Mouse Prep

We have a "little" trip coming up in a few weeks to Disney World!  To say we are excited would be an under statement! 

I thought it would be fun to do some "pre" trip posts to show how we prepare for our trip!  It sounds silly to say, but honestly I've been planning this trip since returning from the previous one last December.  It's the year round prep that keeps the excitement going, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

I thought I would start with our wardrobe choices! Probably my most fun part of the planning!

Thankfully, Frances has a good number of Disney, especially princess, inspired clothes. These are items she wears all the time, not just in The World.  I could at any time grab a few things from her closet and call her packing done! The twins at seven prove a bit harder to plan for.

Kathryn thankfully can still wear her Rapunzel dress from years past...

but I knew I would have to come up with a few more age appropriate options. That's when I found this fun dress at Walmart for less that $7!!! Here are the girls sporting their matching dresses!

What's Disney about this dress you may ask!  Well, nothing until you add some vinyl iron ons from Miss Morgan's Designs. Once I picked out the fun princess and ghost designs for the girls, I decided to purchase a few for Walker as well!  Added to inexpensive t-shirts also purchased at Walmart, each of these completed pieces were no more than $15 each!

 

Here's Miss Frances sporting the finished product and a sad face. Welcome to life with a three year old:)

You will also see her wearing our favorite Disney Princess clips purchased here...

They are perfect for transforming any outfit into Disney park attire!

Once last purchase was this Merida t-shirt for Kathryn...

Although we've now completed our own Disney wardrobe, the girls and I love to search Etsy for other fun Disney inspired goodies! For example, we love these little hair clips!

 

And how adorable are these headbands?!? We like the Merida themed one, but all of them are super cute!

 

 

 

 

And if your headed to Disney this winter (and don't mind dropping a small fortune;), this little jacket is my favorite!!!

You'll also find Chevron Minnies...

Tinkerbell Cover ups...

 

And camo mickeys for the boys...

 



Can you tell Etsy is addicting!!!!

 

Now that you've know where to find some great clothing options, visit this great post to see how to efficiently pack for your trip! Happy Packing!!!

Amelia Island

Last weekend, Matt had a conference in Amelia Island, FL. He was brave enough to bring myself and the kiddos along for the ride!

For weeks, the littles were so excited to go to the beach! While Matt was in his morning meetings, though, we put the pool to good use!

Nothing like a little pool fun to wear you out!

There was even a playground right by the children's pool!  Lots of fun for the kids, but lots of sand in the pool:)

Once Matt wrapped up with meetings, we dined poolside and headed for the beach!  Atlantic Coast beaches are so different from our Gulf beaches.  The kids loved the uniqueness!

Not sure what hungry sea creature was devouring all of the horseshoe crabs, but there were literally dozens of these dotting the coast!

Each day, we also had the privilege of visiting with Amelia, the resident parrot...

And watching the staff feed the fish (there was an aggressive and non aggressive tank).  All of this "education" made me not feel so bad about that day of school we missed;)

Walker had love at first sight when this little gopher tortoise made his debut!

Matt worked hard to scan all of the shells for sharks teeth.  Thankfully, he came up with three!  The hotel has a service that will turn them into necklaces (for free:)!!

The kiddos sporting their new jewelry!

Just in case you were wondering...

we did start school this year! I'm just a little late posting any pictures! It didn't help that sweet Walker came down with a horrible stomach bug the first week of school!

Everyone was up bright and early for a yummy back to school breakfast!

First day of first grade!

It wasn't quite Frances' first day, but she didn't want to be left out;)

Kathryn in her new classroom...

Walker with his new teacher...

 

A little welcome home party to celebrate a successful first day!

 



 

 

Skipped Trip

Way back in July, when we still had lots of hot summer left, we took a road trip to Birmingham!

First stop was an awesome overnight stay with the Dillon cousins. Aunt Cori kept us well fed and very well entertained! My favorite combination:) The kids enjoyed two local pools and lots of cousin time, and the mommies enjoyed catching up! Of course, when it came time for pictures, only silly faces would do!

The following evening, we of course had to get our La Paz fix!  We walked over the new Mt. Brook Municipal Center to see Uncle Brad's most recent building project. Because Uncle Brad is well known in these parts, the firemen were more than happy to let us explore the fire trucks.  Just another little bonus to our fun-filled trip!

The next morning the girls enjoyed breakfast in bed.  They absolutely love all of the "pampering" you get with a hotel stay.  Lotions and shampoos in the bathroom, hot chocolate and cookies in the lobby, and a full on breakfast bar. And this was just the Hampton Inn! Thanks to Pops, breakfast was delivered to our room, and the girls really thought they were something!

 

Of course, one of our main reasons for the trip was to celebrate this special boy's first birthday!! Is he a doll, or what!

Aunt Mak, as always, executed an awesome birthday party with so much attention to detail.  Don't you just love the bunting and the Aunt Mak original? Such a great backdrop for the food display. 

 

I only wish I had taken more pictures! 

 

 

 

To round out the trip, we had an awesome time visiting with Val and her boys and Carrie and her girls!  Don't think back in our college days that we could have imagined having 9 kids amongst us!  Val was kind enough to squeeze in a photo shoot too!  Am I lucky to have such a talented friend or what?

 

Val and the boys introduced us to AirWalk.  The kids were sold immediately.  Especially this little chickadee!



I love living in Mob-town.  It is most certainly home to me.  But I have to admit, I small part of my heart still belongs to the 'Ham. I'm so glad we've got family and friends there that make visiting even more special!