24 Olive Street

Disney 2014 album

About a week ago I went away to a much needed scrapbook retreat. I had a lot of fun, met some new friends, and came home with a few completed projects (which is sometimes hard for me to do given the fact that I have a tendency to chat a bit! lol) One of the items on my to do list was a Disney album from our first trip to Disneyland in 2014. I started this album ages ago and then, like many projects, it got put on the back burner so I could work on other things. But thanks to my weekend away it is FINISHED and I'm so happy with how it turned out!

My original inspiration for this album was from this post on gluestickgirl's blog and as you can see my first couple pages were pretty similar to her book. From then I went off on my own to finish things up. Some of the papers/elements in this 6x8 album, including the album itself, are from the Brighton Pier line from Studio Calico which isn't available anymore (still kicking myself for not buying 2 of these albums as I love it so much!)

I separated the album in 2 basic sections: Disneyland Park & California Adventure, adding pics of the flight in the beginning and pics of Downtown Disney and the hotel at the end. Most sections of the parks didn't have an entire page but Cars Land definitely deserved its own page!

I also used cards from a few different Project Life kits along with items from my stash, mixing and matching as I created each page. I used several different page protector styles and since I started this album quite a while ago and the 4 ring albums aren't for sale anymore I had to mix and match, finding extras on Amazon to complete my book.

I also used my Fuse tool on many pages like this one to create see through pages (one of my favorite things to do in smaller albums & pocket page albums) and on the next page to create custom pockets for trip ephemera (which I will freely admit to hoarding on trips!)

One of my favorite things I included in this album is a top 5 favorites. I asked the kids to tell me their top favorites, no matter what it was, whether it was a ride, experience, show, meal, whatever. I had my 2 older kids fill it out so it would be in their handwriting and I wrote out the card for my youngest.

And here is a video of some of my favorite pages in the album:

I'm so happy this album is finished so we can look through it, reminisce and remember all of those fun memories from our first trip to Disneyland!

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#bensmagicalbirthdaytrip

Last month I took my son Ben to Disneyworld for his birthday, just a mom & son trip. It was the first time I've done a Disney trip without the entire family and I have to say, despite a little bit of guilt I was feeling it was a lot of fun!

The trip actually came about after reading that Disney was doing away with Star Wars Weekends. I had talked about and planned to take Ben to that in May this year. When I read about it being canceled I was super bummed. We're both big Star Wars geeks (aside from being huge Disney fans!). So then I thought, maybe I'll take him for his birthday instead. We could enjoy some of the new Star Wars stuff (character meets, Launch Bay, Symphony in the Stars fireworks, etc). And, he's the only one who hadn't celebrated a birthday at Disney.

Here's where the fun came in - I didn't tell him what I was planning! I waited til a week before we left to tell him with these vintage style ticket booklets that I made:

I did a few Google/Pinterest searches, used the background & castle image from this post, & played around with them in Photoshop til I got it the way I wanted. Aside from it being a fun way to surprise him it also makes a fun keepsake (I made sure to size it just right so it'd fit in a Project Life pocket page).

We stayed at All Star Sports Resort. We had never stayed there before and I thought it would be perfect for mom/son 12th birthday trip! Here's a quick run down on what we thought about the resort:

Pros: Fun, upbeat theme, esp around the pool area which had beach balls, ping pong tables, & other games throughout the day. Food court had good food (and great cupcakes...yum!!) and the couple of meals we had there were big enough for Ben & I to share. Cast members were so great. Great gift shop.

Cons: Although I didn't expect much the rooms were still a bit boring (think inexpensive hotel with some Disney decor thrown in there). However, at the $90/day deal that I got I really can't complain.  Mousekeeping only replenished toiletries 1 day out of 5 (and yes, I tip mousekeeping on a daily basis). I left a nice note for more & they more than made up for that (con turned into pro)!

