Disney 2015

I was excited that my SIL, Kristy, wanted to plan a Disney trip together. They’ve not been since she was pregnant with Garrett, so it was time!

Our girls are always ready to visit the Magic Kingdom, so the countdown had been on at our house since the minute they found out we were going.

President’s Day worked out best, because Beau & Kristy had off from work, and the kids were out of school for the holiday. We knew it would be pretty crowded, but we made a game plan and decided to go with it.

My Mom & I have wanted to stay at the Contemporary for years, but the rooms (when they’re even available) have always been a small fortune when we’ve looked in the past. When we were booking rooms, Mom had me just check on the Contemporary – and much to our surprise, they had rooms available and they were even a good deal (they were by no means ‘cheap’, but compared to the rate they usually are, they were a great deal) – so Mom said ‘Book ‘em!”  Since she was paying, I didn’t argue! :)

We left our house on Sunday morning at 6 am, with plans to be at the park when it opened. We pulled in to the Contemporary Resort around 7:45. Mom, Dad, me and Tucker got checked into the hotel rooms and the rest of the crew parked and headed for the Magic Kingdom.

We’d planned for them to go ahead and get in line at the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train (which on crowded days has about a 2 hour wait) – we planned to hit that first and then make our way around the park.

We thought we’d catch the monorail to the park, but ended up just walking it- I had no idea the walk was so short. It is literally RIGHT next to the resort.

Once we’d waited in line to have my magic band activated (so annoying having to do that with the Florida resident 3 day ticket), we headed to find the rest of the crew. Dad was in no way interested in riding the roller coaster, so he and Tucker found a shady spot and watched. Mom & I got lots of mean stares and comments as we weaved through the line to find our group. They ended up having to wait about 45 minutes in line and by the time we caught up with them, we were 5 minutes from riding. It worked out great.

I was the single rider for our group, thinking it meant I would have to ride by myself. Nope, I had to ride with a stranger. It worked out though because I  was up front and took my phone out and took some pictures of everyone. The ones on our PhotoPass were pretty funny, too…

The kids all screamed and look terrified in the pictures but all say it’s their favorite and they LOVED it.

After that, Kristy, me & the kids walked right on to ride the tea cups.

The guys were moving the strollers (we opted to take strollers for Garrett, AB, Mamie & Tucker. Four strollers was a lot to keep up with, but the little ones couldn’t have lasted all day without them. We were all glad we had them.) Tucker (still in his jammies) & Grammy watched us on the tea cups…

And then we met Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum (the line was short, so why not…)

Alice & White Rabbit came out next, so we jumped in line to meet them, too…

We had Fastpasses for Peter Pan. This was Tucker’s first ride at Disney!

Garrett, Annabelle & Maybree all wanted to ride with Grammy & Pop and somehow they all fit in their flying ship.

It’s a Small World was next… Tucker slept through it, but here’s proof he did ride…

Then it was Fastpasses to meet Cinderella & Rapunzel.

Garrett was all about meeting the characters, and he loved that “those girls” signed his book.

Tucker wasn’t too impressed with Cinderella. His favorite girl is still his Momma.

Mamie HAD to ride “the horseys” when she saw the carousel, so Grammy & Pop took one for the team and waited in line with them to take a ride.

We headed to Storybook circus with plans to ride the Barnstormer & Dumbo, but Garrett decided he’d rather go meet some more characters. DW & I took he, Annabelle & Mamie to meet the Fab 4 under the big top…

Goofy

Donald

Daisy

Minnie

Beau & Kristy took Caroline to ride Big Thunder Mountain and Grammy & Pop kept Tucker entertained.

We all met back up in Adventureland for our FastPass on the Jungle Cruise.

After that, DW took all the kids on Aladdin’s magic carpets. Beau & I actually bumped into Aladdin & Jasmine headed to their character spot and Aladdin (who is shirtless?!?!?)  told Beau he “liked his scruff” – It was a little weird, I’m not going to lie.

We decided to hit the Town Square Theater to have our picture made with the Main Mouse and then go back to the resort.

While we were waiting in line we ran into Hannah (who has Cooper’s babysitter. The only person to ever keep him other than family….she watched him two days a week while I did one of my internships for college). She lives in Alabama now, so how fun to run into her out of all the thousands of people at Disney that day. :)

The kids with Mickey was precious. Garrett’s eyes got as big as golf balls and he whispered “He TALKS!!!’'

We took a few pictures, Mickey told some jokes and then it was time for GoodByes…

When we left, Garrett hugged him and said, “You’re a GOOD mouse!” It was precious.

We caught the monorail back to the resort, and it was fantastic not having to catch a bus and ride for 30 minutes.

Everyone split up and went to their rooms, and we all planned to do our own thing for dinner.

