Play Ball!

Yesterday, a friend gave us her parents' tickets to the local minor league ball game. We hadn't gone since last year, so it was nice to go again.

As usual, the Bernie the mascot was in fine form. The girls just love to watch him dance and entertain the crowds.

For the girls, eating cotton candy is the best thing about going to the ball games! It looks like blue cotton candy tastes better than the pink stuff, although I don't know why. The air was rather humid, I think, so the threads of sugar began to crystallize very quickly.

And why did I take this picture? Growing up, there was a period of time during which I was a HUGE St. Louis Cardinal baseball fan. The batter is Scott Van Slyke, who is the son of Andy Van Slyke (former St. Louis cardinal outfielder). For those of you who aren't familiar with this Van Slyke (*gasp*), you can read about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Van_Slyke.
Isn't Google an amazing source of information?

Interestingly, there's another player on the team who also has a famous father - Don Mattingly! It's really neat to see that kids following their father's footsteps!

Cucaracha!

Okay, so indulge me - I just had to share these pictures of Marika, my favorite amateur entomologist. We were on our way into Barnes & Noble when she stopped me to point out a rather large cockroach. Now, this is probably my least favorite insect in the whole world, but... considering it's rather large, it's kind of a nice show piece in an insect collection. So, on the way back out, we used an empty snack bag (you don't REALLY think I carry around clean empty plastic bags just to collect insects, do you?!) and collected her. Something must have been wrong with her because she was alive, but didn't even try to dart away.

She was a good-sized cockroach, but I have seen bigger in university buildings... (there must be something in there that makes them so big!)...

I really love that Marika shares my fascination with insects. The only insect I've noticed her apprehensive about touching is the honey bee, which surprises me - but I think it's because she's afraid she'll be accidentally stung, even if the bee is near death or dead. Well, that's not a bad fear and I don't really want her going after honey bees, so I'll let that one slide... ;)

In a galaxy, far far away...

I thought some of you may have been wondering about the hooplah surrounding "Star Wars Weekend". So, here are some pictures from the Star Wars parade - I loved it!!! We were actually lucky - it poured 5 minutes before the parade started, but didn't do more than sprinkle lightly for the rest of the parade. To see the pictures enlarged, just click on the collage.

And here's a second batch... these costumes were amazing!

And like I said, it rained - A LOT - the whole time we were there. The worst thunderstorm we experienced was on the final day (for Star Wars weekend) at Hollywood Studios. The lightning flashed and literally, less than half a second later, the thunder KABOOMED. Marika ended up hiding under my poncho most of the time, looking miserable. Here she is, looking disgruntled. It got worse later!

But the girls did love the parade. I was sorry we didn't get to see more of the Star Wars characters throughout the park, but the rain was so bad, it would have been impossible to photograph them anyway.

May the force be with you!

Ten Years!

Happy 10th Anniversary, honey! I love you!

Grrrrrr!

Ahhhh, the nostalgia! We ate breakfast at the local Dunkin' Donuts - it brought back fond memories of my childhood, as well as my time on the East Coast...

Yesterday we went back to Disney's Animal Kingdom, since this was the one park the girls chose to return to. We discovered we had completely missed Rafiki's Planet Watch the first time (it was raining, we got distracted!) and so, we spent a good deal of time there. The girls had fun petting animals and checking out the conservation area. I was thrilled to hear some cicadas singing in the trees - I haven't heard them in decades!

We did catch a few characters that we had missed before - King Luey with Baloo and here, Marika met with Terk. Where was Mika, you ask? She was too afraid to go up to him. Who knows why? Remember, she's afraid of the Man with the Yellow Hat, too...

The real reason the girls wanted to return to this park was to see the shows. They absolutely LOVED Lion King (I was having fun experimenting with the high ISO setting on our camera here) and Finding Nemo.

And last but not least, we finally saw our FIRST parade ever. I kid you not! The girls had a great time waving at everybody and shrieking when recognizable characters came into view.

Ka-chow!

