Party All Weekend!

Between Lorelei's birthday and Easter, we partied all weekend here! And boy are we tired today! Lorelei's birthday was on Good Friday, so there was no school and no ballet. A whole day to celebrate Lorelei turning 5!! We have been telling her for a while now that when she turned 5 she could pick out an American Girl Doll. She has been waiting a long time, studying the catalogs, visiting the store and Friday, her day finally came!!
Meet Jilly, that is Jill with a "y" as Lorelei declared earlier that morning that was what she would name her new American Girl doll. Jilly is a "look like me" doll, with blond hair, blue eyes, and pierced ears! Yes, we got the dolls ears pierced there too! Lorelei had a ball picking out Jilly and some clothes for her. Of course Jilly needed her own pet too, Praline the cat. I must document at this point that while Mommy was having a ball with this, the two boys of the family were not really enjoying themselves. One was grumbling and mumbling about how much this was going to cost him and the other one, was bored out of his mind in the AG store! Ha!
After we got Jilly all done up we headed over the American Girl Bistro for some dinner. I thought it was actually pretty good and Jilly even had her own "seat" that attached to the table. Lorelei got brownie lollipops for dessert along with a candle and a birthday song from the staff there. So much fun! Jilly has accompanied us just about everywhere since we got her. Lorelei is already planning the other things Jilly "needs" like pajamas and a bed! Oh my!

Bwahahaha! This face just about sums it up for both Paxton and Josh!

Our next birthday event was on Saturday. We hosted 16 girls at the Gymnastics place Lorelei goes to each week. I must say they did a wonderful job, I was uber impressed with the organization and fun they had planned! It was a lot of girls, all from either school, church or ballet, but we had a blast. I think the Gymnastics instructors wore the girls out pretty well too!

Lorelei wanted a Tangled cake, of course you know she doesn't eat cake, but nevertheless, her friends enjoyed it while she chowed down on some chocolate ice cream! Opening presents was fun, a bit overwhelming, and birthday girl had just about had it by the end!

Lexi, Lorelei and Bianca stretching out! Wish I could touch my toes that easily!

A little trampoline action!

Parallel Bars

Obstacle Course

Sack Race

Mmmmm, ice cream!

All of our party friends! (Paxton and the other boy were just brother onlookers!)

My baby is 5 TODAY!!! (boo hoo!)

Sweet sweet Lorelei! I can't believe you aren't a baby anymore! 5 years old, so grown up! We love you more and more with each passing day! She promises to always be my baby Princess! Happy 5th Princess!

Orlando!!!!

Yeah! We got to go to Orlando for Spring Break and we had a blast as always! We just love that city, there is so much to do and such a great atmosphere there! This time we did a bit of everything, Sea World, Downtown Disney, Fantasia Put Put, Magic Kingdom and more! We aren't used to going with such major crowds and traffic was not pretty on the way down. On day 1 we got to swim at a very cool pool with a viper water slide and then we headed to Downtown Disney. We usually feel so rushed when we go there so we dedicated the whole afternoon and evening to really explore. My new favorite shop, besides the Goofy candy store is the Mickey Christmas Shop! So many wonderful goodies for Christmas in there, I will definetly be going back in September to buy some stuff for Christmas. Of course Paxton loves the Lego store and Lorelei loves the "Princess" store. We ate at the T Rex Cafe which was yummy! Pax was disappointed because they sat us in the "Water/aquarium" part and not near the mean dinosaurs. My bad, Pax, next time we will!

A little wind came through right at right moment!

Yummy, Extinction Dessert!

Riding the boat through Downtown Disney, so relaxing!

Day 2 we headed over to Sea World. Seriously wonderful. If you have never been you must take your kiddos! They have wonderful shows and a few rides for those thrill seekers! We got to feed fish to the stingrays and pet dolphins! But really the shows were very well done and it wasn't crazy crowded there either. We definitely want to go back sometime!

Shamu and Paxton and Lorelei

The birds kept stealing the fish we were trying to feed the stingrays.

Petting the dolphins

The Pirate Sea Lion show, very funny and cute! The kids were cracking up the whole time!

The Killer Whale show, quite amazing! We were in the soak zone but luckily we didn't get soaked this time!

Did I mention it was HOT that day?

The Dolphin/Bird show. Kind of a weird mix but they did a good job bringing the story together.

This was this crazy fat toad in the shark exhibit, not sure why he was there? But the kids thought he was hilarious and wanted to take a picture to remember him.

The underwater shark tunnel.

The kids and I checked out the aquarium while Josh hit the big roller coasters that Paxton was not tall enough for yet.

Always wanting to take a silly picture!

The next day was much Cooler! So we went to Fantasia Put Put next to Hollywood Studios. It was a great little course with all kinds of cute things in the course to amuse the kids with.

Lost a ball already!

The view of the Tower of Terror from the course.

That evening we went to Disney's Boardwalk/Beach Club area and resorts. I have always wanted to go over there but we always run out of time. Such a neat area and you can walk right into Epcot from it, we definetly want to stay there sometime!

We ate at Cat Cora's Kouzzina, a Greek restaruant. It was good but very different food.

Silly girl!

The last day we went to the Magic Kingdom and of course first thing we had to do was visit Rapunzel. Well, TWO hours later we got to see her and Flynn Rider! Josh and I took turns standing in the crazy long line while the other one took the kids on rides nearby. I must say it was worth the wait. The kids got to color and dance with Rapunzel and Flynn. Lorelei was so happy, sporting her Rapunzel outfit too!

Pax, still trying to get that sword out of the stone, every year!

Gotta have our Peter Pan too!

It was a great trip, so glad we got to spend some time hanging out and relaxing with the family!