Backing up a bit….after our 2.5 days in Disney, Robert flew back to Birmingham and I went to Naples with the kids and GJ and Daddo. We stayed for 5 days and enjoyed every second! We played, swam, dug in the sand, rode scooters, colored, watched movies, ate ice cream, threw coins in the fountain, and just had a ball being in the warm weather! We even got to take a trip to the walk in clinic for the doctor to check out Spencer’s ear. He had swimmer’s ear (that ended up not clearing up and turning into a middle ear infection when we got back to Birmingham! ugh!). Even with the doctor visit, it was still a fantastic visit!

Our trip home was super fancy. GJ and Daddo hooked us up with a private plane and it didn’t take my kids very long to get used to the VIP life! 🙂

I could get used to it too! Thanks for a great stay as always GJ and Daddo! When are we coming back??

This past weekend, we all celebrated Valentine’s Day in a very special way! We went down to Montgomery to go to the Maskers Ball. You may remember we have been twice before (2012 and 2014) but this year was extra special because Ronnie was King and Maxwell was a page! Robert and Maxwell went down on Friday evening for rehearsal.

Maxwell was basically in heaven having Katie and Anna all to himself for the night!

I drove down on Saturday with Spence and Samantha.

We all got ready early because we had to be over there in time for pictures! Maxwell was so well behaved for all of it and I was so proud of him all night. He did just what he was supposed to do and did it very well! We all started with pictures (lots of pictures) and then there was a break from about 7:00 to 8:00 for dinner and prep – the kids got to go watch a great magic show! The presentation started at 8:00. As a mother of a page, I got a front seat row and was smiling ear to ear watching my little prince get introduced and take his bow! Maxwell had grand intentions of staying at the ball until midnight but, after the presentation was finished around 9:00 he was beyond tired and just wanted to go home and see Katie and Anna! So, we quickly took him home and then stayed and had a great night with the rest of the family. Lots of pictures from the evening….

I love how he’s holding his cape out here. When he put his costume on that night, Spencer looked at him and asked “you a supa-hero?!” Ha!

The end of the presentation!

All these little guys did a great job!

But I think this one was the best one up there!  🙂

After Maxwell went home, all the adults enjoyed themselves thoroughly!

We got home around 1:00am and, unfortunately, Samantha was awake and giving the babysitter a hard time. She proceeded to give me and Robert a hard time too! There was a lot of crying and very little sleeping – just what you want to deal with after a fun night out! ha! We made it through the night but after her performance at Disney and now in Montgomery, we decided we aren’t taking this baby anywhere else for a long time!

A BIG thank you to Jenny, Ronnie, Katie and Anna for being such fantastic hosts.

We LOVED being part of the royal family!!

Cheers!

Sunday morning came early after another night of Samantha deciding not to sleep in the hotel room. Oh well, at least the boys weren’t that bothered by it all. It’s amazing to me what kids can sleep through – especially this sleepy head!

Despite not sleeping well, we decided to let this little Minnie lover go with us that day!

We made it over to the Magic Kingdom early around 8:30 (the park didn’t open until 9:00) because we had breakfast reservations at Be Our Guest for 9:10. If you have breakfast reservations before 9:15 they’ll let you into the park early! The rides aren’t going yet but it really is neat to be in the park with very few people around. They did have the photographers out and we were able to get great shots in front of the castle!

We were then able to get into an early line to ride The 7 Dwarfs Mine Train.We were about the 5th group in line and it would have worked perfectly to ride the ride when it opened at 9:00 and then walk over to our breakfast reservation….if only the ride hadn’t experienced technical difficulties! They had to delay the opening of it so we had to abandon ship to go to breakfast. That was ok though because we had Fast Passed it for that afternoon!

We had a fantastic day in the Magic Kingdom. We rode Small World – which Samantha was honestly enchanted by!

We rode the carousel which all the kids enjoyed…

and I clearly enjoyed too!

We went on Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain (well, not Spence – he needs 2 more inches!), The Swiss Family Robinson Tree House and a few others I can’t even remember. We also visited the all-important face paint station again!

Two leopards!! or were they cheetahs? I’ll have to ask Maxwell!

We also visited some of our Disney favorites! Spencer was much more agreeable this time!

We even managed to be over by Main Street during the afternoon parade and Maxwell and I had a front row seat while Samantha and Spencer slept in the stroller. It was just a great day all around. We ended the day with our last Fast Pass – The 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. It was a blast and well worth the wait! Through the magic of the our Magic Bands, these pictures showed up in my Photo Pass and I could not love them more!!

I mean…look at our faces! HA!

and look at Spencer smiling directly at that camera here!

It was the perfect ending to our Disney trip! We had one more night in the hotel and then it was back to Birmingham for Robert and on to Naples for the rest of us. It certainly was a wonderful trip to the happiest place on earth!!

Have a great weekend!