Saturday, March 31, 2012

5Q Friday...Mar 30

1. What giveaway would you like to do on your blog? I would do a gift card giveaway....maybe for Pier 1, or Pottery Barn. Can't go wrong there can you?
2. If you had to choose between natural artistic ability and natural athletic ability, which would it be? I would love to be more artistic! I have always wanted to be able to draw or paint.
3. Do you ditch the coat the minute it becomes "spring" or are you a holdout for more cool temps? I ditch the coat. I'm at that wonderful age now where I'm always too hot. I also just want to wear a t-shirt when everyone else has a sweater on. :O)

4. What would you do if you won the mega millions lotto of 1/2 billion dollars? Travel, give lots of $$ to my family, donate to various organizations, travel, maybe even buy a vacation home... you get the picture!

5. You are at a hotel by yourself...what do you do? Hopefully, my room has a balcony with a view, because I love sitting out on the balcony! It is so relaxing! :O)
hotel balcony @Va Beach 2009

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Destination Disney: 9 Favorite Characters

I'm linking up with Heidi again for Destination Disney. This week I get to tell you about my 9 FAVORITE CHARACTERS. Here they are {in no particular order}:
Minnie Mouse~ a favorite of mine! The first picture was taken in 2011. I spent a few solo hours in MK, and met up with Minnie by accident. The line was too long to wait get a picture with her, but she saw me trying to take a picture from a distance and turned and posed for me. How cute! The second Minnie picture was taken on our very first family trip in 2008. Nathan and I became obsessed with meet & greets!!! We got tons of character pictures and autographs that trip!

Mickey Mouse~ of course Mickey made the list! We have lots of Mickey photos, but my favorite is this one with Sorcerer Mickey- I finally met up with him during our trip in 2011.
T-I-G-G-E-R~ who doesn't love Tigger? The first picture was taken during dinner at Crystal Palace on the first night of our trip in 2011. The second picture with Tigger was taken in 2008 at AK. That particular Tigger was fun, fun, fun, fun!!!

Donald Duck~ One of Nathan's favorite characters. This picture was taken in Mexico {Epcot WS} in 2008.
Mary Poppins~ Funny story about MP....during our first family trip in 2008, we became obsessed with finding characters at all the parks. Nathan recognized most of them, but I guess, being a boy, he had no clue who MP was! He was a trooper though and humored me and got his picture taken with "a fancy lady". :O) I have always seen her in the white dress {like below}, but during our last trip in January, I ran into her in different costume {second photo} which I love! I would have waited in line for a photo, but time didn't allow.

Alice~ The funny story continues, and the look on Nathan's face pretty much tells the story!! It was so funny when Alice started talking to him in her tiny, soft voice....he looked at her then looked at me, and then smiled as they had their picture taken together. That is, I'm sure, the one and only picture I'll ever get with Nathan and Alice...LOL! The second picture was taken in 2010. You can tell by the outfit that it was a chilly day! I love that Rabbit was with her too.

REMY~ I posted about my love of France and our wonderful meal at Les Chefs de France in 2011. Peter knew nothing about Remy, and you should have seen the look on his face when I saw them bringing Remy out and I said, "OMG...there's the rat!!!":O) I should have explained before we got there, huh?
Stitch~ While Stitch isn't a personal favorite of mine, he will always be a special character to me. During our 2008 trip, we searched and searched for Stitch. He was the one character that Nathan had on his list to meet. It was his favorite character and he really wanted to get a picture with him. We had pretty much given up, when on the last day, we found him!!! It was an awesome interaction, and I just love this picture!! :O)
Finally, my favorite(s)......who I have yet to meet...the Seven Dwarfs~ we did get to meet Dopey {and Snow White} during our trip in 2008 and we saw them in the Spectomagic Parade, but I really, really want to meet all 7 and get a picture with them! I know that they are at MNSSHP, but we never go to WDW in the fall. I'm not sure if there are other times of the year when they are available for pictures??? Maybe someday we'll go in the fall, as I'm sure the decorations are gorgeous, and I would love to go to the Halloween Party!



this photo copied from web
There you have it, my 9 choices of favorite characters! Hope you'll hop on over to Heidi's blog and join the fun!

Hydrangea Wreath

Last summer, I posted about a hydrangea wreath that I wanted to copy. Last fall, I clipped a bag full of hydrangea blooms and put them in the shed, and pretty much forgot about them. While I was decorating for Spring, I came up short for something to put on the back door, and started searching for an idea. I came across a few pins on Pinterest again for the hydrangea wreaths, so I decided to dig out the bag of dried blooms {and boy are they dry!}, and copied the wreath idea that I posted about. Here's how mine turned out!






Wednesday, March 28, 2012

a "fun" fundraiser

We are just party animals...NOT! But we are turning into fundraising queens! Yesterday, before Women's Night Out, we had a "fun" day for the little kids. OMG.....how could I have forgotten how much energy a 3 year old can have???? For a couple of hours, we attempted to keep busy about 25 kids ages 3-8, it was definitely challenging, but I think they had an awesome time! I'll let the pictures tell the story!
Will getting his face painted
crafts
the girls had their nails painted
snack time
Lukas really enjoyed his cupcake :O)
Alona is ready to play some games....
don't get caught with the egg when the music stops....
helpers Mariah & Marissa

no bunnies for Sam, he chose an Angry Bird for his face paint...
Tara and Will wanted seconds....yummy cupcakes!
Gavin out ate everyone...it was so cute how he rounded up the leftovers for one last little snack before heading home! :O)

52 Photos/ Sign

This week's word is SIGN.....


I have made this week's word much harder than it should be, after all, there are SIGNS of Spring everywhere!!!

Sweet & Sassy

Wow! What a busy weekend and week this has been!!! More on what's been going on at our house in upcoming posts, but for now I wanted to share two of the sweet treats I made for last night's "Women's Night Out" fundraiser. Thanks to Pinterest I have literally gone crazy with the creativity! We did a ladies night fundraiser that included desserts & cappuccino, along with games and of course, dancing! We had a blast, a night full of laughter and just letting our hair down....it was very evident that some of us have been cooped up wayyyy too long this winter...LOL! :O)
I made white chocolate dipped PEEPS w/ sprinkles, which I thought would be super easy to make...NOT! Did you know that white chocolate is a pain to melt? There must be a secret that I haven't learned, please share if you know the secret to melting it perfectly.


I managed to dip about 20 PEEPS, before losing patience, then moved on the my next treat.
These 3 ingredients make this cute bird's nest candy!
I also made 7 Layer Bars, and sliced up a Lemon Pound Cake that I had in the freezer. There was a whole table of other homemade yummies too! Did I say I needed a diet? :O)
Let Birds Fly

Menu Plan Monday: January

hello January: MENU PLAN MONDAY 🗓️ I love all the winter dishes like oysters and ducks, collard greens, soups and stews. Just give me all t...