All About Amelia

Our big 3yr old:

Amelia LOVES all things princess

usually she can be found in a princess dress AND shoes;  princess shoes are all over the house

Her favorite thing to wear: skirts; Amelia gets very animated about picking out her own clothes, she usually matching things pretty well;  she only wants to wear skirts now- occasionally she will wear capri's or shorts (when it's warmer) but very very hard to get her to wear jeans or pants without a fight



Her favorite colors: pink and purple- although she will tell you all different colors at any given time, usually she does day pink and purple are her favorite.

Her favorite TV show:  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse- especially the ones that feature Minnie Mouse

She LOVES playing dress up

She LOVES shoes- once we pulled out her summer sandals (getting ready to switch over closets and getting ready for our trip to Florida) she just HAD to wear her new sandals in the house . . . with her socks on too (notice above with Minnie mouse dress in cozy coupe)

She LOVES to help- with anything!  But especially in the kitchen . . . she is great at stirring and pouring.

Her Favorite food:  mac and cheese, and pizza and pasta; she is not a huge fan of chocolate but does love M&M's; she loves strawberry ice-cream

Amelia LOVES baby dolls- she is a great mommy to her dolls.  Here she was singing "Away in a Manger" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to her baby.

Amelia is such a caring Big Sister- she takes such good care of Luke; bringing him is favorite toy, trying to teach him to say new things or do new things, getting him his milk when he gets upset around mealtimes;  she really loves her little brother

She LOVES books- she reads books all the time and gets very excited about new books;  several books she has memorized and can "read" them word for word  (also notice here the tutu skirt and princess shoes :)

She LOVES our puppy- and dogs in general

She still LOVES the Cedarmont kids music movies- has only recently started watching "princess" movies- she has now seen Cinderella (which she got for Christmas), Tangled, Tinkerbell, Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast;  she usually will not watch the whole thing- but will start playing part way through and just sort of come and go watching the ending.  In the car on long trips she will ask to switch the movie after about 45 minutes to an hour.

Amelia has really started getting into pretend play- she will make us meals in her kitchen, use her play money and get in the cozy couple to go shopping.  Lately she has been pretending to go grocery shopping and will buy princess gummies and popcorn.

Amelia knows her ABC's- she can recognize all the letters of the alphabet, even when they are not in order.  She is starting to learn how to write a letter A and can sort of do a letter M

Amelia knows how to count up to 12 or 13- she can recognize the numbers 1, 2 and 3 now. 

Amelia is MOST DEFINITELY Daddy's Girl

Big Girl Bed

When we got back from our vacation . . . it was time.  Time to move Amelia up into her big girl bed.   She was sleeping in a toddler bed so this transition was not hard at all.  She had been asking for awhile when she could sleep in the big bed that was already in her room.

she was so excited- I wasn't sure if she would actually take her nap

first nap in the big girl bed

Much Needed Vacation: Part 3- Cruise

Last year Dan won us a short cruise for answering 3 political questions.  We did have to pay for the taxes and some extra fees but the cruise itself was free.  He also added a four star hotel in Orlando for 2 nights before the cruise.  That is when they told us they would give us the $100 voucher for any Orlando theme parks.  This looked great- a whole vacation planned and paid for a year ahead of time.  We planned the trip for when Dan's Mom could keep the kids for us and when Luke was weaned.  She is a teacher so her spring break this year worked out perfect!  I couldn't wait for 3 days alone with my husband- no kids!  I had never been away from them before!

It didn't start out so great.  Well let's just say when we finally got to the cruise- it was great.  All the other stuff we had to go through- I'm not sure if I would do it again.  Our 4 Start hotel- yeah that was pretty bad.  Our room was moldy and the free food vouchers- were for a buffet that was seriously lacking!  Somehow we didn't get the $100 theme park voucher . . . Dan spent a couple of nights talking on the phone with the representatives from the travel agency this was all arranged through- it did NO good.  We also had to go listen to one of those crazy 90 minute time share pressure things.  We HAD to do that to get the vouchers for the cruise!  Dan was told we would NOT have to do that.  Dan's parents told us these things never actually last 90 minutes- usually it's a lot longer.  We kept telling them we had to leave for our cruise . . . boy they get ugly and mean at the end.  At least we got a nice breakfast out if it.

