Walt Disney World: Epcot

Back in April Arthur had a conference scheduled in Orlando, so the kids and I tagged along and went to Disney World while he went to work. We drove all 22 hours down there. The kids did very well on the trip, but it was still a very long drive. On our first day we went to Epcot. When we first go to Epcot we headed straight to Soarn' to get a fast pass. I was absolutely one of our most favorite rides. I turns out we were there during the Garden Festival, so everything was beautiful.

One of the things Samantha was most excited about was Tinkerbell. (she was not really feeling her best that day) You had to stand in a very long and hot line in order to meet the fairies. So, we met Rosetta and Vidia. She decided that she really did not want to stand in line to meet any more. But we did get lots of pixie hollow pictures. I was really impressed with what a good job the fairies did at becoming just like the
fairies in the movies. Rosetta was very chatty and sweet while Vidia was a bit of a snot. Kase did not want meet, talk with, or have his picture made with the fairies. (way too girly) The fairies did their best to change his mind. As we were leaving Vidia yelled out we don't' want to be your friend either. It was hilarious. We laughed about it all day.

After lunch in began to get very warm outside, so we headed inside to get some autographs, and pictures with the characters. It turns out that not only were the fairies were too girly, but ALL GIRL CHARACTERS were to girly. Kase would not let any girl character sign his book or have his picture made with them.

test track and countries

Test Track was the ride Kase was the most excited about. It's a fast race car ride. One of the cool thing about Disney is that while you wait in line there is all this cool stuff to look and sometimes play with. This particular ride was elevated on the ground so that you looked down into the mechanic shop. Kase having spent most of the day climbing, swinging, and poking and legs and arms thew the bars where you stand in line. (While of course his Mom kept telling him to stop because you are going to fall, hurt yourself...) So, he sticks his whole leg threw the bars gets it stuck, and yanks it back threw the bars. His leg it scrapped up, bruised, he is screaming his head off, and his shoe is no longer on his foot. Yes you heard that right the shoes has fallen down one level into the mechanic's shop. At this point I am wondering if they carry shoes in one of the many gifts shop, how much they are going to cost me, and more importantly are they going to let him on this ride without a shoe or are we going to have to stand in line again. Turns this happens all the time at Epcot and they have a special tool just to retrieve lost shoes. So, the very nice cast member take 2 second and retrieves Kase's shoe and we got on the ride with both shoes.

Test track still turned out to be one of Kase's rides. Once you finish the ride they have all of these cars you can sit in and take you picture. My parents have pictures of me and my brother doing this when I was in the fourth grade.

In the afternoon Samantha hadn't been feeling her best, but was trying her hardest to pretend she was doing fine (she did not want to go back to the hotel) Kase was SO HOT and was ready to go back to the hotel. So we rented a stroller and bought at misting fan and everybody was feeling better so, we headed to the countries. The kids were very excited to try different foods in the different countries. So, everyone got to choose on food item and them we all shared. We ended up having nachos, terryaki beef with rice, and Japanese snow cones for dinner.

Most of the character had long lines, and the kids had no intrest in characters if there was a line. We caught Mulan just at the right time and there was not a line. Kase of course would not talk to her because she was a girl. She blew kisses at him, and her really did not appreciate it.

Nana bought us the Rupunzel for us to watch on the way down to Orlando. It was great since no one in our family had seen it. So, everyone enjoyed seeing her tower since we had just seen the movie for the first time.

Each one of the kids had some money to spend. Kase had to have something in every store that he went into. He bought a sword and sheild in Norway. He wanted his picture with them so we took one in italy.

There were all kinds of amazing topararies all over the park.

By the end of the night we were ready to rest and wait for the fireworks. We had some snack and I had brought some glow sticks from the dollar store that I had brought with me.

Samantha and I put glow sticks in our hair and Kase thought we looked like the statue of liberty.

Samantha was so tired at the end of the day that she laid down on the sidewalk and went to sleep while we waited for our bus.

Samantha Turns 10!

Samantha turned 10 yesterday! Samantha is always so excited about her birthday. We braved the cold rain last night and let her pick the restaurant where we were going to eat. She choose El Chico (no surprise there.) Sam has wanted a new American Girl doll for a longs time. So after much reading she got one for her birthday. Her name is Kanani and she is the girl of the year, and Sam is so glad to have her. After dinner we headed dinner to Candy Craze for dessert. They of course filled there boxes with all kinds of yummy treats.

Once we got home the cold rain turned into ice and snow. We got a nice little snow fall last night. So, today we had a snow day. The temperature is still below freezing and it's the first time since I've been in Abilene that we have gotten snow and it wasn't melted the same day. Ally spent the night with Mimi last night and was excited to be snowed in at Mimi's house.

Merry Maids

On Saturday night Samantha had her long awaited ballet recital. She has been looking forward to this since January. The event was held at the historic Paramount in downtown Abilene. It is a beautiful Theatre, and I think it is wonderful that the kids get to perform there. Her group had their very own dressing room, and this of course was very excited. I thought it was great that we didn't have to get ready in the tunnel.

The name of Samantha's performance was Merry Maids. They did a great job and had the most adorable costume.

1st Baseball Game

For over a year now Kase has wanted to "take baseball lessons." So, the Brant family has entered into the world of sports. He has one practice a week and one game a week. Our first game was cancelled because of rain, so we got to play for the first time this weekend.

