Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Wizarding and Other Holiday Florida Fun!

As part of my resolutions for the new year, I am trying to get back on my regular blogging.  Does that mean I have about a year of backlog I need to catch up on?  Yes, yes it does.  But I caught up once before so I am going to try to do it again. What would be helpful is if I had a timeturner, but sadly, they don't actually sell those at Universal Studio's Wizarding World!

As I mentioned in our last post, the MPS Conference this year was the traditional "Disney" conference taking place in Orlando. We had attended the last Disney conference in 2019 and then the world shut down 3 months following due to Covid. Little Sweetie had been in Kinder and Will in 4th grade...it feels like a lifetime ago! 

Although we really wanted some down time this holiday (I feel we have gone nonstop since Little Sweetie and I's choir trip to Rome last Christmas), we had decided to go to this conference so that we could take our Harry Potter-loving Little Sweetie to the Wizarding World at Universal Studios and so we could have a quick visit with Mimi and Pop Pop. 

Due to school schedules, we only planned to attend the last day of the conference, but that got messed up thanks to plane delays for a broken closet door.  Ay yi yi.  We did manage to see a few Sanfilippo friends though!





Ready to travel...but ended up sitting on the plane for a few hours (with a deboarding and reboarding and a new flight plan) before we finally were able to take off. 



Finally made it to Orlando!




Will was so happy to see Ms. A!

Thankfully, our hotel room was comfortable and Little Sweetie was excited about the fainting couch and decided to sleep there. 


     

We enjoyed breakfast and got to see our friend, J, and Santa and Mrs. Claus!


And then we were off to Universal Studios! We only had one day in the park so we worked to make the most of it. 



Ready to start our adventure!



Will was getting excited while Little Sweetie rode her first roller coaster of the day!

And now, for the main event, Dragon Alley!

     

Very magical watching Little Sweetie take it all in!



The first dragon fire might have startled her a bit!



"You're a wizard, Will!"



It was bittersweet to be back at Universal nine years after's Will's Make-A-Wish trip. He's changed so much since then and it's hard not to focus on the things he's lost. But I am grateful he could visit again!



He did still enjoy Dr. Seuss Land though!


     


Now, Little Sweetie was beyond excited to pick out her own wand from Olivander's!


     

Hogwarts and chocolate frogs!



Waiting in line with Momma! Even with fast passes, we had to wait quite a bit for the Raptor coaster and for Gringott's because it kept breaking down (and broke down with us on it! Thankfully, we were at the end of the ride when it happened).

     

Platform 9 3/4 and the Leaky Cauldron (along with her new owl, Snowball)!


     


It was a long day, but so worth it!


We spent the next morning packing up and getting ready to head to Palmetto. But first a quick walk around Disney Springs!


Fueling up!


      



      

Enjoying all the sites and decoration at Disney Springs!


We then drove over to Mimi and Pop Pops for a quick visit and an early Christmas. It was so nice to enjoy family time, swimming, and holiday fun.


Will checking out the pool!


      


     

     


Lots of fun opening presents and building gingerbread houses!



Merry Christmas!



Headed home on Christmas Eve for our first Christmas in our new house!


It was a very quick trip, but worth it. I am so glad we got to give Little Sweetie the Harry Potter experience and that we got to spend time with Mimi and Pop Pop at the holiday. I wish we could have had longer, but I am glad that we made it safely home to start making Christmas traditions in our new house. What a year it has been!

Good night and Merry Christmas! 

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma


Thursday, December 19, 2024

December 19

Oh what a month it has been! As we continue to settle into the incredibly busy and active life of a 5th grader (who would have thought we could have become MORE busy!), we realize how precious these moments are. Little Sweetie has great friends and lots of interests, but she still likes being with her family. We know we need to enjoy these moments as much as possible!

With school, this child has been incredibly busy! Altar serving, basketball, choir, and performances have taken up a lot of her time, but we are proud how she really does put her effort in, showing how much she wants to be at each event. 

Being an altar server is a brand new activity this year, but she seems to be enjoying it.  As a past altar server myself, I like seeing her take such an active role in her faith, especially since she was the one to initiate becoming one.

     


As an altar server, she was invited to participate in the Eucharistic Procession around campus.


The real joy in her heart continues to be in playing basketball, though. She is so happy to have made both the JV and Varsity teams and truly shows an aptitude and love of the game. 