The food court was very loud at times, as was the resort itself around the pool area. Lots of groups coming and going, mostly near the weekends. I knew this going in so it wasn't a huge deal for me and thankfully we had a room a little bit away from the pool area (but still in the preferred section) so we really didn't have any noise issues. My biggest pet peeve was that there were no towels at the pool area. After asking about this I discovered you had to either request extras from housekeeping or go to the front desk - both an annoyance if you're there with your family & just wanna take a spur of the moment dip in the pool.

All in all we enjoyed All Star Sports but I probably wouldn't pick it for a big family trip (I think we've been spoiled by Port Orleans!). But for the 4 day trip we had it was just fine, especially since we weren't planning on spending much time there anyway.

We had planned on spending 3 days at the parks and then 1 day at 'Ohana for breakfast and then Downtown Disney Disney Springs (gonna take me a while to get used to that change, just like when they changed MGM Studios!). However, after our 3rd day Ben had commented that he wished we could go back to Hollywood Studios again so after discovering that adding on another day at the parks would cost the same as our breakfast at 'Ohana he chose another day at HS. I would have chosen 'Ohana but it was his birthday trip so I gave him the choice :) And we lucked out because the wonderful cast member at Guest Relations also gave us 3 freebie FastPasses that we could use for any ride (that had FastPass) at any time in addition to the 3 we already had for the day. Score!! Needless to say we used our 6 FastPasses to ride Star Tours, Tower of Terror, and Rockin' Roller Coast twice!

Shirts are from Wish Upon a Shirt

One of the things I hesitated spending money on but ultimately purchased was the Memory Maker and I'm so glad I did. It's a bit pricey (even if purchased ahead of time) for just a 3-4 day trip but with it just being the 2 of us I didn't want a gazillion selfies and/or I didn't want to constantly be asking the PhotoPass photographer to take pics with my phone.

I also love ride photos! We ended up with a ton of great photos, multiple magic shots like the one above - and a few videos - so I'm super happy I decided to pay for Memory Maker. And being able to see them quite quickly on the My Disney Experience app was also pretty cool.

There are a lot of people out in the internet universe who call Animal Kingdom a half day park and I couldn't disagree more. It has always been one of my favorites. During this trip we didn't even get to see all of the park...but we did ride Expedition Everest six times (yay for Extra Magic Hours)!! Twice in the front row which, if you're a roller coaster junkie like us, you must experience. It's a totally different ride!!

Our one and only character meal of the trip at Tusker House. Good food, good fun :)

We got a peak at Pandora. Can't wait to see what they do with this land!

So here's what's great about doing a 2 person trip - you can do whatever you want (like ride Expedition Everest 6 times), eat when you want, grab a snack when you want, and skip a ride or show if you want. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not like we spend hours arguing on our Disney trips because no one can agree on a ride or food. Our family Disney trips are pretty awesome. However, it's very liberating to go with just one other person and say "hey, let's ride it again!" and we don't have to check with what everyone else in our family wants to do. And since I have a 4yr old it's just not practical (or fair) for me to go on a ride 6 times that she can't go on.

Fog + Tower of Terror = Spooky cool!

Hollywood Studios was a ton of fun because the last time we were here Ben was too short for Rockin' Roller Coaster. We definitely made up for that during this trip! I'd need to go back and check but I think we may have ridden it 5 or 6 times.

We can't go to Hollywood Studios without eating at the Sci-Fi Theater. This time we were 'hitchhikers' & hitched a ride in the back seat ;)

Ya know what else is great about taking a trip with just 2 people? You don't really think twice about getting a milkshake (or funnel cake or whatever). Because for one person it's not pricey - milkshakes for 5 people is much more costly!

Oh, and we got to meet Bolt! Not every day that he's walking around the parks :)

We didn't do a lot of character meets but we just had to do this one :)

We were so looking forward to meeting Chewbacca and Darth Vader and they did not disappoint!! And all of the memorabilia in the Star Wars Launch Bay was pretty cool.

