Disney: Day 2

Day 2 at Disney was our first time at Magic Kingdom! It was on Sunday, November 25th (which actually happened to be hubs' and my 7 year anniversary) and the park was open from 9am until 7pm. They had Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party from 7pm until midnight (for an extra almost $300) but we opted out of that, even though it would've been AMAZING. Maybe next time.

So Sunday morning we were up relatively bright and early so we could make it to the park as close to 9am as possible. We decided to drive to the park rather than take the complementary bus transportation from our resort hotel because we liked the flexibility of making stops, taking a different route, etc. It worked out well, but let me tell you. We drove about 10 minutes from the hotel to the MK parking lot. Then we jumped on a tram that would take us to our next stop: the monorail or ferry boat. You had to take one or the other to get the MK and we opted for the monorail. So it literally was about an hour from our hotel to the parking lot to the tram to the monorail to the Magic Kingdom entrance. Whew! Luckily we didn't have to pay for parking (about $13/day I think?) since we were resort guests.

Here's a pic of the kids on the tram. They were kind of excited about what we were up to!

Here's a pic I took from the monorail at the entrance to the Magic Kingdom. The kids were getting really excited now! Especially after they saw Cinderella's Castle a few yards back while on the monorail!

We made it into the park and took a few pics in front of Cinderella's Castle.

Our first stop was DUMBO!

I rode with LO and hubs rode with Chase, so I was only able to get pics of my girl. She loved it!

After Dumbo, we headed over to The Barnstormer roller coaster. Obviously I knew I wouldn't be able to ride too many rides what with being pregnant and all, and honestly Chase isn't able to ride anything that could cause the pressures in his little body to suddenly change (like big coasters with g-forces and what-not), but I figured the Barnstormer would be okay for both of us. I rode with him and LO rode with daddy.

Ready for the ride! I think we held hands the whole time! He liked it okay but I think it was still a bit too jerky and uncomfortable for him. LO had a blast, of course!

Then we wandered into a big top tent that had some of our favorite characters signing autographs! We jumped on it and met some of our faves...

Daisy:

Minnie:

Goofy:

And Donald:

After meeting some friends, we went to the race track to drive some cool cars! Somebody was obviously already a bit worn out from our early morning and several days of traveling away from home with no naps. ;)

But put this kid in a race car and all bets are off! He wanted to drive so I went along to take pics.

Then we met more friends!

Of course we had to ride the ginormous carousel! Too bad LO didn't get the horse she wanted...

But I was able to squeeze a tiny half-genuine smile out of her.

Chase was all smiles!

Until he looked at me all creepy-like, apparently...

No, wait! We're all smiles again! Yay!

We also watched Mickey's Philharmagic in 4D, which was a lot of fun!

Then it was off to the Winnie the Pooh ride, which the kids rode together while mommy & daddy sat behind them to take pics.

Next it was time to fight the evil emperor Zurg on the Buzz Lightyear ride!

We grabbed some lunch and then grabbed a great spot for the big parade at 3pm!

Sadly, this was as close as we'd get to Woody on our entire trip. No autograph from one of our biggest faves. :(

Mickey and Minnie!

Aladdin and the Genie!

Cinderella and her prince!

After the parade, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel, since it would be about an hour to get there and all. We had some quiet down time (i.e. not naps but a break from the crazy madness) before it was time to head over to Disney's Contemporary resort for our dinner date at Chef Mickey's with all of our favorite characters. Here's where I'm gonna get real with y'all. Luckily we had the dining plan so we each used one credit for this meal. That means technically we only paid a tip for the evening. ThankyouJesus. I have never had such a horrible selection of awful buffet food in my entire life! Think of a buffet restaurant that has a little blue and white "C" in the corner of the window instead of the preferable "A" rating. It. Was. Awful. The food was gross, there was NO variety for the kids and  even though I tried small portions of several of the available items, they were incredibly disappointing. Whoa. I couldn't believe it! Not very "Disney" in my opinion, especially since without the dining plan we would've easily paid $175 for this one meal. And I would've died. Right there on the table, signing the credit card slip. It was THAT bad.

Of course the highlight of the meal was meeting some characters. We started with Donald! Sorry these are blurry...

Then Pluto, who we had been hoping to see all day!

Followed by Minnie Mouse herself!

