Our Disney Vacation 2014 - Day 1

Our flight landed at 9:30 am and my adrenaline was on high. I hit the ground running. Let's rewind a bit first though. We left the house at 4:40 am to make it to the airport by 5:20. Our flight left at 6:55 am. (We are NOT morning people. I actually believe the day before we left Carsyn slept in until 12:30)

Carsyn did AMAZING on the flight. We had downloaded a few episodes of Doc, Mickey's Clubhouse and Sofia. She just sat in her seat, snacked on snacks and watched her shows. We could not get her to go back to sleep. (But with morning toons playing... she was probably confused)

After we got to the Orlando airport we made our way to the Disney Magic Express buses. It was a long drive to the hotel but the videos they play on the tv's make it go by a little quicker. Plus, Carsyn did good on this bus... bless her heart. We could tell she was getting antsy though. (Still no sleep for Carsyn)

We got to the Port Orleans French Quarter Resort and to our great surprise we were welcomed by the staff with balloons and a sign. They had chosen us to be the Family of the Day!!! Our room was ready and we were walked to it as they gave us a mini tour. There wasn't anything special that came with being the family of the day... Carsyn liked the balloons and I loved the fact that my room was ready that early =)

We pulled out our changes of clothes that we packed in our carry on and headed to the Food Court for lunch. Port Orleans has the BEST Po Boy Sandwiches =)
(They say your actual luggage takes about 3 hours to arrive if you use the disney luggage tags)

After lunch we went back to the room and changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool. The humidity was weighing heavy on us and we needed a cool dip in the pool. Also, I heard that they have really good Pina Coladas. And now I can confirm that in fact they do =) Chris was boring and got Bud Light... it was good ;)

We didn't last too long at the pool. Chasing a 14 month old around a pool was not our idea of relaxing and we had been up since 3:30 am.

We made it to the room and luckily our luggage was there. I refreshed my makeup... we changed into our dinner wear and we headed out. Our next destination would be the hotel boat headed Downtown Disney. However there was a quick detour, Chris & I needed a quick stop at the hotel bar for some to-go cocktails to sip on the boat. Let it be known that the French Quarter has a VERY VERY good Raspberry Beer (probably found other places too around Disney) Carsyn fell asleep.

The boat was a nice transportation change from the buses. Carsyn thought it was a lot of fun. She kept saying "Weeeeeeee"

We landed Downtown Disney on the Marketplace side. We started our Downtown adventure with a whole lot of shopping. We dropped some pretty pennies at the Days of Christmas Store (surprised?), walked across the street and got Carsyn her Mickey Ears Hat and found some goodies down at World of Disney. Carsyn didn't want for nothing at the stores unlike her Mama.... Made me look bad in front of the Big Guy. Here is to hoping that next year she begs and pleads for toys.

Chris spent his "Souviner" money at the bar outside of World Of Disney. (Eye roll)

We explored every inch of Downtown Disney. Chris' favorite part was listening to a band outside of House of Blues.... I promised him dinner reservations there next year. I pulled him away and we toured Planet Hollywood (loved it)


We had Dinner Reservations at Fulton's Crab House. It was Delicious!!! We both got Crab Legs and the little miss got Mac and Cheese. She gave it the Blue Ribbon Approval =)

Afterwards we made our way back to the boat dock. Bed was starting to sound good, our eyes were heavy and our adrenaline was gone.

We got back, gave the baby a bath and snuggled into bed to watch old school Mickey Cartoons (one of the highlights of our trip)

Notes

*We brought the light weight stroller... Wish we would have brought the big expensive stroller that turns on a dime. 

*Disney Kids Menus do not offer a variety of veggies. I am glad I packed Gerber Toddler Meals. There was a microwave in the Hotel Food Court. Kids can be picky eaters and I think Gerber adds baby crack into their meals. Its a good idea to pack a few, one for the veggie reason, two for the fact that you know your kid will eat them and get something in their tummy. We always made it a point to stop at the food court and feed her one of those before we went places. Gerber also has just the veggie pickups too if your looking for strictly vegetables. We also packed applesauce cups to go with her kids meals at the restaurants. 

