Murphy's Home!

Well, after a 2 and a half hour drive, we made it out to meet Murphy! There were 6 puppies left from the litter of 9 and we loved her right away!

When we went inside to have her microchipped and go through some paperwork, Hannah was thrilled to hold Murphy! Henry was less than thrilled that there were 6 large dogs in the house! He says he loves Murphy, but isn't convinced he won't be scared of her when she gets bigger...we'll see I guess.

Once home, we wore Murphy out with a tour of the house & playing with toys. She quite successfully met both the cats, if you can believe it, Amy came out to meet Murphy! And Amy didn't have a heart attack on the spot as I had predicted. Both cats have been unusually affectionate this evening, but pretty complacent considering!

Hannah made a sweet little bed in a laundry basket with blankets & towels, but Murphy kept jumping out if it. Instead, she fell asleep among our boots!

Arriving Tomorrow!!!!

Something's Coming!

Watch This Space!

Henry's New Glasses

Henry and his new glasses - and some other pics he wanted to show...

A New Look for Henry

Our trip to the eye doctor today proved that indeed, Henry does need glasses. He'll only have to wear them for reading (AND PRINTING as he keeps pointing out) but if he's half as hard on them as he is on his body, we'll be buying a new pair every week!

Henry's been fighting a bit of a cold and since he was on the ice 3 times this long weekend, I decided today was movie day. He & I ate popcorn and watched Peewee's Big Adventure. I can't believe he'd never seen it!

The other 2 kiddies had "electives" today at school. They have them again next Tuesday and I must say, they're pretty great! They get to choose from about 8 really cool activities - 2 half-day or 1 full-day. Jack did cooking in the morning and woodworking in the afternoon. He brought home a really cool wooden helicopter with moving parts that's bigger than Otto! He didn't bring home any of the food he made, but I noticed he didn't eat the lunch I sent!

Hannah chose a full-day activity...circus! Not watching the circus, learning to be in the circus! Right up her alley! One of the Moms who chaperoned the trip gave me some photos...hilarious!

Finally, Disney Pics!

We've been back almost a week, but it's taken me a while to get these photos organized and posted. We had a GREAT time at Disney World despite some unseasonably cold weather. This trip has been almost 10 years in the making. Since Hannah was born, Mom & Dad told us that when our youngest was 5 years old, they would take our whole family to Disney! Henry turns 5 next month so I guess we jumped the gun a little, but it turns out if we had waited, Hannah would have been considered and adult (at 10!) and would have been on a more expensive meal plan, park pass etc. Also, the parks were relatively empty so going in early Feb wasn't a bad call that way either. I don't think we missed a thing!!

I've posted photos of everything so I'm sorry if there's too much, but it's easier (for me) than breaking it into 4 or 5 different posts.

One of the best things about this trip was spending so much time with my parents and seeing them with the kids! Here Dad was showing Hannah how to do Sudokus on the plane there. We arrived at the parks at about 12noon after being up from 3:15am but we made a full day of it anyway! Did I say we came home exhausted?

There was more to see & do there than I could have ever imagined. Something for every age too!

I don't have many photos of the resort we stayed at, but this was a walkway from the "transportation centre" through our resort. We were at a Disney property and had the luxury of a monorail station right at our resort so getting places was quick and easy!

Hannah was chosen to participate in a High School Musical 3 show much to her delight!

Hannah & Jack danced in a "Block Party" show including the cast of Toy Story & Bugs Life. Henry had left early this day with Jason...he barely made it to the end of each day. In fact, one night he was asleep on a bench where we all ate dinner!

Jack's dream came true when he was chosen to participate in a Jedi Training class. The class was instructed in the proper way to turn on their light sabers, put them away, and shown a whole sequence of moves like a choreographed dance!

Just as the whole class catches on to the sequence...

Darth Vader arrives and each student is given a turn to fight him using the exact moves he/she has just learned! It was AMAZING! My favourite was the little 3 year old who was second in line and looked WAY up at Darth Vader with a look of sheer terror on his face. The Jedi Master was hilariously entertaining and really good with the kids too.

In the end, Darth Vader is defeated by each student and all the students decline his offer to join the dark side and Darth Vader exits through some automatic doors leaving 2 not-so-bright Storm Troopers on stage. The Storm Troopers ask each other what they should do and say they're kind of scared and try to go out the automatic doors but they won't open. They almost step off the stage to get away from the kids which is what's happening here, Jack is laughing his head off in the background.

There's a Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area where the kids climb gigantic stuff.

More gigantic stuff...

Magic Kingdom was a few days into the trip and was unbelievably magic!

Notice Jack's Jedi cloak with mouse ears...yeah, we're suckers!

Lots of rides enjoyed by everyone!

Our resort was also accessible by boat!

The cold didn't stop us from enjoying the beach and pool!

Notice what the local lifeguards are wearing though!

We had breakfast with Mickey and all his friends!

Animal Kingdom was another day on its own...this was on a safari ride we all took together.

I was too cheap to pay $20.00 for a photo of us on any of the rides but saw someone taking their own photo of the screen where they display your photo! I know, very cheap - Granny Gwen taught me that the word is "thrifty"! But anyway, it was a funny keepsake even if the quality is terrible! This was a really loud, pitch dark dinosaur adventure ride that was really quite scary and the photos was snapped just as a giant dinosaur leaps out at you. We take up the whole front row and MOST of the 2nd row - just not the guy with a beard!

Thanks Mom & Dad (Nan & Grampa)! It was the trip of a lifetime!