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"I can't marry Justin because he is already married" said Lola

We attended Stella's fabulous first birthday party yesterday where Lola decided to focus 100% of her attention on Justin. There were plenty of games, prizes, hot dogs and other children to play with but nothing compared to Justin. I'm pretty sure he is to Lola what Prince Charming is to Snow White.

Stella's party was especially fun because I got to see so many friends that I don't get to see that often and... in a carnival setting! I have to admit, I was a little disappointed that there weren't live animals. I know, it's shocking. The poor children, there was nothing for them to do, no pony rides and no elephants roaming the property painting portraits for the party goers. Because they were slacking on this the Lola-Party-Meter gave this shindig a 9.9 out of a possible 10.

Thank you Justin for being so patient & sweet to our baby girl yesterday and...
HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY MISS STELLA!!!!
We love you!!!
Click here to see more fabulous first birthday party photos!

The Magic Kingdom

A Disney vacation would not be complete without spending a day at the Magic Kingdom and that we did, a 15 hour day! 8am-11pm. Not kidding. We had so much fun meeting characters, going on rides, dodging the rain and seeing the firework show. The kids even drove race cars! Lola is on her way to becoming a super speeder too! I told her that wasn't a good choice.

Thanks Gigi for a fabulous Disney vacation!

beach babies

While vacationing in Florida Lola thought it would be a great idea to take Lydia to the biggest sand box ever. The girls had so much fun digging up sand and playing in the water. Lola reacted to the ocean by saying "yummm, it's good!"
Gross Lola.
At least this time she didn't eat sand for lunch.

girls night out, only less wind and with Aaron

Angela and I managed another evening out on the town without the children however, with the shenanigans involved with our last girls night out we decided it was best to bring back up because who would mess with a dude that drinks Coca-Cola by the little pitcher full?
Intimidating, I know.



We decided it would be ok for Aaron to join us on our girls night out for the following reasons:
1. He is very feminine
2. He looks good in a dress
3. He drinks like a girl
4. He makes us laugh
5. His mean mug is sure to scare off the locals
6. He does the Michael Jackson windy shirt thing on command for me



So thanks Aaron for putting on your mean mug and keeping us safe from the locals. I'm glad you didn't mind us ignoring you so that we could have another fun girls night out!

AND special thanks to gigi for babysitting!

Lola's Epcot visit: New Best Day Ever

It's safe to say that we have another Disney fan in the mix. This is Lola's first visit to the happiest place in the world and sure enough, she's happy. And I was extra happy to find that they brought Captain EO back, this was a very pleasant surprise for sure!!!! Our day today started at 7am when we got our wake up call from Mickey and the day didn't end until after 10:30pm when we made it back to the hotel for much needed sleep (of course not until after some blogging).
Lola was one of the few kids in full costume today. She received a lot of attention and spent the majority of the day answering to "Snow White" and perfecting the princess wave. She was a theme park hit!
Some things we accomplished today:
* breakfast with the Disney Princesses
* visiting the character spot
* turtle talk with Crush
* the Nemo ride (Lola cried)
* Capt EO viewing
* something else I can't remember
* visiting all of the countries at Epcot & each Kidcot location
* some more rides
* Lola attempted to march in a parade but decided against it
* visited Hollywood Studios (formerly known as MGM)
* Gigi & I braved the Tower of Terror
* attended a concert
* Lola danced with Pluto, the chipmunks & Goofy
* other stuff
* bedtime
It's been a wonderful day and so much fun to see Lola's excitement when she would spot a character. She loved today!!!! Thank you gigi for making it so special for her!
CLICK HERE FOR AWESOME PHOTOS OF LOLA WITH THE PRINCESSES AND MORE!!! .

P.S. the staff at LOLApalooza is sending a birthday shout out to MIMI!!! Happy 60th! We wish you were at Disney with us, it's just not the same without you.

girls night out, spring break style 2010!

Angela and I hit the town full blown party style tonight. It was exactly like MTV spring break! A wild time for sure! And by wild I meant windy. For a second I thought we were in Chicago.


It wouldn't be spring break without dudes in the mix and Angela & I were lucky to be approached by a couple of lookers who were in fact our exact age, NOT! We were invited to join them at the Hard Rock to which we kindly declined so while we could have gone out with these two foxy guys we decided it was best to get home alive. I would imagine if they weren't smokers we may have accepted their friendly offer...

Lola & Lydia, cute photos of the day

O! M! G! How cute are these two girls?

Lola & Lydia, Florida vacation part I

It hasn't even been 24 hours since Lydia's arrival in southern Florida and Lola has already taken her to Muddy Waters, the park, carousal park, the pool and even made time to spot some local wildlife! These girls are so busy on their vacation! Lola likes having her little friend around and Lydia likes doing all the big girl things that Lola shows her.

family arrives in the sunshine state...

only to find the weather is exactly like the buckeye state.
We arrived safely around 7:30 this morning. It was a long day & night of driving but totally worth it to get here as early as we did. Since Aaron is excellent at not sleeping he did the night driving.
Unfortunatley Peggy, Aaron & Ian won't be getting on the crusie which is awesome news for me because when gigi is around I get a lot of quiet time since she takes over all Lola duties. Thanks gigi! Plus we get to go to Disney now! Thanks crusie ship for being sold out to paying customers!

EnterTRAINment Junction & other shenanigans

First of all I need to apologize to Jackie who has been waiting forever for me to post these photos. Here they are, finally!
We had a very nice visit with the Vander Woude clan. We spent a few hours with Jackie & family and the other Browns at Entertrainment Junction which was a hit with all the children, not only the train obsessed boys, but the girls had a lot of fun too!
Later that evening Jackie (who deserved a much needed break after the chaos that consisted of chasing her children all over entertrainment junction) met a friend for dinner while the kids stayed at our house to play. We had a fabulous time! Lola and Brody really enjoyed spending a little QT while Mya tried to keep up with their shenanigans.

Some things I've figured out:
1. Having two little kids would be really hard work.
2. I'm glad we got Aaron "neutered".
3. It would be AWESOME to set up a mini entertrainment junction in our pole barn.
4. Lola's hair used to be so long.
5. Jackie owes me a tube of toothpaste.
6. It's shark week so I won't be tuning into the Discovery channel.

Photos here!


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green thumb

Here' s Lola proudly showing off the huge sunflowers she grew from seeds for Earth Day. She was good about watering them often and knows very well that flowers get their power from water. Is there anything that can't be connected to a YGG song?
Anyway, Lola will be sending this photo to the Earth's Birthday Project to receive her prize. Stay tuned to see what that will be... I can only imagine something spectacular! Just like Mr. Parker said "It's a Major Award. I won it!"