The Month of Birthdays!

September is here (and almost gone) and that means birthdays for the two oldest Dupp girls! I can hardly believe that Addi is 5 years old and Alyse is 3. Insane. 5 for Addi means that she finally hit the milestone to chew gum. Years ago, I told her she had to be 5 to have gum, and like the little elephant she is, she didn't forget. The day of her birthday, all I heard about was wanting to try gum because she was finally five. So, that night Doug brought home a pack of gum, and she got her first piece. She smacked that gum like no tomorrow and the smirk on her face was priceless.

haha, orbit commercial pose ;)

For their birthdays, we took them to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. We've gone the past three years and have always had an awesome experience. There are hardly any wait times. In fact, most things are walk on. There's an awesome parade and firework display, AND it's in the evening so the weather is [generally] comfortable. Plus, trick or treating and getting tons of "good candy"; aka, chocolate!

The last time we went to Disney, the girls knew over a month in advance that we were planning a trip. That was a month of torture listening to the whines of wanting to go to Disney THEN instead of the time we had planned. So, this time around, we kept it a secret until the night before. That night before, we gave them their early birthday gifts of costumes. Rapunzel for Addi and Princess Sofia for Alyse. They were so excited. Then, I showed them the Disney tickets. They were ecstatic. The smiles and their shrieks made every single cent we spent on those tickets and costumes worth it. They could barely contain their excitement, and of course, they were ready to go!! Unfortunately for them, they had to wait until the next evening and suffer through a day of school knowing what was waiting for them. They survived though!

Another part of their gift was that mom and dad got us a family suite for us all to stay out at the Art of Animation hotel. That part, they did not know ahead of time. So the next afternoon after I loaded up the car, we went to go pick up mom. The girls were so ready to change into the costumes but we were still going to have a couple hours before the party started. We told them we were going to go ask Mickey for a place for them to use to change. Once we got all the way to the room and inside, mom told them that we were going to be sleeping there for the whole weekend. They weren't quite sure what to think in the beginning, but evenutally got excited.

Next, we went out to the park for the Halloween party. The girls got to do all their rides. It was Ella's first trip out to Disney as well, she loved all the people watching. She also LOVED Dumbo. She started crying when we had to get out and wouldn't let go of the seat belt, lol. Alyse zonked out (Ella too!) around 10/10:30. She did wake up just before midnight though and was able to ride the Magic Carpets before the park closed.

Ella as Snow White

Alyse and Addi :)

Saturday, we spent the whole day at the pools at the hotel. The Rohrs and Golds came out to swim, and then the Rohrs stayed for pizza and cupcakes. We even had a tattoo parlor set up in the room and EVERYONE (except lil miss) received a Minnie Mouse tattoo. I was surprised at how good a sport everyone was, the men included!

And, now for some of my favorites from the weekend, and I can't get the stupid blogger to format how I want so sorry it's going to be a bunch of scrolling.

Teacups! Alyse was cracking up on this!

Ella LOVED Dumbo!

Addi's first time of Thunder Mountain. She said she didn't like it, but she was screaming and laughing the whole time!

You know Alyse had a good weekend, she's smiling for a picture!!

At our hotel!

The Nemo pool at the hotel

Happy Birthday, Addi and Alyse!

This is the section of the hotel we stayed in, Lion King.

Cars!

It was a pretty awesome weekend, and I know the girls both had an excellent celebration. This upcoming weekend we're having a small cake and ice cream party at the house so that they can celebrate with everyone else since we were away on their actual birthdays! These are some pretty lucky girls :)