First Pinewood Derby

On Friday, January 27th, Landon competed in his very first Pinewood Derby. He worked pretty hard on his car which featured one of his favorite characters from Pokemon, Mega Charzard!!

All the Cub Scouts worked hard on their cars and it was fun to watch them compete.

The boys all sat up on the stage so they had a good view of their cars in action.

Parents, visitors (and nervous Dads!) all spectated down below.

Landon ended up coming in 7th place which he was pretty pleased with since this was his first year. He has big plans for his car for next year!

Finishing off with donuts was a fun way to end the evening!

100th Day of School!

Our whole family came down the stomach bug in January, but fortunately it was short-lived. They were able to make it back in time to celebrate the 100th day of school which is always a fun event.

Nolan also got to share a quilt/blanket in his class and he chose to share this soccer blanket that I made him this last Christmas!

A tall tower that these cuties worked on making together!

2017 Geography Bee

On Friday, January 20th, Abby participated in her school's Geography Bee. They take the top 10 students in 4th and 5th grade and then have them compete together in front of their classmates and parents.

Abby competed last year as well so this year she knew what to expect a bit more. Still, she was a bit nervous!

She ended up coming in 4th place which she was very pleased with!

So proud of this girl and all of her hard work!

Of course Maylie was one of her biggest fans there too!

A week later her picture was also in the local newspaper. She is a celebrity!!

Little Readers!

  I came downstairs one day to find this cute scene...

I love how much my kids love to read, and on this day they found a pretty creative place to do it!

Disembarkation Day!

We were expected to begin the disembarkation process at 7 a.m. on Friday, January 13th but instead we woke up to this...

There was so much fog in the port that they had to close the port until around 11 a.m. It then took us two hours once we were allowed in the port to get through the channel and actually dock the ship. Since we were driving back home, it didn't affect us much but it was hard for those who had flights out that afternoon. All of my sisters and their families missed their flights and had to reschedule them for later that evening or the next morning. We made the most of our extra half day on the ship though. We ate some more yummy food and then were entertained with Bingo, Disney Trivia and Disney Feud in the Azure lounge.

We got off the ship around 3 p.m. and hit the road for our 20 hour drive back to Maryland. It was so hard to come back to reality again after such a fun Disney vacation. We are already looking to booking another trip to give us something else to look forward to!

Disney Cruise Day 7

Day 7, our last full day on the ship. We spent time doing lots of games, playing, eating and then were thoroughly entertained by the last show that evening called "Dreams."

It featured so many songs and characters from some of the amazing Disney movies throughout the years!

We also had a fun dance party in the lobby with all of the classic Disney characters. Maylie was so enamored by all of the characters dancing with and right next to her!

That evening we all went to the farewell party where the characters put on a short show and then waved goodbye, or rather "See ya real soon!"

This cruise was such an amazing vacation for both the kids and the adults alike. 

We can't wait to go back!

Disney Cruise Day 6

Day 6 was a "Day at Sea" so we took full advantage of the Oceaneer Club and Lab. It was such a fun place and Maylie loved playing in the Toy Story play area.

Here is a shot of the fun activities inside the Oceaneer Lab.

The Torgesens made these fun matching shirts for everyone to wear on this day. We attempted to get some family/cousin pictures. This was about as good as we got!!

The show that evening was "Frozen: The Musical" and it was amazing!! It was like watching a Broadway production right on our ship. Maylie was a bit restless during the speaking parts, but was enamored during all the songs and dancing parts!

Abby got to spend some time with her older cousins that night and watched a movie under the stars. She loved having a bit of freedom on the ship!

Disney Cruise Day 5

Day 5 of our Cruise was spent in Nassau, Bahamas. There were several other cruise ships ported there which made for a very "touristy" type feel. We had an excursion planned for that morning so we met everybody at 9 a.m. and headed for our bus.

Our excursion was a tour of the Atlantis Resort which was pretty spectacular. They had all kinds of beaches (real and man-made), walkways, and trails all around the resort.

Our excursion included a trip to the Aquarium which was our favorite part of the day.

They had some really neat exhibits!

My Dad would have loved seeing all these sharks!!

Nolan liked trying to identify each type of fish that he saw using this little guide!

There were areas both above and underneath the water so it was fun to explore all of the different parts of the aquarium.

These lobsters above us looked pretty creepy!!

We really enjoyed the tunnel you could walk through where you were literally surrounded by sea life!

Around 3 p.m. we headed back to the ship as the weather was pretty nice and the kids were dying to use the pools on the ship for the first time. Here is a shot of Nassau from the port. Definitely a colorful place!

The pools and slide on the ship were really fun. Here is the main pool called the "Aqua Lab" and water slide. Landon and Nolan really enjoyed this area!

Maylie was quite enamored with "Dory's Reef," a little splash pad just to the side of the "Aqua Lab."

She spent about 2 hours in here just filling up cups and dancing around all of the water features!

Abby really liked the pool on the other side of the ship because she could swim and watch movies at the same time!

That night was Pirate Night which was quite a treat. The show was all outdoors with all of the main Disney characters dressed up in pirate gear.

Of course Captain Hook was there trying to cause trouble but Mickey Mouse came zip lining in to save the day!

Afterwards we were treated to a beautiful fireworks show. Such fun!!