Holidays are more fun with festive shirts

Today, I am celebrating being festive. Since my house is on the market, and I am not bringing out all of my fall decorations, I decided that I'd overcompensate in the fashion department. ;)

I went to Hobby Lobby this week because I saw that all of their Halloween fabrics was on sale and picked up these cute designs.

I had already purchased two long-sleeved black shirts from Dharma Trading Co back when I bought back to school shirts and Stuff for Disney sewing.

I also restocked my sewing closet with Heat and Bond,

And then scoured Pinterest for an appliqué idea.

I loved this one:

So, I pulled out my mom's old Singer (since I have yet to learn my new machine) and used a simple zig-zag stitch to make these two shirts for my two little soon-to-be festive girls. 

Think we'll celebrate with a playground party tonight! 

Today, I am celebrating being festive. Since my house is on the market, and I am not bringing out all of my fall decorations, I decided that I'd overcompensate in the fashion department. ;)

I went to Hobby Lobby this week because I saw that all of their Halloween fabrics was on sale and picked up these cute designs.

I had already purchased two long-sleeved black shirts from Dharma Trading Co back when I bought back to school shirts and Stuff for Disney sewing.

I also restocked my sewing closet with Heat and Bond,

And then scoured Pinterest for an appliqué idea.

I loved this one:

So, I pulled out my mom's old Singer (since I have yet to learn my new machine) and used a simple zig-zag stitch to make these two shirts for my two little soon-to-be festive girls. 

Think we'll celebrate with a playground party tonight! 

Disney: The Planning, The Budget, The Research (Part 1)

We just returned from a magical adventure. Truly.

We surprised our girls with their first trip to Disney World, and it was one of the most special family adventures we have taken in our journey.

I never blog anymore.

I just need to blog about this to chronicle our experience for next time around. (And because I am still on a Disney High, already thinking about "next time"!!!)

And there WILL be a next time. We decided that lying in bed after the first full day. Enter new budget item: DISNEY.

After Lindsay took her family last fall, we knew that our ages would work out just about right to take the girls this fall--just before Ansley would turn 3 and still be free. At their encouragement we opened a Disney Rewards Visa. Best. decision. ever.  We put all of our expenses on this card--treating it like a debit card--and over the course of 9 months, earned enough rewards to put just under $500 toward our trip!!!

The second thing I did was go to the library and check out these books:

The Complete Idiot's guide one was just a good one for getting information, and the Birnbaum's Disney book was my "go-to" manual that I packed in my travel purse. It was sooo helpful and pocket-sized. I took these books to Addison's ballet class last spring, and I struck up a conversation with my ballet mom friend, Katie, who introduced me to the "free dining" specials that Disney will run in May for a fall month. We had initially thought we'd go in October--RIGHT before Ansley's birthday, but when the special came out, it was for May, and we very easily changed our plan. Being on the Disney Dining FREE plan saved us $500-600!

Since it was MAY, and I was planning a trip for SEPTEMBER, I started feeling the pressure. I was nervous that we would not be able to book the character meals and make the reservations that we needed. I talked to a friend who had just returned, and she recommended using a mutual acquaintance/friend to help plan our trip. I called Liana Blackburn at Neverland Travel, and the rest is history. She was able to book our resort and the character meals that I requested (more on that later) with no trouble! She was very helpful in deciding what activities would be a good fit for us, taking the ages and interests of my girls into consideration, and she loves Disney World, so that only fostered the excitement that I had been building.

Something that I learned about using the free dining plan is that the moderate resort is the way to go if you are on a budget (which we definitely were). The value resorts use a discounted dining plan, but you need to stay at a moderate resort to reap the full benefit. While we had been interested in staying at The Art of Animation resort, we opted for a princess room at Port Orleans Riverside and didn't pay much extra.  Princess Tiana hosts this New Orleans-style resort, and a "Royal Room" (a mere ~$20 total extra) includes framed pictures of all of her princess friends as well as silhouettes of their respective princes and a letter from Tiana herself. Behind the beds were firefly-like lights and special effects. This was a cute perk for my little princess lovers.

