Happy Everything 2014

Posted | 6 comments

I have been saying NO to my kids for so long about getting a video game that they have stopped asking. So I figured it was a good time to get it for them. They would never see it coming!

You know how much I love surprising them, it’s my favorite thing!

Wait till you see. They really never saw. it. coming. They still weren’t sure after they reacted and were looking right at it. SO funny!

Then they danced :-)

Happy Everything to you and yours!

We wish you all kinds of great surprises and awesome dance breaks all year long.
Happy 2015!

Mason Jar Daisy Lid. A must have for summer fun and parties.

Posted | 0 comments

Daisy Lid for Mason Jars are a must have for summer fun and parties!

We have a lot of parties at our house. Not fancy schmancy cover the chairs in white parties but just regular friends over for good food and fun parties.

Recently, I had my little girls 6th birthday party at the house. Well didn’t she want a fancy party? Yes, she did! So we covered the kid table with a pretty table cloth and let her use my grandmother’s old monterey pastel stoneware. It was lovely.

But you know what the girls loved most? These daisy mason jar lids. They thought they were the best thing since fruit roll ups.

I posted a picture on Facebook and everyone there thought those lids were the best thing since, well, Facebook :-)

This is not a new trend, but one that I think bears some reminding. Everyone has mason jars. Everyone loves mason jars. The single best purchase I’ve made this year for parties and entertaining are these cute daisy lids. Get yourself some and have a little more fun at your parties this summer.

I made myself a drink in one of those mason jars after the party was over! I choose a pink umbrella.

Disclosure: Mason jar lid links are Amazon Affiliate links!

Birthday Party Double Header

Posted | 0 comments

Yeah, you read that right. We had a Birthday Party Double header over the weekend. Just in case you don’t get it, I want to be clear. We didn’t have two birthday parties in one. We had two birthday parties in one day. One right after the other. Yep.

My kids, as you know, have birthdays very close to each other. We had the 8 year old’s a few weeks ago. A simple pizza movie night. For the other two we had to wait for the grass to grow. And yeah, you heard that right too. We were waiting for the grass to grow.

We have a very difficult time getting grass to grow in our backyard.  It has a lot to do with drainage, or something. I don’t know. But I’ve been pushing for sod for the last 3 years and he, the husband, keeps just trying to grow grass. It’s crazymaking. In his defense we have to completely redo the side and backyard and buying sod for one year makes very little sense. But, now it’s been three years….so…

All my 4 year old wanted to do was have Lightening McQueen races around the backyard. That’s IT. That’s all he wanted.

So we waited.

His birthday passed and it began to get close to the 6 year old’s birthday. So now we need to have two parties that need to happen, and fast. I feel like we need to have them before the end of school crazy starts. So now we’re a week away from Memorial Day weekend. The grass is looking not half bad, so I say “Let’s just have them both on the same day. An hour in between!” Shockingly, husband thinks this is a great idea. “YES! Let’s just get it done!”

That day, I send invitations because it’s a week away. If I’m being honest I will tell you that I kinda hoped having it on the holiday weekend would reduce the numbers. I also hoped the late notice would mean people already had plans But you know what happens when you’re awful like that. EVERYBODY can come. Yep that’s right.

So we had a Cars Party and a Fancy Purple & Pink party (that’s a thing right?). I hurriedly jumped on Amazon Prime and bought all the goodies like this super cute pinwheel craft and paper straws, umbrellas, and flower mason jar lids for the girls’ drinks. I borrowed a tent, because of course it was supposed to rain (again that’s what happens when you’re awful). Then we rented some low kid tables and called it a day.

And what a day it was. It wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but it sure was fun! The kids were all so great. Everyone was well behaved and had fun. AND it didn’t actually rain on the parties. It rained just before the first one and then not again. I really couldn’t have asked for more.

And he got his Lightening McQueen race…

The Nutcracker

Posted | 0 comments

Last year we went to The Nutcracker as guests of the Boston Ballet. It was wonderful and magical. I gave you five reasons why I thought you should go.

Photo Credit: Gene Schiavone

This year some other bloggers were treated to the same lovely experience. And this year I give you one reason to go – I give you Miss C.

A little video should be here. Please click refresh and like magic it will appear.
If you and your family can get to the Nutcracker this year I highly recommend it.

What to do when your kid gets sick at Disney.

Posted | 0 comments

First of all, if there is some kind of emergency call 911. Don’t hesitate. Just do it. Please.

