Kayla’s 5th Birthday Party - WV

July 22 is Kayla’s 5th Birthday…The party was planned for July 25th since the 22nd was on a Wednesday of this year…At beginning of all parties are the decorations… Then comes all the guests to the invited event…We came to Kayla’s home for her party from Hillsville, VA about 5 hours away…Some other guests had to drive about 2 hours to come to the event…Others didn’t leave that far away…But everyone who was invited to the party came…The list of guests were us (Poppy & Mommom), Bruce & Peg (Poppop & Grams), Nancy (GG) & Uncle Ricky & GG’s sister-n-law, Marion, Uncle Josh and Aunt Sandy, Aunt Ann & Uncle Ed, the cousins Adam & Nancy and the 2 little cousins, Alexandria & Isabella, Courtney and her 2, William & ?…Once everyone arrived, the food came out and it was time to eat…Robert grilled hamburgers & hot dogs while Brandi & I started to bring down the chilled foods like crab potato salad, macaroni salad, deviled eggs…There was water, ice tea and kool-aid…I think we also had potato chips…Before all the food was being served, the kids were playing in the yard with the slip-n-slide…They were having a blast…The kids also found the water balloon bucket so they were tossing some water balloons at each other and then refilling some balloons with the spigot at the back of the house…Brandi & Courtney went to Walmart to get a pool for the kids to play in cause the slip-n-slide wasn’t working how it was suppose to work…After the food was brought out, everyone grabbed a plate and got what they wanted to eat…Some of the smaller kids ate at the children’s picnic table while the adults found seats to enjoy the good food provided…Once every one was done eating, an ensuing battle of the water balloons began…The kids had found the bucket earlier where the water balloons were stored for the adults to play with and hit each other with the water balloons…Brandi began the water balloon fight with her friend, Courtney…Needless to say, the battle had begun…Water balloons were flying everywhere…Brandi and Courtney were running behind the house, Robert got hit with a few while he was trying to hit a few people…The younger generation of kids were tossing water balloons at each other and was trying to get us but I had a camera in my hand taking all the fun pictures…Robert even got Brandi real good with a really nice filled water balloon right down her back…Then if that wasn’t enough, after Brandi changed her clothes, Courtney and Brandi had a hose fight and the both of them got soaked…It was pretty funny to watch…Courtney and Brandi even tried to Richard…Brandi was trying to get her big brother, Josh, but to no avail…After all the battles and fun in the pool and cleaning up of the food, it was time to get ready to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday girl…The number 5 candle was placed in one of the cupcakes (Grams made the beautiful cupcakes) and the candle was lit…Everyone sang Happy Birthday and Kayla blew out her candle…After all the singing, a chair was placed next to the presents for Kayla to be near at so she could open her presents easily…

The time has come now for everyone to sit and watch to see what she got…All the presents had school clothes, school supplies, new shoes, lunch bag, bike helmet with matching knee/shoulder pads and when it was all over and done, a new purple bike from her mommy & daddy…She was so excited…She could not believe that she got a big girl bike…The first thing she wanted to do was go riding out in the street… Luckily, the street that Brandi lives on is pretty safe for Kayla to ride on… As you can see, Kayla was ready to go…Up and down her street she went just peddling away…The kids were all playing after the party and clean up was beginning…Rain was nearing and pictures wanted to taken of Kayla’s GG and the other 4 girl cousins…So GG had 5 great granddaughters at the party…There was one missing and Laurianna lives in Sicily…After getting a few pictures, the rain came…Kayla’s party was over…

Brianna’s Visit to Hillsville, VA – Pt. 1

Starting on June 7, our granddaughter, Brianna, began her stay with us for a while…We knew that she would stay until the 4th weekend in July but we are not sure how much longer after that…She will be going home the third weekend of July for a week and her sister, Kayla, will stay with us for 4 days before we head to WV to take Kayla home for her b’day weekend but that will be another story later on…

So far Brianna has been doing well away from home…She says that she misses her sisters but that she don’t want to go home…Brianna talks to her mommy, daddy and sisters every so often and she is happy with  that…Brianna helps out in the crafts room, helps with BINGO and several other things…She’s a great big help…Brianna has the run of the office/store area, the play room area, the cafe area and the game room area…She knows where she can go and where she can’t go…She loves to go to the Comfy Room (play room) and stay in there for a while…Brianna knows that when she is done playing in the Comfy Room that she comes straight back to the crafts room…The ladies in the office/cafe get a big kick out of her and can’t believe how smart she is…

