Disney World: Part 2

The second half of our week at Disney World started off with a day at the hotel--no parks at all on Wednesday. We were all getting way over Disney'd and overtired and one of us was having some pretty serious meltdowns (spoiler alert: it was Charlotte). We took the whole day off and hung out at our hotel watching cartoons, reading, and hanging out by the pool. And napping. Charlotte fell asleep on the walk from the food court to our hotel room and we actually managed to successfully transfer her to the bed without her waking--a true miracle.

On Thursday we visited Animal Kingdom. I wasn't sure what to expect with Animal Kingdom and honestly did not think I'd care for it all that much, but it ended up being one of my favorite parks. It's really just a big, beautiful zoo with great places to eat and tons of shade--much needed that day since it was super hot and sunny. There isn't much by way of rides there, especially for someone under 40" tall or for pregnant women (those restrictions shut us out of some things) but I'm still glad we went and we had a good time.

One of the funniest/most ridiculous things said during the trip happened at Animal Kingdom when we went to a petting zoo. They had goats there and right outside of the pen was a big bucket full of brushes you could use to pet them. Chad, trying to call Charlotte over, said "Hey! Charlotte! Want to brush a goat?" It's not a question that gets asked...ever.

Brushing a goat while holding her nose to escape the "stinky smell."

Inside the building she got to meet Thumper, who was a big hit:

On Friday, our last full day at Disney, we went to Hollywood Studios. We had planned on staying there much of the day but we ended up only staying for a few hours. It was definitely our least favorite park...there wasn't much going on that appealed to us and it was the hottest and sunniest day there--with no shade anywhere. At that point everyone was completely exhausted, hot, and very tired of walking around. You could definitely say that by this point we were all ready to go home!

The highlight of Hollywood Studios was meeting Baymax and Hiro from Big Hero 6.

We left Hollywood Studios early and headed back to the hotel for a nap. That evening we had reservations at The Crystal Palace at Magic Kingdom that we did not want to miss since A) they were hard to get and B) that's the only place in all of Disney with the Winnie the Pooh characters. And Charlotte definitely wanted Winnie to meet Winnie.

She was so excited when we got there that she stood peeking in the window with rapt attention until our table was ready.

I don't have many good shots of her with Tigger, but it's alright because she was chosen to do something very special--she got to lead a parade through the restaurant with him! That was a big deal :)

After dinner we walked around Magic Kingdom one last time. Charlotte rode her favorite ride again--the carousel.

On the way out, Charlotte got an unexpected surprise when we spotted Princess Aurora in a secluded gazebo area. There was no line, so we thought maybe she was heading over to Fairytale Hall (where the line is always at least 45 minutes). The photographer saw Charlotte and called her over so she got to have a visit with Aurora right before we left.

Saturday morning we woke up early and were on our way--the last shuttle, bus, monorail, train, and airplane ride of the week and we were ready!

It was so nice to get home after a fun but truly exhausting vacation. On top of that, Charlotte's nasty cold that she had during our trip turned into an ear infection, so by Saturday night she was pretty miserable. It's taken until today for all of us to feel somewhat well rested and back to something resembling a normal routine.

Even though I've only visited once, I feel like I could write a book of advice about traveling to Disney World...Chad suggested I write something called "Disney for Introverts" or "Disney for People Without Patience" or "How to Visit Disney with a Child Under Age 7 and Not Kill Anyone."

I don't know about a book, but there's definitely one last Disney post in mind about all of those topics so stay tuned :)

~Stacy

Disney World: Part 1

We're back!!

It's hard to believe that a trip we'd been planning for close to a year has come and gone, but we are back at home after returning yesterday after a whole week at Disney World. As expected, I took a ton of pictures plus we have a bunch more taken by Disney photographers--hence the reason for splitting the posts about this trip into two parts. And they'll still be long :)

We left last Saturday morning with a very excited little girl who was also feeling nervous about flying for the first time. I was too--I wasn't sure how she would do on the flight and just crossed my fingers that she liked it, didn't get motion sickness, and didn't have ear issues. Thankfully she was just fine; she held our hands from the minute we got on until the plane lifted off the runway and then she let go and announced how much fun it was, and that was the end of the airplane fear. Also, the giant bag of gummy bears we let her snack from helped.

We had a nonstop flight and arrived thirty minutes early (score!). We hopped on board the Magical Express bus and went to our hotel--the Caribbean Beach Resort. It's on Disney property so we were able to get buses to and from the parks and airport as part of our stay.

We didn't go to any parks the day we got there since we figured that would be pushing the limits of everyone's energy and patience levels after traveling all day. We had our first special dining experience that night, though, at Chef Mickey's. Apparently this place is a must-do because we had to get reservations months in advance. I'm glad we did because it was a great introduction to Disney World and Charlotte was SO excited to get to meet some of the characters. It set the tone for the next day and made her look forward to our first day at Magic Kingdom even more.