Chase likes him some time with Minnie Mouse!

Then it was time to meet The Mouse himself, Mickey!! I thought about pulling him aside to talk about the lack of quality in his buffet, but decided against it. ;)

A precious hug from our precious boy!

Chase had a thing with crazy blinking when I was taking his picture, so lots of them ended up with his eyes closed. Boys.

Then Goofy stopped by for a silly visit!

LO thought it was hilarious that he was signing her autograph book with one ear over his eyes. LOL!

Haha! Silly goofy!

Again with the eyes closed! Sheesh. ;)

This is a bit better...

Here's Chase enjoying his disappointing dessert. A bowl of melted chocolate ice cream. There wasn't even any toppings to put on it! So sad.

But I should acknowledge the lack of topping didn't keep him from eating the ice cream. ;)

Smiles!!!

After dinner we posed for a free picture with a Mickey statue. Silly eye-closing Chase!!!

That's better! :))

Day 3 was another day at Magic Kingdom... Coming soon! ;)

Chase's New Room: Before & After

It finally happened! After seemingly months of planning and less than 10 hours of execution, Chase's new big boy room is finished! What a whirlwind day we had! Be sure to make it to the end of this post to see the video of our boy seeing his room for the first time. Precious, I tell you!!!

The kids left around 10:30 AM to have a day o' fun with the grandparents. From the museum to Red Robin for lunch to a friend's birthday party, they stayed busy and had a blast! Then they were off to my mom's house for a few more hours of fun while mommy and daddy worked like crazy! We picked them up at 8PM so that left us with just under 10 hours to complete this magnificent room transformation. Crazy, right?

Anywho, let's take a look at the "before" pics. I only took two because that's all that was needed to see the extent of his entire room. Sad, I know.

Toddler bed in one corner, dresser in another, and a lame, brown blanket covering the window, stuffed into the valence of the blinds. So embarrassing.

Another corner housed an unused cubical storage thingy along with a few books. You can see his wall color here was the standard flat creamy color painted throughout the house, and also the swatch of the new paint color sample I painted to the left of the cubical thing. So happy I fell in love with the one and only sample I selected! I knew "Secret Passage" by Olympic would be the perfect touch for this train-themed room.

We of course started by removing the furniture, taping the walls for the paint and then started painting. We assumed our typical positions: me with the roller for the walls and hubs with the paintbrush for the trim. It's been learned during past painting experiences that I don't have the patience to deal with trim paint without schlepping it all over the ceiling, floor and everywhere else it isn't supposed to be.

Unfortunately the brand new roller I busted open was literally covered with fuzz and even after trying to get rid of it before I started painting, I still ended up with big chunks of fuzzies on my wall, which made me quite upset. We were 10 seconds from an unexpected trip to Lowe's when hubs realized he had some other ones in the garage, and they worked perfectly! Whew! I was super worried because I didn't add unscheduled trips to Lowe's for additional supplies into my timeline. I had been planning to start at 8AM until some childcare issues popped up, so the 10:30AM start time was already putting some serious stress on me. So thankful for hubs and his spare fuzz-free rollers!

The painting went seamlessly from then on. See how gorgeous this new color looks??

I love the contrast with the white doors and trim. The color card sample from Lowe's looked absolutely and totally and completely GRAY but once up on the walls, there is definitely a blueish hue, which I totally love.

Everything moved along nicely that is, until we ran out of paint with just one wall remaining. Grrrrr! So much for avoiding unplanned trips to Lowe's! I had to send hubs out for more paint while I worked on disassembling Chase's toddler bed and cleaned and prepped it to convert into the full size.

I want to take a moment to share here that, in case you didn't put two and two together, hubs and I had basically an entire day without kids. This is quite a rarity!! So we took advantage of it with a lovely lunch for two, complete with yummy cheese tortellini, candlelight and some delicious cookies for dessert that the kids and I had made the night before. It was wonderful to dine at the table instead of the kitchen island like we usually do as a family. Something about sitting at a table just feels more "grown up." Regardless, it was quite lovely to interrupt our over-scheduled day with a quiet lunch for two.

Following lunch, we were able to make some serious progress in Chase's room. While hubs finished up painting the last wall and working on the new lighting, I was able to start putting together the other areas in the room since the paint was finished and dry. I returned his cubical storage thingy to the same corner, this time with added fabric bins for toys and an organized book collection of Chase's favorites. A railroad crossing sign helped tie in the little bit of yellow I wanted to include in the room.