Brianna helps out at the rv too…Sundays are my cleaning days… Brianna likes to dust with the swiffer duster and does a pretty good job…Right now we are going to the laundry mat here at the campground because our washer’s transmission went up…Brianna helps with putting the laundry in the bottom dryers and folding up some of her clothes…She really likes riding the one and only rolling clothes basket like you see at the big laundry mats…She really would like to push the quarters in to start the washers but I am afraid that she won’t push the slots in all the way and the washer won’t start…

Brianna has been something else…She has grown up some since we last had her in winter of 2007/2008 when we had her for 4 months at the age of 27 months…She has her own little eating table and uses a step stool as a seat to her table…Brianna has a Tinkerbell folding chair and some of her toys…Not many and really she don’t play with many toys…She’s funny and loves to tell stories…She likes to pretend to bake pizzas and french fries and serve them to you…Brianna wakes up in a pleasant mode and loves to sit on my lap first thing…We hug and kiss and I rub her back which she loves..She really likes her back to be scratched…Her Poppy had recorded a movie from the tv called Peter Pan, not the cartoon…It stars a young kid, Jeremy Sumpter (or something close to the name) as Peter Pan…She has watched that movie over and over even with commercials…Commercials is one thing that she really don’t understand…Bri always asks if the movie is coming back on and I explain about the commercials…So I had ordered this particular movie from Netflix for her to watch without commercials…Then a lady who works in the crafts room with me, Alice, gave Bri her Alice in Wonderland dvd and she has watched that a lot too…I’ve been really surprised…

During the week, Tuesday through Saturday, Brianna is with me for all my working hours…Brianna has painted a castle suncatcher for me, painted a dog and a cat for her parents…She does go back and forth between the crafts room and the Play Room during the day…Recently, a portable dvd player was bought for use in the crafts room to help keep her busy…So far she only has watched 2 movies all the time…Brianna likes to help out with handing out the paint brushes, taking the small container of water to the table or handing out the newspaper and paper towel to the guest…Brianna is a great help…I did let her use fabric markers and color a Lake Ridge RV Resort pillow case…It was painted very interestingly…

Brianna has the ladies in the cafe wrapped around her little finger..Whenever we are near the cafe, the ladies give her a small scoop of ice cream or some soda…The ladies, Lisa & Sue, get the biggest kick out of her…She just knows what she wants and lets them know it…The campground has another worker, Jackie, who runs the Karoake and does other stuff…Well, Jackie walked in to the cafe one day and leaned down to talk to Brianna and to get a hug…Brianna looked at her and waved her hand near her mouth and asked Jackie if she had brushed her teeth….It was embarrassing and cute all at the same time…but Jackie said that it didn’t upset her…Brianna just says the darnest things…In the cafe/game room areas, there is a room called the Spider Room…Only because the Halloween stuff use to be put in that room and there was also a very big spider that was used for Halloween decorating…But now Brianna knows how to use my key to the room, turn the key and get in to the room…She learned that in the 2 times that I had to go between the crafts room to the laundry room…It is called the “back way” to the cafe/laundry room…

I don’t have many pictures yet but in time I will have plenty…While she has been with us, I’ve done some clothes shopping for her…I’ve come to find out that Brianna likes to wear dresses…Now she has 4 new dresses, a few skort sets and  light blue skort…She also likes to wear her Princess Aurora flip flops…Crocs are another of her favorite shoes…She use to own a pair of Pirates of the Caribbean crocs but as time goes by, she out grew them and now her little sister can wear them…Brianna likes to ride her bike….It’s a bit tough on the gravel but she does ride it around away from the rv but then she walks the bike back..Doesn’t make sense but oh well….

