Never challenge a DISer to find a deal--a Nov/Dec PTR 11/26: Today's the day!!!

[pooh'smate]

All caught up. It looks like you had a great time at South Haven. Your kiddos are cute. You are checking out of Pop the day we check in.

Thanks for stopping by my ptr.

 

[moparop]

All caught up. It looks like you had a great time at South Haven. Your kiddos are cute. You are checking out of Pop the day we check in.

Thanks for stopping by my ptr.

South Haven was an absolute dream! We went with my parents and my brothers were in and out of the cottage over the week and there were no fights at all. It was just such a relaxing week with perfect weather. We felt blessed in every way!

 

[moparop]

Enjoy your trip! Sounds wonderful!

We had a wonderful time. We've traveled with my parents before and it's been pretty good but this was amazing!

Sounds wonderful!!! Have fun!!!

When we read the ad for the cottage, we thought we were going to be a lot closer to the beach. Once we got over that, it really was a peaceful yet fun week!

Sending traveling mercies for your trip., and may your family make a lot of family memories together.

Thank you so much! One of our great family memories was that I had won a contest to have a pro photographer come take pictures of our family on the beach there as a gift to my parents. I think before the trip everyone thought it was interesting little novelty, but once we were done laughing and smiling and spending almost 2 hours with the photographer -- it was really a great time. If anyone REALLY wants to be overloaded with my family I can send along that link.

I love disney theme nights! We do them every other week at our house, we have themed food depending on the movie we are watching and we decorate. It's usually pretty low key, just something to keep the magic building and to expose DS to new movies. We are having a Toy Story theme this coming week, and I found these perfect cakes at a grocery store. They are petite cakes and they have both a Buzz and a Woody design... so we ordered both! I have found Mickey breaded chicken patties and chicken nuggets before, as well as ravioli, and I heard that there are Mickey pizzas as well, if you just want to do a general Disney theme. You could always pop in a vacation plannign DVD as background!

I mentioned the Disney movie nights to my hubby a month or so ago and he thought I was CRAZY. He just doesn't get it. I love those petite cakes! You can let people decide if they are a buzz fan or a woody fan and have cakes from that one! I have been debating between doing a general Mickey/Fab 5 thing and doing a WDW theme. Now with two weeks and counting, I really need to get on this! My kids love that DVD! It will surely be a must do!

Have a great time!! I can't believe how hot it was today in Cincinnati! We were driving back from Newport last night at 11pm and the temp went between 90 and 92 degrees!!! I was like man, did we move to FL and if so, I don't EVER remember it being this hot when I lived there!

I know! This has been a seriously hot stretch here this summer. I am over it!

 

[moparop]

I would love the Secret Agent party info!!! Henry will love that when he's a bit older.

I get lost in that thread as well! We've never done anything like that, but I'm thinking we might do one next month - Joe will think I've lost it, but secretly enjoy it!

I've got a post almost ready to go with our spy party info. Now that's the party over, I can honestly say that it was a smashing success. We live in an area where kids have parties at all kinds of fancy facilities and I heard more "this is so cool" and "The is the best ever" than I ever heard from being in a bounce house.

I saw the Nemo party on your thread. Great job!! Did Joe think you were crazy?

Enjoy your trip! I will try to do some Disney party brainstorming while you are gone!

Thanks! I did a bit of brainstorming, but it's not all fleshed out yet. DH is out of town tonight, so I hope to collect my thoughts a bit more. He's much better with the whole plan than listening to a bunch of random ideas.

 

[Lady Lallie]

Your kids are way too cute for words. So adorable!!!

 

[BippityBoo]

Glad you had such a great vacation (and that the little one liked the sand)

 

[Happy Elf]

Your vacation pictures are amazing! Looks like a wonderful trip!

 

[brookelizabeth]

That looks like a great trip! I love the pic of Aileen with her tongue out! Lake Michigan is so beautiful, glad it was warm enough to swim in.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Great pictures! Your kids are just too adorable, I'm glad you had fun. The seagull pic made me laugh, (read with a DeNiro accent) "Ah you lookin at me?"

 

[moparop]

Your kids are way too cute for words. So adorable!!!

Well thank you. They are total hams and just love when the camera comes out. I am pretty lucky!

Glad you had such a great vacation (and that the little one liked the sand)

She loved the sand so much, we spent many hours trying to clean it out of her mouth. The first day she went crawling she didn't get that you should close your mouth as you move. What a goof!

Your vacation pictures are amazing! Looks like a wonderful trip!

Well thank you! In addition to being in a great location, I used a bit of patience and took a lot of photos and came out with some real winners!

That looks like a great trip! I love the pic of Aileen with her tongue out! Lake Michigan is so beautiful, glad it was warm enough to swim in.

It was like she rediscovered her tongue that week! I think the wind on her tongue (we were out in the middle of the lake on the sailboat at that point) was something totally cool to her! The water was amazing! It was probably the warmest I can remember the lake being! My parents are on Lake Superior this week and said that that was even swimable!

Great pictures! Your kids are just too adorable, I'm glad you had fun. The seagull pic made me laugh, (read with a DeNiro accent) "Ah you lookin at me?"

