Surprise! It's a baby! (Not long now!)

[Alysa]

Your talent continues to amaze me. Honestly you should have a show or something. Maybe send the idea to food network I would definitely watch a show that matched dinner and a craft to a specific movie. You could even call the show family movie night Seriously send them an email!!!

Thanks Lisa! You put a smile on my face!

Mmmmmm gumbo and beignets. Sounds delicious! Your craft projects turn out fabulous! Very nice job with Harold's shirt! It's nice to see him modeling it! Yeah, that castle - wow! 693 full-color model parts?? Wouldn't have known it was home-made since it looks so great.

Thanks Brenda! Isn't that model insane? I noticed today that it seems to have become inhabited by Lego Lord of the Rings minifigures and one of the towers has already been ripped off. Glad I took a photo when I did!

Which Disney on Ice show are you going to see this weekend? I am going to do my best to put up the post of our Disney on Ice experience this weekend – I have procrastinated way too long! I think your family will love it, whichever show it is! What a nice birthday for your hubby! That fruit plate looks good! The shirt looks great! The gumbo looks delicious! That took dedication to cook it for TWO HOURS! I pinned the recipe, though, because I would love to try it! The beignets look so good, too! Eveie is amazing at crafting! The mask is beautiful! Isn’t the dollar store the best? I recently found one in my neighborhood that has EVERYTHING! Whoa, that castle is a monster! A gorgeous monster, but huge! You guys must have worked so hard on that! Yeah, I’m curious to see what a difficulty of 10 would look like, too! The cake is adorable!

Hi Erin, Looking forward to reading your post! We went and saw Rocking Ever After and it got two thumbs up by the skating super star, even though she was horrified when Mother Gothel fell.

Here they are at the show. I've actually never bought a $15.00 plastic cup before, even at Disney. And then I bought two!
We are actually trying to figure out how to continue this crazy skating thing for Eveie. It is so expensive and time consuming but I know it's good for her and she loves it. I dunno. Thanks for all the nice comments!

Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day everyone!

We did Mulan for the Lunar New Year and everyone dressed up in their Hanboks. For dinner we had tea, soup with dumplings and and the rice and eggs that Mushu serves Mulan. In Korea, that dish is called bibum pap (hot pot rice) and for dessert we had date buns.

Over the March break we were finally able to finish the craft and we made a dragon in honour of Mushu (one of my favourite characters). You can find the instructions here
An even more belated Happy New Year or Sae He Bok Mani Ba Deu Se Yo (in Korean)!

For Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs we did candy apples and you can find the instructions here. The kids loved them but they were so sweet and sticky. I thought we were going to die laughing when we tried to take a bite. Caution - they are extremely messy and hard to eat but gorgeous to look at.

For the craft we did little wooden characters and I found the idea here.

The Lion king was probably the funniest meal we've done so far. I made steak, rare of course. And for dessert, bugs in dirt. It was chocolate pudding with chocolate cookie crumbs on top. But mixed into the dirt were gummy worms and bugs and when the kids found them they couldn't get them out with their spoons so they had to sort of grab them with their teeth and try and suck them out. Something about it struck us as hilarious (it was perhaps the extreme stress we were under at the time) and we were all killing ourselves laughing. I highly recommend it. We made the dinner ages ago when my mum was sick and only recently finished off the craft.

It was a Mask from the show - you can find the instructions here.

Thanks for reading along and for being so patient with my sporadic updates!

 

[emmysmommy]

You can certainly see the hilarity in Toby's face while he's eating the dirt dessert! Cute!

Seeing as how you were celebrating the lunar new year - Mulan was the perfect choice!! Love the family photo!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Oh my goodness, Alysa, in that first picture you can really see that Toby has your smile! What an adorable picture! I’m glad you guys enjoyed Disney on Ice. Yeah, they got me with the $15 cups, too, when we saw DOI: Treasure Trove That is a beautiful family picture of you guys celebrating the New Year! I love the dragon! Your Snow White and Lion King food/crafts look really good too! I have never really understood HOW you are supposed to eat a candy apple My kids think I am weird for eating candy apples with a knife and fork! They are messy! The bugs in dirt sounds hilarious and I am just picturing your kids slurping up the bugs like Timon and Pumba did in the movie!

 

[lsenquiz]

We are actually trying to figure out how to continue this crazy skating thing for Eveie. It is so expensive and time consuming but I know it's good for her and she loves it. I dunno. Thanks for all the nice comments!

