The Food, The Glorious Food

Just as I lamented that my camera wasn't great for candid WDW shots, it wasn't particularly great for food shots either. I snagged a couple decent ones, but it was just too hard to get far enough away to get them all like I'd planned. I didn't want to leave you without mouth-watering images of some of the great stuff we tried though, so here's some photos of mine and some photos I found out there on the web.


Our first major meal was dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney. It was so delicious that we headed back for breakfast later in the week. Neither meal is to be missed!! A great use of a quick service credit if you're on the dining plan. I got the bacon-wrapped meatloaf. Delish!

A few days later we stopped by Restaurant Marrakesh in the Morocco pavilion of Epcot. We'd never eaten there before and were thoroughly stuffed after trying their feasts. My favorites were the harira soup and beef brewat roll. Not everyone appreciates sweet and savory flavors together, but they're right up my alley!


Our first signature meal (Disney-speak for uber-fancy and uber-expensive) was at the California Grill atop the Contemporary Resort. We always use a couple of our meal credits to try a new signature restaurant since we'd never go to them otherwise. The bison and truffled mac & cheese here were really awesome! And the view of the fireworks that we got couldn't be beat.

Magic Kingdom is a busy day for us, so we only had time for a quick service restaurant when we went there - Columbia Harbour House. This is a must for us each trip. I always get the Anchors Aweigh sandwich (tuna salad), which we enjoy upstairs, where it's nice and quiet, even during busy times of year.


Our final dinner was at another signature restaurant - The Flying Fish at the Boardwalk. I was worried about eating here since I don't do seafood, but their Pepperberry-Grilled Pork Tenderloin was fantastic. So flavorful! So was the seasonal salad that I ordered as an appetizer, complete with produce grown in Epcot.

But nothing can compare to the brownie my sister got for dessert. Here's the description: "apple-wood smoked bacon praline crunch, smokey salt-scented chocolate sorbet and raspberry coulis". Sounds gross, right?! But I assure you, it was epic. As a lover of bacon she's always said that everything is better with it, except maybe brownies. Which is why she had to order this brownie for dessert. She said it's changed her world forever.

I'm glad we stretched our proverbial wings and tried some new things this trip. Artist Point at the Wilderness Lodge had long been my favorite restaurant in all the World, but I've now got two more signature venues that I really like, not to mention the awesomeness that is Wolfgang Puck's. Now, to think about next year's trip...



P.S. A big thanks to Tracy over at Dollars and Sense Decor who gave me a Liebster award. The idea of it is to feature blogs you love with readerships of less than 200. Quite neat if you think about it - recognizing those who are just starting out, or who are blogging simply as a way to document their lives (like me). I read a pretty healthy mix of big name blogs and small journal-type blogs, and here are a few of my faves who I'd like to bestow the Liebster award too. These folks all have readerships of less than 200 according to their sidebar. Who knows how many others are catching their awesomeness on the sly!?! And if you ladies are game, go ahead and feature five other bloggers that you love! Thanks again Tracy!!


Bungalow960
Free People
Lansdowne Life
Quite Contrary*
*ok, so her stats show 202 readers, but I couldn't resist linking up - she's hilarious
Tales From a Leakey Faucet

Walt Disney World Photos

Quite the creative post title, huh?! Yeah, I've got a wicked cold, so that's the best I can do.

So this Disney trip has taught me that I neeeeeed a new lens for my camera. This one. Ok, so perhaps I don't truly need it. But I want it and plan to save up all my pennies until I can get it. The lens I had with me (50mm) was just too difficult to get good shots with. I had to be so far away from my subject that people were constantly walking in the camera's path. As a result, I took loads of pictures the first few days and then just sorta gave up. That's not such a bad thing though, because I really got to enjoy everything as it was happening. And others in my group snagged some great photos of their own. Here's a sampling of mine and some from Mark's Blackberry (hopefully my mom will post some of her and my dad's soon):


We really had a fantastic time! The best trip with Charlotte yet, since she's finally old enough to start to understand some of the magic. I know it's a little silly, but Walt Disney World is really special to me. My family has lots of memories there and it's neat to see Charlotte starting to be a big part of that. Do you have a place that's really meaninful to your family too? I'd love to hear about it!

This Week's Menu {Feb 20} + A Peek

We just did some major grocery shopping yesterday. Being gone for over a week and doing our best not to buy anything new the last few days before we left really left our fridge and pantry bare. But it's restocked now and I'm ready for the week.

