I have to admit, this stencil giveaway was much more fun then I thought it would be.  There are a few reasons for this, but honestly I think mainly it’s because I was able to hear from you!  I felt like I had a tiny window that if I stood on my tiptoes I could peak into your life for a quick minute.  Does that sound weird and stalkerish?  I don’t mean it that way.  I loved hearing things like “I would use this stencil for a future nursery”, or “I am supposed to be researching adoption, but instead I am looking through stencil designs”, or even “If I won I would finish the walls in my son and daughters bathroom that they share”.  Most people do not comment on blogs, I’m one of them!  Due to a lack of time, I literally read only 2 blogs, and I almost never, ever comment.  So I get it, but this post forced you to have to talk to me whether you liked it or not…and I loved it.  OK, now that just sounded weird and desperatish.  I’m going to stop talking now.

As random number generator would have it, the lucky winner is commenter number 29, AKA: Melissa P, who said,  ”I would choose the Casablanca Trellis Moroccan stencil for my little girls shared bathroom.”  Yay Melissa!  I like you.  You have two little girls and you are going to stencil their bathroom walls…you are a girl after my own heart.  

Moving onto other things now.  We have been in Disney World for the past 8 days.  It might have been the longest 8 days of my life, and somehow at the same time, it seemed like the shortest.  You have never done Disney until you do it with my husband.  He is a wild man that cannot be held back.  We were up by 6:00 am each day and not permitted to be in bed until fireworks were over.  Some afternoons, the children were barely able to keep their eyes open and put one foot in front of the other.  Through their tears, they would beg for relief, but the only mercy they were offered by their father was a Red Bull.  Seriously people, he wanted to put Red Bull in poor Thomas’s sippy cup to help him stay awake and keep up.  I drew the line.

It is though what I love about that man of mine, and if I can survive him, I will be a better woman for having experienced life with him.  There is never a dull moment.  We saw everything there was to see at the four Disney parks, and then we threw in Sea World and Discovery Cove for added fun.  I have wanted to swim with a dolphin since the second grade, even as an adult I would dream about it.  So as we approached the swim tank at Discovery Cove, I was beside myself.  I had each of my girls on either side of me, Thomas in the arms of his daddy, and I had to pause and take a moment.  It was just too much.

Ella kept saying “Stop crying mom”, but I couldn’t, we were swimming with dolphins!

The rest of that park was great too.  There were a plethora of birds to feed and hold.

We all five snorkled in a coral reef with stingrays and fish.  Thomas put on his snorkel and dove in like he had been doing it his whole life, what a little man he is.

And then there was Sea World.  More awesomeness there too.  The killer whale and dolphin shows were phenomenal, and I couldnt help but think when God told Adam to rule over the animals, this is what he had in mind.  I was speechless, and thought how creative of a God we have!

Thomas grinned from ear to ear watching the sea lion show.  As the first enormous sea lion entered the stage by sliding out the front door barking, he laughed out loud.  Priceless.

The other parks were a lot more of the same thing each day.  Rides, princesses, and tons of junk food.  I would prefer to never see another funnel cake as long as I live.

Then we learned that before Mickey Mouse comes out to join you for a meal, everyone temporarily looses their mind and begins frantically waving their napkin in the air.  It’s exciting and kind of cute at first, but now Thomas believes that the magical napkin can summon Mickey through the door at any moment.  He’s been flailing a lot of napkins through the air.

Our last night was dinner with the Princesses.  Thomas was awkwardly shy around all the pretty ladies, and Caroline was beside herself to meet Ariel.  She is our favorite and we all began trying to fix our hair as she approached our table.  Even Ella who is too big and too cool to like princesses couldn’t really help herself.
So now we are home and exhausted and I have enrolled each of the children into our own Disney detox program.  It’s back to the real world, where everything isn’t about them all the time, and every meal doesn’t include chicken fingers, a character meeting, and fireworks.  We are back to home and reality, where the air is cooler and cooler each morning, and I’m grateful for it.  Because life is not one long endless summer.  Thank goodness.