"You support the Rebel Alliance!"

Oh yeah, definitely one of the highlights of this trip, hands down! And the Symphony In The Stars fireworks were ah-mazing!!! I kinda liked them better than Wishes. I know, I know...don't get me wrong, I love the Wishes fireworks but it was just so cool to see something different. Kind of how I felt when I saw the Paint the Night Parade at Disneyland last year.

Normally on a trip to Disneyworld we would go to Magic Kingdom on the first day. But since this was a quick trip we had to maximize our time based on park hours. So we didn't get to Magic Kingdom til day 3. And this was the first time out of all of our trips that we caught the morning show. Such a great way to start off the day! Although I'm super bummed because apparently while recording it I didn't realize I had hit pause so I missed all the characters arriving on the train in my video :( There's always the next trip, right!!

Magic Kingdom looked quite different from our last trip for sure! And the new Fantasyland area was definitely our favorite. We started off our day at Gaston's Tavern with a cinnamon roll that was quite large (would you expect any less from Gaston?!)

So much had changed since we were there last and we couldn't wait to check it all out!!

And yes, we ate lunch at the Beast's castle!! The decor was amazing, especially in the West Wing where we managed to snag a seat. We both had the roast beef sandwich which was soooo good. And, of course, a meal at the beast's castle wouldn't be complete without the Master's Cupcake (with the grey stuff which was delicious!)

I had heard about how pretty the Tangled area is and it definitely lives up to it's reputation!

And while a bit short the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Ride was a lot of fun! I wish we would have gotten the chance to ride it a 2nd time. But as most Disneyworld fans know, it's hard (if not impossible) to get everything done at Magic Kingdom in just one day. And despite going in February which should be a low crowd time of year there were still a lot of people there.

And did I mention it was hot? I so wish I had brought shorts (and so glad I told Ben to pack a couple pair!)

So many things had changed since we were at Disneyworld last (back in 2011 when I was 4 months prego with Addie!). I wasn't sure how I was going to like all of the changes. When the MagicBands first came out I admit I didn't like the idea of them. But after using them I loved them! Everything being linked on your MagicBand was such a convenience. You can even make purchases via your MagicBand as long as you have set up a credit card to your room and a 4 digit pin.

As far as booking FastPasses in advance, I admit I still don't totally like the idea. Yes, it was great for a 3-4 day trip to pretty much ensure that we'd get to ride our favorites. However, I'm a person that doesn't like her whole day planned out to the minute so that aspect still bugs me a little. Despite that, since we didn't go during peak season I was able to move a couple FastPasses around via the MDE app when I needed to. Speaking of the MDE app, it was quite handy!

The trip seemed to go by in the blink of an eye but we made some amazing memories! It was so nice to be able to just get away with Ben & have a fun time with just the two of us. Of course, my oldest daughter is already talking about the trip she wants to take with me! The years with our kids go by way to fast so it's nice to take some time & really enjoy it :)

 

 

 

4 days

It's only been 4 days since we got back from Disneyland. Sure seems like longer! Normally at this time I'd have PDD (post-Disney depression) but honestly we've been so busy with back to school stuff, sports, unpacking, etc that I haven't had a whole lot of time to think about it...which is good!!!

We had such a great time, I have over 2000 photos and videos to go through. I bought the Photopass+ ahead of time so I literally just finished downloading all of those photos (over 400!). I didn't want to forget like last time.

After we took 3 days to drive down we had one day for hanging out at the beach. After a 1200 mile road trip we needed it!! So we headed to Huntington Beach & got to swim in some pretty awesome waves. I actually have a couple pocket style pages that I created with the Pool Party kit from Noel Mignon. You can check out more here.

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel this time which was ah-mazing. Our rooms were beautiful and spacious, the pools & water slides were so much fun (my kids loved it), and we ran into Goofy twice in the lobby!

Gotta watch out for those whiskers when taking a selfie with Goofy ;)

And the kiss goodnight on the headboard?? Oh man...only Disney could think of something like this!