I took that seagull pic and was like... Wow, you are really going to let me get that close and look right at me?! Then I told my hubby I had my new prize winning photo.

 

[KathyRN137]

Awww!

What a wonderful trip!


Kathy

 

[moparop]

Awww!

What a wonderful trip!


Kathy

That photo TOTALLY melts my heart, Kathy. When I think of how I thought my family was complete, I look at that little girl and realize that God had a much better plan than I did.

Margaret

 

[moparop]

Birthday parties!

Ok, hopefully this is my last big nonDisney post for a while. After all of the work that went into these two birthday parties, I really want to show them off. I think they were pretty special days for each of my kiddos!

Aileen had the "You Are My Sunshine" party. As I mentioned before, this is a song we sing to her every night before bed and now the boys even join in on it with us. So special!

Here's the party invite I designed for her:

Birthday banner:

Decor:

On her "month birthdays" I took a photo of her sitting in the rocker in her bedroom. Here is how I displayed the monthly photos I took of her. Those are the outfits she was wearing in each pic:

Cake/Cupcakes:

Aileen's birthday outfit, that I made. After literally years of pouring over Disboutiquers designs, I knew I had to do something extra special for Aileen's birthday. I designed the sun (it's the same one that appears on everything else) and then went on to sew the rest of the outfit. I still need to do "good" photos with it, but this will do for now.

Cake time:

So many fun things to do:

Ok, so apparently, I have too many images for one thread. I'll add Doug's party to the next post!

 

[moparop]

And onto our spy party! We had 6 of Doug's classmates over for a spy party. We turned our house/yard into a spy academy and ran them through a bunch of training exercises to become real full fledged spies at the end!

Doug's invite:

Welcome sign. That's Doug doing a "spy pose". (Don't ask me, it was his idea):

The final result of the mush stressed over bomb cake:
(Sidenote: thinking about turning this into the Epcot ball for our Disney party!)

Mission #1: Decoding secret messages. I gave them phrases written in wingdings and a decoder key to figure out what they said. This was a bit tougher for the kids than I thought it would be.

Mission #2: Obstacle Course and Laser Walk. They thought this was awesome! If I had had my head together, I would have let them run through once and then timed them on a second run through. (Since I didn't ask his friends' moms if their kids could be posted on the internet, I made them put black hands directly over their faces whenever I snapped a photo. They are an amazingly cooperative bunch!

Mission #3: Finding Hidden Clues. This was a scavenger hunt. They LOVED this! I think we could have had 30 hidden clues and they never would have stopped. The boys were so cute. They made sure every kid got to find a clue and a chance to read it. They even tried to make Liam feel better because he hadn't learned to read yet!

Mission #4: Target Practice. At the end of the scavenger hunt, they found a marshmallow shooter per person. The marshmallow shooters were big fun too. It took them a while to figure out how it worked but then they went nuts!

Mission #5: Bomb Detonation
Pinata time! It took Ryan and I days to make and two whacks to break it!

Mission #6: New Spy Induction
The candle in the cake sparked and the boys were pretty sure it was going to blow. Not pictured here, but the kids each got an "offical" FBI secret agent ID with a badge attatched. I took their pictures at the beginning of the party so they were even pictured in the ID.

The spies in their new disguises so they don't get caught on future missions!

 

[BrooklynnsMommy]

Love the vacation pictures.

The birthday parties both look awesome! You did a great job with Aileen's outfit and the clothesline with her monthly picture and outfit it super cute!

 

[moparop]

Love the vacation pictures.

The birthday parties both look awesome! You did a great job with Aileen's outfit and the clothesline with her monthly picture and outfit it super cute!

Thanks Jill! I saw the clothesline idea on a blog somewhere and it just seemed like a really neat way to display things and was not overly time consuming. Two factors that rate high in my book! I can't wait to see your birthday party coming up! They are always so creative too!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I love the clothesline with the pictures and outfits, what an adorable idea for a 1st birthday! I am going to have to remember that for when I have kids!

The spy birthday looks like a lot of fun too!! You are so creative.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Wow! Both of those parties were great! The entire sunshine theme was so cute and the spy party looked so fun! It's an awesome idea for Demetri's sixth birthday in February......

 

[moparop]

I love the clothesline with the pictures and outfits, what an adorable idea for a 1st birthday! I am going to have to remember that for when I have kids!

The spy birthday looks like a lot of fun too!! You are so creative.

Thanks Leslie! I specifically took photos of my clothesline for friends that do not have children/have an infant because it just came together so well!

Crafty projects are totally my favorite. I took the parties on as giant craft projects!

 

[moparop]

Wow! Both of those parties were great! The entire sunshine theme was so cute and the spy party looked so fun! It's an awesome idea for Demetri's sixth birthday in February......

Thank you! Please feel free to "CASE" (copy and steal everything) me as they say on the Disboutique thread. I spent many hours not cleaning my house to put all that together and hope others can get ideas for their own parties! It was so fun to listen to the 6 and 7 year olds talk about how much fun they were having!