As we begin to plan our next trip to Walt Disney World, I've taken time to reflect on our past trip in April 2014, to evaluate any "must do" or "must see" items based on what the girls gravitated towards previously. Our next trip will be a bit longer and also include two additional parks, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios - which will be all new for them! So I'm excited to introduce these two parks to the girls and see what new favorites we may come home with!
At Magic Kingdom and EPCOT, the girls had a few definitive favorites and I thought I would share those in one fun video! Video clips from each ride are included!
Top 5 Rides for Preschoolers at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT:
(As chosen by the "Style girls"!) Isabella was 3 years old at the time of this trip and Natalie was 2 years old.
The Influenster fun continues with this complimentary Surfs Up Vox Box right in time for the beginning of summer!
Lots of great products in this one! A coupon for a free Jamba Juice kit, Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration in coconut papaya, Not Your Mother's Shampoo and Conditioner, Sinful Colors nail polish, and a First Aid therapy shot.
Check out my YouTube video for my first impressions!
We had a wonderful time at Disney World! Here were some highlights! We took on Disney World with a 2 year old and a 3 year old!
Magic Kingdom was of course... magical, and the girls had a wonderful time exploring. They were all new to the theme park "thing", so I felt like it took us the first day to catch our stride. We spent most of our day in Fantasyland and the adults enjoyed seeing the new addition to the park as well. (Which included Beast's Castle, Gaston's Tavern, the new Ariel ride, and the Snow White mine train ride which was still under construction at the time we were there.)
EPCOT was our second full day at Florida, and admittedly - turned out to be our favorite! We found plenty to do for preschoolers there, they had art stations and a number of rides that were preschool friendly. (Living Seas & the Nemo ride was one of our favorites!) The girls also loved seeing the World Showcase. The highlight that day was the Princess Lunch at Akershus, which also could be said to be the highlight of the entire TRIP! It was wonderful, and will be a must do on our next WDW vacation as well!
Our next day was spent at the beach, and we again had a fantastic time. It was the girls' first time seeing the ocean for them both, and they were definitely awestruck by it!
On our final day, it turned out to be a bit of a rain day, so we took to Downtown Disney and tried to get some last minute shopping in!
We had a wonderful time at Walt Disney World and cannot wait to go back! In fact, we started talking about our next trip the minute we got home and decided we needed to squeeze in one more trip at the end of the year! I'm excited to begin preparations for our next WDW trip in 2014!!
I'm a bit nostalgic writing this post… over 2 years ago, I started this blog to capture our adventures at Walt Disney World when Bella (my little Cupcake, for those that only read the blog and don't follow our YouTube Channel, beingmommywithstyle) was only 9 months old! It was her first trip to WDW and I was excited to share it with her. At the time, I was not on YouTube full-time yet, and only took limited video of the trip. Oh how I wish now I had the camera out more during that time, and caught all those precious moments on film… but alas, at least I have pictures and a few videos.
And I'm back now, after a short blog hiatus - to share a Disney trip once again. This time with BOTH girls (Natalie, "aka Peanut" was "on" the last trip… but no one knew it yet, ha!), Natalie's first visit to Walt Disney World and the first vacation there that Bella would remember. I knew this would be an exciting time, and I was so thankful that I would now have more extensive videos to look back on in years to come.
We ventured to Disney World in Orlando the first week in April 2014, and the trip went marvelous… I will be sharing a separate blog recap post for each of the "Day in the Life" YouTube videos. These will be videos that I will look back and treasure for some time, and I'm excited to be able to share them with you. I will also be doing a blog recap of my YouTube Travel Prep series and traveling with toddlers. It was an adventure, but an extremely fun one at that!
I challenged myself to try some new meals this past week, and came across some great crock pot meal options on the blog Mommy's Fabulous Finds! I was trepidatious at first, to try something new. We started out with Pork Carnitas, which went great - then onto Teriyaki Porkchops which were also really good, and finally ended the week up with Honey Bourbon Chicken - which also turned out… you guessed it, great!
Watch on YouTube to see how quick and easy these meals were - as well as the final outcome!
Pork Carnitas:
Teriyaki Porkchops:
Honey Bourbon Chicken:
All in all, it was a great experiment - and I'm looking forward to trying some new meals next week as well!
One of the perks of moving to our new house was the agreement that because my husband got his mondo sized garage, I could use a bedroom in the house for my "lady's nice things" room! I was very excited how this worked out, because having a room like this was something that I had only dreamt about in the past.
After we moved into the house in late October, it was a whirlwind of activity with the holidays and projects around the house. I didn't feel like I could truly focus on the purse room/dressing room until I had things take care of for the holidays. During December, I did get a good amount of momentum done on the room and I'm happy to finally be able to share the beginnings of my purse room!
Check out my video reveal on YouTube here:
I ordered a display cabinet from Home Decorators, the Essex Glass Door book case - and I'm using this to display a number of my handbags. Not all of them fit in the cabinet unfortunately - so I am looking for a secondary, likely smaller, cabinet to house extra purses and books…. However I love the styling of the Essex cabinet and the aesthetic it brings to the room.
The chair was a particular sticking point for the room. (And being able to finally share the room!) I wanted a chair that would pull out into a twin sleeping space, so that the room could function as additional guest sleeping space when we were hosting a number of people at our home. I originally was looking at a twin sleeper chair from Ballard Designs, the Tate Twin Sleeper Chair, and had settled on a fabric and design.
However at the last minute, I came across a chair at JCPenny, called the Twin Sleeper Chair, that was on *mega* sale - and it was a deal too good to pass up!! (Practically half of the price the Tate Chair was going to be.) In my hast in ordering from the few day sale going on, I missed that the fabric on the gray (my color of choice) chair was a microfiber… which because of fingerprint imprints would not be my first choice - overall I'm excited about the value and I think it will work great.
On the walls, I added a few prints by Lauren Maurer (check out her Etsy store!) - her gorgeous dress form watercolors have been some of my favorites to pin on Pinterest.
I also included a "charms wall" where I can add various wall pieces of interest as I find ones that speak to me.
All in all, I'm excited about the room and where it seems its headed. I think there is still a lot of work to be done, items to be ordered, and some more moving of things around… but I'm quite enjoying having my own space in our new home for my own passions and pursuits.
I'm looking forward to adding some finishing touches - changing out things like the chair at my vanity, adding a script print ottoman, and possibly a full size dress forum mannequin. It has been a lot of fun to be a bit "girlie" with a room in the house!
Do you have your own "lady's nice things" room? How have you chosen the decor for that room?
Well, life does get in the way from living sometimes - doesn't it?
We moved, craziness ensued... and I haven't managed to update Mom's Got a Brand New Bag in quite some time. Here are some highlights...
Big girl beds...
Birthdays...
Christmas trees...
Also, we had a lot of New Year's fun!
I'm debating where 2014 is going to take my blogging... should I jump to Word Press and try to take it up a notch? Or keep it the same with occasional updates here. I'm still in the decision stage but will be sure to post an announcement if I make the switch to Word Press under a new blog name!
Hope your 2014 is starting out great and I wish you all the best this upcoming year!