Monday - Orange Juice Pork Chops (you've probably noticed we eat this a lot, it's a family favorite)
Tuesday - French Bread Pizza
Wednesday - Tuna Casserole
Thursday - Beef Tacos and Salsa Rice
Friday - Leftovers
Saturday - Spaghetti Carbonara

After grocery shopping was done I spent some time sorting through WDW pictures, which I'll be sharing tomorrow. I couldn't resist giving you a peek today though. Charlotte's mood was really comical at certain times during the trip. She went through phases where she looked really bored and when she absolutely didn't want photos of her taken. She'd even yell "no pictures" and hold her hands up between her face and the camera. It was really funny, well, except when you reeeeally wanted a photo. Ahh the joys of three year olds. But here's one that will be treasured for sure, just like the other WDW photo it reminds me of:


Check back tomorrow for some photos that I promise will be at least slightly more exciting. :)

Quote to Remember #70

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things, because we're curious and curiousity keeps leading us down new paths." - Walt Disney


That photo was from last year's trip to WDW, where Charlotte and Penelope were very into puddles. Yup, loads of money spent on a vacation and these girls loved the puddles. :) I hope to find some time this weekend to go through photos from our recent trip and plan to share some next week. Until then, enjoy your weekend!

The Secret's Out

I've been keeping a secret, and it's that as you read this my family is savoring the last day of our Disney World vacation. We're just finishing up eight wonderful days of fun at the Happiest Place on Earth. Anyone surprised? Yeah, I figured not. :)

We're not novices by any means (my 13th trip, Charlotte's 5th if you count in utero, everyone else is somewhere in between), but we did enjoy a few firsts this go around, mainly with meals. I mentioned all the yummy food we were eating in my last two menu posts and here's the rundown of our main meal of each day, complete with links to menus so you can drool over each and every option:

Wolfgang Puck Express in Downtown Disney
Everything Pop Food Court at the Pop Century Resort
Restaurant Marrakesh in the Moroccan Epcot Pavilion
California Grill at the Contemporary Resort
Columbia Harbour House in Magic Kingdom
Sci-Fi Dine In in Hollywood Studios
Flying Fish Cafe at the Boardwalk Resort
Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast at the Contemporary Resort

My plan going in to this trip was to take photos of all my major sit-down meals, so check back next week to see if I accomplished my goal. And to see what are sure to be some adorable photos of Miss Charlotte visiting the House of Mouse!

The Tale of the Twiga

My friend Kate just forwarded me the photo below and it got me thinking about how I've never documented the tale of the twiga (pronounced twee-guh). I mean, I know the story and those in the herd know the story, but it's never been written out for the world to see. My sister tells it much better, but here goes...


Source
Once upon a time, a group of fourteen (!!) went on trip to Walt Disney World. One day, while in Animal Kingdom, we made a game plan for our visit to the Festival of the Lion King. You see, they split you into various sections in the theater, and each section is assigned an animal. Everyone knows the lion is the best animal and we wanted to be sure we made it to the lion section. We didn't. Instead our group got shuffled over to the giraffe section. Totally lame, right?! We certainly thought so.

We pouted a bit, but nothing could keep this group down, so when the cast member asked for a volunteer from our section, Joe's hand shot up very enthusiastically. He was chosen and was asked to tell the crowd how to make a giraffe noise. It's hard to describe the strange noise that he made (something like a crazed wild turkey, but weirder). We all got a good laugh, learned that a giraffe in fact makes a low bleating noise, like a sheep, and that you can mimic a giraffe by holding your arm straight up with your fingers pressed against your thumb to make its head. And we moved on with our day.

As I mentioned, our group was 14 (!!) people strong, and was composed of my immediate family, some extended family and a few friends. As you can imagine with a group that large, especially with a mix of ages, we split up and later met up quite often. Some would go do Space Mountain a million times in a row (sadly, not me - pregnant with Chuckles), while others waited in line for forever to ride Peter Pan (worth it). One evening, while waiting for Wishes (the fireworks show) to start, a handful of us went on a food run. On the way back Mark got lost in the shuffle. The shuffle of a couple thousand people.

Have you ever stood amongst a couple thousand people, trays of food in hand, and tried to find the rest of your group? Yeah. No fun. We could see Mark and were waving to get his attention, but half the crowd was doing the same thing, trying to get the attention of their lost group member, so no luck. Then one of us, I'm not sure who, decided to mimic the giraffe, with an arm straight up, hand fixed to look like a head. The rest of the group joined in. And in the distance, you could see Mark's hand raise up in the air, in giraffe pose, in response.

