Something I’m hoping: I hope that we’ll have a good turn out in two weeks with the rescheduled games night.

Something happening around the house: I think we would be in better shape if we had had games night. We would have had to at least tidy up the toys before people arrived. Of course, the toys would be all over the place afterward, so maybe it’s about the same.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Last Olympian. I started and finished Ready Player One, and I LOVED it. It was a fun read with all sorts of geeky 80s references. Good stuff. I started on Peter and Wendy, one of the selections for February’s book club. I thought I would enjoy it more. At least it is short. It shouldn’t take me long to finish. I’m on the waiting list for Snow Flower and the Secret Fan for kindle at the library. I hope that I will get it soon since it is the other February selection.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s reading The Fall of Hyperion and plans to read Ready Player One next since I’ve been telling him over and over that he needs to read it!

Something I’m watching: We are enjoying Alcatraz.

Something I’m creating: I’ve been working on Cullen’s 2-year letter. It’s taking me a while to put together all the words from my notes that I made on his birthday. I need to finish it so I can get back to writing about the cruise. At this rate, I’ll have trouble finishing the trip reports before our next cruise.

Something Maddie is doing (47 months old): She had another ballet class (I think that we have 6 sessions with this set). She didn’t listen to the teacher very well this time. Instead, she goofed off with her friend. I went to tell her that she needed to listen to her instructor, and she said, “But Sofie isn’t listening!” Oh boy. That stuff starts so early, doesn’t it? She had a stomach bug that caused her to throw up in the middle of the night Friday night, but she was fine the rest of the weekend. I hope that is all we will see of the bug and the rest of us stay healthy.

Something Cullen is doing (24 months old): We had a little party for Cullen at school. He requested cupcakes and rocket ship goldfish. While we were at the party, Cullen pointed at Gabe and said, “Daddy! You’re not going anywhere!” I still love how Cullen talks with pauses between every syllable. Also now sometimes he sings random lyrics about what he’s doing. I love his little songs!!

Something I learned: Good things.

Something I’m looking forward to: A couple years ago, I painted a piggy bank for Maddie. I’m planning to paint one for Cullen this week! We also have a small joint party with mostly family next Saturday to celebrate both birthdays.

Something captured: At Cullen’s classroom party. We didn’t get too many good photos – he was too busy talking about the rocket ships.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Best Restaurant: This is a tough category to start with because I don’t feel like we ate too many remarkable places this year. Our anniversary dinner (post coming soon) was great, but it wasn’t as notable as some previous dinners have been. I think my favorite restaurant this year goes to Bosphorus. Thanks to Michelle for introducing me to it!

Best Book: I thought it would be difficult to pick my favorite book from the year, but when I glanced through my list the answer was clear: Water for Elephants. We read some other good ones, but this was a fairly easy choice.

Best Vacation: This category doesn’t seem quite fair when we have one big vacation each year, usually. Obviously, our best trip was our cruise on Allure of the Seas! More stories, reviews, and photos coming soon…

Best Movie: We saw some good movies this year, but I cannot think of a more perfect first theater movie than the new Winnie the Pooh.

Best Album: Well, it wasn’t released this year, but my favorite album that we bought this year was Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons.

Best Board Game: Gabe played Die Burgen von Burgund at this year’s That Board Gaming Thing. He raved about it, so I managed to get a copy for his birthday. I’m glad we bought it when we did, because it has been hard to get since then! We both love it, and it plays well with two players.

Best Lighter Game: King of Tokyo was one of the most played games at That Board Gaming Thing, even with only one copy out of the entire convention. We picked up a copy, and it gets a fair amount of play at our house. It’s (usually) quick and accessible and entertaining.

Best Kids’ Game: The kids started to get into board games in 2011, and Go Away Monster is the best game we have found for little kids that both Cullen and Maddie can play. They love it! Maddie is ready for some more involved games, but she still enjoys playing this one, too.

Best TV Show: Hmm, this is a tough one. We don’t watch much TV these days, but we did enjoy Ringer with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Best Toy (for Maddie): This is a hard choice, but I think that the Bitty Twins got the most play for the whole year out of Maddie’s toys (from both Maddie and Cullen, for that matter). She didn’t play with them as much for a few months, but her interest was renewed when Cullen started showing interest in them. She’s become more interested in changing their clothes and playing with their accessories lately.

Best Toy (for Cullen): Even though he got his Bitty Twins at the end of the year, I’m going to have to say Annabelle (meaning both Maddie’s Annabelle up until he got his own). He has been crazy about Maddie’s dolls for a while. We could not wait for Santa to bring him what have now become known as his “ladies,” Annabelle and Izzy. The house seems a tiny bit more peaceful now.

Best Children’s Book: I’ll have to pick Mr. Bump from the Mister Men (and Little Miss) series. Both kids have enjoyed the books in that series.

Best Maddie Moment: Maddie had so many great moments this year, and it’s difficult to pick a favorite. One of my favorites is the family birthday party that we had at the American Girl Bistro in Atlanta. That was a very special birthday for a very special 3 year old!

Best Cullen Moment: Cullen has been amazing this year as well, and his vocabulary is extraordinary. One of my favorite moments was on the cruise. His reaction to some of the characters was priceless. The first time that the dragons appeared in the How to Train Your Dragon ice show, he was in awe and gasped, “FWAGONS!”

Something I’m thinking: Happy birthday to Cullen!

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping that this week passes quickly.

Something I’m reading: I didn’t read too much this week, but I’m still reading The Last Olympian, the final book in the Percy Jackson series.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished The Sea of Monsters (the 2nd book of the Percy Jackson series). He’s now reading The Fall of Hyperion.

Something I’m watching: We recorded Alcatraz, but we haven’t watched it yet. If we don’t watch it soon, we’re going to run the risk of it being too overwhelming once the recordings start piling up.