On Saturday we headed out to the ball field to play our first game. Kase's team the Dodgers was in the field first. The kids rotate positions, and Kase got to stand by the pitcher. They do not keep score and there are no outs, so once the kids get the ball they throw it to the kid at the pitchers mound. So, Kase got to catch the ball a lot, and he really enjoyed that. All the kids get a chance to bat. They get 5 tries to hit the ball and then they get to hit off the tee. The ball is pitched by the coach.



Kase had a fabulous time, and can't wait till practice again on Thursday. The rest of of course had a wonderful time watching.

Garden Project

This is my new garden project. This flower bed originally (as in long before we moved in) had a large cement planter in the back. The planter was removed, but a layer of cement still remains. This bed has always looked neglected toward the back. So, after years of trying different things I made this planter to go there. I got the directions out of last months Martha Stewart. The kids think it looks like a fountain. I was pretty cheap and super easy.

Easter 2010

We have had a busy weekend. On Friday Arthur and Ally headed to Dallas for LTC. They had a great time and Samantha, Kase, and I had a good time with family doing Easter activities. On Saturday we had yummy lunch at MiMi & Pa's and then headed to Eggstravaganza at our church. The kids road the train, hunted eggs, and slid down the big inflatable slide. Samantha guessed the exact amount of jelly beans, so she won a prize easter basket.

Then we headed home to color eggs. We had lots of eggs dye, so there was very little waiting on others.

Today we went to church and then came back to our house for lunch and egg hunting. Ally asked Uncle Joel to hide the eggs hard, so that's why she jumping on the trampoline in order to reach one of her eggs.

Samantha's Turns 9

A few weeks ago Samantha turned 9. She's been planning on a Tinkerbell party for several months now. So we set up for lots of fairy fun. Almost everyone Sam invited came, so we had lots of girls to enjoy the day with.

Everyone labeled their own pixie dust (bottles of glitter) I should probably apologise to all the mother's of these children, since the kids got to take these home. Played tink says, pixie tag, and a pixie dust race.

Samantha got a number of fun gifts. A clothing design kit, home made t-shirt, jewelry making kit, webkinz, and many more. One of the fun things about the gifts is they were all labeled differently Sam, Sammy, and Samantha. She apparently has a couple of nick names at school.

CAKE STORY: A few weeks before Sam's party I check out the Tinkerbell cake options for Samantha's party, and found these adorable mini cakes at the Wal Mart across town. I check for them at ours, but they weren't in the book and the bakers wasn't there to ask, so I stopped at the other Walmart while I was already across town.

Once I told the baker what I wanted she told me that they only make the two of those five cake (the tinkerbell and the orange fairy) She explained that they only buy these two faries seperatly. So, in my mind I am trying to decide do I order another cake, or just get some cupcakes to go with this cute little cake. While I am trying to make up my mind the baker flips over to the layered (expensive) cake with all five of the exact same fairy toys I need for the little cakes. So, goes on to tell me that she can make this expensive cake with all five faries, but not these cute little cake with these toys, because they just don't. Needless to say managers were called and cute little cakes were ordered. However, they were unable to provide chocolate cake.

Friday (the afternoon before the party) baker (the same girl) calls to tell me that they do not have in stock cute little cakes, but if I'd like to wait until Sunday she can make the cake. Obviously this wouldn't work for us.

I walked into the Walmart on my side of town less than 24 hour until the party order 5 little cake with no problem, and they were also willing to do chocolate. So, if your getting a cake at Walmart come to the north side of town.

Kase Turns 5

As promised here is Kase's birthday. We had it at Primetime. Primetime has a lot of neat things like bowling and go carts. We had Kase's birthday at the indoor play place. As you can tell from the first picture Kase really played hard. There was pizza and soda for dinner. Kase picked out a Bakugan cake for the party. He was very excited to play with the toys on the cake.

He got lots of fun presents. A big package of Bakegans, planes, and lightning McQueen geo track were some of his favorites.

2009 goes out with a bang.

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

On New Year's Eve I had an appointment to get my hair done, and for some strange reason Ally wanted to go with me, so we headed across town. After my appointment I stopped at the first red light and headed threw when the light turned green. After I was half way through the light another car hit my tail end and swung us around so that we were looking in the direction the other car had come from. Needless to say we were a bit shaken up, but fine. No one was hurt on either side.

This was one of those times that God placed people in my life that I am so thankful for. When I first looked up I saw red lights and felt very confused thinking I must have run a red light (but it turned green how could they be red) Of course I wasn't looking at my lights, but it took a while for the fog to clear. Soon a good friend stopped and stayed with me, and sat with Ally while I talked to the police. Shortly after that another gentleman who I do not know, and will likely never see again stopped and gave a witness statement, saying that my light had turned green. This turned out to be very important, because the other driver claimed that my light was red.

I'm not saying this to place blame on the young man who hit me. I have no idea if he was trying to beat the red, or simply made a mistake and didn't realise the light had turned.

I am just so thankful that God was standing beside me on this day. We were hit pretty hard had he hit us seconds sooner we would probably have been hurt. I needed people in my life this day and the Lord provided.

Ally's 11th Birthday Party

1. Today we had Ally's 11th Birthday Party! She wanted a webkinz Halloween Party, so that's what we had. As the girls got here we made bottle tops necklaces for the girls, and beaded necklaces for their webkinz. Then we had a treasure hunt, with the kids finding the wheel of wow (prizes included) Next we have a spider web webkinz hunt (the last picture is what it looked like before they started) Dinner included tacos (Ally's favorite,) chips and salsa, rice, and beans. We had a haunted table with desserts, and opened presents. We ended our evening with Halloween charades. We had lots of girls and they all had a great time.