C by the Sea

Happy 17th Birthday, Leah!

Happy Birthday to our most amazing granddaughter, Leah! From the very first moment we were told you were coming to our family, we have loved you. You are a precious, intelligent, fun loving, caring, creative, sensitive and beautiful young woman and we are beyond blessed by you. May your year be filled with wonderful things and may all your birthday wishes come true. And remember... 1-800-CallGheghe. ;) Love you, my girl!

Graduation!

Last week David and I flew down to Florida to attend Leah's graduation from Page. Leah and Jack both received many awards and honors (check Planet Mancuso for the complete list!) and certainly made their family proud! It's hard to believe that Leah is heading to high school after summer vacation. Words can not express how much this young lady means to us. From the moment her mother and father told us she was on her way, she has lit up our lives in a wonderful way. Leah is beautiful, intelligent, creative, funny, talented and lots more! May God bless you abundantly every day, Leah. We love you. 

More pictures can be found here or here.

Jewelry making 101

On Mother's Day BBB (Before the Big Break), Amy, Holly and I went to Jo-ann's for a jewelry making class. We had asked Leah if she wanted to come with us, but she decided to stay home. (Which turned out to be a good thing, because she was here to watch Will while David and John rescued our intrepid trampoline artist!) However, when she saw the amazing things we created, ;) she said she wished she had come with us. So, yesterday we headed out for a girls evening out with a birthday dinner at Delano's and a visit to Michael's to pick out some things to get Leah started. She had a birthday party to go to today, so it was decided that she would make a bracelet to give for her gift. I think it turned out beautifully!

Today is a great day!

Today is our amazingly beautiful, talented, creative and totally sweet granddaughter's birthday. Leah is 14! Happy birthday, dear girl. We love you so much!

Fun in the Hamptons ;)

In my apparently never-ending quest to post pictures from Amy's summer visit, here are some more shots of some fun in the backyard...

(Caleb trying to figure out what the heck this is. It's a crazy statue of an American Indian with a wolf skin headdress. It's quite a charming piece. Not.)

 

Jack accidentally splashed water in Caleb's eyes.

Those eyes!

This made me smile. They look like two little old men sitting in their chairs passing the time of day. 

"Hello, Grammie? Whatcha doin?"

He thought it was so wonderful to be standing in the water wearing his clothes and shoes. The things Gheghe lets you get away with!

This is so Reed.

Ok. How did this happen?

Today our first grandchild -- and our only granddaughter -- turns 13! The magic number that makes her a teenager. Happy Birthday, Leah! We love you so much and could not be more proud of the wonderful young lady you are. May your future bring you all the things you dream of, with happy, healthy days and lots of wonderful memories along the way. xxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooo!

To celebrate this momentous occasion Leah planned a fun 2 days in Disney for her mom Amy, her cousin Ashley, her friend Olivia and her old granny...me. We really had a jam packed visit and enjoyed ourselves immensely. We rode on rides (Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Leah's first time on Tower of Terror to name a few. And no. Amy and I did NOT go on the aforementioned rides. We did go on some of the tamer ones though!), saw some cool shows, watched the fireworks spectacular, bought a few things and ate. Magic Kingdom on the first day and then MGM Studios the next. We finished off our Birthday Extravaganza by trying to finish off the Kitchen Sink dessert at The Beach Club. Here are some pictures...

...and here are a few more!

The day after the night before

We had 9:15AM breakfast reservations at Animal Kingdom Lodge's Boma restaurant so we were up and at 'em bright and early despite our late night. We checked out of Pop and got in the car for a quick trip up the road to Boma and their scrumptious breakfast buffet. Yum! Lots of goodies to choose from, including some delicious pastries (chocolate croissants and sticky buns for me!) After filling our tummies :) we stopped at the gift shop and picked up a few things, then back into the car and off to Downtown Disney. We wandered around Downtown Disney for awhile (and made some changes to our day's itinerary. Originally we were going to head over to Epcot, but we decided to go to Disney Quest instead. The kids had never been there and it was right in Downtown Disney). We found a cool magnet store that was nothing but magnets and visited the Pop Gallery which had lots of terrific art pieces, sculptures and photographs. Leah manned the camera again and took lots of fun pictures. We walked on and found the World of Disney store (huge!). Naturally, we had to make a few "essential" purchases here and continued our Goofy quest a bit further down the street at the Christmas shop (another Goofy "score" was made here!). I guess all the walking was using up our breakfast calories because we were all starting to get hungry. Amazingly ;), we found ourselves right next to the Rainforest Cafe! Decision made, we got on a very short and quick moving line and before we knew it, we were seated in the Elephant Room ordering our yummy lunch. Soon, our tummies were full again :) and we headed back down the street to the other end of Downtown Disney and our adventure at Disney Quest. We really had fun here -- we went on Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride, the Jungle Raft (twice!), Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlaster (Leah and Jack did -- I watched!) and took a drawing class where we learned how to draw Goofy.  We wanted to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride here but every time we looked the line was too long. Oh well, there's always next time!

Here are some of the pictures from our very fun "day after the night before"...