Second, if your toddler falls down and hurts themselves, like scrapes their knee. Either deal with it yourself or find a nurse at the park. They have them, that’s what they do. Use them.

And third, if your child’s situation falls somewhere in between, well than you have some decisions to make. None of them are easy. Most will cost you money. It’s a shame that we have to think about money in these situations but we do, don’t we? Healthcare isn’t free, is it? Hrmpf.

In our situation we had a 2 year old with a ear infection and some asthma (undiagnosed) issues and a 6 year old that woke up with a 103 degree fever the first morning we were there.

You have some options about how to get your kid some help. You can:

• Go to Urgent Care
• Go to the Emergency Room
• Use Docs on Call – they come to your hotel
• Call your own Pediatrician – in almost every case your doc is going to tell you to use one of the above services. Most pediatricians will NOT prescribe anything for a patient they have not seen. Which is hugely frustrating, but also kind of important. If your kid is sick get them seen by a doctor.

In the first three cases your hotel will have the information that you need. You’ll have to decide what you think your insurance will cover and what you think you’ll have to pay out of pocket and make your choice. If you don’t have a car, the urgent care we used had a free shuttle which was very convenient. A taxi would be necessary for the ER trip, the front desk can get you one.

If you bought trip insurance you may just want to bail. We didn’t, so we couldn’t. It would have cost us a ton of money to change the flights meanwhile losing the money we already spent. Although for a few minutes the thought crossed my mind.

Now that you’ve taken care of the physical part here’s the other part – the mental part. The thing about having sick kids at Disney or on any vacation is that you’re going to need to get over yourself and right quick. It is not your kid’s fault they got sick, they have not ruined anything. If you breathe a moment of that to them you are an awful person. That said, I know you’re upset. You spent a lot of money, you had expectations. I get it. Have a hissy fit in the bathroom. Give yourself a good cry in the shower. Then tend to your sickies and make sure that those that are well are still having fun.

We had to slow down. We spent lazy mornings in the hotel while assessing everyones wellness, or illness as the case was. We lingered longer over lunches. Said yes more often. Ice cream in the morning? Yes. Funny Mickey wizrd hat that costs waaay too much? Yes.We went to the pool and to the arcade instead of going to the parks on a couple of days. We spent more time just being with them and watching them.

Because they were sick I had my eyes trained on them to be sure that they were feeling ok. In that observation, I know I was able to see things I would have missed otherwise. I would have been so focused on getting us from place to place and thinking “what’s next?”.

My favorite picture from our trip is this one:

I love it because we had just spent a nice leisurely time at breakfast. My guy is feeling better, but still not at his best. But he’s so excited. He is pouring over the map rapidly talking about where we should go. I think had he been well I may have shushed him and told him I had it all worked out and to hurry up that the bus was coming. Instead, I listened to him and discussed his ideas. I saw the light and the colors and my beautiful boy so happy and snapped a photo.

I know there is a place for planning out your disney trip, and I’m happy to talk about that with anyone who will listen. I have advice and ideas and real life knowledge about how to have a great Disney World trip. The fact that I can actually say our trip to Disney was great even with all the evidence that it really was not, says something. Sometimes the best laid plans… :-)

I am grateful that our first real family vacation unfolded the way it did. I am not grateful for sick kids, but everyone was, and is, OK. There was some Disney Magic around. It turned out fine. It taught us how we travelled as a family, how we face adversity, how we cope. We will never vacation the way I thought we would again. And for my family, that’s ok.

If you presently have a sick kid on vacation, listen to me, it’s gonna be ok. Make the memories as they come to you. Don’t force it. Take it easy.
You’ll laugh about it someday. Promise.

Doughnut Seeds!

Posted | 0 comments

My daughter’s preschool teachers sent her home with doughnut seeds today.

Hmmmmm – they look like they could turn into doughnuts.

She planted the seeds.


She watered the seeds.

She said she would wait for them to grow. Asked how long it would take?
I couldn’t carry on with it anymore.
I told her that there was no such thing as a doughnut seed or a donut tree.
I explained about April Fools Day and it being a trick.
Huh?

Then you could see it start to take hold and this happened…

We have sown a plan of our own and her teachers will get a tree branch with powdered doughnuts on it tomorrow.
And after that, a room full of 4 year olds with a sugar high.
Payback is a bitch.

UPDATE: Doughnut Tree pic :-)

Her teacher just about died from the giggles! Thanks Dawn & Colleen :-)