*We used Garden Grocer to deliver 2 Half Gallons of Milk for the baby, Apple Juice, 2 cases of water, lunchables, tiny bags of potato chips, a loaf of bread and a ton of Fresh Fruit (blueberries, strawberries, bananas and watermelon) . I also had an entire Large Suitcase full of food that I packed.

Friday - A Few "Last Minute" Christmas Gifts

Yes, I consider these toys, Last Minute. I have been done Christmas Shopping for my daughter since September/August. Yes, I have issues. It is nice to get shopping done early but I always find myself adding things to my stockpile later (and spending over my goal...oops) . Anyone else done shopping? What's on your kids Christmas List??? Here is Carsyn's Christmas List

ONE

Carsyn is in LOVE with Monsters, Inc the Movie. We gave it to her on Halloween this year (thought the monsters worked well with the holiday) It's the only movie that she will sit through and she giggles right out loud. So last week I ordered her a Plush Boo Doll. I'm hoping she will love it as much as the movie. (FOUND HERE)


TWO

Carsyn's cousin Allison has Potato Heads and when we go over to her house, Carsyn makes a B-Line to the Potato Heads. After some major web surfing last week, I found that Kohls has an exclusive set in the cutest little potato bin. I snatched that baby up and it actually came in the mail yesterday. It's super big and super cool!!!! They also carry it in the stores too.. not just online. (FOUND HERE)


THREE

One of Carsyn's current favorite toys is her Little People Disney Princesses. So when I saw this I swooned over it and added it quickly to Carsyn's Christmas List. It was quickly picked up by family and I hope Carsyn loves it when she opens it. (FOUND HERE)


FOUR

Carsyn's new thing is watching her Disney shows on the Kindle. We downloaded a ton of episodes for the plane ride to Disney in October & she has been obsessed ever since. Honestly though, the touch screen is a pain in the ass. She is constantly turning the shows off (freaks out when that happens), restarts the episodes halfway through and gets into the internet to click on God knows what. Our solution comes in this Christmas gift, the Sylvania 10-inch portable DVD Player. We are thinking we will get some good use out of it with plane rides, car rides and when we ho camping with no TV in the summers. The Best part yet is that it's NOT touch screen. Here's to hoping we get our money's worth =)  (FOUND HERE)


FIVE

I am so excited to see this new episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I preordered my copy yesterday. (FOUND HERE)




Linking up with :

Happy Halloween!!!!

I hope everyone has an awesome Halloween & weekend!!! Stay Safe =)

Love - Carsyn

Oh Hey, Friday

Linking up with...



ONE

They have brought back Puppy Surprise!!! Did anyone else have these when they were younger? My sister's and I all had them and were obsessed. I grabbed one of these the other day for Carsyn for Christmas. I hope she loves it just as much as I did. My fingers are crossed for a litter of 5...  we will see come Dec 25th =)

TWO

Last weekend we went to Blake's Apple Orchard to pick out a pumpkin and indulge in cider & donuts. We had a really good time but it was super cold so all the baby wanted to do was sit in her stroller under her blankets. (Wish she did that at Disney) we went through the corn maze, explored the haunted house, fed animals in the petting barn and bounced a little bit in the bounce house. Orchards have got to be one of the best parts of Fall =)

THREE 

This weekend (Saturday) we have tickets to the Greenfield Village Halloween Event. We are going with my sister & her family. It starts at 7pm so we are  planning a dinner at PF Chang's before. I'm pretty excited. We have always done Greenfield Village at Christmas time so the Halloween Event will be something new to us. I have heard that it's a good one. Carsyn is dressing up so I'm looking forward to that too.  Let the fun begin =)

FOUR

Wednesday & Thursday we went looking for furniture for the basement. We have been working on finishing our basement and figured the furniture would take a few weeks to come in so we went to order it. Well... it will be to our house on Wednesday. Hmmm.  That will definitely give us a swift kick in the booties to prepare. =) I am very happy with the furniture we chose and think it will accent the log walls nicely. 

FIVE

Did anyone watch the Melissa and Joey Season Premiere/Halloween Episode on Wednesday??? My hubby and I LOVE this show and are so happy it's finally back on. If you haven't watched it, it's on ABC Family on Wednesday Nights. These two seriously have the best onscreen chemistry.

