2016 - Year in Review

Image: openclipart.org

This year has been an interesting one. The celebrity deaths have been hard to watch. The ones that have hit me most have been Ron Glass and Carrie Fisher. The election was a shitshow all around and I can't deny that I'm not frightened by what may happen in the years to come.

But on a personal level, 2016 wasn't too bad a year!

It was a Disney year, and Disney years are always good because of going to my favorite place in the world. I also didn't need to go to the ER at all this year which is huge!

We joined the Y on January 1st of this year and I started weight training a few months after that. I didn't lost a lot of weight but I gained a lot of strength and stamina, which was something I really needed! I'm hoping to build on that in 2017.

Girl Scouts became a huge part of our lives this year. We went through our first cookie season and Emily got to go camping for the first time ever! We actually have gone camping with the Girl Scouts three times this year.

Both Emily and I made new friends thanks to scouting! And Emily was very excited that her two best friends ended up in her class for 2nd grade.

Emily worked very hard in school to become a much better reader. She has grown so much - including in height. She's almost as tall as I am! In addition to Girl Scouts, she also got more involved with church. She is in the children's choir and active in the elementary youth group! She was also in our church's Christmas pageant as Innkeeper #1 and an angel.

 I'll post about my goals for 2017 in a different post, but while I'm not glad to see 2016 be gone soon, it wasn't too bad of a year for us.

Disney Trip 2016 - Magic Kingdom and Departure Day!

This is the 7th post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

Our day dawned very early because I wanted to get to Magic Kingdom as close to rope drop as possible. We got dressed, finished packing up the car and checked out of our hotel. We hopped on a bus and got into Magic Kingdom just as the morning rope drop show was finishing up.

We headed right to the Crystal Palace and got seated very quickly. The food was good and the characters were really great! Emily had especially wanted to meet Eeyore, but loved Tigger, Pooh and Piglet too!

From there, we to Fantasyland. Emily wanted to ride on the Carousel and there was no wait for it. Then we went to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Since this is the newest ride in the Magic Kingdom, it's a long wait for standby. I had had a fast pass for it on hurricane day, but sadly none to come by on the

day we actually got to the Magic Kingdom.

Thankfully the queue was pretty cool so Emily was amused. But it was the longest line of the whole trip since we waited over an hour. The ride was cool and Emily loved it. It was her first roller coaster! I'll definitely want to ride it again, but not with an hour wait!

We did a few Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom stops. Emily loves that game and had fun fighting the baddies. We headed to Adventureland because I had gotten a fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean. This was Emily's first time riding pirates and she loved it.

While in Adventureland, we also rode the Magic Carpets and had our very first Dole Whip! It was getting close to noon and getting really hot out. It was honestly the hottest day of

our entire trip. So we headed back to the front of the park.

We did one more Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom stop and then rode our last ride, which was The Haunted Mansion. We left my favorite place in the world behind and got back to our car to begin the long journey home.

Because of the hurricane, we took the longer way home through Atlanta. I use my GPS on my phone to get directions and I was a little freaked because it took me on a toll road and I had no change. Thankfully the tolls had been suspended because of the hurricane.

I really wanted to get back home so we drove the whole way back to NC. I did manage to hit my head pretty hard. I went to the back of my car which has a hatch, and misjudged the distance when I was closing it and brought it down on my head. It hurt a lot and once we got home, I spent the next few days in bed. Afterwards, I'm pretty sure I managed to give myself a minor concussion.

Besides injuring myself, I managed to get us safely home. We got home right around midnight so at least I had been awake for 18+ hours. It was a long day!

Up Next - Final Thoughts About the Trip!

Dragon Con 2016 - Saturday

This is the second post of my Dragon Con 2016 recap - you can read the previous post here!

We got up bright and early on Saturday to head down to the con. I was going to march in the parade and Todd was going to the Walk of Fame once it opened. I had realized that I completely forgot to bring my parasol for my Tightrope Girl costume, but decided to wear it anyway.

I, sadly, didn't double side tape the ribbon on my left foot as well as my right one. So once I got to the staging area, I was fighting against my stupid ribbon. It didn't stay up for the parade but hopefully it didn't look too dumb.

The parade itself was fine. It was a little different because it was being broadcast on the local CW channel. We got to a point where it said "Keep Walking!" so we did. The Disney

group got pretty spread out.

Once we got done, I headed to the food court to get something to eat. Todd was still in the Walk of Fame, waiting in line to get an autograph. Once he met up with me, we left the con for the day. It was already starting to become way too crowded.

