I mentioned Thursday that I had hoped to post this sooner. But Melody and I didn’t come up with a Valentine Exchange idea until Wednesday. So I spent Thursday creating it! Melody wanted to give her classmates and teachers Oreos. Thankfully Publix had their individually wrapped Oreos BOGO this week. I opted to get the larger sized ones. I had approximately 24 kids/teachers to give them to, so this worked out best too.
So way back in August, we went to the Rattlesnack Saloon in Tuscumbia, AL. My dad wanted to try it for his birthday, and we were in the midst of packing things up for our move. So the new restaurant was a nice break. It is about an hour or so from Huntsville.
I was hoping to be posting about this year’s Valentine’s Exchange for preschool, but I just came up with what I am doing yesterday! So that is a post for next week! But I did make a cute small banner using leftover supplies from the Valentine Banner I posted about earlier this week! I hung it in our foyer next to our Valentine presents.
While at Magic Kingdom in October, we decided to have lunch at Columbia Harbour House. I love that this isn’t the usual theme park food, and the location is great.
I love hanging banners from our fireplace. I don’t have a Valentine one, so I checked out the dollar section at Target, but I didn’t find anything I loved. I found a few banners but you either put notes in them or hang pictures on them. I didn’t want either of those. So I decided to make my own.
For my birthday, we decided to stay in that evening and cook steak and scallops. This would allow us to eat cake after dinner since we were not eating out and getting dessert then. Well I wanted to share the recipe I came up with to make them. Brad loved them. I really liked them myself. They could have had a bit more flavor though. Next time I will add more salt and pepper than just a sprinkle.
Well I am back with another Disney stroller tag, ha! This time it is from our trip in October. Melody and I went with my mom on a work trip. We only spent two days at the park itself, but we did spend time at both Disney Springs and Port Orleans French Quarter. So we did get a lot of use out of it. So much use, it was all torn up by the end of the trip.
For Emily’s baby shower, I definitely wanted some sort of guest book. I opted to keep it simple though. I bought a cute blue/green picture frame from Hobby Lobby that already had a mat with it. Then the “picture” was the invitation. I had everyone sign the mat, then placed it in the frame to send home with Emily.
For my birthday celebration with Emily and Justin, we went to Top Golf. Emily’s sister watched the kids, and we decided Top Golf would be a fun place to try without the girls.
We recently were going to grill BBQ chicken, but as the grill was heating up it ran out of gas. So inside the oven it went!
Whenever I start making invitations for any event, I always start out saying I will just pay and have them made and printed elsewhere. But then I start looking at things, and I tell myself I can make them myself for much cheaper. So here we are again, haha. I saw similar ideas of this invitations on Pinterest, but I don’t have any direct links. It is just where I found my inspiration. I made these invitations for my best friend for her baby shower recently.
On Saturday I celebrated my 34th birthday. We had such a fun and laid back day, and we had so much yummy food!
One of the best (and worst) rides at Disney World is the Magical (or sometimes “Tragical”) Express. The Magical Express is a free airport shuttle provided by Disney World to Disney resort guests. They can transfer you to and/or from the airport/Disney resort. We have used this service countless times. It is a great perk if you are staying onsite. Read all about it below!
So we eat tacos fairly frequently. So much so I bought a huge thing of taco seasoning from Sam’s a while back. We do taco ring, tacos, chicken tacos, etc. Well I recently ran out, and we haven’t renewed our membership. I also forgot to get any at Walmart on the week we had planned to make tacos. So I did some googling and found a recipe I liked, and we had all the ingredients in our spice cabinet. Brad actually prefers this version, so I may make a bigger batch since it stores well. We used all of this in one week, ha.
When we went to Disney back in October, we stayed at Buena Vista Palace. BVP is located across the street from Disney Springs. Since we were there with my mom who was on a business trip, the location was ideal so that Melody and I could go grab food and shop easily. During our trip we ate at Wolfgang Puck Express twice. This used to be our go-to spot. But then Disney moved the buses on the other end. It wasn’t as convenient, and we started eating at Chicken Guy! more. So it was a nice treat to get the chance to eat here again. It was right near the walking bridge from the hotel. And the foods servings are usually plentiful.
For my best friend’s baby shower, I wanted to do a favor that I knew would be something I could use. I say the because I almost always make too many or forget to tell people about them! So I opted for chocolate!
So at Melody’s preschool, we send in a small Valentine for each of the kids. I wanted to send in something other than candy and something not store-bought. I decided to send in some sort of “party favor” with a cute note. I opted for small rubber ducks. I mean what kid doesn’t love a rubber ducky for the bathtub!
So we made a “resolution” last year to help treasure the memories of the year that we tend to forget. I think Brad thought I was crazy at first but it was fun and became part of our routine. So once a week we would write down our favorite or most memorable moment(s) from the week. Then I would put it in a jar. On New Year’s Day we read them all together as a family. It was so much fun to look back at things we forgotten or moments that really made us laugh. I can’t wait to do it again this year!
As with all trips, we try to do a little happy for Melody. Our trip to Disney in October was no different. I already had all of these things on hand. I try and buy random small things like this throughout the year and save for trips or random small gifts.
We had such a great Christmas this year. It was our very first Christmas in our new home. I love getting to make new memories here. It really makes it feel more like home as we continue to live here. This was also the first year Melody actually understood and liked Santa. No tears this year!! We also did a lot of traveling and visiting family, and we continued a lot of our traditions from years’ past.
