Showing posts with label LIVE with the characters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LIVE with the characters. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Characters & Candles

We had a fun busy weekend!
I'm going to start with Friday because the weather couldn't have been more perfect!  I moved the office outside and the kids played all day!
I got this little outfit at the consignment sale and it is the cutest thing ever! 
They got a blanket out of my car and laid down just checking out the clouds!  It was so sweet.  After work we met some friends at the park and played, played, played!

We kicked off the fun early Saturday morning at the Just Keep Smiling Live with the Characters! show. This was the fifth year and it was so much fun.  My boss got us VIP tickets so we got ot go early and meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Marshall, Chase and Moana.  Barrett was so excited and AveryAnn was excited from a distance.  She waved to them but she had no interest in getting close.  I loved that we go to take our time with each character and really interact.







Grampy tried but she was having no part of it.
After we met the characters we headed to our seats!  The show was great as usual.  Every time a new character would come on stage AveryAnn would go "wook, Mommy! Wook!" or "Wook, Grampy! Wook".  I loved getting to see the show through my kids eyes!
After the show we met a few more characters!




We've never seen Star Wars but my sister was Rey so we had to go see her.
After the show we headed home to get everything set up for AveryAnn's birthday party!

Confession:  I struggle with my kids birthday parties.  It started with Barrett, obviously, I had a big first birthday party.  It was beautiful and perfect and I loved it.  I knew that I wouldn't so anything that big year after year but for the first year it was perfect.  Since his birthday is Christmas day and the holidays are so hectic I tossed the idea of a party in December after that first year.  We started just doing a little play date with his buddies at our house and it has been perfect.  We see both of our families on his birthday and we have cake and celebrate with them then.  He's already talking about his birthday party next year so I don't know what we will do.  SO when it came time for AveryAnn's second birthday I wasn't sure what to do.  I hated to do a big party when Barrett doesn't get a big party, but I wanted to make sure we got to celebrate her with our families.  So, I planned a little party at our house with our immediate families to celebrate her and it was perfect.  I got the house all ready and then picked up the cake and pizza.  I ordered her cake from Publix and I loved how it turned out!  It started pouring down rain while I was in the store and I got soaked. 
I always buy fresh flowers when I'm having company.  I feel like they add a personal touch to even a simple get together!

As soon as we were done singing and we blew out the candle she asked for a fork.  She thought she should just dig right in the cake before I cut it.  This was after she got her own piece and fun uncle Patrick gave her some ice cream.

Love this sweet little family of mine!

Sunday was busy too!  We got up and started getting ready for church.  For some reason both kids woke up so early.  While we were getting ready Patrick got called into work and it was raining.  I'm sure my attitude was less than Christian.  We survived Mass and quickly ran to my parents to change and drop AveryAnn off because Barrett had evaluations for baseball.  This is the first year we've had to do evaluations and neither of us knew what to expect.  The weather was less than ideal and was effecting how they usually hold evaluations.  The boys were going one at a time and having to wait in line and they were not happy about it.  Barrett was tired and hungry and after waiting for 30-40 minutes he was done.  Had a complete meltdown and wouldn't participate.  They assured me he would be put on a team and that it wasn't a big deal.  I know that my attitude was awful.  I'm sure that played a role in his meltdown.  But I was nearly in tears on the way back to Gardendale because I feel like such a failure as a parent.  I really don't care about the baseball, I don't care what the other people think, I just want to raise a polite, kind, caring, child. I have to remember that he is all those things.  But just like myself, I can't expect him to not be cranky when he's tired or hungry.  I can't expect him to have a great attitude when I don't even have a good attitude.  I can't hold him to higher standards than I myself have a hard time upholding.  I'm trying to give him grace (and myself). 
He did pose for this cute picture before he lost his mind.  And hopefully in 10-20 years, that smile will be all I remember.  
After we left evaluations we headed to the gym to workout.  We left there, picked up AveryAnn and headed back home.  It was the first of 3 busy weekends.  We're looking forward to so many fun things this Spring!



Sunday, June 22, 2014

LIVE with the Characters

I've  We've been looking forward to this weekend for a while now.  I'd been hearing about this event for months and I couldn't wait to take Barrett.  I've been begging Patrick to take us to Disney World, so far he's not giving in so this was the next best thing.   A local non-profit, Just Keep Smiling, put on a fun, family oriented, affordable event right in our community.  It was called LIVE with the Characters and it was adorable.  Our favorite characters were there including Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto. Plus Dora and Diego, Jake and Captain Hook, Doc McStuffins, the Princesses and Princes, the Chipmunks, some minions, Cookie Monster, Elmo, some superheros and Anna, Elsa and Olaf.  It was a star studded event.  I wasn't sure how Barrett was going to like it.  I was afraid he would be scared.  He loved it.
This was before the show started.
The Clubhouse gang.  
Patrick took these of Barrett's face during the show.
He wasn't sure what to think. 
We sat with some of our playdate friends and it was so much fun to see how the boys reacted.  We also sat with Lorie, Joseph and Elise.  Elise was not impressed with anyone other than Elsa.  She loved Elsa, she also informed us that "Princesses don't dance."
The show was so cute and had some interactive songs and I loved seeing all the kids and families have such a great time.  The kids sang there little hearts out.  After the show they had pictures and autographs with all the characters.
I loved the Chipmunks.  Probably because I knew who was in the costumes, which made it even more hilarious.  They did a fun routine and were so much fun to watch.

Meeting Mickey and Minnie. (Which it turns out I knew them too but didn't know who they were at the time) 
I didn't want to be in the picture with Mickey and Minnie but Barrett wasn't real crazy about letting a giant mouse hold him.  I took him up to see if he would just stand with them but he was more interested in the balloons. 



The best picture we got with the Mice.  They had a professional taking pictures too so I'm hoping it's good. 

 Now's i'll let you in on a little bit of my crazy...you all know I'm super emotional, especially when it has to do with Barrett and my little family.  When the show finally started and Mickey and Minnie came out on the stage.  I just had these huge tears in my eyes.  Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money.  My family never took a trip to Disney World (we've all been at one point or another except for my older brother and dad but er never went together).  The only time we went to Disney on Ice was when I won a trip.  We just didn't do a lot of those kinds of things. So to have this fun event right in our community that families didn't have to take out a loan to afford made me so happy.  Looking around and seeing all these families enjoy the morning together just overwhelmed me.  Seeing the look on little Elise's face with Elsa came out to sing "Let it Go" almost made my heart explode.  I was literally fighting back tears.  (Yes, I am a lunatic) But I think the thing that really got me was knowing so many of the people that volunteered to be a part of the event.  I knew so many people in those costumes that could have been anywhere else on a Friday night (rehearsal) and Saturday morning but they chose to be there and so many of them commented on how much they enjoyed getting to be a part of the show.  They all worked so hard and it really showed.  We had so much fun.  Even Patrick enjoyed it.  We're already looking forward to next year's show.