Ballerina Jenna

Jenna had her end of the year dance recital today!

 She did great, it was so fun watching her and her class perform.

 Love these pics of the ballet buns :) It was no easy task getting all of her fly aways and short hair into that bun. Gel and a hair net are totally the only way to go. And a how to video found on youtube :)

 Finally time to perform. 

They performed their Tap routine to "Jail House Rock"

 Ballet routine to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Jenna was a little more serious in this performance. But threw in a smile here and there!

 All done!! She got flowers from her Daddy and our friends the Thorpe's. So thoughtful!! 

She felt so special!

 We all had a great time cheering her on!!

 Love our big girl!

 She had a great year dancing :)

We are having a...

Boy!!!

And we have the ultrasound pics to prove it :) Sorry I decided against posting the proof. However, the ultrasound tech kept saying, "oh yeah, no doubt it's a boy!" 

Chad had the biggest grin on his face and immediately texted, "xy" to our families. I got a little teary eyed. I had been wanting to call the baby "he" for the past month, but didn't want to jinx anything. There were a few other moments and/or feelings that made me think that we were going to have a boy. Now that we know for sure, it feels completely right for our family.

We told Jenna after school. I made cookies with blue frosting. I covered them up to surprise her. She knew that blue frosting meant boy and pink frosting girl. She guessed girl, but was pretty excited to see blue :) She keeps telling us how excited she is to have a brother and how she can't wait for him to come out. Both girls cannot get enough of the ultrasound pics, they love carrying them around. Especially Leah, she carries the pics around and says, "baby". 

We are all so excited for our new little boy to join our family!!!

Disneyland Day 3

Day 3 of our Disney trip-- Our 2nd day at Disneyland-- be forewarned this post and the next are picture overload :) 

As promised, here is the video link for Jenna's Disney ride review. For most of you it is probably a repeat watch, but it is pretty darn hilarious still!

We arrived early for the Magic Morning hours and saw Donald Duck first thing.

Family pic in front of the Castle

 Showing off some muscle. 

 We started off riding all of the classic rides inside Fantasyland. We rode Peter Pan as a family, then parted ways -- Chad was off to take advantage of the single rider lines. He really enjoyed the Indiana Jones ride.

I have to say that some of the classic rides are so strange, like Mr. Toads wild ride. At least the lines were quick and the rides were over fast. They were all one time rides for Jenna too :) Chad rejoined us in time to take Jenna on the Tea cups.

Then it was time to explore the other side of the park. On our way to Splash Mountain we of course walked in front of the Castle hoping to see more princesses. (We had waited to see Cinderella the day before but she had to leave before we got to the front of the line. So with it being our last day we were on a mission to find Cinderella, Belle and Jasmine. The last princesses on Jenna's list. ) In front of the Castle was Cinderella. Jenna was so excited. However Jenna was the next in line and Cinderella had to leave, again!! She did give Jenna a hug, but no autograph. She was pretty bummed out. 

But quickly recovered, when she rode Splash Mountain. This became her 2nd favorite ride.

 Chad decided Jenna was brave enough and took her on the Indiana Jones ride.  He wanted to go on it again and she actually enjoyed it. 

We then came across Jasmine and Aladdin. Jenna was really shy around the boy characters it was cute to watch :)

Riding the Jungle cruise-- Jenna and I got sprayed by the baby elephant at the end!

We enjoyed Dole whips, so delicious, and then entered the enchanted Tiki room. I didn't remember it being so entertaining. 

 I found out that Belle was only in the Fantasy Fare (the crazy long princess line). Jenna kept asking if she was going to see Belle. So being the crazy mom that I am, I ran over and waited in the long line, while Chad and Jenna rode more rides. On their way over to me, look who Jenna finally got to meet. And with the Fairy Godmother! It happened to be the same Cinderella as earlier and she remembered Jenna. She thanked her for coming back to see her and told her how she was so glad that she finally got to meet and talk with her. Jenna was so so happy!!

 Over in my line, Belle was one of the 3 princesses. I was so excited to have Jenna meet all of the princesses that she wanted. We were 3rd from going in and they announced that the princesses where changing out and there would be 3 new princesses. Go figure!! Jenna was a great sport about it though. She got to meet Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

This particular Cinderella was amazing. This was my favorite experience to watch out of all the characters. You could see that Jenna felt so special, just like a princess!

