Disney Dude and Dudettes : the highlight reel

 

 

We embarked on a 10 day family vacation two weeks ago and it was wonderful!!!!!!!

This was Stella's first visit, as Amelia had been when she was 18 months old.  It was so fun that our ladies knew many of the characters/princesses, spectacular to watch them meet those characters.  There was such enthusiasm and joy, it was WONDERFUL to watch our little women experience Disney.  I will make a scrapbook of course but still had a hard time picking through and collecting just the highlights to blog.  I put my two favourite pictures down below, when our ladies first met Mickey!!!!!! Their eyes were huge and big smiles covered their faces.  It rocked, I actually had tears in my eyes.

 

 

 

We made some Mickey shirts before we left using a cardboard stencil and bleach in a spray bottle.  I was pretty pumped at how they turned out, the girls helped spray the bleach and we were pumped to wear them the day we had dinner at the castle.

 

 

Soooooo fun to watch our ladies with the princesses. Each one we met made our little ladies feel like the most important girls in the room. There was no rushing or hurrying them along, just undivided attention which resulted in smiles all around, EACH TIME!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

A personal highlight was getting to dance with Belle. Yes, that is me in the red cape!!!!  There is a show where they ask people in the group to be various characters in the 'Beauty and the Beast' story and no one wanted to be the Beast.  They asked Amelia and she declined, so I volunteered. It turns out that was the AWESOMEST role because you get to dance with Belle.  She asked my name and then called me 'Princess Jenny' which made me smile and honestly get a little giddy.  There is something so magical about Disney!

Graham's dad, Ed joined us which was nice.  Graham and I even got to take a break from pushing the stoller at time and got to walk together holding hands.  The girls enjoyed having Grandpa around.

 Similar to Amelia's first visit, the petting zoo at the Animal Kingdom was a big thumbs up!  Our ladies are such fans of animals, they are total softies.

 

Thank goodness Mr. P likes to go swimming because I prefer to sit on the side in the sun.  The ladies clearly had a blast in the pool.  Their faces are priceless! Love them.

 

Getting them hooked on churros.



 

Ducks are awesome....didn't you know? We seemed to find them everywhere we went.

 

 

Rides, rides, rides.

 

 

 

SEAWORLD was cool! The shows are pretty amazing and special to be so close to these beautiful animals.  I am kinda on the fence about seeing these creatures in captivity but wow the shows!!!!

 

 

For sure a highlight had to be the Bibbiti-Bobbit-Boutique!!!! We managed to get Amelia in (little girls had to be 3 years old so Stella didn't make the cut this time).  I think the excitement shows on her face. :)

 

We had a second viewing of FROZEN with Grandpa Ed.  Amelia was singing 'Let it Go' in this picture, doing Elsa's arm movements.

 Big fans of Toy Story and Jesse!!!!

 

 

TOTALLY one of my favourite pictures of our ladies with Chip n Dale, oh the smiles! 

 

 

 

Going and coming home they rocked the flights. You always worry as parents that you will be 'that family' but as the ladies get older and travel more we are finding our groove.  We were so proud of them, they are becoming great little traveling companions.  Any family together time is precious but Disney family time is just marvelous!!!!!! 

 

Till next time.
~ Mrs. P

Blah Sick Again

 

We have had a sick little woman at our place. Not much gets done when this chick is sick, she is a fan of laying beside me and mumbling requests.  No one likes being sick so between Graham and I we do what we can to  help her get through.  Everything else gets put on hold because she (along with big sis) are the most important!!!!!!!  She is luckily on the mend.

 

~ Momma P



valentine love

there...

For Valentine's Day I was actually away at a scrap booking retreat so Mr. P and I had a early date night.  Then out there it was fun to add some festiveness to our room in honour of 'Love Day'.  The retreat was held at a hunting lodge so this guy was actually in our room and watched over us as we slept...creepy!

here...

After arriving home from Florida Mr.P and I took a few minutes and wrote out love notes for our girlies.  Each morning they would find a new heart in their mailbox from each of us, then I taped them to their doors.  Valentine's Day there was a book each girl and sweet nighties with the sisters from FROZEN on them so it was a big hit.  Nothing big but a big hit apparently - I was away at the retreat.

 

This was a gift from a friend for hosting a craft night and I LOVE IT!  I see using this in various ways over the years.  Maybe just between Mr. P and I one year or perhaps we pass it around from person to person putting in on pillows. Anyway I LOVE IT and like thinking about those dear to me.

 

 

Now Valentine's Day gets a little flack, but I think any day where we are encouraged to express love is a good day!!!!

 

 

~ Mrs. P

Saving Her Pennies for Disney

I have good friends who are great parents and am continually inspired by their fabulous ideas. One such idea was helping Amelia save and contribute to our families upcoming Disneyworld trip. She was able to do this by helping recycle bottles and then getting to keep the money.  For about 6 months whenever our recycling was full I would call Amelia to help. When we were going to make a trip to the bottle depot I would get her to grab a corner of the garbage bag and help load them into the vehicle. When it was warm she even helped me bring them to the window and dump them.  It has been a fun experience, well as fun as the smelly bottle depot can be. We had previously been donating them but when my friend shared this idea we jumped right in.  Perhaps one of the coolest parts to this 'saving your pennies' exercise was that the piggybank she put her bottle money in was just a super cheap tin from Dollerama and to open it we had to use the can opener, so we honestly didn't keep track and were surprised when we opened it.  She had a little over $140 dollars :) wowzers - yeah Amelia!!!!! She was also able to pay tithing for the first time, so that was neat for her to start that step of giving.  We took Saturday to roll Mr.P's change and count Amelia's money then the two of them went to the bank and exchanged it for US$.  I have to say I am pretty proud of her, it is exciting to start the learning process with such fundamental things like money.

 

 

~ Mrs. P



You Light My Fire

As I think about Mr. P it is pretty cliché but the dude lights my fire!  AND not just in the romantical way, he really stretches my thinking, grounds my emotionalness and gets me smiling like no one else.

Certainly there are times when I am frustrated with him and think 'dude ugh...' but that is normal real life, I am sure he does the same with me sometimes. We always work and figure it out.  Lately around here we have had a few weeks with back to back date nights, it has been awesome.  He has been away lots for work too so I relish my time with him. The guy is such a hard worker, he is a doer and I admire those qualities, all that he does for our family. I also appreciate that he is the kind of husband who washes the floors after bedtime (because I like waking to a clean house).  He knows my love language for sure!! I have written this before but watching him with our girls has made my love grow.  Watching him play gorilla daddy or be a horse or get this - sew pretend dresses for Amelia, he has captured more of my heart.  So a bit of an ode to him. When I met him at 19 I didn't even realize how lucky I had it!

 

he lights my fire

 



 

proudly ~  Mrs. P

Night Out with JT



We Dig Justin Timberlake 

 

A girls night out happened last week and I just wanted to take a moment to memorialize it.  So Justin, well he is the total package, a well rounded guy; sings, dances and easy on the eyes.  It was planned to be a Hinko sisters night out with Jenny, Alyson and Leslie but poor Alyson was fighting some bad bronchitis. Thankfully Leslie's SIL Jesse stepped in to join us, although it was JT who wouldn't want to go.  Our seats were way up in the boonies but for the price we decided they were still really good.  We pretty much danced the entire night!!!  He has so many classic songs that you know every word and must sing along.  I started the evening early with plans to hit up Target - my favourite store.  We all met up, grabbed some dinner and then arrived just in time.  It was such a fun night!  Girls nights need to happen more, they are always a blast.

 

 

~ Mrs. P