Hope everyone has a Safe & Festive weekend!!!!

Countdown to Halloween

Hey Everyone! I'm so excited to be linking up with Courtney & Aria @ Sweet Turtle Soup for a Countdown to Halloween =)

We kicked our October off right with festive attire ... because why not ?!?!

Here are our Halloween trees that we put up this year. We had the black one last year and we added the orange one this year. I'm obsessed with trees. Halloween Ornaments are a headache to find though. Hallmark had a few out this year and of course disney had some =)  Carsyn's Halloween gifts are under the tree that she got to open on October 1st

This is a picture of what she got to open. Just some random things she could use the whole month of October.

We put out our Meadowbrook Gourds (one of my favorite decorations)

We had the Halloween Banner last year (a JoAnn's find) and this year I decided to add some real pumpkins to the mix, rather than my same old Halloween decor.

I have made the Luscious 4-Layer Pumpkin Cake a few times now and it is hands down one of my favorite desserts. Super easy too.  ((Recipe Here))

Carsyn's Bookcase got a little Halloween Spirit added to it too. We were lucky enough to find the Minnie Witch Plush on our recent trip to Disney World... she is just the cutest and my favorite thing on the shelf.

Happy Halloween Festivities to All =)

Oh Hey, Friday!

Hey Everyone... I'm throwing this Friday Favorites Post together last minute. I had huge plans to do one last week but I keep getting my days mixed up and start thinking that it's Tuesday when it's really Friday... I am blaming the beautiful fall weather on this.

One

I have a little over a week before vacation and I am getting all geeked up about it. I'm sure your thinking... "What kinda lady that gets Tuesdays mixed up with Friday's needs a vacay???" Well, this one does! I pulled the luggage up from the basement today... dusted them off & am now saying to myself... "How in the H E Double Hockey Sticks am I going to fit all this SHIT". 

The highlight of this coming trip that earns my numero uno spot on my "Friday Five" is the email I received last week. Disney sent me an email offering me the opportunity to do a fast pass quick service lunch @ Be Our Guest. :)  This was actually a total life saver because I hear it can have quite the line. I actually regretted not making a dinner reservation there about 1 month ago and when I got on to book a reservation... low and behold it was SOLD OUT.


Two

I tried this recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup the other day (not sure if it was Tuesday or Friday ;) ) and it was AMAZING! I am a huge fan of stuffed peppers so this recipe had me hooked right away. I did add 1 TBSP of soy sauce to the mix and I think it was much needed. I made the whole suggested batch and next time I will definitely cut the recipe in half since there are only three of us. However, it was great left over & didn't last long. My 14 month old loved it and sometimes she can be a little picky.


Three

I have been working on the details for an elf themed tree that I want to do this year.
Here are a few items I ordered this week..

(Elves off of Amazon)

(Elf Legs from Trendy Tree)

.. the elves will just be all over the tree & I plan on using the legs as a sort of tree topper. Stay tuned.


Four

The halloween trees went up last week but are not picture ready yet. Pictures maybe next week. Carsyn and I ventured to Hallmark though and snagged up the new Daisy Duck Witch Ornament for one of the trees. She's super tiny and is kinda hard to see on the tree but was just  too cute to pass up.

I was actually surprised with the number of keepsake halloween ornaments that Hallmark offered this year. If your on the hunt for halloween ornaments (they can be tricky to find) stop by Hallmark.


Five

Yup!!! I'm addicted. Anyone find themselves shoveling these beauties in their mouth?? Candy Corn M&M's are the Hot Diggity Dog!



I'm linking up on this beautiful Tuesday Friday with Karli at September Farm. I absolutely LOVE her blog so go check it out :)

Happy Rudolph Day!!!

Happy Rudolph Day!

Fisher Price Little People Holiday Set Sale

Hop on over to Fisher Price's Website and get some shopping done for Christmas!!! They have all their holiday sets on sale & with free shipping on $35+ you simply can't go wrong. My daughter LOVES her Holiday Little People Sets. Last year I displayed them under the Christmas Tree after we opened up all her gifts and they looked great under there :)

Also be sure to checkout their fall sale area. With the extra code you can get an additional 20% off!!! You can snag some great toys in this area for Christmas too :)