We quickly discovered that this giraffe move was a stroke of genius. No more waving to try to get someone to see you, or trying to remember what shirt someone was wearing to try to find them. We simply agreed on a meeting place and made the giraffe symbol until the whole group was together. We later learned that twiga is Swahili for giraffe and have referred to ourselves as twigas ever since. We even captured ourselves a bona fide twiga named Machupa (Swahili for he who likes to drink) and he's become our roaming gnome of sorts.


It's cheesy to be sure, but the giraffe twiga has become our thing. Charlotte and Oliver both had baby showers with a subtle giraffe theme. Our trivia team was named "Twigas" for a while (until we got tired of the emcee butchering the pronunciation). We made matching twiga shirts for a future Disney World trip. The list goes on and on. Definitely cheesy, but the best kind of cheesy.

Do you have similar inside jokes within your family? Or your group of friends?

This Week's Menu {Feb 21}

Wahoo! Another week where things went exactly as planned. Here's hoping we can keep it up this week.

Monday - Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Tuesday - McDonald's (it's my niece's birthday, so she picks)
Wednesday - Tuna Casserole
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Ham & Cheese Sandwiches
Saturday - Meatloaf

And with several weeks of regular meal planning under my belt, I'm officially making my first cross-out on my 30 Before Thirty list. A sad start given that I've only got 8 months to go, but "make dessert more often" will be crossed off the list soon too. Lately we've snacked on cookies and banana bread, and this week the plan is to make the following berry cobbler recipe, inspired by the delicious version I had at Disney's Artist Point a couple years ago.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tbsp. salt
2 1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 1/8 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups blueberries or other seasonal berries
8 tbsp. brown sugar
8 tbsp. unsalted butter
Whipped cream or ice cream (topping)

Combine the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Then break the butter apart into small pieces and mix it in. Next, add the eggs and stir until just absorbed. Then add the heavy cream and mix just enough to incorporate (batter should be lumpy). Divide the dough into four pieces.

Now, in four 6-inch cake pans lined with parchment paper, place the pieces of dough, spread evenly along bottom of the pans. Spread the blueberries on top of each piece. Sprinkle each with 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Dot each with 1 tablespoon butter.

Bake in a preheated 350ºF oven for 15 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and dry and the cobblers are lightly browned. Cool to room temperature, add fresh berries (if desired) and serve with a dollop of chilled whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.


Recipe Source: Dining in Disney, Photo Source: Orlando Sentinel

Random

* Jimmy Fallon is stinkin hilarious!! Must make it a point to watch his show more often.

* I'm hopeful that Oliver gets Joe's hair, so that he and Charlotte can get married and have babies with the craziest hair ever!

* I really need to start updating Droolworthy Decor and Potential Projects more often. Sorry for slacking on that!

* Charlotte has started singing Disney songs with no prompting. It's super cute.

* Charlotte has also started throwing major tantrums. Which are decidedly less cute.

* I miss seeing my friends regularly and am so glad that Thursdays at my house are back on!!
(Yes. We really did wear shower caps on Splash Mountain. Fun times.)
* I'm on the hunt for medium brown nightstands. That are not tiny and not ridiculously priced. Why is this a search that has been months in the making with no forseeable end in sight?! I mean, I can't possibly be the only person who'd like medium brown nightstands.

* I love, love, love this room and plan to incorporate ideas from it into my bedroom. That's right. I said my bedroom. Adults can have fun too!

* See. Here are some adults having loads of fun.

* I should make it a point to go to bed before 2am, which is why I'm hitting publish on this (scheduled) post at 1am.

* You should make it a point to enter my giveaway, because it closes at midnight.

A Disney World Christmas

It's one of my personal goals to visit Walt Disney World at least once during each month of the year. I'm well on my way, having crossed January, March, April, May, June, August, September, October and December off the list. That leaves February, July and November for anyone not able to keep track. And while I'm a Disney purist, and appreciate seeing Cinderella's Castle without any extra decoration, there is something to be said for how the World gears up for the Christmas season.


I mean, have you ever seen lights so spectacular?!

Photo Credit: Don Sullivan's Flickr

Walt Disney World in Pictures

So we're three weeks past our Disney trip (has it really only been that long?!) and it occurs to me that I've yet to go through my pictures. Which is especially sad because there's only 187 of them. Yup. There were over 1200 on Charlotte's first trip and a scant 187 from this one. And of those 187, this is the one I like best:


I know, I know. Pretty pathetic. Neither girl is looking at the camera. They're not doing anything especially exciting (although they occupied themselves with that little puddle for quite a while). And there's nothing that really shows that you're in Walt Disney World, unless you're well-versed in Disney trash cans. Which I am. (10 points to anyone who can identify the location!)

