Goodbye, Lakeside

It's hard to believe we are saying goodbye to Lakeside Presbyterian Preschool. It has been a wonderful school where both kids received excellent instruction and care. Warner had his preschool graduation ceremony last week. I am proud to report I only teared up once during the entire morning! 

The kids sang a few songs, and then each of their names were read and they walked up to receive their "diploma". 

Our big kindergartener. Where has the time gone?

Joe, Linda, and my Mom were there with us to celebrate with us.

Yesterday was the last day of preschool. I definitely got teary eyed as I walked the kids into school for the last time. Lakeside has truly been a wonderful place for our kids, and I'm never good at marking the end of seasons of life. Obviously Maren will still be in preschool next year, but since we are moving her to Kids Academy at our church, we won't be visiting Lakeside anymore.

Picture from the last day of preschool ... and our little 2 year old on his first day at Lakeside back in September 2010.

A few more blasts from the past: first day of preschool, September 2011 (Maren's first year of preschool with Mrs. Krebs in the 2 year-old class):

 And the first day of school this year: September 2012:

 Last day of preschool 2013:

 

 I do think they get cuter with time though.

 Sad to bid this season farewell, but happy to embrace what lies ahead. I sure am one blessed lady.

Zoo

I love springtime at the Zoo. We joined Blakely, Braeden, and Ainsley last week for an afternoon trip to see the animals. 

Unfortunately I missed pictures with the Zoo Blooms tulips during our last visit. Thankfully there were a few flowers still out that were perfect for pictures.

We ate lunch at home before leaving, and opted for snacks and ice cream at the Zoo. Perfection.

This was our first trip to the Zoo without the wagon. And let me tell you: it was bliss. While I appreciate having the wagon to hold all of our stuff, pulling a wagon weighed down with stuff plus two kids is not fun. Especially at the (very hilly) Cincinnati Zoo.

This is not to say we didn't suffer through rounds of "Mommy, my legs are tired" and "Can you carry me?". Funny how the mention of ice cream at the end of the day kept those little legs moving right along.

Trying to get a picture of four kids all looking at the camera is pretty much impossible.

Blakely with her sweet kiddos.

The boys.

And, the girls. They chose this pose themselves. How do little girls know to do this instinctively? I'm thankful for wonderful friends and a wonderful Zoo nearby to visit.

Our Weekend

This weekend has been a bit weird primarily because Kevin is doing the master cleanse. In case you aren't familiar, you only drink "lemonade" made out of fresh lemons, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper. No food at all. Additionally, you drink salt water in the morning to get things moving. Oh, and this is supposed to last 7-10 days. I agreed to do the cleanse with him but didn't even last all of Saturday. Pathetic, I know. I like food way too much to participate in that craziness. Seriously, after 12 hours I was starving and angry. There is no way I could have done that for an entire week.

So, instead of our typical Friday night that includes dinner (don't worry, we did feed the kids), we opted for sticker mosaics instead. They are actually quite fun. Maren worked on princess mosaics and Warner and Kevin completed two King's crowns.

Today I enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day. The kids got me flowers, pearl earrings (I lost one of mine over a year ago and have been wanting replacements ever since), and lovely cards. After church I had some alone time and got a pedicure. The rest of the day was filled with the typical stuff: laundry, mowing the lawn, preparing food for the week, and so on. I guess the good news is my cooking obligations will be light this week with Kevin doing his lemonade cleanse. Better him than me!

Yogurt popsicles and other ramblings

The weather has been weird lately. We'll have a few days of nice weather, followed by more cold and rain. We try to enjoy the nice days when we can, so one day this week the kids and I ate lunch in the clubhouse of their swing set. They've only done this a few times but love it whenever we remember to dine outdoors. 

For dessert, I've started freezing yogurt tubes. They resemble FlavorIce popsicles enough for my people, seeing as I've never actually bought FlavorIce. They've only had them a few times. I'm a fan because you can buy yogurt tubes with no HFCS and artificial colors (yes, they do have sugar but let's not get too picky) so it feels semi-nutritious. 

