KerryAndGabe.com

After two port days, we were ready for another “at sea” day (our favorite sort of day!). This was the morning that all twelve of us had character breakfast reservations. The line to get into the dining room was long, and they didn’t open the doors until 5 minutes to 8am (when the breakfast was supposed to start). They didn’t seem very organized on this day! Today’s characters were all from Shrek: Shrek, Puss in Boots, and Fiona.

On the other hand, Shrek came out almost immediately after we sat down. Half the people hadn’t even made their way into the dining room yet, including most of the rest of our party. They pretty much missed Shrek! Cullen wouldn’t have anything to do with Shrek. As soon as he saw Shrek, he said, “I don’t like Shrek.” I guess he doesn’t like big ol’ ogres.

We had the best seats in the dining room, again. Lucky us! By the time the rest of our party arrived, Shrek had moved onto another section.

Everyone was ready for Puss in Boots, and we got a rare photo of everyone in our group. The lighting was challenging in the dining room, so our photos didn’t come out too well in there.

Fiona was our favorite character from the breakfast (and perhaps our favorite on the cruise!). She was very animated and sweet with the kids. Cullen was absolutely smitten with her!

After Fiona left our table, Cullen blew her a kiss and looked after her wistfully and said, “Come back, Fiona!”

After the breakfast, which was another chocolate breakfast, we headed to the pool. It takes quite a while to get everyone in their swimsuits and to apply the sunscreen. Cullen hated being contained to the tiny pool, especially since Maddie wasn’t allowed in that part (technically). Maddie had a great time in the pool with Grandma and Daddy. She continued to enjoy the family hot tub. Cullen just wasn’t happy, so the two of us went back to the room to shower and change while Maddie stayed at the pool a bit longer.

Cullen and I headed to the carousel. We rode it many times!

My parents had attended a special event at the AquaTheater which was some sort of session with Captain Johnny (motorcycle and all). Maybe it was the Crown & Anchor event?

The AquaTheater and carousel are in the same Boardwalk area, so they joined up with us afterward at the carousel.

We also saw Melissa, Jason, and Melissa’s parents. Everyone rode the carousel with Cullen. He was having so much fun! I can’t believe that Cullen convinced Jason to ride the carousel. Jason was against riding it, but he softened when Cullen batted his blue eyes at him. So cute.

Maddie and Daddy eventually joined us when we were getting some specialty hot dogs from The Dog House. I had a chicken hot dog with bits of apple mixed into it. I got Cullen a plain one and cut it into small pieces.

Next, we headed to the How to Train Your Dragon Ice Show. Cullen was excited to meet one of the “fwagons” (his word for “dragon” on this trip). Maddie refused to eat a hot dog, so Gabe ended up taking her to get a sandwich on the way to the show. They were about 45 minutes later than planned, since Maddie had been having such a wonderful time at the pool!

Amazingly, all twelve of us made it to the show! Gabe’s mom had not been feeling too bad, so she decided she didn’t need her patch the day before. Unfortunately, she was feeling quite seasick for most of this day. She felt better for a little bit, so we were glad she felt well enough to join us for the show! The ship was moving quite a bit almost the whole cruise.

The How to Train Your Dragon ice show was great! This was one of our favorite shows from the cruise. The kids loved it, and one of my favorite moments of the entire cruise occurred when the first dragon appeared on the ice. Cullen gasped and exclaimed in awe, “DRAGON!” It was priceless.

After the ice show, most of us headed over to the AquaTheater to see the belly flop competition. Melissa, Jason, Mick, and Gabe headed for the theater itself, and Debbie, my parents, the kids and I watched from the 11th floor balcony. The 11th floor balcony was a neat place to watch! We could hear a lot of what was going on, though sometimes it was difficult. We had a neat bird’s eye view. We almost had the entire balcony to ourselves. I guess not very many people know about it since several (most?) of the balconies overlooking the AquaTheater are special suites with huge private balconies. You can see the balconies on the other side in the next photo of Cullen.

The belly flop contest was amusing, and it looked quite painful. Unfortunately, Gabe’s mom started feeling ill again and had to go back to her cabin at some point. The winner of the belly flop contest made a giant slap when he hit the water. Ouch! Every time a competitor did a belly flop, the audience would hold up fingers indicating the score from 0-5. The activities director “counted” our votes from way above the theater as well. We had a video (from the theater) and photos from several vantage points of the final group belly flop.

The kids were a little cranky and restless during the belly flop competition. It wasn’t an interesting enough thing for them, and it certainly wasn’t engaging for them to be so high above the action. The kids were obviously tired, so we took them back to the room for nap. Gabe put Cullen down for nap while Maddie played her DS. She kept getting frustrated by the game, so I had her lay down on the bed while I rubbed her back. She must have been a very tired little girl as she actually fell asleep (that never works!). Gabe read his book and snoozed while I went with my mom, Patsy, Jim, and Melissa to watch Jason do the FlowRider.

Jason had already done it once, but we convinced him to do it again. I showed a clip of him in the cruise highlights video. Here’s a photo Melissa took of Jason on the same try.

Melissa, Mom, and I went to the Win-a-Cruise bingo. Mom and I shared an electronic “card” where you play 30 cards at once. At least they still give you a paper card or all the fun would really be taken out of the experience! I got very close to winning once with only one number left for bingo, but none of us won. I checked on Gabe, and everyone was still snoozing. I went to the Movie Character Photo Quiz with Melissa and Jason. We did fairly well with this trivia, but we were 3rd (again). As a bonus, I picked up a quiz for Gabe since the photos of the movie characters were on a worksheet type printout.

I headed back to the room where we had only a few minutes to get ready for dinner because we had a date with our Progressive Trivia team. The category for this session was sports. Jason and Gabe were the primary contributors. We only missed two questions, though it wasn’t due to much of my knowledge! After this session, our team was still in first place.

We headed to dinner which was the 2nd formal night which was also lobster night. I didn’t get the lobster, but a lot of our people did. Cullen made a mess with his fruit soup and “formal” clothes, and then he wanted to be all sweet and sit on my lap and hug me. The photographer came around a few minutes later, and I couldn’t resist this photo since it tells a story (and how sweet is that little boy??).

We all headed to 70s music trivia where we did better than expected again, and we almost won…but we ended up with 3rd place. Again! We still felt pretty good about our trivia performances on this cruise, and we had a lot of fun participating in all of them. I especially like the name-that-tune type trivia sessions.