When we got to our room, AB changed into some comfy clothes and watched the monorails go by.

We rested for a little bit and headed for an early dinner. We had planned to eat at the café in the resort, but when we got down there, DW decided to just ask and see if we could get in at Chef Mickeys. (I had already tried to get reservations online when we booked the hotel, and they didn’t have any). He talked to the hostess and she did some arranging and got us in. They usher you to the side to take your picture and then give you a buzzer to wait. While we waited, DW ran back to the room to get our camera (all we had were our cell phones), Tucker’s seat so he’d have a place to sit, and change AB’s clothes. Had I known it was going to work out for us to do this, I would have at least brushed mine and the girls’ hair and changed clothes. Oh well…

We were part of the 5:00 seating, which is when they open, so we were the first ones in, and ended up being at Table 2. This meant that when the characters came out, our table was their 2nd stop!  It was also the closest table to the dessert buffet. It was perfect! I couldn’t believe we ended up getting to eat there. The girls had the best time.

The characters came out in intervals about every 5 minutes. So we’d eat a little and then another one would be stopping by the table…

They were really good about taking time with the kids to get pictures, but also moving along so they were able to make it to every table. Mamie’s face when Minnie came out was worth the price of the meal…

She was really excited about Donald, too…

All of the characters were sweet to stop and look at Tucker, too…

He checked them all out and gave a few little smiles…

EXCEPT to Minnie Mouse. (Really, he was just ill that I had stopped feeding him to grab my camera for a picture… which turned out totally creepy…)

 

After some dinner dancing -

and a couple trips to the dessert buffet…

we headed back to the room. It was actually my mom’s birthday, so we had a little surprise in the room for her. Beau’s gang met us in our room and all the kids hid and jumped out and yelled “Surprise” when we called Grammy to come down for a minute.

It was a little after 6:00, so we decided to go back to the park. Mom & Dad stayed at the resort and kept Tucker in their room.

These three got in line for Space Mountain while the rest of us did a few other things. First up – the dance party. As we were walking by, Garrett said, “WAIT! That’s my FAVORITE song!” (Ice, Ice, Baby) – DW took them over to dance and it was the cutest. They danced a few dances, then we moved on to the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. (When I gave the kids a list of things to do at Disney and had them pick their top 5 they wanted to do, this was Garrett’s number 1 request). We knew we had to take him at some point during the day and he LOVED it. He laughed the entire time and on the way out he says, “Now THAT was FUN!”

We rode Dumbo next, it’s a classic and I hated for Garrett to miss it.

Since Garrett was more into “shows” and characters than the rides, I thought he might enjoy Enchanted Tales with Belle. I was hoping the kids would all get a part, but none of them did and they even ran out of “dancing tableware” props for the kids who wanted, but didn’t get a part. At the end of the story time with Belle, one of the cast members came over and told the kids they could join in and be part of the villagers. Mamie took no convincing to join in, she jumped right up and led the gang. She was SO CUTE standing up there waiting to be announced – she stood so serious and you could tell she was proud of herself. :)

It was really cute and they loved getting to march around the room and then be introduced and get their picture with Belle.

We met back up with Beau, Kristy & Caroline, and the girls were freezing and exhausted (us, too), so we headed back to the resort.

The next morning came early for our little crew. To the tune of, 4 am for Tucker and 6 am for the girls. DW & the girls went to walk around and check out the resort and then we decided last minute that we could go over to Magic Kingdom to see the park’s opening show. We’ve seen it a couple times before and it’s really neat to see the characters ride up on the train. I wish we’d thought of it sooner and planned better, because we ended up rushing to get there and missed it anyway. We caught a boat back to the Contemporary for something different, and ended up having the whole thing to ourselves. It was neat to see the park and some of the resorts from the water and the kids enjoyed the boat ride.

We had planned to let everyone sleep in and check out at 11:00, so we still had some time on our hands, so we got on the monorail and made the loop through the other two resorts, stopping at the Grand Floridian. (It’s next on mine & Mom’s list!) :)

We packed up and headed out when we made it back to the Contemporary and headed for Downtown Disney.

The Lego Store is always fun and neat to see all the things made from Legos…

We wanted to do a fun lunch at the T-Rex or Rainforest Café and let the kids shop at the World of Disney store. The girls picked out the charms for their bracelets, Mamie got Dumbo (it’s the one thing she kept wanting to ride this trip) and Annabelle got a pink lemonade charm (to remind her of the dinner at Chef Mickey’s and the “best pink lemonade EVER”). The wait was LONG at both restaurants and by this point, we were DONE, so we just stopped on our way home for some late lunch.

It was a fun trip and hopefully one the kids will always remember. We’ve still got two more days on our tickets, so we’ll be planning some more Disney fun before summer starts.

