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Archive for the tag “family fun”

07 May 2015

That’s Incredible

“Happy Friday everyone!

When I left you last I tossed out a challenge to see if anyone had been to Disney World recently. Let’s face it, EVERYONE knew those bracelets came from Disney World or Disneyland, right?

Well I have not been there since, oh, the early 1970’s, when Rapunzel still had short hair. We wanted to finally take the girls there this summer and I was just amazed, if not intimidated, of what kind of place this is now. It’s huge! So many options! So many choices! Where to start? What to do?

Well as strange as this may seem, there is actually a blog out there that gives advice on how to tour Disney World!

I know, hard to believe, but its true.

The blog is huge and vast! But it was a big help! It includes a 6 Step Process to planning your Disney vacation. Check out WDW Prep School. If you want to plan a trip there Shannon has answers to almost every question and does everything but book it herself.

Which takes me to these gems above. They are Magic Bracelets! Of course everything begins with the word Magic at the Magic Kingdom. Congratulations to Ms. AuAu, an amazing artist and story teller and computer whiz who guessed correctly on my challenge. She knew how to answer the quiz question all right, Google it!

If you book a room at the Disney resort you are entitled to these little bracelets. These MagicBands use radio frequency (RF) technology and can be read by short and long-range readers located at the Walt Disney World Resort. They are basically your ID card, tickets, Kingdom pass and more all rolled into one. As Ms. AuAu discovered, these Disney accessories will:

Unlock the door of your Disney Resort hotel room.
Enter theme and water parks ~ your tickets.
Check in at FastPass+ entrances..to get you to the front of the lines.
Connect Disney PhotoPass /Memory Maker images to your account.
Charge food and merchandise purchases to your Disney Resort hotel room during your hotel stay.

Maybe I have just been living in a cave and these things are have been around for a while but I thought they were pretty cool to have all that technology wrapped around our wrists. It’s the Photo Pass perk that I found to be the best thing.

You see there are various Disney photographers all over the Magic Kingdom; at the theme parks, the restaurants, resorts, everywhere.

When someone has a PhotoPass linked to their bracelet the Magic paparazzi can take your pic and than forward it to your own Disney Experience web page for you. Not only that but it can add cartoons to your pics, add some animation, and with the help of your Magic Brands, know you are approaching on s few of the rides and take your pictures or video of the experience. Take a look:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QBMRnEl4_Y

I thought that pretty Incredible. Thanks to the Memory Maker thing I don’t have to carry my camera everywhere and might actually get to be in some family pictures myself this time.

So with our Magic Bracelets first you make your reservation , then claim your Magic Bands and customize them, starting with picking your favorite color to make your band unique. Then you assign a Disney character as your image for your customized band.

What Disney character do you think I chose?

After reviewing a list of about 30 Disney icons and characters, Dylan and I decided I should be Mr. Incredible!

Kinda fitting, huh?

I know what some of my loyal fans are thinking?

No, Flynn Rider was not an option to choose from for me.

I know. I was shocked and disappointed too.

…and the only other male characters to choose from were the Grumpy old Man from Up, the boy from Up, and Yoda

I will give you two guesses who my girls identified with for their Disney characters….

Mom wasn’t close by to choose her character so Dylan and I thought about her for a moment and decided she was pretty Incredible too! Mrs. Incredible!

How did you like that honey?

All in all I am getting excited for this vacation as it looks like we may have a pretty incredible time!

How fitting….

an Incredible time!

…we are all ready for one great adventure!

So after 2 months of weekends on the computer, researching and planning, reserving, and paying, and calling we are all going to Disney World for the first time. It should be a great time filled with plenty of magical memories to last a lifetime!

And everyone can thank me in the end….

Mister Incredible!

Have the best weekend knuckleheads!

I’ll try to do better next time…

” THAT’S INCREDIBLE” ADDENDUM:

After seeing this post, one of my first Likes was from Jenny at Magic Mouse Vacations, a.k.a. a Disney blog! (Thanks Jenny!) Unfamiliar with this blogger I clicked on a link to her site offered in my notification and found she has a LIST of favorite Disney blogs of hers.

So there appears to be multiple blogs offering Disney World advice. If anyone reading this post would ever have any questions I am sure you can find any and all answers at one of these helpful and experienced blogs. My only unanswered question is ‘How can I get a job as a blogger for Disney’? Hmmmm?

Posted in Archives and tagged Disney World, family fun, Magic Bands, Mr. Incredible, vacation

04 May 2015

11 Comments

Go Ahead and Tell Everybody….

Some times a guy just has to flex his muscles….

And so it is on the way to school when I take Dylan and her best friend. (lol, I’m sorry that just sounds silly even to me after I reread those first two sentences)

Most every morning we are ~~forced~~ enjoying Kidzbopp on the way to school as the girls like to sing to the pop songs. It usually puts them in a good mood and so most mornings I kinda encourage it.

But when one song comes up I make sure they know…

“I’m The Man,

I’m the Man,

I’m the man..”

Well go ahead and play it while you read..It will reinforce my the story…

You see after dinner Dylan came walking in crying big crocodile tears. We sat her down on the sofa and asked what was wrong. She told us she lost one of her brand new flip flops she had just received from the great Aunt Sue down the storm drain in front of our house.

As flip flops go, these were nice for a kid. She had just received them as a birthday present a month earlier when Aunt Sue was down.

You could tell through her tears she was sad from losing them before ever having a chance to truly wear them for the summer. I know she was looking forward to that.

