D's Fairy Garden

Uncle Ron bought Danielle a couple fairy garden items for Christmas and gave her a gift card to a local nursery for Easter so she could start a fairy garden. We added a gift card she got to Joann Fabrics from Mamaw & Papaw's annual Easter egg hunt and went shopping for garden supplies today.

We decided to make it in a birdbath that belonged to my great aunt. We plan to add a few more homemade items at some point: a ladder hanging down from the hanging basket to the birdbath, a tire swing, and a pond with fish. We also need to add a little mulch. Hopefully it will withstand the weather. We may need to glue a few items in place. I love it!!

 

 

An "Excellent" Performance

Tyler participated in a middle school solo and ensemble competition on Saturday. He played a trumpet solo with a piano accompanist. The school where the competition was held was huge and the halls were busy. It was also a little difficult to find the right rooms, which didn't help calm the jitters.  Despite being nervous, he did a great job! He earned a II, which is an "excellent". (The scale is I - V, superior - needs improvement.) We had a total of 7 students, including Tyler, from our school who performed solos. I think all of them received IIs, so they all did very well.

Recording and photographs were prohibited, but here is a picture of Tyler by his score. He also received a comment sheet from the judge and a certificate with his rating on it. It was a very good experience for him, and I think he would like to try again next year.

Puppy Snuggles

 

My coworker's beagle had puppies 3 weeks ago. We stopped by to see them the other evening. They were sweet. Her beagle is a working dog and the babies she keeps will be trained to flush game, too. As sweet as that little face is, I still prefer goldens.

 

 

(Another) Volleyball Tournament

Danielle's volleyball team had a successful weekend. They finally beat the one team they've struggled to beat since early last season. Once again it came down to a tie-breaker set in the championship game, but this time Danielle's team scored the winning points and won first place. I love watching her play. It's even better this year since she never rotates out. Lots of playing time! She's a good little player.

The first 3 pictures are from another parent. The rest are mine.



She popped it right over their hands for the point.

Vacation Pictures - Disney

For the first part of our vacation, we visited Disney. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside, which was very nice. We had a nice room and the bus transportation to and from the parks was much better than when we stayed at the lower end Disney resort. Of course, nothing beats staying at The Contemporary. I decided not to take my good camera to Disney so we could enjoy not carrying any bags, so all of these are cell phone pictures. It was a good choice. It's a lot different going with older kids. It was still fun, just different. It was very nice not having to push a stroller, and this was the first time we've ever all been able to sit through Fantasmic! without needing to take an upset child (Danielle!) out.

Here are the last of the vacation pictures:

We arrived on Friday and spent that afternoon and evening at Epcot.



 

Danielle's head is distorted but I had to have this picture so I could post it next to this next one:

Sum of All Thrills ride. You design a roller coaster and then ride it in the simulator. It looked like a lot of fun. The kids were getting ready to ride their creation.

Our good friends were also at Disney and met up with us for a little while after dinner that evening. Even though we can see them anytime, it was still neat to see them at Disney! The girls enjoyed walking around together.

Epcot at night.

 

Tyler has complained before that we never go on vacation over his birthday, so Danielle and I decided it would be fun to celebrate his birthday while we were at Disney. I called before we left home to inquire about a cake and had them add information to our account about us celebrating Tyler's birthday. (They knew the real date. No one cares!) Tyler found out we were celebrating his birthday when we got on the first ride at Epcot Center. As he went through the turnstile, the cast member told him happy birthday. Danielle and I started to laugh and had to explain. It was great! We had planned to celebrate on the second day while we were at The Magic Kingdom. Tyler wore a button that said "Happy birthday, Tyler!" and the three of us wore buttons that said "I'm celebrating Tyler's birthday! We had a lot of fun with it.

 

We ate at The Whispering Canyon Café, which is a fun restaurant even when it's not your birthday. The entire restaurant sang to him and he got a cake...

As the birthday boy he also got to lead everyone in a stick horse race around the restaurant.



 

Danielle and I fit in a couple character visits while the boys rode Space Mountain a couple times.

Dumbo

The Electric Light Parade is still my favorite!

Cool panoramic of Main St USA with the castle in the background.

 

We spent the third day at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The new Star Wars Loading Bay area is really neat. Lots of cool Star Wars memorabilia and characters.

Danielle and I visited a couple characters while the boys started off the day with The Rock & Roller Coaster.

We had lunch at the Sci-Fi Café. It was fun and I was glad we had reservations to sit somewhere in the a/c for a little while, but like most of the places, it was overpriced. The absolute best restaurant we ate in at Disney was Mama Melrose's. The waiter was outstanding and the food was amazing. Definitely worth the price!

The stormtroopers were standoffish and rude. They were amusing.

Chewbacca was very tall...and hairy.

This is Ron's picture. The jawa stole Tyler's light saber.

Kylo Ren

The ending of Fantasmic! All the characters on the boat, being driven by the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse.

Selfie getting ready to leave the park on our last day. We had a good time.