We did what we have done the last few years and headed to a really cool mall that is near to my aunt and uncle's house. We walked around the mall a bit and of course, went into the Disney Store. We got Emily a toy set and some Star Wars pants - both were on clearance. And I got to geek out with the cashier about my upcoming Disney trip.

After that, we went and saw Suicide Squad in IMax. We had both seen it before but there wasn't anything else out that we really wanted to see. It was really good in IMax and it's been a while since I've seen anything in IMax.

From there, we did a little more shopping. There was a store called "Fandom" which was really cool. We got Emily some blind boxes there. And after, we got some food at the mall's food court.

We got back to my aunt and uncle's house pretty early. In fact, no-one was home when we got there. After a while, they came home. My aunt and uncle had taken Emily swimming and my cousin and his daughter had gone too. Emily did a lot of swimming over the course of the weekend.

At 8 pm, we all sat down and watched the parade on TV. Emily really wanted to see me on there. The broadcast of the parade got annoying from the beginning. There was five or six commercial breaks during the one hour broadcast. And if that wasn't bad enough, the same few commercials were shown over and over again.

I did get shown on TV briefly but the rest of the Disney group didn't because of commercials. It was sad because there were some really great costumes in the group. From the Jack costume whose picture is at the beginning of this post, to a whole group of Little Mermaid cosplayers.

Later I read that whole groups didn't make it on the broadcast. Also the live stream started late (and I know the parade didn't start late) and the 8 o'clock broadcast was suppose to show more of the parade. Instead, it was just what they had done earlier in the day.

But it was the first year it was live on the CW so it wasn't going to be perfect. And my kid was geeked out to see me on TV so that was good!

All in all, it was a good Saturday of Dragon Con!

Disney Jamberry Battle Royale - Round Three!

I'm rating some of the new Disney Jamberry wraps as a way to decide which ones to wear to Disney World for my upcoming trip. Click the links to read about Round One and Round Two!

The defending champ is still Aurora's Castle. Its combination of sparkly castles and long lasting wear has kept it on top since the beginning. I really wish this wrap was still available but Jamberry does keep coming out with new Disney (and Marvel!) wraps that I want to try.

The challenger today is Majestic Ice, one of the Frozen-themed wraps. The Elsa's on these wraps are very subtle and you might not notice them if I was walking by. Application of them was easy and so far they are holding up pretty well.

I think the only think that really detracts from these wraps is that they doesn't scream Disney. If I'm going to wear wraps to Disney World, I want them to be easily recognizable as Disney.

In the end, Aurora's Castle is the winner again as it screams Disney with it's beautiful pastel castles. I'm not sure if there will be a round four as my trip is fast approaching. But we'll see!

Disney Jamberry Battle Royale - Round Two!

It's been a while since the last Disney Jamberry Battle Royale but finally I've had a chance to try a new set of Disney wraps! You can read about Round One here!

Our defending champ is Aurora's Castle which sadly is no longer available. I love this wraps and thankfully I have about a half sheet left of them in case they stay on top in these battles. The castle on these wraps just scream "Disney" to me and they are very shiny. They also lasted a really long time, just over two weeks. This gives them an extra plus because I want my nails to look good for the entire time we are at Disney World.

The challenger is The Fairest! 

These wraps are from the new Snow White collection. I'm not a huge fan of animated Snow White
but as a Disney mega fan, I'm fond of it as the first full length animated film. Snow White is also my favorite character in Once Upon A Time, but that Snow and this Snow are very different.

The pictures don't really do these wraps justice. The apples are shiny and catch the light great. I'm also, in general, a big fan of dark colors for my nails and these are lovely. They were pretty easy to put on too. We'll see how these wraps hold up especially since I'll be going camping tomorrow. Camping is never easy on one's nails.

But for now, Aurora's Castle is still the winner! The Fairest is lovely but not as much as Aurora's Castle. Round Three will be coming shortly as I have sheet of Frozen wraps I need to try as well!

Disney Jamberry Battle Royale!

I was very excited when Jamberry announced that they were doing a line of nail wraps with Disney. Emily and I are going to Disney World in October, and I'm definitely going to be picking on of these wraps to wear for our trip. 

I thought it might be fun if I pitted the wraps against each other (as I get them), until I finally have a winner! So far, I've only been able to try out two of the Disney Jamberry wraps so they will be going head to head in today's battle.

First up - Mickey's Girl! 