The only differences that I learned about between a moderate and a value resort are the room size (possibly a little bigger), pool (more options with water slides), restaurants (sometimes a sit down option--we didn't use that), and bus lines (potentially shorter). That will not deter us from staying at a value resort next time, but it was interesting information to have.

I am, by nature, a procrastinator. After I had contacted Liana and we had all of our reservations in place, I kind of sat on it (not working on anything for our trip) for awhile. Before I knew it, we were 45 days out from our trip, I was paying my balance, and beginning to freak out--mostly in a good way. That very night that I paid our balance, I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3 a.m., and after an hour of trying to go back to sleep, I got up and went straight here: my friends Ashley and Cristin are Disney gurus, and they teamed with another friend to write this super helpful series: Keys to the Kingdom. I had my notebook and made TONS of notes and got CRAZY excited.  It got me on a roll, so the very next day, after teaching at the University of Phoenix, I headed over to Opry Mills and picked up these goodies. Since the entire trip was a surprise for the girls, much of this was done in secret which built up my own excitement. 

I got the girls princess light up shoes (They have BOTH begged for light up shoes FORever.) at Stride Rite. They were Buy 1, get 1 half off, and they were already marked down. I was able to get both girls' shoes for $40. I knew they would need good walking shoes for the park, and I thought these would be perfect!  Next, I went to Old Navy and picked up vintage tees for me and Patrick and Pooh and Piglet tees for the girls. (I got them--the girls' shirts--on clearance for about $5.)

When I started my back to school sewing, I decided I would go ahead and make the girls' Birthday party outfits since they are having a joint princess party. I planned to give them to them when we left for Disney. My friend Haley shared her pattern--thanks again for that!!! (I ordered these blank dresses from Dharma Trading Co.)

Then, my friend Karen, who has gotten some mad skills on her embroidery machine, made these adorable shirts for the girls. I might have cried when she sent me a picture text of them. (Little did I know those would be the first of many tears I would shed.)

Right before our trip, when we got our travel documents, we discovered that we were eligible for the Magic Bands that Disney has been experimenting with. We ordered them, and two days later, they were on our doorstep. The Magic Bands are personalized, adjustable wristbands that have your room reservations, park passes, dining plans, FAST PASS reservations, and credit card informations on them.  Right now they are in the trial stages with certain resorts, and Disney plans to fully launch them next month. We had NO problems using the wristbands, and we adored the ease that came with them. Our favorite part was definitely the way that you could reserve fast passes. We would enter a ride, scan our Magic Band, and the cast member would say, "Welcome aboard, Kristy." Brilliant! We also appreciated being able to scan them to "pay" for our meals. Disney really does think of everything!

The last thing I did before the trip was make autograph books for the girls. My crafty, thrifty, AWESOME sis had done this and had saved a PDF file for me to use. I like these books because each character had a personalized page. The characters themselves all loved the book, and I am in the process of turning into a scrapbook for the girls by putting their pictures with each character by their signatures. This book actually shaped how we approached our park days because the girls' main goals on this trip were finding the characters at the meet and greets. Those moments were some of our most magical!

 All of the planning was so much fun and SOOOOOOO worth it. Next up: the BIG REVEAL!

We just returned from a magical adventure. Truly.

We surprised our girls with their first trip to Disney World, and it was one of the most special family adventures we have taken in our journey.

I never blog anymore.

I just need to blog about this to chronicle our experience for next time around. (And because I am still on a Disney High, already thinking about "next time"!!!)

And there WILL be a next time. We decided that lying in bed after the first full day. Enter new budget item: DISNEY.

After Lindsay took her family last fall, we knew that our ages would work out just about right to take the girls this fall--just before Ansley would turn 3 and still be free. At their encouragement we opened a Disney Rewards Visa. Best. decision. ever.  We put all of our expenses on this card--treating it like a debit card--and over the course of 9 months, earned enough rewards to put just under $500 toward our trip!!!