~amw~

Valentine’s 2015

My little lovies after church on the Sunday before Valentine’s…

AB headed to school that Friday for her Valentine party & their behavior reward dance…

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. I feel like there are so many great ideas on there, but I also feel like I sometimes loose my own creativity through it. We all end up doing the same free printables and taking the same picture poses and having our kids’ teachers sign the same book at the end of the school year. I’m all for recreating what someone else has already done and borrowing an idea, but I also don’t want to become so dependent on scouting Pinterest for ideas that I loose the ability to have my own. I’ve probably thought WAY TOO INTO that. Ha… Anyway, this year, I told AB I’d take her to the party store and she could choose any of the bagged favors and we’d make it into a Valentine. It was hard for her to make her final choice, but she ended up going with the little click-cameras. They’re like tiny view-masters and had pictures of animals in them, perfect for both the boys and girls in her class. (& SUPER easy for me to come up with a cheesy Valentine message to go along with it). She signed them all and helped me stick the cameras on and then sealed the clear envelopes with a heart sticker… In the end they were our own idea, and turned out to be even easier than the ones we copied last year from Pinterest. A total win in my book. :)

I love that Valentine’s Day fell on the weekend this year. We woke up Saturday morning to a donut delivery from Pappy. (Actually, DW was on the way to Gainesville to get donuts and passed his Daddy who had already been there and was headed back with a dozen for us. Great minds think alike….and they’re two of the greatest.) :)

After breakfast, we gave the kids their little surprises from us. I’d found these cute little heart necklaces with their initials on them, threw in a Reese’s heart and some princess stickers and they deemed it the best Valentine’s Day ever. Stickers are the true way to their hearts. Tucker got some new pacis and a chew toy. Because the way to every 6 month old (& dog’s) heart is with a chew toy. :)

For the second year in a row, Beau & Kristy have been here on Valentine’s Day. They got to  my parents’ late Friday night and spent the day with Mom on Saturday. They all came over to our house on Saturday afternoon and we grilled and had a little Mickey Mouse themed Valentine party for the kids. It was a kick-off for our Disney trip the following day! I glued some paper Valentine’s I found at the Dollar Tree to the red pennant I already had… I grabbed some little red tins at the Dollar Tree and personalized them for the kids. Inside we stuffed a few Mickey surprises for the kids to take in the car on the trip to Disney World. Mom bought everyone shirts and I personalized them with Mickey/Minnie heads and our monograms. Pop & the Dads didn’t get one, but we did tell them they had to wear either a black or red polo so we’d all coordinate. The best part – they listened and obliged. :)

We had cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday to Caroline, too, who’s birthday was the following week.  After dinner, they all left and headed to the airport to pick up my Dad, who’ d been away all week for work.

Pappy & Nie-Nie stopped by earlier that afternoon and then Valentine’s night, Adam, Lauren & Parker all came down so we could do our little Valentine’s with them. Nen was on her Valentine A-Game this year and brought the cutest treats for everyone with the best cheesy sayings on them, and they were all signed with Parker’s little fingerprints. They were adorable. I was just glad Parker still loved Aunt Annie after our kissy-kiss pictures earlier that week…we laughed so hard doing these. I don’t know what was funnier- the boy’s faces or the fact that Lauren & I looked like clowns with that bright red lipstick on.   

SO much love and so much TO love around our house.

~amw~

Tucker’s Newborn & 4 month Pictures

We decided this time around to have a photographer take some newborn pictures for us. I’m so glad we did, and I’m even more glad that we went ahead and scheduled the “Don’t Blink” package which includes a session at 4, 8 & 12 months.

Our newborn pictures were at our house when Tucker was 3 days old.

I really wanted the kids in front of Cooper’s tree. My 6 Georgia cousins and their husbands/wives got us this magnolia tree in memory of Cooper. It’s really special to us.

Another really special thing about the picture is that the quilt the kids are sitting on was my great-grandmothers. My Granny gave it to me when DW & I got married and I love having it in these pictures.

A few days later, we hard Part II of the newborn session out at the limerock pits. I had this idea of Tucker in a dump truck and some of the big equipment in the background behind him. The dump truck he’s in was actually Devin’s Daddy’s when he was a little boy. (I KNOW. How sweet) These couldn’t have turned out any better than I’d hoped. I LOVE them so much. I had one enlarged and printed to hang in Devin’s office and Tucker’s bedroom, but I haven’t framed them yet. (I’m the WORST at printing/hanging pictures).

A few more from the rock pits…

Tucker’s 4 month pictures were in November.

I can’t wait for his 8 month old session! He’ll be sitting up and maybe even crawling by then! It’s so much harder this time around to take pictures myself, so I’m really glad we decided to do the one year package and I love that our photographer includes shots and us and the girls, too!

~amw~