Halloween Party

There was a terrific Halloween party today at Grandbuddy's office so we headed over there this afternoon wearing what I consider our "normal" attire but most would consider costumes :-)  Of course, Bonner was a princess and Ian was Woody from Toy Story.  We have been to this event the last 2 years and the children have always struggled with the number of people, those that are dressed up scary, and having no idea what to do with candy.  Well, this year, that took it all in and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Here's a picture of them - I told them to say, "Halloween" - instead they said, "Surprise!"  Not sure exactly what our Halloween on Monday will entail, but I am sure there will be plenty of antics for me to write about :-)

Have a terrific weekend!

Fall Decorations - Part II

Here is my latest door decoration that I made out of burlap.  I am going to make some for Christmas - let me know if you are interested in buying one for your door ... I can personalize it with your family name, "Merry Christmas", or just leave it blank.  I'll post some examples when I get them made but I am thinking a Santa, a Christmas tree, and an Angel.  Happy Fall!

Fall Decorations - Part I

As you know, I have started to learn to sew ... and all and all, just become a more crafty individual.  I am working on several projects for the Fall and Christmas, but actually took this weekend to get ready for Halloween :-)  I have never been a big fan of Halloween but I must admit, making these little decorations this weekend got me in the "spirit" - ha!

On the left are a pair of witches shoes that I sewed and on the right; a boy and girl ghost.  You can barely tell, but the girl ghost has a bow on the top of her head.

I went to a local outdoor market today and got some pumpkins for the porch.  My urns were looking very rusty so I spray-painted them today and then stacked the pumpkins in them.  I still want to get some cobweb and spider stuff for the top of the door, but I'm happily surprised with what I have had a chance to put together so far!

Disney World - Day 5

Thursday, we got up and packed our luggage up; grabbed some yummy breakfast; did a little bit of shopping before we headed out; and posed on the beautiful carriage outside the Grand Floridian.  Ian could not decide if he wanted to be the "little driver man" or "Prince Charming!"

Our trip home was non-eventful and we were all glad to be back in our beds that night with new memories in our minds and much happiness in our hearts!  It was a very special trip for me - had a wonderful time with my mom; appreciated her willingness to go, go, go; and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the excitement on Ian and Bonner's faces at every turn!  I will leave you with some things I heard the children say during our trip!

Bonner-Lingo

• When we arrived, I was going over our meal reservations and which characters would be at which meals with Ian.  Bonner overheard me and said, "Mommy, are we going to Chef Mickey's?  That will be grand!"
• At Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride, there was a black lady standing at the line entrance and I said, "Hello" to her.  I noticed her name on her name tag which was a good thing because a few minutes later, Bonner asked me, "What was the name of that brown lady standing under the umbrella?"  It took me a minute to figure out who she was talking about, but when I did, I said, "Her name was Ms. Deanna."  Bonner said, "Her name sounds like Tiana. And Tiana has brown skin and so does Ms. Deanna.  They match mommy."  It was a quick reminder that she is just like her mother and doesn't miss much with regards to her surroundings :-)
• "I'm allergic to ostriches, Ian."
• "Come on, Ian; I've got the FixSTEY dust" to which Ian replied, "No, Bonner, it's PixSTEY dust" to which mommy replied, "Actually, it is Pixy Dust!"
• "I can't sleep, mommy, because these beds are not my size!"
• And when we pulled into the neighborhood after getting back into Greenville, Bonner said, "Home again, home again, lickally split!"

Ian-isms

• Walking through the lobby of the hotel upon our arrival, there was a man playing a baby grand piano, to which Ian said, "I want one of those pianos for my castle!"  
• Upon our arrival into our hotel room, Ian looked at me and said, "This is the best party ever!"  Needless to say, he had no idea that the party was just getting started!
• He was being very cranky one afternoon - only because I had run them ragged - and said to me, "I can't take a nap, mommy; I'm in a bad move!"
• I tried to minimize the number of "friends" that Ian took with him every time we left the hotel - one day, he decided to leave Buzz in the room with Jesse and he only took Woody and Bullseye.  Upon returning to the hotel, he ran into our room, right over to Buzz, and said, "Hey Buzz, did you miss me?"
• "Mommy, you are a good sharer!"

Disney World - Day 4

Wednesday was another fun-filled today as we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and then took the bus to Animal Kingdom!  We got their just in time to catch a seat at the "Festival of the Lion King" show.  It was a really cool show that interacted alot with the audience, had terrific music (of course), incredible acrobatics, and wonderful animal animation!  These pictures do not do the show any justice; highly recommend it if you are at Animal Kingdom any time soon!

We left the Lion King and went to get a FastPass for the Kilimanjaro Safari ride; but, much to our surprise, there was no line at all and we literally hopped right on a safari truck to see some African animals!

 Rhinoceros surrounded by vultures

 This is a group of hippos hanging out in a pond - super cool!

 To be honest, I think this is the first time that I have ever seen a pelican!

 A pack of crocodiles ... yikes!

 Evidently, this tree will be without leaves 9 months out of the year!

 Giraffes were very close - and that's a great look at the open-air truck taking us on our adventure

 This long tongue grabbing at a leaf reminded me of our lovely trip to HollyWild last Christmas when that giraffe's head was in my car ... such a funny memory!

Notice the different markings on this giraffe - it was pretty neat to see 2 different kinds so close together!

 Ooohhh, what a precious little baby elephant!  So cute!

 Flamingos

and Ostrich eggs :-)

We left the safari and headed to the Nemo show.  We stopped real quick for a ride on the Triceratops ride :-) so that Ian could drive our dinosaur up high!

