Disneyland Paris

For Thanksgiving this year we decided to take the kids to Disneyland Paris!! Before we even moved to England we told the kids that we would take them to Disneyland Paris to help them get excited about the move. Disney has great deals in November, so we decided to go before we add another little person to the family. If you stay in their hotel, you get free 4 day passes to the parks. We would staying right next to the park and being able to go back and forth through out the day if we needed. It was a fun relaxing trip. The kids can't stop talking about it.

We didn't tell the kdis where we were going at first. They knew we were headed to Paris, but that was it. We checked in to the hotel and waited for them to figure it out. After seeing all the Disney stuff, they finally figured it out and were SO excited!

Here is the lobby of the hotel. They had characters there to take pictures with through out the day which was so nice because we didn't have to wait in line at the park.

Meeting Minnie Mouse!

The entrance to Disneyland

Cinderella's castle

A view of Main street. I LOVE how everything was decorated for Christmas. It made the trip a little more magical. 

Livi's favorite ride, the spinning cars. I went on it like 5 times with her while the older kids went on the big rides.

Sword and the Stone!

Andrew loved all the rides, but really liked the Buzz lightyear ride

Pirates of the Caribbean 

Waiting in line and as happy as can be!!It really is the happiest place on earth!

Dumbo was the very first ride that we went on. you can't go to Disneyland and miss the Dumbo ride!

Flying carpets ride in the Studio park.

Andrew loves the tower of terror so Avery took a picture of it for him

Outside the car stunt show in Studio park

The line to see Santa was like 1.5 hours long. Livi REALLY wanted to see him, so Andy, being the good dad that he is, waited in line with her while I took the older kids on Thunder mountain. This picture was so worth the wait. I love the look on her face. So sweet and innocent. She was elated!

Meeting Goofy at the hotel

Livi really wanted to drive the car

The Christmas tree outside of the hotel

Livi hitching a ride on Daddy's shoulders

The kids really wanted to buy some mouse ears, but at $25, that wasn't going to happen. So we just let them take pictures with them on. Aren't we such nice parents? You can see how excited they were ;)

Mickey and Minnie in one of the parades we saw

Halloween 2012

Happy Halloween!

Drew the Blue Power Ranger

Livi the Sunshine Rainbow (her costume was a huge hit with everyone)

Avery the Spanish Princess

Warwick Castle

My mom came to visit us and the kids were out of school, so we decided to take a little trip to Warwick Castle. Everyone says that it is one of England's best Castles. It was really cool, but I think having it decorated for halloween made it even more fun. The kids had a blast and the weather couldn't have been better. We really lucked out.

They set a new Guinness world record for the largest witch gathering. They passed out witch hats to everyone

The headless horseman

The grounds were so beautiful!

Drew had to prove that he's a real man and not scared by taking a picture with this scary guy

The guys from the dueling show we watched.

We took a little break to play in the leaves

Drew was totally groosed out by this pig head and the lady thought it was funny and wanted to take a picture with him

Panties on her head

Livi thinks it is hilarious to put panties on her head. She dances around and sings the "panties on my head" song. Such a silly girl!

Practically Perfect in Every Way!

Livi may give Mary Poppins a run for her money. This little girl is practically perfect in every way and she just turned THREE!!!! We were so lucky to have Grandma Cindi and Great Grandma here to celebrate with us. We had just spent the week in Germany, so her B-day was pretty low key, but she was as happy as could be. Livi LOVES birthdays. It is her favorite game to play. She wraps presents, makes cakes, sing me happy birthday with a little cha cha cha at the end, makes me blow out pretend candles, and then claps. But my favorite is when she hands me the "presents" to open. She says "wait mom, let me get the camera ready. okay go ahead." Then she takes pictures with her toy camera while I open the presents. She is so much fun!

So for her birthday she had a few requests. The only present she really wanted was a Big lollipop. I can handle that (much better than her Christmas list...a real pony)! For Breakfast, she wanted Donuts, she wanted a tinkerbelle cake, balloons, and pink ice cream with cones. We spent the day in Cambridge. and on the way home I asked what she wanted for her birthday dinner. I was expecting her to say chicken nuggets or pizza. But she requested pink soup. pink soup? I said I couldn't make pink soup and so she decided on carrot soup instead. I have no idea where she go this from, but I couldn't disappoint the birthday girl. We got home at about 5:00pm and I quickly threw together some homemade chicken noodle soup with LOTS of carrots. I was nervous that she wouldn't like it, but it was a huge hit! She said "This is the most delicious Carrot birthday soup ever!" She now asks for carrot soup every day. :)

At 3 years old Livi is very sweet and sensitive. She adores her daddy and cries if he even looks at her cross. She loves to sing and dance. She also has a great imagination and I love to listen to her pretend play. The only food she really eats is cereal, chicken nuggets, and orange french fries (sweet potato fries).

Livi is such a joy and we are so lucky to have her in our family. We love you llittle Livi Loo!!!Happy Birthday!!!

Birthday donut followed by a birthday bath

and some presents

a crown from brother

Now that she is 3, Livi can take the toddler ballet class on base. She was so excited for weeks to start ballet. She loved her first class and did such a great job following the teacher. She was really fun to watch.