Disney Trip is Shaping Up!

Last weekend I finally got to make all of my Disney ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) and I got every single one that I wanted at the time that I wanted. Whoo hoo! You have to make sure to place them 180 days out from your trip start date or you could possibly not get into the restaurants that you want. I believe that they will offer free dining again this year which will make the restaurants dang near impossible to get into without an ADR. I am really hoping that they don't offer it this year but the buzz is that it will offered from mid-August until September 22nd. Even if you check in on the 22nd, you can get the free dining the whole vacation that you have booked. We aren't using free dining because we got 40% off the room and you can only do one discount per your hotel reservation.

I also added a day onto the beginning of our trip. We will now be there on the 21st and we will be staying at POP Century that first night. I didn't want to pay another $329 at the Polynesian (plus another day of dining plan and park hopper tickets) just to sleep in the room. We should be getting there kinda late on the 21st so that would be a complete waste. Our options were to stay outside the gates for around $70 or stay on-grounds for $103.50 ($82 POP room + tax). Since we are staying on grounds, they will move our luggage over for us the next morning to the Poly. Cool huh? That made staying on-grounds totally worth it. What a bargain!

Here's the restaurants that I have ressies for:

-Kona Cafe (Poly)
This place is conveniently at our hotel and has super yummy food.

-'Ohana (Poly)
This place is also at our hotel. They cook all the meats on a huge fire pit and the servers bring it all on skewers to your table. The have limbo contests and hula hoop challenges for the kiddos. There is entertainment provided. 'Ohana means family so it caters to kids.

-Le Cellier (Canada-Epcot)
This place is known for steak. I will definitely be having one there!

-Coral Reef (Epcot)
The walls in the center of the restaurant are big aquarium 'windows' with lots of fish and an occasional diver in the tank. They have excellent steak and seafood.

-Whispering Canyon Cafe (Wilderness Lodge)
The Wilderness Lodge is one of my favorite hotels so I want to eat there to show it to my Mom. She will love it too. This restaurant is known for having silly waitstaff with nicknames like Lazy Susan. The food is really yummy and there are lots of things for the kids to do. They have pony races on stick horses during dinner. If you ask for drink refills, they bring you a cup the size of a bucket. If you ask for catsup, they bring MANY bottles (think 20+, lol) to your table. It's all in fun.

-Chef Mickey's (Contemporary)
We will be doing a character breakfast on our "free" morning. I have no plans for doing a park on that particular day so there will be no rushing. The food looks good (who wouldn't like waffles that are shaped like Mickey heads?) and the kids will love the character interaction.

-50's Prime Time Cafe (MGM)
Oh yum! This place is all about home-cooked meals. Your waitress will be playing the part of "Mom" and she will treat you like family. The tables are in what looks like a individual 1950's sitcom kitchens. It's all very retro. "Mom" may tell the kids to eat all their peas or no dessert. It will be alot of fun.

-Rainforest Cafe (Animal Kingdom)
I really like this restaurant. It is super fun and the food is pretty good. The kids will love seeing the fake animals and the occcasional thunderstorms are pretty cool.

-Sci-Fi Dine In (MGM)
This is my all-time favorite fun place to eat at WDW. You sit in a car and watch clips of old movies while eating. Kid plates are served on frisbees and drinks have glow cubes in them. LOVE this place!

-Garden Grill (Epcot)
I have wanted to eat here since my first trip back in the early 80's. You sit in a booth the revolves around the restaurant. It looks really neat. From what I have read, the food went from good--bad--back to good. I will just have to take my chances. This a character meal so the kids are really going to have a fun time.

We are still debating on doing the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. It will be offered on both the 21st and 28th of our trip. We shall see.

April TSR Sneak Peek Layout

Here's a sneak peek of the new April TSR kit. If you haven't checked them out before, you really should. This is the first kit that I ever subscribed to and that was 2 1/2 years ago. The kits have always been amazing and I am so thrilled to design for TSR now. Each month, Tammy puts together the most amazing mini kits. There are 4 mini kits in each monthly kit. You can get at least 8-12x12 layouts completed using the entire monthly shipment. You really do get a lot of bang for your buck as each kit comes with lots of awesome embellishments and the latest/greatest papers.