Gabe took Cullen back to the room and put him to bed while Maddie and I hung out a few minutes with Melissa and Jason and then decided to go see Fiona and Shrek who were appearing back to back in the promenade. Maddie was so cute with Fiona! She was very excited to see Fiona and hopped around with joy. She also did a crazy dance in the promenade just before Fiona appeared (which I also caught on the video). Maddie and Fiona danced together, and Maddie was so excited.

Shrek appeared a few minutes after Fiona disappeared. He’s not as fun and interactive as Fiona.

Melissa and Jason needed to check on email as they were in the process of buying and trying to sell houses. Maddie and I explored a little more, and then I took her back to the cabin for bed. It was a late night for her.

I ended up seeing Jason and Melissa a little later and spent a little time with them in their room with Melissa’s parents before going downstairs to see the 70s dance party in the promenade. Gabe could hear and see the festivities from the room.

Gabe was tired and wanted to relax in the room instead of going back out, so I grabbed him a soda and arranged to meet Melissa, Jason, and Melissa’s parents for a drink. I found my parents and we went up to the Solarium Bar where we were supposed to meet the others. We thought it was odd that they scanned our cards when we went in. I guess they made sure everyone was over 21 or something. We couldn’t find the others and gave up after a little bit. They had ended up going to a different place, as we found out the next day. We were all tired anyway, so I headed back to the cabin to go to bed.

Favorites from Day 6:
Gabe: playing with Maddie in the pool and when Cullen said, “dragon!” at the ice show
Kerry: Maddie dancing in the promenade with Fiona and the moment when Cullen said “dragon!”
Maddie (according to her): pool and dancing with Fiona
Cullen (my best guess): fwagons!

It’s been 3 months since the trip, but it still feels like yesterday. Or last week. Or something. Hmm, maybe it does feel like it has been 3 months. Anyway. I’m still going to crank out these trip reports so that I can look back at them to create our photobooks. I’m determined to get these things finished!

So, where was I? Ah, yes, I had finished our “at sea” day, so now we’re ready for our port day in St. Thomas. St. Thomas was new for the four of us.

We woke up around 7:15am, which is a fairly normal time for our family. The kids seemed to have slept better the night before. We had plenty of time to get ready for our shore excursion to Magens Bay. Gabe’s parents were going to breakfast at the same time, and they shared their beautiful views from their balcony as we were coming into the port. We were already much more impressed with St. Thomas than we were with Nassau!

We ended up with the a la carte service in the dining room for breakfast while Gabe’s parents tried the buffet. After breakfast, we tried to see our photos but the photo place wasn’t open. We then went to see if the carousel was running, but it wasn’t either. We were getting ready to head off the ship to head to our excursion, and Cullen required a last minute diaper change. I suppose his timing could have been worse (like just as we were boarding the bus).

The first thing we noticed when we got off the ship were all the iguanas on the rocks! I was then happy that I could get my free Diamonds Direct charm as I thought I wouldn’t be able to get the one from St. Thomas. They had a store right at the port, of course.

My parents did an excursion that involved a sailboat, snorkeling, and drinks. Melissa and Jason did an excursion that involved a boat, beach, and snorkeling. Melissa’s parents had an excursion as well. I think that Gabe’s parents explored St. Thomas on their own.

We experienced some confusion when trying to find the meeting place for our shore excursion. We were then told to follow “that guy” and “that guy” high tailed it “that way.” We had a hard time keeping up with him! Luckily, we kept up with the guide and boarded our open air “bus” (making sure to put the kiddos on the inside). We attempted to apply sunscreen on the kids on the way, but that was quite a challenge.

Our “bus” made two scenic stops as we climbed the summit overlooking the harbor. St. Thomas is quite beautiful.

We met Lady Gaga, the donkey. Melissa’s parents told us later that they had seen Lady Gaga, too.

The “bus” ride was a little scary at times, especially with two small children. Magans Bay Beach was much narrower than I expected it to be, but it was absolutely beautiful with few people. Right away, we wished that we had brought our swimsuits. The water was so calm, and the weather was perfect. We could have easily taken the kids into the ocean here!

They were happy to play in the sand.

And walk along the beach barefoot.

And spend time together in the sun!

We had a difficult time getting decent photos, despite the beautiful settings. We were happy that a stranger offered to take one, even if it isn’t awesome of the kiddos.

The kids enjoyed flinging sand into the approaching waves. It’s a good thing that the beach wasn’t crowded. They ended up flinging sand all over.

Oh, and I got pooped on by a bird! Somehow that didn’t seem so bad with such beautiful surroundings. Hooray for wet wipes!

We had overpriced mediocre food at the “restaurant” on the beach, continuing our trend of sub-par dining experiences when not on the ship.

After lunch, we had just enough time to glance in the gift shop and take a potty and diaper break. We hurried back to the parking lot to meet the bus. And then we waited for an hour. We were annoyed. Fortunately, this wasn’t an excursion that was cutting it close for departure time on the ship, but have you ever waited an hour for a bus with two kids under 4? They were getting restless, to say the least. We were already pushing Cullen’s naptime back an hour or two, so this didn’t help matters!

He looks happy here, though, doesn’t he? Between the beach and the parking lot were some interesting trees to run around.

When the bus driver showed up, she didn’t even apologize for being so late. The ride back seemed even scarier than the way there. I imagine the driver was in a hurry to get back to port. Cullen didn’t want to be on the bus and cried the first 10 minutes or so, saying, “I want to get off the bus. I want to get off. I want to get off.” Fortunately, we made it back safely.

We made it back to the ship and got everyone showered. Showering the kids in the tiny shower on the cruise ship is an interesting experience. Thank goodness for the detachable shower head/sprayer! We let the kids relax with some cartoons. Cullen was obviously not going to nap as we missed his window of opportunity.

We tried to see our photos again, but the photo gallery was closed. Again. We ended up meeting up with Melissa and Jason, and we all lingered by the Progressive Trivia since it was the music round. We weren’t planning on playing, but one woman got our attention and asked, “hey, do you know this song?” I said, “you’re trying to cheat!” She convinced us to join her team, though we warned her that we couldn’t promise to make it to other trivia rounds. The husband and wife were the trivia champions from rounds 1 and 2. Also, the husband had placed 2nd in the Jeopardy Seniors Tournament some number of years ago (how cool is that?). This was the 3rd round, and the name-that-tune trivia wasn’t their forte. Fortunately for them, we knew most of the answers. We always manage to meet some fun people from each cruise, and we were so glad by the end of the cruise to meet Sandy and Jerry!