Another fun thing that Brianna loved to do was go Golf Cart riding… Every morning and every evening she had to get in her golf cart rides….Brianna loved to pick flowers and bring them back to me to put in a glass…Some flowers were very pretty and others were not so pretty but the ones she would fine would be gorgeous…She also liked to pick red and black berries…Now these berries you couldn’t eat…Red berries were bitter and the black berries weren’t sweet enough…Brianna saw chipmunks and deer…and horses…and hummingbirds…

Another favorite thing she liked to do was go to the pool…We would pick up the swimmies for her arms in the spider room and off to the pool we would go..Her poppy would take his camera to take pictures….We mostly spent our time in the kiddie pool…She finally decided to go down the slide…She had a blast…She went down both sides of the slide..The fast side and the “race car” side, which she called it…She learned on her own to come down on her tummy, then with her feet first laying on her tummy….One time she actually scraped the side of her face coming down the race care side but then she went right back up to the slide and came down again…Bri was getting a good tan…

Her trip down here at Lake Ridge RV Resort ended when her mommy, daddy, and sisters came down the 3rd weekend in July…The weekend of the 18th…On Monday July 20, she had to go home…Brianna was not a happy camper but it was only fair that her sister, Kayla, get to stay for a few days before we drove up to WV…I will be adding pictures as soon as my laptop has enough memory…We had a blast with her being here and we look forward to another time when she can stay with us…Which might be in September, late September until mid to end of October, depending on when Brandi wants to come get her…Kayla will be in school so we won’t be able to get her now until the summer time of 2010…

Kayla’s Character Greetings

Starting on March 29, Kayla began her meet & greets of the Disney characters and her first visit to Walt Disney World…After a half day of rain and waiting to go in to Magic Kingdom, Kayla got to see part of a parade, go to a show and ride on the Transit People Mover (I don’t remember the real name of the ride)…Then after we got off of the Transit ride, we spotted Buzz Lightyear and Stitch…

Kayla’s first visit to Epcot was very productive…After entering through the gates of Epcot, we passed the Princess & Prince flower garden and who should we see….Daisy Duck…she was in a spot where we the line started for photos and autographs…Kayla and I stood in line to await the picture and for Kayla to hand her the autograph book… Poppy was waiting patiently on the side to take a lot of pictures of Kayla with Daisy…She had a whole list of characters she wanted to meet & greet and get their autographs and photos with…Unfortunately, Daisy’s best bud & boyfriend, Donald Duck, wasn’t around…So disappointing…but maybe later we can find Donald Duck…

After getting Daisy’s autograph and photos, we headed towards ‘The Land’ to get our Fast Passes for the ride Soarin’…While Kayla and I waited for her Poppy to come back with our passes, we decided to head in to Character Greeting where Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Minnie Mouse and Goofy was awaiting all of the children to come up to them and get pictures and autographs…It took us about 30 minutes to move around the line & ropes to get to the beginning point of meeting the characters…At first Kayla was shy and didn’t want to go up to Mickey Mouse…It took a lot of prodding and saying that “yes, I will go up with you”…but after a while, Kayla finally was able to go up to the characters and get their autographs and pictures…As you can see, Kayla didn’t get over her shyness that easily…So either her Poppy or I had to get in to picture or 2 to make her happy…At some point in time, we would just “step out” of the pictures so that Kayla and the character were the only ones in our pictures…but look who we found at the Character Greeting area…It is Daisy’s best bud, Donald Duck…As one can see, Kayla is all dressed up in her Jasmine outfit and during our visit to Epcot today, we are heading over to Morocco (in World Showcase) to see if Jasmine, Aladdin and Genie will be visiting their favorite spot for autographs and photographs…Kayla was very happy to meet some of her favorite characters…and Poppy and I had a blast waiting in line with her to get her pictures…Kayla’s cousins, Kevin Kelli, Bayne, Shyler & Lil’ Kevin and her Aunt Cindy & Uncle Doug also waited in line with us to get pictures and autographs…It was so much fun…Later on we did find Morocco but Jasmine, Aladdin & Genie didn’t make it….Maybe another day…Kayla will be at Disney for about 3 weeks so we will be able to find most of the characters at any of the four parks, Magic Kingdom – Epcot – Hollywood Studios & Animal Kingdom…By the time that her vacation to Disney is up, she will have everyone’s autographs & photos that she wanted except for Snow White cause on the day that we went back to Epcot, Germany in World Showcase, Snow White decided to go over to Magic Kingdom and meet other folks…but to make it all special, the last time that we went in to Magic Kingdom with our Friends, Mechelle, Doug, Justin, Rachael, Noah & Gabrielle, we got to see the 10pm parade and who should stop right in front of Kayla and touch her hand, No other than SNOW WHITE…what a way to end the evening and her visit…

