My Shadow's Wedding

In case you were picturing me with my silhouette in a wedding gown getting hitched, let me expound on that title.

This is my niece Shadow:

 Only she's 20+ years older than that now. But sometimes I still picture here as her two year old self which made me cry harder on her wedding day. Like one of those sappy commercials where a dad is watching his little girl grow up and then she's old enough to drive a Nissan.

She decided to make March 17 (St. Patrick's Day) her wedding day.

On Thursday of last week, I flew home to Indiana so that I could be there for her special day. 

My sister B picked me up from the airport and surprised me by bringing my mom with her. My hair basically shoved my mom out of the frame.

 I have a treasure trove of photos proving that I don't stop talking.

 We went out to eat at a restaurant called Granite City. My favorite part of French Onion Soup is the cheese. I just thought that was valuable information.

My sisters set aside Friday for a day of bonding. Our first order of business on all sisterly bonding days is a selfie in the car together. I would like to present to you a collage of this special time:

If you paid close attention, there's a good chance you noticed that when I placed my camera in the selfie stick for our picture, I accidentally set the place holder directly on top of the button that takes pictures. So it was repeatedly taking pictures without stopping for at least 2 full minutes while we all tried to figure out what was happening. Eventually I discovered the problem, turned the phone the other way around and we were in business.

Almost.

We couldn't stop laughing long enough for all of us to be prepared for the picture.

Putting our sunglasses on calmed us down a bit.

We spent the first half of the day in an old church building that had been converted into an antique shop. I asked one of the workers if she'd be kind enough to take our photo by one of the stained glass windows, which was no easy feat because the light from the windows kept washing us out. So I asked if she'd also apply stage makeup to us before the picture and she said no.

I bought my first pair of booties in honor of this special trip, and I ended up with blisters and cramped toes. But I looked good. So.

We ate lunch at a cute little hole in the wall joint called Pickles. My sisters K and A both applied lipstick which looked magnificent and I was determined to buy the same thing so that I can dominate the world with my lips. That's the reason for this picture.

And this one.

While were out and about, my BFF sent me this little gem. A copy of the "newspaper" the old school district I worked for put out.

Saturday was the big wedding day. My sister decided we should leave early and we grabbed lunch and a slice of pie at Essenhaus restaurant. All of the Amish waitresses there have tattoos. That's just a joke.

Finally we arrived at the Silver Palace to enjoy the beautiful special wedding day.

 Shadow had the entire event center decorated just beautifully in a St. Patrick's Day theme.

 If I could go back and do my wedding over again (which I won't because I'm too lazy) I would have a super cute welcoming table like this one.

 The aisle runner was sprinkled with little gold leaflets. They weren't real gold. I figured it out after I stuffed my pockets with a bunch of them thinking I would cash in after the wedding.

I think it's important to note here that I have the oldest iPhone known to mankind. I think it's like a negative 3. It doesn't take great shots when a room is dimly lit. 

 This might be one of my most favorite pictures of my sister K. My nephew C  in this picture had just celebrated his birthday the day before. I caught him grabbing gifts off of the gift table and shoving them in a bag believing they should really be for him. The jokes on him when he discovers a fruit tray and a set of coasters once they're opened. 

We had a lot of time to sit around and take selfies before the wedding started.

 This is Kyle, the groom. I always love to watch the look on the groom's face when he's about to see his bride walk down the aisle.

 My niece Felicia (the bride's sister) was the first one down the aisle. Isn't she cute in her green dress?

 I took an angled picture of her once she got up front because I was in a mood to act like a wedding photographer.

The time of weeping came when Shadow came down the aisle. If you listen closely, you can hear me telling my sister that I was going to ball my eyes out because she chose to walk down the aisle to the song I sang at her mom's wedding. 

 Shadow and Kyle's daughter Lydibug was the most well behaved child I've ever witnessed in a wedding party. My sister and I were just discussing how my nephew ran up to the stage to play the piano during my wedding. When my sister chased him down to stop him, he hid under it. I didn't even know any of that happened until I watched my wedding video.

