Juliet's 6th Birthday Party!

In May we celebrated Juliet's 6th birthday!  We are so grateful to God for giving us our little girl who constantly keeps us on our toes!  What started off as a small celebration at home with me, Mike and Jules slowly morphed over the days into an extended family party and finally a party with the girls in her class at school!  So, is this the American way of going over-board?  Nah!  After all, birthdays come only once in a year, right?
                                                  Jule's Birthday Celebration at Home (with Mom and Dad)

                                        Checking out the presents on the living room floor...

                                                        Fairy wings for dress-up...

                                              Trying out the new sleeping bag she got...

                                                            Well, what do you think?

        Mike putting up her new tent.  This was the number one item she wanted for her birthday.

Ready for a night out in her tent!!!  (I don't actually think that will happen for quite awhile yet).

                                                        Juliet's Family Birthday Party

  On the day of Juliet's family birthday party Jules got to go out and pick out a balloon from Party City with Dad.  This years was pink with a bunch of princesses on it.  A rather ridiculous looking thing, but the kind of balloon a 6 year old picks, I think.

Mike lighting the candles...  The weather was cooperating at this point, but I've realized that birthdays in May are always tricky, weather-wise.

                                  With her two birthday cakes.  Pink frosting was a MUST!

                                                                   The girl cousins...

                                                Looking for candy during the candy hunt...
                                      Juliet's Birthday Party with her Friends from School

 And finally, Juliet's class party.  Juliet wanted to have a "Princess Party" so here she is in what she considered her most beautiful princess dress.  Along with a blue blanket to use as a cape, she was set!  Here she is eagerly watching the clock on the stove waiting for the time to change to 10:00 - the time we expected her guests to arrive!

                                                          It's a heart cake this time!

                 With the girls sitting around the dining room table eating cake and drinking lemonade...

                                                 That's enough parties to last till next year....

Snookered!

I pride myself on being the type of gal that can say "No, thank-you!"  I remember years ago (before I was married) spending $40.00 on some Dead Sea hand lotion.  I'll never forget the feeling of indignation I felt that I had been snookered into buying hand lotion that I rarely use!  So, lesson learned, right?  Well, recently I picked up a pamphlet advertising Omaha Steaks.  Thinking that the offered deal looked pretty good ($40.00 for some steaks, burgers, hotdogs, chicken breasts and baked potatoes), I called the 1-800 number.  Bad mistake.  Let's just say that I got talked into $120.00 worth of steak, chicken, baked potatoes and I don't know what all.  I have never talked to such a convincing sales man (he had a southern accent; think that had anything to do with it???)  "Well, ma'am, I could give you this one-time limited special for a great price today.  Why don't you double the offer?"  Hmm, well, okay.  "Oh, and ma'am, if you were to add this other special, a delicious combination of various steaks, we could give you free shipping."  Well, that sounded good to me.  "Oh, and ma'am, it would be remiss of me to not mention that we have some delicious marinated pork chops for only $9.99!"  Finally, I had the sense to say, "no, thank-you," seeing that we rarely eat pork chops.  And so a couple of days ago, there was a knock at the door, and when I opened it, a large cooler sat on my front porch waiting to be opened.  It was at this moment that I wondered where in the world I was going to put all of this frozen meat?  Considering that I only have one small freezer it was an effort to stuff all of the "stuff" inside!  Be forewarned!  Don't open my freezer or you'll have a good chance of having frozen meat fall out and land on your toes!  Anyone else been snookered recently?

Palm Beach, Florida. Day 8-11

Palm Beach, Florida

                                           Nothing like having the entire beach to yourself!

 Out to dinner at the Key Lime House.  Don't ask how many pieces of Key Lime pie I had.  Sigh, just thinking of the pie makes me hungry!

                                                          Getting ready for the beach...

 Sunday night Mike made us a wine and cheese plate.  Here we are relaxing on the back balcony watching the sun go down over the inland waterway.

                                                              God's perfect painting!

                  Monday morning, and we were off to Johnny G's for a delicious breakfast.

 Okay, for all you folks that love those pregnancy poses, here's one for you.  Mike was going to sub for me as a laugh, but we decided not to.  Just pretend I am gazing off into the distance with a wistful expression on my face, hand on my belly and you get the picture....  :)

                                                                  Daddy and his girl.

                                                                  Lovin' the beach.

 In the lobby waiting for the elevator, another picture of Jules and Pammy.  I'm amazed at how many pictures Pammy is in!

                  Tuesday morning we went to a Playmobile store nearby.  Great fun for little girls!

                                                         Back at the Key Lime house...

                                                            AHHHH!  Its got me!

Day 7 - Make a Wish Trip

Day 7 ended our Make a Wish Trip at Give Kids the World in central Florida.  But that doesn't mean our vacation was over!  After spending the morning packing, we drove with Nana D. to my in-laws condo in Palm Beach.  We had a busy 6 days at Disney and Give Kids the World, and we were ready to relax.

 Our final morning at Give Kids the World.  Here Juliet is taking one final ride on the carousal.  I think she rode on that carousal five times every day and enjoyed every second of it!  She always picked the same horse, which she named "Sparkles"!

 Juliet saying "goodbye" to Sparkles.  Mike heard her whisper, "Goodbye, Sparkles!  Maybe I'll come back some day and volunteer!"  Sniff, sniff!

          That morning Mike and Jules had "ice-cream for breakfast!"  Jules is sitting here in the huge ice-cream bowl...

After a three hour drive, it's time to RELAX in sunny Palm Beach, Florida.

Day 6 - Make a Wish Trip

Day 6 - Make a Wish Trip
Day 6 was spent at the Animal Kingdom.  This was a very cool park to visit - kind of like going to a great zoo on steroids.  Of course, I think we only saw 1/4th of the whole park, but that's life with a 6 year old (and a pregnant mom)!  I'd rather enjoy seeing part of a park than desperately trying to take in an entire park in one day!  Perhaps some day we'll go back and see the rest of it.

 This was another one of those instances when I was very glad to have an excuse to not go on a ride.  Mike, Mandy and Jules went on some raft that got them SOAKED!  Jules was wet down to her britches!  I ended up buying a mickey mouse sundress for Jules to wear the rest of the day seeing she was so uncomfortable in her wet clothes.

                                                                 Ha Ha!  I'm the only dry one!

 We went on a safari and saw lots of animals.  Jules insisted we take a picture of the giraffes for "Nana's sake!"  (Nana D. is very into giraffes)!

 Well, after a few hours at Animal Kingdom, it's back to Give Kids the World and having dinner by the pool.  Is my child the only one who won't eat her bread crusts?  (It must run in the family; I used to hide my bread crusts around the edge of my plate - of course, my parents were completely fooled!)

 Jules wearing her new sundress.  This was when the cookie cart stopped (it came around twice a day, I think) and Jules received some chocolate chip cookies and lemonade.  YUM!

                                    At night they had a winter celebration in the main square!

                                           SNOW!!!  Well, sort of!  (I think it was foam).

                                                     Can't get enough of those penguins!