The Queen

About a month ago I became know as a "Queen" to my children. No, it is not because my children cherish me so much and want to show me love and respect. I was named the Queen after this fine lady.


If you are not up on your Disney this is the evil queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

It happened like this. I ever so politely told my three eldest children that they needed to clean up the huge mess that they had made in the living room. This was met with much whining and complaining about how there were too many toys out and how they were too tired to clean. Being the kind and understanding mother that I am I told them to do it anyways. That is when it happened.

London: (grumbling to Jacob) "Mommy is a Queen"
Me: "What was that London?"
London: (with a very defiant look on her face for one so young) "You are a Queen mommy!"
Jacob: "Ya, your a Queen!"
Me: (with a very confused look on my face) "What do you mean I am a Queen?"
London: "You are a mean Queen like on Snow White."

I could not believe it. I had been called mean a few times, but to put me at the same level of meanness as the evil Queen who had tried to kill Snow White. Now everytime I ask them to do something they do not like they call me a Queen. At first I did not like the title, but it has grown on me and I now wear it with pride.

Preschool Graduation

At the end of the school year the preschool that London and Jacob attend had a little graduation ceremony for those who were going into kindergarten. I thought it was adorable that they had little caps and gowns for them to wear (free of charge as long as you returned the thing).

First London's class came out and sang a little song.

Then Jacobs class came out and sang a little song. It cracked me up that Jacob was so much taller then all the other kids in his class. The girl next to him even has little heals on for this special occasion.

Here is London taking a bow after everyone received there little certificate. I don't know why they did not have them throw there hats? :)

They even had this cute little sign out for the kids to take a picture in front of. This is London and her friend that we carpooled with.

April Camp Out

We had this wonderful three night camp out planned for April with some friends, but due to weather and other circumstances it was canceled. So we chose a new location, with what we hoped would be better weather, and just set out a day later then originally planned by ourselves. It was still a little colder then I would have liked the first day. The kids did not seem to mind too much and had a wonderful time exploring our new campsite. Because we got to the campsite so early we were able to get one of the larger sites so the kids had a lot of room to explore without bothering other campers.

That night it was much too cold, and Guinevere would not sleep. I finally pulled her into bed with me where she insisted on sleeping cheek to cheek. Luckily the other kids slept right on through Guinevere's screaming and they managed to get a good nights sleep. Between the crying and the less then ideal sleeping arrangement Rob and I did not get much sleep.

While the next morning was a little chilly, it warmed up nicely and our second day out was great. That is until exhaustion took over and Rob and I decided to call it quits a couple of hours after lunch. Fearing another horrible night we quickly packed up and headed home. We got home a little late, but we still managed to have everyone bathed and in bed by 8:30pm.

Even though we did not stay as long as we had planned we got some great pictures of the kids, so it was all worth it.

Joseph posing for the camera

London freezing next to the fire

Me and Guinevere

Guinevere really loved going in and out of the screened in shade area. It was not very useful the first day, but the shade was welcomed the second day.

Guinevere smiling for the camera

I love how in this picture you can actually see the sand that Guinevere is throwing. I also loved that London was willing to sit down and play with Guinevere.

Looking through my pictures I was surprised a just how few I have of Jacob on this camping trip. He must have been a little camera shy. The boys loved driving there big trucks all over the campsite. They would load up there toys, drive them to a new location, dump them out, reload them, and drive them to a new location. It was hilarious to watch.

Hunting Eggs

Here are the rest of the Easter pictures, finally! We had a great time hunting for eggs over at Aunt Barbara's house.

Here is my niece, Jalynn, hunting for her first egg. Isn't she just so cute.

And of course we took tons of pictures of Guinevere. She is just so cute how could we possibly resist.

I just love how in this picture the eggs in the tree are in focus, and she is not. She saw that lower yellow egg and just took off after it. It is so much fun when they finally get what all the excitement is about.
Joseph

London was hard to get a picture off. All the pictures of her hunting for eggs she has her butt facing the camera, or her hair is covering her face. She absolutely loves the blocks that the Easter Bunny brought her. Her creativity never ceases to amaze me.

Jacob really liked the dinosaurs that he got, and Joseph really liked the dinosaurs that Jacob got. Joseph initially liked the truck he got in his basket until he saw Jacobs dinosaurs. Luckily Jacob like the T-rex the best, and Joseph was ok playing with the stegosaurus.