We went through the same thing with our daughter only it was horseback riding. It started out so innocently with a lesson a week and built up to us traveling all over the united states for competitions. It was very time consuming and really put a huge drain on our budget. It's really tough because we want the best for our children especially when they are really good at something. Somehow we made it work. Honestly when I look back I am not sure how

I was very relieved when she went off to college and realized herself that she simply did not have the time to invest in it anymore.

 

[Alysa]

You can certainly see the hilarity in Toby's face while he's eating the dirt dessert! Cute!
Seeing as how you were celebrating the lunar new year - Mulan was the perfect choice!! Love the family photo!

Thanks Brenda - is still remember how hard we all laughed, you know that kind when you laugh so hard your stomach hurts. BTW - I had pudding WITHOUT worms.

Oh my goodness, Alysa, in that first picture you can really see that Toby has your smile! What an adorable picture! I’m glad you guys enjoyed Disney on Ice. Yeah, they got me with the $15 cups, too, when we saw DOI: Treasure Trove That is a beautiful family picture of you guys celebrating the New Year! I love the dragon! Your Snow White and Lion King food/crafts look really good too! I have never really understood HOW you are supposed to eat a candy apple My kids think I am weird for eating candy apples with a knife and fork! They are messy! The bugs in dirt sounds hilarious and I am just picturing your kids slurping up the bugs like Timon and Pumba did in the movie!

Thanks Erin! I loved all your great photos from the show - I have to get better seats next time! And a better camera - the kids took a bunch but none of them turned out. And I had no idea that there were different shows touring at the same time.
BTW - we totally used a knife and fork on the candy apple and they still glued our mouths shut!

We went through the same thing with our daughter only it was horseback riding. It started out so innocently with a lesson a week and built up to us traveling all over the united states for competitions. It was very time consuming and really put a huge drain on our budget. It's really tough because we want the best for our children especially when they are really good at something. Somehow we made it work. Honestly when I look back I am not sure how
I was very relieved when she went off to college and realized herself that she simply did not have the time to invest in it anymore.

Lisa, I always think when I watch the Olympics, that the parents should be up there with their kids. Looking forward to the day when I can take that skating money and spend it on, Oh, I dunno, maybe... Me!

No news on the job front but Harold has a position lined up in case things don't work out. He'll need to do some consulting if we are going to keep Eveie in skating though so he is working on that. He's excited about the guy he'll be working with, they have some really good ideas so 2 Nature papers will hopefully come out which is what he needs, then we will be able to stay in Toronto. Problem is, it is such an expensive city, we will have to rent for a while to save up enough for a house in the neighbourhood we want.
With $5500 on the car this month, the Disney trip is fading even further away. I checked and the flights have gone way up for August. Driving is out because of Robbie, and my sister doesn't want to go any later because she doesn't want her eldest son to miss any high school. Cross your fingers or say a prayer for us. I was feeling kind of blue so I went out and got some stuff for summer (and the trip?) at Old Navy with a gift card my father-in-law gave us. I got Eveie a sun dress that I hope will look nice for Easter with a cardigan too. I bought the boys matching swim suits and Robbie a sun guard t-shirt with Mickey on it. We are ready for Disney (almost)! Now we just need a little bit of pixie dust.

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Ah! Retail therapy! You got some cute things!

 

[Alysa]

Curses! I went on Southwest.com, found flights for $110 each way for August, called my sister and when I went to pay they were gone! Argh! So now I'm going to watch The Hobbit with the kids and make lembas bread for our treat. Toby went and got into his outfit that I made him for his birthday party and we're snuggling on the couch. Eveie put her new dress and added ribbons and flowers so she would like like a hobbit too but I told her she was more of an elf. That made her very happy.
"This will be a night to remember!"

Back again - here is a photo of the lembas bread. It's just shortbread made in a pressed shortbread pan, and cut into squares. Then I cut two pieces of green craft foam into leaf shapes, painted them with acrylic paint and heated them above the stove burner to get them to hold their folds.
"One small bite is enough to fill a grown man's stomach." "How many did you eat, Pip?" "Four."

 

[emmysmommy]

I love that you are keeping positive.... the retail therapy definitely helps. Cute purchases.

You made me decide to check airfare for August (Em & I are tentatively planning to be there mid-late Aug.) and it is crazy expensive. But you mentioned SW so I checked them and it was about $250 cheaper. I may have to choose them but its still a little early for me to commit.

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Hey Alysa,

I'm sorry that you're having a rough period right now... & I'm sending you good thoughts and prayers that things work out for you and Harold in the very near future...