So here are just a couple of pics from the cruise- we relaxed, ate, did a little shopping on the island, ate, slept and Dan even did a little karaoke one night.  It was so sweet- he picked out Brown Eyed Girl just for me :)  It rained quite a bit while we were on the cruise- so we didn't get to enjoy the upper deck and the beautiful water and sunshine.  HOWEVER, it was nice to just be away to spend some quality time with my husband.

Much needed vacation- Part 2: DISNEY!

I just absolutely LOVE Disney.  I admit it.  When we started planning this trip around the cruise Dan had won- they told us we could have a $100 voucher for any Orlando theme park. There was no tough decisions here- we wanted to take the kids back to Disney.  It happened to work out to go right after Amelia's birthday so we started telling her a couple of weeks before her birthday that we were going to go do Disney for her birthday and Mommy's birthday.  We had such a fun day . . . until the rain that caused us to miss the night time parade and fireworks.  Otherwise- it was SOO much fun.  I can't wait until we can go back- these one day trips here and there though make me wish we could do a whole week and stay in one of the nice resorts.  Maybe one day when the kids get bigger!

Another BIG deal this trip- Luke's first haircut!  A friend from church told me they have a wonderful barber shop where they specialize in "baby's first hair cut".  I wasn't ready for my sweet boy's curls to be gone but what a special way to have his first hair cut- at Disney!

tearing up as she cuts off the curls :(

fun toy they had to keep him busy- plus stickers ALL over him (even on his foot!)

Meeska, Mouska, Mickey Mouse: showing Luke Mickey on the front of the hat

He looks like such a big boy now!

Mommy, Birthday girl, and sleeping Luke waiting just a couple of minutes for our FastPass to see Mickey Mouse. Amelia and I wore "birthday buttons" and ALL day people were wishing us Happy Birthday.  It was fun :)

Amelia was a little shy . . . but did give him a high five and stand for the pictures

Luke wasn't too sure- he didn't cry but wasn't too crazy about Mickey's big nose in his face

ready for some rides

I made all of our shirts again- Dan's the only one I didn't have to re-make.  The rest of us have grown!

They were doing a show in front of the castle when we walked up- Mickey and Minnie were talking and within a few minutes all the princesses came out much to Amelia's delight!

Luke just chilling

Dumbo ride- we love this one

We went to meet Minnie and got to meet Daisy too- Amelia wasn't too thrilled with meeting Daisy

She got a little shy with Minnie but tried to pose just like Minnie- notice her foot up and hand on her hip :)

Mommy's favorite- Minnie

After lunch we headed back up to the front to do a little shopping and use our FastPass to see the Princesses.  I had hoped they would get a little nap in- last time the evening was rough since neither of them really napped.  Well this planning paid off- they actually slept for about an hour!  We walked up to the front and found a quite out of the way spot in the shade and  they slept!  Dan and I took turns looking in the shops and resting ourselves.  This nap made our evening SOO much better!

Meeting Aurora- Amelia was not quite awake

Meeting Cinderella

look at that boy grin . . . he liked being held by a princess :)

finally waking up- telling Rapunzel that she is 3

my favorite pic of Amelia with the princesses

LOVE the parades

While we waited for the parade . . . Amelia picked out an Ariel doll; she was so excited to see the "real" Ariel in the parade

late afternoon . . . we didn't know how much time we would have before the rain

luckily we were able to get dinner, ride Winnie the Pooh while it sprinkled and then use our FastPass for the new Ariel ride

when we came out it was dark so I gave the kids their glow sticks (bought at the dollar tree) and it started raining pretty good.  We put a poncho over the kids but Luke kept pulling it over so he could see and so he got more wet.

Luke loved, I mean LOVED his glow stick. He dropped it a couple of times and luckily I was able to find it- a child had picked it up once and an adult.  I had to explain that it was my little boy's and he was crying since he dropped it.  Amazing we made it all the way out to the car and still had it!

Amelia had a glow necklace, bracelets, a star wand and the glow stick.  Luke had a couple of other things but he kept putting them in his mouth so the glow stick was plenty for him!

We thought about waiting in the stores until the rain passed to see the electrical parade and fireworks, but they were packed!  We decided to just head out . . . when we were on the tram going through the parking lots Amelia started crying that she didn't want to leave.  I don't think she realized we were on our way out until she saw all the cars in the parking lot.  Mommy didn't want to leave either . . . but it was such a special, magical day :)