The Party Details
Since we had Zoe’s party at the dance studio, I didn’t have to come up with a lot of decorations. It was nice to keep it simple but I made sure our little princess felt special on her big day. She requested chocolate cupcakes and I found princess goldfish for another treat. As usual, I made sure to pick up some special flowers to decorate with that served as a special tribute to her beautiful birth mama. We all had so much fun celebrating our hip hop princess (who even agreed to pose for some pictures before the party)!
A Princess Hip Hop Celebration
Zoe got to celebrate her birthday (a few days early) with some of her best friends at one of her favorite places, her dance studio. She was able to celebrate with her cousins, her best friend from dance class, her best friend from school and several friends from church. This was the first time I’ve hosted a party outside of our house and I am now a big fan of that. It was so nice to not have to worry about cleaning the house before the party. Zoe’s studio helped make the party a super special day for the girls. They set up an obstacle course for the girls to enjoy. Then Miss Lilly taught the girls a couple dances and they had a blast dancing. After the dancing was over, we headed to a different room for a crown craft and cupcakes for the little princesses. It was a special day celebrating our big (almost) 5 year old! We are so thankful for all these precious friends.
Introducing, Sookie
Not only were we keeping Disney World a secret from the girls, we were also keeping another HUGE secret from them. On the ride home from Disney, we gave both girls a picture of their new puppy, Sookie, and told them we were getting her the very next day. DJ kept saying this was any kid’s dream come true, twice…a trip to Disney and a new puppy. After we lost Lucy, we knew we’d eventually get another dog but we did not think it would be anytime soon. We were kind of enjoying the simplicity of having just one dog. But, we started to realize that the girls really needed to be able to have their own rooms. Well, neither girl was willing to sleep without Winnie…so we decided maybe we should go ahead and start considering a puppy. I decided to check our breeder’s website to see if she had any upcoming litters and she just so happened to have a litter with 2 girls available that would be ready right before we left for Disney. I contacted her about the puppies and asked if we decided to get one if we could wait another couple weeks to get her when we got back from Disney. She was happy to keep the puppy a little longer for us. I fell in love with this face immediately…
DJ couldn’t say no to that face either…I mean, how could you? So, we decided to be crazy and get a puppy. The breeder named her DJ Suki because her litter was a Trolls themed litter. When DJ and I were considering names for Kate and then Lucy, one name we considered was Sookie from Gilmore Girls. It just all seemed meant to be. We decided we’d go ahead and name her Sookie (so the girls wouldn’t argue over who got to name her) and that name fits her. She is a goofball who is always getting into messes, just like her namesake. Needless to say, the puppy excitement helped ease the Disney withdrawls. We all just love this little fluff ball.
Disney World 2022 - Day 5
We headed back to Magic Kingdom for our final day in Disney World. We packed this day full to finish out our trip, starting when they opened the park and ending with the fireworks. We made sure to do all the favorite rides again (some more than one time), met all the princesses, watched the cavalcades, ate Dole Whip and let the girls watch the Enchantment, the nighttime spectacular for the very first time. It was Zoe’s first time ever seeing real fireworks in person and Ava doesn’t remember them from when she was little. It was a special way to end our wonderful trip.
We had such a great time at the Most Magical Celebration on Earth! See ya real soon, Mickey!
Disney World 2022 - Day 4
The next day in Disney, we headed to Hollywood Studios. We got there right around the time they opened the gates and were able to ride Toy Story Mania without much wait at all. As the day went on, that line grew like crazy so we were thankful we finally got to ride it. The rest of the day was spent enjoying character meet and greets, our Disney Junior Play-n-Dine meal with Doc, Vampirna, Goofy and Fancy Nancy, the Disney Junior dance party, the Frozen Sing-a-Long show (always a huge favorite), Mickey shaped pretzels (everything’s better when it’s shaped like Mickey) and exploring Galaxy’s Edge (DJ’s favorite place in all of Disney). Since this park doesn’t have as many rides that the girls could ride, we were able to end the day with some time in Disney Springs to do some shopping and get Dole Whip. It was another great day in this happy place!
The Disney Junior Meet and Greets were the only ones with Photopass Photographers. They were able to get some better shots of Zoe when she met some of her favorite characters since she was looking at them instead of me. Zoe was in Disney Junior Heaven!
Disney World 2022 - Day 3
We spent our next day in Disney World at Animal Kingdom. We enjoyed the day seeing all the animals around the park, riding the rides (especially the safari), learning to draw Donal Duck, collecting Wilderness Explorer badges, watching the Kite Tails show, looking for the character flotillas on the river and eating dinner at the Tusker House Restaurant with Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Goofy (our favorite character meal ever). DJ especially enjoyed exploring Pandora.
