Sweet Summertime

I started this post so long ago and never even got past the title and first few sentences! I can’t easily (read: quickly) get some of my favorite iPhone pictures onto my computer and into my blog and it is so annoying! So we are just going to go with what we have – follow me on Instagram for pictures, it’s my favorite!

We’ve had a FAST summer – school starts here next week!! The girls made a “summer fun” list and they have accomplished 75% of what they wrote down – we’ve had to make a few tweaks due to timing and we’ll carry it over through labor day to get a few more things marked off. It’s been fun for all of us!

June mostly left us finishing up Gianna’s first softball season, which she enjoyed more than any of us thought she would. The three little siblings were excellent spectators as long as I provided them with enough snacks and grass to run in. We also did some swimming, dancing, threw a baby shower for my sister, more swimming and played with friends as much as possible.

July we spent a lot of time swimming, riding bikes and playing with friends – all the things summertime for a kid should be made of! We did spend the night in Columbus one weekend (6 people, 1 hotel room…. i’m glad it was only 1 night!) and had a good time exploring a bit down there. There was some more dancing too, of course!

August so far has been us trying to fit in as much fun as possible before school starts! The girls finished up their summer reading challenge at the library, we’ve gotten ice cream, more playing with friends and riding bikes. We explored some new local places we haven’t been before and we have a big neighborhood water balloon fight planned for this weekend!

I’ve tried really hard to let them a) dictate some of their own time more often and b) be as present as possible with them (which is a challenge with a new baby and when they all want to do something different at the same time!) – it’s been mostly successful.

I hope they’ve made as many great memories as I have this summer – it’s definitly been one to remember.

These Days….

There is so.much going on around here (always?!) and 101% of the time, I have no time to really even process all that is happening in our lives. I am going to give a quick rundown and I really, truly (honestly) hope to expand on most, if not all, of these things going forward.

* Gianna started FIRST GRADE last week. We ended up moving her from Catholic to public school after a really long debate. I think we made the choice that made the most sense. The first week went well for her, so that’s exciting for all of us!

* Aleesia is officially 2.5 and she is THE SPUNKIEST ball of energy I have ever met. I’m lucky she is mine, but also, wow – she makes me tired!

* Being a full-time work at home mom for the past 6 months has been so great. And so hard. And so many things. There are a few things I can say for certain though. This wouldn’t be possible without my village – our nanny, my sisters, my parents, cousins, so many people who help out when needed. Being at home has been so fun and the flexibility I have is wonderful. But it is HARD to be “on” all of the time.

* We are going to the beach in a few weeks! We are going to Hilton Head for the first time and really looking forward to it. If you’ve been there – tips, tricks, places not to miss are all greatly appreciated! We are planning on vising Savannah as well while we are there.

* Our new house! Oh my gosh, so much I can say about our new house. We have a pre-drywall meeting this week and we are looking forward to that. I have pictures of the whole process and will hopefully do a few posts related to our building process (which has been really great). Things are moving along and I am ALL OVER the Pinterest boards with updates and ideas for decorating a house that is significantly bigger than our previous home.

* Vivian is such a sweet baby! She finally started to sit up on her own and can go from laying/crawling to sitting. She’s been crawling for at least 2 months so she gets all over the place and flashes her amazing smile at us! She is a bit of a mommy’s girl and she doesn’t love to sleep without touching me. It has been hard to get her in a sleep routine, but we’ll get there. We started to give her some baby food a few weeks ago and she is just now really getting the hang of eating from a spoon.

* I ran a half marathon last weekend, it was a great race and I had a pretty huge PR. I’m looking forward to my next one in September. I also finished my 4th (or 5th?!?) MBA class last week. I’m looking forward to finding some good books to read on vacation – any ideas for me?

Overall, I’m not ready to give up summer yet but also ready for the routine the school year brings. We have fun plans that will get us through the end of September and then our fall plans (and moving!!) start up in October! I don’t feel like I am as organized and on top of life as usual right now which is frustrating but somehow we are all getting through our days!

Disney 2014–The Recap

Now that you are thoroughly schooled on our trip to Disney this year, how about a quick recap and a few tips for anyone wanting to go with a 5 and 1 year old? I included a few money saving tips, general stuff, etc.

Tip #1 – If you can pull off the surprise, do it! Gianna just told me the other night “that was the best surprise of my whole life” when talking about our vacation this year. Totally worth it!

Tip #2 – You really don’t need a double stroller. We toyed around with the idea of renting one but I’m glad we didn’t. Gianna whined a little bit here and there, but we just went at her pace. We let her ride sometimes and either carried Aleesia or let her walk, which worked out fine.