I think we'd all agree I'm a bit of a food Nazi. But in my defense, I have lightened up lately. We've really failed on the Paleo front, but have stayed gluten free for the most part. The trouble with gluten free is you can consume a whole lot of crap that is sans gluten, but full of junk. For instance, Cheetos (or Cheetahs if you're Warner and Maren) are considered gluten-free. Not exactly natural, healthy food. I'd say they fall into the "edible food-like substance" category. I don't want to know how they make the orange powder that coats each Cheeto. Ignorance is bliss in that area. 

But for now, the kids enjoy Cheetos and other gluten-free albeit unnatural foods occasionally and they are happy. Maren's asthma and both kids' skin rashes are under control so I think this arrangement works for everyone involved. It's all about balance, right?

Butterflies

So I'm having some camera issues. My phone got lost in the bottom of my beach bag along with a drippy water bottle on our cruise. Although most everything is still in working order, my camera is broken and the flash is permanently on. The good news is my phone is extremely easy to find in my purse. The bad news is I'm not eligible for an upgrade until June 22nd. Not willing to pay full price for a new iPhone, you can guess where I'll be on June 22nd.

Which means I'm back to using my old Canon Powershot. But the whole ordeal has got me thinking about cameras, and pictures, and whether or not we should just bite the bullet and buy a digital SLR camera and be done with it. I'm *extremely* disappointed in the quality of our photos from the cruise, but wonder if I'd really lug a big camera around? Decisions, decisions. 

In other news, the kids and I went to Krohn's Conservatory today to see the butterfly exhibit. We went last year and the kids liked it enough so I thought we'd do it again.

I took the kids' picture on this butterfly bench last year and it pains me to see how much they've grown when I compare the two photos side by side. But I'm pretty sure they get cuter as time passes, so that's good.

They were such willing subjects with my requests to take 100 pictures of them.

The butterflies are fairly difficult to "catch". They give you paper designed to look like a flower to attract the butterflies, but they're smart creatures. They know the difference.

Both kids got a few butterflies to land on their flowers, which they were delighted about.

 

A kind woman took our picture. I don't particularly care for being in pictures all the time, but it is nice to have documentation that I am indeed a part of the family and accompany my people on outings and experiences.

We finished our adventure with shaved ice and ice cream which the kids shared surprisingly well. The shaved ice was from a local company that makes the flavoring out of simple syrups from real fruit - so no dyes, artificial stuff, etc. It was delicious! I'm pretty confident the ice cream was full of junk. You win some, you lose some. The kids were happy.

What a refreshing way to spend the day, especially with such lovely weather. Summer, here we come!

Disney Cruise

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our cruise ... Clearly I have decision making issues because I couldn't narrow down the pictures to include. So, beware: lots of photos (not to mention text) in this post.

Our trip began very early with a 6am flight. That means we were up at 4am to load the kids in the car, park in the long-term lot, shuttle to the terminal, etc., etc. The kids were truly amazing. Of course they never fell back asleep, but they rolled their carry-ons through the airport, sat through the 2 1/2 hour flight to Houston with no problem, and only asked "are we to the cruise ship yet?" about 25 times during the 90 minute drive from Houston to Port Galveston. We met up with my parents in Houston and made the drive to the ship with them, so having Bobbie and Grandpa around helped as well!

Of course technology and lots of snacks helped keep them occupied, too. 

This was our first Disney trip, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I had heard that now matter which Disney venue (cruise, parks, etc.), the experience is simply magical. This was certainly true for our trip. The minute we walked onboard, they announced "The Disney Magic welcomes the Holbert and Platt families!". We were like celebrities. 

True to my nature however, I did do a lot of reading prior to our trip, mostly on personal blogs about tips and what to expect on the ship. There was a lot of great advice, including the fact that the stateroom doors are magnetic, so guests often bring door decorations to hang up with magnents. My kids were all over this - we spent one afternoon coloring and creating art for our door. The pictures were pretty helpful in finding our room, since the hallways are loooong and each door looks the same!

