Disney and our actual anniversary.

We absolutely LOVED Disney World. We soaked up every minute of it - opening the parks up in the morning and shutting them down at night. There are only a few rides we didn't go on, and a ton of them that we rode 2-4x. Our absolute favorite part of the trip was our first night there. We arrived to a torrential downpour - it literally took 4 days for our clothes to dry out. Did that stop us? Nope! We went to Downtown Disney with Linda and her group and when they ended up going back to the room, we took the shuttle over to the Magic Kingdom. We rode almost every popular ride(except Splash Mountain[because we were wet enough] and Pirates of the Caribbean[because we didn't see it]), and got to see the castle for the first time lit up in all it's glory!

Our second favorite day was our anniversary. We spent the day in Epcot because Bryan made us reservations at a restaurant called the Coral Reef. So, we enjoyed all of the rides, had a marvelous dinner, got a delicious free dessert(that we were ALMOST too full to eat), and made it out of the restaurant in JUST ENOUGH time to get a good seat for the fireworks show. Afterwards, we made the trip back to our hotel and invited everyone in to enjoy some cake.

Another question people always ask is our favorite rides, but it's very hard to pick just one. It would probably be the tower of terror because I think we went on that 5 times, but here is how I like to break it down:

Magic Kingdom:
Rides - Splash Mountain(Bryan's absolute fave), Space Mountain
Food - Casey's hot dogs(we at there 4 times - they have amazing hot dogs/corn dog bites, and cheese sauce for the fries... YUM! The tables outside were also a great vantage point for the fireworks show and parades), and Aloha Isle for the Dole Whip ice cream!
Show - The fireworks behind the castle

Epcot:
Rides - Soarin' and Test Track

Hollywood Studios:
Rides - Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror(My absolute Fave)
Show - They had the absolute best show - Fantasmic!

Animal Kingdom:
Rides - Dinosaur, Mount Everest, and it's tough to be a bug
Food - Flame Tree BBQ

We also went to Universal Studios which was a bit of a disappointment on the day we went. The biggest roller coaster was out of order all day, the park closed early which caused long lines, it was not nearly as organized and flawlessly operated as Disney, and we could only get into one side of the park. We both liked ET the best.

We plan to go back often. NEVER have we wished we had kids more than we did when we were there.

Jude's Dress-Up

Last night, my husband and I had dinner with his sister and our nephew, Jude. We walked to a nearby craft store afterwards and got onto the topic of Christmas. She mentioned a few of the things she wanted to do for Jude this year and one of them was a trunk of dress-up clothes. Well, I gladly accepted that challenge! With the pile of quilts and other long projects I'm always working on, having quick little projects to bust out periodically will be a breath of fresh air.

I was so excited that I already started today! My sister-in-law also mentioned that he might be acquiring a kitchen set. While I was searching the web for dress-up clothes tutorials I kept coming across aprons for kids made out of dish towels. I scrounged through our stack of dish towels and found this one(that I don't even think we've ever used) that seemed like the right amount of adorable without being feminine. I whipped this out in about 15 minutes loosely basing it off of this tutorial. It turned out pretty damn cute - if I do say so myself! I only hope that his recently vegetarian mom isn't turned off by the cheeseburger motif...

Disney

So, I figured I could elaborate more on Disney.

Part of the reason that our wedding date was so perfect was because the following Monday was Columbus day so we didn't have to take as many days off of work. So, we decided to do the same thing this year. We'll be in Disney World for our 1st Anniversary! I've never to Disney World and Bryan hasn't been since he was a toddler, so we're both very excited. Even better, we convinced my sister to come along, so we get to be there while my oldest nephew experience's the magic just before he gets too old for it to be magical.

We're staying at the pop century resort within the park and I'm super excited about it because I'll get to see this(and others like it):

We've been busy reading books that people have let us borrow, making plans/reservations, and talking to people who have already been for good advice. We're currently trying to find the perfect place to enjoy a romantic dinner on our anniversary. We're trying to find the place that falls perfectly in between the 12-course meals in the uppity restaurants and restaurants that people will pack with their screaming kids. I know - dream on, right?

To anyone who has already been - suggestions?

This is my husband... after too much to drink.

But you still have to love him.

North Carolina, a birthday, and a new arrival.

Two weekends ago Bryan and I made a trip to North Carolina to visit his family. We strategically planned this trip to fall on the weekend of his niece's birthday part and a few weeks after the arrival of his newest nephew. We had a really REALLY good time.

Bryan has always felt disconnected from his niece, Olivia, since they live so far away, but it didn't take long for her to warm right up to him(after she insisted he put on a hat to cover his scary green mo hawk...). Also, prior to this trip, my mother-in-law owned a business, so when I went down, the trip consisted of sitting around in a coffee shop for hours out of the day while Bryan and his step dad worked on the Jeep they're building. This time we were able to do a little shopping(after I let Bryan pack... and by pack I mean I put our clothes in a pile on the bed and I trusted him to put them into the duffel bag... and only half of my clothes/items made it with us) and a lot of sewing.

Baby Mason and his crabby butt

The birthday girl!

"He can't be all THAT bad if he's willing to sit on the floor and play with girl toys."

Linda's Shower: Part I

Last weekend was my sister Linda's bridal shower. We decided to have a Wizard of Oz theme since that's Linda's favorite movie. It was an EXCELLENT time! We had theme invitations, cake, shirts, decorations, and even made poor Linda wear adorable braided pig tails.

We had finger foods, games, and of course - lots of presents!