Tip #3 – Bring a waterproof bag with you. It rains a lot in Florida (esp. in the summer) and it was nice not to worry about our things getting wet. We also pack light – essentials only: diapers, wipes, autograph books, pen, camera, and a small board book that I didn’t care if anything happened to it or not. I packed bubbles but they never made their way into the bag somehow – I thought that would have been a fun way to help entertain Aleesia while we waited for Mike and G when they were riding things!

We are big proponents of staying on-property if you can for a few reasons. Convenience. The experience. Convenience. We have always flown to Florida, so not having any concerns over transportation is fabulous and we have been absolutely over the moon pleased with every experience we’ve had at the resorts.

We are also big proponents of utilizing the dining plan, especially if you plan to do character meals. They can be pricey, and sometimes, the food can be far inferior to what you might ACTUALLY want to eat but Doc McStuffins is there so who cares about the food. It’s nice not to have to worry about having money for meals (aside from tips) or snacks because it’s already handled. Disney is generous with portions so we usually just had Aleesia and Gianna share (or Aleesia and Mike or I) since kids under 3 are free/not dining plan eligible.  My biggest tip here is just to try and schedule your meals near the park you want to go to that day so you aren’t traveling all over trying to get to/from the park or the hotel you are eating at!

We still bring some of our own snacks to try and combat Hangry Kid Syndrome. This time, we brought fruit snacks, cereal, and granola bars. 

Tip #4 – Bring your own special souvenirs. The girls love these. Again, it saves a bit of cash from the get go and we didn’t hear too many “I wants” from the biggest girl since she “got” something new every morning! They each got a special souvenir (and picked one for baby sister) too!

FastPass+ was confusing to me at first, but once we got there it all made sense. I was worried that our days would feel super structured trying to keep up with our dining and FastPass reservations, but they really didn’t. As a quick recap the FastPass reservations we made per park were:

• Hollywood Studios: Star Tours; Toy Story Mania; Disney Jr. Live
• Magic Kingdom Day 1: Splash Mountain;  Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet; Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid
• Magic Kingdom Day 2: Ariel Meet and Greet; Story Time with Belle; Mine Train
• Epcot: Sourin’; Test Track; Nemo and Friends

My biggest suggestion, try and get your times as early in the day as possible so you can add on additional FP+ reservations throughout the afternoon and evening. It’s okay if you skip out on a FP you already scheduled – don’t sweat it! This is still a vacation after all, so try and go with the flow some and not follow a strict schedule. Unless you like strict schedules, then by all means, carry on!

Tip #5 - Park hoppers, for our family and for most families with little kids, will be an unnecessary added expense. It is hard to do everything in 1 park during the day, let alone packing up and moving to another park in the same day. If you are worried about feeling rushed, skip the hopper. We have yet to have a time where we were sad that we couldn’t hit up another park in the same day because we were all so tired by the end of the day just from enjoying one park at a time!

We don’t usually go to a park on the day we get there/day we leave. This time was a bit different but we didn’t go anywhere the last day. We “slept in”, swam, lounged, got caught in a giant thunderstorm, gift-shopped, and just took it easy. I highly recommend this wind-down time at the end of your trip – and if you are staying more than 4/5 days, try to add in a non-park day in the middle of the week too! Go to downtown disney, it’s super fun and Mike and I were actually really disappointed we didn’t make it down there this trip.

2014 was another super successful Disney vacation for the Dixon family and we are already excited to take baby sister when the time comes!

Is there something else you want to know about our trip? Ask away!!

List of all 2014 Disney posts:

• Hollywood Studios
• Magic Kingdom 1 and 2
• Epcot
• Art of Animation

Disney 2014–Magic Kingdom part 2

On our second day at Magic Kingdom we had just as much fun as the first day! Minnie Mouse left the girls each a new shirt to wear for the day as their special gift.

First stop was the Polynesian for breakfast at Kona. This was a non-character breakfast but the food? You guys! The Kona coffee and the Tonga Toast almost made my whole day. It was a nice, quiet, relaxed breakfast before our day started.

We headed into the park and first stop was Story time with Belle – this was so so fun! Gianna got to be Maurice (shiver, shiver!) and the magic mirror on the wall was so cool! I highly recommend using a fast pass for this so you don’t miss it.

Mike and Gianna then rode the Mine Train while Aleesia and rehydrated. According to Mike, it’s worth a fast pass but not a 60+ minute wait. Gianna didn’t seem to love it.

We decided to make our way back down Main Street USA to get Mickey ears (I wish we had bought them the day before, oh well).

We were selected for a Fast Pass lunch at Be Our Guest. We chose to pre-select our food when we selected our lunch time and it was really easy. The food is much more ‘fancy’ than we normally eat but I was able to put in special requests and the food was made to our satisfaction. The restaurant is such an amazing place – it’s worth a walk around, if you can. I didn’t get any good pictures of the inside, somehow. But take my word for it – if you can get a reservation here, TAKE IT! The grey stuff IS delicious.