If you click on the link, you will see a picture of these wraps in the catalog. But what you don't see is that the Minnie heads are just clear, which means your nail is showing through.

I'm pretty good at putting on Jamberry wraps. I use a hair dryer because I currently don't have a mini heater. But I have my technique down pat after over a year of being a Jamberry user.

These nail wraps were harder than most to put on. You had to position them very exactly to get Minnie's head center. Plus for some reason, the black top part felt like it had the consistency of electrical tape. 

The other issue I had was putting them on my big toes. My little toes are so small that I've never been able to get the wraps to stay on the way they should. So I generally put wraps on my two big toes and paint the others a matching color.

I keep my toe nails fairly short and Minnie's full head barely fit on my toes. I managed it so Minnie was not decapitated thankfully.

Once they were on, they looked pretty good. I got a lot of compliments on them from people and they were fun to wear. They did last nearly two weeks on my fingers and about a month on my toes.

Next up - Aurora's Castle!  

I'm not usually a fan of pastel colors, but I ordered these because they are currently the only wraps that have a castle on them. 

These were easy to put them on, especially compared to the Minnie wraps. They are super shiny. The pictures, both mine and the one in the catalog, can't really show how shiny and sparkly they are.

They catch the light and sparkle even more in the sunshine. The pink and blue are muted, and the castle and the roses are what catches the eye.

I love the Aurora's Castle wraps. They are the clear winner for me over the Mickey's Girl wraps. They were much easier to put on and they are beautiful which makes them fun to wear. Aurora's Castle is now my all-time favorite Jamberry wraps.

Once I can order more Disney Jamberry wraps, Aurora's Castle will have to defend their title as Disney Wrap Champion (for me anyway)!

Countdown to Disney

If you have read my blog before, you may have noticed that I'm a huge Disney geek. While I do love the movies and cartoons, my real love is for Walt Disney World. It is literally my happy place.

I have the Timehop app on my phone, and two years ago today, we got in the car and started driving to Disney World for Emily's first trip ever. We have less than a year until Emily and I go on our girl's only trip.

Countdowns are fun - according to the calendar in my office we have 357 days until we go to Disney World. For me, dreaming and planning and counting down is almost as fun as being at Disney itself.

Thoughts of Disney World have kept my spirits up during some really hard times. This year has been really awful with health issues for me, but the countdown to Disney World next year has kept me focused on something really fun to come.

Tonight Emily and I will be having Mickey pancakes for supper while watching Big Hero Six, and dreaming of that day next year when we are walking down Main Street once again.

Dragon Con 2015 - Saturday

This is the 2nd post in my series of recaps of Dragon Con. You can click to read the posts for Friday and Sunday.

We got up and going early on Saturday morning since I was going to march in the Disney section of the parade. They had to change the parade route and the staging area because of streetcars that were put in downtown. It took me a bit but I found the staging area which actually worked better than the old one.

There were only a few Disney cosplayers when I got there, but they started coming in. We were near the front so I got to see a lot of cool costumes. The parade got started pretty much on time, and it was the long walk. Even though the parade route was only .1 of a mile longer, it felt much longer.

But the best part of being in the Disney group is watching the kids along the parade route get so excited to see their favorite princesses march by. There was also a great Gaston cosplayer who marched next to me who was really hamming it up for the crowd.

Once the parade was over, I went to find Todd who was in the food court. He had gotten a bunch of autographs with little wait because so many people were at the parade. I was near the front of the parade so it wasn't very crowded outside of the parade yet. We headed over to the Hyatt to go to the Artist Alley.

There, I quickly found Peter David's table and finally got to meet him. He's been one of my favorite authors since I was in high school and I've been meaning to get his autograph for the last couple of Dragon Cons but I never make it over to the artist alley. But it finally happened this year!

Todd and I looked around the Artist Alley a bit and peeked in the Art Show. By this time, it was starting to get crowded. We had decided before we even got to GA that we were only going to stay a short time at the con on Saturday. It just gets too crowded.

So we headed out, and I changed out of my costume once we got to the car. From there, we went to a big mall that isn't far from my Aunt and Uncle's house. We shopped a bit - they have a Disney Store and a LEGO store and then went to the movies. We saw The Man from U.N.C.L.E. which was a fun movie.

We got back fairly early to my aunt and uncle's house and turned in early.

Up Next - Dragon Con Sunday

Dragon Con 2015 - Friday

We usually head down to GA to go to Dragon Con fairly early on Thursday but this year we waited until Emily was out of school. Because we didn't get to my aunt and uncle's house until the evening, we didn't go down to the con at all until Friday.

