first day of school {august 2018}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

The kids started school one week ago! I have to say there was much less anticipation leading up to the first day, unlike last year. It was really interesting to go back and read last year’s post, especially since Crosby was starting at a different school last year before we made the decision only a couple weeks later to quickly change to his current school. It seems so much longer ago! Nonetheless, he’s is starting VPK (voluntary pre-kindergarten) this year, which means only one more year until they are going to the same school again!

Kenley started first grade with one less tooth this year! Greg pulled her top tooth the night before school started. Even a week later, her smile still catches me off guard! She was so looking forward to getting back to school, meeting her teacher, and the new friends in her class. She was also happy to find out that some of her old friends are in her extended day class so it’s the best of both worlds!

We headed to Crosby’s school first which was super busy and full of families dropping off their kids. He did such a great job. We made our way to Kenley’s school next since we were allowed to walk her in on the first day. I was happy to see that our sidewalk chalk wasn’t washed away by the rain the night before.

Both of the kids had great first days of school. We are looking forward to a great year!

18Jul2018

Legoland {July 2018}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

On Saturday, we headed to Legoland for a final trip before our passes expire. We’ve had so many great experiences there the last few years, but we are ready for a little break. The Wrights joined us on Saturday too, which made it even better!

We rode the horses for the first time ever!

LEGO Friends are their favorite!

There were a few new Star Wars additions to Miniland, which Crosby was very excited about! I think LEGO Chewbacca was everyone’s favorite.

We rode almost every ride in the park, in just a few short hours.

It was hot and sweaty, but we had so much fun!

See ya soon, Legoland!

8Jul2018

4th of July {2018}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

We kicked off our 4th of July holiday with the Firecracker 5k in our community! Kenley and I signed up the morning of, so there wasn’t much training involved in this 5k. My expectations were low and I knew there would be a significant amount of walking involved. Kenley was excited that her friends were there too!

She did a good job but you can definitely tell the difference from a 5k in January versus a 5k in July. It was hot and humid!

After the 5k, we had some friends over for food, frose, and fireworks!

We had such a fun and eventful day celebrating our independence!

13Jun2018

Hollywood Studios {June 2018}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

To kick off the first couple days of summer, we headed to Hollywood Studios on June 1st. This was a much anticipated trip as it was the first ride on the Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster for a few of the friends. The morning started with a trip to Starbucks to fuel the day.

We thought we may have time for Star Tours before our first fast pass but it took a while to get into the park, so we headed straight for Tower of Terror. We ended up doing child swap and taking turns going up in the tower. Kenley lucked out and got to ride it twice.

After Tower of Terror we saw the Frozen Sing Along show. This was our first time seeing the show and I am truly disappointed in us. The show is hilarious! I kept telling Greg that I can’t wait for him to see it.

We hit up Star Tours next before it was lunch time!

We opted for some indoor activities after lunch and saw the Muppets in 3D! It was a cute show, but not as cool in there as we had hoped.

Before heading over to what we thought would be our last fast pass of the day, we met Chewbacca!

Riding Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster with six year olds is the best. The looks on their faces are priceless. They both love the ride so much, but the start of it gets them every time.

Half of our party were able to snag an additional fast pass for Toy Story in the evening, so Remi in guest relations hooked us all up with fast passes AND free ice cream for the kids. Obviously, we got a selfie with him. Our day had been extended a couple more hours, so we headed back out for some dinner.

We caught the Little Mermaid show before ending the day with Toy Story! It was such a long day, but so much fun!

We kicked off summer the best way we knew how and these mamas were tired by the end of the day!

27Apr2018

4.5 Years Old

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

Crosby’s half birthday snuck up on me a little less considering Kenley’s was last week. I made a point to go back and read Kenley’s 4.5 year old post because I love seeing how similar they are to each other. I made a comment about how great age four is and I fully believe that to be the case. I think it continues to get better, but there is such a big difference between the ages three and four. Crosby has been no different. He is truly a little boy now and is still as sweet as ever (most days). He continues to be such a cuddler, lover, and a hugger. He’s always up for a snuggle or wants to hold a hand.

