What We Have Been Up To - Picture Blog

I have been really bad at keeping up with events.  Our Mom's Club has been doing some really fun things but either I have forgotten our camera, or the batteries were dead.  So luckily my friends post them on face book and I can "borrow" them.  So enjoy the past couple of months worth of pictures!

We took a tour of Petco.  The kids learned about reptiles and saw some rodents and birds.

The Mom's took a night out to play BINGO!  We annoyed a lot of the older regulars but we had a BLAST! I won $30! 

We had a really fun St Patricks Day party.  Food, crafts, bouncing house, and games!

Who needs the bouncy house to be blown up?

Throw the gold coins in the hat!

We played Simon Says, Duck Duck Goose, and Red Light Green Light

Look at our rainbows!

I hosted a cooking class where we made hot dog roll ups and S'more muffins...yummy!

Time for another Mom's night!! We played Cranium and had an awesome time.  Thank God for good girlfriends and yummy fuzzy navels!! 

We took a tour a the Post Office and learned how to stamp the mail, where it goes, & how to sort it out.  They gave the kids awesome gift bags with coloring books, stickers, and animal crackers.  Thanks Evan's Mills Post Office!

Every time a letter came through they would start cracking up!

Just a couple of days ago we took a tour of Pizza Hut.  Our tour guide was awesome and took the kids through the kitchen, the freezer, and let them make their own personal pizza.  The kids and the adults had a great time!

They are all yelling PIZZA, PIZZA, PIZZA!!!!!!!

Don't really know what is going on here, but our guide was HILARIOUS!!!

Aubrey and her ham pizza masterpiece!!!

We love Pizza Hut!!

Wow!! We are busy... no wonder I am tired all the time!! Can't wait to post our new adventures!

Tips to Planning a Disney Vacation

Disneyland is my ALL TIME favorite place to go.  I think I have been over 20 times. The picture above is from a Sims family vacation last summer. I am totally what you would call a Disney nerd.  This year we have the luxury of taking our 2 little princesses to Disney World (the first time for all of us) for 5 day / 6 nights and on a budget of $1300! Impossible you say!!  Its not if you have the time to find deals and scour the internet for research.  Most people don't so that's why I am writing a blog with my top tips on how to plan a budget friendly Disney Vacation!

This year Disney is running the "What Will You Celebrate?" campaign.  On your birthday you get free admission for one day to either Disney World or Disneyland.  So for an adult that is a savings of 75.00 and for a child thats 63.00!!

If you are active duty military there are AMAZING savings to be had! Disney's Salute to Heroes  is a program valid until Dec 23, 2009 saying THANKS to our military. Active and Retired U.S. Military, also includes members of the U.S. Coast Guard and activated members of the National Guard or Reservists may obtain one complimentary 5-Day Disney's Armed Forces Salute Ticket (Base Ticket with the Park Hopper option and Water Park Fun & More Option) the no expiration option is not available with this tickets. In addition the military member may also purchase 5-Day Disney's Armed Forces Salute Companion Tickets for up to five (5) family members and/or friends for $99 plus tax (Park Hopper Option and Water Park Fun & More Options may be purchased for an additional $25 + tax for each option - the no expiration option is not available with these tickets) 

If you are going to go to Disneyland the offer is good for a 3 day pass.

This is the option we are going with.  So our family of four is going to Disney World for 5 days for $300! (We are not doing water parks or park hopper since it is our first trip)  We will be celebrating Rebekah's 3rd birthday there and since we are already buying a package and couldn't use the free admission option we are entitled to either another free admission for her to use on a later date, a Disney gift card to be used at the park for $63.00, or 2 instant Fast Passes per person in the party.  The other benefit for military is the Shades of Green Disney resort.  You won't find this on the Disney web site.  This is a Disney resort ONLY for military and there family.  Prices are dependent on rank so it is extremely affordable!  If they are booked (as they were when we are going) you can get 40% off the other Disney resorts (We got ours for less than $100 a night!)

For those of you not military, in addition to the birthday deal, there are other great options. Buy 4 night package get 3 nights with tickets FREE !  Disneyland is offering many great offers here. A great website to keep in mind is MouseSavers and Disney Discounts

Another great place to find deals and tricks is to visit a Disney message board. Visit a few different Disney message boards while planning your vacation. You can ask questions, or read about other’s trips. Any tips you can pick up will help you on your vacation, plus you might make a few new friends. I suggest DisBoards , they are the biggest, but can be overwhelming to find helpful information. Also check out MouseBuzz , smaller and more intimate that DisBoards.  My favorite is the Disney Moms Panel, but all 3 are full of great information.  