Today was Day 4 - time to head off to our fourth theme park - Hollywood Studios! The girls have really been whining for pool time, so we've decided to let them play at the pool for an hour or two in the morning, before we head off. This is good, because it lets them do what they want - but this is also bad, because they are already semi-tired by the time we arrive at the park.

Looks like it was a beautiful day, doesn't it? Well, guess again!

Within 10 minutes of arriving at the park, thunder began rumbling and within another 10 minutes, the skies opened up and rain poured down. Good thing we had already brought our ponchos (Disney is great - they have let us exchange two ripped ponchos for brand-new ones. Although, we did buy some new (cheaper) ponchos at Walgreens as well, just in case)!

However, nothing put a damper on the girls meeting their favorite characters, Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater. Obviously, they couldn't get an autograph but it was a great to get a photo with them!

Obviously, I couldn't resist a picture of Daddy Dude on the speeder... ;)

As some of you may know, Star Wars is big at Hollywood Studios. They have the Star Tours ride (which Daddy Dude went on - and I'll have you know, while we were waiting for him to return, we were stuck in a downpour) and a big AT-AT in front of it. We're planning to return to this theme park on Friday, for the very first day of STAR WARS WEEKEND. We hear it's supposed to be a madhouse when they first open, what with people camping out overnight to get celebrity autographs and collectibles. So, we'll be arriving well after they open.

Some of the rides were closed, due to the bad weather. The girls really enjoyed the shows (Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast), of course. They were horrified, however, by the Muppets 3D movie, exhibiting the same reaction as to "It's Tough To Be a Bug." Apparently, they find 3D movies to be terrifying and can't look. Who knew?

And finally... I know Daddy Dude really loves me, because he took me out for Chinese food for dinner... I can only take so much of burger & fries or salad before my body starts craving some rice... *sigh* I feel so much better now. Thanks, honey! ;) And I couldn't believe that the girls actually ate some hot & sour soup - who knew they couldn't tell it was spicy?

Greetings from Walt Disney World!

Yes, we survived the plane trip and made it all the way to Orlando in one piece! There was just one bit of misfortune...


And that was the weather! For the duration of our stay, rain is in the forecast for every single day. This is what we looked like today! Cute ponchos but man, we are paying an arm and a leg for them! Everybody has ripped one, except for me. I have no idea what the others are doing but I am sure tomorrow, mine will be ripped to shreds... (so we need to go buy some cheap ones, don't you think???). Despite the inclement weather, we are trying to make the most of it.

We visited Epcot first, on Sunday. The weather started off well... thankfully. They were celebrating their flower festival so the landscaping was amazing. See that silver ball? Marika just loved that Spaceship: Earth ride!

It was wonderful to stand in ONE LINE ONLY and meet 5 Disney characters. The girls have been having lots of fun getting autographs and posing for pictures.

On Monday, we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom. The girls were pretty tired (we never had time to recover from the long flight on Saturday) and were increasingly whiny. The rainy weather didn't help any. This is Mika and Daddy Dude's third trip down the white water ride.

The girls favorite part about this park was the Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo show - so thank you, Michelle, for telling us to go see those!

Which brings us back to today - we went to the Magic Kingdom, which was magical, but very rainy. Did you know, it's kind of uncomfortable to carry a child wearing a wet poncho? Despite the weather, the girls were pretty adventurous - I took each child to the Haunted Mansion (where they last about 10 seconds before burying their heads into me) and we all went to Splash Mountain. The girls weren't too thrilled about the water ride - Mika was in tears because she was so scared (she didn't get all that wet - I mean, how could you, if you've been rained on all day?). Mika did agree to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Marika wanted to, but she was wee bit short), but was totally terrified again. I told her to scream when she was scared - and she did - but she said it did NOT help, because it did not make the roller coaster slow down!

Well, that's it for now. We'll either take it easy tomorrow or hit our 4th theme park. We're looking to expand our 4-day pass to a 5-day or 6-day (because the amount you pay after 4-days is really pretty small) but it will depend on the weather. Daddy Dude wasn't thrilled that we went out today but I thought it was much preferable than sitting in the room watching TV.