We ran the strollers back to the room and ended up being about 15 minutes late for dinner. Maddie insisted on sitting next to Grandma, of course. Cullen was a bit restless due to having no nap. He did enjoy the fruit soup again tonight, and he especially enjoyed feeding it to himself. Of course, much of it was all over the front of his shirt!

Gabe took Cullen back to the room a few minutes early to get him ready for bed. Grandma and I followed soon after as Grandma had offered to babysit for us this night.

We headed to the comedy show with my parents and Melissa and Jason. The comedy club is a very small place, but somehow we never noticed that Melissa and Jason’s parents were there, too.

The comedy show was very entertaining, though I learned that it can be awkward to sit next to your parents at a comedy show. You probably don’t always want to know what your parents will find hilarious. Of course, I’m mostly joking about the awkwardness. It didn’t outweigh everyone having a good time seeing a show together!

We had some time to kill between the comedy show and Qwest. We first went to get our photo taken with Puss in Boots at one of the scheduled photo ops.

We chatted a bit with Melissa’s parents in Central Park, and then we headed up to play mini golf. It was far too crowded, so we played the first and last hole and wandered around trying to decide what to do.

At some point, we walked through the Promenade, and I grabbed some tasty pizza from Sorrentos.

We went to Dazzles to watch the Finish the Lyric Game Show. It was entertaining enough, but most of the songs were lame. We ended up leaving partway through the game show so we could grab seats in Studio B for Qwest.

We have seen Qwest many times, but this was the first time for Melissa and Jason. It’s an adult scavenger hunt, and it just has to be experienced. I’m always amazed at the crazy things that people will do. Usually, you form your own teams and our team generally bows out about half a dozen questions into the game. This time was different since the venue is so large. They divided us into 8 large teams with two team captains each. Most items were passed down to the captains, but sometimes items required audience members to come to the stage. Melissa ran down at one point and wiped out on the slippery floor (and almost took out the camera man!). Fortunately for Melissa, people did far more embarrassing things on purpose. It’s a crazy event.

When it was over, it was late and we headed back to the cabin to relieve Grandma of her babysitting (and napping with Maddie) duties.

Day 4 favorites:
Kerry: beautiful beach views
Gabe: the beach
Maddie (according to her): the beach
Cullen (according to him): the water

We had originally planned to do the carousel tour of St. Maarten, but it was cancelled. Melissa and Jason actually had all of their originally scheduled tours cancelled. We woke up early, as usual, and I went down to the shore excursions desk to figure out whether we could book a last minute excursion. Jason was down there doing the same thing. We got a list of the ones that were available, and I picked one of the only ones that seemed feasible with the little ones. We knew we wanted to do another beach excursion since the kids enjoyed St. Thomas so much! We saw my parents and Gabe’s parents on their way to their early art tour of the island. Melissa’s parents were on another tour.

We were docked on the Dutch side of the island (called St. Maarten), and we chose a tour that would take us to a beach on the French side (called St. Martin). I grabbed some muffins from the Royal Promenade and some towels from the pool deck for our beach excursion. After not having our swimsuits the day before, we didn’t want to make the same mistake twice! Melissa and Jason decided to join us on our tour.

We had to wait a bit to get to our bus, and the kids were anxious to get moving. We got on the bus and sat in the very back where Maddie sat with Melissa and Jason and Cullen sat with Gabe and me. Once again, Jason tried to steal one of our children! Melissa looked like she was in on it this time. We had a running joke the rest of the day that Melissa and Jason had special custody of Maddie that was only valid on St. Maarten. When the tour guide came by to check our tickets, she assumed Maddie was their child.

Our tour guide gave us some good information about the island and how the French and Dutch sides interact and the differences between the two countries. At some point, we heard a loud noise and maybe even smelled a rubber burning sort of smell. Before we could make it to the beach, our bus broke down. Those of us near the back wondered if some belt had broken, and sure enough that is what happened.

We had to evacuate the bus and wait for a replacement. Our luck with buses was not stellar for this trip! Fortunately, we weren’t delayed for too long. Maddie thought it was hilarious that we made a joke that the belt busted because the bus ate too much at the buffet. We were only delayed about 15 minutes, and they compensated with a later departure from the beach. They greeted us with fruity beverages, and we had reserved lounge chairs on the beach. We had the option to buy umbrellas, so we took advantage of those.

The kids spent a lot of time playing in the sand.

Unfortunately, the waves were too strong for the kids at this beach, and the beach had a ton of seaweed. Maddie wasn’t a fan of the seaweed (and I don’t blame her!). She didn’t like that it kept getting tangled up in her feet.

We played on the beach a little bit and then had our “free” lunch at the restaurant. This beach was a bit more developed than the one that we had visited on St. Thomas, but the food wasn’t much better. We were glad it was free! They even gave us some extra fries for the kids for free. While we were eating, we heard a big thump and assumed that maybe a coconut dropped from the palm tree next to us. We looked over and saw a huge iguana! The waiter then chased it back up the tree. Those things are everywhere.

After lunch, we played some more on the beach. We had been warned ahead of time that the beach would have dozens of peddlers trying to sell towels, sunglasses, toys, necklaces, and other assorted souvenirs. The tour guide advised that we can get all of these things near the port cheaper than what they are probably asking on the beach. She advised us to simply say “no thank you,” and by the end of our visit to the beach both Maddie and Cullen were telling the vendors “no thank you.”

Early in our beach adventure, we saw a very cute doll with a long dress. The doll was “reversible” with another head instead of feet so that when you flipped her over she had a differently patterned dress. One side had a sash that said “St. Maarten” and the other had a sash that said “St. Martin” representing the Dutch and French sides of the island. We thought that was very neat but we resisted buying it the first time. We figured that we would get it back in port, but the more we thought about it, the more we wished that we just had bought it from the first lady. We didn’t see another one for a while! Finally, either the same woman came through or another one with the same doll, and we decided to buy it. I’m glad that we bought it since it was actually more expensive back at the port! Maddie was thrilled.

