Baby It's Cold Outside

I feel like I spend a little too much time here complaining musing about the weather, but it just seems like this eternal horrible winter will never end and we'll be frozen forever.

The one, and not so great picture of my kid's in the snow this year. Despite the many snowy picture opportunities I choose to stay inside and succumb to cabin fever, because I'm just not interested in freezing outside while they play. I know that makes me a not at all fun mama, but can I make it up to them in the spring? After today's little jaunt outside I even ordered myself a pair of snow boots. Hopefully my toes will thank me, but I'm also employing some reverse psychology here. Since I waited this long to buy some boots that means by the time they get here I won't even need them anymore, right? Hopefully?? If it works you are all very welcome.

Moshe and Lily have found new ways to stay busy inside, like doing some baby yoga. They love to help in the kitchen, and have assisted in making more than one soup, which is a great way to pass some time. Even though I love baking, I don't do it unless I have a very good reason to (calories, I'm giving you the side eye) but we made some Muddy Buddies today that gave us an activity for exactly six and a half minutes. They play so nicely together, it would just be wonderful if we could get out a bit more.

The cold has zapped me of any desire to work on any new projects, but at the end of every week I think next week will be better. So here's to hoping next week is a warmer, more productive, crafty week!

How are you all coping?

Vacation Recap

I bet you all thought I'd never be back, but here I am with a little vacation recap from an amazing week spent in Orlando. Remember (or maybe you don't) way back before Lily's party I said we had our trip coming up and then had to deal with planning her party in just a week? Yeah, well that vacation never happened. Womp womp. There was a snow storm two days before we were scheduled to leave, and our flight was then cancelled and rescheduled twice. The second time the flight was cancelled, which was already technically on the second day of our vacation, the whole thing got scrapped. So Lily's party ended up happening first.

We managed to reschedule the vacation three weeks after the original one and everything worked out for the best. Right before we were supposed to leave, it snowed AGAIN, (but we got out!) We've been back now for half a week, and in that time it has snowed twice more.

From the bottom of my Disney princess loving heart, Elsa, shut up! The cold bothers everyone else a lot!

Anyway, back to Orlando. It was so much fun experiencing this trip through the eyes of Moshe and Lily. Half the time Moshe's mouth was literally hanging open in awe. And as much as I love me some Disney princess, I hold nothing on Lily's obsession.

Our week was non stop parks, with the weather really cooperating for us at the beginning, and then not so much at the end. Instead of just writing our itinerary, I'll share a few a lot of pictures.

In addition to three Disney parks (Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios), we also went to Legoland, and Universal Studios.

There is really nothing like the Magic Kingdom. Lily didn't want to wear the personalized Minnie ears I blogged about a few months ago, so I ended up wearing them instead. We wore our best Minnie inspired fashion for the day, but actually met Mrs. Mouse wearing the same dress two days later in Hollywood Studios when Lily was not dressed for the part. Oh well.

Since we went off season, the lines were not terrible at all. Especially the day we spent at Universal which was insanely cold and rainy. We managed to get on the Harry Potter ride in less than ten minutes. Because we went with family, there were other adults to watch our kids for the few times we got to sneak away on an adult ride by ourselves, and that was lovely. No one else is pictured because I was given a strict no pictures of them on social media rule. (Hi Mom!)

Hollywood Studios (which used to be called MGM) didn't have a lot of rides we could take the kids on, but we took them to some fabulous shows, and one of the highlights of the trip was seeing them dance and sing along with the characters that they know.

We came home exhausted and not really ready to face reality again (especially because reality has so much snow in it!!) but after all that happened with our first trip getting cancelled I'm just so thankful we got to go, and had an amazing time.

I've read other blogger's travel tips like "How to go to Europe with Two Kids and only Two Backpacks" and "How to Train Your Kids for Disney" (where she paid them for the miles they walked before the trip to get them ready for the amount of walking you do in the parks) but I don't operate like that at all. When it comes to packing, I pack too much, and when it comes to treating Disney like a boot camp... just not my style. While I'm not really qualified to write a vacation guide I do have two small tips. The first is bring a zip lock bag on the plane with you. The kids kept handing me garbage that I kept in the small zip lock bag until the end of the flight when the flight attendant came around with the garbage bag, and I got to throw the whole bag in. That one small bag certainly made my flight less messy and more enjoyable. The second tip is to download a movie onto your phone, or iPad. On the flight to Florida I packed books, stickers, crayons, coloring books, and small toys so they would be occupied but Lily was not interested in being seated and buckled in for the half hour of take off and again by landing. And so she shrieked. Oh yeah, I was that mom. The one everyone hates. On the way back home, the movie managed to keep her occupied during the times of the flight when she really had to be seated and buckled. My ears, and I'm sure everyone else on the plane was thankful.

So that concludes my post with a record number of pictures. Anyone have real travel or Disney tips? Let me know how you keep your kids occupied on planes below.