I like this picture because you get a good look at Shadow's veil. I accidentally put a hole in mine when I decided it would be a great idea to sew rhinestones into it even though I don't know how to sew.

 I'm pretty sure Shadow is making sure the preacher man is reading the correct vows. I tried to sneak him some that I made up that said "I promise I will still love you even if you pick your nose and eat it".

 They were just announced Mr. and Mrs. They seem pretty happy about it so I decided I would be too.

The reception was immediately following which meant it was time for more selfies. I was also determined to get one impromptu photo of the bride and groom right away because it turns out that my favorite picture from my wedding day was taken by my cousin as Jason and I were greeting the guests to go to the reception. Look at the cutie butt couple.

 I'm like a selfie wedding crasher.

 I saw Shadow signing the marriage document and I didn't see anyone taking pictures of it so I snatched one right away. That will be $15 Shadow. Cash or Credit.

 Lydibug is so sweet.

 I asked her to twirl around for me and when she did, the aisle runner got all twisted up and I got in trouble. Totally worth it.

The centerpieces were just exquisite. I really wanted the heart shaped mirror to carry around in my purse for when I apply lipstick number 140. But I was under the impression that it would be noticed if one was missing.

 The cake. Which was vanilla AND chocolate! Everyone wins!

 Of course I realized that their faces were 100% blocked by the bouquet. 

Lydi didn't feel well. Mommy cuddles are needed, even at weddings when the mom if the bride.  Of course that all changes is the bride gets puked on.

 Shadow eventually found her pose and nailed it each time I paparazzied her.

They had this superb idea to have a photo booth set up, which was taken advantage of throughout the night.

 I'm pretty sure these photos emphasize the Irish roots in my DNA.

 The night was coming to a close with dancing brought to you by the bride & groom,

... And me. You're welcome.

The February Celebration

We've just celebrated Dawson and Evan's birthdays.

See. We bought a cake and I took a picture of it to prove it.

I've discovered that my view on birthdays is a bit different from that of most mothers. This is because I feel that a year is the perfect amount of time for a child to grow. 

You know how people say things like "you blink and they're all grown up"? I don't feel that way. It took 12 years for Dawson to become a 12 year old. I keep blinking and he stays that age until the year is up. This was especially true for me when both of the boys were babies. I kept blinking to see if they were old enough to sleep through the night.

I don't wish the years away or anything nonsensical like that. I'm just saying I'm a firm believer that God made a year the perfect amount of time for us to age. Good job God. (He reads my blog). 

I do get all sentimental when I go back through old pictures. I do so more when I look through the few baby pictures we have of Evan since I lost the first year of his photographic life minus the first two months. If I had lost his birth pictures, I would have had to march right back to the hospital and recreate the whole thing with someone else's baby, is what I'm saying.

I began blogging the year that Dawson was born. Tuesday December 19, 2006 to be exact. If my memory serves me correctly, I chose that day because the FBI released the surveillance reports on John Lennon. OR, it was because gas prices jumped in California. My memory often strongly relies on the days headlines, is what I'm saying.

This was Dawson then:

An altogether blog worthy disposition. 

(say that with a British accent, in a similar inflection of saying "a lovely sponge, that")

Here we are 12 years later, celebrating that blog worthy disposition once again.

We told him he could have some buddies over for his birthday party this year, rather than spending an entire year's salary on a location party like a trampoline joint. People don't usually say "trampoline joint" like I just did. I'm so unpredictable. 

He had his buddies Michael, Jaren and Ethan over. I didn't get permission from any of their mothers to post their pictures on my blog. When they end up famous, they'll owe me one.

I purchased cupcakes from WalMart. I realize I could have used my culinary skills for good and created a cake that all of Pinterest would have unraveled at the seams at my amazingness. However, I decided to save my energy for other important endeavors. Like writing this blog post. Cake vs Blog Post, the mighty battle.

Dawson's buddy Ethan stayed the night and in my sleep deprived state, I allowed Dawson to eat a stack of mini chocolate doughnuts for breakfast. When I've had adequate sleep and coffee, I require Dawson to eat mini chocolate doughnuts one at a time like a proper civilian. 