So after boarding the ship and settling in, we explored and generally kept busy until our 8:15pm dinner. Keep in mind that was 9:15pm Eastern time, and we had all been awake since 4am that morning. Whew. Thankfully dinner was exciting and fun, and kept the kids entertained most of the time.

Warner's Mickey ice cream, which he got for dessert nearly every night (after eating a cheeseburger nearly every night as well - the kid was in heaven).

Maren did great through most of dinner, but this is what happened about halfway through. She did so great. Just ran out of steam.

Each night we were surprised with a new towel creation in our room, accompanied by chocolates, before bedtime. This is Warner's sorcerer's hat.

During our three days at sea, we were generally at the pool for the majority of the day. There was a water slide for kids only that we were afraid Maren wouldn't be able to ride. Kids were supposed to be four years old and 38 inches tall. Maren met the height requirement, but of course won't be four until July. So, being the responsible parents we are, we instructed her to tell the lifeguard on duty that she's four if asked. Thankfully they never asked and Maren rode the slide more times than I could count. However it was wildly entertaining to "practice" with her:

Me: Maren, how old are you?

Maren: Three.

Me: How old are you if you're riding the water slide?

Maren: Four.

Me: Good girl.

We're not fit to be parents.

There were of course a million other activities on board to keep us entertained during our days at sea. One of which was a movie theater running recent and even current movies. We only caught one movie (Frankenweenie - very bizarre) but it was fun.

The characters were all over the ship, and organized into "character appearances" throughout the day for people who didn't mind standing in line for an hour to get their picture taken. We were not enthusiastic about spending our vacation waiting in line for pictures, so thankfully one morning was a character breakfast. It was really wonderful, actually: each character came to our table throughout the meal, and we got to meet them, take pictures, etc. No lines, no waiting. Wonderful.

Maren was so excited to see Minnie. I think she was starstruck. 

Our servers also made us napkin hats to wear. Who doesn't love a napkin hat?

Outside of the character breakfast, our favorite spot to eat in the morning was on the top deck, at the back of the boat. A wonderful view with wonderful food ...

There were two themed nights for dinner: formal night (or "fancy night" for the kids) and pirate night.

Of course Maren wore her princess tiara and plastic high heel shoes. It was precious to see all the other little princesses doing the same thing. 

Warner looked awfully prince-like in his tie and sport coat.

We ended up seeing Pluto and Snow White that night, which made the night even more special.

Pirate night was equally as fun. Warner got some pirate gear including a special sword and Mickey pirate ears. The kids both got their faces painted at the kids club, and everyone got a pirate bandana at dinner.

All of us doing our best "argh":

Our first of two stops was at Grand Cayman. 

This is where we did our dolphin swim. To say it was an amazing experience would be a huge understatement. We also got to visit a turtle farm across the street, which was pretty neat too.

The turtles were HUGE. It was actually a turtle farm, so there were tanks full of turtles at varying ages, including babies. We even got to get in one of the tanks to swim with and hold the turtles.

So, then there was the dolphin swim. Amazing.

The dolphins were under the water, pushing Kevin across the pool by putting their noses on his feet.

 And, this was Maren on the way back to the ship:

Our second stop was Cozumel. We spent the day at the beach, enjoying the sunshine and the kids enjoying the sand.

 

The only bummer about the trip was our second seating for dinner. The kids were so incredibly tired at the end of each day, so unfortunately dinner ended like this one night:

She literally spent the entire dinner this way one night - about 45 minutes. At least she was quiet. :)

It was a magical trip. In fact, the ship was called the Disney Magic. So at one point Warner even asked: "Mom, is this boat really magic?". Precious.

Thank you Mom and Dad for the trip and for making wonderful memories that we won't forget. Perhaps next year we can convince the Whitakers and Platts to join us?!