I forgot one!

Princ Ball Photo Shoot

Our photographer came from Boerne, and she was AMAZING!  You can see her work at danaseyes.com

More Princess Ball Pictures

Carlye & Cassie

Dancing!

My hair (after the fact - held up pretty well!)

over 100 chinese lanterns - and we had to hand dye each one!  But they were gorgeous 'stars'!

Jodi, Abigail, Carlye, Carl, and David dancing to Gangnam style

A view of the "stage"

Pillars from the sides of the stage

Table centerpieces

Another view of the tables and flower petals on the floor

The most beautiful princess in the world!  We couldn't find a dress - and that is no exaggeration!  They were all too short or too low cut at the top.  I finally found this dress, and had to sew straps on it. 

Do you see the handsome prince on the right?

Dancing with the girls (and Noah) to "Walking on Sunshine"

A very handsome dance partner named Noah

A view of the stage and the flower petals on the floor.

Victoria, Noah and Abigail dancing

Noah doing the "splits" while dancing - he did this A LOT!

Princess Ball 2013

Here's a short little video clip from our Princess Ball this year.  This is a night for all of our little girls from 4 years old to 6th grade.  All of the girls are invited, and some of the girls are presented with a tiara that they've earned through church attendance, scripture memory and service projects.  Every single girl is announced, though, and as they stand on the stage we say, "Princess (insert name)" and everyone claps for them.  No boys are allowed - except for the boys who escort the girls to their seats after they are announced (Nathanael & Noah & Tate wearing fancy tuxedo's), and only siblings who actually attend Princess Academy are invited.  It is a night where Mom and Dad focus 100% on their little princess(es).  There is a Mommy/Daughter dance and a Daddy/Daughter dance, and a formal meal is served.  Sadly, this is Carlye's last year (insert sad face).  It takes my team all week to decorate, and by the time we are finished you can't even tell that it's a gym.  It's a special time for everyone, and creates memories for these girls that last forever - everyone wants to be Cinderella

Animal Kingdom

It has been a CRAZY week!  It was Princess Ball week, and the theme was Van Gogh's Starry Night.  I can't wait to share pictures with everyone, but I don't have any yet, so it will be a while.

Meanwhile, on with Disney!

Sadly, I don't have many pictures of Animal Kingdom, but we LOVED it.  Noah's favorite all time roller coaster was "The Yeti" as he called it.  Of course we loved the Lion King and the Finding Nemo shows, but Bugs Life was really and truly our favorite.  Carlye bear loves animals, so she adored being here.  It was a fun day!

Pin Trading at Disney World

My sister and her family are getting ready to go to Disneyland.  My children thought that it was VERY important that her kids have pins to trade and understand exactly how to do it.  So, I told Heidi that I would do a post about pins.

I mentioned in my post about Epcot that the munchkins - and Nani - really got into pin trading while were at Disney World.  I had read about it online, and thinking that Nathanael would enjoy it I ordered 30 pins on eBay for $20, so the kids each had 10 a piece set to start with.  Once we arrived at Disney I learned very quickly that ordering those pins on eBay was the only way that pin trading is affordable!  They are $10 to $50 a piece when you buy them brand new!  I picked up a lanyard for each of the kids at Home Depot for $2, and wa-la - we were ready to trade pins!

Carlye's pin trading necklace

She collected the baby pins - she was originally collecting the Princess babies (which they don't make anymore), but accidentally threw them in the trash.  Her daddy and Nathanael did try to dig through the trash to find it, but they couldn't find them.  So she changed her mind and started collecting these instead.

Nathanael's pin trading necklace

Nathanael collected Stich pins and......

Good pins.  He REALLY was into it - more than the other two.  He traded with EVERYONE that he saw that had a necklace!

Noah's pin trading necklaces.  The red one is his original one, but he used all of his spending money to buy the Star Wars one as well. Do you see the Christmas pin at the bottom of the red lanyard?  That was one of the one's that Nani collected - and anything else that was "cute."

Obviously,  Noah collected Star Wars pins.

Now, there are a few rules to pin trading.

1) You may only trade one pin per cast member

2) You do NOT touch someone else's pins.  You must ALWAYS ask, "May I please look at your pins?"

3) When you are ready to trade ask them "May I please trade you this pin (show them the one you want to trade) for this pin (point to the pin that they have that you want)."

4) In order to trade your pin, it must have the Mickey Mouse back on it, as pictured here

5) If they say that they will trade with you then you remove your pin and put the back on it before handing it to them

6) Don't forget to say thank you!!

Sadly, each of our children, and Nani, lost at least one pin that was 'the best pin ever'.  We found these pin backs at a stall for $5 for 25 or 50 backs (I can't remember which) - and we bought them.  The pins that the kids and Carl's mom weren't going to be trading were put on permanently with these backs, and Carl put the key in his pocket.  

It was so funny, because Carl's mom REALLY got into this.  So much so that she started overseeing the kids trading so that they didn't get rid of any 'cute ones.'  This was very difficult for Nathanael and Noah.  Mostly because the pins they were collecting weren't cute - so Nani very rarely approved of their trades!  We actually have a video - it's loading oddly, so it's sketchy for some reason, but still fun!

More Epcot

I found a few more pictures from Epcot!  I was so excited I decided to make everyone else look at them, too.  :)

Taking a quiz with Mr. Ray before we walked into Turtle Talk with Crush - yes, my eyes are swollen.
 I was pretty anemic and dealing with quite a few health issues while we were there
(which would be why I had surgery last week.....)

San Angel Inn - The restaurant where we ate dinner

The view inside the restaurant.  The "river" ran through the restaurant and around the Mayan "ruins."

Finally!  Some good pictures of the Candlelight Processional!