Our first day at the parks was Sunday, at Magic Kingdom. We took a bus there and I'm glad we chose that park as our first one--it was far and away the best of the four and the most exciting for Charlotte to see. They don't call it "Magic" Kingdom for nothing.

Her reaction to seeing the castle the first time:

On the way to the castle a Disney photographer took some photos of her (and added a cute little Tinkerbell effect):

We had breakfast reservations inside the castle at Cinderella's Royal Table. This place is harder to get into than the White House--you have to make reservations six months in advance or forget about getting a table. Thankfully our travel agent handled this for us because Charlotte got to meet Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White, Princess Aurora and Princess Jasmine all during breakfast--pretty much the princess jackpot.

We spent the better part of the day here--until late afternoon. There are people who probably think it's crazy that we consider "spending the day" to mean 10am to 5pm, but after a full day of travel followed up by a day of walking around in the Florida sun with one person under the age of four and another person 7.5 months pregnant, that is definitely a day. Our last stop this day was to visit Tinkerbell:

The rest of the day was spent back at the hotel at the pool, Charlotte's most favorite spot in all of Disney World.

On Monday, we went to Epcot. Epcot...was not my favorite place, mainly because it's just not designed for kids under about age 8 or 9. If Chad and I were there alone my opinion would probably be different, but there just wasn't much there that appealed to Charlotte. Also, by this time she was headed for full blown Disney meltdown and we were dealing with some major over tiredness and the beginnings of a nasty cold. Yay. We spent maybe 4-5 hours at Epcot before heading back to the hotel for some more pool time.

The next day, Tuesday, my parents left for home so we said goodbye early that morning. We decided not to go into a park as planned an instead do Downtown Disney and keep things as relaxed as we could since we had FastPasses for Charlotte to meet Elsa & Anna that night (past bedtime).

Downtown Disney was a neat place--it's mostly just shopping and restaurants but there's plenty to see and it's just a nice area to walk around in. We visited the Lego store and had lunch before Charlotte crashed and Chad walked her sleeping self around for almost two hours (hallelujah, finally a nap!).

When she woke up she talked her Daddy into going into a store and then this happened:

We headed back to Magic Kingdom that night--our passes to see Anna & Elsa stared at 8:20, so by the time we got to the park at 8pm it was already past her bedtime. But that evening ended up being one of the nicest ones of the whole trip. Seeing Magic Kingdom at night is so cool and Charlotte loved meeting the Frozen princesses and riding the carousel at night. We got to see some of the parade while we were there, too, plus walking around was much more pleasant in the cooler evening than during the hot and sunny afternoon.

So there's the first half--back tomorrow with the second half!

~Stacy

Bound for Disney

Today is an exciting day, especially for the smallest member of our household--we leave for Disney World in 24 hours! Charlotte has been excited about this trip for months but her excitement level at this point has reached epic proportions. Just last night she called Chad upstairs for maybe the 4th time after putting her bed because she had too much to talk about. I think that particular visit centered around her breakfast order--we're having breakfast our first day at Magic Kingdom inside Cinderella's Castle, so she was debating whether she would have pancakes solo or pancakes AND eggs when she has breakfast with Cinderella and Princess Aurora. The life decisions of an almost four year old are completely adorable.

We are staying for a whole week, the longest vacation we've taken since Charlotte was one and we took our trip to Maine. We're flying, which means it will be Charlotte's first time on an airplane. I'm having several different feeling about that, ranging from dread to excitement. I'm hoping she has a pleasant experience on the flight there so that we can actually get her on the plane peacefully to come home. The fact that I hate airports, flying and basically the entire transportation portion of travel doesn't help...but at least we have nonstop flights.

We're staying at a Disney resort so we don't have to deal with the headache of renting a car and driving to the parks everyday. The magicians who manage Disney World have that place organized at a level that is both impressive and alarming. And thanks to the magic and awesomeness that is our travel agent, everything is done. We really just have to show up with our MagicBands on (these bracelets that carry with them almost a frightening amount of information and capability) and the rest of it is mostly done. We went for the extra stuff that will make the trip easier and more enjoyable--the dining plan, the photo package, the FastPasses, the stroller rental, etc. Go big or go home, right? And facing the somewhat daunting idea of navigating Disney World in my third trimester of pregnancy made me that much more willing to do anything I could to make the trip as simple and stress free as possible. Like buying a pair of sandals based entirely on comfort rather than style, which is how I've ended up with Crocs sandals in my suitcase. Madness.

So today we are packing, cleaning, running last minute errands, doing laundry, and writing lengthy blog posts to procrastinate.

