Figures...

If you're a mom of 2 or more children...you may have already learned this lesson...but if you're the mom of 1 or are planning to start a family...let this be a cautionary tale...

Since Ruth Ann was born I've lived in fear that she would one day cut her lovely blond locks of hair. Since the play room doubles as my sewing room she has seen me use scissors often...and I have found small cuts in fabric and projects I was working on in the past...but never her hair. When she was in 2 year old preschool her teachers commented on how she didn't use scissors well...and I thought "Well of course she can't, she's not permitted to come within 5 feet of them at home.". Eventually she picked up good scissors skills at school and I did buy some child appropriate scissors for home.

But all this time when I was keeping my eye on Ruth Ann, Tripp saw an opportunity and decided to give himself a hair cut this week while I was taking a shower...



While he is very cute...he cut several inches of hair from the area around his part. And I realize it could be much worse...he turns 2 in a week and I wanted to have 2 year pictures taken & we had pictures with Santa yesterday...so this hair style he selected for himself will be forever remembered in our Christmas 2012 pictures...Merry Christmas!

Disney Cruisin'

If I had a nickel for every time Ruth Ann has said she wished we were back on Mickey's Big Boat...I'd have plenty of money for Christmas shopping this year.  We were spoiled...and even the 3 (almost 4) year old knew it.  Tripp still talks about Mickey's Big Boat so even the almost 2 year old was won over.  We had The.Best.Time!  Hands down, best vacation ever!  EVER!  Allow me to overload you with pictures now...



Oh Mickey, you have no idea how much we have looked forward to seeing you!!

 



They announce your family as you walk onto the ship...



And the characters are EVERYWHERE...we got to see everyone we wanted to see multiple times...



We suited up and hit the pool...



Tripp was prohibited from getting into the pool due to an "anti-swim diaper" policy...which I'm in agreement with. Thankfully they had a great splash area for little ones...



Then we down stairs for our safety drill...



Rotten 1 and Rotten 2 looked like cruising pros before we even left the port! Tripp fell asleep during the safety drill...I would have been responsible for him in case of an emergency so I took notes for him. Then we headed back up stairs and Tripp nearly missed our big exit from port...



 And we're off!!!









We got dressed for dinner and I enjoyed my Mickey themed dessert...



We got back to our room to find our first towel animal...



And Ruth Ann discovered her bed that came out of the ceiling...she thought she was big stuff sleeping up top...



Someone else wanted to climb up and down the ladder...repeatedly...this made Grammy really nervous...I've excepted this child will always be just inches from needing stitches...so I wasn't as bothered by it...



We fell asleep and woke up the next morning in the Bahamas...







Someone became quite the little hugger...





We were a little afraid to get on the boat alone, so we just stayed on the boat and played all day...





My favorite...watching The Little Mermaid on a giant screen while sitting at the pool...there may have also been an adult beverage in my hand...



My little pirate loved driving this ship in the interactive painting...



And both the kids loved the never ending supply of food on the 11th floor deck...they could have sat with a bowl of grapes all.day.long!



We returned from dinner to find another towel animal...



 And then woke up the next morning at Disney's private island...













I'm using this picture to show Arch how much he would enjoy spending time on the island...

















 And just one more...because I can't get enough of that face!!



Oh how I miss that blue water...and our sweet home away from home...







Back to the boat...and back to the pool...





This was the night of the Presidential election...we had hoped our towel animal was a prediction for who the winner would be...



Sadly, it was not... This same night was pirate night. Since my kids were pirates for Halloween we redressed in our Halloween clothes from the evening. After a show with Capt. Jack Sparrow on the 11th floor there were fireworks from the boat...Disney is the only cruise ship that has permission to shoot fireworks...





The hugger returned when she spotted one of her favorite characters...







Here's what the kids pool looked like without water...it had to be drained because of a #2 accident in the pool...more evidence why swim diapers are a no no!

 

This was our day at sea, so we spent a lot of time at the pool...



 I'm not sure what set Tripp off...but he's just so funny when he's mad...



 Wait, it gets better...



 Tripp and I headed up stairs to get a good view...





And look who cheered up...













We met the captain of our ship...Captain Henry...



By day 3, Rotten #1 could have given out lessons on cruise attire...doesn't she look like a pro??!!

We got dressed for dinner...I'm posting a picture of this dress because I was sewing the buttons on the night before we boarded the ship...this was a dress I started working on months ago...and kinda lost interest. But I was determined to see her wear it...and she did!

















And someone fell asleep again as we were waiting in line to see Capt. Hook & Mr. Smee...

 

 Mr. Smee didn't make him happy when he woke up...



 And look who met her favorite pirate...





Then I left the kiddos with my mom so I could go play the final Bingo game on the cruise...it came highly recommended by Andrea, who has won money there in the past...it wasn't worth the investment in tickets for me...I should have stayed and napped!



I think I love them the most when they're sleeping soundly like this...they just look so sweet! We headed to dinner and met Captain Mickey...



And visited with a few other characters too...





Then we, very sadly, had to leave the ship bright and early...like 7am early...the next morning. The end of a vacation is never fun...the end of a Disney vacation is never EVER fun...and the end of a Disney cruise is about the saddest event ever...EVER! Thankfully my 2 Disney addicts slept or watched movies all the way so that helped with the depression of coming off our Disney high...I felt like it took me a week to fully re-adjust back to society.







It helps me to know we WILL be going back...BEST.VACATION.EVER!!