Dawson's number one wish on his wish list this year was the Lego Star Wars AT-M6 set which he got. I continuously had to pretend I didn't know what an AT-M6 was in order to thwart his suspicion that we got it for him. This is no small task since I'm an official #boymom and am well versed now in most things Star Wars. Did you know that Frank Oz is the voice of Yoda as well as Miss Piggy. Yeah. I'm that good.

On their actual birthday, we ask the boys to choose the restaurant where we'll eat lunch or dinner. Dawson chose Cheddar's, which I highly approved of, seeing as how I will order the entire cheese fries appetizer for myself and eat it as my meal. If only you could all be like me.

This is Evan at Cheddars. I'm fairly certain he was demonstrating The Force.

After losing all of the pictures, I became extra grateful that I blog, and have blogged all of their birthdays. I'm especially grateful that I blogged about Evan's birth story. Someday the boys will thank me that their entire lives have been posted on the internet. 

Evan didn't have an official party this year with friends. Instead we invited family over to celebrate a combined party for both boys. I call that birthday savvy.

The boys have been getting along rather well recently. I would attribute it to my wisdom and knowledge in all things motherhood, but the other day Evan yelled out "I hate this church" during a worship service we were attending as guests. So. You're guess is as good as mine regarding the brotherly love bit.

We decided to allow Evan to open his presents straight away so that it wouldn't become a point of contention. Also, giving Evan a piece of cake before opening his gifts would just double the effect of sugar in his bloodstream. Dawson seems to have grown out of that stage.

Evan currently owns 4 Bruder construction trucks. He rarely plays with them. For reasons the universe can't fathom, we still purchase these toys for him.

I had the brilliant idea to get him the Lego Dimensions Starter Kit for his birthday this year. Since I'm the evil mastermind behind the idea, I photo bombed. Also, Jason never takes pictures of me at events and I want the boys to know that I was present at major life events. (Just in case they never read my blog. I'm sort of relying on God to let them know how great my blog is so they'll read it someday).

Since it may not be evidenced in the picture, I'll let you know that Evan had no clue what Lego Dimensions was. So this gift wasn't at all exciting until he played it.

Finally it was time for cake. But first I want it to be on record that we did decorate:

Evan literally complained for several minutes straight about Dawson blowing out candles at the same time that he was. Is there any reasoning with a six year old?

The blue icing on the cake is not recommended. Please see result as pictured of my niece Mia:

It came as no surprise when Evan chose Chipotle as his birthday meal of choice. The boy lives on rice, soup and popcorn. He asked for his "favorite kind of rice" from Chipotle. The great thing about it is, a side of rice is only 97 cents. We win.

As the boys get older, it may necessitate the need for me to hire out a blogger to post about their birthdays. 

I'm getting older too. I get lazier and less creative the older I get. Now I see how old people get so grumpy. They must've blogged all their kids' birthdays.

Walt Disney World: Tips for First Time Visitors

So you're thinking of a trip to Walt Disney World. 

Right?

Because if not, I'm sort of wondering why you're reading this.

I was completely overwhelmed with all of the information out there when we first began our research about a trip to Walt Disney World. And that's the reason for this blog post. To do my best to help others who are embarking on the craziness.

So. Let's start with something important, shall we?
*Walt Disney World is in Florida
*Disneyland is in California
We've never been to Disneyland, however, some of the tips I'll share should be helpful regardless of the resort you plan to visit. If they aren't, then you can comment and let me know how unhelpful I am but only if you compliment me 5 times before doing so. I don't handle criticism very well.
If there are certain items that you are particularly interested in learning about more than others, you can find some of those written in blue font if you scroll down. 

DISNEY RESORTS

When we started planning our trip to Disney World, the first decision we needed to make was whether or not we would stay on site at a resort. I had been saving up for a year for something totally unrelated to a Disney vacation. But my other plan fell through and therefore, we decided to put that money toward Disney. As a result, we decided to look into the resort package options. (Initially, we did a ton of research on our own, and then my husband remembered that his cousin is a Disney vacation planner, so we finalized all of our plans through her).