The second thing I did was go to the library and check out these books:

The Complete Idiot's guide one was just a good one for getting information, and the Birnbaum's Disney book was my "go-to" manual that I packed in my travel purse. It was sooo helpful and pocket-sized. I took these books to Addison's ballet class last spring, and I struck up a conversation with my ballet mom friend, Katie, who introduced me to the "free dining" specials that Disney will run in May for a fall month. We had initially thought we'd go in October--RIGHT before Ansley's birthday, but when the special came out, it was for May, and we very easily changed our plan. Being on the Disney Dining FREE plan saved us $500-600!

Since it was MAY, and I was planning a trip for SEPTEMBER, I started feeling the pressure. I was nervous that we would not be able to book the character meals and make the reservations that we needed. I talked to a friend who had just returned, and she recommended using a mutual acquaintance/friend to help plan our trip. I called Liana Blackburn at Neverland Travel, and the rest is history. She was able to book our resort and the character meals that I requested (more on that later) with no trouble! She was very helpful in deciding what activities would be a good fit for us, taking the ages and interests of my girls into consideration, and she loves Disney World, so that only fostered the excitement that I had been building.

Something that I learned about using the free dining plan is that the moderate resort is the way to go if you are on a budget (which we definitely were). The value resorts use a discounted dining plan, but you need to stay at a moderate resort to reap the full benefit. While we had been interested in staying at The Art of Animation resort, we opted for a princess room at Port Orleans Riverside and didn't pay much extra.  Princess Tiana hosts this New Orleans-style resort, and a "Royal Room" (a mere ~$20 total extra) includes framed pictures of all of her princess friends as well as silhouettes of their respective princes and a letter from Tiana herself. Behind the beds were firefly-like lights and special effects. This was a cute perk for my little princess lovers.

The only differences that I learned about between a moderate and a value resort are the room size (possibly a little bigger), pool (more options with water slides), restaurants (sometimes a sit down option--we didn't use that), and bus lines (potentially shorter). That will not deter us from staying at a value resort next time, but it was interesting information to have.

I am, by nature, a procrastinator. After I had contacted Liana and we had all of our reservations in place, I kind of sat on it (not working on anything for our trip) for awhile. Before I knew it, we were 45 days out from our trip, I was paying my balance, and beginning to freak out--mostly in a good way. That very night that I paid our balance, I couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3 a.m., and after an hour of trying to go back to sleep, I got up and went straight here: my friends Ashley and Cristin are Disney gurus, and they teamed with another friend to write this super helpful series: Keys to the Kingdom. I had my notebook and made TONS of notes and got CRAZY excited.  It got me on a roll, so the very next day, after teaching at the University of Phoenix, I headed over to Opry Mills and picked up these goodies. Since the entire trip was a surprise for the girls, much of this was done in secret which built up my own excitement. 

I got the girls princess light up shoes (They have BOTH begged for light up shoes FORever.) at Stride Rite. They were Buy 1, get 1 half off, and they were already marked down. I was able to get both girls' shoes for $40. I knew they would need good walking shoes for the park, and I thought these would be perfect!  Next, I went to Old Navy and picked up vintage tees for me and Patrick and Pooh and Piglet tees for the girls. (I got them--the girls' shirts--on clearance for about $5.)

When I started my back to school sewing, I decided I would go ahead and make the girls' Birthday party outfits since they are having a joint princess party. I planned to give them to them when we left for Disney. My friend Haley shared her pattern--thanks again for that!!! (I ordered these blank dresses from Dharma Trading Co.)

Then, my friend Karen, who has gotten some mad skills on her embroidery machine, made these adorable shirts for the girls. I might have cried when she sent me a picture text of them. (Little did I know those would be the first of many tears I would shed.)

Right before our trip, when we got our travel documents, we discovered that we were eligible for the Magic Bands that Disney has been experimenting with. We ordered them, and two days later, they were on our doorstep. The Magic Bands are personalized, adjustable wristbands that have your room reservations, park passes, dining plans, FAST PASS reservations, and credit card informations on them.  Right now they are in the trial stages with certain resorts, and Disney plans to fully launch them next month. We had NO problems using the wristbands, and we adored the ease that came with them. Our favorite part was definitely the way that you could reserve fast passes. We would enter a ride, scan our Magic Band, and the cast member would say, "Welcome aboard, Kristy." Brilliant! We also appreciated being able to scan them to "pay" for our meals. Disney really does think of everything!