Melissa, Jason, and I went for a swim in the ocean which was wonderful. I did a little body surfing and swimming around in the waves. We had to be mindful of the undertow, and we kept getting swept down the beach. It definitely wasn’t a kid-friendly place to swim.

We were at the beach for about 3 hours which is more than long enough to get sand everywhere. We had a difficult time getting the sand off of us (especially since the shower was public and most of the sand wasn’t in public places…though the beach does allow you to be topless and not far down the stretch was a nude beach. I preferred to keep my suit on, thanks!).

We headed back on our original bus which had been repaired. Maddie and Cullen fell asleep almost immediately.

We had two tired kiddos!

Melissa and Jason opted to get off the bus in town and take a water taxi back to our ship later. Gabe and Cullen headed to the ship while Maddie and I explored the shops near the port.

We walked around together and bought some souvenirs.

We ended up getting a St. Maarten monkey for Cullen, a shirt for Maddie, and a shirt for Daddy. We listened to a little bit of the steel drum band and then headed back to the ship.

Cullen decided that his short little nap on the bus was enough for the day, so we put the kids in the stroller and walked around after showering. We ended up at “Who Am I” interactive trivia where they showed pictures of famous people. We got 17 of 18, but they were having technical difficulties with the interactive parts. We did end up getting a prize after all. Cullen wasn’t terribly happy.

Gabe and his mom went to play bingo with Maddie while Cullen and I ditched the stroller and went to walk around the ship. He was a little difficult since he didn’t get enough of a nap. We explored the upper decks where he found a row of pool chairs and had to sit in every.single.one. It was on this little excursion that I realized that I had trained Cullen pretty well to stand in front of things and pose. He did a lot of walking up to random things and standing in front of them waiting for me to take a photo.

Cullen and I hung out with Melissa and Jason and Melissa’s parents until we went to dinner. Melissa’s parents had dinner with us this night since my parents had reservations at Rita’s Cantina. Cullen pointed out that Melissa’s mom, Patsy, was “not Nana.” This was the night that the waiter did the mouse trick for Cullen where he folded a napkin to resemble a mouse and made it “jump” onto the table. Cullen thought this was great, and he tried to mimic it. You can see Cullen trying it in the video.

I cracked up every time I saw this photo of Melissa and Jason being shocked at the size of Allure of the Seas.

Gabe took Cullen back for bedtime while the rest of us (Melissa, Jason, Melissa’s parents, Gabe’s parents, Maddie, and I) headed to 50s and 60s music trivia. We surprised ourselves by getting all but two questions correct! Unfortunately, we still lost.

I took Maddie back to the room where Cullen was already sleeping. Gabe and his mom went to the casino for a bit, and Maddie and I read some books. I started to look at the Cruise Compass schedule for the next day, and I marked a few things that we would be interested in doing. Maddie asked, “Did you mark the pool and carousel?” I snoozed a little bit with Maddie until Gabe came back with his mom. His mom offered to snooze with Maddie while Gabe and I went to play poker. Gabe had won about $30 in the casino.

We spotted Melissa, Jason, and Melissa’s parents in the promenade from our cabin window. We went down there in time to see Melissa purchase hats for Jason and her dad.

We checked out some more of our photos in the photo gallery and ran into my parents at Rita’s. It seems like everyone was having a great time! We chatted for a few minutes with my parents and Melissa’s parents, then Jason, Gabe, and I headed to play poker.

The poker game was perfect with so many players throwing around their money without a clue as to what they were doing. Unfortunately, my cards were less than perfect. Gabe’s last hand had him losing his stack with a set of Kings to a runner-runner straight (and he did not slow play any of it). I lost the rest of my stack with two pair AK versus a set of Queens. Oh well. It was nice to play some real poker, and we wished that two small kiddos weren’t going to be waking us up bright and early the next morning! We were at the kind of table that can be very profitable given a longer session. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to play for very long. It was a little frustrating!

Favorites from day 5:
Gabe: watching the kids play in the sand
Kerry: swimming in the ocean
Maddie (according to her): the beach and sand
Cullen (my best guess): playing in the sand

Something that makes me happy: Great weekends with beautiful weather. We spent Saturday with friends doing Eastery things like egg dying and hiding and cookie making. Today, we had a bike play date with friends at a local park and ended our day with an impromptu dinner with fun neighbors.

Something I’m thinking: I think that Gabe is quite pleased with his new iPad. He couldn’t wait for its arrival on Friday. He kept thinking that he could hear delivery trucks with many false alarms.

Something I’m hoping: I hope that work will be calmer this week. We’ve been very busy with some big project deadlines.

Something happening around the house: The garage repair people came back for the 3rd time, and we think that the door is fixed. Fortunately, they didn’t charge us very much the first visit. The other two visits were free. The guy who came out the third time said that his boss said, “Get it right this time!” I think that this worked out in our favor. Since they didn’t get it right the first time, the extra parts and labor didn’t cost us a thing.

Something I’m reading: I’m enjoying The Wise Man’s Fear. I’m going to be sad when I finish it as I’ll have to wait at least a year for the next book to be released.

Something Gabe is reading: He finished the 4th Percy Jackson book and is now reading Feed by Mira Grant.

Something I’m watching: Basketball, basketball, and more basketball. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that I’m watching Gabe watch basketball?

Something I’m playing: Kids of Carcassonne, Pengaloo, and Zingo with the kids. Gabe and I have been playing Mystery Manor on his new iPad.

Something I’m creating: I finally published Maddie’s letter. Since then, I haven’t been creating much but I have been trying to catch up with photos. So many photos!

Something tasty: I tried a new recipe for sugar cookies after sampling a friend’s batch. YUM. We had fun decorating the cookies with colored icing and tons of sprinkles.

Something about both kiddos: The kids had fun decorating the sugar cookies! They helped pick out the cookie cutters that we used and the icing colors. They then “decorated” with a TON of sprinkles. I used to love doing this as a kid, so it’s so fun to do it with my kids. We also did some Easter egg decorating and hiding. I predict we will be staging many hunts between now and Easter! The kids have even been hiding eggs for each other around the house (which we think is great). I predict also that the kids will be begging to visit the neighbors and their trampoline. They had a great time hanging out with the neighbors and especially enjoyed jumping on the trampoline. Cullen was ready to move into their house and didn’t want to leave.

