For Gramma

Six months ago, today, my Gramma passed away. Six months ago, today, was Savannah's birthday. One of Savannah's middle names, was my Grandmother's first name. That's how special "Gramma G.G." was to me. I hope Savannah can always remember a little bit about Gramma.

Gramma was one of my most favorite people in the world. I miss her. She knew just about anything you could possibly ever really need to know. If you called she could tell you the answer to just about anything. She was better than "Google!" Now there are all kinds of things I'd like to know about, or how to do. I always think, "Gramma would know the answer to that!" Too bad I hadn't thought of all these questions sooner.

Mum and my Auntie Connie asked the 4 of us Grandchildren if we could write our memories of Gramma. They wanted them for different parts of the funeral service. This is what I wrote, it is still a work in progress. They liked it so much, they decided, along with Auntie Francie (Gramma's sister), that I should read it at the funeral service. Although I have stage fright, I did it. It was nice to be able to be a part of all the tributes to how great a person my Grandmother was. This is for you Gramma.

After reading this, many of you will see a lot of my Grandmother in me, I hope so anyway.

For Gramma, by Pamela



Gramma's Garden

Almost everything Gramma taught me I learned in her garden.

Always plant a garden, enough for yourself with plenty to share. Waste not, want not.

Be patient. The best things come to those who wait.

A little dirt never hurt anyone. Fresh vegetables from the garden are far better than any store bought ones.

A little hard work never hurt anyone either. Tend your garden with care.

Be kind to everyone and everything.

Enjoy nature. Encourage birds and other useful creatures to come to your garden.

Plant some things just for the pure beauty of them.

Share your knowledge with anyone willing to listen. Many times Gramma would be in her garden all day and not get "anything" done because she had so many visitors coming to see her beautiful flowers.

Always make time for others.

There should always be room for Lilies in your garden. One of Gramma's favorites. I thought they were, but anytime I asked, she always said Peonies!

Learn your A, B, C's - a for upfacing Lily, b for outward facing Lily, c for downward facing Lily!

Learn something new as often as you can. Gramma always gave gifts of books and magazine subscriptions to help all of us learn as much as possible.

Grow everything you can, your talents, friendships, knowledge and of course a garden!

Scrapbook testing!

Trying out something new!

When you get to the page with 4 photos on the bottom, pause the slideshow, you can click at the bottom right to pause and move forward or back in the show. After you pause on the 4 photo page, click on the individual photos at the bottom and they will load as larger photos up top. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

"Ponsa Time"

Three year olds still don't forget anything! We were on our way into the city to drop the kids off for shopping at the mall. Savannah wanted her vitamin. We told her it was at home. She still insisted on having it. Finally we told her she could have it when we got back home, if she reminded us. Almost 3 hours later we were on the way home. Savannah said "My vitamin's at home!" She was making sure we didn't forget. :D

Two nights ago as usual, I was tucking her into bed. After prayer, which she calls "Dear Heavenly Father," she had a different request. Usually she wants Daddy to come tuck her in right away too. This time she said "I want to do Ponsa time!" I asked her what that was. "Ponsa time!" I let her know I had no clue what that was. Then I asked her to do "Ponsa time."

"Ponsa time there was a Seepy E-UTee!"

"Oh!, Once apon a time there was a Sleeping Beauty!"

Then I proceeded to tell her a story about Savannah and her good day and how she was going to sleep now. What other Sleeping Beauty could there possibly be?

Have a great day all you believers and nonbelievers. Sleeping Beauty lives here!

Cristi's Blog Giveaway!

Cristi's Creations - maker of my current blog background is having her first ever blog giveaway! Several nice prizes to choose from if you wish to participate. My friend Kim regularly uses Cristi's backgrounds, all cute and easy to use. Check them out for your own use and entry into her giveaway.

Halloween Confusion!

Savannah is supposed to be going as Cinderella for Halloween this year. It's a costume we already had in the dress up clothes. We've just added fairy wings and a wand if she wants to be the Fairy Godmother. So far she has worn the costume to the Scarecrow Festival and then again this morning to play school.

