Four.

Sooo...

Justin & I have been talking about "Four" a lot lately.

No, we aren't referring to Tobias from the Divergent series.

We're talking about this Zootopia spin-off trailer...

If you haven't seen Zootopia or the trailer that was based off of,
feel free to watch this one for reference.



Hilarious, right?
I love Flash's slow reaction.

Haaa.

Haa.

Haa.

Haa.

Ha.

But really though...

"Four" is due January 30th (:

xoxo

The Blue Bayou's Magical Monte Cristo

Last year I wrote this Disney guest post for Cathy at A Peek Into My Paradise.
I wanted to share it with you on my blog this year since it's my birthday
& for the second year in a row I will not be enjoying a Monte Cristo at the Blue Bayou...
You can find the original post here.

You see, I'm having major Disneyland withdrawals...

We recently moved from the SoCal desert to Northern Indiana.
This is the first year in what seems like a looong time that I won't be going to Disneyland for my birthday
& eating at the Blue Bayou.
It is going to be a very hard day.

We were a little spoiled living so close to Disneyland.
and by close I mean an hour-and-a-half away...
We would go every other week before we had kids,
and we tried to go at least once a month after they were born.
We had Premium Annual Passes up until a couple months before our move.
But with ticket prices going up so much,
we weren't sure if we would be able to renew the passes even if we stayed in SoCal.
So we moved away...
Taking away the temptation of spending more money to renew,
but also taking away the ease of visiting the parks.

We bought a house in Indiana,
but had to wait to close on it for almost a month due to delays in closing our CA house.
We were fortunate enough to stay at a friend's cozy little lake house while waiting to close on our new home.

While we were staying at said lake house,

we enjoyed many beautiful sunsets

and were able to enjoy not only the glisten of the calm moonlit lake,

but also the twinkling of fireflies at twilight.
It was magical.

Now I don't know about you,

but when I see fireflies near water,
and get this magical feeling,

I can't help but think of my favorite restaurant at Disneyland...

The Blue Bayou.

Yes, the same Blue Bayou that I will not get to eat at on my birthday this year.
Yep, you know the one...
It's that nice restaurant with the nighttime outdoorsy feel that you pass while you're on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

If you've never eaten at the Blue Bayou
I encourage you to call ahead to make a reservation the next time you're at Disneyland.
Ask for waterside seating while you get checked in...
You may have to wait a little longer if you want to sit waterside,
but to me - it's definitely worth it.

Fireflies are flickering above the water.
Frogs & crickets are singing their nighttime serenade.
You can even hear someone playing the banjo from the little house across the water while you eat.
It's kind of enchanting in a way.
Sitting waterside is definitely the way to go.
Especially if you have kids...
Waving to everyone riding the boats can be a great distraction while waiting for the food to arrive.

We always go during the lunch hours for two reasons...
1) It's slightly cheaper than the dinner hours
2) The menu is different for lunch than it is for dinner

We order Le Special de Monte Cristo Sandwich
every. single. time.
and it is only served during the lunch hours.
It's my favorite.
It never disappoints.

photo credit: Adrea in Wonderland

Imagine this...
A battered & deep fried sandwich
filled with Turkey, Ham, & Swiss Cheese
sprinkled with powdered sugar
and served with a side of blackberry preserves to dip it in.
It's amazing.

The Blue Bayou has such generous portions of everything that we always split the order.
They do have a split plate charge,
but you can avoid the extra cost by splitting the salad as well.
They just bring out an extra plate & let you divide it yourself.
It ends up being the perfect amount of food for each of us!
Besides, walking around Disneyland when you're stuffed is no fun.

photo credit: Chip & Co

The ambiance is relaxing,
the food is delicious,
the service is impeccable,
& it doesn't feel busy like so many other restaurants at Disneyland.
It is a truly wonderful place.

I would also recommend trying their Mint Julep at least once.
It's non-alcoholic & is one of those love-it-or-hate-it kind of drinks.
You'll never know if you like it or not until you try it.
I happen to find it refreshing.

