We attended the 2023 Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo back in April. We didn’t plan out things as much as we have in the past when it comes to our outfits. We also only attended Friday of the Expo vs the whole weekend or just Saturday. It was a lot of fun and much more calm on Friday night vs daytime on the weekend. All of the vendors were already setup too. The only major thing we missed was the mass crowd of cosplayers. There still was some cosplayers throughout the Expo though.
During our March 2023 trip, we spent our second day at the Disney parks (third day in Orlando) at Magic Kingdom that morning and Hollywood Studios that evening. We had a big, late breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table, so we didn’t do a real lunch. We decided to make a dinner reservation at Sci Fi Dine In Theater once we secured the plans for Magic Kingdom. Melody had never been there, and I hadn’t been there since our trip with friends in 2014
Melody’s 5th year of dance was this year, and she recently had her recital too. This was her last year taking a combo class, so she was one of the oldest groups dancing in her recital. And I honestly think they did the best. She has really come out of her shell over the last 5 years too!
Back in March 2023, we were able to ride Guardians of the Galaxy for the very first time. It was quite the experience, and I will say, I do think this is one of the best roller coasters there (we have NOT rode Tron yet). However, my experience afterwards was not the best.
Leaving Disney World is always one of the hardest parts. We really had such a fun time this trip, and we loved almost everything about it. (I will speak to the negatives in a future post. All were in regards to changes (such as Genie+.))
It is hard to believe 1st grade is already over! The year really flew by, but it was a great one. With COVID not being as prevalent, things really got back to normal as far as school goes. I was able to be at her school in her classroom at least once a week. And I volunteered outside of that as well. Melody has grown tremendously, and she has really blossomed. And to make things much less stressful, her 1st grade teacher is “looping” and will also be her 2nd grade teacher. I loved her teacher, and so this makes 2nd grade look so much better!
Day Six was our final day at Disney World before heading back to Huntsville. We opted to start our day at Hollywood Studios doing some of the bigger rides we didn’t do on day three. Then we wanted to end with our favorite park, EPCOT.
You have heard it before. You probably even live it. But May is truly the new December. ALL. THE. THINGS. But we always have fun, even through all of the stress.
I wanted to create a special discount code for all of my Pink Glitter Pumpkins readers. You can use the discount on anything in my Etsy shop! This discount is greater than ANY other discount I have ever offered for my shop too! You can click here, or you can go to my shop (pinkglitterdesigns.com) and use the code PGP15DISCOUNT.
Our fifth day was a day we had been look forward to for the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique experience. It would be Melody’s first time getting to do it, and Vicki was so looking forward to it. And while the time originally wasn’t ideal, we ended up being happy with it. So this was definitely a Melody kind of day ahead!
Dance for the spring has officially come to an end. It is hard to believe that Melody’s last year in a combo class is over! Next year she has to pick specific dance classes to take. So that will make things quite interesting! I didn’t take near as many pictures as a I did videos this semester. So enjoy the few pictures I did take below!
Our end goal with our coffee bar is to have something above it that is cute but also holds coffee mugs. But that is going to be both expensive and time consuming to find.
We decided to give soccer another try this spring. We found a program that had practice and games on the same day. It was very similar to last year, but I did feel that received more instruction through this program. Even so, this may be the last time. She did enjoy being goalie, but beyond that, she is more of a cheerleader/dancer/gymnast, ha.
Our fourth day at Disney World was our “break” day. We always strive to have a somewhat laidback day in the middle of a big Disney trip. Unlike trips past, we opted to still make it to the parks somewhat early, but leave after lunch. Brad’s parents are morning people, and while at Disney we tend to be too.
Back in June of 2022, we took a trip to Dollywood with my family. Then we headed to Nashville to celebrate birthdays for both Melody and my niece Caroline. We did the American Girl Party, and we stayed at the TownePlace Suites and had the American Girl Hotel Experience too. However, we did have to find a hotel to stay in between those two trips. It didn’t make sense to drive back to Huntsville just to drive back to Nashville the next day. So we booked a room using our Hilton points in Franklin, TN. We decided to stay at the Hilton Cool Springs.
Our third day didn’t go quite as planned, but we also all went in different directions at different times. Generally we spent the morning at Magic Kingdom, and we spent the evening at Epcot. Bob planned to play golf that morning, so he did not plan to come to Magic Kingdom. We had plans to meet up with him at some point in between Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Where things went in a different direction is when I woke up not feeling so great. I had a headache and still had some vertigo issues. I ended up sleeping in and set an alarm to make sure I would make it to Magic Kingdom in time for our dining reservation for a late breakfast. However, Brad, his mom, and Melody went ahead and went to the park in time for rope drop. I did get up and buy Rise of the Resistance for all 5 of us, and Genie+ for the 4 of us doing Magic Kingdom. I booked Big Thunder Mountain first thing since that was a must for Melody.
I wanted to highlight another group of items in my Etsy Shop: ShopPinkGlitter. Today I wanted to share items you can get for Mother’s Day. Now as you hopefully know, Mother’s Day is only a few days away. So the main items I want to share are the two digital downloads I have for sale. I will also share the t-shirts, but they will not arrive by Mother’s Day. However, you could give them as a gift later too!
On our second day, it was our first FULL day at Disney World visiting the parks. We spent the morning at Epcot and the evening at Animal Kingdom. We did open the park, but we made sure we didn’t exhaust ourselves and didn’t close the park. Follow along below.