Something I’m playing: We played a little of the Hinterlands Dominion expansion. I think I might have played a little Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Something I’m creating: Hopefully, I’ll create a few more blog posts this week.

Something tasty: Mmmm, we ate at Brigs for Cullen’s special birthday breakfast this morning, and I had gingerbread pancakes. Yum!

Something Maddie is doing (47 months old): It turns out that Maddie was unable to avoid the stomach bug, though it appears that it didn’t hit her too hard. Thank goodness. The last thing you want is a preschooler with a stomach bug. It sounds like she mostly had a fun day at home with Daddy. She and Daddy baked Cullen’s birthday cake together today. She also mostly iced it herself and did all the sprinkles. She loves helping in the kitchen. She’s been cooking a lot in her play kitchen, too. She’s gotten into building forts out of their Anywhere chairs and blankets. For whatever reason, she calls it the “jail.”

Something Cullen is doing (24 months old): We had a big day for the birthday boy! We started at Brigs where he helped himself to handfuls of my pancake. He just reached over and tore off sections of it over and over. I guess we should have gotten him the gingerbread pancake instead of the plain one! He thoroughly enjoyed his breakfast with scrambled eggs, fruit, pancakes (both plain and my gingerbread), turkey sausage, and milk. We then headed to Target where he was allowed to pick out any toy he wanted (well, we would have steered him away from something expensive!). He did very well with the concept of picking out one thing at a time and then “trading” it for something more desirable. He started out with a cowboy rubber duck and ended up with a Duplo Firehouse set. We were happy with his choice! In between, he held an apple shaped pillow, a Minnie Mouse pillow, a set of toddler cars, a LOUD Lightning McQueen toy that talked and raced when you shook it, and a Mater spy truck that did something but we weren’t able to figure out what. The process was entertaining! We stayed out of the decision making process for the most part and just let him ask for the things he wanted. We also picked up some Space shapes goldfish and had a snack in the car on the way to get his haircut. He sat very still and the stylist was surprised at how good he was during the cut. For dinner tonight, he had some of his favorites: pasta, strawberries, broccoli/cauliflower, and garlic bread. Of course, we had cake. This week, he really has made progress with his one-to-one correlation when counting. He has demonstrated accurately counting objects up to 8 (and I think 10 once). Sometimes when the items are all together (rather than distinctly apart) he does the thing where he just points and counts out numbers, but for the most part he really seems to be getting it. He does especially well with 4 or less items. Earlier this week, one of his teachers told us that he declared that “Aiden can’t eat milk and egg.” I’m surprised he’s picked up on his classmate’s allergy! I guess he’s heard the teachers talk about it enough times. He also used air quotes for the first time. His teacher said that Cullen said his diaper was “messy” (and used air quotes when saying this). Cullen then looked at me and said, “I pooped. It was ‘messy’” and used air quotes appropriately. Ha! I’m so proud.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I booked TWO trips to Disney! Woohoo!

Something I’m looking forward to: Lots of stuff going on this week. I’m mostly looking forward to getting through the week, book club, and games night!

Something random: Well, I thought I had found my Favorite Thing of 2012, but I might have to reconsider. On Saturday, I took a bubble bath with my kindle double bagged in ziploc bags (admittedly, one bag is probably sufficient). It was fabulous! Best use of a ziplog baggie EVER.

Something captured: The birthday boy!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

The kids were restless at night again and we were all up around 6am. We had to be up early for the first of three DreamWorks character breakfasts (“Rise & Dine!”). The 8am start time is a bit harsh for all three at sea days, but most days we’re up with plenty of time to get ready anyway.

We had made our reservations weeks (months?) in advance. My parents had already gone in, and they were unsure of how many of our total 12 people were going to be at the table this morning. Because of that, they gave us two tables of 6. It turned out to be a great mix up because we had the best seats in the house!

The character breakfasts are also “chocolate breakfasts” with selections on the menu with and without chocolate as well as chocolate pastries. I felt a little guilty about the state of Cullen’s chair at the end of the meal, but then again whose idea was it to have a kids’ chocolate breakfast?

They don’t tell you ahead of time which characters are coming to each breakfast. We got the idea that there would be two Madagascar breakfasts and a Shrek breakfast. This was the first of the two Madagascar breakfasts, and Mort was up first. Our two tables were the best place to see each character arrive and dance. We were in this “island” area with only about 6 tables, so we felt pretty special indeed.

Our photos from the character breakfast didn’t come out so well. That didn’t stop us from taking a ton! Dad was the first one of us to meet Mort.

Cullen started to warm up to the characters at this breakfast, but he still wasn’t quite sure.

Next were the penguins!!! We took that opportunity to get a group photo of all of us (Melissa’s parents weren’t at this breakfast).

The penguins always had a lot of personality with their silly antics.

Cullen was excited about the chocolate laced pastries.

Gloria was the last of the characters at this breakfast. The kids tried to give her a big hug.

After breakfast, we headed to the Boardwalk where we thought we might ride the carousel a few times. It wasn’t running. We hadn’t yet figured out the schedule for the carousel, but I think it typically didn’t start until 10am. We spent some time at the play structure next to Rita’s Cantina.

The kids enjoyed climbing and sliding and climbing and sliding. As long as we had an adult at either end of the structure, it was fairly relaxing to let them climb and slide.

Cullen posed for some more photos.

Since the carousel wasn’t open, Debbie decided that she wanted to go and do the zip line! Our first mission was to find Mick. We knew he’d probably be somewhere on the pool decks, so we headed up to Deck 15. We searched for a little while and finally found him basking in the sun. When we got to the zip line, we saw Melissa’s parents and learned that Melissa and Jason were waiting to take their turn on the zip line! We had to wait a little bit, but we could see that the carousel was running again (since we were directly above it). Gabe and his mom took the kids back down to the carousel, and I took video of Melissa and Jason ziplining.