(Cars are really pains some time... ... adding insult to injury ... perfect timing for a great big car bill huh? )

Being smart and creative can be a mixed blessing... on the plus side... it means you think and feel a lot... but that can also be rough based on what's going on...

Being so creative... will maybe help you work through some of your emotions...

(and as has already been said-you really are incredibly talented...-I want to copy most of your project...

I hope that you and your very beautiful family have a very Happy Easter together...

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Oh my goodness, you made lembas bread?!?!? Alysa, that is too cool! I am getting all geeky over here! You make it sound so easy, too, “I just painted green craft foam with my awesome artistic skills, and made it look like leaves, and then I heated the leaves over the stove.” You are my crafting idol, I am serious. True wanted to watch the LotR trilogy last weekend, but we only made it through The Fellowship, so I think I might try making the lembas bread with her when we finally watch The Hobbit. You have so many great ideas!

 

[Millie12591]

As always you astound me with your ideas and talents.

The castle y'all did was amazing! My daughter would looove to probably do something like that, but I'm not showing it to her since we don't have the ink to spare.

The crafts and outfits are amazing and the previous poster was right you and your oldest little man have the same smiles!! I love it!!

Still praying for the job to come through, sure hope in the mean time y'all are able to go to Disney.

 

[LadyBeBop]

Have you priced the Autotrain? You'd have to drive to Northern Virginia. Is that still too far?

 

[DMGeurts]

Just stopping by to wish you a...

D~

 

[Alysa]

Hello everyone, hope you all had a wonderful Easter! I'm sorry I've been gone so long. I wanted to wait to post until I knew what we are doing and I've got good news!

I love that you are keeping positive.... the retail therapy definitely helps. Cute purchases.
You made me decide to check airfare for August (Em & I are tentatively planning to be there mid-late Aug.) and it is crazy expensive. But you mentioned SW so I checked them and it was about $250 cheaper. I may have to choose them but its still a little early for me to commit.

I'd be so happy if I helped you save $250! Guess what, we finally bought our tickets! Bad news is we won't be going in August anymore and we will miss out on seeing you and Erin. Good news is we will be there for the Halloween party! We are already planning Robert's costume! Harold said he was tired of pushing the trip off and that he needed a holiday and that we should go and enjoy our children while we can and we'll worry about the other stuff later. As Snow White always says "Everything's going to be alright."

Hey Alysa,
I'm sorry that you're having a rough period right now... & I'm sending you good thoughts and prayers that things work out for you and Harold in the very near future...
(Cars are really pains some time... ... adding insult to injury ... perfect timing for a great big car bill huh? )
Being smart and creative can be a mixed blessing... on the plus side... it means you think and feel a lot... but that can also be rough based on what's going on...
Being so creative... will maybe help you work through some of your emotions...
(and as has already been said-you really are incredibly talented...-I want to copy most of your project...
I hope that you and your very beautiful family have a very Happy Easter together...

Thank you my dear! We did have a lovely Easter. We hosted a big family party for 17. I hope you had a great one too! Things are moving ahead with Harold's job. He didn't quite get the position he wanted but he's really excited about the work he is going to be doing and the guy he is going to be working with. It will probably be another three years until he finally gets going on his own and he is even going to have a pay cut so that will make things tough but he is talking to a couple of people about doing extra bench work and consulting to make some extra money. Say a prayer for us!

Oh my goodness, you made lembas bread?!?!? Alysa, that is too cool! I am getting all geeky over here! You make it sound so easy, too, I just painted green craft foam with my awesome artistic skills, and made it look like leaves, and then I heated the leaves over the stove. You are my crafting idol, I am serious. True wanted to watch the LotR trilogy last weekend, but we only made it through The Fellowship, so I think I might try making the lembas bread with her when we finally watch The Hobbit. You have so many great ideas!

You are the best Erin. Guess what, you were so sweet about the lembas bread, Toby and I made a leaves of Lothlorien pin for you. And it was easy and inexpensive too! Here you go, you take some bakeable clay ($3.50 at the art store), mold it into a leaf shape, and use a pencil to mark the veins on it. After you bake it, use a silver pen to fill in the veins, ($3.00 at Wal-mart) then paint green with acrylic paints. Take a piece of silver wire (found a scrap in the tool box) and wrap it around the leaf, glue a pin on the back ($1.50 from the art store) and you are done! You'll laugh but it really was easy and fun. Toby wants to wear it to school.

