Disney on a Dime #3

#3: Autograph Books

I knew I wanted to have autograph books for the kids to use at Disney, but I wanted them to be special. Certainly not the mass produced ones they sell at the parks for an arm and a leg. So I stalked Etsy and found this lovely little shop.

Jodi takes old Little Golden Books and rebinds them along with either blank or lined pages. They were prefect autograph books for the trip, and at only $12.00 each they were a bargain. Plus, we had stories to read when the lines in the parks were long, and pages to color when we were waiting for our meals. (Luckily, our longest wait for a ride was about 15 minutes.) We chose Disney books, but she has lots of other options. I bet she'd even be willing to use a book that you sent to her.


If you are planning to collect autographs while visiting Disney I highly recommend these books! Prince Naveen even commented on them. "These are really cool," he said in that delicious accent, "Did you make them? I've never seen anything like this before." It made my day people. Made my day...

I was not compensated for this post in any way.
I really do loves these books.

Disney on a Dime #2

#2: New Hats

Everyone who knows us, knows we are a hat wearing family. My children and I are all quite fair so we wear hats outside 99% of the time. I thought new hats for Disney would be appropriate.

As it turned out, I got one too. Accidentally I made the first hat way too big. I mean huge - much too large for one of the kids. So it ended up being for me - and it's still on the big side. I was really bummed because I measured the kids' heads and made the appropriate size as dictated by the pattern. (The directions on a pattern I've made many times before - grumble grumble.) But somewhere I made a mistake because hats number two and three were also big. Not gigantically big, but big enough where the kids chose not to wear them. (Hat pattern is Simplicity 5581. I altered the original pattern and made the brim one inch wider to give the kids more coverage.)

I was glad I threw other hats into my backpack as we walked out the door - just to be safe. These will undoubtedly fit next summer, so I've packed them away in a safe place so they'll be clean and ready to go next year.

Now I'll just have to make sure I remember where I put them!

Disney on a Dime #1

OK, I'll admit it, I'm cheap. Well, maybe not cheap - frugal would be a better word. Yes, that's it, I'm frugal. I hate spending money on crap, I mean stuff, that won't really get used. And I was pretty certain a whole lot of that was going to happen during our recent trip to Disney.

I wanted to have something new for the kids each day, but I didn't want to go broke doing it. Of course, we bought things there too, but I wanted to be able to say something like, "You already got a new ______ today," when the kids were pestering for expensive junk. So I got busy sewing before we left home:

# 1: Homemade Pajamas

They were quick and easy! I used my raw-edge applique technique for the shirts - using a Mickey instead of the number, and Butterick 5565 for the shorts. Those shorts are just two pieces, so I think I whipped out both pair in abut an hour and a half. The kids loved them, so I see more jammies like this in our future...

Today

Today I: cleaned the hallway carpet, washed the rug that stained the hallway carpet, scoured two bathrooms, cleaned out and organized four closets, one cedar chest and three toy boxes, tried on virtually every article of clothing I own - culling the collection as I went, and managed to get all this stuff ready to take to Goodwill. Thank goodness my husband decided to cook dinner - I'm pooped!

BFF

The hatch has begun.
My son is thrilled.
He's been patiently waiting
for their arrival.
What's not to love?
Their mouths don't work so they can't bite
and they only live for a day.

Fish flies are the perfect insect
for a play date.

The only problem is,
some years
we get something like this:

photo via

A little boy's dream,
not so much for adults.

I remember as a kid, growing up three blocks from Lake St. Clair, there were years that the fish flies were so thick that my dad would have to hose off the car in the morning. And then, as you were driving down the street, you'd hear this crunching noise as hundreds of them were getting squished. Luckily we've never had that many of them on the island - at least not in the years I've been here.

Independance Day

This year, for Fourth of July weekend, we camped with friends here. Well, technically since we were in a camper it was camping, but Sandy Pines really isn't camping in the true sense of the word. For me, it isn't about the camping part of the weekend - it's about seeing some really good friends.

The kids had a great time, too.
They loved sleeping in Grandma and Grandpa's A-Liner,
(it's like a sleepover for the whole family)

spending time with friends,

fishing,

toodling around in our super-cool ride,

catching fireflies,

blowing lots of bubbles,

and spending time at the beach and the pool.

There were some sad moments when the kids realized they were two inches
too short to try the the ropes course,

but fireworks made everything better.

Is it possible to be grouchy while watching fireworks?
I don't think so.
However, my daughter did fall asleep.
I guess all that fun caught up with her...

Stripes

When I noticed this shirt at the Goodwill I nearly did a little jig once I had my hands on it, it was that amazing. The best part was, the shirt had the correct barb for that week's 50% off sale. Final cost with tax: $2.08. When I bought it, it was a man's dress shirt, but now it is a shirt for my daughter. I made it tunic length, so right now she can wear it with leggings, but in a year or two it should still work with jeans. (It's quite roomy.)