The zipline experience is very short (less than 10 seconds), but it’s a pretty cool thing to do. Melissa, Jason, and Dad were the only ones who ended up actually doing it. Debbie was ready to do it, but they closed the line RIGHT before she stepped up to wait her turn. She was disappointed! Some of the rest of us thought we might do it, but we never got around to it or made it a priority. Oh, well. That’s something to do next time, I guess!

The kids took a few spins on the carousel before the “Move It” parade.

We might have gotten our money’s worth for the cruise based solely on our rides on the carousel. Seriously, this was the greatest thing for the kids. They could have ridden it all day for 7 days.

Next up…the Move It parade and cupcakes and the rest of day 2 (maybe I can fit it in one more post? maybe?)…

I was thrilled to find that they had Caffeine Free Diet Coke, a rarity in restaurants. Little did I know what choices I was about to encounter! It has one dispenser and a big touchscreen.

And that’s just the start! After you pick your base soda, you can have it plain…or add delightful flavors.

My first thoughts were, “um, can I buy one of these for my house??” I chose the Raspberry Caffeine Free Diet Coke. YUM! I hear that all of our Firehouse Subs now have these as well. Awesome!

So, when I win the lottery (that I don’t play), then I think my first call will be to the Coca Cola headquarters to see about installing one of these in my house.

We had a tough time narrowing it down! We especially had a rough time choosing between Maddie kissing Julian and Maddie dancing with Julian. After a vote of our friends, family, and the ship’s photographers…we went with the kissing photo. She really had a great time interacting with King Julian.

Cullen wanted absolutely nothing to do with King Julian, but somehow we managed to get our best family portrait on the trip. Of course, that’s not saying much.

We then headed to our show reservations, Ice Games in Studio B (which doubles as an Ice Skating rink). After our last experience in Studio B with the muster drill, we didn’t have high hopes of being able to see the whole show. We weren’t able to get advanced reservations. Between meeting King Julian and the ice show, we realized we left the camera in the room. Gabe and Maddie ran back to get the camera, and Cullen and I headed to wait for them outside of Studio B. I really thought we weren’t going to be able to get into the show because we were pushing it very close! Gabe ended up getting there just in the nick of time, and we entered the theater at the last minute. We were thrilled to get in without reservations.

Cullen wasn’t happy before the show started, but fortunately we didn’t have to wait very long. Once the show started, both kids were entranced. This was Cullen’s first experience with any type of show or movie, and he did wonderfully! He seemed to love it.

The ship really started rocking quite a bit during the show. I was impressed that the skaters were able to keep their balance and perform all kinds of tricks. The show had a monopoly theme with the characters moving to different spaces on the board representing venues around the ship. It felt a little like an advertisement for some of the extras on the ship, but I thought it was pretty neat, too. We loved this show, and we were really glad that we were able to see it.

Cullen just stared at the skaters for at least 20 or 30 minutes. During that time, I looked over at Maddie, and she was looking at the floor, like she was sad about something. I went to ask her what was wrong and realized she was falling asleep! We couldn’t believe with all the music and flashing lights that she was able to fall asleep, especially considering that she rarely naps when she is with us. I guess that there was something about the comfortable seats, rocking of the ship, and the darkened room. She snoozed in my lap for the rest of the show. Cullen was a little restless towards the end of the 45 minute show, but he made it through and did great.

We headed to dinner and attempted to get a formal portrait of our family, but none of them turned out too well. Others had better luck with their portraits.

My parents had several nice formal portraits.

Melissa had many fancy dresses for the cruise. They took the opportunity of formal night to get their photo with the car. I’m not actually sure if this portrait was taken on the first or second formal night.

We made it to the dining room, and tonight our tables were joined together. It was nice to have all 10 of us together and not worry about splitting into two tables.

Cullen was restless through the meal and didn’t have much of an appetite. He played a lot of Monkey Lunchbox on the iPhone with his Apptivity case. We were thankful for the iPhones once again. He was starting to get really good at the minigames on Monkey Lunchbox. By this point, he could do almost all of them by himself.

We took the kids back to the room and realized that we had accidentally left our “do not disturb” sign on the door. We were able to easily find the stateroom attendant so that he could freshen our towels and clean the bathroom. I read stories to Maddie, and Gabe put Cullen to bed in the other room.

Gabe headed out to the casino for a couple hours with his parents and Jason. He came back in time for me to head to see Chicago with my parents and Jason and Melissa. Gabe played video poker with his mom, and they started out badly but ended up even. That’s a win in our book!

I thought Chicago was great, but I was very tired as it didn’t end until about midnight. The version on the ship was an abbreviated version of the Broadway show at about an hour and a half. It was the first time that I had seen any version of Chicago, so I am not sure how it compares to the original show or movie. I thought it was great, but wow, I was tired!

Whew, we had an incredibly long day. We weren’t terribly excited about Nassau as a port, but we still had a wonderful day.

Our favorites from Day 2:
Kerry: Ice Games
Maddie (according to her): the carousel
Gabe: Ice Games and playing poker with his mom
Cullen (my best guess): either Ice Games or playing Monkey Lunchbox on the iPhone

Something happening around the house: We were supposed to have been out of town of this weekend, but we had to cancel our trip to Atlanta since the boys were sick on the way down. Our house might have been tidy, but instead it’s the usual disaster zone.

Something I’m reading: I finished the 4th Percy Jackson book, and I started and finished The Kitchen House for book club. I enjoyed it and look forward to discussing it at book club! I started the 5th (and final) Percy Jackson book.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished The Lightning Thief in the Percy Jackson series and started on the 2nd book. Unfortunately, the Percy Jackson series is no longer “always available” on the kindle at the library. Darn! It was so convenient. Oh well, we have the 2nd book in paperback, and we put Gabe on the waiting list for the 3rd.