Tonight she was supposed to wear it again for dance class. I made the mistake of telling her she had to wear her "Tinkerbell" costume to dance! She was Tinkerbell the last two years for Halloween. So immediately she latched on to my mistake! Tinkerbell and only Tinkerbell would do to go to dance class! Good thing I knew where it was, even the headband which was in a different spot then the rest of the costume. As soon as we got it on and made sure it fit, Savannah ran downstairs to get her Tinkerbell shoes from the dress up bin. She and the girls I babysit are always wearing those!

So I guess we shall see what she wants to wear when Halloween finally gets here! Thursday is another costume day as well.

Then on the way to dance we had this conversation!

Me: "What are you going to say when your teacher asks you what you are going to be for Halloween? (I thought she would say Cinderella, boy was I wrong!)

Savannah: "A dragon." (Thanks Auntie Jillian! - They played dress-up with a dragon costume on Saturday)

Me: "No, what are you going to be for Halloween?"

Savannah: "A dragon."

Me: "You are wearing your Tinkerbell costume, tell her you are Tinkerbell"

Savannah: GASPS! "That's so nice!"

Me: "You are funny Savannah!"

Savannah: Giggles and says something else funny, but I can't remember anymore!

Me: "You are being silly!"

Savannah: Giggles again. "Hamburger!"

We were passing by Boston Pizza. When I told her that it was "GASP, PIZZA!"

That's my girl!

Have a marvelous day with lots of FUNNY stuff in it!

Halloween Eyes!

Savannah bought a book at Denver's school book fair called "Goulish Goodies" If you click on that and then on the photo of the book you can see part of the book including most of the recipe for the eyeballs and a photo of them in the book.

Savannah, Alicia and I made the eyes for Savannah's playschool today and some for Tick Toc Time on Thursday. They taste great! I'm so excited I can eat them too, just not the Smarties we used for the irises, but that's okay.

Savannah was super excited to make them and take them to share with her friends at school today. So excited she forgot about her backpack which usually has to go with her! The eyes have it! :D

More Daddy's Girl!

For several days we have been hearing how Daddy is GORGEOUS! She always says, "Daddy Gorgeous!" Now we get to hear a few other people are gorgeous once in awhile, but mostly only Daddy.

Because of a song Daddy is also now "King of the World!" He said once he wasn't, but I told him he was King of Savannah's world and that's all that matters. Mummy likes this also because now I am the Queen! Savannah is the Princess and the other two are just Megan and Denver!

One day when Rick was leaving for work Savannah said, "I always sad."

Me: "Are you sad cause Daddy has to go to work?"

Savannah: "Yeah"

As soon as Daddy comes home from work she almost always runs to give him a hug and a kiss before she can continue what she was doing. If she doesn't get up in time to kiss and hug him goodbye in the morning, lots of times we have a very grumpy girl at home until she can see Daddy again! Sometimes we call him so she can give him a "phone kiss." Anytime I get a text on my cell phone she runs to it and says "Daddy!"

Yep, she's still Daddy's Girl!

Thanks!

This is for Kim and www.Thecutesblogontheblock.com. I finally figured out how to change the background on here! YAY! Enjoy everyone! See you again soon.

Pamela

Scarecrow Festival and cuteness!

The big spider doorway. It was the entry to the Halloween Dance. We didn't go in there. Savannah loved the spider though!

One of the displays. Doesn't "Daddy" look just like the skeleton, only with skin and a bit of hair? :D

A Jack-o-lantern display. This is what you get when you say "Say Cheese!" to a busy kid.

This is what you get when you say, "Look at Mummy and say cheese!"

This is what you get when you say "Are you smiling!" Yikes! Not looking forward to the next couple years of goofy face photos. This one is pretty cute though.

As soon as we got home it was her bedtime. So for her prayer she decided she had to say everything twice:

Dear Heavenly Father

Dear Heavenly Father

Thank you for Mummy and Daddy

Thank you for Mummy and Daddy

Thank you for Megan

Megan

and Denver

Denver

Please Bless Us

Please Bless Us

Please Bless Us

To have a good Day tomorrow

Jesus Christ, Amen

"Oh yeah, I say Daddy is Gorgeous!"

That last line comes from a discussion in Sears the other day. We saw a cute little boy with his Mum. I said to Savannah "Isn't that little boy cute?" She said, "Yeah, he's gorgeous!"

Where on earth did she get that from?????? Then she proceeded to tell me "Daddy is gorgeous too!"

What a precious little girl. I hope she never outgrows her cuteness or her love and admiration for our family.