I love that you and I share a love of Lord of the Rings. And just for you, to bring it back to Disney

As always you astound me with your ideas and talents.
The castle y'all did was amazing! My daughter would looove to probably do something like that, but I'm not showing it to her since we don't have the ink to spare.
The crafts and outfits are amazing and the previous poster was right you and your oldest little man have the same smiles!! I love it!!
Still praying for the job to come through, sure hope in the mean time y'all are able to go to Disney.

Thanks Millie! As of today we are 177 days away! I am so excited I could sing! We are going to be doing 4 days at Vero in a 3 bedroom cottage (waitlisted for two of those days) and 9 days at Saratoga Springs in a 2 bedroom and a studio (waitlisted for a locked-off 2 bedroom with studio at Wilderness Lodge). I've never had a waitlist come through for me before but you never know, we could get lucky. And we'd still be happy with studios at Vero and rooms at Saratoga. Because it is Disney!!! I am not sure who is more excited, me or my niece!

Have you priced the Autotrain? You'd have to drive to Northern Virginia. Is that still too far?

Hi Kathy! That auto-train is cool! That would be a neat way to travel with older kids, I 'd love to do that out to Banff. I priced it out from Buffalo to Orlando but it would be about the same price as the flights and a car rental and they are saying it would take 32 hours. Oh! Can you imagine the baby? And the other auto-train passengers who would hate me with the burning hate of a thousand suns?

Just stopping by to wish you a...

D~

Happy Easter to you too! I hope you and your girls had a wonderful holiday!

Okay so, any more news for you guys? Robert can flip over now and is trying to figure out how to crawl. He got two teeth and I swear he called me muuu. 8 days until he starts solids! It's going by so quick, I just want to hold on to this time. I know before I know it, he'll be off to university and I will be missing my three ducks.

Plus, three more days until I can make dining reservations and we are going to try to get 4 - Artist's Point for Canadian Thanksgiving, Be Our Guest for my niece's birthday dinner, Crystal Palace, and Chef Mickey's for Robert's birthday. Squeel!

 

[Alysa]

Okay, so I was quite far behind on our movie nights too. Here I am, pretty much caught up.

For Peter Pan we did a fun pirate ship apple pie. I found some great instructions here. Mine fell apart a bit because I didn't use enough crust and I tried to use tinned apple pie mix to save time. So my tip is do this one when you have a free afternoon. For the craft, Eveie made a house for Tinkerbell. She went out and gathered pebbles, branches and pine cones on a nature walk with her brother. I got a tiny wooden bird house and some silk wildflowers from the dollarstore but you could easily do it with some hard cardboard and real flowers (you just need another month or some for them to come into season).

For Toy Story we did all three movies at once. And I still can't watch 3 without balling my head off at the end. Oh! And I found this perfect Toy Story 3/Star Trek mashup. It's quite amazing! I am afraid I will have to make Robert a little blue star trek science office sleeper when this comes out this summer. Anyway! Back to Disney! For the food we just had Pizza Planet and for dessert, little green alien cupcakes. I found the recipe here.
For the craft, we went and got a long frame from the dollar store. I gave the kids another drawing lesson, Toby drew Woody and Buzz and Eveie drew Jessie on a sheet of paper. Eveie also had her first typography lesson with the lettering for "You've got friend in me" and I printed off a couple of photos of the kids with Robert. Then I hung it over his change table!

For Pocahontas I was going to just do a lovely trout dinner but being a vegetarian, when I went to the seafood counter I saw all those fresh fish and I couldn't do it, couldn't look them in the eye and pull the plug. So instead we made corn cookies! The recipe was here and I substituted smarties for the m&ms to avoid the whole nut allergy thing. The kids loved them! For the craft Eveie made Pocahontas' mother's necklace. She used bakeable clay and some wire and a jewelery clasp, I think the total price for all three things at the art supply store was $12.

For Atlantis it was an April fool's meal because we did "beans, bacon, whiskey, and lard". The whiskey was apple juice and the lard was white ice cream cut into rectangles. Only thing is, the kids had never seen lard before so they didn't quite get it but Harold laughed.
For the craft we did Kida's necklace. I ordered a glowing crystal from China for a dollar or something crazy off of ebay. I got some brown leather necklaces from the dollar store and Toby glued the crystal's cord inside the leather. The cord was pretty fragile and it snapped (what do you expect for a dollar) so Toby had fun learning how to help daddy rewire it.