Something I’m watching: We sorta watched Red, but it didn’t keep my attention too much. I took Maddie to see Puss in Boots at our dinner theater on Sunday afternoon. She really loved it! Mostly, we wanted to get out of the germ infested house with Gabe and Cullen and their bugs.

Something I’m playing: Go Away Monster and Kids of Carcassonne. I played a few minutes of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Something I’m creating: I have been creating more blog posts than anyone wants to read. I don’t have any lined up, so I’m going to have to work on those this week, I suppose. If I get the motivation… I am finally getting around to our Christmas thank you notes.

Something about both kiddos: The kids are very cute together this week. Sometimes, they can play together so well. Of course, they have their share of fights (and things can escalate so fast with siblings!).

Something Maddie is doing (46 months old): We went to her first movie at our dinner theater, as I mentioned. She also had her first in a series of ballet classes. Work is offering another set of convenient classes after work on Thursdays, so we’re giving those another try. She participated very well in her first session. She listened to the instructor and followed all of the instructions. This is quite a change from her first class last time. It helps that some of her friends are in the class!

Something Cullen is doing (23 months old): I took a cute video last week of Cullen singing almost all of the words to “Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.” He’s quite the cutie! He’s had a stomach bug for most of the past week and a bit of a cold, too. Poor little guy. He’s also still working on those eye teeth. He has been in the booster instead of his high chair at the dinner table, and he’s done with high chairs at restaurants. He kicked the table last week and toppled his chair backward. It’s one of those things that happened in slow motion for me, but I couldn’t stop it from happening. Yikes! The top of his chair (and his head) landed on the carpet, which I think helped. Fortunately, he was fine, but it was scary for a moment! He has had some bad nights in the past week between teething and being sick and has done some waking in the middle of the night to fuss a bit and then goes back to sleep. He’s still using the paci at night.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I might book not just one but two Disney trips…one for me and a girlfriend (without kids!) and another with the family in October. Woohoo! I can’t believe that I’m planning to go to Disney without the kiddos, but I’m looking forward to doing some of the adult and less little-kid-friendly things.

Something I learned: Gabe and I are getting more educated about fructose malabsorption (something he was diagnosed with a while back but we haven’t been diligent about).

Something I’m looking forward to: We have dinner and games with friends, a balance bike date, and another ballet class, assuming that we are all healthy enough by then. Cullen’s birthday is Sunday. I can’t believe that he’s going to be 2! We are going to find some special ways to celebrate on Sunday, and the kids are having a small joint party this year in a few weeks.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

So, I wasn’t able to give Coquette Brasserie a proper review, considering it has now been two months since our meal. I’ll see what I can remember.

We made reservations at the last minute since our original plans fell through. A friend had recommended it, and French cuisine always sounds like a fancy place worthy of an anniversary dinner. Our criteria for anniversary dinners is that it has to be fairly fancy (somewhere that we wouldn’t want to take the kids is best) and somewhere neither of us have been (preferably, though in later years we may change our minds).

When making the reservations, I just happened to mention that it was our anniversary. I remembered that when we ate at Second Empire, they made us a custom menu, and other places have recognized our anniversary.

We arrived a little early, and they were not very busy and seated us right away. We were a little disappointed as many of the tables are quite close together. It’s not a great place if you want a private meal. We were seated right next some other people who finished up not long after we arrived. We had two small tables on either side of us. The hostess tried to seat other people next to us, but everyone requested a different table, fortunately. I wish we had thought to do that! We were happy that nobody wanted to sit close to us.

I’m glad we mentioned our anniversary, because they brought us complimentary champagne to celebrate soon after we were seated.

I wanted a glass of wine, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted. The waiter brought me 3 different samples (at least a third of a glass each) to try before I ordered a full glass. One of the wines I hated, but I ended up liking the one I ordered, especially with my entree. I wish I had written it down so I could remember what it was! We were impressed with the service and their attention to our special day.

We had a cheese plate, and I think we’ve both decided that while we love cheese, we’re not sure we love ALL cheeses (especially most blue cheese type cheeses). At least one of the cheeses was yummy. I had the Onion Soup Gratinee and Beef Bourguignon. Gabe had a special soup (we can’t remember exactly what it was, but it wasn’t a regular menu item) and one of the fish dishes (probably salmon). I think everything was good, but nothing has compared to our experience at Mo’s Diner. I’m pretty sure we had dessert, too. It was a nice experience, and I would recommend it for a special occasion.

The birthday girl!

Yay! Cupcakes!

Icing is yummy.

Everyone has a different method.

Clare’s method was a messy one.

Cullen tried to steal Sofie’s presents.

He looks like such a big boy here. He was trying out cars on the ramp.

Daddy helped the kids build a house out of giant blocks.

Cullen took a doggie for a walk. It was quite a drag for the dog.

Considering that I’m usually the one hanging out with Cullen while Gabe is with Maddie, we almost always end up with more photos of Cullen. This second child should have no complaints about their photo coverage! Cullen loved playing with the farm animal figures.

We had a fun morning!

I wasn’t happy with the photos this time (despite taking many), but here are a few from her second bike day.

She wasn’t the only kid with a trike, but most of the kids have training wheel bikes. A few kids zipped around the circle without training wheels.

She was excited that we came to watch her (and proud of herself!).

Afterward, we went to have lunch at the cafe with Keira.

She has developed this goofy, new smile.

Then, we left the girls to play together on their playground! BFFs!

