Oh those cookbooks would be fun to have! Not that I could/would make too many things out of them! DH always teases me because I have a collection of cookbooks that are collecting dust! I tend to make simple recipes and make the same things over and over! My mom's cooking skills did NOT transfer to me! She is a wonderful cook, but alas, I am not!
The Poly is so beautiful! The pictures make it look so relaxing! I would like to walk around and eat there! I've heard so much about the Tonga Toast that I really would like to try...plus the pictures on the food threads make my mouth water!
Hope the Baby cooperates on Thursday so Jill will know if you need to buy for a
or a
!
I keep looking at the cookbooks, but have not purchased one yet. I have several church and school ones. I rarely use a cookbook. Maybe around the holidays for a certain cake, but after this long, I pretty much have recipes in my memory.
Jill, Brooklynn, and I had Tonga Toast last year on her birthday. We were sitting outside at the beautiful Polynesian eating Tonga Toast on a sunny October morning, and it was heaven. It had a little more smushy banana than I cared for, so I just scraped some of that out until it was just right. It was delicious!
Gosh, I hope the baby cooperates, too, or Jill will probably go nuts! She's got boxes and boxes of girl clothes in the garage, and she wants to know if she can get rid of them or if she needs to keep them. Plus, for Brooklynn's sake, she is ready to start calling the baby a brother or a sister. She said just in the past few days Brooklynn has decided she'll have a sister! Of course, she doesn't really even know what a brother or a sister is, at this point, but she's just been saying sister lately. Most likely, that's because people have been saying something about her
being a big sister.
We were posting at the same time!
Brooklynn looks so cute in her little sundress! I like Jill's shirt too!
How neat that you got to see both fireworks shows!!
Little girls look so sweet in those sundresses!
Yeah, it was cool to get to see both fireworks! We were very glad we did that. Next time, I think we would station ourselves a little further down than we did this time to get a better start and have to walk less on the getting to Epcot part, but really, it worked out just fine the way we were.
I love Brooklynn's little dress! Also the matching ponytail holders.
You got some really good fireworks pictures, and pictures from the Poly beach. I didn't have such good luck with my firework pictures from the Pirate and Princess party. I know that there are probably some not-so-great fireworks pictures that you also got, but you got LOTS of good ones.
Your Opryland pictures are also very cute. I also don't understand the whole Grinch thing. Did you know that it's been made into a musical?
I think it's showing in some theaters around Boston. Anyway, we don't really have anything like Opryland here. Our big thing is a Jingle Bell festival, where the lights on the city hall and around the square are turned on, and there are carols sung. It's cute and corny. I haven't been in a few years, mostly because I've had to work, but it falls on a Wednesday this year, which is my early day, so I think I might go!
Oh, I got a bunch of bad fireworks pictures, too, no doubt. I just keep snapping away, and in the mix, at least I get a few good ones. Drew could probably do a lot better than I did, and he'd do special effects and all, too. Now, if I can ever get him to go with me and sit through a fireworks show, that would be nice.
You should go to your Jingle Bell Festival. That's the kind of little fun thing that will become a special memory as you get older. If you do, come back and share some pictures with us.
the fact that you can see the castle in the distance just makes me happy.
i showed this to ray and he said it was the geocaching thing he wanted to do last trip. he said these survey markers are all over disney world and you can buy a GPS "thing" (i'm not up on the lingo) to find them. it's a hobby he wants to take up, but hasn't bought the equipment yet. pretty cool!
i love the fireworks pictures! and the words on SE were really cool too!
I know. I thought that made a neat picture with the castle back there.
If Ray gets into the geocaching thing, that'll be something he can look forward to that will make your trips more fun - and possibly more often!
The red, white, and blue was pretty cool!
Well we didn't go to the US today,
we decided to wait until your Thanksgiving instead and maybe catch some sales ??? My DS had to work and wants to go too, so I agreed to wait. We went grocery shopping and to the mall instead. Our
Disney store had a 25% off everything in the store. I didn't really find that much. There were no adult tees, only sweatshirts.
I finally got Lexi the Wall-E plush (sold out for months) and I found the cuttest tinkerbell ornament w/fiber optic wings that light up.
We also made a Xmas moose at Build a Bear, he has light up antlers. Good shopping day, I picked up alot of stocking stuffers.
Beautiful flower picks!
Happy Elf - I also have so many cookbooks and make the same things. I have eyed the Disney cookbooks for some time, maybe DMom would like one for Xmas?
Thanks MeMom for reminding me about them.
Brooklynn was so lovely in her patriotic dress. I was missing the sight of chicken fingers in the mickey plate. Cute pic.
I was in WDW on the Fourth of July in 2004 and didn't think to watch the fireworks from the beach, looks like I'm the only one who doesn't know about this. Judgeing from the crowd.
