is off to a great start!

Gotcha Day Anniversary!

Hard to believe this is our 3rd Gotcha Day Anniversary! Disney World has a great offer right now for Florida Residents where you can get 4 day passes to any park for $99 ($84 for children 3-9) that must be used by May 25th. So, Sarae and I spent Gotcha day at Magic Kingdom for 10.5 hours! Sarae was so excited the day before she woke up at 12:30 a.m. yelling out that she was getting up early and ready to go. When I explained that Disney was not open yet and it was the middle of the night, she was so disappointed she cried herself back to sleep. We truly had a magical day. The weather was sunny and in the 60's and Sarae was in the best mood. She waited in line for an hour to see her favorite princess Ariel and did not whine or complain once. I think she would have waited twice that long. Unfortunately, the one thing I did not double-check was my battery pack for my camera, so by the time we got to Ariel, my camera was dead. Disney does provide photographers and I will order the Ariel pictures as soon as I get a chance (in the middle of getting ready for her birthday right now). Another nice thing that the Disney photographers do is take pictures with your camera as well so you can get in the picture too. This was a lifesaver for us in the beginning because while Sarae was excited to see the princess', she was too shy to go by herself. As a matter of fact, she wouldn't speak to any of the princess' or TinkerBell and her friends. In case you are wondering who that man is, no he is not my new boyfriend, he is one of the photographers. When a different photographer had my camera to take a picture of us with Belle, he took a picture of the photographer as well. I thought it was so funny, I had to put it on the blog. Well, my cake timer is going off so I had better get off the computer and pull it out of the oven or we will be minus one birthday cake tomorrow! Hope this finds everyone well!

Sarae's first Christmas play at church

Getting ready for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Sarae and I had a great Thanksgiving. We made turkey cookies using her hand as a template and celebrated with family. Sarae studied Native Americans in her preschool and brought home all sorts of Thanksgiving art. I had to include the picture of "Princess Cody" to show what a good sport he is and of course I had to include a picture of Princess Sarae. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!