Video moments:
0:08 – My dad ziplining
0:23 – Jason ziplining
0:33 – Melissa ziplining
0:43 – Jason on the FlowRider
0:54 – Maddie dancing in Central Park
1:05 – Cullen dancing at breakfast
1:20 – Maddie dancing crazy in the Promenade
1:28 – Flash mob clips
1:55 – 70s dance party clips
2:04 – Belly flop finale
2:07 – Bartending Demo
2:10 – Qwest clips
2:24 – Italian night
2:31 – Cullen attempts the head waiter’s “mouse” napkin trick
2:48 – Carousel clips
3:33 – Parade clips
3:45 – Character breakfast clips
4:23 – Maddie dancing with Fiona
4:45 – Fountain shows

We headed to the 2pm trivia which was an interactive trivia called, “Logos and Mascots.” Melissa, Jason, Mom, Maddie, and I ran into Melissa’s parents on the way. I grabbed some cookies to distract Maddie while we played the trivia. The interactive trivia is much like NTN/bar trivia with multiple choice questions (and a speed component to the score that we didn’t learn about until halfway through the questions). The questions were far too easy, even without the multiple choice options. The remotes didn’t always work (in a session later in the work, they barely worked at all). I can’t recommend the interactive trivia based on the ones that we attended. It was annoying to learn about the “fastest fingers” tie-breaker midway through the questions. We got all of the questions correct, but we weren’t the fastest. We did end up with the coveted keychains, anyway. Maddie was proud to have her own Royal Caribbean keychain. It’s still fun to identify the logos, but the whole thing would have been more fun with an open ended question sheet.

Next on the cruise compass was an opportunity to meet the penguins at the carousel. We hoped that we would be able to ride the carousel this time as well! We were excited to see the carousel running, so we hopped on for a few rides before meeting the penguins. Maddie rode a different animal each time.

The penguins showed up while we were enjoying one of our first few rides. We went to meet them, and Maddie was adorable. She hugged each one, and the penguins had great character.

Most of the character meet and greets had short lines on the cruise, and we usually had plenty of time to get the photos that we wanted.

After we met the penguins, we got back on the carousel. She rode several times with me and then rode different times with Nana and Melissa. Maddie loved it! I swear over half of the photos from our cruise may be carousel related.

Nana and Papa decided to get their photo taken with the penguins as well. This was one of the meet and greets that stated you should bring your own camera. They had handlers who would take your photo for you. Other character opportunities were official photographer events, and they did not allow you to take your own photos.

After our fun on the Boardwalk, we headed to the 15th deck for sail away. I called Gabe in between each activity, but he seemed content to stay in the cabin with Cullen. It was interesting to look down on the other ships. We could see the pools and mini golf and people on the top deck of the Carnival ship, at least 5 decks below ours. Allure of the Seas felt huge docked next to one of Carnival’s smallest ships. The Carnival ship looked so tiny!

Our ship left first, and once again I find myself taking photos of other people’s ships and wishing I could swap photos with the people on those ships.

We saw that maybe Nassau has some beaches and nice resorts, but I don’t think I’m going to be itching to explore Nassau again, regardless.

We spotted some of the landmarks that we visited and viewed from our walking tour. I pointed them out to Maddie. She also pointed out random things that we passed like rocks and smaller boats.

Maddie always has fun hanging out with Melissa and Jason. I think she also enjoyed doing some special things while Cullen was napping.

I called Gabe again, and Cullen was still snoozing. He was making up for his lack of nap the previous two days! Gabe still claimed to be enjoying his relaxing time in the room, so Melissa, Jason and I decided to take Maddie to the play area in Adventure Ocean.

The playroom was geared more towards babies and young toddlers, but Maddie had fun playing. Only one other child was in the playroom, and that child didn’t really interact with us at all. The dad was totally disengaged from us. In fact, at one point he was just sitting there picking his nose! Wow!

I thought that being on a ship full of children would mean more interactions with other kids and parents, but we didn’t talk to ANY families on the cruise (despite there being allegedly something like 1000 kids on board). I think that perhaps we got to know other families a little better on other ships because they were so few and far between. I remember one of our cruises had less than a dozen babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. As a result, we saw the same families all over the ship and would recognize them. They stood out in the crowd. We chatted with them, played with them at playgroups, and saw them around the ship. We didn’t see any Crayola Beginnings, Bedtime Stories, or Royal Babies/Tots organized opportunities on Allure of the Seas. The ship has plenty for the children, but not the small group type that gave us the opportunity to meet other families on other ships. It’s not a complaint by any means, just an observation of the differences in approach between the ships. The ship had more entertainment for the kids but encouraged less interaction between families.

We let Maddie play a little bit, and then Maddie and I headed back to the room to get ready for formal night. We couldn’t believe that Cullen was still sleeping! Cullen woke up shortly after our arrival, and we all got our formal clothes on and headed to the Madagascar photo opportunity!

Coming soon…photo ops, ice show, dinner, and evening activities…

If you have a preschooler and get a chance to see a show by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, I highly recommend it! We were familiar with both of the stories, and they kept Maddie’s attention the whole time. She did get restless towards the end (along with the rest of the young audience).

The show was done with puppets with neat black light props. I didn’t get any photos of the Runaway Bunny, but I loved how they did the puppets and the transitions for each of the scenes. Goodnight Moon made good use of the black light props. The play is definitely better than the book! I thought that the giant bunny prop was especially cool (the “quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’”).

The plays were short, perfect for attention spans of the little ones. They had a question and answer session after the plays.

And the plays were followed by cookies and juice, which was probably Maddie’s favorite part.

After Maddie’s juice and cookies, she was a little nuts. I took a bunch of photos of her dancing around on the bricks on NC State’s campus.

I was walking with Grandma and Maddie when both Maddie and Grandma paused to see some straw items. Grandma couldn’t resist getting Maddie a purse with her name on it and a hat with Cullen’s name. Both items were really cute. The lady stitched the names quickly.

You can’t see the name (or “Bahamas”) in this photo, but Cullen was excited about his new hat.

We took turns going up into the fort. I love the opportunity to see the ship when in ports, but of course our view was partially blocked by the other ships. Ours is the one in the back.