Something Maddie is doing (48 months old): She had a few new lessons this week and seems to be making progress on both her geography/map and her phonics lessons. She’s been working more on counting. Once again, I think that Maddie is sandbagging us on things that she knows. She claims that she can’t count to 20 and always asks for help between 10 and 20 (meanwhile, Cullen chimes in and tells her 11-13). She wanted to count to 20 over and over today but wouldn’t do it on her own. We finally said we weren’t going to help her and she successfully counted from 1-20 all by herself. We’re not surprised! This reminds us of when she was 1 and pretended not to know her colors until one day she said, “hand me that blue cup.” We’re onto you, little girl. Maddie started playing Monkey Math School Sunshine on the iPhone. It has a bunch of math games with addition, subtraction, counting, and patterns. She’s doing well. She has no issues with operating the iPhone and similar touch devices. Her Wii skills need work! She can do a little bit with MarioKart, but the games that require you to point the controller at the screen seem to baffle her. I think we’ve neglected her video game training. Maybe she’ll do better with the new Wii which incorporates a DS-like device (which she also “gets”).

Something Cullen is doing (25 months old): Cullen is such a happy toddler and a funny little guy. He’s quite chatty, like his sister. He always wants to be a part of the conversation. He is the perfect audience if you’re telling a funny story. He often laughs in the right places. Of course, he laughs quite a bit. He can have a bit of a temper and knows how to throw a tantrum. When he gets tired or sick, he gets very sensitive and can be laughing one second and throwing a huge fit the next. He had a cold earlier this week, and it’s been lingering. He continues to come up with excuses to get out of his bed and come to the door, requesting us to do something for him. This week, I had to do some work at home and “check” on things from time to time. One of the times, Cullen came to his door and I said, “Cullen, get back to your bed. It’s bedtime.” His reply was that he was “checking on something.” I asked him what he was checking on, and he said he was checking on the gate. Too funny! We had trouble getting him to nap this afternoon, and Gabe went up there to tell him to get back into his bed. Cullen had taken his pillow and blanket and was laying next to the gate.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We’ve been raising money for the National MS Society. Our walk is in two weeks, and we made a lot of progress with fundraising this week! This week was MS Awareness week. Please take a minute to learn more about MS and how it affects over 400,000 people in the United States.

Something I learned: Every year during our Walk MS fundraising, I look forward to experiencing generosity from friends and family. So many people have supported Team B-Patrol over the last few years. Every year, we exceed my expectations with fundraising. It’s an amazing experience, and the one good thing that I have to say about multiple sclerosis.

Something I’m looking forward to: Gabe is probably looking forward to the start of his fantasy baseball season. Somehow he’s signed up for FOUR leagues this year. I’m looking forward to playing games with friends.

Something captured: My sweet family enjoying the beginning of spring!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Finally! I’ve been working on this letter to Maddie since her birthday. I think I made a mistake only doing these every 6 months now. I had quite a bit to cover. You might want to skim the photos and call it a day. (more…)

Something I’m hoping: I hope that Gabe loves his new iPad! He’s pretty excited about it, and it should arrive on Friday. I also hope that it won’t make me want one for myself!

Something happening around the house: Well, I thought that our garage door was fixed (again), but it still doesn’t work right. Argh! We’re probably going to have to buy a new garage door at this rate.

Something I’m reading: I finished The Name of the Wind and started on the second book in the series, The Wise Man’s Fear.

Something Gabe is reading: Gabe finished book 3 of the Percy Jackson series and started on book 4.

Something I’m watching: We went to see the Michael Jackson Cirque du Soleil show today. We had great seats (thanks to the connections of our friends!). It was the first time I’d been that close to the Cirque performers, and it was neat to see the details of the costumes and the performers’ facial expressions.

Something I’m playing: With the kids, we’ve been playing Zingo, Pengoloo, Teddy Mix and Match, and The Kids of Carcassonne. We played Die Burgen von Burgund on Friday. On Saturday, I played Europa Tour, Traumfabrik, Wits and Wagers Family, and Circus Flohcati. Gabe played everything except Traumfabrik and also played Pandemic.

Something I’m creating: Hmm. I don’t think I created very much this week.

Something about both kiddos: The kids this week have been so cute, calling each other “brud” and “sissy.” They tell each other to “have a nice day” when I drop them off at school. Sometimes they also say, “I love you, Brud” and “I love you, Sissy.” I just love to see them getting along like that!

Something Maddie is doing (48 months old): We’ve been trying to encourage her to be more proactive in requesting new lessons at school. I think she did a few times this week. At home, she has been doing a lot of work with her scissors. She enjoys cutting pictures out of catalogs and making collages. She continues to write her letters very well and is getting a good handle on her number writing, too. She can spell simple words when I help her sound them out, but she is rarely interested in doing more than a few a at time. I hope that she’ll show a little more interest in reading soon!

Something Cullen is doing (25 months old): Cullen is a funny little guy these days. He laughs so much. I love it! You never know what he is going to find humorous. Earlier this week, he kept looking at Gabe and saying, “Gabe!” and then bursting into giggles. They celebrated a birthday at school this week, and I heard that he was laughing like a crazy person at the little party, too. Last weekend, he didn’t take any naps. It’s getting more difficult to put him down for naps. Bedtime is getting more challenging this week, too. One day this week, he was still trying to come out of his room at 10pm! He usually goes to bed around 7:45pm. He will get out of his bed and open his door (which has a gate on it) and ask for various things. He wants me to read another book or sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (lately, he wants me to sing to him before bed). He’ll want me to come back in and put him in bed. He’ll want me to cover him. My favorite excuse is when he wears the footed pajamas (which we call footies) and puts pacis in his footies and needs us to retrieve them. Earlier this week, we were in the car and I heard Cullen say, “I just took the booger out and put it in my mouth. That’s yucky. Ew! Gross!” When Cullen talks about things that he wants to do, he often ends his sentences with “right now.” The other day, he came to me crying. He was trying to tell me something, but I couldn’t understand him. I often say, “Cullen, can you use your words?” and he is often able to tell me things. He said, “Yes. Daddy won’t let me go up the stairs right now.” He’s just getting so articulate.

Something I’m looking forward to: I’m looking forward to the nice weather later this week! I’m also shocked to report that we have no definite plans for this entire week, including next weekend.

Something captured: Maddie working one of her 100-piece puzzles. She looked up at the camera and said, “this is my real smile.”