On the other hand, he’s a wild man. He’s constantly active and when he gets excited, he talks a mile a minute. If he doesn’t have your undivided attention when he wants to say something, he’ll be sure to get it. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard “mommy” more times in a minute than I do with him. He’s fearless in the sense that he will run, climb, jump, or flip on anything. He’s also scrapped up a lot too. His poor knees always have Band-aids on them. He skipped training wheels altogether and started riding his two-wheel bike just after his 4th birthday. After much debate, we opted to skip soccer season for him this spring, but we’re going to try out gymnastics this summer to see how he likes it.

We are still loving Crosby’s new school. He is learning so much and I am really impressed with his writing. He filled in a couple of lines on Kenley’s spelling homework this week and I had a hard time telling it was his writing instead of hers. His class goes on walking field trips and visits the businesses in our community, which is so stinking cute. He’s officially registered for VPK in the fall and only has one more year until he’s going to be a rising kindergartner.

One of the biggest differences between he and Kenley are their sleeping habits. They’re pretty much polar opposites. Crosby is much like his mama and Kenley is just like her daddy. C-man is not a morning person and occasionally has to be woken up to get ready for school. Kenley pops out of bed about the same time every single day and is immediately ready to start the day. It takes Crosby a while to wind down and actually fall asleep at night and for naps. Both of the kids nap on one day of the weekend, usually when it’s most convenient for us.

Crosby has really gotten into Star Wars since we started going to Disney. Hollywood Studios is our favorite park and his absolute favorite ride is Star Tours. He is constantly building with Legos and most of the time he builds his own versions of AT-AT walkers, TIE fighters, or snowspeeders. His book of choice for bed each night is one of two Star Wars books with all of the different stories in them. Somehow, I always end up reading the story where Darth Vader says “Luke, I am your father.” I’m not sure what else happens in any of the other Star Wars stories. We still haven’t watched any of the movies, but they are on the list for family movie nights.

Crosby Martin, you keep us on our toes and keep us laughing every single day.

Happy half birthday!

19Apr2018

6.5 Years Old

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

This half birthday completely snuck up on me! I’m not sure where the time is going. Kenley is officially six and a half years hold and only has about six weeks left of kindergarten. She is doing really well in school and has adjusted well. The days are still pretty long for her so she’ll occasionally nap on the weekends when her attitude warrants a nap. She hasn’t had much homework (thank goodness), but she does have weekly spelling tests and some math tests. All of the grades were required to do a science experiment and their projects were showcased at the science fair last month. Kenley’s project will represent her class at the Orange County STEM Fair next month!

Soccer has started back up again, so she is excited to be playing again. We never got back into gymnastics because the gym was just too far from school and it was too much for a weeknight. This year, she’s already ran/walked the Lady Track Shack 5k and ran the Smile Mile on behalf of her school! We may start a new sport this summer, but I’m not sure what yet.

Since we got annual passes to Disney in September, she has become quite the thrill seeker. Her favorite ride is basically any roller coaster at Disney. Everest at Animal Kingdom and Rock n Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios is her favorite. She’s been on Tower of Terror twice and is trying to convince Crosby go to on it next time, but each time, she really doesn’t like it. I am really impressed with her as I can assure you, I was not riding these type of rides as a six and a half year old.

I am pretty sure Kenley is growing about an inch a week. I can’t believe how long her legs are and how big her feet are. In January, she got glasses which she wears (almost) daily at school and most of the time on weekends. She has also lost two teeth! Her bottom two teeth were the first to go and her top two are starting to get wiggly. She’s getting her first six year molar which she’s complained about a bit. She has also had strep throat twice in the last month!

Happy half birthday, Kenley Dee!

3Apr2018

Hollywood Studios {March 2018}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

We ended spring break with a day trip to Hollywood Studios. We decided that we would maximize our time at the park and planned to stay the whole day, which is not something we normally do.

My original plan was to meet Buzz and Woody before our first fast pass, but Donald and Daisy were right by the entrance, so we stopped for pictures and autographs. Kenley is really into having the characters sign our character book. I love the picture of she and Daisy together.

