New Year's Eve!

 

It was an accident.

 Olive came to me, very very sad. She said, "This picture I drew makes me cry."

"What is it?" I ask.

"When I grow up, it is my baby, and she is gonna be eaten by alligators."

What in the heck is wrong with my weird kids?!?

She later said, "It was an accident. I didn't mean to draw it so sad."

Merry Christmas!

 

Sounds About Right

 Olive and Ivey are ballroom dancing in the living room! and Ivey is wearing a big dress-up dress. Right when I stop to notice how syrupy sweet this is, I hear Ivey say, "Now, pretend you notice that there is a box not the side of my dress and you see I'm actually a robot, and pretend to unplug my wires and I'll fall over."

From the Heart

I just had to take a picture of what is under our tree. For weeks, my kids have been drawing pictures, writing letters, and making things, wrapping them up as gifts, and placing them under the tree for each other.

Whew.

 One night, after being in Epcot for over 12 hours and getting to be after midnight, Olive woke up at 2am, sat straight up, and said:

"Do jellyfish ever go on land?"

I woke up and groggily answered, "No."

"Good" she said, and fell immediately back to sleep.

Journey of the Wood Sprite

Long, long ago, a king and queen and their two princes hoped to add a princess to their family.  The couple knew that the road ahead of them would not be an easy one, as they had once made a long quest to find their princes, leaving them no stranger to such travail. But this time, they set out on a different, longer and more treacherous quest to find the princess that they dreamed of.  On the way, their path was rocky.  They often fell, having to carry each other through the losses and disappointments.
In the deep dark forest, they met a witch, who tricked them, and many others, with her sorcery and the promise of a child.  But,in this story, there was not one villain but two.  The families were deceived, again, and their spirits were tattered and torn.  The king and queen had given up on the path they had chosen, and were lost and afraid.

Just then, a glimmer of light shown in the darkness, leading them to a new land. The trusted castle physician had come to give news of a tiny wood sprite that had been frozen until her future family could find her.  The king and queen stood (literally on Mainstreet of the Magic Kingdom), put their fears of failure aside, and said "yes" to the wise physician.  Exhausted as they were, they risked what little they had left, and followed him through a vaguely familiar land, hoping that the tiny frozen wood sprite would be theirs to hold.  With the physician's magic and by grace of God, the sprite thawed and grew, and nine months later, her big blue eyes opened, changing the castle forever.  (Shortly after, the wood sprite's magic even paved the way for a sister!)

Six years later, the sprite returned for the third time to the land where the king and queen learned of her frozen state, the land where they mustered up enough courage in their broken state to say "yes".  

And the sprite danced, stayed up all night, and soaked up every drop of magic in the Magic Kingdom.

And the king and queen rejoiced.

Sealed Its Fate

 This is Olive, who informed me that by snapping and shaking the glowstick, I have set in motion a series of events that will lead to its early death. There is no happy ending for a glowstick.

The 10-Day Christmas Disney Camping Adventure