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: I don’t always answer this category. It’s not that things don’t make me happy all the time, it’s just that I feel like I often say the same things. The truth is, the same things DO make me happy over and over. I have wonderful kids, husband, family, and friends.

Something I’m thinking: It’s hard not to think about this giant sore in my mouth that is the result of me biting my lip a few times earlier in the week.

Something I’m hoping: I’m hoping to find the motivation to work on all of my personal projects. It’s almost March, and I haven’t finished the trip reports from December…or Maddie’s letter. And then I need to get moving on the photobooks from the cruise and 2011. I haven’t even finished sorting through photos from 2011 (the cruise alone still has thousands of photos that I need to sort through). Every time I think about it in the evening, it makes me tired and I just go read my books!

Something happening around the house: I can’t imagine the disaster that we would have in this house if we didn’t splurge for our every other week cleaning service.

Something I’m reading: I finished the Phantom Tollbooth. That was a fun read! I remembered bits and pieces from my childhood. I don’t think I ever read the book, but I remember I watched the movie several times. I then decided to read the first few pages of Before I Go To Sleep, which is March’s book club selection. I knew several others who have been reading it, so I was intrigued. I had not planned on starting the book this early because I like to time my readings to where I finish it much closer to the book club meetings. Unfortunately, the book sucked me in and not only did I start reading it, but I finished it the next day. I couldn’t stop reading. I look forward to seeing what others in book club think. I started reading The Illumination which centers around the concept of what it would be like if one day we woke up and could view everyone’s pain. Cuts glow and shimmer, cancer shines through the skin, and joints glow with pain. It’s an interesting concept, though I’m starting to think the book started better than it is ending. I’ll probably finish it, but I think maybe the concept is better than the book itself so far.

Something Gabe is reading: Gabe finished Ready Player One, and he loved it! I’m glad he read it. I knew he would enjoy it. He started reading the 3rd book in the Percy Jackson series.

Something I’m watching: We’re watching tonight’s Amazing Race as I write this.

Something I’m creating: I’ve been working on Maddie’s 4-year old letter.

Something about both kiddos: I can’t remember if I have mentioned this before, but Maddie and Cullen have screeching wars (often in the car or at the dinner table). One of them will say something like, “I see a school bus!” and the other will say, “No, I see a school bus!” “No, you don’t see a school bus, I see a school bus!” I can’t tell you how many times a day that I have said things like, “It’s not a competition. We can all see the school bus!” Both kids have started saying, “it’s not a competition” about various things, so obviously we say it a lot! On Friday, they were particularly screechy in the car. I told them calmly to use their indoor/calm voices. I said they were welcome to screech outside when we got home. So, they did. They had a good time screaming outside. They did it two other times before dinner. The neighbors were on their porch, and I didn’t notice them until they started screeching back. I think they were amused!

Something Maddie is doing (48 months old): Her birthday was Monday, and we went out to lunch with her at the cafe and out to dinner with friends after work. She had a great day, though I couldn’t tell if she enjoyed the restaurant waiters singing to her until the end. She looked scared at first! We brought a cake to celebrate with her classmates on Wednesday. She had her 4-year check up on Thursday where she weighed about 31 pounds and was 39″ tall. She did fine with her vision and hearing tests, though she got a bit fidgety and bored at the end of the eye test. She’s been doing math problems in the car. She wants to add numbers, as long as the numbers are 5 or less so she can do one on each hand. We started doing subtraction problems, too. I’ll ask her, “if you have 7 objects, and someone takes 3 of them, how many do you have left?” She really has been enjoying doing these questions. She did a new lesson last week that I forgot to mention in the math section. She had to count different farm animals and color in blocks to make a bar chart representing the number of animals. I love it!

Something Cullen is doing (25 months old): Maddie always says, “Daaaaaadddddddyyyy” when she’s crying and hurt or upset about something. She always wants Daddy for comfort. Cullen has picked up on this habit (even though he really wants Mommy when he’s upset). He’s been a sweet boy lately. When he’s upset, I ask if he needs an extra hug. He often says, “yes” in a pitiful little voice and climbs up into my lap for cuddles. This week, he really started telling us that he loves us (in response to us telling him). We say, “I love you big bunches!” and sometimes he replies, “I love you big bunches, too” and other times he replies with a sweet little grin, “I love you little bunches.” He also looks at me lovingly and says, “You are my mommy.” I know he is saying he loves me when he does this, too. This week before eating something, he said, “bon appetit!” All week, he was very concerned that we were going to drop him off at the old classroom. He did not want to go back to that “baby” class! I’d say that he’s handled the transition quite well. He has called me on the phone a few times, though he doesn’t say much. He’s not quite getting the concept of the phone just yet!

Something I’m looking forward to: Book club and girls weekend!

Something random: I never look at the clock when I can’t sleep or when I know I’ve read longer than I had intended. Psychologically, I feel like I do better when I don’t know how little sleep I have had! I could tell on Friday that I had not gotten enough sleep, though! I was up way too late reading Before I Go To Sleep!

Something captured: Maddie and the “beegan” cake (so her classmate with allergies could enjoy it).

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that makes me happy: We had a fun day for Maddie today, similar to Cullen’s special day. Her birthday is tomorrow. I love days with my family!

Something I’m thinking: Four years ago, we had just gotten the news at around 5pm that they wanted to induce the next day. We were nervous, gathering the hospital bags, and dreaming about the arrival of our little girl.

Something I’m hoping: I hope Maddie enjoyed her special day!

Something happening around the house: The usual. Kid chaos across every inch.

Something I’m reading: I finished A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. It’s not the happiest book that I’ve ever read, but I thought it was a good one. I started and finished Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin. I thought it was better than her last one (Love the One You’re With). It was a quick read. It seemed like a bit too much potential reality for me, especially when it started with a young child getting badly burned in an accident. I started The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. I remember seeing the movie as a kid, but this is the first time I’ve read the book.

Something Gabe is reading: He’s enjoying Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

Something I’m watching: Amazing Race and Survivor started this week.

Something I’m playing: Gabe and I have been playing Reiner Knizia’s Skyline on the iPhone. It’s a fun little puzzle game. Maddie picked out a new version of Zingo, Zingo 1-2-3.

Something I’m creating: I am going to have to write Maddie’s 4-year old letter.

Something tasty: We got fancy cupcakes from Gigi’s Cupcakes. I like cupcakes fine, but I’m not sure that I’m crazy about them. I mean they were good and all…but…I don’t know. They are just cupcakes.