Oh OH!

I think we are in for some real trouble over the coming years with Savannah!

What kind of trouble? The B-O-Y variety!

Denver has a friend named Tristian. Savannah refers to him as "My boy!"

Who does Savannah want to see all the time. "My cousins, my boys!" In fact she has been demanding for days to go visit her cousins, her boys. When I say demanding, I mean all the way to the city and back she says/hollers to go visit, "Her BOYS!"

Look out boys, here she comes!

Planting our Garden

We didn't have a real garden spot this year, so we planted peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions and cucumbers in our backyard flower beds.

This was the first day of planting. Savannah really wanted to help.

These are the first two rows of peas. I made the trenches and then showed her how to put the seeds in spaced nicely.

Doesn't she look so happy and proud to be helping?

First she did it just like I was. Then she decided to fill in all the spaces!

I thinned them out again for her and covered the rows. She helped pat the soil down over the seeds.

Next we planted a row of beans and she watered the whole thing with her little watering can.

The growing plants were a pretty big temptation at first. I had to replant several beans that she thought were ready to eat just after they popped out of the ground!

The next big temptation was peas. Every time we go to the car she had to (and still does) get a pea to eat (or several). Once in awhile she gets a little braver and searches for the hidden beans under the pea plants that fell over top and hid them.

The peas were much too tall for our homemade fence this year, so next year the fence will have to be much taller. They turned out to be sugar snap peas. VERY tasty, shell and all. Mmmmm

A few days ago I harvested the tomatoes and potatoes. One large pail of potatoes and 80 pounds of tomatoes from the greenhouse! I've made one batch of salsa (7 jars) so far. A new recipe to try. It's Pearadise Salsa. I use BerNARdin Salsa mix. It's a recipe that comes with that. We had a box of pears to use up, so thought we'd try it. Next will be a couple batches of Tomato-Pepper Salsa and LOTS of canned tomatoes. We use them in chili and all kinds of things instead of the boughten cans. Just figured out to do them in small jars instead of large ones.

Next year's garden is already forming in my mind and we haven't even harvested most of this year's yet! Lots of carrots and a few currants still to come this year.

Three Year Olds Don't Forget Anything!

So we took the kids shopping at a big mall last weekend. Megan took Savannah for a bit to go shopping at some store that only Megan would be interested in. To get her to behave, Megan told Savannah that she would buy her an ice cream if she was good. About half an hour later they met up with the rest of us at “Old Navy” so I could try some outfits on Savannah. I couldn’t figure out why she kept talking about ice cream. After we picked out her outfits we went out to find Megan again. After asking her why Savannah was talking about ice cream she replied, “Because she didn’t forget!”

Have you ever noticed how various stores and businesses have different things they do for kids? Savannah equates the post office, doctor’s office, Salsa Tots and a music class to getting stickers. Walmart equals fries from McDonald’s which we do NOT get every time, just on long trips when we stop at specific Walmarts on the way. I like the convenience of being able to eat and do other shopping without loading a kid in and out of the car again! Savannah thinks Costco is about getting food samples, sharing a hot dog with Mummy and getting a smiley face drawn on the receipt as you leave the store. If the lady just tries drawing a line through the receipt, Savannah says “Smiley Face” quite loudly until the lady obliges her with one! Thank goodness the bakery counter people aren’t always at the counter when we go to Safeway. Don’t want her figuring out you can get a free cookie there all the time! Besides, that’s what Auntie Amber’s is for.

Mention the park or swimming might be on tomorrow’s agenda? Better be prepared to do that, or she won’t let you hear the end of it unless there is something even better planned instead. Drive by a midway set up somewhere. “Look Mummy! So FUN!!!!!” Cornfest is next weekend, complete with a midway, guess we’d better be prepared to drop a small fortune there! It will be so FUN though. Cornfest is something I look forward to all year. Guessing Savannah won’t have a problem going next time either!

Garage Sale Day

A couple weeks ago I decided to have a garage sale. I have several rose bowls and flowers arrangement containers to sell or give away. Instead of just selling the containers I thought I’d try selling arrangements. These are a couple of them. Unfortunately none sold, but first we, then a friend of mine got to enjoy them.

Savannah did some of her own garage sale shopping from the items that same friend brought over for us to sell. Here she is in her “new” unicorn slippers, hat and purse full of toy treasures!