The only excuse I have for the lack of photos is that a Disney trip with a 2 year old is hard. I mean really hard. I majorly underestimated how difficult it'd be to wrangle her. That combined with the heat just made it too difficult to lug out the camera. Ah well, there's always next time.

But, since I've got nothing to show for this trip, check out this adorable video of Chuckles on her last Disney trip, when she was just 16 months old. So cute!!

To Do This October

Sheesh! Almost a week into the month and I'd forgotten all about posting my to do list. To update you on last month, I'm an epic fail. Well, moderately epic anyway. My goals were to exercise (I used the Just Dance game on the Wii once), make some crafty projects (I did make two dresses for Charlotte, hence the "moderately" part), and majorly crapped out of taking more photos. But enough looking back... let's see the plan for this month:

Get moving. We're scheduled to close on our current house in mid-November and need to get cracking on packing things up to be stored. We likely won't rent the storage pod until early November, but I want to make major headway on putting things in boxes before then. While I tend to do my best work at the last minute, I don't want to be stressing on our last few nights here.

Get crafty. I did fairly well on this last month and want to keep it up. I already have plans to make a stroller bag that turns into a messenger bag (I'll share the great tutorial I found with you once I try it out myself). And we'll need to make t-shirts for our upcoming Disney trip. I mean, topping what we did last year will be no easy feat:


We went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party as the cast of the Imagination Movers, for anyone who isn't current on their kids tv programming.

Get snap-happy. I failed ridiculously in this area last month. And I mean ridiculously. I save my photos on the computer with a folder for each month and day. September has two measly folders in it. Pathetic I know. But with fall colors, Disney World and Halloween, there's bound to be tons of good photo-taking opportunities!

And that's the plan. Don't you like how I stacked the deck? I mean, two of the three things will be impossible not to do with our vacation plans. Feel free to do the same with your to do list!

{REWIND} Disney Days: The Dreaded Budget

One day done in training, four more to go. While this class feels a bit like a vacation from work, it'll be no where near as fun as the trip to Walt Disney World we have planned for this fall!

I often get asked for tips on planning Disney trips and have even helped come up with detailed itineraries for other families' vacations before. I'd started a string of WDW-related posts a while back and this is one of them. Wonder if I should start back up with more topics again?!

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Many folks are feeling a strain on their wallets from our nation's money woes. While taking vacations might not be in everyone's future, sometimes splurging on a fun trip is just the cure for the economic blues. A trip to Walt Disney World is no longer out of the realm of possibility for the average Joe. Actually, Disney is doing it's best to entice families to visit its parks. They're feeling the pinch of the slumping economy too and are offering tons of deals and discounts, so there's been no better time than now to take advantage of the Mouse!

When I tell my tales of trip planning and trip taking, especially to someone who has never been (or at least not for a long time), I tend to get some variation of the this response, "I'd love to go to Disney, but it's too expensive." I didn't start this series of posts to lie to you about how easy it is to pack your bags and head of the the World on a whim. A Disney trip is not cheap. But there are countless ways to save, and while other parks may be cheaper still, I'm a firm believer in the idea that you get what you pay for. So, with no pretending that some saving won't be necessary, let's dive right in...

Everyone wants to know the nitty gritty, right? How much will a trip run you? Just exactly how much, in clear dollars and cents? Well I've always been one to get right to the point, so I'll tell you that my average budget for one week of vacation, for one adult, all-inclusive (and I do mean all) is an even $1000. Seems like a lot, but when you consider that airfare, tickets, resort, food and a couple special events are already accounted for, that number begins to look a whole lot better. I've done trips for less, and I've done trips for more, but on average that 1k mark always seems to be about right. Below is an example of my typical per person budget.

Now I'm fairly certain that I don't need to describe to anyone how to book a room, tickets, etc. You all can do that easily enough through Disney's website or Dreams Unlimited. The key to it all is talking about ways to save money on your trip, so that will be the focus of this post. How can you have that fantastic, trip of a lifetime, you've turned old and gray and still look fondly back at it, vacation without breaking the bank? Well, there are a few big things and loads of little things you can do in an effort to pinch pennies:

#1 - Choose your trip dates wisely. As discussed last week, the time of year that you choose to visit the World can have a significant impact on the cost of your room, not to mention airfare. This definitely has the potential to be your biggest money saver. The cheapest times of year are January, August, September and early December. Check out the seasons here.