And of course, we took advantage of the photopass photographers here as well.
Disney World 2022 - Day 2
Our 2nd day in Disney was filled with all the 50th Celebrations at Magic Kingdom. We arrived just in time for the Welcome Show at the castle and got to see Mickey, Minnie and friends in their 50th outfits in front of the beautiful castle. The day was full of rides, character sightings, cavalcades, the parade, the castle show and Dole Whip. This year Zoe was tall enough to ride more rides and she was all about the rides this day and did not want to waste time waiting in line to see the princesses. Both girls loved the Tomorrowland Speedway and DJ and I are both NOT ready for them to drive real cars, ha. Dumbo was a huge favorite for Zoe and both girls loved the indoor play area in the line for Dumbo. It was a big year for Zoe because she was finally tall enough to ride a roller coaster. She got to ride the Barnstormer and we learned very quickly that Zoe does NOT like roller coasters. Ava got to see Chip and Dale, some of her favorite characters. Zoe got to meet her beloved Eeyore and wave to him. Due to COVID, the Festival of Fantasy parade was cancelled for a while, with smaller cavalcades taking its place. Well, right before we went, they brought the parade back but also kept the cavalcades. It was so great to be able to see the iconic parade and enjoy the smaller mini parades, especially the new Adventure Friends Cavalcade that featured Moana. We had a wonderful day in the Most Magical Place on Earth!
This was my first time going to Disney World without my real camera. It was nice to just use my phone for pictures but I also made sure we got some good pictures with the Photopass photographers. Thankfully the girls obliged my request for multiple photo stops (without too much complaining). I love having these family portraits from our magical vacation!
Disney World 2022 - Day 1
We pulled off a huge surprise again for the girls for spring break. We were sure Ava overheard some conversations but she actually seemed truly surprised. When they woke up the first morning of Spring Break, they came downstairs to find Minnie ears and Disney gift cards at their breakfast spots and surprised them with the news that we were headed to Disney World. They were both super excited…as were we. This was a trip we’ve been wanting to take for such a long time but were waiting until things got back to more normal (the thought of wearing a mask in FL heat all day seemed miserable). We kept watching things and were very hopeful that by spring break this year, things would be better. Thankfully, right before we left they dropped the mask mandate except for on transportation. They also changed the rules for character dining to allow you to stand up when the characters came by your table (still no hugs but much better than it had been. Hugs are back now so we just need to go again, ha). And best of all, we were able to go during the 50th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom. It was amazing to be able to see all the celebration in person (especially the beautiful castle updates).
Friday morning, we packed up the car, dropped Winnie off with my mom and then drove to my Aunt Emily’s house in Daytona. We are so thankful for Aunt Emily letting us crash for the night so that we could get an extra day in the parks. It was fun for the girls to get to spend some time with Aunt Emily since we don’t get to see her often and they loved visiting with her and her cute dog, Sadie.
Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Aunt Emily and then headed straight to Epcot. We were there during the Flower and Garden Festival and it was fun trying to find all the topiaries as well as all the different character sightings around the World Showcase. Since character hugs were not back yet, the characters would pop up in random places and you could interact with them and take pictures from a distance. I think my favorite character sighting was Pooh because he was trying to catch butterflies and he really interacted with Zoe. We did get to do a meet and greet with Anna and Elsa in their Sommerhaus, but it was still from a distance. Also, as part of the 50th, there were the Fab 50 statues all over the 4 parks. I had a list of where to find them and it was fun to try to check them all off.
We took a short break in the middle of the day to go check into our hotel room and then headed back to Epcot for supper and more rides, like the Living with the Land. This was a new ride to us and it was so cool to see the gardens where they grow so much of the produce and flowers that are used all over the parks. When we headed back to the hotel for good that night, we found that housekeeping had arranged the girls’ blankets and stuffed animals on the bed. Then we got to watch the Epcot fireworks from our room. It was a great end to the first day.
School Dress Up Days 2022
Ava had a couple different dress up days early in the spring semester (and thanks to her teacher, I was able to get pictures from both days). The first one was the annual Book Character day. This year, Ava decided to dress up like one of the characters in her favorite book series, Star Friends. She even carried her little fox with her.
The second dress up day was a big event that 4th grade does every year (except the past 2 because of COVID). The whole grade was so excited they could actually have Oregon Trail Day this year. They all dressed up like pioneers and learned about life on the Oregon Trail. Ava had a blast with her friends at this fun day.
The Wetzels in Asheville
We were able to enjoy a couple days in Asheville with DJ’s family. We spent a day at Biltmore and a day at the Western NC Nature Preserve. The kids had a blast exploring Biltmore (especially the playground) and the Nature Center (and especially the playground beside it). It was a really fun time together as a family.
