Ella's 11th birthday party

This year we celebrated Ella's birthday about 2 weeks early with a swim party at the house. She had a soccer tournament, church retreat and a Disney trip in October so scheduling was a challenge, but we got it in. These girls seemed to have a blast and it made me so thankful for the pool and space to play. My sister and family were so helpful and I am thankful for the extra help. Chelsea came through with another great balloon arch. 

She requested a homemade strawberry cake with vanilla icing. She used one of my pots and some fake flowers to decorate it herself and it was adorable. 

William had a few meltdowns when he wasn't the center of attention with all the girls but mostly he had a blast. This boy loves hanging with all the girls.

 

Ella's 11 year old questionairre

What is your favorite color? yellow

Who is your favorite friend? Caroline

What is your favorite snack? jello

What do you like to do with Reese? make videos 

What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? sushi

What is your favorite drink? sprite

What is your favorite thing to do outside? play soccer and gaga ball with friends

What is your favorite sport? soccer

What do you want to be when you grow up? teacher

What is your favorite animal? chickens

What is your favorite book? Moo

What do you like to do with Mommy? watching shows, New Girl

What is your favorite song? Sunday best

What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner? buttered noodles

What do you take with you when you go to bed? eye mask/book

What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

What makes you happy? playing with William

What makes you sad? when I think about Dad's death

What do you think about before bed? depends on the day, yesterday pirates

What is your favorite thing to do with William? play "we ran a red light" with our scooters

What is your favorite thing to do as a family? watch a movie

Disney 2022

Several years ago, pre- William, we took the girls to Disney. We only did Magic Kingdom for a day then went on a Disney cruise. Magic Kingdom was a lot, Neal and I didn't love it (didn't hate it either) and felt like that minus the princess magic the girls had just about as much fun going to Silver Dollar City. We absolutely loved everything about the cruise. When we told people this they said it was because we didn't do it the "right" way. Apparently it was necessary to stay on site for a week and plan rest days in between park days to really enjoy it. We decided we would try that at some point when William was to the right age but we for sure wanted to do another cruise at some point as well. 

I decided that we all needed some magic added this year and that William was at a great age for Disney and the girls were still at ages to enjoy it too. So I booked it through a travel agent friend and she was fantastic at getting all of the details ironed out beautifully (for free too!...but Disney costs billions of dollars so I know it's baked in somewhere). I needed to know that I was capable of vacationing as a single parent without it being a disaster.

We really did have a great time and made so many great memories that I will forever cherish. William rode several really scary rides, including Guardians of the Galaxy and Tower of Terror, and thought they were the absolute best. We really enjoyed being able to travel by skyliner, boat and monorail. We had many enjoyable meals and character sightings. It was overall a great trip.

Sadly, on day 5 we all came down with Covid. It was my first time to have it, Williams too. William was only slightly run down and only ran fever once. The girls and I were pretty run down and consistently ran fever. We spent our time in bed watching William's shows, droning on phones and watching Astros World Series games (we went on the win the World Series!!). The kids were troopers. The girls were so helpful. Air travel while sick was not enjoyable. We didn't know we had covid until we got home and tested. The girls tested negative but I tested positive and we all had the same symptoms that started around the same time, so I assume we all had it. I didn't test William. All in all the trip was a success and I am glad to know I can handle all that was thrown at me on my own (with 3 kids that were so amazing). I don't think we will do Disney parks again. We may go back to Orlando one day to do Disney Springs and Universal though. We definitely have hopes to Disney Cruise again one day!

Ella's birthday was the day we traveled home. I scheduled a later flight so she could sleep in and planned to let her pick our breakfast spot. But the poor girl had to eat take out and fight fever while traveling all day on her birthday. She handled it well and I probably owe her a day at some point. I love her a lot and need to do a separate post about her birthday party and the questionnaire now that I think about it, it's not too late to get that captured.