**If you decide that staying at a resort is not the direction you'd like to go and you'd rather stay at a VRBO and jog (you know, save on gas) to the theme parks, you can skip this section and scroll down to the next portion that interests you.
There are several tiers on the resort plan option. You pay for what you choose (obviously) but what I mean by that is that if you choose the cheapest resort option, your stay will be comparable to a stay in a regular hotel room, only with a nicer pool. The main perk being that you will still have the nice benefit of transportation to all of the parks included. 
Resorts do not include park entry.  You either pay for those separately, or add them to your package. 
In the end, this is the package we chose:

• Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort (1 tier up from the value resort).
• 3-Day Park ticket, w/admission to 1 park per day. (More on this in a bit)
•  Disney Quick Service Dining Plan (More on this in a bit)

We chose the Caribbean Beach Resort because it was supposed to be a step up from the value resorts (like Disney's All-Star resorts), however, the room accommodations and and the resort grounds were very simple. Also, during our stay I saw 2 snakes. I hate snakes. I blame Mickey Mouse because blaming Trump is so over used right now. 
Our room was small and the buildings needed a fresh coat of paint, but the pool is where we spent most of our time when we were there so the I did an entire blog post about our stay at this resort so if you're interested in more information and pictures of the rooms and the grounds you can find it here along with more info in this post I did here.

DISNEY PARK TICKETS

Disney World has 4 theme parks and 2 water parks. 
You can: 
1.  Buy tickets to get into every park
2. Buy the tickets for only the parks you plan to go to
3. Buy a park hopper ticket: to exit a park and go to another park in the same day.
I'll tell you what we did.
We had 5 days to work with so we purchased a 3-Day Ticket with Admission to 1 Park Per Day. 
That being said, after much deliberation about which parks our family would like best (my family consists of me, my hubby and our 2 kids ages 11 and 6) our vacation looked like this:

• Monday: Magic Kingdom (blog post here if interested in reading more about it)
• Tuesday: Relax day. (no theme park) Spent at resort & Disney Springs shopping area 
• Wednesday: Hollywood Studios (blog post here)
• Thursday: Epcot (blog post here)
• Friday: Resort and check-out.

I'm glad we had the relax day between the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. If you choose to start your vacation with the Magic Kingdom, I highly recommend the relax day afterward because it was the largest park that offered the most for us to do, which ended in a very tiring day. Another tip about Magic Kingdom. If you make it a point to arrive before the park opens up for rides, there is a special introduction event at Cinderella's castle that you don't want to miss.

We arrived early at all of the parks and we were glad we did, because the parks packed out with people by mid-morning, which caused all manner of claustrophobic reactions from my husband. I've heard several people say that getting to the park early was not a valid option for their family because they can't get their butts out of bed. I'm not saying that's wrong. Just dumb. (kidding). Since we got to the parks earlier, we actually had a chance to ride about 3 rides by ourselves at Magic Kingdom. We were almost first in line for Starbucks at Hollywood Studios and we didn't bother getting to Epcot super early because by that time, we needed a vacation from the vacation, you know what I'm saying?

We purchased our tickets through our travel planner with our package. If you are purchasing tickets through a store (or other venue) please scroll down to that section.

Our ticket wasn't an actual physical card/ticket to get into the park, it was a MagicBand.

What the heck is a magic band?

Aha! That's the same question I had! Is it like a band that does magic? Will it make me disappear? Will it make me skinny? (another form of the same question).
No. Uh-Uh.Nope.
I thought I'd google the question to that way you could have Disney's answer and then I'll give you my paraphrase which is way better. Disney will even probably be all like "oh man, we should totally ditch our old pathetic definition and use hers which is way better". Because Disney World reads my blog.

