Disneyworld!

A couple of weeks ago we went to Disneyworld! In May we won those free airline tickets from JetBlue to go wherever we wanted. We thought about all the places we wanted to go and decided that Disneyworld would be the best choice for our family! It turned out that they were having a special promotion that if you stayed in one of their hotels you got your meals for free! It was awesome! We each got one casual meal, one snack and one sit-down dinner a day. We were never hungry even with all that walking! It was great! The flight there was great! Jeremy was a professional traveler as always. I'd take 50 of him on a trip! Kelsey read the safety instructions... and was excited to be on board. We only had 3 seats, but lucked out and had both sets of seats to ourselves. That was great so Kelsey had more room to be her own busy self. Cute kids with their matching shirts. Random TV watching on the plane. Stretching her legs between the 2 legs of the flight. We layed over in Austin for about 20 minutes but didn't switch planes. Jeremy got to meet the pilot and that sweet man let Jeremy sit in his seat. So exciting for a little boy! Look Daddy! Welcome to Orlando! This screen at the airport was interactive. When you touched it, it rippled like the ocean waves. The first night we stayed at the Residence Inn and went to church the next morning. The temple is right across the street and I love it. It's so pretty and I was excited to see it again! My cute kids at the temple. They humor their mother and let me take lots of pictures.Me and my boy Daddy's girl
It started to pour so we had to leave. After church we checked into our Disney Hotel. We stayed at the All Star Sports Resort. It is one of 3 budget-friendly hotels at Disneyworld. The housekeeping staff were so creative with the towels. Our first morning at the resort we headed over to go on my favorite ride, Expedition Everest! It is so awesome! Here's our family in front of the ride that takes you forwards and backwards through the snowy mountain to meet the Yeti! AAAAAHHHH!!! It's so cool! We saw the Finding Nemo Musical which was sooooooo good! The music was really great. I hope they bring it to Disneyland someday. Dino Sue, our favorite T-Rex. Funny how I always think of T-Rex's as males. That park is beautiful with all the water and bridges, and foliage. I did the limbo, fun. Jeremy eating his Mickey ice cream sandwich. He had one every day. Live it up boy!Kelsey loved the ducks. My sweet boy liked watching them as well.At Hollywood Studios, Jeremy liked the replica of Grauman's Chinese Theater. He especially liked finding C3P0's footprints and wanted to know where R2D2's were. They had some really fun shows. The Indiana Jones show was fun and showed us how they set up a movie scene with explosives and fake acting. We enjoyed our ice cream sandwiches. The ice cream cart's computer was broken and they couldn't take our snack credits so they were doubly free! We thought it was funny. The car stunt show was another movie set-up and it was really cool to see all the tricks they use! Of course they told us not to try this at home. Darn! Kelsey thoroughly enjoyed her ice cream that night at the Hollywood and Vine restaurant. Good to the last drop! After dinner we watched the Fantasmic show. It was so awesome because they have a theater there that holds 9,900 people, so it's pretty easy to see the show there compared to Disneyland. So great! One of the nights we were there we ate at the Wolfgang Puck's restaurant at Downtown Disney. It was so good. Dessert was especially fantastic. This little white chocolate cheescake pudding number was so good I could eat it everyday! It was so fun to try new restaurants and foods we wouldn't normally get because they were free on the meal plan! We spent a lot of time at the Magic Kingdom. It has so many fun and familiar things, and some of our new favorites as well. It was fun to see the park all decorated for Halloween. Going into the Magic Kingdom, their castle justs amazes me. It's huge, and beautiful, and everything I think a castle should be. Just a warning, you'll see it a lot on here! The castle at twilight. Go space rangers, to infinity and beyond! Autopia! Racing with Daddy, Jeremy won of course. ;) They had fun activities in the streets. Jeremy played ball with the train station workers. Hopscotch Hula Hoops Cute kids waiting to go on Haunted Mansion There were these bushes everywhere with beautiful purple berries so I made our family take a picture with them. They humored me.Carousel Cuties Kelsey and her Daddy loving the train ride togetherOn the ferry to the Magic Kingdom This camel spit on you randomly as you flew by on your magic carpet. DISLIKE! Haha Country Bear Jamboree! Kelsey loved it! Bring it back! People Mover! Another classic. Again with the castle Classic Disney Photo We went to a Character Buffet. Jeremy enjoyed it. Kelsey not so much! Terrified! Good thing there was more chocolate ice cream to appease her.I guess she takes after me. My favorite was the dessert buffet! Mmmmm... The fireworks show was fantastic! Epcot is a new adventure every 100 feet or so with all the different countries featured there. Jeremy had the most fun in Mexico. He loved the drums! Kelsey loved the maracas! The Chinese acrobats amazed me! Viking Jeremy the Fierce! Looking over the water at night. It was so pretty to see all the countries lit up. The water and fireworks show was beautiful. Back at the hotel, the pool felt so nice in all that Florida heat and humidity. I felt like I had been walking around in a hot shower with my clothes on. Yuck! Our last morning as we were getting ready to leave, we used our remaining 6 snack credits to bring the cousins a special Disney treat. Chocolate-dipped Mickey Mouse rice krispy treats. I think it's really a testament to our self-control that they all made it home. Yummy! The bus got us to the airport really early so we explored and had fun. The Harley-Davidson store was a popular stop! Everybody wanted their picture on a Harley. Including us. Waiting to board the plane to go home. It was a fantastic trip. I'm so thankful we were able to go and we can't wait to save our money and go again someday!

