D-Day

Well, it has finally arrived. Tomorrow morning we'll load up and head off to Disney World!!! WAHOO!!! Jeremy and I have managed to keep the trip a surprise for all of these months. We did finally set Collin and Ainsley down on Wednesday evening to tell them we'd be going on an airplane to a "surprise place." It's their FIRST EVER plane ride, so cross your fingers, knock on wood, PRAY, whatever, that they'll do fine. Plane rides can be quite stressful and a little frightening (even for me!) so I'm hoping for a smooth day of traveling with the kids. I'm very much looking forward to seeing their expressions when they find out our "surprise place" is Disney World!! Oh, to see it through the eyes of little ones. :)

We decided months ago, when we started planning our trip, that this would be their trip. Jeremy and I took our vacation to Maui back in October. I'll have to keep reminding myself of that, especially when they have their own ideas of which attractions they want to see, rides they want to ride, etc. We just want them to enjoy every single moment and have memories that will last them a lifetime!

We're not taking the laptop, so most updates will have to wait until we return from Florida. So for now, I'm signing off. Until next time....

Yep, it's Monday

OK, even though I have a great fear that my friends will oust me and my children will be forever banned from future playdates, I will let you all in on today's incident. Deeeeep breath, here goes...

Collin had a dentist appointment this morning and afterward I decided to take him and Ainsley to lunch at McDonald's, kind of as a treat and also so they could work off some of their energy playing. They were having the BEST time playing that they've ever had at the McDonald's play gym and I was thinking to myself how we really should go there more often.

I had given the 10 minute warning and they continued playing. Just as I was about to give the 5 minute warning, Collin comes out of the exit of the BIG slide saying, "Mommy, Ainsley took her pants off up there!!"

OH. MY. GOSH.

I asked where she was and where her pants were and all I got was, "Up there!" I asked Collin if he could PLEASE go get them for me. It was at that point that I learned the dirty truth. "But Mommy, she's POOPY." My heart sank to my toes, and my blood ran cold through my body.

No, no, NO!!! I tried to stay cool, but it really seemed like everyone in the place was staring at me. AND, it was 12:30 so there were lots of families having lunch there! I started calling for Ainsley to come down. About 30 seconds later, she came scooting down the slide, with no shorts OR pull-up, with her index finger extended. And what was on that finger? You probably guessed it - a big glob of poop. Sigh.

As discreetly as I could manage, I pulled her shirt down - thankfully it was a long one - and grabbed a tissue from my purse to wipe the poop off of her finger. It would've been really handy to have her bag so that I could at least put a new pair of shorts on her. Yes, it certainly would have had I not left her bag in the car!!! Well, about this time, a little girl came out from the play area with her hand over her nose saying, "Oooooh it STINKS up there!" I was having an awful time deciding what on earth to do - total panic mode. I deeply apologized to the mother who was sitting next to me, scooped Ainsely up and walked to the counter to let the dear people of McDonald's know what had just taken place in their lovely playgym. The guy behind the counter was amazingly nice about it and said he would get their maintenance guy (I'm so sorry maintenance guy, whoever you are!!!) to take care of it. And just like that, I left. Didn't even stay to retrieve the shorts. It just wasn't worth it. What else could I have done, short of making an announcement to the entire dining area and climbing to the top of the playgym, can of disinfectant in hand to clean the place? Which by the way, I TOTALLY would clean it up - after hours with noone else in sight. Oh, the horror.

So where does this leave me? Well, mortified, deeply embarassed, moreso than I have ever been in my entire life! I'm searching message boards and parenting websites in hopes that I can find some information that will help me discourage Little Miss Ainsley from playing in her poop (this is not the first time she has found it fun to do so, just the first time in a public place!!)

So, my friends, I do hope that you will not hold this poop incident against me or my sweet Ainsley. The only good that I can see came out of this is now I have an answer to that elusive question, "What was your most embarassing moment?" when it's asked of me during a MOPS ice-breaker game.

Easter 2009

I feel like I'm really behind on blogging and am not sure if I'll ever really be able to fill in all the gaps! So for now I'm going to just post some pictures from this Easter holiday.

These first two pictures are from Collin and Ainsley's Easter egg hunt at Mother's Day Out. Every time Ainsley found an egg, she would be way too interested in opening it to continue on. That trend continued for all the egg hunts she did!

This next set of pictures was taken on Saturday, at an Easter festival at the church where the kids attend MDO. The kids had SO much fun!!

Here's Collin getting one of the most iconic Easter figures painted onto his cheeks - spiders! LOL

Doing the "cupcake walk"...

Time to hunt eggs!

Here are Collin and Ainsley on Sunday morning before church. Can you believe they cooperated SO nicely for these pictures??? I was so happy!

After church we headed to Calvert for lunch with Jeremy's family. After the kids had their naps we went down to Memaw's house for another egg hunt for the kids. We stayed and visited for a while and had a great time.

Ainsley getting a little quiet time with Memaw before the madness begins!

"A little help, please?"

Landon

Memaw helping the kids find eggs...

Collin cracked a confetti egg on my head and thought it was just hilarious!

Uh oh, now it's time for Be-Baw!

Collin showing off some of his Easter basket loot

Oh dear - can you tell she loves her some candy?!?!

Well, I guess that about wraps up the Easter blog. We didn't manage to get any family pictures this year - the kids weren't cooperating. Maybe next year! :)