     



Loves being on the court and has made a few baskets already this season!


Although we are definitely still all in on Girl Scouts too! She can't wait for the community camp out at Camp Agnes Arnold next month. We worked on making archery SWAPS for the campout this month!


Girl Scout Christmas Meeting!


And then there are all the performances! As we head into the holiday, of course the choir is going to be busy!





Lots of fun with the Choir at the Share Your Holidays Food Drive event!




And another excellent rendition of Lessons & Carols at Frassati High School!



Excellent work at the SECS Christmas program! So weird to have her there as only a choir member and not as a performing elementary class.


      


     

Beautiful choir friends, grown up so much!


She also bravely took on the school talent show again and played a pretty difficult piano pieces!


     

Brava!


And if she wasn't performing herself, she could be found supporting her friends' artistic endeavors.

     


Proud of her friends in performance of Fiddler on the Roof at Frassati!


She's so busy, we are lucky to have family picnic lunch so we get to hang with her!


Lunch date!


With everything Little Sweetie has going on, we knew we wanted to really prioritize our family time this holiday season, especially as we started making memories in our new home. We started Thanksgiving Break with some classic movies, outside eating, and appointments...we as long as we are together, it was always fun!



Wizard of Oz (in anticipation of the new Wicked movie coming out) and An American Tail (perfect viewing after watching Fiddler on the Roof)!



Finally getting our act together and enjoying a dinner outside in our renovated space!


Haircuts and dentist visits mean it's time for come carousel rides and Chuy's lunches too. 

     


So glad she's still excited for these little traditions!


Once again, we started our Thanksgiving Day with our annual race tradition. Little Sweetie even got a PR in the mile!

     

     

     

Another great race day!



Thankful for each of them!

Then it was cooking time! We had a great first Thanksgiving in the new house and Little Sweetie even got to enjoy a fire in the new fire pit. 

     

Making the pie!



     


Yummy!



A nice end to a great day!


Of course, the day after Thanksgiving means the Christmas season has arrived for us, as heralded by the arrival of Pat the Elf. It was time to begin the next phase of our holiday traditions. 

     

Little Sweetie was ready for the holiday fun to start and left Pat a letter and snack!


     

Welcome back, Pat!


The rest of our break was spent with Santa, a visit to The Light Park, decorating the tree, and making our applebutter jars for Christmas presents. 


     

Love our chats with Santa!


     


Annual tree pictures!





They still love The Light Park!



Reading Elf on the Shelf and headed to bed!


Now we are fully in Christmas mode! We used the rest of Thanksgiving Break to fully immerse ourselves in the season. 

     

Canning apple butter for holiday gifts!




Got the tree and the house decorated! 


     

Christmas cookie time!


We even had an early present arrive! Guess who got a basketball hoop at the new house?

     

Surprise!


We also decided to have a special daughter date and take Little Sweetie to the annual performance of "A Christmas Carol." Daddy and I really enjoy seeing this each year and wanted to share it with her. 


Reading The Christmas Carol for the first time!



Ready for the show!


     




     

Enjoying all the decorated trees in the lobby!




Ready for the show with front row seats!


     

     


After the show, we played outside for a little bit until it was time for our dinner reservations!


     

The best part of the fancy dinner?  Cannolis!



Height and Weight
Somehow this girl grew again and is just over 59.5 inches and now 44 pounds!


Hey there, big girl!


Personality
The attitude and boundary pushing are definitely there ("I know Mom!") but so is the sweetness of morning and evening cuddles. She also overcame some anxiety about needing to get and wear glasses. But upon being able to see the world (shock to all of us that her eyes were as bad as they were!), she's adjusted well.


Now the world isn't fuzzy!

Developmental Milestones
As the Fall semester comes to a close, we have to say how happy we are with all of our girl's inquisitiveness, comprehension, and reasoning. She still loves to read, build, draw, imagine, and create and is doing well in all of her school subjects. 

  

Reading for her own enjoyment and for her brother's.


     

Always finding little doodles and drawings everywhere.


Fun Tidbits
We got to have a special visitor at the beginning of the month: Uncle C came to town! Little Sweetie and Daddy got to see him at Great Grandma's funeral earlier in the year, but it's been awhile since he was in Houston. It was nice to have an early Christmas with him.



Thanks for visiting, Uncle C!


And here we go into 2025; hold on to your hats!

Good night, 

LSM

Little Sweetie's Momma