Anywhooooooo, April's kit is so exciting!!! The line that I used above is SEI Citrus Kick. I love the funky colors. The letters and flower stickers are puffy which the scan does them no justice. They look so much better in real life. The layout is missing some ribbon and I am waiting to get that in the mail. Notice the Top Ten journaling? That is an awesome stamp that is exclusive to TSR. It is actually 3 stamps in one-the border, the list and "Top Ten".

A quick layout that I did today...

Double pagers are a rarity for me but I just couldn't leave out any of these cute pics for a 1-pager. I can't believe how much Hayden has grown since these photos were taken. They are from 6/2005 and he was almost 2 1/2 years old. If you click on the layout, it will show up larger.

Hee hee, a funny for the day...

Wolfpack or Tarheels?

LOL

Some artwork from the boys...

The boys made these last week in preschool. Aren't they cute?

I am so sorry that I haven't uploaded any pics recently. My card reader is giving me heck and I can't get some images to transfer off of my card. Ugh. Hopefully, we will get this fixed soon.

Been scrapping like a fool and a soccer update

I have been working hard to finish my 2005 album. It is almost complete at this point. Yay! Once it is done, I will have 2000-2005 scrapped and put into pretty binders. Hayden's 1st year album is done and I am about 75% done with Emerson's. I have got to get these things done or I am going to go batty. I completed another layout for 3SB today. It is shown at the bottom of yesterday's post. I also re-uploaded the layouts on that post because the colors didn't scan correctly. Now that I have figured out my new scanner they look 100% better!

Hayden had soccer today for the first time. He had to go show off his skills (or lack thereof, lol) so that they could figure out what teams to put all the kids on. He didn't get to do much, but he did enjoy it. We went and bought him a new ball and some cones so that he can practice at home. He is so cute! I can't believe that one of my babies is playing sports. Wow, time sure does fly.

I have some pics to post from Valentine's that I forgot about. I will try to get those up tonight or tomorrow. Hope you all are having a great weekend. :)

March kit from 3 Scrappy Boys (ADDED 2 NEW LAYOUTS BELOW)

I did this layout today in record timing. The mail man dropped it off around 2pm and I immediately took it up to the scrapbook room to create something with. About an hour later, I finished up my first design team assignment for March. I gotta say that I absolutely love this kit!! The colors and papers are so cool. The chipboard letters are a favorite of mine. If you are interested in getting one of these kits (there is also a pastel pink/green one), head on over the 3 Scrappy Boys while they are still available. The link is in my side bar. ;)

ETA: Here's another one that I completed tonight:

**Completed the layout above today (Saturday 2/10).

Updates

Hey all, I will be keeping the blog private for another week or so. I know it is annoying. A magazine wants one of my layouts and I do not know which one. I want to make sure that it is not posted publicly and that is why my blog is not able to be viewed by everyone for the time being. They did not specify that the layout could not be posted on the net or viewed by others until after the submission period was over. Ugh! It will likely be that the layout that they want isn't available anyway, but I would rather just keep everything hidden for a little bit longer.

Our Disney trip is now officially 201 days away! We can't wait. I will be making our ADR's (Advanced Dining Reservations) on the 26th. Trust me, that is a necessity due to how many people use the dining plan now. I want to make sure that we can eat at all the cool restaurants.

My friend Tracy just found out that she is having a little girl and we are all so excited for her! I am helping her friend Lisa throw her a shower on April 1st. I bought her some of my favorite goodies: a Baby Bjourn, Huggies Supremes diapers, Johnson's Baby Lotion, a rattle like Emerson had that he loved, Huggies wipes, etc. I could go crazy buying her stuff. I still want to buy an outfit or two. It is so fun! She will also be getting my high chair. I am in charge of making food for the party. If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. ;)

Clayton and I are going to be getting another 4-Runner sometime this year. We have been looking around alot lately. We were going to buy another used one but we may wait and buy a brand new one late this summer. It depends on a number of factors. We will be keeping our old 4-Runner and trading in the van. Yes, it is a little weird having 2 of the same vehicle, but that vehicle has been the best thing that we have ever bought. She is a 1996 and has 130K miles on her. She has never given us any trouble and she is now 11 years old. You can't beat that! Just in case you are wondering, her name is Suzy (contrary to what Clayton thinks, lol). I really hope that we can hold out and get a new one. We shall see. I have my fingers crossed. It would be awesome to get it before the Disney trip!