 After a quick family pic with Mickey (we forgot the day before when we saw him) Chad and Jenna went on  Splash Mountain for their 2nd time. Then Thunder Mountain again. Jenna absolutely loved those rides.

By lunch time, earlier in the day, we had covered all of Disney that we had wanted to. So Jenna picked out her favorites and that is where we headed. The Jungle Cruise was another that got a second ride.

 Autopia was another lucky 2nd pick

 That evening we joined our friends, the Raybells, for a character dinner at Goofy's Kitchen.

On our way we got to see Belle, the lego version :) I also reminded Jenna that we had seen Belle in the parade. Oh well, it gives us something to look forward to for our next visit (a ways down the road I might add)

 Jenna at Goofy's Kitchen with her friend Katelyn and her little sister Cami

 This whole experience was awesome and totally worth it. The dinner was buffet style with an adult menu and a kid menu. There was a lot to choose from which was really nice. Jenna loved getting to see the characters and spending time with them.

Pluto came to hang out at the girls' table. He was a little clumsy knocking the cups and plates around, the girls got a kick out of it!

 Gepetto!

 The Mad Hatter

 Snow White again!! This one was another really sweet moment.

Minnie Mouse-- Jenna always gave the characters the biggest hugs :)

 Fairy Godmother

 And Cinderella! -this happened to be the same Cinderella that Jenna had missed in the morning, and then met by the castle. So when she first came to our table she reminded Jenna right away how they had met earlier in the day. It was so sweet to watch their interaction. 

Pluto came by again for more fun

 The dinner was the perfect ending to our magical vacation. 

Jenna in her Tinkerbelle night gown- which she got on our first night in CA, special for our Disney trip.

She was one happy girl, and still loves to talk and see pictures from the trip. And so do I :) 

Disneyland Day 2

Day 2, we spent at Disneyland. At the top of Jenna's must see list was of course the princesses. So we started the day off waiting in line at the Fantasy Fare. Even after the wait Jenna was all smiles and bursting with excitement.

 She got to meet Tiana and princess Minnie. I was a little bummed there were only 2 princesses instead of 3, especially after the wait. But Jenna was happy so that's all that mattered :) I was impressed with how much time Tiana spent talking with Jenna. It was really sweet to watch.

Then it was off to Tomorrow-land. We spent most of our morning there, making most of the fast passes and going on the other rides in between the fast pass times. I was the fast pass runner, since I couldn't ride the larger rides. It was a great system, we pretty much went from ride to ride with little wait.

Jenna really enjoyed getting to drive a car :)

Finding Nemo Submarine ride 

 While walking by the Castle Jenna got to meet Snow White and Ariel. That is the place to hang out to meet the princesses. We saw so many princesses just right along side the Castle, with very little wait. Way better than the 40 min. wait we had done that morning. One of Jenna's favorites is Ariel, so she was thrilled.

 Up next was going to see the Fairies. 

Jenna met and talked with Silvermist and Tinkerbelle. The Fairy "world" setting was so well done. We told Jenna that we must have been shrunk down to fairy size somehow. She didn't buy it :)

 Another stroke of luck, while walking out of the Fairies we ran right into Sleeping Beauty!!

 We then made our way to Rapunzel. And Flynn Rider was also there! Another place where I was impressed with how long they talked and interacted with Jenna. She even got a hug from Flynn Rider :) 

 While waiting in line for the Dumbo ride, we enjoyed some delicious Mickey Mouse ice cream treats! 

 One happy girl-- in line for Its a small World. Chad barely made it through this ride, but Jenna couldn't get enough!!

 Toontown-- Hangin' with Goofy and seeing Mickey at his house.

 Time for more rides--Thunder Mountain was one of Jenna's favorites. I will link the video clips from Jenna's ride experiences. In her words this ride was, "Awesome!".

 On our way back over to Main street for the parade, we stopped and rode Pirates of the Carribean. Not one of Jenna's favorites :) She had her eyes covered for most of it. Afterwards, she said that the ride was so-so! 

Waiting for the parade to start. Jenna had fun dancing to the parade and the fun music.

 After the parade, Chad and Jenna rode Space Mountain for the second time. 

 We had planned to leave right after the parade and get Jenna to bed a little earlier than the previous night. But Disneyland at night is so exciting with all the lights and short lines! We headed over and toured Sleeping Beauty's Castle and then rode the Carousel. It was totally worth staying later. 

*I will include the link to Jenna's Disneyland ride review on the Day 3 post*