She was scared she would get in trouble. And she was afraid she would hurt her Aunt Sue’s feelings by not having them any more.

You really hated to see her crying and so sad about her new fashion flip flops.

So I said show me what happened.

the Drain Monster

What would you or your spouse do?

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Yes, I went in the garage and gathered a big screw driver and a hammer and I pried up that manhole cover to see what I could see. There it was.

No Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles down there!

So I went back into the house,

found a step ladder,

and took a deep breath….

What’s my name?

OK, well maybe not THE man. I’m just a regular schmoe.

But to my girls, Daddy still needs to be The Man for his Daddy’s girls.

And where was Skylar all this time?

Well she was inside finishing my daily helping of birthday cake!

Dylan can’t blame her this time!

Pop Quiz!

Does anyone know what these are?

If anyone can tell me what these are, I will sing a special version of “the Man” for them?

What a gift, huh?

I will give you a hint, that is my name on there….

Winners to be revealed on Friday.

Have a great week knuckleheads.

I will try to do better next time

Is anyone ready for summer?

Posted in Archives and tagged boo, Come on Summer!, Drain Monsters Inc., Drain time, family fun, Pineapple Song, Plese don't cry, Salma Hayek is a goddess, the man

28 Apr 2015

17 Comments

Batter Up!

Yes, I was volun-told I was a coach for our girl’s T-Ball team. Its OK though, I enjoy baseball and played a lot of it when I was a kid. Its fun(ny) and rewarding and more than just a little amusing to coach kids at this age and this skill level.

But it doesn’t mean coaching these youngsters is all fun and games!

It seems every day I have to put on my Tom Hanks hat to coach and council some kids on this….

Its not the big leagues after all.

Every day we see some of this…

…and a lot of this….

No, actually most of our team doesn’t throw that well.

But its all good.

Its all fun!

Its no stress.

Everyone bats, and everyone hits.

Everyone scores.

And everyone wins.

Smiles, cheers, and high-fives abound every play.

Dylan actually hit the ball the farthest in their game last Friday…not that anyone is measuring such things. (atta girl Dylan!)

Did you see that Daddy?

And while Dylan seems to be a natural behind the bat the way she whacks the ball, Skye seems to be a natural in front of the camera, never missing a chance for a cute pose…

Say Cheese!

Here she has just scored her run. Aunt Sue has trained her well!

All in all, it seems to be a great experience for the kids.

Participating in sports can teach youngsters a lot I learned growing up. And this coach just wants them to try their best and have some fun.

They are all All-Stars that way in my book…

Its great to be a kid!

Posted in Archives and tagged Batter Up!, Coach needs a raise!, family fun, Go Grasshoppers!, home run, nice try, Play Ball!, Sandlot, t ball, who's up next?

17 Apr 2015

23 Comments

Skye High!

Happy End of the Week Everyone! It appears you survived another one.

We were Skye High here last week. We celebrated Skylar’s 5^th birthday week. Yes, our littlest girl is getting older.

I hate to say this post doesn’t have as many pics to help commemorate our week-long celebration. I am trying to be more ‘part of the moment’ and less the paparazzi outsider taking the pictures. Being in the moment is so much more fun than trying to capture a moment it seems.

So, yes, Skye is getting older. She just finished her inaugural attempt at basketball with surprisingly good success.

Her naturally aggressive tendencies severed her well.

So next she asked to ~~try~~ play T-Ball in the local town rec league.

This will be her first attempt a T-Ball and still trying to work out the kinks…

Both her an Dylan are working on their throwing and batting. Again, Skylar is all over the place trying to pic up grounders hit her way. So we will see how this progresses.

But they do have the world’s most greatest baseball coach!

What do you mean, “Who”?

We celebrated Skylar’s birthday Easter weekend when her Grandparents and the Great Aunt Sue were down with truck loads of birthday presents for both our girls. Again, sorry no great pictures here in 3D from the mounds of unwrapped wrapping paper

…trying to stay in the moment

…and pick up a bit.

We took little 5 year old Skye to her favorite dinner for her birthday. The Outback was her choice this year.. She appeared to have a good time and was all smiles.

Happy Birthday Skylar!

Including the presentation of the bloomin birthday sundae…
And the Outback version of the birthday song, sure to make any bloke, or blokette happy!

We had a little bit of a birthday party for her on the weekend then at her favorite place, Skylar Zone!

Flying Skye High!

She enjoys jumping and flying and dodge ball at this Skye-High zone.

Happy Birthday Skye!

Maybe one of her biggest thrills during her birthday week came in the mail from her absolute most favorite celebrity;

a mutual fan of hers it appears and my 300^th follower! (Thanks Miss Nina!!)

….Thanks so much for adding to the birthday celebration and helping to make our little Skylar feel special!

Ms. Nina pointed out that Sprout.com is featuring a Be In The Moment contest for Mom’s. They are running a month-long contest where Mom’s submit candid pictures of themselves “Sharing the moment of being a mom” with their children leading up to Mother’s Day.

It’s a great contest, honoring the most important and deserving person in each of our lives.

Check out the celebration here. Or on Instagram at #MomIsHere and #NoFilter30

I know what you are thinking, and YES, I have put them in touch with Hans On Marketing Company to help ensure their promotion is a success!

So that’s about it from 3D-Land this week. We are moving through the birthday season here. Only two more big ones to go!

Then it’s time for the beach, vacations and running out doors again…