Q.   What is a MagicBand?
A.    Tap into the magic with your MagicBand on your wrist. This colorful wristband is actually an all-in-one device that effortlessly connects you to all the vacation choices you made with My Disney Experience.Your MagicBand enables you to travel lighter throughout your vacation. Use it to enter the parks, unlock your Disney Resort hotel room and buy food and merchandise. Plus, your MagicBand gives you FastPass+ access to all the experiences you’ve selected online, so you can simply concentrate on enjoying the fun with the people you care about.MagicBands add a touch of magic to your vacation by unlocking special surprises, personalized just for you, throughout the Walt Disney World Resort. Once you’ve linked your MagicBand, you don’t need to do anything different. Your MagicBand and My Disney Experience profile will do the rest, creating unexpected Disney moments–just like magic. And, each of these magical moments will be transformed into a one-of-a-kind digital keepsake by Disney PhotoPass Service. All you have to do is go to your PhotoPass account to see all the memories we’ve captured and created for you.

My definition of a Magic Band: It's the band you wear to get into your resort room, the parks, and to buy stuff. Here we are wearing our bands. Also. My hair is glowing on the left hand side.

The gray strip on the side of the band can be removed in order to make the band smaller (especially useful if you have children). This extension cannot be added back onto the band. I have a small wrist and removed the gray extension and then I pouted about it the entire trip because I really liked how the gray accented the pink before I removed it. This is also why my socks are lined up by color in my sock drawer.

So you bought your Disney Park ticket from a guy on the subway. Why did you do that? I'm just curious.
Before we decided on the resort option, we discussed the idea of staying with some friends in Orlando and purchasing park tickets through a separate venue such as Costco or the military (through family). If you go that route, I'm afraid I won't be much help, because I'm not sure how you get your magic band. Just go ask that guy on the subway. I'll be he has one you can buy. I did wonder about this question so I googled it. See:

From what I read, if you buy your ticket through a store or other venue, you can just use that card to get you into the park. MagicBands are beneficial for convenience and can be purchased in the shops at Disney. Tip: Your MagicBand can be used any time up until the battery runs out. Note: you won't be able to use a ticket/card for a FastPass or PhotoPass, because that option is only available with a MagicBand.
What the heck is a FastPass?
Aha! I wondered that exact same thing!
It's a reservation you make to get on a ride in order to avoid the long line. Seriously Disney, you should hire me for all of your paraphrase needs. Basically, after you have purchased your theme park ticket, you have the opportunity to go online and reserve a time slot for when you plan to ride a certain ride. That reservation is then linked to your MagicBand and when you arrive at the park and that time rolls around, you can just get in the royalty FastPass line which is much shorter and faster than the pathetic people non-FastPass line, hold your MagicBand up to the scanner and continue to the ride.
Tip: we learned that you get 3 of these reservations. Once those 3 reservations are used up, you will continue to get to add another reservation (one reservation at a time) for the rest of your day. So, it's best to make your first 3 reservations as early in the day as possible, so that you can continue using them through the rest of the day. We really wanted to use our FastPass on the Mine Ride at Magic Kingdom, and we didn't realize how this process worked, so we made a reservation for 8:00 pm because that was the only time left that day to use it. We should have used our reservation for a different time earlier in the day and then tried the ride later, so that way we could keep getting more FastPasses the reset of the day.
What the heck is PhotoPass?
There are spots set up all over the theme parks where Disney staff are stationed, ready to take your picture. If you go to these stations, they will take your picture and then you can have them scan your MagicBand to link the picture to your PhotoPass. PhotoPass is the site online (in your My Disney Experience account which has to be created through Disney's website)  where you will go enter your specific ID and view your pictures with the ability to purchase them. If you purchase a MemoryMaker package (see next question) all pictures that you have taken at Disney will be on the PhotoPass
What the heck is MemoryMaker?
This is a package you can buy through Disney. You pay one flat rate for all pictures and all the pictures you have taken at Disney are included. This means you don't have to pay for pictures individually after sorting through all of them on PhotoPass. I believe the videos that are taken on certain rides such as Tower of Tower are included as well.

