Disney's Animal Kingdom

When we went to sleep at 2 o'clock in the morning, we weren't exactly sure how the next day was going to go for us. Our original plans had us spending the day at Animal Kingdom. That sounded great, but we knew there was no way we could show up to the park when it first opened and still have the energy we needed to finish out our day -- or even enjoy our time there at all. So, we decided we would sleep until we woke up, and then take it from there. Lesson learned: Not having a firm plan is like having no plan at all.

Traveling is part of the Vacation

We are back from our trip to Disney World! So much went wrong, but even more when right. It was a crazy fun and exhausting week. Today marks the first of a series of posts documenting some of our experiences on our trip. I hope you can enjoy the continued Disney theme, if not, I promise it will eventually fade into the archives.

6 Random Disney Things

Instead of going through and giving a description of the remaining fun Disney Themed crafts and treats I made for our trip, I'm just going to show you some pictures! Tomorrow I finally start posting about our actual trip! I hope you're not all burnt out on Disney already! There is so much more fun to be had!

ID tags to hook on belt loops.
My cell phone number is on the back.

Label for our stroller -- it will hang with some ribbons.

Signs for the bedroom doors at the resort.

See you real soon!

Disney Shirt #3: Mickey colored Mickeys

Three Disney shirts seemed like a good round number for our trip. I had a hard time settling on the final design I would use. When the time came though, I decided that for the last of our shirts it was worth the effort to do another sewing project. I found a really fun design on Pinterest that I knew I could do a simple variation of, again using the velour that I already had on hand. Even though it's still a Mickey Mouse shape, the colors made it different enough that it didn't just feel like a repeat.

There really weren't any instructions online for this particular design, so I had to make it up as I went along. I made my own pattern for the giant Mickey head with the help of my Cricut Mini, and then cut out the different shapes for the different parts from that. It was a ton of cutting and sewing! I was lucky enough to have Cameron help me for a little while. He thought of the brilliant idea to use quarters as the pattern to cut the buttons on the front of the Mickey. What would I do without his genius? Then the baby woke up from his nap and that was the end of that. He did leave his phone in the sewing room so I could listen to Psych while I sewed. Though I'm not sure he did it intentionally...

The original description I found for these shirts used a solid white T-shirt. I liked how that looked, but I didn't have a solid white shirt for each of us. I was grateful then to discover that the pattern still looked great on the different colors I already had.

Strangely enough, the sewing required for the more complicated Mickey design for this shirt actually went a lot smoother than did the sewing on just the plain Mickey shape for the last shirts. Perhaps it was because I sewed on each color separately and therefore there was less surface area to mess up and have pucker. Once sewn on, the appliques all laid pretty flat and looked super fun!

I was really pleased with how the shirts looked when they were all complete. It was actually a coincidence that we ended up with two of each color. Ha! I love happy coincidences. I have to admit, when I finished these shirts -- the last of 18 homemade shirts for our trip -- I was pretty glad to be done. There were only a couple of days left before we were scheduled to leave for Disney World. I was ready to feel prepared. No more big projects! Now it was time for the real fun to begin!

Making Our Own Mouse Ears

One of the classic souvenirs at any Disney Park is Mouse Ears. There are tons of different kinds sold. Some of them are quality. Lots of them are not. All of them are a bit spendy for what you get. One tip I found online was to make your own mouse ears to wear while perusing the parks. I was all for it.

Crafty FAIL

The kids and I decided to make a craft of our own. We wanted to make a candle that was colored like Mickey. You know, yellow/orange bottom, red middle, black top. Simple right? Yeah... I figured I'd post about this one just so you don't get the impression that all of our Disney crafts turned out wonderfully and exactly as we'd envisioned.

Disney Shirt #2: Personalized Velour Mickey

The second shirts I made for my family needed to be a bit different than the first. I hmmmed and hahed for quite a while deciding on exactly what I wanted. Finally I settled on something I was excited about: Mickey.

Little Things that Keep Us Organized

Sometimes when we are planning trips away from our normal daily lives we are so focused on getting a break from the day to day mundane things, that we forget the little things in our average day that make life easier. Not everything we have at home is only useful while we are there. There are certain things that would make being away from home that much easier -- especially when it comes to being away from home with kids.

Mickey Mouse Luggage Tags

A trip to Disney is really enhanced with the little extras. Because of that I did a bunch of poking around trying to find a handful of fun crafty extras to make our trip a bit more special. One thing I found was a cute Mickey Luggage tag idea. It is simple, and yet super cute!