It’s hard to see how much bigger it is than the other ships from here, but it especially towered over the Carnival ship next to us.

We were amused that the cannons were pointed directly at the ships.

We weren’t going to take Cullen up into the fort, but he couldn’t stand that Maddie was going with Daddy and he had to stay behind. So, I ended up going twice so that Cullen could see what everyone was doing. I carried him the whole time as I didn’t want him running around up there! You can see Maddie’s new purse in this photo (it also had “Bahamas” on one side and “Maddie” on the other).

We continued on our walking tour after the fort, and Jason tried to steal one of our kids again. We really had to keep an eye on Jason! (In reality, Jason was a huge help throughout the cruise – we just enjoyed teasing him!)

We took more photos of random buildings that were listed on the tour, even if we didn’t know the significance of the buildings. “Jason, what’s the Unwalla House?” “Well, it’s a building called the Unwalla House.” “Oh, ok. We should definitely all take photos of this.”

We headed back towards the main part of town, and it was quite crowded. We got our free charms and necklace from the two jewelry stores and hunted down some bottled water. By this point, it was harder to navigate with all the people, and all of us were pretty much done with Nassau. My parents headed off on their own. The rest of us decided we should at least walk through the straw market. We passed by this building, and I swore I could smell the building as if it had just caught on fire.

It turns out that they had just had a fire the previous week. The fire had destroyed part of the temporary straw market as well as two historic buildings. They suspect it was arson. The straw market had suffered big losses in September due to the hurricane damage, so I’m sure that this was another devastating blow to their local economy. That might explain why we didn’t see as much in the straw market area as we had expected.

We headed back to the ship. All of us were quite ready to be back on Allure!

If I am on another cruise that stops on Nassau, I think I’ll take the opportunity to enjoy a less crowded ship. I may consider going on an excursion to Atlantis, but otherwise, I’ll pass on exploring Nassau.

We went through the vendor buildings again and through customs. We went straight to have lunch at the Park Cafe in Central Park. Seating was again a little bit of a problem, but we found a spot. After our tasty lunch, we headed back to the room to get Cullen down for nap. Maddie and I went back out with Nana to ride the carousel, but it was closed again. We were starting to wonder when the carousel was ever open!

Stay tuned for the rest of our afternoon on the ship while in port in Nassau…

We were excited to Skpye with my grandma for the first time. We have been telling her about it for a while, so it was neat that she had the opportunity to try it.

We had a “feast,” as the kids called it. We had all the traditional, southern options. We put a little bit of everything on their plate.

Of course, they refused to eat more than half of it.

We put napkin rings on our eyes. Or maybe that was just me while everyone else laughed at me. I love Cullen’s expression. I think he’s already embarrassed by his mother, and he’s not even 2.

He was also amused.

He wanted to try it for himself.

We enjoyed some family time. Between us, we had 5 iPhones, an iPad, and a few MacBooks. We played a lot of Words With Friends against each other.

Cullen played an iPhone, too, in his new Apptivity case. That case is great for letting toddlers play the apps. I think my favorite feature is that it blocks the home key.

We had a great day with family. After the kids went to bed, we played Wits & Wagers and laughed a lot, as usual.

Happy Thanksgiving to us!

This was our first visit to the Bahamas.

We didn’t care too much about what we did in the port, but we wanted to at least walk around to say that we had been there! Melissa and Jason found a walking tour online, and we mostly followed the designated route. We got off track early and skipped a few things towards the end when we’d all had enough of Nassau.

The port has so many pushy people wanting to know if you want to get your hair braided or take a tour or hitch a ride to Atlantis and Paradise Island. We practiced our ignoring skills and “no thank yous.”

The first thing on our tour was to find a statue. I think that they were doing some construction work in the area, plus they had all these grandstands set up for a recent or upcoming parade. We found the statue and knew we were on the right path.

A little ways further, we saw a traffic cop guy that stands in the middle of the road, usually in a box on a platform. He wasn’t in his box, but we saw him in the box on the way back.

At about this point, Mick decided to go off and do his own thing. I think he might have just headed back to the ship. Given how impressed we were with Nassau in general, that wasn’t a bad choice!

We followed the walking tour which was light on facts but pointed out landmarks on the way. The library looked neat, and allegedly, it used to be a prison.

We were able to navigate the strollers along the sidewalks most of the time. A few areas were tricky. We saw more stands along the road.

We saw old buildings and didn’t really know what they were…but we all thought we should take photos of them. So, we all did.

One of the highlights of the walking tour (and of Nassau) is the Queen’s Staircase, built in the late 1700s. We had been warned that there would be people at the bottom of the stairs trying to charge you for climbing them. We were approached by several such people, but we continued without their help.

We weren’t sure how we were going to get the kids up the staircase, but there wasn’t really another way to get to the rest of our tour. We were grateful for two lightweight strollers, especially our newer one that folds up very conveniently.

The kids climbed every step by themselves, holding onto adult hands, of course. We were proud of them! I think Cullen was proud of himself, too.

We made it! We posed in front of the sign at the top.

My sweet girl was proud of herself as well.

Our group is a bit photo happy. We should have gotten one of Jason and Gabe holding the strollers they carried up the staircase.

Next up…the rest of our walking tour.

We got there just before they opened, so we had to wait outside a few minutes. It was chilly, and Maddie does not like being cold!

Cullen loved playing in the bounce house, and I was glad he got a chance to do it before it was overrun by bigger kids. He only had to share it with a couple of little kids at first. This wasn’t his first time in a bounce house, but it was the first time he could really play. The other times we have tried it, it has been too crowded for little kids.

He enjoyed playing the carnival games, throwing balls and beanbags in hoops and such.

Maddie went down the slide several times before the lines got long. It was funny to see her come down as her dress flew up into her face each time.

We went to get our pizza dinner and watched part of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. This was the first time the kids had seen the movie, and we DVRed it the next week.