#2 - Consider what ticketing option will work for you. Will you be visiting the park every day, including travel days? Do you hop from park to park or stick in one place? Do you want to save leftover days for future use, or plan to not have leftovers? We stick to one park per day and usually have one down day (no park) on each trip, so our ticket cost is usually about $240 per person as opposed to the over $400 it would be if we choose to get park hoppers, water park admission and the non-expiring feature. Be sure to read up on all the ticket options before making your purchase.

#3 - Decide your resort style. Disney has a whole smattering of resort options, in all different price ranges. Pick the one that has the amenities you need most. Are you looking for a place to lounge poolside with lots of recreation options or just need a bed, a roof and some Cherry Coke? There's no need to spend $300 per night on a room unless that particular resort has a must amenity that you can't get anywhere else. More on this next week...

#4 - Dine on a dime. While food prices are higher than the average restaurant, they're not completely out of whack for what you'd pay normally (ex. $2.50 gets you a large soda). I've found the portions are generally bigger than what you expect though, so consider a little sharing. Three people can definitely share two meals on occasion, especially if each person plans to squeeze in a Mickey bar later in the day. And Disney allows you to bring in your own snacks and bagged meals. Either bring stuff from home, or have Garden Grocer deliver groceries to your resort for a mere $12 to help save costs. And consider taking advantage of one of Disney's prepaid meal plans (more on these in a later post) to help rein in the food budget.

#5 - Take advantage of the freebies. Bring a water bottle from home and fill it up at fountains rather than buying bottled water. Word for the wise though, some folks don't like the taste of Magic Kingdom's water (it has a bit of sulfur taste to it), but that can be easily masked by drink packets. Utilize the free bus, boat and monorail transportation offered between resorts and parks. Also get in on the Magical Express, the free shuttle from the airport to Disney resorts. Not renting a car is a huge savings!! Also make use of Extra Magic Hours, which are the times before and after the regular park hours where Disney resort guests get the parks all to the themselves. This extra time means your park tickets are worth even more when divided by the hour.

There's no denying it. You'll be spending a fair amount of the above on a trip to the World. But, when you consider that King's Dominion tickets cost $40 per day, Six Flags come in at $50 per day and Hershey Park will run you a whooping $52 per day, paying $35 per day (based on a 7-day ticket) for Disney, which encompasses four theme parks doesn't seem so bad. Your remaining expenses are the same as you'd pay for any destination vacation. So go ahead, find yourself a Dollar Store piggy bank and get to saving, cause this trip is totally doable!

Cuteness

Some random photos I thought needed to be shared (click to enlarge):


Two hats are better than one.



Legwarmers.



Crazy hair.



Easter basket hat.



Painting.



Traveling with a friend.



There's always room for ice cream.



The biggest grin for Marie.



My little fishy.



So cute.

Tilt Shift

Mandy found an awesome tilt-shift video of "A Day at the Magic Kingdom Park". Charlotte loves it and will watch all three minutes of it, over and over and over again, waving at the castle and Mickey as she does.

Be sure to check it out, then hop on over to tiltshiftmaker.com to make your own tilt-shift photo.

You can do stuff like this (click to enlarge):

A Twist on Tuxedo T-Shirts

With our next Disney trip fast approaching, last minute planning (my best kind of planning) is underway. Our little clan is going to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party this year, and since t-shirts are our thing (and it's super-ridiculously hot in Florida), we've decided they are the way to go for costumes.

A while back I posted about how my little monkey has a thing for the Imagination Movers. She's still loving them and watches a couple episodes every day. Since they appear on the Disney Channel, and they number to six (plus one mouse) when you include Nina and Uncle Knit Knots, they're the perfect group to model our costumes after! I mean seriously, the resemblance between us and them is uncanny:



Ok, so while my dad is the spitting image of Knit Knots and Mark bears a strong resemblance to Smitty, the rest of us are a far stretch from look-alikes. Regardless, we're still going as them. So, off to the drawing board (well, the craft store and the computer) I went. A couple t-shirts, some transfer paper, and a little ironing later, and we'll be wearing the physical version of these:



Don't you just love a tuxedo t-shirt?!? Add to them a couple props (red cap, cowboy hat, drumstricks and bona fide wobble goggles), a beige tuxedo t-shirt for my dad and some red and pink duds for Charlotte and we'll be in business. And we even have a mini costume in the works for Charlotte's stuffed Mickey!! I'm stoked about our plans and will be working hard on them this week. Wish me luck!