Because I knew I would be missing out on my birthday Monte Cristo this year,
we decided to make our own,
but with a twist...
Monte Cristo French Toast

It's not deep-fried like the one at the Blue Bayou,
but more like a mix between French Toast,
a grilled cheese sandwich,
and of course,
the Disneyland Monte Cristo.
Not the same, but not too shabby!

I love comments & would love to know if you've ever been to the Blue Bayou or had a Monte Cristo!

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it!
If you're new around here...
check out my About Me section,
see what we have in common,
& enjoy surfing my blog!

xoxo

FHE: Helping Out Around the House

Opening Song: Family Night

Opening Prayer

Scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 88:119

Lesson:
Questions:
Is our house dirty or clean?
Are you happy when our house gets dirty?
Is the church building dirty or clean?
Are temples dirty or clean?
Temples are also called the House of the Lord.
Do you think Heavenly Father is happy when our house is dirty?
Would it be easy to clean the entire house all by yourself every day?

House puzzle:

Print & cut out the house puzzle.
Distribute puzzle pieces among family members
then have the family try to put the puzzle together.
Hold onto your puzzle pieces & don't help them at all.
When they realize that they can't complete the house puzzle without you,
explain that you all need to work together to make your house a home.

Story:
The Little Red Hen

When we work together,
the chores seem easier & things get done faster.
Cleaning together is more fun than cleaning alone anyway.
How else can we make cleaning more fun?

"Whistle While You Work" from Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs:
Just whistle while you work
<whistle>
And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place
So hum a merry tune
<hum>
It won't take long when there's a song to help you set the pace
And as you sweep the room
Imagine that the broom
is someone that you love and soon you'll find you're dancing to the tune.

When hearts are high the time will fly so whistle while you work.

Things the kids can do to help around the house:
Pick up their toys & keep them in the playroom
Sweep up crumbs with the little broom
Put things where they belong
Sort & fold laundry
Help with dishes
Wipe counters
Make beds

Closing Song: When We're Helping

Closing Prayer

Activity: Make a family chore chart & watch Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs

Treat: We're making my Grandma's Apple Crisp,
but you could also make an apple pie like Snow White makes in the movie,
or do any sort of apple treat really...

xoxo

FHE: Honesty - Pinocchio

Since holding FHE (Family Home Evening) weekly is one of my resolutions this year

I decided to start posting about what we do.

Partially to share our FHE ideas with each of you,

but mostly to help myself remember how important it is

& to make sure it's happening each week.

I'm not gonna beat myself up if we miss a week here or there

but the goal is to do our best to make it happen every week.

Some weeks may be more thought out than others,

& some weeks we may just watch a movie

then ask questions about lessons learned from it.

Young kids have such short attention spans

that we are going to try to keep the lessons short & simple.

I noticed that LDS Living is doing Disney themes for FHE this month

& I absolutely adore that idea!

I want to try to have one Disney themed FHE each month,

but we'll see how that goes.

Without further ado,

here is tonight's Pinocchio FHE about Honesty...

Opening Song: Family Night

(This will almost always be our opening song, since that was our tradition growing up)

Opening Prayer

Scripture: Psalms 120:2

Lesson:

Story:

Read The Boy Who Cried Wolf.

If we lie over & over again,

people may not believe us when we are telling the truth.

Pinocchio's nose grows when he tells a lie,

but we have a conscience like Jiminy Cricket
(our conscience is not an actual cricket)

that helps us know right from wrong

& helps us do the right thing

even when it's hard.

Nose Grows game:

Say statements or actions that are true/honest & some that are lies/dishonest.

Have the kids fold their arms if it's something that is true or honest

& touch their nose if it's a lie or dishonest.

String of lies object lesson:

Read the story, "The Lie Monster".

Gently wrap yarn around a child's wrists (once for each lie in the story)

& explain that it's hard to break free from lies when they grow on each other.

The only way to break free from lies is to be honest

& to always tell the truth.

"I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio:

I've got no strings to hold me down

to make me fret, or make me frown

I had strings, but now I'm free

There are no strings on me.