Disney Shirt #1: Freezer Paper Stencil Shirts

One of the most obvious things we needed for our trip to Disney World was fun, homemade Disney shirts! There are so many easy options online! I had a hard time picking. I didn't want to have to purchase a lot of supplies for them, but I wanted them to look fabulous! Story of my life I guess...

I ordered blank shirts online. I got a pretty good deal for some good quality shirts. They took a bit longer to arrive than I would have liked, but they were still here with a couple of weeks left before the trip. The site I bought through let me pick the sizes, but not the color of my shirts. I figured it would be fine, and it was. I do wish there were more brightly colored shirts and less greys and blacks. It's okay though... they'll do.

A couple of Father's Days ago the kids and I made t-shirts for the dads in our life with freezer paper and acrylic/fabric paint. I really liked the way they turned out, so I decided to try that method again for the first of our Disney shirts.

The first step was the find a design for the front of each shirt. The absolute best resource for this was on the Disney Family website. They have pumpkin carving templates that work great! They had a ton of Disney Characters to choose from! The kids were thrilled I let them pick the character for their shirt.

Once all the designs had been chosen, I printed them each out in the size that worked best for the shirts. Then, one by one, I taped the design over freezer paper (plastic coating down) on top of a clean cutting board. I made sure the paper was a bit smaller than the freezer paper so when I taped them down both papers were secured. I then did the tedious work of using an exacto knife to cut out the design. This was by far the most time consuming part of the job.

After each design was cut out, I took the freezer paper and placed it on the T-shirt that was already arranged on my ironing board. When I had it exactly where I wanted it, I ironed on the freezer paper. When the freezer paper was firmly attached to the shirt, I used a foam brush and brushed the fabric paint over the design. The only parts exposed are the parts you want painted. The freezer paper is the perfect stencil!

I was happy that I had some glitter fabric paint I had been given years and years ago. I half expected it to be dried out, but thankfully it had been sealed and was still perfectly good! Yay! The sparkles are so much fun on the shirts.


Once the paint was all dry I peeled off the paper to reveal the finished product. Each time I did it I was just as amazed as ever at how beautifully it turned out. It was like magic! Our very first dose of Disney Magic.

You know a project is good when you have trouble picking a favorite one. All the shirts turned out great! I can't wait to wear them! The kids liked them so much that they wanted me to make them more just like these! I was determined to have some variety and didn't want to do the exact same thing twice. Frankly, these are cute enough that there's a part of me that wishes we could each have two! You can never have too many Disney shirts, right?

Getting into Character

The night before we are going to leave on a big trip to Disney, and what do you think I was doing? Well, let me put it this way, What would you have done on International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Well, of course, we went to Krispy Kreme for our free donuts.

Mickey Hands

You know those things you see as a kid? The things that those cool people have when you're at the amusement park or somewhere like that? Sometimes it's the glow sticks. Sometimes it's the giant finger or fog horn. My mom would never buy us those things. I can't say I blame her. They're a pretty blatant waste of money at the prices they charge at the venues. However, if you make them yourself, or buy them before you go and take them with, you save a TON. Plus, you can consider yourself one of those cool people.

Disney's Epcot Passports

Sometimes there are fun things that cost money that I'm willing to buy because they are worth it. Other times there are fun things that I would rather make myself -- as long as I have the time and resources to do so.

Disney Pin Trading

When I first started researching Disney World last year I was overwhelmed by the many different aspects there are to the experience. Things like hotel options, dining options, park options, rides, treats, and let's not forget the extra activities that are available. All of these things combined can be very intimidating for anyone new to the Disney World vacation. Admittedly, the complexity of the whole thing was what kept me from exploring the idea earlier. Thankfully, I got past my intimidation and here we are!

Disney Trivia

Last week, in preparation for our trip to Disney World we took the kids to the Disney Store Outlet. The plan was to pick out a shirt to wear in the parks. We are making a few shirts at home, but we thought it would be fun to have one that is store bought. The kids were thrilled!

New Twists to our Monthly Routine

The same settings, even if they are beautiful and great, can get tedious if you see them over and over again. I'm finding this truth to be relevant in my life recently. Yesterday Cam and I took the kids to San Antonio again to hit the temple. Typically while we are there we each take an hour in the temple while the other takes the kids somewhere to play/kill time. The most common places are Krispy Kreme Donuts, and a certain park that's about 10 minutes from the temple. Both places are fun and neat. However, this time 'round Cam and I were both ready for a change.

Any Excuse

Date night. I love date night. I'm sure you know this if you have read even just a few of my other blog posts. Friday night Date Nights are one of the highlights of my week. One of the reasons might surprise you a bit. Maybe.