When we arrived at our first hotel on the road trip home my 4 yr old walked in & said "where's the music??" She still misses that music box headboard!! Me too :)

Staying here definitely added to the Disney magic of the trip :) I'm glad I scheduled one day when we weren't at the parks so we could really enjoy the pools. I wish we could've had at least one more day...but don't you always say that about a great vacation?!! I don't know that we can afford to stay here every time but I'd definitely love to go back!!

I'll have more photos, blog posts, etc once I'm about to go through everything.

I also have my Show & Tell kit that just arrived today from Noel Mignon so I can't wait to dive into that & get scrappin'!!

As Mickey Mouse would say, see ya real soon!!

hey there!

I realize it's been quite a while since I've blogged. I didn't realize just how long til I looked and...whoa, nearly 2 months??!! Although, I'm not sure if it matters. Anyone still following my little blogerooni??!!

Hello?? lol

If you're on Instagram you can find me @24olivestreet. I post there more frequently. And facebook here. But I really want to get back into blogging.

A couple weeks ago I was a vendor at the Fancy Farmgirl Vintage Market. Getting ready for that took up a lot of my time the past month. This show is a lot of fun and this year it was almost twice as big as last year. Great vendors, great customers, great time! And I was totally exhausted after!!

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Mother's Day was absolutely fabulous. I had mentioned to the hubs last week that I thought it odd that despite the fact that I love flowers and love to garden no one ever gets me flowers for Mother's Day {hint hint} So I got a gift certificate to my favorite nursery, great handmade cards, and a beautiful hanging basket.

Guess the hints worked ;)

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I've been working on lots of projects, like these for Noel Mignon:

More on my Disney travel journal here.

More on my "So You" mini-album here.

Noel's kits always have me inspired. They are filled to the brim with scrappy goodness (seriously, you won't find another kit club out there that gives you this much bang for your scrappy buck as these kits!). We have a Disney trip coming up this summer (so stinkin' excited!!!) and I'm planning on using some of the Pack Your Bags kits for another travel journal. We also have something pretty cool coming up this summer so if you're not following Noel Mignon head over to Facebook & Instagram to keep up with all of the latest & greatest news!!

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And these for Sweet Stamp Shop:

It's been so much fun getting back into card making & stamping again. I had gotten out of it a little bit over the last few years and it's been so much fun creating fun cards again!! Nicole always comes up with the cutest stamps every month. And the planner stamps...oh the planner stamps. Love them all!!

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So, despite the fact that we are in the middle of baseball season & counting down the days til summer vacation (and our summer Disney vacation!! Woohoo!!!) I have a lot more projects I'll be sharing here :)

Monsters University // decorated frame

This week I shared pics from our 1st trip to Disneyland and California Adventure. One of my favorite photo spots was in front of Monsters University in California Adventure. What I love about Disney is their eye for detail...I can sit and stair at all of the little details in stuff like this forever!

The first time we tried to get good pics it was too sunny and I ended up with 2 kids squinting for photos. Thankfully I remembered to take more pics when it wasn't quite as sunny and managed to get a couple good ones :)

Sometimes I have a tendency after a trip to scrapbook all of those wonderful memories but then I forget to actually keep some photos out for us to see everyday. So when the Monster Mash stamp set was released for Sweet Stamp Shop I knew immediately I wanted to create a cute photo with those adorable monster stamps!

I mounted my photo on some patterned paper and colored in a few of those adorable monsters with Copic markers, cut them all out, and mounted them on foam dots to make them pop out from the photo.

I colored that little guy green cause he reminds me of Mike ;)

It's hard to tell in the photo but I also added some glossy accents to the eyeballs.

Whenenver I do photo frames like this with a bit of dimension I like to take the glass out of the photo frame. But since the glass in this one doesn't come out I simply mounted the photo in front of the glass by simply slipping the edges of the paper behind the frame. Easy peasy!! And my decorated frame is done just in time for Halloween :)

California Adventure & Cars Land!!