When we are honest,

we don't have 'strings of lies' holding us down.

If we get tied up in a lie,

we can make things right & be free by telling the truth.

Closing Song: I Believe in Being Honest

Closing Prayer

Activity: Watch Pinocchio

Treat: 'Pinocchio's nose' pretzel rods & 'Pleasure Island' ice cream

xoxo

Girl's Camp 2012

I know it's 2014 now,
but I've been thinking about the Young Women from our old ward in California a lot lately.
I miss those wonderful girls dearly & thought it would be fun to reminisce a bit.
Besides, my kidlets are obsessed with The Incredibles right now...

The theme for girl's camp in 2012 was Superheroes, Arise & Shine Forth...

Our ward was assigned the value Integrity & the color purple.

Right off the bat,
we couldn't think of any well-known superheroes that wore purple
so we figured that we would need to come up with our own.
We were thinking that making capes would be fun,
but then thought that EVERYONE would probably be thinking the same thing.
Our minds raced through all cape-less superheroes that we could think of,
but all of them seemed too familiar.
We wanted something recognizable,
but not everyone's first choice when they think superhero.
Then a lightbulb turned on.
Disney heroes!
Why hadn't we thought of them sooner?
With "The Avengers" and all the other comic book superhero movies coming out,
nobody else would think to choose Disney heroes!
We remembered that the Incredibles don't wear capes
"NO CAPES!"
- Edna Mode -
& that chances are nobody else would choose them.
Not to mention they have an "I" on their supersuits,
& Integrity starts with "I".
This would be perfect!
Then Hubby popped his head in the room & came up with a brilliant beyond brilliant idea...
Why don't we merge the words "integrity" & "girls"
to come up with our superhero name:
"Integrigirls"
{I know, I know... The word is a little funny looking. It's also very catchy.}
We were the Incredible Integrigirls!

We then had the daunting task of creating our supersuits.
We wanted to do ward t-shirts AND sweatshirts
since it gets cold at camp at night & so we could represent our ward while staying warm.

Ideally, we would have looked like this...

source: KAIZEN Analytics

...only purple.

But alas, we didn't have the time, budget, or materials to create said supersuits.

So what did we do?

We bought purple t-shirts & sweatshirts.

I created an Incredibles "I" stencil using a transparency of sorts.

Then we bleach-dyed each of the t-shirts & sweatshirts using the "I" stencil.

After they were all bleach-dyed and washed,

we decorated the fronts & backs with glow-in-the-dark puffy paint!

I wish I would have taken pictures of them right after we finished them,

but I didn't

so you get to see the effects of my shirt being worn for 2 years...

I'd say they turned out pretty cute

& they looked INCREDIBLE at night (;

I didn't get to go to most of camp in 2012,

because Little Princess was still a nursing infant

& Little Dudeman was 2...

Our whole family went up the last night of camp for Bishop's night & testimony meeting,

but I got sick shortly after dinner

so I laid down in a cabin & didn't go to testimony meeting.

I was super bummed.

We left early the next morning for a 3 week road trip

with stops to visit family & friends in Utah, Illinois, Tennessee, Texas, & Arizona.

It was quite an adventure,

but it was most certainly incredible.

xoxo

Lilo & Stitch Luau

I can't believe Little Princess is two!

She LOVES Lilo & Stitch right now,
so we went with that theme for her second birthday party.

Since I've been dealing with a lot of stress lately
we decided to just stick with our little ohana.
My dad has been in town this week for a business trip
so we were more than excited to have him celebrate with us!

The kidlets love it when Grampa comes to visit! (:
He watched Lilo and Stitch with them
while Hubby & I were finishing up getting dinner ready...

Then we turned on the Hawaiian music Pandora station & sat down for dinner...