The Hair

Here is Denver and his "Beautiful Hair!" Two before photos.

He even combed it so he would look good for the pictures.

This is what was to be an after photo. Then he wanted a design carved into the side. His hair was still too long, so it didn't work properly. He said he just needed a prison sign for these photos, he felt like he was getting his mugshot taken! Doesn't the expression on his face look like it too?

This is a final after photo, with the new shaved head and star carved in the side!

Daddy's Girl

I think Savannah went into Daddy withdrawal when I took her to Manitoba for 10 days. She had lots of fun picking Strawberries, swimming, going to Auntie Francies', watching the parade and going to the fair. ( Oh yeah, during the parade a little boy was throwing play money to the crowd. Savannah got a pretend $10 bill and said it was Daddy's!)

When we weren't busy she was busy being a little stinker!!!!! Big attitude and lots of whininess.

Daddy had to come out to pick up a buffet for Mummy to bring back home. He got there really late. Savannah was so excited when she woke up in the morning and saw Daddy in bed! She had to come over and poke Mummy to show her that Daddy was there too. :D

Daddy spent the morning with us. Savannah was a changed little girl. So HAPPY! After that she was a GOOD girl for the rest of the trip. We didn't get back home with Daddy for two more days.

When we got home, Daddy was already camping. We just had to get ready and get out to the campground too. Savannah was excited to be home and play with all her things, so it took a little while to get her back in the car. As soon as we were in there though, it started! "We going canting, Mummy? Canting with Daddy?" Over and over until we got to the campground.

The funniest thing though was after we had been there for awhile. Savannah ran up to Daddy and said "You missed me Daddy!" Only she said "miss" instead of "missed."

Yep, I think she is glad to be home again!

Birthday Number 3!

It's hard to believe Savannah is 3 already! The first three photos are from her actual birthday. She woke up in the morning to find Tinkerbell and the rest of the Disney Fairies all over the living room floor! She thought that was lots of fun.






When she was done playing Fairies I asked her what she wanted to do next. Her answer was "Hot Dog!" This is what she meant.




After that we got ready to go pick up her best friend Mya and her Mum to take them to the mall to "Build-A-Bear." Unfortunately I had camera issues, so had to get a disposable one to take photos there. Of course they aren't great, but at least they were something. Not going to scan them on here though.

Mya made a snow leopard and Savannah made a Kitty. It's grey with a pink flowery dress. She named it "Kitty!"

Hadn't planned on doing much else there, but ended up getting a short and shirt outfit for her as well and a Belle facecloth at the Disney Store. Yep, spoiled.

These next photos are from her birthday party on the 20th of June.

Ariel is her favorite princess right now so I thought it would be fun to make her an Ariel cake.  I had a little trouble with runny icing this year, but it was still cute.

This is Savannah's best friend, Mya.  The girls were playing with dress-up hair I got from the Dollar Store.

I used to babysit Cari.  She brought her little brother to the party too.

Akaycia having fun peeking out of Savannah's playhouse from last year's birthday.  It is well used by all the girls.

Playing with the hair, magic wands, and a new "golf" game I got for the kids to play with outside.

Big sister Megan, suntanning in the mess!

Time to open presents.  I wonder what could be in here?

It's Seepy Beutie, Mum!  (Sleeping Beauty).  Unfortunately this doll has already had a beheading accident!  She still brushes it's hair though.  I really need to find some good glue and fix it one of these days.

More Fairies from Disney World

Blowing out her candles.  Mya's Daddy, Tim says this was the best cake ever!  He kept calling it the "really good cake!"

Serenity really enjoyed her cake, she kept trying to get more, as did her sister.

Now that I'm three I wonder what kind of trouble I will get into this year???  I'm sure Mum will let you know!  :D

What Rick Got for Father's Day!

I absolutely LOVE this photo of Savannah. So for Father's Day I got part of this printed on 3 golf balls for Rick. She thinks they are hers now though! I mean, after all, they do have her face on them! :D

I got him a chainsaw to cut wood for our fireplace and campsite. What's that compared to our daughter's cuteness on a golf ball?




As a few people have said: "You mean, he will be hitting Savannah's face?" No, these are too special, he will save them forever.