DISNEY FOOD

I'll admit that one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Disney is because I like food. What I didn't expect was being unimpressed with some of the food choices that I saw people had raved about in reviews. Yes. I actually read reviews about Disney food. I even printed out a list of food options available at the parks and highlighted the choices I was really intent on trying. There are whole blogs devoted to food at Disney so I'd say my behavior should only be considered as mild zealousness.
If you don't plan to purchase a Disney food plan, you should know that the food there is super very stinkin expensive. I guess that's the reason they offer the food plan. So that you don't pay attention to how expensive the snacks are. I think I was charged $5 for glancing at the glass case that held the key to the glass case that held the chocolate dipped cookie shaped like mickey ears. I will say this, if you purchase a food plan, you do get a lot of food. That being said, we chose the Quick Service Dining Plan 
What the heck is Quick Service Dining?
Would you believe that I wondered the same thing?
This plan allots each guest in your party 2 quick service meals and one snack credit per day. I had lots of questions about this, so here are my tips. We were there for 5 days and therefore we each had 10 meal credits and 10 snack credits. But the way Disney calculates is that we had 40 total credits to use any way we wished during our stay. We could have run out of them before we were done if we chose to use them all on day 1. Also, we found out that meal credit could be substituted for 3 snacks.
Quick service just means that you can go to any food location that doesn't require a reservation to get a meal. The same locations that provide meals will also almost always have snack options available.
A few tips about the food.
I didn't like the rice krispy treat mickey ears dipped in chocolate. GASP.  I know, right?

 

The marshmallow and chocolate they used both had a "not your name brand" taste in my opinion. 
I was also disappointed with the mickey shaped pretzel and the cheese sauce it came with. GUTTURAL GROWL. I know, right?

The pretzel was very dense and dry (I guess I was expecting an amazing, buttery, salty Auntie Anne's pretzel experience) and the cheese was like cheez whiz that had been drained of life. Just my opinion. The caramel corn was great. There's your redeeming quality. All the food options we had were very good, which included tacos, burgers and french fries. Tip: my 5 year old is the pickiest eater in the entire northern hemisphere of our city. Possibly our state. He would have been content having snacked his way through the parks, but we would get him a meal, give him the fries and share the rest of the meal between us.
The other dining option is the Standard Dining option. Disney’s Standard Dining Plan comes with one table service, one quick service and 2 snacks per person per night.  The table service meals are reserved ahead of time,  and once you arrive, your party is seated at a table and you have a server serving you.  Those meals come with your choice of meal, drink and dessert.  The table service meals also include the character meals, family style meals, buffets, etc… Since we chose the other dining option, I don't know whole lot about this plan. 

I feel like I'm leaving something out. But I really want to finish this so that I can go binge watch a show on Netflix.

MISCELLANEOUS TIPS

• I recommend bringing a stroller for any child age 5 and younger. Disney has strollers that you can rent, but I believe they are on a first come first served basis.
• Most of the food stations will give you free water/ice water upon request
• At Hollywood Studios it was recommended that we skip the Star Wars exhibition at the end and go to the Fantasma show instead. I wish we hadn't. Mainly because my boys and I really like Star Wars I was a bit cold because the show is in the evening and then I got sprayed with water which made it worse. I could nearly shed a tear.
• Be Our Guest (Beast's castle) in Fantasy Land in Magic Kingdom is actually a quick service location that takes reservations. We waited too long on the reservation for this so we didn't get a reservation and I wish we had.
• If you are really intent on seeing any of the characters, you'll need to go in buildings, and you will see more with reservations if you do a table service plan.
• If you stay at resort, you get a free refillable mug that can be used for soft drinks anywhere at the resort. This mug can't be used at the theme parks. 
• When we were at Magic Kingdom, we got very hot and tired and annoyed. So we wondered if we could leave, go to our resort and swi  and then be allowed back into Magic Kingdom later. The answer is yes, we could have. But we were too lazy at that point to walk all the way out to catch the bus. So we just stayed. Oh the irony.
• Buy an inexpensive plastic poncho at the dollar store and pack it. There's always a chance for rain and the ponchos at the parks are expensive.
• Resorts do not have continental breakfasts. (Apparently, a Club Level room does).

Okay. I have just used every Disney brain cell at my disposal to write this post. But if you have any questions, chances are I've wondered the same thing and I might have an answer for you, so please leave your question in the comments below and I'll answer you! 

Because I'm nice like that.

Ciao