This is the best photo of the kids in their costumes that we got all Halloween, I think. That’s not saying much.

They weren’t terribly cooperative for the photo ops.

We did a quick trunk-or-treat. I think they usually have more trunks, and they are usually decorated, but it was cold and rainy outside. They just had a quick one-stop bag of goodies. We grabbed some fresh popcorn and headed home for bedtime.

Maddie and Cullen ate almost two full sized pancakes each, so they must have liked the breakfast. Jason had an omelette, and I had an egg, ham, and cheese english muffin. We were the only two adults who thought our breakfast was fine. Everything else was extremely mediocre. We declared that the free breakfast at Johnny Rockets left something to be desired.

We had some difficulties coordinating our group. We got our certificates for free charm bracelets, put sunscreen on the kids (and me), and lost Mick. The last part was frustrating since we had no way to contact each other while on the ship. Unless we’re in a US port, the roaming fees are extraordinary. All of us had our phones in airplane mode or turned off completely, so calling and texting each other was not an option. Debbie had his passport, so we weren’t sure what to do since we knew he wanted to get off the ship. Eventually, he made his way back to the cabin and was there when we called from the gangway.

One of the many neat things about this ship is that they have a gangway button on the elevator. The deck that you use to get on and off the ship can change from port to port, so you have to usually pay attention to figure out which one you need. On this ship, you just get in the elevator and press the magic button. It’s quite convenient!

We were getting antsy waiting for Mick, so Maddie, Jason, Melissa, and I exited the ship.

We were out there for a little while, especially considering that we thought Mick was coming right down. I always like to get photos in the port, and my parents are the same way. I’m not sure that everyone else really cared about it. Both Gabe’s parents and Melissa’s parents avoided the ship’s photographers any chance they had. I love having at least a few decent photos of ourselves, and I do like having the frames from each port.

We were standing around and waiting, and who walks up to us but Mick AND my parents (um, that’s not Mick in the photo below with my mom, ha!).

So, Jason went back onto the ship to grab Debbie, Gabe, and Cullen. Finally! We were on our way. Gabe and I insisted on getting a mediocre photo of our family. The kids were especially cooperative! Their expressions in this one cracked me up.

At least 3 other ships were docked in port with us. I was excited to see Disney’s newest ship, the Disney Dream. It looks so neat…who knows, maybe our next cruise will be on the Dream or the Fantasy!

The fact that our ship was so massive combined with the large number of ships in each port made it difficult to ever get a great photo of the entire ship. We tried anyway in each port.

Next up…our walking tour of Nassau…

Something I’m thinking: Cullen’s 2nd birthday is coming up fast!

Something I’m hoping: Lots of major things are going on with friends, and I hope all is well this week.

Something happening around the house: The house smells like ginger snap cookies. I promised the teachers I would deliver cookies in the new year since I didn’t have a chance before the holiday.

Something I’m reading: I’m almost finished with The Battle of the Labyrinth, the 4th Percy Jackson book. I’ve downloaded The Kitchen House for the kindle, and I hope it’s a fast read. It’s January’s book club book.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished Hyperion, and started reading the first Percy Jackson book. I love that this series is available at the library on the kindle instantly at all times. The lack of waiting lists is wonderful.

Something I’m watching: We had our movie day on Monday, and we saw Young Adult and The Muppets in two different theaters. I wish that Young Adult had been better. I had higher hopes given the association with Juno, Up in the Air, and Thank You for Smoking. It had some very subtle, hilarious parts, but there just weren’t enough of them. It left us wondering whether there had been much of a point. The Muppets was just what we expected it to be. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I was glad that it was the second of our two movies! Young Adult was a bit of a downer. We also managed to watch movies at home for the first time in ages. We even saw TWO. We watched Date Night and Secretariat, and both were enjoyable! I was surprised to enjoy Date Night as much as I did. We liked seeing Keeneland in scenes of Secretariat. Being from Kentucky, I think Gabe is partial to horse movies. We had been meaning to watch that one for a while.

Something I’m playing: We played several rounds of Go Away Monster with the kids again this week. We started playing Zelda: Skyward Sword. We haven’t gotten too far. I’ll be looking forward to getting into the adventure. So far, there are lots of cinematic breaks to explain the storyline.

Something I’m creating: Lots of blog posts about the trip and other photo albums that I’m way behind on. I should also be creating thank you notes this week. I had Maddie write something for every person who gave her a gift, and I need to write my part now.

Something tasty: Ginger snaps with white chocolate chips!

Something about both kiddos: We played outside a lot this weekend with the beautiful weather. Both kids practiced on their balance bikes.

Something Maddie is doing (46 months old): Maddie has been writing her name (over and over) on her papers at school for a while. In the past few months, she started writing “MOM” and “DAD” on most of them. This week, she started adding Cullen’s name to the mix. Sometimes she leaves out the “e” and sometimes she does a backwards “n,” but it’s so cute that she’s writing all of our names. She did a few drawings of our family this week and wrote everyone’s name above it. She’s also been into drawing lots of random shapes on the paper and calling it a map. She has a rolled up piece of paper that she’s very protective about and calls it her map. She was very whiny earlier in the week, and by Thursday night she complained about her right ear hurting. We took her to the doctor on Friday and found out that she had a very nasty ear infection. In addition, we discovered that she had pink eye! That part was unexpected! I think it’s great that Maddie can tell us what is hurting her. Since tubes surgery, ear infections haven’t been on our radar. I hope that this doesn’t mean we’re on the road to another tubes surgery. She’s been showing interest in learning to read, so we’ve been doing some phonics practice. She was very interested in her balance bike this weekend and is really getting the hang of it!