The last thing I did before the trip was make autograph books for the girls. My crafty, thrifty, AWESOME sis had done this and had saved a PDF file for me to use. I like these books because each character had a personalized page. The characters themselves all loved the book, and I am in the process of turning into a scrapbook for the girls by putting their pictures with each character by their signatures. This book actually shaped how we approached our park days because the girls' main goals on this trip were finding the characters at the meet and greets. Those moments were some of our most magical!

 All of the planning was so much fun and SOOOOOOO worth it. Next up: the BIG REVEAL!

November Recap

November was a fun month for our famil with even more Birthdays to celebrate, Addison's first preschool program, and all of the Thanksgiving festivities. Below was our cute little pilgrim:

We enjoyed some cool, crisp fall mornings, hiking at Radnor with our family.

Addison tried her first cheeseburger. She decided she was ready and "Mc-loved it."

Ansley is tolerating peanut butter--something I wondered if I would ever say about my allergy-plagued sweetie! Yay for another protein source. She loves eating "butter jellies" for lunch now.

Loving on my little turkeys here.

Savannah turned 5 this month. Can't believe how fast the time goes, but we went to the park on her actual birthday and then...

went to the ballet studio to celebrate her party. How cute are these cupcakes below? And how sweet is my sister for ordering them dairy and egg free. Ansley sure enjoyed hers. :)

I found Ansley like this one morning, and she said she was going to potty train all by herself. I was pretty wowed, but then it has come to a halt after she fell into the big potty a couple of weeks ago. She said, after that, that she was never going to potty train. Planning on trying for real after Christmas.

Sweet little church girls. This was on Ansley's first day of Bible Class. Now that she is 2, there are no more random sippy cups of milk in her classroom. I am helping to teach her class and am loving watching her soak it all up.

Addison had her first preschool program. Her (and my) class dressed as pilgrims and they sang some sweet Thanksgiving songs. The picture below is at the end where all of the classes sang together.

Most of my cute little pilgrims.

Our family of 4 after the Thanksgiving Feast.

Sweet cousin best friends. It has been so special for them to be at the same school this year, and they are about the cutest indian/pilgrim pair that I have ever seen!

My girls' preschool Thanksgiving art that made it to the fridge.

For Dad's birthday, we all participated in the Viva la Diva 5K. My favorite memory of this day is Addison's relfection on it.  She thought that the race itself was Bear's birthday, that the thousand or so participants in it were invited to his party, and that all the post race snacks were his refreshments. She even danced with the dancers and got a treat bag, and she says she wants a "race birthday party" next year. Love the way her mind processes things!

I hosted my Bunco group for November's party, and I was excited to set my table.

Our Thanksgiving recap: flying kites, making teepees and fun snacks, eating good food, and dancing gangham style.

Our family's thankful tree all full of blessings. This became our most special part of our day and our dinner conversations and we're trying to come up with a way to keep it going all year long.

The girls sporting their cool Auburn/Alabama football hats from Aunt Andrea gave them on Iron Bowl game day.

We celebrated Daddy turning 30, and we are so grateful to have such a loving, fun, hard-working leader of our family.

We also had a family photo shoot at Radnor Lake and captured the girls at 2 and 4. Aaron Yung truly captures my girls personalities, and we are thankful to be his friends and his clients.

We had a full and fun November, and I didn't want it to escape documentation. We are enjoying our advent season as well and hopefully there will be some more posts ahead to document that,

November was a fun month for our famil with even more Birthdays to celebrate, Addison's first preschool program, and all of the Thanksgiving festivities. Below was our cute little pilgrim:

We enjoyed some cool, crisp fall mornings, hiking at Radnor with our family.

