Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Wordless Wednesday (With a Small Amount of Help): Souvenir or New Best Friend





A special hug for Aaron's new friend



















Funny how the kisses from a pretend dog can be just as special as the real thing














I think Aaron spent as much time pushing Pluto around in the stroller that night in Downtown Disney as he spent in the stroller himself

















Here's Pluto all tucked in and ready for bed













And what a great friend to keep Aaron company for 24 hours on the road


















He even rocks it out at a Go Fish Concert












Happy WW!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Thursday Thirteen: Do I Have To Come Home?

Yes, our vacation is almost over. I have a tendency to suffer from a bit of let down when things that have been anticipated for so long come to an end. It happens every holiday, and I am certain it will happen big time when we get home. So for my T13, I thought I would try to think of 13 things that I will look forward to when we get home.

1. Not living out a a suitcase
2. Sleeping in my own bed
3. Getting Noah back into a good pattern at school...he had a bad day all 5 days last week
4. Final Cherub Choir rehearsal and performance for the year
5. Getting my piano students ready for the recital in May
6. Bell rehearsals to prepare for two public performances
7. Figuring out SOMETHING to do about Aaron for school next year
8. Raking and starting spring yard work (Yup, I actually LIKE it)
9. Spring Break, even though we will not go anywhere
10. Easter
11. Watching Noah play tee-ball
12. Garage Sale in May
13. Summer Vacation and three months of NOT worrying about the boys and school

I hope you are all hvaing a great week. Happy T13!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Tackle it Tuesday: Pillows

As you read this, I am probably sitting around at the resort pool or out finding something fun to with the family on our day off from the Disney Parks.

Although all of last week was one BIG tackle getting ready for our trip, I did do one "somewhat" crafty thing to get ready.

Knowing that I was going to pick the boys up and throw them in the car at 4:00 in the morning, I wanted to have pillows for them. I went to Target to get body pillows, but each pillow was $10 and then each pillowcase was ANOTHER $10 apiece. I figured that there was no way I was going to pay $40.

I bought the pillows and decided that I could figure out a way at home to cover them.
I do not own a sewing machine, nor would I know what to do with one if I did. I took one home ec class in 6th grade, but I got the thread mixed up so many times on the sewing machine that the teacher kicked me off, and I have been scared of them ever since.
So here I sit with two HUGE pillows that are being currently eaten by the Mutt (formerly known as the cat, Pumpkin) and I didn't want to spend a ton of money on fabric that I wasn't sure what to do with.















So I headed to the "linen closet" which is actually a very small hall closet STUFFED FULL with unmatched sets of sheets for many different sized beds, including ones that we don't even own anymore. (I guess that could be another tackle some time in the future...huh?) I pulled out two sheets that I didn't think we would use anymore and laid them out in the living room.

I was thinking that it would take FOREVER to hand sew these big huge pillowcases. So what else could I use?









How about the glue gun? When I was growing up, my mom had a major obsession with her glue gun, and glued EVERYTHING. We made fun of her constantly for it, which is why it is so funny that I have become so active with mine.















I spread out the pillow and sheet, inside out, and started on the long side, gluing the pieces together. Then I did the end and stuck the pillow inside. The sheet was about 18 inches too long and it kind of looks like a scene from CSI.















So Thursday night, I decided to try another idea. It was given to me by a friend of mine on my facebook page. What about if I took two regular pillow cases and merged them together (again with the glue gun)?









It worked so much better and I finished BOTH pillow cases in less than fifteen minutes.












Of course, Aaron hindered the process a tad when he decided he liked them just the way they were an d he NEEDED to lay on them in the hallway at that exact moment. Aaron decided to make a bed out of them right in the middle of the hallway.









I guess I will let you know when we get home home how the pillows actually worked out, but I was proud of how someone as UNCRAFTY as myself actually figured out a solution to my problem without spending money.

Have a great Tuesday.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Friday Photo Story: A Letter in the Mail

As I mentioned on Monday, I have jumped back into the world of facebook. I have learned from my mistakes, and with ignoring ALL applications and only writing light hearted updates, I was able to reconnect with people in my long lost past.

I didn't have a lot of friends in high school, but several of the ones that I did hang out with have found me on facebook, and it was fun getting to know them. They were one of the reasons I was sorry to leave facebook.

One of my friends, a SUPER sweet girl, is a pediatrician in California now and takes her two girls to Disneyland often. She LOVES the place and decided to do something for my boys to pep them up for our trip.

So yesterday, the boys received a postcard.














On the inside, "Mickey" had written a letter to the boys telling them how excited he was to see them.



















Isn't that the sweetest idea? This girl was a sweetheart in high school, and she still is to this day. I don't think I'll ever see her in real life again, but it was very neat to reconnect with her and I was honored that she thought of a small special thing to send my boys.

Have a great weekend. We leave tomorrow morning before you wake up, so I will have autoposts next week. I hope you enjoy them. I think his will be a good lesson for me to be without my computer for the whole week.

See you on the 23rd.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Thursday Thirteen: What's Left To Do?

After boring my readers endlessly for a couple of months with trip preparations, it is finally here! We leave in less than 48 hours. It's days like this that I wish I had left Aaron in preschool just so I could get all this last minute stuff done in peace.

Here are 13 things that I still have yet to do before we leave at 4:30 Saturday morning.

1. Wash underwear and socks and pack them...it's the only thing left to pack
2. Eat all of the food in the fridge so it doesn't go bad over
3. Get batteries for camera and various electronic items for the drive
4. Set the lights on timers
5. Buy drinks for the parks...I think I'll wait until I get down there to avoid bottle return fees
6. Find possible overnight hotels for the way down
7. Decided which route to follow: Google maps, map quest, or Garmin navigator
8. Make a second pillow case for the body pillows I got the boys for the car (I refuse to pay $10 apiece for store bought ones)
9. Put the dutch oven, skillet, strainer, and other various kitchen appliances in a big tub for the condo
10. Write blog posts to automatically show each day while I'm gone
11. Go to Noah's school to pick up all of the homework for the next week while we're gone
12. Lose 20 pounds (okay, so that's not going to happen but one can only dream
13. Sleep soundly with happy dreams of the memories we're going to make

Now I will stop blogging and go get stuff done.

Happy Thursday!

(Look, Mr. Linky is back...Thanks Deb!)