Saturday, January 28, 2012

D-I-S-N-E-Y W-O-R-L-D P-L-A-N-S

I've read the tour books, blogs & researched the best times to visit the parks, places to eat, etc. I've made the reservations, created lists of what to pack, and even went as far as to create a Disney Vacation binder complete with printed menu's from restaurants we are going to eat at, maps, etc. The countdown is officially ON!

The Davis Family is headed to the most magical place on Earth! At least, that's what they say!

We are traveling on a budget so we are only going to go to one character meal. After much thought and research we have decided on the Chef Mickey character breakfast. It is the most reasonably priced character meal available and the 'fab 5' will be there (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy & Pluto). How much money will that nice breakfast set us back-care to take a guess? Almost $75, yes you read right, $75 for two adults and 1 child all you can eat (believe me, we will be going back for 2nds!).

Allie will be turning 5 while we are at Walt Disney World, so for her birthday celebration we are going to eat dinner out the day of her birthday. We are going to a Cinderella themed dinner buffett at the Grand Floridian called 1900 Park Fare. Luckily, Hunter and Alexis are free and are allowed to share a meal with any paying adult.

The last meal we are going to be eating out is Tony's Town Square, a very popular Italian family friendly restaurant. We plan to eat the other meals at our hotel in our hotel room. We will have a mini fridge & microwave so we are going to be taking full advantage of that. We are going to eat breakfast in our room as well before we head out the door in the mornings for the theme parks. On days that we are not going to a theme park we will take advantage of the free breakfast offered at our hotel. Disney allows food and drink to be brought into the park now (this is a new change to their policy) and we are looking forward to saving both time and money by bringing a packed cooler for our lunches. This will help us to bypass the long lines to purchase a counter service meal and allow us to eat a late lunch so that we can hopefully take in the rides while most people are eating at the restaurants.


We are still not sure when we are going to tell the kids we are going to Disney World. I have read in blogs ideas of how to tell your children the news...one family waited until the morning they were leaving and told the kids once they were in the car at 5 am! We will probably tell them a few days before we go. The drive is about 12 hours and we are planning to drive straight to Orlando, leaving our house by 5 am and hopefully arriving in Orlando by dinner time.

Less than 100 days until the big trip!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Hayden's 30th Birthday!

surprise flower delivery!


Pandora Charms from my parents-the one on the left has 3 tiny diamonds & the one on the right is a cupcake



Pandora bracelet is lookin good :-)

In my family we like to celebrate big for special occassions, so it was only fitting to have a weeked of celebrations! My birthday was Friday January 20th and I'm not sure if a lot of people realize this but when it's your birthday you get a lot of freebies from various restaurants and stores. I was able to eat a free lunch at Firehouse Subs because it was my birthday! I also received email coupons for free ice cream at Cold Stone & Baskin Robbins, entrees' at Famous Dave's, Red Robin & Outback and discounts at Barnes & Noble.

I received a surprise package in the mail on Thursday from my mother in law and father in law that made my day! The package had the cutest little pink boxes inside and each box was filled with a beach themed goodie such as seashell soap, beachy picture frame, seashell hand towels, crab dip mix, etc! The very last box that I opened contained the most adorable Pandora charms, a little silver suitcase with palm tree & silver seashell with gold starfish. What a sweet surprise!

On my actual birthday I met Clint for lunch at Firehouse to redeem my free sub. I returned home from my free lunch to see a florists delivery truck in the driveway. Another awesome birthday surprise! My parents had sent me a beautiful bouquet of pink stargazer lillies and pink roses.

Friday night we had a wonderful birthday dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse with my parents and left the kiddies at home! Dinner was great, crab dip being my favorite! Then Saturday I had my very first facial compliments of my other mother in law. Then Saturday evening Allie & Hunter had a sleepover at Gigi & Poppy's house. Clint & Alexis spent the evening upstairs playing video games while I had a girls only birthday party! We had pink champagne, birthday cake & psychic readings!

The psychic was actually very accurate to the point that it was a bit creepy. She knew things that didn't seem quite possible for someone else to know...for example, she knew that I was writing (Disney blog) and she said I should write a book! She also said that she saw a 4th child in the future but oddly enough she said the exact words 'from another source' meaning that I would not be having another child but possibly taking in another child somehow...which is kind of ironic because I have always told Clint that down the road when the kids are much older I would like to be a foster parent. She also said that she saw cars in Clints life and asked if he did a lot of driving.

Overall the birthday weekend was wonderful, thanks to all of my friends & family for helping to make it so nice. The many cards, texts, emails, phone calls, etc made my day!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My little baby is 8 months old!?!

8 months old!

still not crawling...

check out the cute hairbows mommy has made for me!


Disney themed bows for the girlies



my new hobby-ribbon wreath's

button wreath for Vday

Friday, January 6, 2012

2012 Is Off To A Good Start...

2012 is off to a great start!! We are planning our family's first trip to Walt Disney World in late April/early May!! We have not told the kids, we are planning to surprise them a few days before we go. I have found a new hobby, writing articles for a Disney blog called Tips From the Disney Diva! I am the Budget Diva and specialize in writing articles on traveling to Disney on a budget with children.

We are staying off property at the Embassy Suites in Orlando and driving to save $$. We are also not going to be going to all four theme parks (definetly not going to Epcot with 3 kids under age 4). Allie will actually turn 5 on the day that we will be in Magic Kingdom! Such a lucky girl to be able to celebrate her special day at the happiest place in the World! She is going to be so excited!

I am not thrilled about the idea of driving 12 hours to Florida on I-95 considering my fear of highways and 95 in general but I am hoping to take some meds prior to leaving and have a nice long nap :-) haha We are planning to drive straight to Florida, only stopping for diaper changes and to feed the kiddies.

Stay tuned for more Disney details as we get closer to April! I am still trying to decide which character meal to do (we are only going to do one as they are SO overpriced!) and which parks to do which days. We plan to go to Magic Kingdom two days and Hollywood Studios one day. We are debating going to Animal Kingdom all together. We will be in Orlando Sunday thru Saturday but we plan to take a few days 'off' to relax at the hotel pool and go to Downtown Disney.

2011 Superlatives

     2011 Superlatives:
  • Most likely to finish their meal: Allie (great eater, most of the time)
  • Most likely to finish their dessert: Hunter (I call him my little cookie monster, he loves anything sweet!)
  • Most likely to end up in time out: Allie
  • Most likely to sleep through the fire alarm: Hunter
  • Biggest Spalsh in the bath tub: Hunter
  • Most likely to give hugs and kisses: Allie
  • Most likely to win a fight: Allie (she has taken up for Hunter!)
  • Most likely to sleep the most hours at night: Hunter
  • Biggest Scaredy Cat: Hunter (literally he is scared of cats)
  • Most likely to be a mommy's girl: Alexis
  • Most likely to be a daddy's girl: Allie

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Best Thing To Happen To Us in 2011...

Results are in....the best thing to happen to us this past year was....drum roll.....Alexis Grace!!




Happy New Year!!

The kids rang in the New Year by having 'family fun night' a new tradition we hope to continue at least once a month. The kids made their own ice cream sundae's complete with marshmallows, rainbow sprinkles, strawberry & chocolate syrup and M&M's (Hunter's favorite!). After their sugar high we had a board game marathon, starting out with the newest addition to our game collection, Hungry Hippo's. Next we played the go fishing game then Candy Land-Allie's very competitive and gets very upset if anyone beats her at Candy Land! Once the kids were asleep Clint & I rented a movie and called it a night before the ball even dropped at midnight :-) Maybe next year we will be able to make it until midnight! haha