I'll be back with everything about how our trip went, and most definitely a completely ridiculous amount of pictures. Have a great week :)

~Stacy

Campers For Life

This weekend Chad and Charlotte are going camping for the first time in 2015. They have big plans for the rest of the year--and the years to come--in terms of camping.

Chad found a cool looking map of Ohio that he had blown up to 16X20. He framed it and then spent a ton of time locating every single state and national park in the state and marking them on the map with a black dot.

Then he marked with star stickers the places they've already camped. The goal is to mark every black dot with a star by the time she is eighteen (or until our youngest is eighteen, since she still be part of this project in a few years, too).

They went out this weekend and bought all of their camping food and snacks, and then set up the tent to celebrate (this weekend they'll be cabin camping but tents are still fun).

Almost as fun as new "big girl" swings.

Happy Camping.

~Stacy

Spring Sewing (So Far)

I've been on a sewing kick lately, which has been fun. In the past few weeks I've made Charlotte a romper, a flutter sleeve top, a nightgown, a skirt and a Minnie Mouse inspired dress (more on that last one to come). I've also made myself two bags and then just today a teeny tiny skirt for the new baby.

The bags are both made from fabrics by Bonnie & Camille--the first one is from Miss Kate and the second bag is from their newest line, Daysail. I like the second bag best, but the first one was muuuch easier to sew! Ever have one of those projects that is so thick and unwieldy you have a hard time working with it? That was the Daysail bag. I broke two needles on it. And don't even get me started on those grommets.

Yesterday I found this adorable fabric by Holly Holderman (Lakehouse Dry Goods fabric). I thought the print was so cute and different.

It was sold in one yard precuts, so I bought one and decided to make Charlotte and Baby Girl coordinating skirts. I used some leftover green gingham I had in my stash since I love the look of double layer skirts.

These skirts sew up crazy fast (about 10-15 minute per skirt). I just use my own measurements, no pattern.

I used Charlotte's current measurements for hers, and I based the baby's on a size chart I found online for 0-3 months. She's due in July so I hope she's ready for a picnic when she gets here--these skirts are picnic and parade kind of skirts.

~Stacy

Easter

I hope you had a nice Easter! We did--Charlotte was SO excited for it this year and talked about it almost nonstop for the past few weeks. She really wanted to do an Easter egg hunt, but apparently you have to plan three months ahead for those things since every one we looked into required pre-registration and was already full. No matter, Chad made his own egg hunt for her in the backyard on Friday and she was thrilled with it.

After she found all her eggs and was heading back inside she exclaimed "That was the greatest Easter egg hunt I ever had!" Easily pleased, she is :)

On Sunday she woke up to see what the Easter bunny had left her. He left a trail of eggs through the living room to her goodies--which included an extra special surprise this year: a Disney princess suitcase for her to take on our Disney World trip in a few weeks.

We spent the afternoon at my parents' house for a small Easter get together. I didn't make Charlotte's Easter dress this year--my mom did, 28 years ago! The dress she wore was mine in 1987 and she discovered it a few weeks ago when my mom was watching her. She insisted on wearing it over the next few days and it ended up fitting her perfectly. Add to that her "Elsa braid" and she looked like a sweet Easter princess :)

It was beautiful outside so we got to spend time out there for good part of the day. Charlotte had a blast chasing (and "catching") bubbles.

And we managed to get a good family photo taken--there aren't tons of these since I'm usually the one taking the pictures! And because I tend not to take any below the neck photos of myself while pregnant. I take one every other month for Chad's mom since she lives in Maine and doesn't get to see her grandbaby-to-be being born--but that's about it. I think I have about ten pictures of me pregnant with Charlotte and probably eight of them were taken at our baby shower. With this baby, I have maybe three. So here were are, in our last Easter photo as a family of three:

~Stacy

More Flutter Sleeve Projects

Last week I was on a roll with the flutter sleeve romper pattern from It's Always Autumn. I made the romper and liked the pattern so much that I decided to make a top and a dress out of it. The pattern and instructions are mostly the same, except you leave out the shorts for the top (and I added some width to make a the top more flowy) and add a few inches to the top to make the dress. To make things easier, the site also has free downloadable patterns specifically for a top and dress if you prefer.

I used this adorable bicycle print I bought last fall for the top. I don't recall the designer of this line, but it was the last half yard that Fat Quarter Shop had available! It was the perfect amount for this top.

For the dress I used yardage from the newest Flower Sugar line by Lecien. The fabric was quite a bit thinner than a typical quilting weight cotton, though, and once it was made up I decided against using it as a dress since it was so thin and almost see through. I also goofed up and sewed the neckline bias tape to the outside. Rather than pull it out and start again I ended up designating this one a nightgown. Charlotte loves nightgowns and prefers to sleep in them over anything else, so she was thrilled.

These projects are some of the fastest you can make--about 30 minutes per piece start to finish. Can't beat that!

Happy Sewing.

~Stacy