Todd and I got up bright and early Friday morning to head downtown. I wore my Tightrope Girl costume and I actually got asked for my picture before we even got into the Peachtree Center. That was awesome because I rarely get asked for my picture.

Sheraton was our first stop to get our badges. Badge pick-up was a breeze again this year. It took us longer to walk into the building than it did to actually get our badges. I also had to pick up my parade bracelet as well as get the disability sticker on my badge.

Dragon Con offers a variety of disability services. Because of my migraines, I got a sticker on my badge that lets me sit in the disability area and then I get a seat at the end of the row. I didn't end up using it until Sunday, but it really is nice to be able to sit and wait for panels in a chair.

We went to the Peachtree Center after that and got some breakfast. We didn't have any issues getting a seat and the food court is a great place to relax, eat and people watch

From there, we headed off to the Hilton. I had signed up for a massive Disney photoshoot. We were a little early but there were a lot of people there already. I love Disney and it was fun to see everyone's costumes.

Todd wandered away for a bit while we were all herded outside. Because of the uniqueness of my costume, I was only in the big group photo. It took a bit to get everyone posed, and then lots of pictures were taken.

Once the big group picture was taken, Todd had wandered back and we headed over to the Marriott. Even though the Walk of Fame wasn't opening for another hour, we opted to join the line to get in. I found that sitting on the floor in a corset is not very comfortable.

When the doors opened, we walked around the Walk of Fame to see who were there and where everyone would be. I got my picture with the voice of Goofy, Bill Farmer, since I had gotten his autograph the year before. Then we joined the line for the voice of Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, Caroll Spinney. 

The line wasn't took long long, but the people who had been in the front took at least 20 minutes to talk to Caroll and have him sign everything under the sun. It got really ridiculous after a while and rather rude because the line just kept growing and growing. It's fine to have a bit of a conversation with the guests, especially an icon like Caroll Spinney. But more than five minutes and you are being very rude to the people behind you.

Finally they left, and the people in front of Todd and I had better sense so it only took us a few minutes to get up to the front. We got an autograph that he signed to both me and Emily, plus I got a picture with him.

It was then time to head over to the Dealer's room. It took us a bit to figure out where it was since they had moved buildings and there was actually a line to get into the building itself. There were two floors of dealer's and the layout was so much better this year.

First stop was the BPAL booth where I got BPAL. I've known the owners for years, so I got a hug from Ted. I also got a hug from Beth and we stood and talked about our kids for a bit. It's a little weird talking about school and kids in the middle of the dealer's room at Dragon Con.

We had been planning on staying later but by this time I was starting to get worn out. Todd noticed and suggested we go back to my aunt and uncle's house in order to save energy for the parade in the morning. I agreed and off we went.

It was a pretty good first day of Dragon Con!

Up Next - Dragon Con Saturday

Date Night!

Image: wikipedia.org

When you are married with a child, alone time can be a rarity. Luckily, Todd and I have fun with Emily in tow quite often, but we do like our occasional date nights.

This past Saturday we went down to GA to visit my aunt and uncle. We missed the holidays with me being so sick so we went down mostly to see family. We spent several hours - my cousin, Casey, and his wife, Serella, brought their kids over. Emily played with them happily - their oldest is only six months younger than Emily.

Seeing family was great, but my aunt and uncle offered to watch Emily so we could go to a movie. Todd and I left a little early so we could also go to dinner. The movie theater we picked was party of a huge mall and we misjudged the time so we had plenty of time.

The mall was great! We just had supper in the food court and then did some looking around / shopping. I may have squealed out loud when I saw they had a Disney store. They also had a Lego store and a cool Japanese store that had a lot of anime stuff.

I only bought something at the Disney Store though. I got Emily new pj's because they were having a sale. Todd also found a great Nightmare Before Christmas hoodie for me and a Sofia the First stuffed griffin for Emily in the clearance section. It was a great deal!

We took our stuff back to the car and went to the theater. We saw Kingsman which was excellent and we saw it in this fancy theater that had reclining chairs. It was an interesting experience. The chairs were very comfy and it was almost iMax like with the sound quality. The screen seemed bigger too.

It was really nice to get some one on one time with Todd outside of the house. Hopefully we'll be able to do it again soon!

