Kayleigh's birthday

Kayleigh's 4th birthday was yesterday. We had a party for her with Erik's parents, the Spickards (our friends across the street), and Valerie, Matt and Robbie. We are so thankful for everyone who came to the party, but especially Valerie and Matt who traveled the farthest and were put to work while they were here. On Sunday afternoon, Valerie, Kayleigh and I started making some bunny cookies and her cake. Kayleigh said she wanted a Max and Ruby cake, which I figured was easy enough. Valerie had bunny cookie cutters, so we made a bunny cake and then made cookies for our guests to take home. After Kayleigh went to bed that night, Valerie and I got busy cutting and decorating the cake. It took a long time, but we wanted it to look good!
On Monday morning, we gave Kayleigh her bike. She was so excited to ride it! Brian wanted a ride, but the pedals definitely get in the way of his feet when the bike moves, and we didn't want him to lose a foot, so we just let him sit on it. After that, Kayleigh wanted to open the rest of the presents from us. I had her open the box of clothes first, because I knew that would be her least favorite thing. Sure enough, she opened the box, looked at the clothes in it, and moved on to the next thing. We got her some packs of gum, because we told her that she could chew gum when she was four, and with her elephant's memory, never forgot!
When everyone got to our house, we let the kids play for a little while before eating pizza for lunch. After that, we took a break to let Kayleigh open her gifts before cutting the cake and having dessert.
Valerie and Matt stayed until after dinner. When they left, I asked Kayleigh if she wanted to watch a movie. I was too tired to play and that kept them busy until it was time for bed.

Kayleigh's recital

Kayleigh did GREAT at her recital this morning! She was obviously the best dancer in her class. :) I took a bunch of pictures while Kayleigh was dancing, and Erik got the video.

Orlando trip

Erik and I took the kids to Orlando this weekend to go to Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom with our friends, the Giuniperos. I think this was one of the last good weekends to go. I think the longest we waited in line for a ride was 20 minutes. We did use the Fast Passes a couple of times, so we could literally skip to the front of the line. We went to Magic Kingdom on Friday. We hit a lot of the park, but the day goes by so quickly that I think we did miss one area. Kayleigh rode so many rides, including Splash Mountain!! We couldn't believe that she would want to ride it, and she barely made the height requirement. I seriously considered buying the picture they take of you on the ride for proof, but the person sitting in front of Kayleigh completely blocked her from view of the picture. Brian had fun, and thankfully wanted to sit in the stroller most of the time, so we didn't have to chase him all around the park.

On Saturday we went to Animal Kingdom. I definitely think this is a good second park, because it's not as big, and you don't have to spend as much time waiting in lines. My favorite part was the safari ride. The tour guide was hilarious, and you were pretty close to the animals. Brian especially liked the petting zoo, and was chasing goats around to brush them. Our day was cut a little short by the rain, but I think we saw almost everything before we left.
On Saturday night, I convinced my family to go to Ikea with me. I bought a skillet there in the fall when we were in Atlanta, and I really like it so I wanted another one. Of course, Ikea is no quick trip, and Erik gave me a one hour time limit. I think I went over some, but I was pretty much done shopping at that point. We bought some more little plates and plasticware for the kids, and we bought new glasses for us.

Sunday was our day to come home, but before we did, we hung out at the resort and played. We tried playing miniature golf with the kids, but they are still a little too young for it. We knew Brian was, and wasn't going to get him clubs, but the girl at the Activities desk convinced us to. After that, we went to cool off in the pool. It has a "zero entry", which means it's like the beach, where you can just walk in gradually. Brian really liked the pool, and we were laughing because he looked like a zombie walking in the water with his arms straight out. Kayleigh needs another refresher course in swimming. She has the desire to swim by herself, but she doesn't quite have the technique down. After getting ourselves and our room cleaned up, we headed over to McDonald's for a quick bite to eat before our trek home. It was a great weekend!

Friday morning

What else can I say???

Tails and Trails 2011

Kayleigh has been talking again lately about running another race. Erik decided he wanted to do the Tails and Trails race this year. It supports the local animal shelter, so it's for a good cause. You may remember that Tails and Trails was Kayleigh's "first" race that she ran last year. Go HERE for a refresher. She did a great job running. We said again, "You can run or you can walk, but you cannot stop." She would jog a little, sprint some, walk and skip. She took almost 9 minutes to get to the half way point (it was a 1 mile race), and finished in 17:27, not bad for not training! It was just 7 seconds off of her personal record. Hopefully this was enough to keep her satisfied for awhile, because it's getting too hot to run any more races until the fall.
The post-race event is fun. They bring dogs out from the shelter, and they all love attention. We got lots of treats for ourselves--including Snow Cones, cotton candy and popcorn--and PetSmart was there with tons of free samples, so I helped myself to quite the goody bag for our dogs.