Another visit to Magic Kingdom hoping to get some more autographs…We weren’t sure we would see so we just took our time walking around, seeing some shows and getting on some rides…One of the rides Kayla, Poppy and I got on was Aladdin’s Magic Carpet ride…Kayla, Poppy and I waited in line for a little while until it was our turn to get on our magic carpet…There is a control knob that makes the carpet go up and down & Kayla had so much fun controlling the magic carpet…After the ride was over, who did we spot…Aladdin…He was outside a Moroccan shop and Kayla decided she wanted his autograph and a picture taken with him..but by the time we got to the front of the line, she had turned very shy…Aladdin was very nice and tried to talk to her…Aladdin signed her book and I finally got her to get her picture taken by Poppy…After Aladdin, we gave up on finding characters for the day…That’s how shy she had become…So much so, that a call to her mom was needed…

About a week later, Kayla wanted to meet Tinkerbell and her friends, who are Silvermist, Fawn, Iridessa & Rosetta…So to meet them, we headed to Magic Kingdom via Wilderness Lodge’s boat transportation to the Magic Kingdom…Poppy told her that we knew that Tinkerbell would be in Pixie Hollow but we didn’t know what other 2 fairies were going to be with Tinkerbell…Kayla was all dressed as Snow White…Pixie Hollow is back in a part of Magic Kingdom called Toon Town…The line for Pixie Hollow wasn’t very long but it was a good wait because Tinkerbell & her friends take their time visiting with their little fairy friends who come in to get their autographs and photos…After about an hour or even less, we were entering Pixie Hollow…Kayla was so excited…but as she entered the area where 3 of the 5 Fairies lived, she began to get shy…Iridessa was our first stop…Iridessa had some fun with Kayla and talked to her…The time with Iridessa was up and time to move over to visit with Tinkerbell…Kayla was having fun now…Tinkerbell talked to her, asked her questions, and signed her book…Kayla spent about 5 minutes or so with Tinker and moved on to see Silvermist…A little time with Silvermist, an autograph and talking was coming to an end…Photos were taken with all 3 Fairies…Kayla had so much to talk about…and Pixie Hollow was so neat…We left Pixie Hollow and stood in line to see the Princesses…The line wasn’t that long so it didn’t take us very long to get inside where the Princesses were waiting for their “subjects”…The Princesses there were Princess Aurora, Princess Cinderella and Princess Belle…The Princesses were gorgeous in the beautiful ballgowns…Each princess took their time to talk to Kayla, then signed her autograph book and was very happy to have their picture taken with Kayla…Kayla was so excited…She couldn’t believe her eyes…She did ask where Princess Ariel was so after visiting the Princesses, we headed over to Princess Ariel’s residence in Ariel’s Grotto…The line was long but like good grandparents, we stood in the line until we could get to the front of the line…Ariel wasn’t dressed in her ball gown but as if she was under the sea…Ariel had her mermaid legs…The Grotto was decorated with shells and stuff…

The following day after seeing the Fairies at Magic Kingdom, Poppy and I decided to head to Epcot again…There were still more characters to try and find to meet & greet…Most of the characters are back in World Showcase, which encases the following countries:  Mexico, Denmark, China, Outpost Africa, Germany, Italy, Americana, Morocco, Japan, France, Great Britain & Canada…I had just missed Snow White from Germany but did manage to catch Mulan in China…Kayla just caught Pool and Eeyore in Great Britain along with Mary Poppins…We had missed Belle in France…found out she was somewhere else that day along with Snow White…What a great day for everything…I tried some strawberry icee and a mango icee and some orange juice that was very good…In China we got to see dancers who were acrobats of sorts doing all sorts of bending and twisting and twirlng…Very interesting…Kayla did manage to make a mask on a stick full of stickers and stamps from each country…We even got 2 more for each of the girls, Brianna and Elizabeth…

Well I was trying to add some pictures but it seems that my laptop is out of memory so when it does have more memory, I will add more pictures..at this point I will post this blog for everyone to read…It’s been long coming…*S*