My Little Big Helper

Savannah just LOVES to do this job! All our toilet paper from Costco comes individually wrapped (what a waste, but it's cheap!) As soon as she saw a new package last night she was trying to rip into it to do "her job." Unfortunately it was long past her bedtime, so I had to dissuade her from doing it last night. I'm glad she still wanted to do it this morning. She was watching t.v. at the same time. (Already a multi-tasker!) After she gets a tower of about five rolls she tells me they are ready. I get to put them away in the cupboard. Every time I take a tower I get an emphatic Thank You! Near the end I get her to take bunches of four rolls. She knows exactly where to put them. What a good little big helper. :D

More Funny Words and Stuff

A few days ago we went to our playgroup, but Savannah's best friend Mya couldn't come. She was sick. Savannah was so disappointed that Mya couldn't come. We talked about it for quite awhile as she kept asking about Mya. Today we were planting some special Lily bulbs from Gramma G.G. and Savannah started talking about Mya. "Yeah, she's sick, she has a beber!!" It was cute. I'm glad she is learning compassion for others.

"Tater's" birthday party was on May 9th. It was lots of fun. In Savannah's treat bag there was a skipping rope. I think she has seen them a few times on "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" which is one of her favorite shows. She calls the skipping rope her "Jumping Bean!"

Bay Bing Soup sounds more like Baby Soup now. (See previous post if you don't know what this is about!)

We had spaghetti for supper and a lunch this week. Savannah doesn't even try to say spaghetti. She just wants NOONles.

For a month or so now I've noticed she has quite the imagination. She does a lot of talking to herself and her toys when she is playing. Recently she must have found an imaginary friend. She is always mad at it though. Last week in the sandbox (alone) she hollered out, "Give me back my shovel!" She also hollers things at Akaycia when she is not here. It's funny because she and Akaycia don't fight that much when Akaycia is here. Today she was telling her to "Get out of my car Akaycia!" Strange.

I other news, I am finally getting stuff planted out in the flowerbeds. The ugly Juniper is gone from the front, the grey landscape rocks are being taken by people and I am making a raised flowerbed in the back with larger rocks all around it. So glad it is Spring again!

Funny Stuff

This is mostly going to be about little things Savannah says and does, but I have to put in one thing of Megan's! :D

So here is Megan's funny thing: One day after school Megan told me that when she was getting ready for seminary she thought her toothpaste was burning her mouth. So then she caught herself blowing on her toothpaste to cool it! Afterwards she wondered if she had really done it or dreamt it. The next day she told me she did it again! Oh, the things you do when you are half asleep!

Recently we visited one of the girls I used to babysit in my day home. Her name is Taylor. Now Savannah can't stop talking about "My Tater!"

When we drive by places she recognizes she has to make sure we all KNOW about them. For example, quite loudly she will say "I see Denver's school, See, Denver's school, Daddy, Denver's school, Mummy, see, Denver's school. I see Denver's school!" Yep, she says it that much, over and over until she can't see it anymore. No one else can have a conversation until we are past it because she is much too loud and insistent that you "See it too!" Replace "Denver's school" with "Megan's school" or the swimming pool.

The swimming pool is funnier though. It's "I SEE SWIMMING! I SEE SWIMMING! Ariel, my bay bing soup! Ariel swimming, my bay bing soup! My bay bing soup at home? Tater bay bing soup?" "Tater" lives near the pool as Savannah just discovered! Oh dear. Ariel is on her Little Swimmers and is also her new favorite Disney Princess. (My favorite part of this is her bay bing soup! It sounds just exactly like that.)

Overheard quite often when she is talking on her new Princess cell phone from Flower Gramma (or any other phone she can get her hands on, or something that she is pretending is a phone, could be her hand, or a dress up shoe, or just about anything!) "HehWoah, yeah, Ariel lives far away. Yeah, Princess. Oh, okay, bye."

As Megan's friend Jordi just discovered Savannah is also a texter. She has been copying Megan and texting for quite awhile now. Jordi was sitting in the back seat and just amazed by that. She said "No Megan, you don't understand, she's really texting! She's pushing some of the numbers twice and everything!" I have a feeling she's texting the world that "Ariel lives far away!" She also knows Aerie lives far away and sometimes mentions that too.

SUPPER READY! Ask her to go tell Megan and/or Denver or Daddy that supper is ready and she runs to the top of the stairs or to the living room, depending where they are and HOLLERS that at the top of her lungs!