The wall across from his bed would be the new home for his dresser, complete with the train artwork I made specifically for his room. I purchased 12x12 frames from Hobby Lobby, sheets of scrap paper to create a matte in red, yellow and navy, and created individual train pics in Photoshop that I colored to match the mattes. The train itself is rather juvenile but I figure it's perfect for a 3-year-old's room, and can easily be changed out as he gets older and his interests change. I love how simple it is and how it stands out beautifully against the new wall color.

Sorry for the bad lighting here (it was dark outside by this time so I had no light to work with), but we put a little "To Trains" sign up over his door. It worked out perfectly that this sign is actually pointing directly to the train art in the previous pic! Haha!

The last wall project was Chase's name above his closet door. I purchased cardboard letters from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them with a brushed nickel paint. I love the way they turned out! They don't look like they cost about $1 per letter!

His lame brown blanket-covered window now had it's very own curtain rod along with two navy panels. A huge improvement in my book! Again, sorry for the bad lighting...

The final piece to finish up was his new bed! I was beyond excited to bust out my Pottery Barn Kids purchase of his flannel train sheets and adorable patchwork quilt! Once the bed was made, the room totally came together and I was completely in love!!! Since we found with LO's Munire convertible furniture that the full size bed sits so high off the floor, we opted to just put the mattress on for now to keep the height a bit more reasonable for a 3-year-old, but we'll probably end up adding the box spring next spring before the baby comes since I'm pretty sure I don't want a full-size box spring as part of my baby's nursery decor.

We ran out of time before hubs could cover the wires from the sconces so he's finishing that up today. Honestly, to know that in less than 10 hours we were able to get everything done except this one thing was truly amazing!

Hubs left to pick up the kids while I took a much-needed hot shower. I was achy all over from several hours of hard labor and my preggo self was feeling the pain! But the excitement of Chase seeing his new room for the first time made it all worth it and then some!

When hubs returned with the kids, I positioned myself in Chase's room with my iPhone to record video and our camera to take pics. I wanted to document this moment via all sorts of media! LOL!

The first pic of Chase entering the room was blurry with horrible lighting, but I'm posting it anyway because I think his little blurry face says it all! LOVE!!!

He was all smiles as he walked into his new room and headed straight for his new big bed.

Then he started pointing out all the different things on the walls. It was SO CUTE!!!

We let LO come in a few minutes later and here's her reaction (this was a still shot I made from the video of her walking into the room, hence the fuzzy, poor quality). She loved it, too!!

It didn't take too long for these two to snuggle up in this new bed.

Chase was so thrilled with his new room! I couldn't have been happier with his reaction or with how beautifully the room turned out. It looked exactly like the vision in my head and I am so happy it's finished and that he loves it so much!!!

And now, without any further ado, please check out the video below of Chase seeing his new room for the very first time. Pardon all of the pics I was taking while recording the video. ;) Love! Love!! Love!!!

Disney: Day 1

FINALLY! I know that's what you're thinking, right? Haha! I'm finally forcing myself to update the blog with the Disney details before I forget about all of them! I figured it'd be easier to break it up by day so I don't overwhelm the poo out of all of you with a single massive post.

So Day 1 was Saturday, November 24th. We left hubs' aunt's house near Tampa where we spent Thanksgiving and drove on up to Disney World. Here's the welcome sign. The kids were getting totally stoked with every second that passed!

We were able to check in early and headed off to our preferred room at one of Disney's value resorts, the All-Star Movies resort's Toy Story building. Let's just say THAT was a huge success. The kids loved seeing the ginormous Buzz and Woody statues. Here they are on our way to our room. Do they seem a tad excited to you, too?

Toy Story friends! Yay!

LO striking a pose on Buzz's big ol' boot.

This kid wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. So. Much. Toy. Story. Everywhere!

After we settled in, we headed to Downtown Disney to grab dinner at the famed T-REX restaurant, complete with huge dinosaurs that come to life periodically and an ice cave that changes colors.

The kids loved watching all of the dinosaurs move and the light shows that happened occasionally throughout dinner.

Aaaaaaaaaah! Scary dinosaur!!!

A big mammoth!

Another big dinosaur of some sort!