Addison tried her first cheeseburger. She decided she was ready and "Mc-loved it."

Ansley is tolerating peanut butter--something I wondered if I would ever say about my allergy-plagued sweetie! Yay for another protein source. She loves eating "butter jellies" for lunch now.

Loving on my little turkeys here.

Savannah turned 5 this month. Can't believe how fast the time goes, but we went to the park on her actual birthday and then...

went to the ballet studio to celebrate her party. How cute are these cupcakes below? And how sweet is my sister for ordering them dairy and egg free. Ansley sure enjoyed hers. :)

I found Ansley like this one morning, and she said she was going to potty train all by herself. I was pretty wowed, but then it has come to a halt after she fell into the big potty a couple of weeks ago. She said, after that, that she was never going to potty train. Planning on trying for real after Christmas.

Sweet little church girls. This was on Ansley's first day of Bible Class. Now that she is 2, there are no more random sippy cups of milk in her classroom. I am helping to teach her class and am loving watching her soak it all up.

Addison had her first preschool program. Her (and my) class dressed as pilgrims and they sang some sweet Thanksgiving songs. The picture below is at the end where all of the classes sang together.

Most of my cute little pilgrims.

Our family of 4 after the Thanksgiving Feast.

Sweet cousin best friends. It has been so special for them to be at the same school this year, and they are about the cutest indian/pilgrim pair that I have ever seen!

My girls' preschool Thanksgiving art that made it to the fridge.

For Dad's birthday, we all participated in the Viva la Diva 5K. My favorite memory of this day is Addison's relfection on it.  She thought that the race itself was Bear's birthday, that the thousand or so participants in it were invited to his party, and that all the post race snacks were his refreshments. She even danced with the dancers and got a treat bag, and she says she wants a "race birthday party" next year. Love the way her mind processes things!

I hosted my Bunco group for November's party, and I was excited to set my table.

Our Thanksgiving recap: flying kites, making teepees and fun snacks, eating good food, and dancing gangham style.

Our family's thankful tree all full of blessings. This became our most special part of our day and our dinner conversations and we're trying to come up with a way to keep it going all year long.

The girls sporting their cool Auburn/Alabama football hats from Aunt Andrea gave them on Iron Bowl game day.

We celebrated Daddy turning 30, and we are so grateful to have such a loving, fun, hard-working leader of our family.

We also had a family photo shoot at Radnor Lake and captured the girls at 2 and 4. Aaron Yung truly captures my girls personalities, and we are thankful to be his friends and his clients.

We had a full and fun November, and I didn't want it to escape documentation. We are enjoying our advent season as well and hopefully there will be some more posts ahead to document that,

Thankful Hearts

I really enjoyed this Thanksgiving season. I usually am ready to push that turkey aside and hurl myself right into Christmas a few weeks too early, but this year, I wanted to give the turkey his due. I think I got into the spirit of the season when I made these turkey shirts for the girls. It was my first shot at an applique--I got the idea from Pinterest... where else?--so it was really messy and very imperfect, but I loved them anyway. I freehanded the design; my wonder-under fell apart, and then I just went for it with lots and lots of pinning and seam ripping. :) We still wore them every week. :)

Because all moms are partial to their children, I say with no reservations that I could just gobble them up...

We had April and the Stephens boys over one afternoon for some turkey fun. Addison and Carter decorated these cookies as turkeys and make some construction paper/toilet paper roll turkeys. April and I loved having an excuse to get together, and we also loved actually getting to do things that we had both "pinned." [Maybe even more than our little turkeys did...] Even though we just live across neighborhoods from each other, it is hard with little ones to make playdates happen as often as we'd like. We all sure do love it when they do. I am so thankful for such neat friends who have such neat kids to go through life with.

I was excited to get to participate in The Eagle's Nest Thanksgiving Feast with Addison and Ansley.

It made me even more thankful to have my girls just down the hall from me at school. Addison was so proud of her crafts and decorations and she loved showing off her friends.