Monster Mash

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25th of September

Today is 3 months till Christmas. For some of you this evokes a feeling of panic. I propose it should elicit a sense of excitement, of joy, of anticipation. Christmas no longer stresses me out and I'll tell you why.

1. I start early. The Christmas crowds have their charm, with all the decorations, the music, the gift-giving spirit. That gets old pretty quick though, and we get tired and grouchy and feel put-upon. Catch a sale now and then and start early so you don't get stressed, and then keep a list so you don't forget what you bought.

2. Don't buy for everyone just because they bought for you or for any other obligation you might feel. Lose the guilt! Let the spirit of gift-giving fill you and direct you to those who should receive your gift.

3. Consider gifts from the heart. I always have a goal to have a totally homemade Christmas but am so tempted by the pretty things to buy. Start small. Consider hand-written notes of thanks with a small pretty piece of chocolate for the teachers and other such people in your life. Chances are they are bogged down with gifts and would appreciate a simple token of appreciation for their efforts.

4. Teach your children the real meaning of Christmas and encourage them to give to those less fortunate. Find ways to serve those in need. One family I know used the majority of their Christmas money to buy toys for kids in the hospital. Another dad I know always takes his daughter to serve breakfast to the homeless on the holidays. In our family we fill the stockings and give each child one gift. David and I don't buy for each other but save the money for something fun during the year. Big Christmases are fun, but when children receive too much it's hard for them to transition to simple Christmases when they start out on their own.

5. I finally have a gift exchange on every side of our family. It's awesome! Buying for every little person is exhausting and spendy. One side of our family exchanges a new family picture every Christmas so we have updated photos of every family. Love it! Another side has a gift exchange between adults and one between the children. Simple. You only buy one gift for every member of your family to give. Another side is doing a family game exchange this Christmas. We all like to play games so it will be fun for each family to have a new game.

6. Fill your holidays with those things that make you happy. The holidays can easily bog you down with the endless parties and activities. Choose the ones you want and lose the guilt. Caroling, cookie-baking, decorating, parties, Santa pictures, etc. All fun, but not necessary, so pick your favorites and enjoy!

I hope this holiday season is the happiest ever for you and your family!

Marie Callendar's Pie Month

Pie Month arrived a few days early! Enjoy!

Labor Day

On Labor Day, Daddy had the day off work and we were able to go to Disneyland as a family. It was hot, but we had fun. We started out the day in Tomorrowland and Jeremy was lucky enough to be picked to be a Padawan in the Jedi Training Academy! It was so exciting, and fun to watch him up on stage. He took his role seriously. Jeremy fought Darth Vader and defeated him!
The graduating Jedi class

This was Kelsey's first time being able to walk at Disneyland, and she had a lot of fun getting out of the stroller and running around while Daddy and Jeremy were on rides together. Reading the map Playing Peek-a-boo King Triton's CarouselJeremy absolutely loves the jellyfish ride.Kelsey watching Daddy and Jeremy as they went up, up and up! The Brother Bear park is always a good place to go when there are crowds and hot temps. The kids get out their energy and I sit and relax in the shade. Jeremy loved going on this zip-line. The slides were super fun too for both kids. Towards the end of the day Jeremy started to complain about ear pain and was crying that he wanted to lie down. He was sad to leave Disneyland, but we told him we needed to go see the doctor. Here he is, happy as can be at the urgent care. Of course they could find nothing wrong with him, so who knows! I guess it was time for us to end our fun day at Disneyland. I'm so glad we could go together as a family.

Natural History Museum

Yesterday we went with some moms from church to the Natural History Museum in LA. It was the free admission day of the month for all the area museums, and the last free day before school started. I was afraid it would be packed, but it wasn't too bad and we enjoyed seeing everything. They remodeled since we were last there and the kids area downstairs had this really cool dinosaur skeleton with a wire frame that you could take the bones out of and then put them back in. Kelsey thought the bones were particularly tasty. The T-rex thought Jeremy looked tasty too!They had fun playing with the bones and trying to figure out how to put the dino back together again. It was their favorite exhibit. I had to pry them away to look at some other things.Jeremy liked this aquarium. They both had fun listening to the ocean in the shells. The kids got to find out how much their bones weighed. Jeremy has 9 lbs. of bone, and Kelsey, just 4.Jeremy said, "Look mama, I see canyons!" LOL He was also very excited to open this drawer and find a bat, so he took a picture of it. We really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks to our friend who organized our fun trip!

Pay it Forward

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade gift from me during this year.

When and what will be a surprise.

Although, it will probably be edible.

There's a small catch though...

Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in.

Softball Championship Game

David loves to play softball. He's been playing on the team at the Naval Base where he works for several years. Thursday night was the championship game for this season.

Daddy running home. This is the only shot I got of him since I spend most of the game down at the playground. Kelsey tackled Jeremy.It felt good to be down there since it was so much cooler than at home. Jeremy showing me his cool tricks. Wheeeeeeee! Kelsey picking flowers. Hanging out with Daddy in the dugout. Yay! They won the championship for the 5th time. These guys have been playing together for several years and are good friends. I used to work with them as well before Jeremy was born so it's always fun to go see them at the games.

Jeremy was excited.Kelsey loved the trophy.Fun Night