You should get some good sales Thanksgiving weekend, especially if you are willing to get out early.
There was a crowd on the beach, but I'm sure it was nuts over in the Magic Kingdom!
Well if this isn't the cutest thing I have seen all day!
What a sweet little patriot!
When I put her pictures up, I just want to reach into the picture and kiss those sweet little cheeks. She called me yesterday and told me she had just scraped her leg up. She had that pitiful little 'hurt' voice, like she was holding back her tears. Jill said the scrape was a lesson learned, though, because she was trying to climb over the arm of the couch while wearing her high heel dress up shoes. Jill told her she was going to fall, since she didn't have solid footing, but Brooklynn didn't listen. Brooklynn lost her footing, as her Mommy had told her she would, and she scraped her leg on the corner of the end table as she went down.
Sometimes, mommies are so useless. Their words of wisdom go unheeded. Kids don't understand that you would never tell them anything that wasn't for their own well-being. They insist on doing it their way. It's all part of the learning process, I know, but it is just so interesting to watch. As a parent, teacher, camp counselor, and now grandparent, I have seen this process in action many, many times over. It always fascinates me to watch it play out - the advice being given, the child rolling it over in his mind, the child ignoring the advice and doing it his way, and then the resulting consequences. Same pattern, different scenarios - thousands of times over I have watched this.
On a side note: thinking of Brooklynn's boo-boo and her pitiful voice and tears, I thought of the kids I work with at school. I love working with kids, because they really keep me grounded. Each one is unique, (which happened to be one of our Vocabulary words this week) and it is fascinating to watch them in action as they go through all the trial-and-error situations that each day brings.
In my class, I have:
rambunctious (diagnosed ADHD/autism spectrum) A., who is in perpetual motion and has a hard, hard time getting along with his peers. His road is going to be long and difficult. His mother loves him deeply, but she enables much of his behavior and makes things worse for him, rather than better.
sweet, dainty little P., a little bit of a girl from Hong Kong who speaks the sweetest broken English. The sentences she puts together are just precious. She tries so hard in everything she does. Any time they are ever given a treat, either by me or by any other teacher, she always saves at least half, if not the whole thing, for her little brother.
a big tall teddy bear of a boy, O., who wants to do nothing more than play football all day and all night. He struggles academically, but doesn't qualify for Resource, so I wonder if he will get to play football in school, because of his grades. I hope someone will really help him along the way so that he can, because it's an area where he can feel success. He's the first one to come up with a pencil to share when a classmate can't find one.
quiet little R., whose mother is in prison. His dad isn't much interested in school. R. is a very smart, but sad, little boy. I worry for his future.
I lost C. a few weeks ago. She reads and does Math at 4th and 5th grade levels. She has an extremely unstable home life, yet she was one of the most well-adjusted, happy, and on top of things kids I have ever had. She and her sister and mother are now living in susidized housing in another county, and my heart breaks for her. Her mother is a mess, pure and simple, and I wonder if C. has had someone who has helped her be who she is, or whether she is just that awesome and has made her own way alone in spite of her circumstances. This would be a kid who could be a Valedictorian someday. I hope that she has gone to a teacher who sees all of her potential and will help her continue to blossom and who will be a stabilizing force in her messed up life. I pray that while she has to live in a dangerous neighborhood, she will be safe and will be able to move onto better things soon.
I could go on about everyone of my students, but I won't right now. I guess it just hits home so much, as I raised my own and now as I watch Brooklynn begin to go through all of the many ups and downs of being a child. It makes me so thankful that she lives in a safe, warm home, and that she has food and clothes and toys and very few worries. It makes me more mindful of kids who go through every day with language struggles or family struggles or financial struggles - all of that a part of shaping who they will become as adults.
I gripe about being a teacher when it come to all the testing and paperwork. It is ridiculous, and I don't believe it is necessary. We all somehow managed to learn to read and function in life without someone filling in a data sheet on is every ten seconds, and I think these kids could, too. I wish we could just get back to the basics - making teaching and learning fun and being allowed to discipline children enough to make them better able to cope in the real world. I dislike the many programs and paperwork, but I can't think of another job, outside maybe working in the adoption or social work field, that humbles me more than being a teacher.
******************************************
So this day was done.
It had been hot and it had been crowded, but we had been in Disney World by choice, and it had been a very nice day. We are very glad that we have had that experience to add to our personal Disney history book.
July 5th brings you an exciting picture of my room,
the view from my door,
a ride past this sign,
and a little girl and a duck.
Look carefully at Brooklynn's dress to see if you know where we are going now.
And for those of you who don't love birds...I'll keep you out of my hotel! We've got the Ontario Hawking Club in. We actually had a little blackbird wind up in lost and found!
I'm so sorry you had to say goodbye to your friend.
, I hope the hormones are better! 
I hope they have that cool slush.