Memories of Epcot's Maelstrom

If you are a fan of Walt Disney World and follow any Disney accounts on social media you have probably seen that Frozen is getting it's own ride in Epcot. It will be taking the place of Norway's Maelstrom and should be opening in 2016.

There has been a lot of negativity about this move, and I have mixed feelings about it. I know that Emily will love to be able to go onto the Frozen ride when we got back to Disney World in 2016. But the Maelstrom was a magical experience on our honeymoon.

Todd and I went to Disney in the fall of 2007 for our honeymoon. We had decided to wait a year after our wedding to take our honeymoon because most of our vacation time in 2006 went to going back to Michigan for our wedding.

On our 1st wedding anniversary, we spent the whole day in Epcot. It was during the Year of A Million Dreams promotion and that day was the most dream-filled of our whole honeymoon. One of the special things that happened to us was that we got a boat all to ourselves on Maelstrom.

It was lovely and romantic, and super nice of the cast members to give us special treatment like that. The ride was fun, but no means my favorite. But I'll always have this special memory from my honeymoon.

Dragon Con Schedule and Cosplay!

Image: www.dragoncon.org

I've been lucky enough to be a panelist for several Kaleidoscope Track panels over the last few years. I love being on panels and talking about things I'm passionate about - which has been often been Disney related.

This year, I'm on four panels and I'm very excited about it! Here's my schedule if any of you want to attend!

The Young Nerd Life - Fri, August 29, 7pm – 8pm

A708 Atlanta Marriott Marquis

There are many shows families watch together! Let's discuss those shows & how kids fit into the world of fandom.

Disney Princesses & Heroes Panel - Sat, August 30, 11:30am – 12:30pm

A708 Atlanta Marriott Marquis

Fan led discussion about all of your favorite Disney Princesses and Heroes. 

Theme Park Travel - Sat, August 30, 8:30pm – 9:30pm

A708 Atlanta Marriott Marquis

Share ideas and discuss how to make theme park visits fun for the entire family.

Phineas & Ferb Fan Panel - Sun, August 31, 4pm – 5pm

A601/A602 Atlanta Marriott Marquis

What are you doing today? Discussing what you love about Disney Channels hit show 

I'm also planning on bringing several costumes as well as marching in the parade.

Friday - Kaylee from Firefly

Saturday - Haunted Mansion Tightrope Girl

Sunday - I'm hoping to wear the Tightrope Girl again - but if it's too sweaty and icky, I'll be wearing American McGee's Alice

I'm looking forward to Dragon Con! Hope to see some of you there! I'll be live tweeting through the con as well!

Happy Birthday Donald Duck!

On this day, 80 long years ago a star was born. Or at least a beloved animated character debuted in his first cartoon, The Wise Little Hen. That character was Donald Duck!

I grew up watching Disney cartoons and I always like watching the antics of Donald. Now my daughter is growing up watching some of the same cartoons as well as new ones like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

We met Donald when we went to Disney World last year. He borrowed Emily's Simba stuffed toy and raised it up above his head just like in the Lion King. Donald really has a great sense of humor!

So Happy 80th Birthday to the most famous Duck of all!

Easter

We had a busy Easter weekend but it was a good holiday for us. On Saturday evening, we colored eggs. We didn't make a ton of them because we don't eat hard boiled eggs that much. But Emily likes it so I wanted to do some.

Todd's cousin had given us a no mess egg dying kit. It was a little messy, in part because I didn't drain enough water out of it. Emily just plopped the eggs in, and then I took them out. It wasn't as fun because you really couldn't do more than one color on an egg.

The next morning, Emily woke up a little after six am. I had been awake for a while because I had been listening for her. I wanted to stop her from going into the living room without me because I wanted to tape her reaction of seeing her basket.

We went a little overboard this year with stuff for the basket. We generally give more presents and less candy because a sugared up Emily is not a good thing. She had really wanted a Doc McStuffins lab coat for a long time so that was the big thing I got her. Todd ended up picking up some Infinity figures. He thought she'd ignore the lab coat, but she's played with it every day since Sunday.

After she found all the goodies in her basket it was time to go to church. I love Easter services - lots of singing and it's very festive. My favorite part comes at the end where everyone is invited to join the church in singing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Once we were done with church, we headed out to drive to GA. My aunt and uncle live outside of Atlanta and we often go there for holidays because my cousins all have kids, some around Emily's age. It was nice to see relatives and everyone remarked on how skinnier Todd looks - one of my cousin's wives didn't even recognize him at first!