For Hercules we made a lovely Greek salad (feta, tomato, olive, green pepper and cucumber) with pitas and red wine (grape juice). I even got Toby to eat the whole thing (he's not a fan of combined foods and as for dressing, forget about it.) For the craft Eveie painted a scene on a Vase that I found for $5 at the Goodwill. I found some great websites here, here and here that she used for research, then we went through my art books for some samples. She drew the work on first with a pencil and then inked it in. She also did a little written report on what she had learned and took it in to show her teacher. Alas, the vase broke on the journey, but she learned a lot and we have the photo... oh well.

Up next? Not sure. Maybe Mary Poppins?

 

[Alysa]

Oh! I almost forgot. The boys in our family have all been talking about how this is the year they do all the thrill rides at Disney so I made up this bingo card for them, based one one I had seen on the Disney pintrest board. I'm going to print off a bunch and the winner will get a prize. Not sure of the prize yet... anyway, now I'm off to get caught back up on all your reports!

 

[emmysmommy]

Alysa, I'm glad you have some dates and will be able to attend the MNSSHP! That is the perfect time for your family to go to WDW so that your creativity can shine through with the costumes! I know you will design something fabulous. (Too bad we don't have a chance to see you but that is exciting for you nonetheless. )

Do you have your themed movie night each week?? I am (still) amazed at how much effort you put into it.

Love the idea of the thrill ride BINGO! That may really catch on to be the newest family activity. Photo scavenger hunts are always fun as well.

Oh, and as for Toy Story 3 - even though I knew all about the theme of the movie and had been tipped off as to the sentiment and the ending.. yep, I still cried. And the second time I watched it, yep, cried again!

 

[Alysa]

Alysa, I'm glad you have some dates and will be able to attend the MNSSHP! That is the perfect time for your family to go to WDW so that your creativity can shine through with the costumes! I know you will design something fabulous. (Too bad we don't have a chance to see you but that is exciting for you nonetheless. )
Do you have your themed movie night each week?? I am (still) amazed at how much effort you put into it.
Love the idea of the thrill ride BINGO! That may really catch on to be the newest family activity. Photo scavenger hunts are always fun as well.
Oh, and as for Toy Story 3 - even though I knew all about the theme of the movie and had been tipped off as to the sentiment and the ending.. yep, I still cried. And the second time I watched it, yep, cried again!

Hi Brenda! I am so excited about the new date - I am already planning a Mushu costume for Robbie. Harold has that old Shang costume I made him from 2008 and Eveie wants a new Mulan one to go with it. I'll be boring old Snow White again. Toby and I just need to think of something good for him. Harold suggested Tron which definitely caught his fancy. He also liked the idea of going as Linguini with a stuffed Remy tucked up underneath his hat.

I am trying to do one movie night a week. 18 more to go (plus I am going to stick Despicable me in there for Father's Day)! We did Home on the Range last night which is the only Disney feature film I had never seen and actually it was kind of cute. I do love Judi Dench. We did a fantastic meal Toby and I are working on finishing the craft.
A photo scavenger hunt is such a great idea! I'd never heard of that!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

It has taken me quite a while, but I have now read your report from the beginning and I am caught up! I am in awe of your movie nights! I am just not an artsy-craftsy person, so our activities are not nearly as elaborate. Your family is SO BEAUTIFUL!! I am now subbed to the thread, hope you don't mind a late comer to the party.

 

[Alysa]

It has taken me quite a while, but I have now read your report from the beginning and I am caught up! I am in awe of your movie nights! I am just not an artsy-craftsy person, so our activities are not nearly as elaborate. Your family is SO BEAUTIFUL!! I am now subbed to the thread, hope you don't mind a late comer to the party.

Hi Daisy! Thank you! Looking forward to seeing your Incredibles night! And I love late comers - plus, the trip is still 175 days away - plenty of time!

And! TA DA! Dinning is done! I've been on the phone all day. I tried the online booking but that didn't work so I started calling at 7 and they disconnected my twice so I didn't get through until 8:30. I got a seriously rude CM so once I had the most important one I called DVC for the rest. We are only doing 4 restaurants (when did the dining plan get so ridiculously expensive?) Artist's Point for our Canadian Thanksgiving our first night there, Crystal Palace for breakfast our first morning, Chef Mickey for Robert's birthday breakfast and the crowning glory: Be Our Guest for my niece's birthday dinner! Woo hoo!

While I was on the phone with DVC I asked about room availability and an Animal kingdom 2 bedroom & studio had come up mid stay. Sooo, we'll be moving around a lot but it will be exciting for my family to see the AKL.