...and here are some more.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

For months now, Leah has been planning this very special trip to Disney. She invited Jack and me to come along, made all the arrangements and saved her money up to pay the way for us all! She's really something, don't you think? Well, the day finally arrived on Friday and the three of us headed off to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom. Leah had made reservations for us to stay at Disney Pop Resort (which is a cool hotel themed around the decades from the 40s to the 90s -- we stayed in the 70s) so we went there first to check in, grab some dinner and get ready for the evening. Leah was dressing as Belle (in the provincial village costume) and Jack was going as Robin Hood. I was going as the Wicked Witch of the West myself.

We decided to take the Disney Shuttle Bus from Pop to Magic Kingdom, so we headed off to get in line. There were lots of cute kids dressed in costume -- and some adults who were WAY too into the whole pirate thing -- and everyone was in a festive mood.

The bus was standing room only, but we didn't mind. We just grabbed a strap and held on, striking up conversations with our bus-mates here and there. (There were people there from the deep south, England, Asia and more.) I even managed to get my camera out of the bag and turned on to snap a picture of our entry into the park -- with one hand -- while holding on to the strap.

(See the Mickey Pumpkin? See the storm clouds? We saw the Mickey. We didn't notice the storm clouds. Ah, sweet innocence.)

In typical Disney style, everything was decorated to the hilt.

At 7 PM, all the people in the park without the coveted green wristband (indicating that they had purchased admission to MNSSHP) were sent home and the party began! Disney had scheduled a parade at 8:30 and another at 10:30, with fireworks at 9:30. We got some water, watched some cute kids get their pictures taken with Woody, bought Jack a Goofy to add to his collection and decided to go on the Peter Pan ride. Oh, did I mention that it was starting to sprinkle lightly? A passing shower, no doubt. By the time we got off the Peter Pan ride and ventured back outside, it was raining. Still not worried, we scurried across the street to the classic "It's a Small World" ride. Darkness was setting in by now and we were planning to get a good spot for the parade after the ride.  Did I mention it was raining?  (That's how optimists describe pouring.) When the ride was over we were greeted with a serious downpour and people collecting at the entries trying to decide what to do about this. Leah had a rain poncho in her backpack and so she put that on. One of the ride attendants could see we needed some guidance and came hurrying over telling us to follow him if we wanted to leave and be able to avoid the rain. So, like sheep, we followed him. We did stay out of the rain a bit, but obviously at some point our luck was going to run out. So, after a daring dash to the rest room, we decided to run back across the street to the gift shop there. Being the clever soul I am, I figured I better purchase some rain ponchos for Jack and me. The gift shop was right next to the Philharmagic 3D show, so in we went. That was fun...and dry. But the rain was still pouring down and it didn't look like the first parade was going to happen. We made the decision to head over to the Haunted Mansion ride. There was a line, but we were already wet, so no problem. The thunder, lightning, rain and throngs of people floating around in their white "ghostlike" ponchos really added to the atmosphere! After the ride, we ventured back out to find that the rain was letting up a bit. We walked over to the Pirates of the Caribbean and, since it was a short line, we decided to go. After the ride we looked around the shop, bought Leah a shirt and went back out -- into the rain. The friendly voice in the night told us the fireworks, although late, would be taking place shortly (Or soon. Or eventually). We headed over to the castle to get a good spot. The rain stopped. The fireworks started. So did the rain, again. It was very difficult to get pictures, but here are a few to give you an idea. It was really a great display.  I'm surprised they were able to pull it off -- did I mention it was pouring?

Well, since the fireworks had been delayed it was now nearly time for the 10:30 parade. We noticed that people were beginning to stake out their spots and since it was only raining lightly (for now), we thought that maybe the parade would be a go. After a few false starts, we finally decided on a viewing spot and began waiting for the parade. Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to take pictures of moving objects in the rainy dark, but believe me, it isn't easy. Leah was situated the closest to the parade, so she had the camera and gamely attempted to grab some shots. It was tough, but she got a few  -- and we are actually starting to like the blurry ones quite a bit now too. We think they capture the fun, excitement and action of the parade! See if you agree...

The party was to go until midnight, but after the parade ended some people started to leave. Hardy souls that we are, we opted to stay until the end! We wandered over to ToonTown to check out Minnie's house and, for the first time ever, found it empty. We had a chance to explore and sit down out of the rain for a little while. But, alas, hunger was setting in so we went off to search for something to eat. Unfortunately, the restaurants and food carts were all closing down, so we figured we would head over to Main Street and maybe the hotel. But, we found food still being served on Main Street and got some fries and drinks. We sat watching the crowds thin out, eating our midnight snack.  Soon, it was time to end our special day (and besides, Jack was actually sleeping sitting up at the table. For real!). We climbed back aboard the bus (still SRO) and returned to Pop. It was 1:45 AM when our heads hit the pillows. Another great day at the happiest place on Earth!

All the pictures

Time for Bloggy nominations...

Leah has announced that it is once again time to send in your nominations for this year's Bloggys. Zip on over to Leah's Den, check out the categories and sent in your nominees. Even if you can't come up with a choice for every category, I bet you can think of at least some!

Flashback:

Thursday: Monticello (extremely cool, BTW)

For those of you with too much time on your hands,  you can see all the pictures (blurry or not!) of the week here...

Last of the week in review (This reminds me of when your friends used to invite you over to see their vacation slides)

Thursday: Monticello (extremely cool, BTW)

For those of you with too much time on your hands,  you can see all the pictures (blurry or not!) of the week here...