We had Pulled Pork Hawaiian Haystacks

with Banana Poi,

(not pictured)

King's Hawaiian sweet rolls,
blue jello jigglers with Swedish fish,
& delicious virgin Piña Coladas that I wish I had more of right now.
(not pictured)

The kids enjoyed their Piña Coladas in plastic coconut cups that I found at Party City,
but they didn't have enough for everyone so I just bought two...
I also bought Salted Caramel Macadamia Clusters from Costco for everyone to munch on,
but we were all so full that I don't think anyone had any!

If you look back at the first picture you can see leis at each seat
& a little dress that looks kinda like a muumuu...
The plan was to have everyone dress up as Hawaiian as possible,
but all of our leis were already packed so I had to buy more.
I bought the dress for Little Princess since I knew she didn't have anything Hawaiian,
but I couldn't find ANYTHING for Little Dudeman.
He ended up wearing a pajama "surf" shirt & some matching non-pajama shorts.
I wore my muumuu,
Hubby wore his Hawaiian shirt,
& we let Grampa borrow a Hawaiian tie.

We let Little Princess decide which color leis we were all going to wear,
but then she decided that she wanted to wear all the leis.
I wish I had a picture of that.
It was adorable!

We never got a group picture with all of us dressed up in our garb.
With or without leis.
But we did get some pictures of the kids opening presents...

Yes, kids.
Plural.
Little Dudeman helped Little Princess open them
because the wrapping paper was impenetrable.

Then,
after a blur of excitement (:

& lots of silliness...
It was time for cake!
Little Princess had a miniature Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
so that she could blow out her candles.

Then we all munched on Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Balls
while eating banana pineapple "ice cream"
made with my Yonanas machine.
It was all very good
but very rich!

By then it was getting pretty late,
we were all really full,
& Hubby had more work to do
so we decided to call it a night.

If we had more time we could have done a few of these things:
Make hula skirts
Make fruit loop leis
Hula dancing
Hula hooping
Limbo
Play the ukulele
Listen to some Elvis music
Science experiments (since that's what Stitch is)

For more Lilo & Stitch party ideas
you can check out my Luau board on Pinterest
or revisit my Lilo & Stitch themed week (:

Also, you can figure out your Hawaiian name here...

Aloha 'Oe

xoxo

UP Birthday

So I found this half-written post of mine that I had started before we moved...
Rather than re-write it, I'm going to just post it as-is.
Simply because I can.
& also because I giggled a little when I read through it just now.

I've had so much going on with the move that I've really been slacking on my blog.

But that is a-o-kay with me...

I honestly don't want to have to stress about catching up on here in addition to the other million things that need to get done.

But I will still write a little here and there.

I will publish my posts once my thoughts are actually complete.

I am entitled to a break from packing every now and then right?

Good, because I am burnt out with this whole packing/moving thing & want it to be done already!

So we had a Cars party for Little Dudeman's birthday a while back

and the following weekend we had an UP themed birthday party for Hubby's 30th...

Ya know...

Since he's growing "Up".

I'm punny.

He really wanted to avoid his 30th birthday altogether, but I told him that it was inevitable.

Sooner or later he would have to face the fact that we all get older, and that it's not such a terrible thing.

It just allows for different phases of our life to happen.

For example, take Carl in the movie UP...

We get to watch him & Ellie grow old together,

and that's a beautiful thing.

We get to see how life can be an adventure,

and that we create new adventures throughout each phase of our life.

Hubby recently decided he wants to learn how to fly...

So for part of his birthday present,

I told him that he can start flying lessons after we move

so that he can get his pilot license.

What an awesome new adventure now that he's 30 right?

We had a busy, yet fun-filled weekend.
I spent all day Friday making 'balloon' cake pops
& filling up balloons with helium.

After work, he was greeted with this Spirit of Adventure balloon attached to a stick.
I forgot to take a picture of it flying solo,
but at least I remembered to take a picture at some point.

He saw the rest of them when he got into the kitchen...

You see, I had sent a facebook message to family & friends asking them to write messages on the balloons and then mail them to me.
I'd say I got a pretty good response (:

81 balloons.
Only 2 partial losses.
One flew away (to the ceiling).
One casualty while I was filling it with helium.
(which I laid next to the house so he could read the message)
We had pizza for dinner, then watched Up.