Something about both kiddos: We saw some new deer statues this week. Cullen said, “Bambi! Bambi!” I said, “yes, those are deer. Are they real deer or pretend deer?” Maddie said, “They are pretend. If they were real and we were in Chapel Hill, you would have bumped them.” Um, wow. She’s referring to when I hit a deer on the way back from Chapel Hill. The incident happened almost a year and a half ago!

Something Maddie is doing (47 months old): Our little girl is turning FOUR tomorrow. I can’t believe it. We had a day of fun, very similar to the one we had for Cullen’s birthday. We started at our breakfast place. They didn’t have the gingerbread pancakes, but they did have a special red velvet pancake that Gabe ordered. Maddie ate quite a bit of his special pancakes! We then went to Target where Maddie got an owl pillow and Zingo 1-2-3. We also got her a few reusable preschool workbooks with mazes and letter practice and washable dry erase markers. We got some new clothes for the kids from Target and Kohls – winter clothes on clearance and a few spring clothes. We had a 30% off coupon from Kohls, so it seemed like a good time to pick up a few things. Maddie picked out a few special outfits. She’s been asking to get her hair cut for a while, so we did that today. They cut it shorter than ever…a little shorter than we intended! It’s cute, though, and she was excited to get beads put in her hair. We had lunch at Noodles and picked up a new 100-piece horse puzzle from a specialty toy store. Maddie has already put it together once. She’s really doing well with those puzzles!!! I’m impressed. We also picked up the special cupcakes and sang a lot of the “Happy Birthday” song over and over. When we got home, Cullen napped while Maddie put together her new puzzle and practiced her workbooks. She requested Mickey and Minnie PB&J for dinner. Yesterday, Maddie went to a birthday party for one of her best buddies and her twin sister. It was at the Natural Science museum, and we had a great time at the party and exploring the museum. Maddie pointed out that all the dinosaurs died. They died a long time ago. The dinosaurs died, mommy! They are dead.

Something Cullen is doing (24 months old): Cullen had a big week and started his new 2-year old class! He visited on Monday for a couple of hours, but he still had lunch and nap and the rest of the afternoon in his old classroom. On Tuesday, he was asked where he wanted to take his nap. He said, “In my classroom. Here.” It didn’t take him long to make that transition! He was ready for new challenges. He is doing a lot of new work, and he already brought home a folder of artwork from his first week. He’s been communicating with his classmates and teachers. He was in the housekeeping area, and one of his new friends asked if he wanted help. He said, “No, keep your hands to yourself!” I’m glad he’s using his words! We’ll work on being more courteous to our friends, though. Poor guy has been fighting an ear infection this week. The tubes are doing their job and the icky fluid is draining out of his ear, but I think it’s bothering him. On Tuesday, he had some drainage and then later in the day he told his teachers that his ear was hurting. I’m impressed he was able to communicate this! He has started doing jigsaw puzzles (as opposed to the peg/shape puzzles). He is getting pretty good at doing the 12-piece puzzles.

Something I am struggling with: I love my kids, but they can be totally exhausting!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: I saw Les Miserables, and I loved it! I had to concentrate to follow the story, but I was able to follow it for the most part. I got a little thrown a few times when a decade would elapse. We were all the way in the back of the theatre, so it was difficult to see who was singing or to tell the difference between certain characters.

Something I learned: I think that I’ll stick to better theatre seats in the future. I do like to save money on tickets at times, but I think that shows that are new to me should be seen from a better vantage point!

Something I’m looking forward to: We’re taking Maddie to lunch tomorrow for her birthday and bringing cake for her classmates on Tuesday. I’m not really looking forward to wearing a mouth guard at night, but I’m getting mine this week. We have Maddie’s 4-year check up, too. Gabe has poker, and the family has a birthday party to attend.

Something random: It’s snowing outside tonight, and it was like 70 degrees and sunny yesterday. How’s that for random?

Something captured: Maddie looks like such a big girl with her haircut!

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Let’s see. Where was I in these trip reports? Ah, yes. The second part of Day 3, our first full day at sea. We left the Boardwalk area and headed to the Royal Promenade where all 12 of us met in front of On Air. We grabbed donuts from the Donut Shoppe in the Boardwalk to entertain the kids (and offer a snack) while we waited. We snagged some tall bar chairs from On Air and waited for the parade to start.

We were given a tip from a previous cruiser that this would be a good spot for the parade, and they were right! We weren’t directly in front of any of the stages, but we were in a great spot to see the parade pass by. This was our view down the promenade.

This was the first time that all 12 of us were together in one place. It was so nice to get everyone together! Jason took this photo. I swear he was there, too!

They do a great job with this parade. Everyone in our party thoroughly enjoyed it. We had had a wonderful time at breakfast, but the parade became the highlight of the day. The kids (and Mick) were a little restless waiting for the parade to start, but once it did, everyone was entertained.

All of the characters who made appearances around the ship were in the parade as well as a few other bonus characters and costumes and props. The penguins seemed to “remember” Maddie and did a dance in front of us. Other characters danced right in front of us as well.

For the most part, our photos of the parade were terrible! We probably would have been better off to take video, but I don’t think any of us did this time. I really was able to enjoy the parade as Cullen was on my lap, and I wasn’t responsible for taking any photos for once. It’s nice to take a break from that every once in a while!

After the parade, we all went our separate ways. We went back to the room to get on our swimsuits and take the kids to the pool. We were excited about the pool since it had a splash area for the diapered crowd. We thought at first that the whole area that was about 2″ to 6″ of water was suitable for Cullen, but it turns off that he was restricted to a very tiny splash pool. We were apprehended by the pool police and banished to the baby pool. Cullen was not happy, but I was thrilled because the regular splash pool water was FRIGID. The baby splash pool was nice and warm. Cullen’s area is in this photo to the right/front.

Cullen was not happy about being restricted to this tiny pool. We made the best of it, but he couldn’t understand why Maddie could play in the other areas and he was stuck with the babies. He got over it after a little while and splashed around a bit. The whole area is pretty neat with water guns and fountains. Maddie explored more of the area with Daddy. She accidentally stepped from the 3″ splash pool into the 2.5″ pool. Fortunately, Daddy was right next to her when it happened (and I saw it happening from across the way). I yelled to Daddy to save her, and he was quick to scoop her out of the water. She went completely under and was not happy about it, to say the least. Plus, the water was cold! Her favorite was the family hot tub, set to a warm but not dangerously hot temperature for wee ones. I don’t blame her. The water in the regular pools was definitely too cold! Nana and Papa saw us at the pool and took some photos, but I won’t be posting any of me in a bathing suit here (or anywhere, for that matter). Let’s just say that they didn’t come out too well.