We had a great meal and Emily had fun playing with her cousins. We were on the road longer than we were at my aunt and uncle's house, but it was worth it to see family for the holiday.

Want Vs. Need - The Frozen Conundrum

Emily and her own "Olaf"

As you may have noticed, I love Disney. Disney World, Disney movies, Disney music. Because of my love affair with all things Disney, we went to see Frozen in the theater. I actually saw it twice because Emily and I went to the Frozen sing-along too.

The DVD came out the day before my birthday so I got it as a birthday present to myself. Emily and I have seen it about a dozen times since then. But we have no Frozen toys, clothes or other merchandise in part because of the scarcity and in part because my kid has too many toys to begin with.

Emily is an only child, and I know we spoil her. But we try to keep the spoiling to a minimum. She's no Veruca Salt and doesn't get everything she wants. So there is no way I would be willing to spend even a $100 on the hard to get Frozen stuff.

Nobody's kid NEEDS an Elsa dress. They may want it, but when faced with the choice of no Elsa dress or having to pay tons of money for one the choice should be easy. But apparently parents are trying to get their kids the dresses, no matter what the cost.

Yes, Disney dropped the ball with Frozen merchandise, but I'm sure they are already ramping up production. And as soon as September hits and the Halloween stuff starts coming out, there will be a ton of Frozen costumes to buy.

I did ask Emily what she wanted to be for Halloween. I thought she'd say Anna, Elsa or possibly Sailor Moon. But she said that she wanted to be a pirate! That we can do but she'll probably change her mind before October.

The world isn't fair so while it's hard to not give my kid what she wants she needs to learn that the world isn't fair and you don't always get what you want. I wonder how those kids whose parents are stressing so much to get them Frozen stuff will turn out in the end.

Costume Plans of 2014

I love cosplaying but I'm not that great with sewing. But I manage to put together some interesting costumes to wear to the various conventions that I go throughout the year. I have plans to make two, possibly three costumes this year.

The first costume that I'm working on is for a horror convention that we'll be going to next month. I have a hard time figuring out horror related costumes to wear. I have my American McGee Alice costume from last year, but I'm also going to make a Disney's Haunted Mansion Tightrope Girl costume.

I love the Haunted Mansion so I'm not sure why I didn't think to do this costume before. But I'm working on it now. I have the corset and the skirt and I'll be adding on the details. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that in the next couple of weeks.

Then I'll be working on the Kaylee Layer Cake Dress 2.0. I hand sewed 1.0 a few years but I didn't do a great job and it's now falling apart. I've been meaning to remake for awhile now, but with the Browncoat Ball coming to Greenville, SC in October

it's moved up in the queue. I'm hoping to figure out how to use my mom's sewing machine so I can use that instead of hand sewing it. Hopefully that will be finished in time for Dragon Con.

If I finish the Layer Cake Dress, I might start my Ducky MoMo costume. It will actually be me cosplaying as Candance cosplaying as Ducky MoMo. It's going to be complicated but Todd has said he'll help me design it. He's the engineer so I'm sure we'll be able to figure something out.

For now, that's what I'm working on. I'll post pictures on Twitter and Facebook as I put the costumes together!

Frozen Sing-Along

I love going to the movies and it's nice that Emily is old enough to sit through a whole movie. We don't take her very often so it's a big treat when we do go.

We saw Frozen as a family when it first came out, but when I heard about the Frozen Sing Along showings, I really wanted to go. We have the soundtrack so both Emily and I know all the words to the songs.

There was a showing last Friday so I decided we could go because Todd had no interest in seeing it again. When we got to the theater, Emily saw one of her best friends. They hugged and talked for a minute but they were going to go see the Lego Movie.

The theater was empty when we got in there but a few people showed up. Even with a near empty theater, it was a lot of fun to sing along with the movie. Emily had a good time too.

I'm guessing that the sing along won't be in many theaters for much longer (if at all) but I'm glad we got to experience it!

Happy December!

It’s really hard to believe that it’s already December. I did wish most of the year away counting down to our Disney Trip. But now I’m looking forward to the holidays and the new year to come.

I love Christmas and I’ve been itching to get our house decorated since Thursday. Slowly working on it but we won’t get our tree until later this week because Todd works on weekend.

Emily and I will be making her Christmas countdown chain this afternoon. It’s something we always did when I was a kid and I’m happy to bring this tradition to Emily’s childhood. I got construction paper to make red and green chains. Emily will make a tree or a star for the top.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season this December!