Yesterday I talked about taking our first trip to Disneyland and Disneyland Park. If you missed it you can find it here.

I saved California Adventure and Cars Land for a separate post because there's just so much to share, especially with regard to Cars Land. So I'll get right to that!

Cars Land is nothing short of amazing. So on our first day in California Adventure that's the first thing we headed for. I will admit that a part of me worried it wouldn't live up to the huge expectations I had built up in my head.

I was so wrong!

You literally feel like you've stepped into the Cars move. No joke! Even if you're not a big Cars fan there is no way you won't be impressed with this. I will admit that when we rounded the corner to Cars Land I got a little teary eyed...almost like when I saw Cinderella Castle for the first time all those years ago. Cars was a big part of my son's childhood since the movie came out when he was just 2 1/2. We still have all the die-cast cars and now my little one plays with them :)

We got to see Red, Lightening McQueen & Mater driving down the street. We saw DJ's Dance n Drive (so fun!!). We rode Radiator Springs Racers many times during our trip. Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was so much more fun that we expected.

My 3 yr old squealed with laughter every time we rode it!

It is ah-MAZING how authentic everything looked! I could've just hung out there all day. In fact, maybe next time I just might :)

The rest of California Adventure was awesome as well. California Screamin' was such a great roller coaster. We rode it many times (thanks to fastpasses & parent swap).

Another favorite ride we rode many times was Tower of Terror. I loved how it was different from the WDW version (see, can't help comparing!).

We did get a chance to see World of Color. Great show but I have to say not everyone gets a great view. If you're not in the front of your section, chances are you're going to have an obstructed view. My son, who's about 4 1/2 ft tall, couldn't see half of it :( And we only had 1 row of people in front of us in our section. So next time we'll definitely get in line a bit sooner to make sure we get a better spot.

One of the things that was on my "make sure we get" list was a Mickey's kitchen sink. It's full of ice cream & toppings and you get to take the sink home! How fun is that??!

There's just so many things that make Disney parks great, I could go on and on forever! But this was just a tiny bit of our amazing trip!!

Next up, more fun Disney tips, tidbits, & fun stuff!

Our 1st trip to Disneyland!

How has it been 4 months already??!! I just went to a craft retreat over the weekend & worked on my Disney album and had so much fun reliving all of our Disney memories!!! We've been to Disneyworld many times but this was our 1st trip to Disneyland and it lived up to every expectation...and then some!

I spent a lot of time researching the parks (there are 2 parks compared to 4 in Disneyworld, not counting the WDW water parks) and hotels (there are only 3 Disney hotels in DL). Ultimately we decided to stay at a non-Disney hotel. I will admit I was a little worried about staying "off property". All we've ever known is WDW and it's all ecompassing magic staying on property. I was worried that it wouldn't seem "Disney enough".

Happily I was very wrong!!

We stayed at the Anaheim Fairfield Inn which was across the street from Disneyland and only about 5-6 hotels down the street. I forked over the extra money to have a themed room on a higher floor which just added to our Disney excitement!

The view from the balcony outside our room

I asked for and got the Toy Story themed room. Yes, it's essentially just some pictures on the wall, bedding, & shower curtain. But it added to our experience for sure. Having an upper level was great because we could see California Adventure from outside our door (in the photo you can see Tower of Terror, Mickey's Fun Wheel & California Screamin'...very cool at night!). The first night we got there we went to Downtown Disney and when we got back Disneyland had started their fireworks so we got to see that from the other side of our floor. Very cool!!!

We spent 5 days at the parks. Most people I asked said 2-3 days tops would be plenty but I'm so glad I opted for the 5 day tickets. Don't let the size of the Disneyland parks fool you...there is a LOT packed into those parks!!! I'm going to save California Adventure for my next post because Cars Land alone is worth a separate post!