Yeah, she gets loud and excited about a lot of things.

Drive by McDonald's and she wants chicken and pies (fries). If we turn in there, "Chicken and pies" is accompanied by "Yay!" and a lot of excited clapping! We don't eat there much, usually just on long trips, so it is exciting! lol

Going for a trip on the elevator? Nope, it's an alligator!

Watching Peter Pan? Nope, it's called scary! (That's for the scary pirates like we saw at Disney World on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride. She loved it and says "Scary pirates, arrrr all the time.)

Ladybugs are "gonna get you!" and apparently spiders are "scusting," but she is okay with me putting them outside.

Things that taste good are "Liscious!"

"Bye, Daddy! Bye, Daddy's truck!"

"Bye, have a good day!" that's for everyone that ever comes here and leaves this house.

Hope your day is wonderful and you find something funny in it to laugh about later!

Florida

Well this is an odd first picture to put on here, but everything is in order! This is the first day (Sunday) we were in Rockledge. Kim, Charles, and Aerie took us on a nature drive to look for Gators. This was the only one we saw. If you look closely he/she is under the water in the middle! It was actually pretty chilly out, though you can't tell by our clothes! When we got to Florida it was in the middle of record cold temperatures since the 1980's! Oh goody for us! Kim told us the front page of the paper had been warning about the "Dangerous Killing Frosts" that were coming. It did freeze a bit just a day or two before we arrived.

Savannah just loved playing with the rocks on the road.

Look at me!

Beautiful scenery



Savannah and Aerie playing with sticks.

Monday - Leu Gardens in Orlando (you can Google that to read more)

Lots and lots of pretty flowers

Famous for it's large Camellia collection

Click to enlarge and read all about it if you are interested.

Bulbine frutescens "Hallmark" - Cat Tail Lily

Savannah and Rick in front of a cactus that is almost as tall as Rick!

Almost ready to bloom. I think this is a cute cactus, wouldn't want to touch it though!

I couldn't believe it, Megan asked for a photo of the three of them!

Citrus maxima "Hirado" - Hirado Pummelo

There were quite a few citrus trees here. They had signs saying the fruit goes to local food banks.

Tuesday - Seaworld with Kim and Aerie

What's going on? This look familiar!

Look Mummy and Daddy! So excited!

It's Shamu!!!!!

Almost as tall as a penguin

Our friend Aerie

She must be two also! She is 5 months younger than Savannah, but very tall! I remember my sister, Jillian, smiling like this EVERY time a camera was pointed her way!

The Dolphin show

This squirrel came an found something right by our feet! That is our stroller wheel at the top of the photo.

White birds everywhere you looked - several varieties, here are a couple.

The end of the day, one tired little girl

Wenesday we went to Daytona Beach and drove on the beach for a bit. Also played outside for a very little while. It was cold. We were still in summer clothes, but we saw a few Floridians wearing parkas with only their eyes showing through the front of the hoods! It was funny.

Thursday - DisneyWorld for 6 days!

About day three it finally got warm and then kept getting warmer until it was too hot for me the first day at Universal Studios.

Character buffet. Savannah was elated to meet the characters from one of her favorite shows.

Piglet

Megan likes Eeyore, really. She asked me to take this photo.

So excited to see everyone!

Tigger practically mauled Denver and Megan!

Pooh bear

The planter as you come in to the restaurant

Cinderella's Castle and Fireworks

Ariel - Savannah's new favorite Princess

Mickey Mouse

Kissing Pluto on the nose. She HAD to kiss almost every character she met!

Looking at a piece of grass she found. I like the leaves in the cement.

Kissing Jimminy Cricket

He's one of my favorites

Daddy and Savannah sitting on a big claw waiting for the parade before lunch at the Yak and Yeti

Digging in to their favorite big brownie dessert

My favorite, mango, lemon, and raspberry sorbet.

Savannah and Lucky

Nemo got me!

Part of the Beauty and the Beast Musical

High school Musical 3

I actually watched the people on the left in blue more than the show. They were doing ASL for someone. They were at the Beauty and the Beast Musical as well. It was just as much of a show watching them, not just for the signs (which Savannah and I are learning), but for their actual acting and expressions.

Lightening McQueen

All of us and Mater too!