We had an amazing dinner that didn't cost us a penny (except tip) courtesy of the Disney Dining Plan. That thing was awesome! We spent about $200 adding it to our trip and it gave us a table service dining credit for EACH person (all 4 of us!) for EACH of the 4 days we were there. This dinner added up to over $100 and we especially enjoyed NOT paying for it (hubs will of course say we DID pay for it through the DDP, but I choose to pretend it was all free).

After dinner, we opted for a massively awesome dessert for the 4 of us to share. It came complete with smoke oozing out of the center!

I asked the kids how they liked the dessert. Chase's reaction? Thumbs up!

LO felt the same way!

After dinner, we couldn't pass up the perfectly placed Build-A-Dino located 20 feet from our table. So the kids each made a dinosaur: a mammoth for LO and a red dino thing for Chase.

Here they are following the Build-A-Dino guy's instructions to a T! They had so much fun!

Here's Chase placing his dino's heart inside before he gets filled up with stuffing.

The finished product, complete with an arm that you can press to hear him "ROAR!" LO helped Chase name his dinosaur "Diamond." Whatevs.

LO was pleased with her mammoth, too. She named her "Flower" and she has an arm that makes a lovely (loud) mammoth-y sound.

Of course they had to give their new friends a bath!

We walked through the World of Disney store while we were at Downtown Disney, but managed to make it out without a purchase, believe it or not! We didn't stay out too late since we knew we'd have an early morning at the Magic Kingdom the next day, so we headed back to the hotel. We couldn't get to our room without the kids needing to climb and play on the fun Toy Story stuff. Here's a pic of the kids on Rex. You can see Chase was less than thrilled with being hoisted up there... ;)

Pics next to the BUZZ blocks!

This one's my fave:

Where's Waldo? I mean, LO and Chase?? That's a BIG door!

We found RC!

One last "stop taking my picture mom because my face is hurting from all of the smiling!" pic of LO before we headed in for the night. LOL!

We all turned in around 9PM with big plans of an early Sunday morning at Magic Kingdom! More to come soon!

The Little Things

It's the little things that make me happy. Like taking LO's old white crocs and repurposing them for her little brother. This may not sound like groundbreaking news worth blogging about, but I'm here to admit I have a habit of donating old/used stuff and buying NEW stuff All. The. Time. It's awful. Not that donating items to our local Goodwill or Salvation Army is bad, because it isn't and we typically have a huge lot of items that we donate every year (we prefer this route over garage sales). But sometimes I wish I didn't always have the "New is Better" mindset. It's something I'm aware of (finally) and I'm working on it. You just wait 'til little baby #3 arrives and you see him/her wearing everything his/her older brother and sister wore when they were little. Yes, I kept a lot of their clothes and shoes so there will be a lot more repurposing around here!

As for the crocs, I've learned a valuable lesson: Don't buy white crocs. Ever.

It was amazing how after just a few short weeks (days?) of wearing these crocs, LO managed to turn every surface pitch black. How in the world does that happen?? Granted she was a crazy-busy 3-year-old when she first started wearing them, and I'm pretty sure 3-year-olds don't put too much of a priority on keeping their shoes clean. Whatevs. I remember trying to clean them periodically but getting frustrated because it just didn't seem to help. Then she outgrew them and they've been sitting in a box for months (years?). I finally got them out on Sunday to start my deep cleaning attempt so they could be presentable enough to put Chase in.

Here's how they looked when I started. They were awful. Not sure these pics really do them justice!

The bottom was absolutely filthy and I didn't have much hope that they'd improve too much, but I wasn't too worried since the bottom would just get dirty again with use.

I started out by removing the jibbitz and soaking the crocs in hot, soapy water. I put them in a bucket with a few dessert plates on top of them to hold them down in the water. I had planned to soak them for about 5-6 hours. It ended up being over 24 hours. Ooops!

After soaking them, I used a brush and scrubbed them like a crazy person. After a good rinse I let them dry, then applied crocs butter to them to help 'em shine. Here's the after pic!

I promise they looked MUCH better. Here's a little side by side comparison pic:

Now all we need is to slap some new jibbitz on these bad boys and they'll be ready for my little guy! Yay!

P.S. I know you're still waiting on a Disney post... I promise it's a work in progress that WILL be posted soon! ;)