We also had park hopper tickets but honestly there were only 2 nights out of the 5 that we utilized that, going to Disneland after California Adventure closed. So I don't know that I would pay the extra money for those again.

Walking into Disneyland Park was amazing (as is any 1st time to a Disney park!). I know a lot of die hard WDW people don't like Sleeping Beauty castle because it is much smaller than Cinderella castle. Yes, it is much smaller. But honestly, I thought it was so stinkin' cute!!

I tried to go on this trip with the idea that I wouldn't be comparing everything to WDW but sometimes it's hard not to. The thing I liked about our trip to Disneyland was that things were different. Even rides that both parks share were different. I loved that. It gives big Disney fans like us an entirely different and unique experience!

We spent 2 full days at Disneyland Park and 3 full days at California Adventure which gave us ample opportunity to experience lots of rides, shows, parades & meals.

One of our favorite meals was at Big Thunder Rance BBQ. It is served family style and let me tell ya, we chowed down!!

During the fireworks we got to see Tinkerbell and Dumbo fly!!! (Dumbo only flies in the summer)

Amazing!!!

Unfortunately, the Disneyland Parks only have 5 character meals (and 3 of those are at their hotels) so we opted to do the 2 that are in the parks. At the Plaza Inn character breakfast we got to me 9 characters!!! What Disneyland lacks in character meals they made up for in the amount of characters we got to see for sure!!

We also got to meet other characters that we've never met before, like Merida!

Merida was super sweet and took time to talk with all 3 of my kids individually :)

We also met Captain America!

So polite :) We wanted to meet Thor, too. But after waiting for CA we didn't want to wait in another line. Maybe next year when we go for my birthday...that can be one of my birthday presents ;) haha

One of the things my son wanted to make sure to be a part of was the Jedi Training Academy. We scoped out the times, made sure to get there a bit early, and I told Ben to jump, scream, & wave his arms so he'd get picked...and he did!! The big 'ol smile on his face was awesome!!! The little kids fought Darth Vador while the older kids fought Darth Maul.

He was scary looking!!! But Ben battled well :) I was so glad he got picked because this will be his last opportunity to try it (he'll be too old the next time we go to Disney).

One show that I would highly recommend was Mickey and the Magical Map.

Great show. Again, not like any Disney show we'd seen before. (It's also a great opportunity to take a break for a few!)

Disneyland Park was so much fun, filled with so many magical experiences! I think that photo says it all!!!

Next up - California Adventure and Cars Land!!!

magical

My 3yr old's 1st trip to Disney was truly magical. It is always so much fun for me to see all of the excitement & joy in my little ones as their experience a Disney trip. If you're a big Disney fan like me then you totally get it!

I will be documenting our trip to Disneyland in a few different ways. I'm heading to a craft retreat this weekend to work on my Disney album which will hold the bulk of our Disney pics & memories (you can see what I'm planning on working on here). I will also do a 2 page spread in my Project Life album since this trip took up an entire week. And lastly, I'm including a 2 pg spread in my little one's album since this is her 1st Disney trip ever. I may do a page in my older kids' albums it was their first trip, too (they've been to Disneyworld but not Disneyland). I haven't gotten that far in my planning yet!

For this page I used the Magical Kit from Sweet Stamp Shop. It's such a cute kit with lots of cards, wood embellishments, & a fun stamp set. I only used the stamp set once on this page but I am planning on using it much more in our Disney album.

You can see I have a little purple journaling tag peeking out from one of the photos. I like having little interactive spots on my pages :)

I typed directly on the 4x6 card using an old fashioned typewriter. I did this by simply attaching the card to a regular piece of paper with just a little bit of adhesive to hold it so I could run it through the typewriter. I also added some glitter stickles to the stars and glossy accents to the jewels. I planned on stitching over the Disneyland title but my sewing machine was acting up :( In fact, I just took it in today to be serviced so I may still do that when I get it back. I've found it helps keep those thickers on which sometimes fall off over time if you don't add additional adhesive.