Because of this oh-so-brief detour, though, we were late for the "Finding Nemo" show - we had to sit separately.  Again, no flash photography, but I was able to tape the entire show.  It was super cool how people played Nemo; his dad, Marlin; and Dory.  I highly recommend this show, too; but I will spare you the 35-minute video :-)

We left the Animal Kingdom before their Jungle Parade because the children were melting down fast.  In fact, the bus ride home was miserable as they just alternated between the least favorite child with all of their crying, whining, and screaming.  I felt sorry for those with us on the bus, but, hey, it was the first true meltdown of the trip so I was not too bothered!  Bonner finally passed out in my arms on the bus so I got the privilege of carrying her back to the room... at least she was peacefully quiet all the way :-)

Ian finally crashed, too, and we all enjoyed a nice nap before our dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary Hotel that night.  We got to eat our last dinner at Disney World with Mickey and his pals ... it was a fantastic evening that ended a wonderful trip!

 Ian was hiding under the table at this point ... but Bonner was "all ears" - Ha! No pun intended!

 Bonner brought her little Minnie Mouse to dinner instead of Abby.  She told me that her Minnie needed to give the real Minnie a kiss :-)

 Goofy would not take "No" from Ian for an answer so he just sat right down with him and I was able to snap a few photos!

Goofy has always been my favorite character so I had to have one picture taken :-)

Disney World - Day 3

On Tuesday, we started off at breakfast with several characters - Pooh, Tigger, the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins.  Neither Ian or Bonner were interested in getting anywhere near Pooh, Tigger, or the Mad Hatter so I just snapped a few pictures of them from afar.  But, of course, the princesses were a different story.  They both enjoyed meeting Alice and Bonner told Mary Poppins about her favorite song "Super-cali-fragilistics-expealidocious!" (or something like that) ...

Bonner thought she was so funny with the end of the strawberry in her mouth!

After breakfast, we got all packed up and headed over to Hollywood Studios (formerly known as Disney MGM).

No visit to a Disney park would be complete without Abby!

It was terrific.  We started with the Disney Jr. show.  It was kindof hard to see because we sat down in the floor and the stage was up on a platform.  The characters were actually puppets but Bonner and Ian got to see all of their Disney Jr. friends like Mickey's pals, Handy Manny, the Little Einsteins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  It was a super cute show as Mickey and his friends planned a surprise party for Minnie Mouse!  Ian and Bonner enjoyed all of it!

 Handy Manny fixed the bubble machine...

 while the tools served as a great helpers!

 Little Einsteins were in on the planning!

 Jake is new to Disney Jr, but he's the nicest pirate we know ...

 and he doesn't like that silly old Captain Hook!

 Goofy made Minnie a birthday cake!

 Surprise, Minnie!

After the Disney Jr show, Bonner and I took part in the Voyage of the Little Mermaid while Ian and Gigi strolled around.  They didn't allow for flash photography so no pictures, but it was a great little show with a live Aerial, a crazy-looking Ursula, and, of course, a Prince!  Bonner was into everything but Ursula and I must admit that she was very scary looking!

The wait time for the Toy Story Mania 4-D ride was an hour and a half so we didn't ride it :-(  Ian did not even want to get a picture with Buzz, which was fine with me because the line looked pretty bad!  But I hate that he didn't want to see Woody's best friend live and "in person".  In fact, Ian actually said, "Mommy, I don't want to ride that ride; I want to go shopping!"  Of course, there was another Toy Story shop where he saw a "big Slinky dog" that he "really needed!"  I used this fine opportunity to remind him that he only "needs" water and air; he "wants" the Slinky dog ... to which mama held her ground and did not purchase :-)

The next stop for us was the Beauty and Beast show - it was in an outdoor amphitheater and was terrific.  They condensed a 2-hour movie into a 30-minute live show and there was nothing left out :-)  And, I am going to condense it down to 16 pictures and I, too, will not leave anything out :-)

 Prince is turned into the beast!

 The Beast

 the beautiful Belle &

 her admirer, Gaston

 who was a strong man and

 wanted Belle to himself!

 But Belle enjoyed living with the Beast and his amazing "friends" like Chip,

 the teapot,

 and the Candlestick!

 Belle came to love the Beast...

 so Gaston tried to kill the Beast so that he could have Belle all for himself!

 Gaston hurt the Beast and Belle gave him a beautiful kiss and told him that she loved him!

 (Drum Roll, please....)

 Tah-dah, the Beast is no longer; it's the Prince!

Finally, Belle is united with the Prince to "live happily ever after!"

We took a potty break, got a snack and took up our spot to wait for the Hollywood Studios parade.  And, it was fantastic!  All of our favorites made an appearance - Ian and Bonner ate it up!  They waved the whole time at each and every friend - the Incredibles; a Bug's Life stars; Molly, Sully, and Mike from Monsters, Inc.; and, all of the Toy Story 3 friends!

 This was the one and only time we saw Bullseye the whole trip so Ian was ecstatic!

 the Toy Story 3 float was so cool!

We left Hollywood Studios just after the parade as there was not a whole lot more for us to do.  We got back to the Grand Floridian and enjoyed another nap.  We ate dinner at our favorite spot, the hotel grill, again and then enjoyed a movie by the pool.  Each night, they would show a movie out by the pool and Tuesday night, the movie was "Alice in Wonderland" - how appropriate!  Both children wanted to watch it so we sat out by the pool and they watched the whole movie.

Again, I took this one with my phone so it's grainy; but, if you look closely, you will see Ian has all of his Toy Story friends lined up on the chair to enjoy the movie, too!  He was so cute!  He had put my little camera into his bag and I caught him taking pictures of the movie screen and his Toy Story friends!  Not a bad job if you ask me :-)

I really think that he's going to be a photographer and I have got to remember to charge the Lego camera that he got for Christmas!