Hi Mickey! Hi Minnie!

Many more pictures to come from our trip, but wanted to share this video – as you can see Anna was thrilled to meet the characters. No scaredy cat here!

Ready for Mickey

And, we're off!

100 Miles to Go

Mr. Sandman - 1

Anna - 0

(yes, we did have an outfit change at our bathroom break)

Road Trip!

When I woke Anna up this morning at the awful hour of 5:45 she eagerly jumped up and proclaimed, "It's MY turn to go to Mickey's house now?!?"

After several weeks of her asking, I finally got to say yes (I need to learn that trick my friends have of not telling their kids about any upcoming events so the incessant questions stop). But, in this case I think it's been good to build the excitement. We're ultimately headed for Sanibel Island in Florida and are making Orlando our midway stop. We'll only be at Disney for one day - and then we head to the (hopefully oil free) beach! I'm not quite sure how Anna will react to the characters. Fingers crossed that her less than lukewarm response to Santa this year won't be the indicator.

So now we're on our way. We're all enjoying the trip so far (after an immediate stop at Starbucks the trip for Jason and I got infinitely better). Anna was psyched because we let her get chocolate milk instead of her regular plain old white. Hey, it's vacation, right?

I do sense that the novelty of the roadtrip is starting to wear off for Anna. We've gone through several books, iPhone games, and stickers. Now we're onto watching Finding Nemo. Halfway there...

On the road again...

As everyone knows, Jason is a "road warrior" for work and travels pretty much every Monday to Thursday. He and Anna have started a little tradition that is so sweet - on Sunday nights when he packs Anna brings him a "guy" to take on the road for the week. Jason then sends Anna pictures of her pals and the adventures they have during their travels (a la Flat Stanley). Each night when they talk on the phone Anna always asks how the guy is doing. It's a special activity for the two of them and helps bridge that time between "Daddy's going on airplane" to "Daddy's coming home!" I think it also keeps Jason's creative juices flowing, coming up with new poses and picture locations each week. Following are a few choice shots :

How do my ears look? 

Catching up on the headlines.

 

Hippo bathtime

Where's horsey?

What's for dinner tonight?

Trendy lights

Catching some ZZZZZZZZsss

Eggstravaganza

On Easter we hosted an egg hunt for several pals. Luckily the weather cooperated and the little ones were able to scatter in the backyard gathering what seemed like 2,000 eggs into their baskets (thanks again to everyone who brought eggs!).

The kids were funny to watch during the hunt. The more seasoned (i.e., older) kiddos were very focused on filling their baskets to the brim. After all, they knew what was at stake. The younger ones, while initially swept up by the excitement and energy of the big kids, lost their hunting steam quickly. At the beginning of the hunt Anna made a beeline for an Elmo-shaped egg, secured it in her basket, and then was done with the hunt. We had to convince her to keep looking for eggs, which she did -- and she also added a few stuffed animals, some rocks, and leaves to her basket, so she still didn't quite grasp the goal.

After the hunt, there was a clear division of the sexes...the girls eagerly sat in a circle comparing the loot from their eggs (I think this was the point when Anna realized the eggs were prized possessions - she had NO idea they had candy in them at the start of the hunt). I think she'll step up her efforts next year.

The boys on the other hand, were much more interested in digging in the sandbox, eggs and candy be darned!

A few days before Easter Anna received a pair of bunny ears in a package from Gramma and Papa Odie. She wore them for a whole day, only taking them off during her bath. What a goof.

Opening Day

Yankees at Red Sox

Fenway Park

Sunday, April 4

8:05 p.m.

Can you tell who we're rooting for?

Anna says sorry, Papa Odie.