We had the toilet paper dress game - always hilarious. We also had a game where everyone had a small twirl lollipop and whoever said Steve(Linda's fiance) or wedding would have to give it up, and one of the treat baskets we made had a mini-Toto in it. Whoever ended up with the Toto and the most lollipops got a prize.

We also had pin the heart on the tin man.

It was super adorable.

RIP Nichols

You were the coolest cat in the universe.

Feeding of the puppies.

Another nephew post. We had the littlest guy over again last weekend. He was over for just a few hours, but it was just enough time for him to make friends with the pups.

He was timid at first. They can be a little crazy when they first see someone. I don't think they've ever seen someone their size. The warming up period.

Jude knows where we keep our goldfish. Then he learned that Marsha likes goldfish too.

She was surprisingly good with him. He even went in and gave Cocoa treats in her cage(she's a little too crazy for little people).

By the time he left he was asking Marsha for her paw in return for treats. It cracked all of us up.

Snow ice cream!

When I was a child, my family and friends would go to a friends place in the Poconos to camp and vacation. We usually went during the summer, but on a handful of occasions, we went during the winter. They always had TONS of snow there. Once or twice I remember my mom making ice cream out of snow. Since we were stuck in the house for most of the day, I thought it would be something fun to try!


I happened to be on the phone with my mom when she reminded me of it and gave me the idea to try it, so she told me what to use and the boys seemed to like it, so it must have turned out well! I'm not a huge fan of ice cream in general, so I didn't eat a bowl, but they did and even went back for seconds. To top it off, my sister bought me a Smuckers ice cream kit for Christmas equipped with the adorable bowls in the picture and multiple toppings such as hot fudge, caramel, strawberry, and nuts/candy pieces among others. It was fun, easy, and definitely something I will do again!

Can you tell I told them to 'smile with their ice cream'? They both look so very excited lol

89. Go sledding

As all of you should know, on Saturday my area was slammed with a foot and a half of snow. Since my sister does snow removal in the winter at her job, I had my nephew the whole weekend, and took the opportunity to take him out sledding(I'm always looking for ways to keep him from plugging himself in to the TV). So Bryan, Xzairre, and I swung over to pick up Ryan and headed to the church/school on Polly Drummond Rd. It just so happened that while we were there, so was a photographer from the News Journal. He took a few pictures of the boys going down the hill, and even though I was completely disappointed that none of the pictures of Bryan and Ryan sledding together made the cut, I was enthralled to see that a picture of Xzairre made it onto delawareonline.com. He was photographed sledding down the hill with a friend he made while we were there. Don't you just love the excitement on their faces?

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of watching our youngest nephew, Jude, for a few hours. I'll admit that I was somewhat nervous seeing as the last time I watched a baby was my now 8 year-old nephew.. But I've still got it! It was actually reassuring. Just in case we ever became with child accidentally or we become the newlyweds who start seeing shades of blue and pink shortly after the honeymoon, it's nice to know I haven't gone all rusty.

Between the time Alicia left and Ryan arrived home, we had a small period of time to spend together. He's at the point now where he's getting a true personality and wants to play, so it was great to really get to enjoy him.

Here are the two pictures I snapped on my phone to send to Uncle Bryan:

On the floor playing with(or more like, chewing on) his shape sorter

Eating(or more like, playing with) carrots

We're off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Growing up, my sister and I were very close. A little too close. We are 18 months apart and during school, one mere grade separated us. We shared a room growing up, shared a bathroom, shared the bus ride, shared friends, shared clothes - We shared everything. Inevitably, we fought constantly and through the years following middle school, we drifted apart more and more. It actually wasn't until the last year or so that two sisters forced to be so close for so long, finally started getting along again.

Luckily, it didn't take any time for everything to snap back into place. Before we knew it, we were enjoying margaritas around a bonfire trying to find the most embarrassing childhood stories to tell to our significant others(my siblings and I made plenty sure that life growing up was full of those stories).

As a toast to our new found friendship, I decided to do something special for her birthday in mid-October. There wasn't a doubt in my mind about what we would do once I saw a billboard above I95 advertising the DuPont Theatre's next big show. Ironically, they were selling tickets for a travelling Broadway show of my sisters favorite movie of all time - The Wizard of Oz. Needless to say, I purchased two tickets, and our mom even came along for the show. The cast put on a marvelous performance, and we were all as giddy as we used to be while watching it on TV years ago.

"Being grown up isn't half as fun as growing up: These are the best days of our lives."

It may not sound like much to some, but one of the things that I look forward to most out of my whole year is our Autumnal trip to Milburn Orchards. I guess this started 3 years ago when Bryan and I first got into our apartment or right before. We went to Milburn's at the end of September with Ryan, Alicia, and Meghan to pick raspberries, apples, and pumpkins. We had a blast and Bryan and I make it a point to go back every year. I was lucky enough to go twice this year. The first time I went, it was just Bryan and I. We went on Friday not knowing that apple picking only occurred on Saturday and Sunday, so sadly we were unable to capture the full experience. We had to settle with picking out our pumpkins, cider donuts, and getting into the children's 'pumpkin patch' for free! Their painted photo-ops are so much better in there.



The second time we went was very spontaneous. My mother and I both love to bake, and since she's been living with us for the past few months, we both deemed it an appropriate time for her to teach me how to make her coveted apple pie and dumplings. We were both content with store bought apples, but when my sister came over to pick up my nephew one Sunday morning and mentioned shopping for pumpkins, we decided to make a family trip out of it. So, my sister, her boyfriend, Steve, my nephew, my mother and I all packed into our car for a lovely day of apple picking, pumpkin choosing, cider donuts, and getting stuck in the mud.




Oh, Autumn, how I love thee.