Disney Trip 2013 - Magic Kingdom Part 2

This is the 4th post of my Disney Trip report – click for post #1, post #2, and post #3!

After we all got some rest, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for a few more hours. As part of the new Fantasyland expansion, there is a new restaurant called Be Our Guest that nearly everyone wants to eat at. For lunch, its counter service so you can just walk up, though the lines can be very long from what I’ve heard.  For dinner, its table service so you have to have a reservation.

When it was time to make our reservations (which was six months before our trip), my travel agent warned that she might not be able to get a reservation for Be Our Guest. I was fine with that but luckily she got us one for 4:05 pm on our Magic Kingdom day.

There were other people waiting when we got to Beast’s castle (where Be Our Guest is located) but it didn’t take us long before we were seated at our table. We were in the room that had a giant music box of Belle and Beast.

Dinner was really good and for dessert Emily got The Grey Stuff, which is a grey pudding that they only give to guests who are having a celebration. There is a dessert that has the grey stuff on top because it was so popular. Emily also got a special birthday card signed by Belle and the Beast.

After dinner, it was time to go meet the Beast who only meets guests at Be Our Guest after they have had dinner. The Beast was huge! Emily got a little freaked out and wouldn’t take her picture with him. I love Beauty and the Beast so I got my picture with

him. Beast tried to come over and say hi to Emily but she just hid behind Todd.

From there, we headed to ride some more rides. Since this was Emily’s birthday trip we decided to let her decide what we rode. She knew that my favorite ride is The Haunted Mansion so she wanted to ride it. I thought she would be fine, Todd though she would be really scared. Emily decided we were going to ride it.

Since the last time we were at Disney World, they re-did the queue area for The Haunted Mansion. Now it’s interactive where the kids can go up and touch some of the busts. There is a big organ with music instruments on the side. If you touch theinstruments, it will play spooky music.

Finally we got inside the stretching room and I knew that this part

could be scary so I picked Emily up. She didn’t seem very scared even when the lights went out (though I don’t think she looked up either to see the ‘surprise’ in the ceiling). We got into our doombuggy and off we went.

After we got off the ride, we looked at her and she looked at Todd and told him that it wasn’t scary but fun. So I won that one! We were near where Tiana does meet and greets so we went over there to see if we could meet Tiana. The handler said that Tiana and her prince, Naveen, were going to take a break after the current line was done and the queue usually filled up fast.

Because Tiana is Emily’s favorite princess we got in line behind some people who were already waiting. They ended up leaving so we were first in line. Emily had gotten a Woody doll earlier in the day and had brought him with her. So she had something to

amuse herself. Todd and I both took turns going to look in the nearby gift shops.

Finally it was time to meet Tiana and Naveen. This was best character meeting we had. Tiana and Naveen sang Emily a very short birthday song. Emily told Tiana that Emily was Tiana’s favorite (instead of the other way around), Tiana just gave her a big hug and told her yes, Emily was her favorite.

It only lasted about five minutes but it cemented Tiana as Emily’s favorite princess. She liked Naveen too and said later that he was very handsome. It was a very magical moment.

Since it was getting dark and Emily was silly tired, we headed back to our hotel. Emily had kept her hair up all day and it still retained its shape even once I got the crown and hair ties out. We gave her a bath and got a lot of the sparkles out. It took another bath before the majority of the sparkles were gone.

Up next post – Downtown Disney!

Disney Trip 2013 - Animal Kingdom

This is the second post of my Disney Trip report – click here for post #1.

When we were planning our trip, we decided to skip Epcot. We felt that Emily would enjoy Animal Kingdom more this time. Since both Todd and I feel that Animal Kingdom is a half day park, we thought it would be a good starting park.

We met my in-laws in the lobby at 8:30 so we could all ride to the Animal Kingdom together. Emily was a little grumpy; we don’t think she slept a lot on the drive down. But she looked adorable in her Alice costume.

The bus ride was short and we were soon at the Animal Kingdom. My mother-in-law and I went through bag check while Todd and his dad went to get the tickets. I had ordered the tickets from Disney’s website a few months before and it was really easy to pick them up.

Our entry into the Animal Kingdom was the first chance we got to use our Magic Bands as a park ticket. It was cool to see the Mickey head light up. We got our maps and headed toward the Kilimanjaro Safari. The wait was pretty short and soon we were seeing a lot of cool animals. Emily was very excited to get to see a

Waiting for Festival of the Lion King

baby giraffe.

