Summer vacation is over! The girls had fun and were both very excited to go back to school today. Cheska is now in 5th grade while Francine is excited to be in Kindergarten.

Good luck girls! We love you very much.

… and happy birthday to me too!

July is the month Francine and I celebrate our birthdays.

Francine chose to celebrate her birthday at Inflatable Zone. She has been to a few parties of her friends there and she love the place.  We held her party on the weekend closest to her birthday.

On her actual birthday, I decided at the last minute to have a simple dinner to celebrate her special day. Before the dinner we let her hunt for her birthday gift from us.  Cheska made the clues and Francine had so much fun looking for her gift. We got her a DSi because she has been sharing Cheska’s for quite some time. When I asked her what she wants for her birthday, she thought for a while and asked for “her own DS”.  Of course with all the other gifts she got after the party, she seem to have too many toys to play this week she hasn’t played with the DS yet. I’m pretty sure though she will later on.

For my birthday, I decided not to have any big celebration.  But it doesn’t mean I didn’t get to celebrate my special day. “Thank you everyone!”

Click here to view the pictures from our birthday celebrations.

Our two week trip to Florida is now officialy over, and we are home again.

The drive was the longest road trip we ever had. The original drive straight to Orlando was about 18 hours long, so we broke up the drive and made a one night stop in New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans was a very interesting place.

On our first day in Orlando, we looked around the resort, then we went out to meet some of our parents’ college friends. The next 2 days were spent at Disney World. On Tuesday, we went to Magic Kingdom. There, we mostly went on rides like the Mad Tea Party, Splash Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain. Mia was just tall enough to ride with us. At the end of the day, we sat down and watched “Summer Nightastic!”. We saw the Main Street Electrical Parade and, of course, the fireworks. 

On Wednesday, we went to Epcot. All the girls went to have breakfast with the princesses at Akershus. After breakfast, we explored Future World and went on some pretty amazing rides. Once we’re done with the rides we all ate ice cream!!! Next, we waited about an hour in line to have a meet-and-greet with the main Disney characters for the little girls. We then strolled around the World Showcase to catch the fireworks as we enjoyed our dinner from Japan.

Thursday was our rest day. We spend the whole day in the resort where we stayed in and enjoyed their 3 different water areas.

On Friday, we went to Universal Studios. It was our first time at the Universal Parks in Florida. The tickets we got allowed us to go to both the Universal Studios and the Islands of Adventure. We had tons of fun going on the rides and watching the shows. My favorite ride at the Studios was Revenge of the Mummy. This is the rollercoaster that goes through the dark that has amazing effects. We also found some characters that Francine was able to get autographs from.

Late that afternoon, we moved to the Islands of Adventure. Francine and Mom had fun in the Seuss Landing, while the rest of us went to the other areas to find some exciting rides to experience. My most favorite was Dudley Do-right’s Ripsaw Falls. It’s pretty much like Splash Mountain, except this ride was showing a movie as you go through the water. We went on that ride twice and I got SOAKED! My second favorite ride is the Jurassic Park River Adventure. In that ride, we went around the different reserves, until we end up in the wrong section and go down a huge fall between a T-Rex’s legs. The huge fall was unexpected. The last ride I’ll tell you about is called Pteranodon Flyers. You sit down in this chair that’s connected to this kind of zip line. You fly really fast over the Jurassic Park section. I even saw my dad waving to me when Dylan and I passed him!

Saturday was time to pack and leave for Destin. It was another 10-11 hours drive. Francine and I watched movies most of the drive.

The house we rented was beautiful. The next 6 days were spent on the beach making sandcastles, waveboarding, and enjoying the sun and pool. It was hot and we all got a pretty good tan but it was all worth it because we had a good time.

’till our next summer adventure! Our pictures can be found in the photo gallery.