Pictured below is one of her best buddies, Jack (she calls him her "school husband" and they have been sweet friends who take care of each other since they were itty bitty babies) with his sister Juli Claire (who is one of Ansley's best buds), and their mom Jen (who is one of my best buds and the only friend I've ever had who shared the same birthday as me... Plus, we show up to school dressed exactly alike too often for it to be coincidental...)

We enjoyed a nice week long break from school, and I was thankful to drink coffee in my real coffee cup while holding by babies and watching the TODAY show... During this week, we slept in, made Daddy a birthday present, painted, colored, went to the mall, decorated for Christmas, made thankful trees, caught "Bieber Fever," spent time with family, and traveled to Louisville to spend time with more family. I taught Addison how to sing "Over the river and through the woods..." and how to play "Jingle Bells" on her keyboard. We stopped and reflected on our blessings. One of my favorite memories of this Thanksgiving will be Ansley's version of Gobble-Gobble which sounded more like Boggle-Boggle. :) My other favorite part was listening to my 3-year-old who, unprompted, went around the Thanksgiving table and called everyone by name, and directly asked them what they were thankful for in her sweet little voice. She then repeated it the next night in Louisville. I almost did gobble her up right then and there.

Here was my Thanksgiving project--I Christmas-treed up a dress for Addison. Sewing ribbon onto an already made dress was more difficult than it looks. I'm choosing to embrace my crooked little tree on this dress. :)

I really enjoyed this Thanksgiving season. I usually am ready to push that turkey aside and hurl myself right into Christmas a few weeks too early, but this year, I wanted to give the turkey his due. I think I got into the spirit of the season when I made these turkey shirts for the girls. It was my first shot at an applique--I got the idea from Pinterest... where else?--so it was really messy and very imperfect, but I loved them anyway. I freehanded the design; my wonder-under fell apart, and then I just went for it with lots and lots of pinning and seam ripping. :) We still wore them every week. :)

Because all moms are partial to their children, I say with no reservations that I could just gobble them up...

We had April and the Stephens boys over one afternoon for some turkey fun. Addison and Carter decorated these cookies as turkeys and make some construction paper/toilet paper roll turkeys. April and I loved having an excuse to get together, and we also loved actually getting to do things that we had both "pinned." [Maybe even more than our little turkeys did...] Even though we just live across neighborhoods from each other, it is hard with little ones to make playdates happen as often as we'd like. We all sure do love it when they do. I am so thankful for such neat friends who have such neat kids to go through life with.

I was excited to get to participate in The Eagle's Nest Thanksgiving Feast with Addison and Ansley.

It made me even more thankful to have my girls just down the hall from me at school. Addison was so proud of her crafts and decorations and she loved showing off her friends.

Pictured below is one of her best buddies, Jack (she calls him her "school husband" and they have been sweet friends who take care of each other since they were itty bitty babies) with his sister Juli Claire (who is one of Ansley's best buds), and their mom Jen (who is one of my best buds and the only friend I've ever had who shared the same birthday as me... Plus, we show up to school dressed exactly alike too often for it to be coincidental...)

We enjoyed a nice week long break from school, and I was thankful to drink coffee in my real coffee cup while holding by babies and watching the TODAY show... During this week, we slept in, made Daddy a birthday present, painted, colored, went to the mall, decorated for Christmas, made thankful trees, caught "Bieber Fever," spent time with family, and traveled to Louisville to spend time with more family. I taught Addison how to sing "Over the river and through the woods..." and how to play "Jingle Bells" on her keyboard. We stopped and reflected on our blessings. One of my favorite memories of this Thanksgiving will be Ansley's version of Gobble-Gobble which sounded more like Boggle-Boggle. :) My other favorite part was listening to my 3-year-old who, unprompted, went around the Thanksgiving table and called everyone by name, and directly asked them what they were thankful for in her sweet little voice. She then repeated it the next night in Louisville. I almost did gobble her up right then and there.

Here was my Thanksgiving project--I Christmas-treed up a dress for Addison. Sewing ribbon onto an already made dress was more difficult than it looks. I'm choosing to embrace my crooked little tree on this dress. :)