She prefers the softer feel of a knit fabric so this shirt isn't one of her favorites, but when we're traveling (and there are fewer choices) it gets lots of use.

Cat Party Table Decorations

I tried not to spend an arm and a leg decorating for this party, because I really tend to go overboard on birthdays. I bought a pack of cat-toy mice at the dollar store, a pack of six styrofoam balls and a few skeins of yarn at Wal-Mart. The cat stuffed animals, and shrinky dinks I already had. (More about what I used it all for in a minute.) Oh yes, and I did buy the fabric to make the napkins.

About three weeks before the party I started stashing all the stuffed animal cats I found around the house in my sewing room. Surprisingly, the kids never seemed to miss them. I guess that means they have too many toys!

The photo isn't the greatest, but I used the shrinky-dinks to create place markers for each guest. When each person sat at the table he or she was greeted by a cute little kitty wearing a collar with his or her name. I just stitched the tags to a piece of ribbon and tied it around the cat's neck. My daughter really loves cats right now, so I had a ton of stuffed animals to choose from. If you don't have any little kitties lying around, you could probably find a few of them at your local thrift store. Our guests were all adults, but the stuffed kitties could make a cute party favor for kids to take home.

I made the collar place cards using shrinky dinks. They shrink down to one third their original size, so I made three-inch circles in Word. (That way I would end up with once inch name tags for each stuffed animal.) Within each circle I stuck in some cute cat clip art and the name of the guest, and then I printed right onto the plastic sheets using my ink-jet printer.

On my first sheet I discovered that black and gray ink ran - badly, but dark blue didn't. Why, I have no idea. And the dark blue really looked black after they shrank down. I also needed to adjust the fill of the clip art about 40%. As the plastic shrinks the colors concentrated and got significantly darker. Finally, I punched a hole for attaching the tag to the collar before they were placed in the oven. The plastic gets much thicker as it bakes, so punching holes afterward wasn't an option. If I hadn't already had the shrinky dinks, I would have just printed them out onto card stock - they would have been every bit as cute.

As for the table, I created a centerpiece using balls of yarn. (Which, of course, coordinated with the napkins.) I created the "balls" by winding yarn around styrofoam balls - just thick enough to cover up the styrofoam. It was a lot less expensive that buying all that yarn. Then I used the leftovers to string all over the table. I wanted it to look like all those little cats had been playing with it all afternoon. I added a few bowls of gold fish crackers (the perfect snack for hungry kitties,) a few candles and the toy mice and the table was done.

Cheap, easy, not too time consuming - and it looked great. This morning she told me, "Next year, I want a hummingbird party." I'm sure she'll change her mind 18 times between now and then, but it's fun to imagine what I might do...

Cat Cake

While planning the cat birthday party, I had visions of cute little cat shaped cakes, but my husband had other plans...

This part of my daughter's cat party was all his idea. Personally I thought this had to be the most disgusting looking cake ever. I was also a little worried it would make her cry. (Especially after my son got this cake on his last birthday.)

Luckily she loved it! It was my husband's brilliant idea to ask her to help him make the cake. She was thrilled to help, wanted to know exactly what the "secret" ingredients were and loved how her grandparents reacted when we brought it out. Of course, she thought it was the best birthday cake she'd ever had. Trust me when I tell you that while it may look disgusting, it tasted great!

My husband found the recipe here.

You Guessed It

Thank you so much for playing along! Several of you guessed our destination correctly. Go back and click on the photo of the condo and look at the railing on the porch. Do you see the "hidden Mickeys?" They are all over the parks: shaved into the back of a sheep, arranged in rocks in the bottom of the aquarium and even in the opening of the slide at Disney's Old Key West Resort. The kids had a hoot searching for them.

We had such an amazing trip!

My son nearly passed out from all the choices at the Lego Store, guarded by this guy. My daughter, whose world currently revolves around dinosaurs (and stuffed animals and cats) loved this place. If you are going to Disney I highly recommend getting a reservation ahead of time. We had them for all of our main meals and never had to wait for a table.

Our table was in the "ice cave." Several times while we were there a meteor streaked across the ceiling, but luckily the only thing to become extinct was our appetites. Attached to the restaurant is a shop similar where kids can build a dinosaur (just like the Build-A-Bear store.) My daughter built Sparkle, a diplodocus, who was her favorite friend of the trip - until we rode this.

photo courtesy of Disney

My husband thought his little dare devil would like it, but when she got off she said, "Papa, I'm NEVER going on that ride again!" Poor sparkle spent the rest of the trip in the closet...