Mickey Wacky Wednesday Recap

So I've been more than a little quiet on the blog the past two weeks because I have had zero time on my hands. We finished up preschool for Lily(*tear*), had my Grandmother's 88th Birthday, Mother's Day, and then went to Disney World. Woosh. I'm exhausted even typing about it. I'm going to break up my Disney breakdown into 2 posts. So if you care nothing of hearing about it, check back in with me in 2 posts!

First, I'll share with you how I hyped it up to be bigger than birthdays, Christmas and Easter combined to my kids. May have been a mistake, but we'll have to wait and see how it all turns out. I'm sharing this because I searched Pinterest high and low for fun ideas and came up with very little. I envy moms who can pull off a 'surprise-trip' to Disney. Just pick the kids up from school and drive to Florida. I can't keep a surprise to myself for anything. With both of my pregnancies everyone in my address book knew I was pregnant before the pregnancy test was even dry. That's just how I am. It's all out there. No onion layers to peel, folks.

About a month ago we had my parents over for a Wacky Wednesday dinner which was Mickey Mouse themed. In a normal family this would have tipped the kids off to a Disney trip surprise, but we regularly have Mickey shaped things in our meals. I guess that puts our family straight into the weird category. Oh well.

Mickey-shaped chicken patties

Really the only Mickey food we had was these chicken patties. I took some nice, delicious free-range chicken breasts and destroyed them in the food processor and mixed them with bread crumbs, egg whites and diced leeks (won't add the leeks next time- too strong a flavor). Then I mashed them into shape with this great Mickey Mouse pancake mold I've had since our first Disney trip. Thus the reason behind our regularity of MM-shaped food. I panfried them until golden brown and served them with a variety of dips. It was fun! Before naptime that day I had the kids make an old-fashioned paper chain out of red, yellow and black construction paper with fun Disney stickers (most of them were the free ones from those Disney Movie Club junk mailers). So I strung them up as a decoration, but they had 26 links- one for each day until our trip. 

See the paper chain in the back? Added some of the leftovers from Davis' birthday banner.

I wrapped a present for each of the kids. A monogrammed T-shirt that my talented friend Hilary made. If you need anything cute you should check out her shop.

I also made a 'ticket' out of the free baggage tags that came with our reservation. 

After dinner I gave the kids the presents and they still needed a little bit of a clue as to what was going on...

So then we had to wait a very long 3 weeks until the trip and it was full of excitement! We watched the free Disney planning DVD multiple times. We measured them to see what rides they could go on. Daddy found out Lily was tall enough for the Tower of Terror and the excitement built about that (my stomach sank just thinking about it). And I got to spend a zillion hours on family tie dyed T-shirts for our Magic Kingdom day. They were VERY labor intensive. I'm not even gonna play it off like "Oh, these? I just whipped these up last night." It was more like 3-4 nights of prep work, 1 meltdown in the middle of WalMart (that place induces tears just thinking about pushing around their massive carts- who needs that much stuff? Really?!), and 3 layers of skin later (ALWAYS wear gloves when handling the dye, people. No joke.) But the shirts turned out pretty good. Mickey was mistaken for a heart once, but I'll tie the rubber bands tighter next time.

Oh, this? It was nothing!

For some completely detailed instructions on how to do this shirt go visit Melissa at her blog Disney Dreamer Designs. That lady knows how to do some tie dye. This was my first ever tie dye experience so I wasn't sure what to expect. But they didn't turn out terrible! Also, we all stood out as a group in the park so it was much easier to find each other. And other people in the park who also did different Disney tie dyes would come up and give you a high five. Like we were in some secret club. It was funny. But I foresee tie dyes in our future Disney trips for sure!

And thanks to my family for being sports and wearing the shirts!

Wacky Wednesday!

Family dinner time is something I pretty much cherish. As soon as our daughter started to sit at the highchair and eat (which was a little later than most since she eats like a bird), we have been enjoying that time-honored tradition of family dinners. Even when my son was a newborn he would enjoy dinner time with a nursing cover on the side. It's not only a great way to end the day, catch up with Daddy and build family identity, but it provides us with loads of training opportunities! Table manners, interrupting, sitting at the table until everyone is done, how to say grace, not smearing yogurt on your face with your hands... Endless opportunities!

How not to eat....

During the spring/summer/fall we cherish having Family Beach Night once a week (yes, we are blessed and a little spoiled.) As soon as Daddy gets home from work we are all packed up to go to the beach for a picnic and some sunset playtime. It's something we look forward to all week long and when Friday night rolls around we cross our fingers for good weather and head to the beach!

The beach at sunset is amazing

So over the long winter (ok, it only feels long, because I love summer) we have continued to have our regular, sometimes mundane family dinners. Even on the nights when mommy has to leave for work or an event, if we have a 10 minute overlap of all of us home at the same time we sit down and eat and play a quick round of catch up. Last week I took my son out to eat for a Mother- Son date 'knight' at Chickfila. They did a great job putting the event together! And it was a good excuse to get dressed up and use a little gel on Bubba's hair.

My knight armed with a balloon sword and chocolate milk

Yes, I wore a fru fru dress!

While we were out that night, my husband made my daughter breakfast for dinner and she thought that was so hilarious and talked about it for days! So we came up with the idea to do something a little different for dinner once a week. We tried it for the first time this week and we are calling it 'Wacky Wednesday'. I made up a new version of Eggs Benedict since I had just made some fresh homemade salsa. And the kids went for the more reserved Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes.

Huevos Benedictos!

Wacky Wednesday Wardrobe

The Wacky Wednesday dinner coordinator is taking suggestions NOW! Any ideas what to do next?!?