Color. {its a long one!}

I simply adore it.
My favorites are yellow and red.
Even though they are my fav's I simply couldn't imagine life without color!
So I thought I'd do a color challenge!!!

These are the fun colors I've chosen!

Arent't these fun colors! My challenge is for you to use them on a project and see what you come up with! Here is my take on this challenge!

I kept the blue pretty minimal here, but its on there under Mickey!
It's a lot of older stuff that I worked with here. In fact, I bought a lot of older lines in the Disney theme because I liked them more than others that I saw! It's my first "family" Disney layout that I've done so far! I plan on creating an album but I must be a little more patient with that one {going to a crop on the 18th and that is what I plan on working on}.

I hope you enjoy the challenge!

Now. On to some more tips and fun stuff while at Disney.
Skip this part if you don't want to read about Disney!

1. Go when your kids are young enough to "really" enjoy it. Although I went as a child off and on throughout my entire life until I moved from FL, I understand that Alyssa had a wonderful time. But it would of been better had she been 10-11. At no fault of Alyssa's she's been around the world and seen some pretty cool stuff. Disney was fun for us all, don't get me wrong. But she even said herself that had she been a little younger she might of appreciated it more. And not because she wasn't appreciative, please don't read into that because she was. Disney makes anyone feel like a kid again, I know that. But for me the magic was when I was young and then carried over into later in life. Just trust me, it's better to go when they are young enough to feel that magic.

2. Time. Honestly we got through all of the Disney parks in the 4 days. But in truth to really experience all that Disney has to offer without walking around feeling like you are one of those woman in the malls walking every morning, you need to go like at least 6 days minimum. Aside from Disney, there are water parks, golf places, etc to do and you can't do them all in 4 days. I would have rather gone longer to be able to not feel like we had to rush from one place to another to ensure that we got everything done.

3. Month. It is vital and I mean vital to go when its not crowded. And I could just be getting old, but a lot of crowdedness bothers me. Even though we did good and went in March, some parts of the world were on spring break too. And although the plus was we didn't wait really long in lines {for the most part only 45 minutes} there were a lot of peeps in those parks every single day. It was actually annoying. But that could be again because I am getting older. My advice? Go in February. It might be a little chilly, but you can better believe it won't be crowded because well its February! Disney experience isn't all about the crowds, it's about the coolness of it all after all. Or the end of September. Yeah those times I can imagine it's great there! :) Not only that, your flight tickets will prolly be cheaper too.

4. Dining. The dining plan is a good deal, don't get me wrong. But we split our meals Alyssa and I and it was by far cheaper than getting the meal plan. Also, something to think about. If you are actually staying on Disney or near Disney you could always go grocery shopping and keep stuff in your hotel. You can always leave the park and come back to it as well. So this will cut the cost way down. We also bought 2 water bottles daily and then filled them up the rest of the day using the water fountain. Drinks are very expensive there. Of course you can do the whole cool plastic up thingy that you can refill anywhere in the park too but that's 13 bucks and we were only drinking water daily so that wasn't worth it for us. We only drank soda during our dinners if at all.

5. Savings. Here are a couple of sites where you should look into with savings, tips, etc.

http://www.mousesavers.com/

http://allears.net/index.html
http://disneyworldforum.disney.go.com/

All three of those places had a wealth of knowledge!

6. Reservations. Trust me when I tell you, if you want to eat anywhere that's nice, get reservations. Most of the nicer places didn't talk walk-ins no matter what. So if you want to experience something other than burger or fries, make sure you have reservations.

7. Cinderella's castle. We took Alyssa there, as you know. We had a reservation. I just wanted to say, cause I couldn't remember if I had or not make sure you do this once in your life! Yes it is very expensive. We paid almost 200 bucks to eat there at night. But... This is what you get:

a. A photo with Cinderella {several copies} and you can also take photos while they are taking photos.
b. Treated like you are in a royal court.
c. Meet 4 Disney princesses. They come to everyone's tables individually. You can take photos with each of them.
d. The food rocks. Simply rocks.
e. You can get wands, swords, and the special someone gets this star thingy for everyone in your family.
f. You can sit there for as long as you want too.
g. Everyone is extremely friendly too!

Just a few things about the castle. I know this because I asked!
*There is only one hotel room in the castle. They used it during their 100 celebration/ or the 25 years cannot remember which one. How you got to stay in the room was Disney's secret service {yep they have one} picks a number from everyone who comes into the park daily. They contact that person and only tell them to meet them in front of wherever at a certain time. They meet with them, and tell them that they were chosen to stay the night in the hotel. The people don't know about it at all and only have 15 minutes to decide if they will or won't stay. Most people I was told, said yes. They aren't using it now though, they only use it for very special things like that or special occasions. The room I am told is beautiful.

Something else I learned. They had the park stay open an extra hour one night even though the park wasn't schedule to be opened. I ask a a chick on a ride if they just do that and she said that they did. I wasn't sure if I had shared that but I thought it was neat. So off the cuff they just say over a loud speaker they will be open longer if they feel like it.

Well that about sums up the whole Disney experience!

On a more serious note if you've made it this far...

For my gram. She isn't fairing well. And that means I need to go see her. She is home at my aunt's now. Please pray for the Lord to send me there without any issues with work, money, time, effort, etc. I am planning on going at the end of this month.

For D&I. Seems like as of late we never see one another or have time for one another. We are in prayer and asking the Lord for these things. 1. To not have him deploy. 2. For a schedule change. 4 years working swings and mid's is long enough. We are asking the Lord to put him on days. 3. For time to be together just being. He left this AM at 3. He'll be gone until Friday and that isn't very long, but the trip is grueling {they fly non stop to 4 places and 2 of those are out of the country!}.

For A. I know its normal. The changes. The attitude. The growing up thing. Sometime as a mom I am exasperated at the end of the day. I feel like a horrible parent. And yeah there are times when I look at her like she's got 50 heads. Because sometimes I get frustrated. It's hard to walk through this with her because she treats us at times so horribly. And then I loose it because its so frustrating. It's like a vicious cycle. I hate the standard I set with parenting. Who the heck knows why we set them upon ourselves, huh? I sure don't. But I often just feel like all I do is remind, lecture, and talk to her about this and that. SIGH.

I appreciate your prayers.