Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

I'm kicking off this fall's Thankful Thursday series with a list of ten things I'm thankful for...not the big obvious things like my husband or my children or my house. Just ten little things I'm often inclined to over look but would definitely miss if they weren't there anymore.     10. Spellcheck As much as Siri spends a lot of time twisting around my words like ice cream melting in the August sun, I really appreciate knowing that most of my words will be filtered before I send them out into cyberspace.   9. Air Conditioning In Texas, air conditioning makes life much more pleasant for six months out of the year.   8. Sharp Number Two Pencils The smell, the color, the way the graphite smears on paper, everything about the number two pencil is wonderful. Unless the eraser is missing. Then it's just sad and frustrating. Part of the loveliness of the pencil is the ability to erase easily and nearly completely.   7. Beautiful Cell Phone C

It's time again for one of my favorite blog hops : Three Things Thursday! (Be sure to link up on her blog !) Since I already have a blog (and three blogs preceding this one) what haven't I already shared? Once Upon a Time There Was a Princess Who Celebrated a Birthday! Here are a few of my (new) favorite things from my lovely friends. 1.) Hidden Mickeys Go To Sea One of my favorite activities on vacation is wandering around the still quiet of the ship with my children in the early morning. Often we look at all of the artwork around the ship or the fun little details we stumble across. Then we discovered that Steven Barret's field guides are available for Walt Disney World, Disneyland and the Disney Cruise Line. The guides are set up with clues and hints as they guide you about the ships. For those people who prefer outright answers, those are available as well. My kids decided to hook me up for my birthday. You can bet we will enjoy some major hidden Mic

The air turns cooler, the bus driver practices the new routes, the mall teems with parents and kids in search of the perfect backpack and so began the most surreal fall of my life: the year we forgot chose not to go back to school. I thought our jumpstart on the year by homeschooling over the summer might ease the peculiarity of the days leading up to the first fall we would not send our kids back to school. It's still strange to see the first day of the school from the other side of the bus. My children woke up as the bus stopped at our mail box and the neighbor kids piled on board. As my kids dressed and made their beds, I poured out oatmeal. Kylee noticed a tree frog clinging to the window screen and invited him in to visit over breakfast. After freeing "Jumpy" and a couple hours of homeschooling, we headed out to take our first day of school pictures and run some errands. It was on our arrival to the library that I noticed something odd. The hall, crowded

It's the most wonderful time of the year! If I had to pick one season to live in, I would be hard pressed to pick between autumn and spring. Today, fall is definitely in the lead. Since it is the start of fall, let's break out the bucket list and see what there is to do around here to celebrate cool(er) weather and a little more time to sleep in. 1.) Enjoy the change of the seasons. Sadly, I live in a part of the country where the only autumn color we experience is purchased at Hobby Lobby. So we make our own leaves to hang in the windows. My personal favorite leaf from last year? This Tinker Leaf  #DisneySide It's not quite the same, but it's still lovely! 2.) Visit the Texas Renaissance Festival Located in Todd Mission, Texas, the Texas Renaissance Festival (or RenFest) turns 55 acres into a bustling 16th century village for eight weeks in October and November. Between the hundreds of performers, crafting demonstrations and the authentic shops an

I think that the magic of a Disney vacation exists in three wonderful parts: the dreaming of planning, the pixie dust moments during trip itself and the memories you take with you for years to come. Since I can't live in the Cinderella Castle Suite or even on property year round, pictures help bring a bit of the fairytale back into my everyday life. In my enthusiastic pursuit of remembering the Magic, I take hundreds thousands of my own pictures every vacation and hope to share a bit of my experience with you.  The motion blur never bothered me any way. Tag! You're it! Actually it did drive me crazy when I got blurry shots.  I used to think that shots that included large amounts of blur indicated an immediate need to erase the picture then retake it without even looking at what I had captured. Then I realized that sometimes they provide an otherwise un-capture-able real moment with my kids.   While some are blurry because I'm literally chasing my

  Welcome to those of you joining me from Rolling with the Magic and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the 4th stop on our Magical Blogorail ." If your Disney vacation plans bypass Walt Disney World this year (sniff!) or you want to continue the Food and Wine Festival goodness as you take to the high seas, you are certainly in luck! Disney Cruise Lines offers several different cooking demonstrations, wine pairings and tastings during each cruise. On the classic ships (aka the Disney Magic and her sister ship the Disney Wonder), "Anyone Can Cook" is offered several times throughout the cruise. During a fun informative presentation, adults can learn how to prepare a new appetizer, entrée or dessert. Recipe cards are provided, as are samples of both the dish and a wine pairing. If you have youngsters who are budding chefs, they offer a similar program in the clubs. Their project often results in chocolate chip cookies ready to eat rather than sea bass. No c

It's time for one of my new favorite blog hops: Three Things Thursday!  (Be sure to link up on her blog !) Since I already have a blog (and three blogs preceding this one) what haven't I already shared? Once Upon a Time There Was a Princess With Her Nose Stuck in a Book. Actually I'm reading three different books right now. For a change, all three are new (to me) books rather than old favorites. (I think I'm reading a few of those as well. 1.) A Candle for Saint Jude by Rumer Godden This book is the prequel to one of my childhood favorites, Listen to the Nightingale . A few chapters in, I remember why this author won my love. The intricate world of the ballet boarding school unfolds like a flower in ever widening sketches. Like interpretive dance, this story skips and shades and doesn't fill in all the details but is delightful and lovely all the same. I finally found a copy on Amazon about a month ago and ordered it. I'm about halfway thr

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers!  Thank you to Focused on the Magic for hosting!