Disney Love

This year for Christmas we decided to focus (there's my One Little Word!) more on experience gifts and less on adding more stuff to our house. My sister Kristen and I cooked up a plan to surprise our kids with a trip to Disneyland over New Years. One thing that made it extra special was that my sister's kids had never been there before. I was so excited to share one of our favorite places with them.

On New Years Eve we packed everyone up and drove six hours over to Anaheim. We arrived in time for dinner and decided to wander around Downtown Disney to find something to eat. After dinner we explored the Logo store and the World of Disney store for quite a while. Disneyland did a huge fireworks show at 9:00 p.m. and we found a great spot in Downtown Disney to watch. Perfect way to bring in the new year!

We were in bed by 10:30 pm which I think is a first for me on New Year's Eve, but we had an early morning ahead, so we wanted as much sleep as possible. We spent the first day at Disneyland. The morning crowds were low and we were able to get on a bunch of rides. Indiana Jones broke while we were on it and we sat for about 30 minutes before they had us walk off of the ride. The good news was that they gave us passes good to get on three different rides without waiting. Sweet. 

We had lunch reservations in New Orleans square where we shared a few Monte Cristo Sandwiches and garlic fries. It's been a tradition to eat there, but I must say that the sandwich is a little too much fried dough and I'm probably finished with it. I'll just stick with Mickey shaped beignets for my fried food while at Disneyland!

We loved going on all of the main rides and really packed so much in that day. We had dinner reservations at Big Thunder BBQ which was one of the highlights of the day and we plan to do that every time we go to Disneyland. The food was really good, it was all you can eat and it even included drinks. We all orderer hot chocolate to attempt to warm up while we ate at watched a musical show.

After 15+ hours in the park, we called it a day and walked back to our hotel.

We spent day two at California Adventure where we had another fun filled day. We headed straight to the Carsland ride and while our group was in line, I grabbed Fast Passes to use later that day. Fast Passes and one of the best ideas ever and really help make the whole experience more enjoyable. The only down side of the day was when we scared a few of the kids on Tower of Terror, but they all survived. 

I'm so thankful that our family got to have this fun adventure!

It's Back to School Time!

Our kids are now wrapping up their third week of school. It feels great to be settling into our new routine. Because of our move earlier this year, our kids are all at new schools. The homework is so much less at these schools and everyone (including me) is happy about that. They now have more time to practice the piano!

We had a bit of a rough start to the school year with Audrey coming down with a staph infection and being quite sick for a couple of days and missing school. Thanks to antibiotic shots at the doctor and antibiotic pills for 10 days, she is back up to full speed and loving 8th grade.

This week on the Glitz Designs blog we are sharing ideas for using Glitz products for a back to school themed project. This was the perfect opportunity to use the back to school photos from this new school year.

I love the big "The Adventure Begins" piece from the Glitz Color Me Happy Bits and Pieces paper. It seemed like the perfect title for a new school year at a new school.

A huge new box of Glitz Designs good have arrived, so this will be my last page with the Color Me Happy line. I've used up every last piece of paper and have loved using the bright and cheerful colors on so many of my pages.

My pink typewriter came in handy on the journaling.  Love it and I need to remember to use it more often!

Layout Supplies

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Patterned Paper: Bits & Pieces, Chalkboard

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" 6 X 6 Paper Pad

Glitz Designs "Wild and Free" Giant Roller Doodle Plus

Glitz Designs "Finnley" Triangle Washi Tape

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Rainbow Washi Tape

Glitz Designs "Color Me Happy" Rainbow Alpha