Something Cullen is doing (23 months old): Cullen got to try his balance bike for the first time this weekend. It will take some practice for him to figure it out, but I’m glad we’re starting him early. He’s excited about it. He has been cranky today, and I discovered that one more tooth has broken through the gums. Now he has 3 of the 4 eyeteeth coming through with the other one breaking through any day now. I’m sure that can’t feel great.

Something I am struggling with: Vertigo and tinnitus.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Well, I thought we would book the first few days of our Disney trip in October this week, but I haven’t yet. I’ve been trying to work with a travel agent, but she hasn’t been responsive. Now I’m trying to decide whether to find a new one or just do it by myself. Part of our trip has already been booked at the Beach Club Villas with our friends! I can’t wait. We have several friends who were in Disney this past week. I love seeing their photos and stories.

Something I learned: I learned a little more about the process for selecting schools this week. We have so many choices, and we’ll be registering Maddie for kindergarten in less than a year! I can’t believe it. Decisions, decisions. Of course, our school board can’t agree on anything, so who knows if the process will even be the same for 2013-2014.

Something I’m looking forward to: Visiting my grandma. Maddie’s ballet class at work starts this week.

Something random: My new electric toothbrush is great! I had an appointment this week, and they said I was doing a much better job with my gums and teeth. They even thought I was flossing more (though I laughed and said that I wasn’t!). I should have gotten one of these a long time ago. My teeth feel so much cleaner! I feel like I’m brushing parts of my teeth that have been neglected for a long time.

Something captured: Maddie and two of her BFFs at Nantucket before our visit to the Museum of Life and Science on Saturday.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

When we arrived, we discovered that instead of a table of 10, we had a table of 6 and a table of 4. Considering that we were told we would be seated together, we were a little annoyed with the arrangement…especially considering that we booked our cruise a year and a half ago. Maddie insisted on sitting with Grandma, and since my parents were already seated at the 6-top, this resulted in splitting up my family. Cullen and I sat with Nana, Papa, Melissa and Jason. Gabe and Maddie sat with Grandma and Grandpa. It worked out fine, but I missed having my immediate family together on the first night. It may have been better to have the kids separated, though!

Cullen did great at dinner. He made it through the whole meal and only got upset at the very end when we were packing our things back into the bags. He spotted the books and wanted them, so he was upset until we made our way out of the dining room. Maddie had fun with Grandma and was especially excited about her chocolate ice cream and cookie dessert.

This was the only night they offered the gruyere onion tart, one of my favorite appetizers on every cruise! YUM!

Since it was the first night at dinner, of course the ship’s photographers made their rounds. Every time we’ve been on a cruise, they have taken our photos on the first night. This time was no exception, but most of our photos were individuals. The ones of the kids weren’t great, and none of the first night dinner photos made the final cut (for us or anyone else). We took a few photos ourselves, but they weren’t great either. I guess we weren’t too photogenic that night!

Our table finished early, so I took Cullen back to the room and got him ready for bed. Nana and Papa agreed to babysit tonight so that we could go to Ocean Aria and the 8pm trivia (we were a little late to that). Cullen went to sleep almost immediately. He was so tired since he hadn’t had a nap that day! Maddie was pretty good for Nana and Papa and fell asleep in our bed. It was easy to transfer her to her bed when we got back.

We played the Movies music trivia with Melissa, Jason, and Melissa’s parents.

The trivia was in a familiar place, The Schooner Bar. Since all of our cruises have been on Royal Caribbean ships, we were familiar with The Schooner Bar. It varies a little from ship to ship, but it’s neat to see a few places that we almost recognize.

We love the “name that tune” type trivias, so we had a lot of fun kicking off our first night on the cruise with this session. Some of the movie themes were quite challenging! We ended up getting 13 out of the 20 themes which was enough to tie for first place. We sent Gabe to do the face off tie breaker. Jason and Gabe were the most valuable team members, so we knew we had to send one of them. The tiebreaker song ended up being something that Melissa and I might have been able to get quicker – Flashdance. Oddly enough, we heard the song a few other times throughout the cruise as if the ship were taunting us.

We headed to the Aqua Theatre for Ocean Aria. We knew we had to get there early so that they wouldn’t give away our seats. We had made the reservations a couple of months prior to the cruise. The theater was already quite full. We had to wipe our seats off with a towel since it had been raining a little earlier.

We loved the show! Right away, we were impressed with the entertainment that Allure of the Seas has to offer. Almost every show that we attended was top notch and of a much higher caliber than any we have experienced on other ships. I’m glad we saw Ocean Aria on the first night because the water shows were canceled a few times during the cruise. Since we had carefully planned when we could have babysitters, we were really glad that our show didn’t get canceled!

It felt very much like a Cirque du Soleil show from the “clowns” that start the show to the acrobatic acts and the stage that is solid one minute and a pool the next.

We loved the diving and the trampoline acts. We were especially impressed by the guy who dove from one of the highest points on the ship. What an amazing and entertaining show! These guys reminded me of the contortionist brothers pair from Mystere. They did some impressive things!

The show incorporated a few fountain effects which reminds me of the Bellagio fountains (on a much smaller scale).

It was the best show we had ever seen on a cruise ship. If you cruise on Allure and skip the shows, you’re really missing out on some quality entertainment.

We needed to get back to our room shortly after the show, but we went by the casino for just long enough to take a look, learn that they had real live poker (not just the electronic tables) due to the poker tournaments going on, and to lose $20 in video poker. We were probably there less than 15 minutes. That’s how most of my casino experiences went on this trip! Fortunately, Gabe had a bit more luck.

We were amused by the “secret” staircase from the Promenade level into the casino.

We headed back to the room to relieve Nana, looked over the next day’s Cruise Compass, and wrote up the trip report!

Day 1 Favorites:
Gabe: Ocean Aria
Kerry: Ocean Aria
Maddie (according to her): Special Treats at dinner with Grandma
Cullen (my best guess): maybe the watermelon gazpacho he had at dinner?