Saturday morning I gave him a Wilderness Explorer pin badge and told him,
"The wilderness must be explored! Caw, caw, RAWR!"
I informed him that we had some badges to earn...
I was going to make sashes & everything, but time got the better of me with the move.
Ah well.
First, we went to the park and had a picnic lunch in 110+ degree weather.
It. was. hot.
The kids wanted to play at the playground, so we spent quite a bit of time there.

We looked at the clouds and tried to make shapes out of them.
We didn't see any turtles, flying elephants, or babies,
but we did see some pretty cool clouds.
To be honest, I don't remember what shapes we saw.
I guess that's what I get for finishing this post almost 4 months after the party...

 After the park, we visited the Palm Springs Air Museum.
It was pretty cool since we had never been there before.

Hubby even got to try out a flight simulator!
Well, sorta...
They have a super advanced one that he wanted to try,
but they wouldn't let him since he doesn't have his pilots license yet.
Lame.
Instead they let him do a computer game version...

It was pretty similar to the flying app that he's been playing on his phone & the tablet.
Only the lady wouldn't let him do that by himself either...
She was constantly hovering & telling him to do this or that rather than let him just do it.
Her instructions made him stall the plane when he already knew what to do.
Silly lady.
Never underestimate my Hubby (;

The museum was getting ready to close
and we had seen just about everything that we could see,
so we loaded up the car to head to our next stop.

We were going to get ice cream cones,
sit on the corner,
 and call out red & blue cars...
But it was waaay too hot.
We decided to just go home and have ice cream there instead.

When we got home I put 3 balloon shaped toothpick candles into one of the balloon cake pops.
Then we sang Happy Birthday so that he could blow out the candles & make a wish...

Cake Pop Flavors:

Red - vanilla cake w/ pink lemonade frosting & red candy melts

Orange - chocolate cake w/ orange frosting & orange sherbet flavored candy melts

Yellow - vanilla cake w/ homemade fruit dip & yellow candy melts

Green - vanilla cake w/ key lime frosting & key lime flavored candy melts

Blue - chocolate cake w/ cream cheese frosting & blue candy melts

Purple - mystery flavors of cake & frosting (basically whatever was left) & red/blue candy melt mixture

After getting stuffed with cake pops & ice cream,
it was time to open presents.
The kids & I got him some UP themed gifts...

Clockwise:

With this baby, you'll NEVER get lost! - Certificate for Black Ops II map packs,

81 balloons with messages from family & friends,

Paradise Falls jar with approximately $65 dollars of change in it,
Caramellos - His favorite chocolate to lure snipes (we all know Kevin loves chocolate),
an Adventure Book with plenty of pictures & memories of his life thus far,
his Wilderness Explorer badge,
and of course,
an Ellie badge...
He earned it.

Happy {belated} birthday Justin!
You're the besterest!

xoxo

T is for Tiger - The Tigger Movie

T is for Tiger
Although I love Rajah,
the first Disney tiger that comes to mind is
T-I-double guh-RRR
TIGGER!

Yes, I'm aware that he's technically a tigger, not a tiger.
But he's the only one, and he & tigers have a lot in common!
I like to think that they're cousins of sorts.

THIS WEEK...
Church Theme: Tithing

Primary/Church Song: 'I'm Glad to Pay a Tithing'

Preschool Song: 'The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers'

Book: The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr

We had olives, a Tiger sandwich (I didn't want to attempt a Tigger sandwich because I knew it wouldn't turn out nearly as pretty with only 1 kind of cheese, but my tiger looks like a cat since I made the ears too pointy), carrots, cheetos, a Tigger tail from Disneyland (I only gave him a small smackerel so that our whole family could share it, but he didn't even like it... more for us!), & curly fries (orange & bouncy like Tigger's tail).