After we were done with the Safari we were walking by the Festival of the Lion King. The first show was starting soon so we decided to all go do that. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this show but we never got a chance to see it on our honeymoon. It was an amazing show though! Definitely a must see from now on!

An aside here – we got Emily some Disney gift cards so she could have her own spending money. She wanted to get one thing when we got into the park and she picked a baby Simba stuffed animal.

We tried to keep her from going to hog wild because we knew she’d burn through her money fast that way.

Since we were already in Camp Minnie-Mickey, we decided to go see Donald Duck. Donald was awesome – he asked for Emily’s Simba and then he lifted Simba over his head like from the beginning of the Lion King. It was so funny!

From there, Emily was getting worn out already. So we stopped for a snack which was the Mickey bar that she had been talking about eating for months. It made quite the mess and ended up with a trip to the bathroom. Luckily she didn’t get a lot of it on her dress.

We headed over to Chester and Hester’s Dino-Rama in Dinoland so we could play in the Boneyard. Emily liked going down all the slides and wanted me to go down some slides too. In the process of going down the slide, I lost my phone. This lead to a freak out

but Todd went to talk to the cast members at the front of the play area and thankfully someone had turned it in.

From there we went to Triceratops Spin, which is basically a Dumbo clone with dinosaurs. Emily enjoyed it but was getting crankier as her normal naptime approached. There wasn’t a long wait for the Primeval Whirl roller coaster so Todd rode that while Emily and I shopped. I got some pins and she got some princess gummy candies.

Todd was kind enough to volunteer to take Emily back to the hotel for a nap so I could stay and ride some more rides. I walked with them on the way out and we passed by where Pooh and Tigger were meeting. We asked Emily if she wanted to meet them and she did.

I love Pooh Bear in part because of my own bear. He was one of the only characters I went out of my way to meet. Pooh and Tigger were really sweet. But it was extra awesome because Pooh came over to give me and then Todd a big hug. The Photopass photographer got

the shot so I was very happy with that.

From there, we went to see Mickey and Minnie in their safari clothes. Emily was happy to see them again, but really didn’t have any desire to stand in line to meet them again at the other parks we went to.

I walked Todd and Emily to the front of the park and then went back to Dinoland so I could ride Dinosaur. This was the longest line of the day for me – about 40 minutes. I played on my phone a little but I didn’t get great signal and my phone was dying.

Dinosaur was a lot scarier than I remembered! But it was still a lot of fun. I thought briefly about riding Expedition Everest, but chickened out. I headed to the only other ride I wanted to do at Animal Kingdom - Kali River Rapids, which is a whitewater raft ride.

The post wait time for Kali River Rapids was 20 minutes but I walked right on. The ride was fun and I didn’t get too wet. Since I hadn’t waited at all, I decided to ride it again. This time I got soaked! So I thought it was time to go back to the resort. At the bus stop, I met up with my in-laws who were heading back

After I got changed and Emily got up from her nap we met the in-laws in the lobby again. We got Emily’s

carseat into their car and all rode over to the Polynesian to have dinner at Ohana. This is my all-time favorite Disney restaurant from our honeymoon. We got there early since we had to wait a long time for a table on our previous trip.

We got checked and want went over to the gift shop. We had made one pressed penny and then our buzzer went off! It was so fast! We were seated near the window, which you could make out Cinderella Castle through the trees.

When I gave my information to my travel agent, I had her notate that I am allergic to shellfish and to tree nuts. Nearly every table service restaurant we ate at, the chef would come out and advise me what the safe dishes to eat were. It was very nice to know which ones could cause my issues. Thankfully the only thing I couldn't eat at Ohana was the shrimp.

There was course after course of meat on skewers that had been freshly cooked on a huge fire pit on the other side of the room. It was so good, and even Emily liked it, though she mostly ate the noodles that were

part of the side dishes.

There were games for the kids (though Emily opted not to play) and a lady who roamed around the room singing songs and giving out leis. Once we were done, I took Emily over to the lady so she could get some leis. The lady saw Emily’s birthday button and gave her extra leis in the form a lei crown. 

We made one more stop to the gift shop. There was a Minnie Mouse dress up toy set that Emily had seen and decided she wanted. The price was pretty good, especially since we were at Disney, so she got it with her gift cards. It was a great purchase because she still plays with it daily.

It was time to turn in for the night so we headed back to the resort. Emily got a bath and went right to sleep. I didn’t stay up too long either because we had to be up early the next day.

Up next post – The Magic Kingdom, Part 1