Here are some more ways we are saving money
1. Getting a room with a refrigerator so we can eat breakfast in our room
2. Packing a lunch and snacks instead of eating at restaurants
3. Looking at menus for dinner ahead of time and planning our meals
4. Buying Disney souvenirs ahead of time at Walmart and the dollar store so when the kids want something we already have it.  
5. Buying our Disney apparel ahead of time instead of getting it in park.
6. Buying our glow necklaces and bracelets at Walmart. Bag of 10 for 5 dollars verses 6 dollars a piece in park!!

I think that's a good start!  Our trip is in May and we are beyond excited.  If anyone has questions or needs some help, please let me know.  I think I have done enough research to write 10 more blogs about this!  Have fun planning!!

Martin's Pretzel Factory Tour

I think I have mentioned how awesome our Moms Club is here, but just in case IT IS AWESOME!!!  A couple of weeks ago they organized a tour of the Martin's Pretzel Factory.  The factory is owned and operated  by a Pennsylvania Dutch family.  When we walked in literally everyone in the family was working on the pretzels.  Even the little kids.  They were gracious enough to show us around the factory and let us have some samples.  The kids even had a chance to roll their own pretzels.  Afterward we went to this Amish market that had some amazing goodies.  I stocked up on sprinkles, like cake sprinkles, in all sorts of shapes; buses, ABC's, teddy bears, unicorns, dolphins, cows, pigs, and those silver balls that are so hard to find!  They also had the BEST cheese puff balls!  Who knew?!  It was so much fun!!

Aubrey's 4th Birthday

OK I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of Aubrey's 4th Birthday.  Hope you enjoy!
Here is the invitation...

When the guest walked in they walked through the wall of butterflies and bubbles and were able to get made up at the Pixie Hollow Beauty Salon where they got wings, their fairy crowns, and face painting.  (Boys got pirate hats)

Next it was time for games!  We played Freeze Dance, Pin the Star on Tink's Wand, and Help the Fairies turn Winter into Spring (a race moving cotton balls off a "garden" into a bowl) And made fairy houses and fairy wands!

Then it was time for food and presents!  Edible fairy wands (pretzels dipped in chocolate & sprinkles), lady bug crackers (tomato & olives on a ritz cracker) trail mix, fruit, cheese, and of course the cake!!  Then Aubrey got to open presents!!  My friends are amazing and gave Aubrey some fantastic presents!!! Thanks everyone!

As a take home gift everyone took home their own pixie dust and a fairy story book!

It was so much fun!  We had a great time celebrating with our friends!!  Now time to start planning Rebekah's!

Happy 5th Anniversary to Us!!

 I can't believe 5 years has gone by so quickly!  It seems like it was just yesterday, but then I think of everything that has happened during that time: Having a quick wedding because Rolland was getting stationed across the country, moving from Arizona to Washington D.C., then back to AZ for a couple of months to finish out my job, moving back to DC finally to be with Rolland, getting pregnant with Aubrey (surprise!) while planning our "formal" wedding (Oct 16), having Aubrey and then (surprise!) having Rebekah, switching houses 3 times while we were there, finding our "favorite house" in Virginia and then finding out we were moving to New Yorka few months later (we signed a 2 year lease!), getting ready for Rolland to deploy only to find out days before he wasn't, and then now waiting to see what the next step will be knowing the only constant thing in our life has been our family!!  We are so blessed to have a WONDERFUL little family!

Rolland is a fantastic husband.  He is beyond intelligent, funny, a big dork (just like me!), he pampers me even when I don't deserve it.  He always gets me water at night, starts my car on cold days, and changes the diapers when I don't feel like it.  And he is one AMAZING daddy!  The things he does for our little princesses is above and beyond.  They have him wrapped around their painted little fingers.  He even took off a week of work to watch them so I could go on a cruise to the Bahamas! See, amazing!!

I am anxious to see where life takes us.  We have had some really hard times the past 5 years but am so thankful because it has brought us closer together.  He truly is my best friend and there is no one I would rather spend my time with.  I love you Rolly-Roo!!  Happy Anniversary!!