What I love about this kit is that it doesn't have to be for Disney pics. You could use this for wedding pics or even Halloween (prince/princess pics!). So many possibilities! I had a lot of fun playing with this kit for sure!!

Tomorrow I will finally be sharing pics from our 1st trip to Disneyland so I hope you'll "join me"!!

three

We are back from our awesome trip to Disneyland! The kids had their last day of school last week. And we had company in town that just left today.

Whew.

I'm tired!

Right after we got back from our Disney trip my littlest turned 3 yrs old.

We did celebrate her birthday a bit while at Disneyland.

We had her birthday lunch at Ariel's Grotto with the princesses.

She enjoyed that cake for sure! As you can see in the photo, part of the "Happy birthday Addie" was smudged cause she couldn't wait for me to take a pic before she dove in! haha

For those who are interested, I got the cake by ordering through Disney Dining (from the main Disneyland page). I got to choose what kind of cake, filling, icing, princess, etc. It cost about $35 and they have it waiting for you at whatever place you have your dining reservations at. We also did this at Disneyworld for my oldest when she turned 9 and it's pretty similar there, too.

I promise to share lots of our Disneyland pics once I've gotten through them (you can see some on my Instagram acct) but I'll share a few from Addie's birthday lunch. The food was good (a bit pricey at $40pp +tax & tip) but our waitress was not the most personable (which always sticks out like a sore thumb at Disney since most cast members are so awesome!). Despite that we had a nice lunch and we got to meet Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Aurora & Tiana.

Ariel gave the most interaction as did Snow White who made sure to warn us about those poison apples! Tiana was the only one that got a big grin from Addie :)

That Belle costume Addie's wearing I have saved since my oldest was 2 so it's over 10 yrs old. I haven't had the heart to get rid of any of our Disney costumes and I'm so glad I kept them!

It was a nice lunch but honestly it was the least impressive of all of our meals at Disneyland. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we did it but for the price we probably will skip this one next time.

So since we did her lunch at Disneyland we kept things pretty low key when we got home. I made her cake using my favorite recipe.

The birthday girl was mighty happy :)

She had definitely had a magical time turning 3!

Getting ready for Disney!

It always seems like when we plan a trip to Disney it's so far away at first.

And then before you know it the days are winding down and it's time to go!!

We've been counting down the days, planning, packing, planning some more!

What's funny is that I've been so focused on getting everyone else's Disney shirts & such that I just discovered that I only have 2 shirts for myself for the trip! I guess that's how it goes for us moms, huh??

I made some fun luggage tags out of some old park maps. And yes, they're Disneyworld but I don't think anyone will notice :) Since we've never been to Disneyland I didn't have of those park maps to use.

We're planning on celebrating my little one's 3rd birthday while we're there so I've already planned her princess birthday lunch at Ariel's Grotto. I'm bringing along her Belle costume that was actually my oldest daughter's costume...it's 10 yrs old if you can believe that! I just never had the heart to get rid of her Disney costumes and now I'm so glad I didn't.

I also made her a little skirt to go with her Jessie shirt. We're hoping to see Woody, Buzz or Jessie...or all 3 :) Toy Story is one of Addie's favorite movies. And for the rest of us, too!

We've been getting ideas for nails on Pinterest.

But as cute as the Mike & Sulley nails look I just don't think I'll be able to pull that off. I have a feeling I'll end up with my usual red with white polka dots "ala Minnie Mouse" nails! Totally fine by me!

I'm also packing up some little goodie bags for the older kids...snacks, gum, etc. I also put a gift card in there for them.

Every time we go to Disney they bring their own money and then I give them a gift card for spending money. That way they are responsible for their spending and when the money's gone...it's gone.

And I couldn't go on a Disney trip without adding a few other Disney accessories...

I'll have more to share but that's it for now!

By the way, you can check out more pics on my new Instagram acct here!