It was raining when we left and headed to Ariel’s grotto (our 3rd and last Fast Pass this day). The line for this was outside, which stunk. And it moved pretty slow when we were there, which were the only downfalls.

 

Since it stopped raining by the time we were done, we  checked out Gaston’s pub. Gianna and Mike shared a LeFou’s Brew.

I can’t even remember what else we did but eventually Aleesia fell asleep and we found a good spot on Main Street to catch the 3pm parade.

Aleesia eventually woke up and seriously LOVED the Mickey balloons (this guy was so fun hanging out with her for a little while!). WE all goofed around taking selfies.

I still don’t know what made her cry, but this is a pretty epic picture.

Mike got me a much-needed Starbucks.

Finally it was time for the parade, which everyone really enjoyed!

We added on a Fast Pass to see Tinkerbelle so we headed there next. Aleesia liked looking at the “lost things!”

We wandered around Adventureland and eventually rode the Magic Carpets.

We had also added on a Fast Pass to see Cinderella – Gianna’s favorite princess. She signed Gianna’s ears and you would think they are now encased in gold.

Rapunzel was there too! Her and Aleesia became fast friends.

On this day, it was ready to start storming, we were all tired and we headed out of the park early and had dinner at our hotel. We enjoyed a slightly laid back park day and an early night of rest!

Disney Recap Part 1– Surprise, Art of Animation & Magic Bands

So as I eluded to in my first vacation recap post, Gianna didn’t know where we were headed for the rest of our August vacation. We jumped in the car early in the morning, grabbed some donuts for the road and after just a little while heard from the back seat “where’s the beach? When will we be there?”

Mike and I hadn’t really thought through when we would tell her but it turns out, we didn’t have to worry about it – we passed under that awesome Welcome to Disney sign and she figured it out. My dang phone didn’t record the video right but it was a fairly epic parenting moment.

Gianna kept saying “wait, this isn’t the beach. Or is it a Disney Beach?” Once she realized that we were going to Disney World she told Aleesia “SISSY! YOU GET TO MEET MINNIE AND I GET TO MEET ELSA!” When we pulled into the resort parking lot she couldn’t stop smiling. It was priceless and something that I know we won’t forget.

The Art of Animation is a really cool, really Disney resort. We did the online check-in and requested an early check-in (we were there before 10am). Our magic bands worked as soon as we got there, of course.

Our room was ready before we even pulled our car up to unload the luggage. So we unloaded our stuff and while Mike returned the rental car we let the girls explore the splash pad (so fun!) before we needed to head out to the park.

The whole resort is themed, we stayed in the Little Mermaid rooms. These are the furthest from the main pool, food, resort area but the walk wasn’t as bad as I originally thought it might be. You go through the Lion King area and Aleesia loved to roar at the lions! We had a parking lot view and our room was really quiet. I would imagine if you had a pool view room it may be a bit louder. We were also able to see the Hollywood Studios Frozen Summer fireworks from the resort, so that was a fun feature! The Little Mermaid area has it’s own pool (we never got a chance to use it, though) which is great. The girls LOVED the themed room – I mean, LOVED!

(The girls got prizes again this time (their Minnie night gowns were from the night before) to help combat the “I wants” – Gianna remembered this from last time and was so happy to have discovered the princess dresses that Elsa left for her and Ariel left for Aleesia. She was so excited!)

The splash pad and main pool are wonderful. There is a jogging path available as well, which I thought was nice. The food at the resort was really good and there was a wide variety of snack and meal options that we all enjoyed.

We did explore the resort and of course the girls took pictures

We did not have any issues with transportation (we never have, though) and again, our room was great. If you stay in the Little Mermaid area just be prepared to walk for an extra 10 minutes when you get back from the parks. The other resort areas are much closer.

Now for a little MagicBand recap:

• The girls did not mind wearing them at all. Mine fell off from time-to-time for some reason, though. Aleesia’s did not do anything except unlock our resort door – but she enjoyed wearing her “pretty”!

• I wish we had known (or remembered) as soon as we checked in that you need to establish (and know!) a pin number to purchase anything using your band. This goes for using the dining plan or purchasing something from a gift shop. So I am reminding you, ask about your pin number when you check in!
• I found the entry into the park a bit more time consuming over using the key cards, but honestly it wasn’t a huge deal or delay. Unless your fingerprint doesn’t capture in the system and you have to have a Cast Member assist you almost every time like I did!
• All of our fast passes worked perfectly and I was SO THANKFUL for this feature. More on this later related to each park.
• All of your photopass pictures are also loaded using your band. The one-stop-shopping feature is great.
• It’s fun to get the Mickey to light up!

Next up are park and dining reviews and all about our experience with a 5 and 1 year old!