Disney on Ice

Brad and I have loved going to the Disney on Ice shows since before we were married.  It was one of our favorite things to do!  We haven't been for a couple of years because of schedules and new babies and such, but we got a postcard in the mail for this year's show and aren't going to miss it! The last time we went, I was pregnant with Abby and Alex was almost 3.  Now I'm pregnant with the new baby and Abby will be almost 3.  Funny how things happen at the same time.

This year's show is Rockin' Ever After and features Merida from Brave, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel from Tangled.  It is going to be so amazing!  The kids have watched the promo on the site no less than probably 50 times.  They are so excited!  We ordered our tickets on Thursday and they got here on Saturday.  We got really great seats, too!  First row in our section!

Fun Date Night

Brad and I got engaged on June 24, 2005 and every year we celebrate this "anniversary".  This year we celebrated a couple days late because of Brad's schedule, but had the BEST time!  We went to dinner at  the Waterfront Grill.  We had the most delicious dinner.  We ate wayyyyy too much, but it was so nice to have a quiet meal that we were able to eat slowly and have good conversation.  We started out with the crab, avocado, and mango stack.  Wow!  What flavor! Next we had a couple of sushi rolls.  Yes, they were cooked for those that are saying pregnant women shouldn't eat sushi! :)  We also split a filet and had tempura asparagus as a side.  It was such a nice way to start the evening!

After dinner, we headed downtown to the PAC to see The Lion King.  As we were sitting down, I heard someone say my name.  I looked back and saw my best friend's sister!  She and her daughter were sitting right behind us!  She took this picture for us!

The show was fantastic!  The music, the costumes, the set, everything was just outstanding!!! The next show we would love to go to is Beauty and the Beast.  We will take the kids to this with us.  They will love it!  They could have gone to The Lion King, and would have done really well, but these parents needed a nice night out!  I really hope we can get tickets to Beauty and the Beast.  It's only here for 3  days.  I'm going to be checking frequently for the tickets to go on sale!

DIY Disney Christmas Tree

I love Christmas time!  I love the decorations, the lights, the music, the cookies, the food, the family and  friends.  I love it all!  Every time we visit somewhere new, we buy an ornament for our Christmas tree.  I love the flood of memories that return while unwrapping each special ornament.

While we were at Disney World last year, I had so much fun trying to find ornaments for the tree.  Then again when we went on our Disney Cruise, it was fun to pick out ornaments.  I've kept the key cards from each vacation that have our name on them and am going to string them together with a ribbon to hang on the tree, too.

I have a skinny tree that I put in my entryway and it is just decorated with lights and cheap colored balls.  While it looks okay, I've decided to make that my Disney tree.  I'm so excited!!!  I'm going to hang all of our key cards and ornaments we bought while on both Disney trips last year.  But that is not nearly enough to make a Disney tree!  While browsing Pinterest, I came across a girl that made her own Disney ornaments.  Genius!  She bought the play sets at the Disney store like these.

I knew exactly what she was talking about since my kids have some that they play with.  They run about $10 a piece.  She added little eye hooks and threaded the ornament hook through, and voila!  instant tree ornaments with Disney favorites!  Each little set comes with about 6-10 figurines in them and for $10 it's a steal!  I can't wait to make my Disney tree!  Now to wait on on the FedEx guy to deliver my goodies so I can start my next project!

Spring Break-Disney Style!

We took an absolutely wonderful vacation in December to Disney World with our family to celebrate Joe being cancer free for 5 years.  What better place to celebrate happiness and life than at Disney World with your family!  So 18 of us spent 10 magical days there!  What a memory!  (Don't let the kids' tired faces fool ya! It was awesome! :) )  

The next available time for Brad to be able to take vacation was over Spring Break, so what did we do?  We booked a Disney Cruise!  I tell ya, Disney has us hooked!  We cruised on the Disney Magic out of Galveston, TX.

The food, staff, accommodations, activities, pools, everything was awesome!  We got to see all of our favorite characters and princesses, too.  There were dance parties, pirate parties, fireworks, and a trip to Cozumel, Mexico with beach time and water park time for the kids.  We got to attend Broadway type shows after dinner each night.  Our favorite show was the last night.  I think the show was called Disney Dreams.  I bet it makes it to Broadway-it was that good!  The kids enjoyed the shows as much as Brad and I did!  One night we saw a magician and that was really fun, too.

They had an Oceaneer's Club and an Oceaneer's Lab that Alex got to go to and Abby went to the nursery.  They each went twice.  During our first time away from the kids, we went to the fancy restaurant on the boat, Palo, and had a very gourmet Italian brunch.  We sat next to a window that overlooked the ocean, there were complimentary mimosas, and our waiter described everything with such detail, it was hard not to try everything that was offered.  Probably the best thing I ate was the passion fruit cheesecake.  Wowzers!!!!  Of course, if I would have taken pictures of everything we ate, you'd be here for an hour drooling over them! Here is round one of appetizers and round one of dessert.

The second time we took the kids to their "daycare" we went to the adults only pool.  It was so nice to just hang out in a pool with a drink and not be splashed in the face by kids jumping over you every five seconds.  We enjoyed the pool, the hot tub, there was live music, and we got to lay out!  I can't remember the last time we have layed out together!  It was definitely over 5 years ago!

We highly recommend a Disney cruise!  (and Disney World, too, which will have to be another post since we went before I started this blog) We have planned to go back to Disney World in 5 years, and after taking this cruise, we plan to do it again, too!

52WPC Week 3

The photo prompt this week is a picture showing love.  How easy, right?  Well, it's hard to choose!  I decided to go with a picture of Alex and Belle from our Disney World trip a few weeks ago.  As soon as we told Alex we were headed to Disney World, he talked non-stop about how Belle was going to be so excited to see him and how he bets she is wondering why he isn't there right now.  What's funny, is we have no idea why he is so obsessed with Belle because he'd never seen Beauty and the Beast before his infatuation!  We had dinner reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table on Christmas evening and we were told that many of the princesses would be there.  Of course we were hoping to see Belle. Unfortunately, she was not there that evening. We did get to see Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Aurora, and Jasmine though!

After dinner we went with my brother and his family to see some attractions and ride some rides at Magic Kingdom.  One of the attractions we visited was Belle's Enchanted Tales.  It was newly opened and we had no idea what it was.  As we walked into the first room, a girl told us a brief story and then ushered us into a different room.  There, we had a new man talking to us and he started assigning parts to people in the group.  Brad, my brother, niece, nephew, and Alex all got parts!  Little did I realize that Alex had been given the part of the Beast!

Into another room we went and the cast and audience were ready for a performance!  Belle comes walking into the room in her beautiful yellow dress and I thought Alex was going to faint!  He got a shy smile on his face and his eyes were glued to her.  The "play" went on and everyone did their part, and finally it was Alex's turn.  He went up behind Belle, roared at her, she fell in love with him, they danced together and she hugged and kissed him.  I had tears streaming down my face because his biggest wish had come true!  He met Belle, but he also got to be her Beast, she fell in love, danced, and kissed him!  It was love for sure!