We grabbed lunch from the Wipe Out Cafe which is your typical pool area burgers and junk food. It will do in a pinch, but it’s not going to win any awards. Once we figured out where it was (the ship is huge, remember), it was convenient. We ran into Mick and Debbie, and I headed back to the room to shower and get ready for my cupcake decorating class with my mom.

The cupcake class was at The Cupcake Cupboard in the Royal Promenade. Mom and I had signed up for the class weeks ago, and it was fun to do a mother-daughter thing together. We weren’t the only mother-daughter duo in the class.

Our supplies were organized for us, and they gave us step by step instructions on how to make a burger and fries out of cupcakes.

They turned out pretty cute (and tasty)!

Meanwhile, Cullen was napping and Maddie was playing in Grandma and Grandpa’s room. Nana and I went back to get Maddie and Grandma so that Maddie could meet Shrek, Fiona, and Puss in Boots. Maddie was excited, and it’s one of the few times you can get your photo taken with multiple characters. It’s also one of the few meet and greets that they do not allow you to take your own photos. Of course, we had to buy that one.

We joined Papa along the way and headed back to the cabin to check on Cullen’s nap. He woke up a few minutes later, and we all headed to On Air for “Songs with Color in the Title” music trivia. Nana, Papa, Grandma, Gabe, and I formed a team and did pretty well. We had 32 out of 40 points, but we ended up 3rd. Oh well! Maddie fell asleep during our trivia session. The movement of the ship is quite soothing, I guess! And the ship was rocking on our sea days on this cruise!

Gabe and I headed to the meet the penguins again and ride the carousel with the kids. Cullen wanted to meet the penguins, but Maddie was more interested in riding the carousel.

After a few times on the carousel, we decided to try Pets at Sea, which is located next to the carousel. It’s very similar to Build-a-Bear. The kids had fun picking out their special new friends and outfits.

They both picked bunnies with Royal Caribbean sweat suits. Inside each bunny is a star that they used to “make a wish” (well, somehow I don’t think either of them understood that concept).

We went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner and headed to meet Alex the Lion on the way. Alex was huge, but Cullen and Maddie weren’t scared and enjoyed meeting him!

We all paused to get our photo taken together.

We tried to get some photos in front of the Christmas tree, but the kids weren’t too cooperative. We headed to dinner. Mick and Debbie had a show at 7pm, so we had an expedited dinner. My parents had a reservation at 150 Central Park where they had a fabulous dinner.

It was Italian night, and we were disappointed that Mick and Debbie had to leave before we were serenaded by the waitstaff. It’s the same pretty much each cruise, but I enjoy it! Cullen was restless during the meal, and we tried distracting him with Monkey Lunchbox towards the end of the meal. At some point, Jason finished his meal and took Cullen outside to watch the elevators so we could finish our dessert. Clearly, Jason was trying to steal one of our kids again!

Gabe took Cullen back to the cabin for bedtime, and I took Maddie to look at some of the photos. Mom and I had stopped by the photo gallery after our cupcake class. The way that they do the pictures on this ship is really cool! Your sea pass has a number that refers to your carousel and folio number. They use some kind of facial recognition, and I was surprised that almost all of our photos made their way to our folder. We didn’t have to search the walls to find every photo. I loved that system! Since we had two cabins, we had two folios, so we used one for our potential keepers and the other for our rejects. That worked out quite well and helped us narrow down our choices out of dozens of photos.

Melissa, Jason, and I decided to take Maddie to play trivia in the Schooner Bar. Jason took Maddie while Melissa and I stopped by the restroom. When we showed up in the Schooner Bar, the bar tender had offered to bring a Shirley Temple for Maddie. I was concerned that it would be made with a caffeinated soda, but I was relieved to see it was made with Sprite. Maddie had never had a carbonated beverage, and I wasn’t sure I wanted her to have soda! There was no need for me to worry as Maddie had one sip and made a panicky face and said she didn’t like it. I was glad, and I hope that she won’t have soda again for a long time! We ordered her an orange juice instead, despite it not being a complimentary drink in the bar! Maddie happily wiggled and played Monkey Lunchbox while we played Modern TV Theme music trivia. We ended up 3rd again. We keep getting close!

We escorted Maddie back to the cabin, and Melissa, Jason and I spent a few minutes in the casino. It was long enough to lose some money! I did not have much luck in this casino! I came back to the room to let Gabe play real, live poker. He ended up winning about $200 (though we did not end up ahead with our gambling on this trip!). Woohoo! As we predicted, the competition on the ship was fairly soft. Gabe was excited to get in some real poker time.

Day 3 favorites:
Kerry: the parade
Gabe: the parade (though he might also say winning at poker!)
Maddie (according to her): the pool
Cullen (our best guess): maybe the chocolate breakfast? getting a new bunny at Pets at Sea?

Well, we don’t do much for Valentine’s Day, but it’s hard to avoid when you have kiddos. The extent of our celebrating is to dress the kids in red or hearts and send in the requisite cards for classmates. And I try to get them to pose together for a cute photo. Maddie’s class decided to have pajama day on Valentine’s Day. We found out late in the day on the day before, so I’m glad we had cute jammies with hearts. The scarf completed the look. I thought about not brushing her hair, but it was a big mess this morning! I think it’s about time for another haircut for her.

Cullen started his new classroom yesterday (for only a couple of hours). We had some back up Valentine’s Day cards just in case he needed them (or Maddie didn’t complete her project). He was excited about the Mr. Men and Little Miss cards. He picked out which one went to which classmate.

Maddie decorated this mailbox for her cards. The kids were supposed to bring in unaddressed cards for 19 kids and a decorated box.

Maddie did a great job with her homemade cards. We had to do a few at a time so she didn’t get tired of making them. She decided to put “XOXO” (from a few choices of sayings) at the top and “From Maddie” instead of “Love, Maddie.” I don’t blame her. I mean you never LOVE all of your classmates. You don’t want the wrong person to get the wrong idea, right?