Tumbling Tuesday:
We bounced around the house since that's what Tiggers do best

Word Wednesday:

T letter sheets
Tigger coloring pages

Think About It Thursday:

T math sheets
We filled out & colored our family tree

I know it's not the typical easy-to-read family tree, but Hubby was adopted and both of our parents had a divorce.
That just means that the kidlets have 7 wonderful grandparents that love them dearly (:
We love them all the same and didn't want to leave anyone out,
so I figured we would make our tree this way instead of using a pre-made family tree worksheet.

Field Trip Friday:
We have a few friends with trampolines...
If the kids weren't sick with a cold right now, we would go play at one of their houses and practice
The Whoop-de-Dooper Loop-de-Looper Alley-Ooper Bounce!

Instead, we'll stay inside to catch up on cleaning
(ya never know when the other Tiggers will visit)

I thought about getting out our Tiger costume (Hobbes) that I made for Halloween last year,
but it's almost 80 degrees in our house right now.
Not sweatshirt weather by any means.

Anywho,
TTFN
ta ta for now!

This post was featured at:
  

xoxo

March Madness - Platypus Day, Pi Day, Party Planning

I haven't posted in a while.

What have we been up to this month?

Let's see...

Our S is for Snow unit for Mommy School has been 2 weeks long due to Little Dudeman not feeling so hot,

prep & planning for Little Princess' 1st birthday party,

& making sure we had everything we needed for all our fun meal traditions coming up!

We went to Disneyland for Platypus Day,
but since they don't make Perry shirts in 12m or 18m I had to make shirts for the kidlets.
Nothing fancy, just white tee shirts, baby Perry, doo-bee doo-bee doo bah.

We were actually slightly disappointed in how few platypuses we saw in comparison to the first 2 years.
I think we counted 32...
Last year was more like 120+
I wished people that had Perry paraphernalia a "Happy Platypus Day" if there were at least 2 Perrys in the group.
Most of them had this I-didn't-know-it-was-Platypus-Day look on their face.
Hubby started to wish that he wasn't wearing his Perry shirt since he wanted to act like he didn't know me...

Then I was busy planning the YM/YW combined activity - Easter Minute To Win It.

I think it turned out pretty fun & can't wait to share that with you!

Later that week we had a youth fireside & YW sleepover that I didn't want to miss.

I was busy working on party invites the rest of that weekend & was actually kind of excited about it since I got to use my new toy that Hubby got me for our anniversary last year...

My Silhouette Cameo (:

How on Earth did I ever make those Mickey invites without it!!!

Yes, I cut them out by hand...

I'm crazy.

I know.

We like to celebrate Pi day by eating circle foods, and of course, pie.

We had a slightly abnormal Pi day this year...

Breakfast was going to either be pancakes or quiche, but we had to leave our house around 7:45 to make it to the walk-in hours at the doctors office.

I'm no morning person, so there was no way I was making breakfast before we left.

I skipped breakfast & Lil Dudeman ate some dry fruit loops on the way.

Not the healthiest breakfast, but at least they were circles.

We waited there over an hour before we were seen since there were a few people ahead of us.

We were going to have circle sandwiches for lunch when we got home,

but we had to run a few errands while we were out & I was pretty hungry after not having breakfast,

so we stopped at Sonic & had lunch there... 

We had pizza for dinner & had dreams of a delicious Claim Jumper blackberry pie for dessert.

We had been looking all week but couldn't find one anywhere.

We would have settled for pecan, but couldn't find one at our last stop while running errands.

Bummer.

What's Pi day without pie?

I also wanted to do some of the fun Kindergarten Pi day ideas that I found at Helping Little Hands.

But alas, I am not superwoman & simply had too much going on.

Maybe next year...

So that's what has been going on around here...

But what do we have coming up?

Little Princess' 1st birthday party is tomorrow.

We have a St Patty's Day green dinner & muffin tin lunch coming up on Sunday.

Our family tradition of Oswald is coming up this Sunday.

What's Oswald you ask?

You'll just have to check back to find out (:

My sister will be coming to visit the last week of March,

and of course Easter will be here before we know it!

Yep, it's pretty crazy around here...

March Madness?

I think yes.

xoxo