After the kids found all the eggs the adults had to scour the yard looking for the eggs that got hid a little too well. Once that was done we decided to play a little football. We had a lot of fun, and minimal injuries. I was pretty impressed with the nice bruise my sister gave me on my upper arm (sorry, I forgot to take pictures so that everyone else could be impressed as well). Out of the many action shots that Rob got of us playing football I decided on the one below because it makes me look the skinniest. I am finally shedding some of the weight I gained through four pregnancy's, and I could not be happier.

After football we had a wonderful dinner, and just enjoyed spending time together. I love holidays.

Egg dyeing

On Friday my Mom and Aunt Brenda came over to help us frost Easter cookies and dye eggs. I just love how bright the frosting turned out.

Here is London showing off one of the eggs that her and Aunt Brenda dyed.

Joseph took control of the blue egg dye, and would not let anyone else use it. He has decided that anything that he touches is his and that no one else should touch it. It has been a difficult stage for us since there are so many other children in the house touching all of "his" toys. Luckily the other kids did not care if they could not dye there eggs blue, and we did not have a meltdown.

Jacob decided he would be in a supervisory roll for cookie frosting and egg dyeing. He knew exactly what he wanted and made sure that the adult at his side carried out his wishes. Here he is inspecting the eggs to make sure they are the right color.

I attempted to let Guinevere in on all the fun, but she only wanted to put her hands in the dye, so this was the only egg she assisted with.

Most of the eggs came away unharmed from the egg dyeing process and a fun time was had by all.

Fantasyland

After breakfast we headed back to Fantasyland. We figured the carousel would be a good warm up ride for the kids.

That is my Aunt Earlene next to Joseph. I stood next to Guinevere once the ride started, I just stepped back for the picture.


Next we moved on to Dumbo. The line was surprisingly short. Good thing to because my kids were super impatient about waiting in line. They kept trying to cut in front of people to get to the front of the line.

I was sitting right in front of Barbara, Jalynn, and London so I got some great action shots of them up in the air.


Here is me, Joseph, and Guinevere waiting for the ride to get started. I am pretty sure this was Josephs favorite ride.


My Dad and Jacob were a little too far away to get a great picture of them.


Next we headed over to the Casey Jr Circus Train ride. (Don't worry I don't plan to give a play by play of the whole day.)



This is a great picture of London on the Snow White ride. It is a mixture of excitement and fright. London and Jacob both did great at going on all the rides, even Big Thunder Mtn, and Space Mtn. After the Snow White ride and Mr. Toads Wild Ride Joseph would not go on the Pinocchio ride. After siting out that one ride he went on everything else. Surprisingly he loved all the rollercoasters. When given the choice to go on the rollercoaster in Toontown a second time he chose to go.


Unlike Guinevere, Jalynn was very content to be passed around, and everyone got a chance to hold her. Here's her and Papa in line for the storybook boats.


All three kids loved the tea cups. Barbara took both boys with her,


and London and I had a pink cup all to ourselves.


We did go on It's a Small World later that evening, but I don't have any pictures from that. Tomorrow, if I have time, I will post more pictures of our wonderful adventure at Disneyland.

Disney Breakfast.

To start our Disneyland trip off right my Dad took us to a character breakfast. The food was great, and the kids absolutely loved seeing all the characters that were there.

Joseph sleeps with a small Winni the Pooh and Tigger, so I really tried to prepare him that the ones we would be seeing were going to be a lot bigger. He had no problem loving on all the giant Pooh characters.

Jacob and Joseph with Eeyore. I just love how Joseph is too engrossed in cuddling up to Eeyore to even look at the camera.

I think the cheesy grin on my face might just be as big as Hooks.

This is not the best picture, but it is the only one I have with all 4 of the kids.

This is my sister Barbara with her daughter Jalynn, Me holding Guinevere, and the lady in red is our breakfast hostess Minni Mouse.

London was so excited to show Minni that she had a picture of her on her shirt.


Guinevere loved Pooh. She kept grabbing his nose, and petting his soft fur.


Minni got right down and was playing peek-a-boo with Jalynn.


Here are the other three with Pooh. He was the first character that we saw when we got into breakfast. Each of the characters came around multiple times, so the kids really had a chance to warm up to them.



We all had a really great time. I hope the kids remember this experience for a long time. Thanks Dad.