Our first fast pass was put on hold since Toy Story was down (an important detail later), so we headed to Star Tours and were able to get right on the ride. Star Tours is Crosby’s favorite ride so I was happy to have him be able to do it twice in one day.

After Star Tours, we watched the March of the First Order and headed to the Launch Bay to meet Kylo Ren.

Toy Story ended up opening again, so we were able to use our fast pass later on in the morning (along with every other person in the park), but we were excited to get on it. It is one of our absolute favorite rides of all the parks.

In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to get on a ride that had been down all morning because we got to the end of the ride and it stopped…then it stopped again, for good. Several very nice cast members came to get us out of our seats and walk us out of the ride. They had already cleared all of the guests in the 2+ hour waiting line and gave us an extra fast pass to use that day. We were making memories, that’s for sure!

After lunch, we headed to Tower of Terror. Greg and Kenley rode this together once, but I hadn’t been on it in so long. Kenley talked about it all week long, but started to get nervous as we boarded our elevator. I forgot how cool and thrilling it is! Kenley likes it but definitely had a death grip on my arm the whole time (as you can see in the picture).

We used our extra fast pass on the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster! Kenley was adamant that she wanted to ride it but I wasn’t sure she would be tall enough. She stood very tall and was so excited to ride it. She and Greg wanted to make silly faces, but you can see the surprise in she and Jackson’s eyes as we took off. They both loved it and Kenley can’t wait to do it again. I love that she is fearless with roller coasters because I definitely wasn’t like that when I was her age!

I went for a second time with mom so she could use her fast pass too. Crosby was so good while he waited for us, so we happily went back to ride Star Tours again for him.

We had such a fun day at Hollywood Studios. The weather was amazing, the park wasn’t that busy, and the company was great!

We’ll see ya real soon, Goofy!

9Jan2018

Christmas Break, cont.

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

My favorite photo floating around social media this year included the phrase “the bit between Christmas and the New Year when you don’t know what day it is or who you are”. I definitely felt that this year. It was a weird week coming back from Christmas in Sarasota on Tuesday, then going back to work the following Tuesday. We had a jam packed week and it honestly flew by!

Crosby spent most of his time out of school in his pajamas and the kids loved their new sleeping bag/pillow combos they got for Christmas. There was a lot of cartoon and movie watching done from them.

On Friday, Heather and I got our 26.2 tattoos and Michelle got her nose pierced! Kenley was pumped that Livie came over to play during that time. Also, don’t let my smiles fool you, that little sucker really hurt even though he was done in less than two minutes.

Greg and I snuck out for happy hour on Friday to celebrate Ryan’s new job!

On Saturday, we got to see our friends in from Montreal! I love seeing these kids together again around our table. They picked up right where they left off from their last visit in July. It was so good to catch up over Moscow mules and instant pot chili.

Greg worked a few days during the break, so we headed out to Light Up UCF on NYE to do some ice-skating while he was working. They also got me on the ferris wheel which I was not a fan of, but the views were pretty good.

Greg and I capped off our Christmas break with a trip to the Peach Bowl in Atlanta which I will share more about this week. Thankfully, my parents stayed until the 2nd and were able to watch the kiddos for the day. We had such a great break and were so thankful to see both of our families and lots of friends.

4Jan2018

Florida Christmas {2017}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

We headed down to Sarasota this year to celebrate Christmas in Florida with Greg’s family. We had an amazing five days filled with family, fun, and sun.

The kids spent a lot of time in and on the water. It was way too cold for me to even think about getting in. The boys caught several fish from the dock and I paddle boarded with the manatees!

We had dinner out on the circle on Saturday night and spent some time at the beach on Christmas Eve.

We opened presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The kids spent the rest of our time playing with their presents.

We had such a great visit and a wonderful Christmas with Greg’s family. We loved seeing the Gilbos in Florida and the kids especially loved seeing their older cousins!

23Dec2017

Family Photos {2017}

Posted in Family by Kendra G.

In the midst of our crazy, busy month of October, we had our family photos taken for 2017. I jumped at the opportunity to have them taken with the cutest red truck I’ve ever seen. I am so thrilled with how they turned out. Our sweet friend, Michelle, was seriously amazing!