Back to School and a New Adventure

Cate went back to school this week. It's nice she's still excited to get back to school. I can't remember when I started dreading the first day of school--I hope that day is still a long way off for Cate.

She saved her new favorite dress for the big day. It's a jumper that was made by fabric Grandma Jane brought from Alaska. The fabric has all sorts of different colored galoshes printed on a black-ground. Grandma Jane and Grandma Katie sewed up the dress and included a short ruffle hem. Cate certainly looked adorable.

The first days of school seem to be going well. Her "BFF" Bella is in her room and several new children because the other local community school was dissolved in June.

After school on Mondays, Cate will be taking her first tap / ballet class. She's been waffling whether she wanted to take dance class for a while and she finally piped up the day before the final registration open house was to be offered.

I think she is the only one in her class with no prior dance class experience, but for her first class, I thought she did pretty darn well picking up on terms and positions.

She looks darling, if I do say so myself.

Florida!

Our winter getaway has already come and gone. We had a very good time. I can't say it went as I had imagined, but that's not a negative thing. We spent one day at Sea World, which was "meh...okay"; drove to the Atlantic at New Smyrna Beach where Max got soaked racing the waves and Cate built a sandcastle; and toured three Disney World Parks in 4-1/2 days.

Kyle did have to remind me at one time that if the kids want to wait their day away in lines to meet the Disney characters then that is what we should do because they were so thrilled when they encountered each one.

I wasted my money buying the Unauthorized Guide to Disney World for Kids because once we got there, I didn't even open it up. The kids pretty much guided us to where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do. The parks were crazy-packed, but for the most part, everyone was civil. The only truly frustrating time was trying to get across Main Street as people crowded along the sidewalk waiting for the 3pm parade. It was a freaking traffic jam!

In total, we experienced sensory overload; rode a few rides; met many, many characters (see all of them here); ate very badly and were sad to go home at the end of the week.

So enjoy a sampling of the photos we took of our trip. If you're really into it, view all of them here. You should be able to tell in the middle of them that we had themed days for most days. Gaggy? Yeah, a bit; but it certainly made it easier to find each other in the mobs of people.

Manatee at Sea World

Four Things

Shamu Show - "Believe!"

Is that house really upside down? Yes...it's Wonder Works

Max the Astronaut

Cate the astronaut

Tons of fun things in stockings delivered to our hotel room
Running into the waves

Cate making a sandcastle

Max getting really wet

Two people in the way of a fantastic ocean view
Cate was in heaven eating shrimp
The castle at night
Getting Princess Aurora's (Sleeping Beauty) autograph
Princess Aurora is ready with the ultimate Princess pose
Meeting Minnie and Mickey
We learned that Max really likes Donald Duck
Hugs for Donald
Family photo with Belle from Beauty and the Beast
Even Santa hangs out at WDW Running them ragged after many days helps them sleep well

Santa Goofy--notice all three heads tilted!
Another Donald encounter--can you tell who was so thrilled?

Donald autographed stuffed Donald's foot!

Dinoland USA in Animal Kingdom

Yeah, that's right...Mickey waffles!

Student of the Month-Grade 1

Catherine was recognized as a Student of the Month at school this morning. By the end of the year, all students will be a Student of the Month. This month, each teacher chose to recognize students who demonstrated exemplary responsibility in the classroom.

Catherine was glowing with pride.

I'm pretty sure she had the largest number of supporters at the assembly: me, Max, Aunt Jo, Grandma Katie, Grandpa Ken, Grandma LaVonne. Max totally enjoyed the music program and the applause for the students as their names were called. Apparently, at one point, he asked Grandma Katie why I wasn't clapping, so I ended up joining in on the fun.

My camera's battery crapped out on me (again!) and so these are from my phone.

Halloween Trick or Treaters

Catherine and Max's costume dreams came true this year. Catherine wanted to be a Paduan Jedi (see Star Wars reference here).

Max wanted to be Wall-e. We missed the mass-produced costumes by at least one Halloween season, so we ended up having to make it ourselves. It ended up turning out great!

Catherine made it six houses and said: "I'm done. I want to go home now." She got whammed with a fever. Max went along with Kyle for another couple of blocks. He took home more than enough candy for both kids.

In case you encounter Cate

...she wants to be called Catherine, not Cate. Ever since she recently learned how to spell C-a-t-h-e-r-i-n-e, she has decided to be a "Catherine" versus a "Cate". I got called out by her this evening while we were at a school open house for prospective families. I pointed her out as Cate while she was drawing at the chalkboard. She overheard and corrected me saying, "Not Cate, it's CATHERINE!"

Whoa.