In Search of Kid Friendly

It's always a bit of a challenge to find places to eat that are inviting to bring children. Our kids will sit at a table and eat and then go home. However, deep down, I know they would rather be running and playing on a playground. There are limited options when it comes to this requirement. It's always fun to find new family friendly eating establishment. I am excited to be able to add Central Market to our list!

Walking so we can Walk

I haven't done much walking in the past month or two. In fact, before that, I didn't do that much walking either. Oh, before I hurt my back I did plenty of exercising, but long distance walking wasn't usually on my schedule. I'm not a marathoner. But, as we look forward to our Disney trip next week, we are feeling more and more pressure to get our walk on so we aren't as exhausted on our trip. We went on a few walks a couple of weeks back, but kind of let it slip to the side. Now though, we're serious.

Curly is a Way of Life

Britta has some of the curliest hair I have ever seen in my life. Honestly, how this kid got red curly hair is somewhat of a mystery. Cameron has thick wavy hair. I have straight hair. Both of ours have more of a light brown color to it, though possibly some very subtle red highlights may be hiding around somewhere. In any case, neither of us have beautiful red curly hair. And we are all the poorer because of it.

Something Light

Last night my stomach hurt. I had Bush's chicken for dinner. It comes with this thick white gravy that you smother all over your chicken, potatoes, and whatever else is on your plate. It is very tasty. It is also ridiculously rich. Like, make your stomach hurt rich. To top it off, I had to have a sliver of our 3 Year House-Aversary cheesecake. By the end of the night, my stomach was very angry with me. I was up for hours because my stomach hurt and I couldn't sleep. I am still recovering.

After a super rich meal like that, all I wanted today was light foods. Things with very little oil and cream. We had breakfast burritos for breakfast. I skipped lunch because I was at a hair appointment. Then for dinner I made something new: Thai Sweet and Sour Chicken wraps. They looked light easy -- just what I was in the mood for!

Three Years at Home

I have always had a bit of an adventurous spirit. Wanderlust took me from place to place for years. Cameron and I have lived in a number of different locations in our nearly 10 years of marriage. Everywhere from the Phoenix metro area to a small town in South Korea. Then, we moved to Austin. We were both pretty certain we were ready to settle down and stop moving around. We really wanted Texas to be that home we'd been waiting for.

The Cross-Stitch that is Life

A couple of weeks into my bed confined period last month, I realized I was bored. REALLY bored. I was so done with Netflix. I had thoroughly planned our upcoming Disney vacation. I had read an entire book (or two...). I couldn't do anything that required me to sit up too straight or stand. I wanted to DO something! I wanted to be productive. I wasn't feeling inspired to knit or crochet. But I really wanted to do something crafty. After thinking about it a bit, I decided I really wanted to start a cross-stitch project! Brilliant!

New People, New Places

Sometimes it's difficult to get past the mundane things in life. There are a lot of routines that just have to happen -- no matter how dull. If we get stuck in the less than exciting things, our days can be less than exhilarating. Something I have found that really helps me add some more flavor to life is meeting new people and seeing new places.

Finally Kingston's Turn

He climbed up there all by himself so he could type on the keyboard. Cam thinks that's a sign he needs to start teaching the boy how to do computer coding. Or maybe it's time to set him up his own email address. I think it's a sign we need taller chairs.

Mediocre turned Fabulous

I love my husband. I love spending time with him. There never seems to be enough time together -- even if we spend all day. We often find ourselves looking for excuses to go out or do things just the two of us. Most of the time it's playing a game or watching a fun tv series on Netflix after the kids are in bed. Sometimes we go out to dinner -- even if it's not Friday night. I love those nights.

Clay Play

One of the reasons we try to keep our kids from living in front of the television is to encourage them to find creative things to do instead. Sometimes this process begins with the phrase, "But there's nothing to do!" Thankfully that is often followed up with them figuring out a fun new game or project to fill their time with.

Show Some Respect

River was putting a hand puppet on and Kingston came over and tried to bite it. River exclaimed, “Hey! That’s my hand in there! Can’t you respect my hand?!”

Extreme Doll Playing

"Isn't my doll cute? And when I step on her head, it only stays flat on the side for a minute, then it pops back up!"

Strange Turning of the Tables

Sometimes moms feel a bit stiffed because of the uneven responsibility when it comes to caring for a baby. This can hold especially true of the baby is exclusively nursed. It's not that dad isn't willing to help. It's that he can't really do much.