Riding an ant at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground

A big dog nose that "sniffed" periodically

Herbie, a favorite in my house as a child.

So proud of her Mickey ketchup. Apparently our server was the only one that does that.

Sitting in "our car" at the Sci-Fi "Drive-in" restaraunt

My favorite hat that Savannah tried on

Another of Savannah's favorites. Tinkerbell. Metting the Fairies was new this year. What a treat!

She just loves Minnie, Mickey and getting her photo taken most of the time.

The Mickey hat at Hollywood Studios themepark

Meeting Stitch

He combed Savannah's hair with his claws

Chip and Dale, another of my favorites

On some crates where we tried to do a family photo last year too.

More like last year, outside a store.

Outside of the park gates

Brer Rabbit

Another kiss!

Loved Timon, scared of Rafiki for some reason. He was the only character she was scared of this year.

Brer Bear. This was really special.



I remember commercials for Disney that showed children walking through the parks with Mickey or Minnie holding their hands. That NEVER happens, at least not from what we have seen. Then Savannah charmed Brer Bear so much with her kiss that he escorted us to the gate of the Animal Kingdom! Denver took the photos for us. Unfortunately Daddy and Megan weren't there to see this.

Universal Studios

Sitting in the car at the Curious George water playground

Riding on the Carosuessel

Stuff in the Cat in the Hat store. Savannah's favorite ride. I lost track of how many times we went on this one!

A little show we watched.


Alex and the penguins from Madagascar

Kissing Curious George!


Shaggy and Scooby-Doo

Daddy being eaten by "Jaws"

Megan's turn

I used to have a cat named Finnigan (this is one letter different)

King Daddy at the Medival dinner

Some of the show.

Two of the actors, Savannah had to pose with them.

The Cirque du Soliel store at Downtown Disney

Trying on a hat and trying to figure out the nose. She never did get it on properly.

Masks

Friday, Gator tour

We saw so many gators, it was unbelievable!

I love this little flower. We stopped on a bit of land for awhile in the middle of the ride. There were plenty of gators nearby. We also saw softshell turtles during the ride.

Our airboat from the tour

Denver came with Rick and I, Savannah is too small to go and Megan didn't want to.

After this we went and tried some gator meat at a school bus restaurant down the road. I only ate about 4 pieces. It had a weird, not quite rubbery texture that I couldn't get past. It didn't taste bad though.

Saturday - Miami

This was at breakfast at the nice hotel across the street from our not as nice one! We had a beachfront hotel though. The beach there is so nice! We couldn't stay long though, there were parking issues there, so we packed up and drove down to Key Largo.

From the upper deck of a glass bottomed boat we could see lots of Mangroves on the way out to Molasses Reef.

The rest of my Key Largo photos are not digital, so they won't be on here. We had lots of fun there! It was so nice to relax at the hotel pool. The beach was not nice like Miami, but we really enjoyed it there. Met several people at the pool and Savannah had lots of friends to play with and borrow toys from.

The glass bottomed boat took us over the reef to see lots of species of coral and fish. That was nice as we learned lots of names of ones that Rick, Denver and I saw the next day while snorkelling over the reef. That was much scarier for me than snorkelling in Mexico. In Mexico I didn't jump off a boat into the deep ocean, we swam in from the edge there!!! I still enjoyed it though. Denver didn't go in much, he wants to practice in the pool here first so he is comfortable with breathing with a snorkel before he tries again. We are hoping to go in Hawaii in December this year. Really hoping we can go!!!

Back to Universal Studios for their Mardi Gras celebration

Savannah testing out the seat for the Hulk roller coaster

Now you see her

Now you don't!!!!!

Rick with Megan and her abs shirt! And her cow named Ty. Rick says I have no idea how many bad ab jokes he had to listen to after she got that shirt.

Denver and some of the beads from the parade.

The next day we had to leave for home :( Bye for awhile Florida! Now Savannah asks on a regular basis to "Go see Princesses!" She asked the first time when we landed in Calgary at the end of all our plane rides! Someday she will understand how far away they really are.

We really had a great time with Kim, Charles and Aerie. I'm sorry there aren't more photos of us with them. I've realized the days when we were relaxing and not going, going, all day I didn't take many photos! There's not a single one of the house or even the animals there! Next time, right Kim! :D

THE END