How To Gift A Surprise Trip to Disney On Ice

We wanted to give our kids mostly "experience" gifts for Christmas this year.   We weren't anti-toy, but we were definitely trying to think of other options.

We get a couple of TeamBuy/Groupon types of emails sent to us and when Ken saw a special deal for a local production of Disney On Ice, we decided that would be our main gift to the girls. As soon as we purchased the tickets, I felt like a kid on Christmas! I couldn't wait to tell the girls!

As Christmas day approached, we knew we wanted to think of a creative way to surprise the girls and let them know that we would be going to Disney On Ice, and we wanted them to be able to actually open something.

So, here's what we came up with:

They opened a regular clothing box...

...and found this note inside:

Under the note they each had a princess dress & a crown (these were dress up costumes we already had, but you could surprise your kids with new ones if you wanted) to wear to the show!   (Did you know a lot of kids dress up as their favourite princess when they go to these things?)

At the bottom of the box the girls each found a glow-crown and a glow stick wand to take with them to the show. These were awesome because the girls were really excited about them AND we found them at a dollar store, so we saved money on more expensive souvenirs when we got to the show!

We also took with us some snacks and a couple of special treats from their Halloween bags.  This way we didn't need to spend money on treats at the show!  The girls were still excited about the treats we brought and there were no disappointments or disagreements about wanting treats or glow-things that were too expensive for our budget :) This was such a fun way to spend our Christmas afternoon!

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Amber - Maternity

Yesterday we got together with my local siblings and their spouses at my parents' house to celebrate some birthdays. My sister and her husband and I snuck outside into the cold for a few minutes to grab a few maternity photos in my parents' backyard.



These photos make me happy and it's been a while since I've done a "photo session" so I thought I'd share.



I have two sisters and they're both expecting girls in the next couple of months!



I can't wait to meet my new nieces!



You can see my sister's engagement and cherish the dress photos from the past on the blog.

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January 2014 Sharing Time - Week 2

Welcome to the January Link Party!

First, here's the week in review:

The week started off with this Monday Moment & my thoughts on sending the girls back to school.

On Tuesday the girls were home from school because it was SO COLD that they cancelled it! A post about Katrina's Princess Birthday Party went up that day.

On Wednesday I showed you a video of Talia doing a cool Piano Trick. 

Thursday I shared my progress & lack of progress (and therefore renewed resolution in my goal to balance my time better between computer and other things.

And Friday I shared 25 Free Valentine Printables!



Now, on to the link party! I'm excited to visit your posts and see what you've been up to!

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25 Free & Fabulous Valentine Printables

In the past we have made some cute photo valentines and handmade valentine crafts, and this year we've got our cards all ready to go (I'll show you those later this month). But today I wanted to share a bunch of awesome printable valentine cards and other valentine printables that I've seen around the Internet and are free to print!

Hope you have fun browsing through these like I did and maybe you'll find "the card" for you this year, or further down, you might find a fun Valentine printable craft, decoration or activity to do with your kids :)

Thursday Thoughts: Renewed Resolution

I've kept my goal in mind this week but I haven't been totally successful.  There have been good days and not-so-good days.  I had the girls home on Tuesday because school was cancelled.  That was a good day- I turned the computer off and there were no movies or computer games.  Creative things occurred :)

Yesterday both girls were off to school again and that was the not-so-good day.  Somewhere in the back of my head I was telling myself that it didn't matter if I totally stuck to my time limit because the girls weren't home.  So I did some work on the computer then I did some work around the house and then I went back to the computer and alternated like that throughout the day. Looking back I realize that I still should've stuck to my goal because then I would've had time to work on projects that I didn't have time for last year (like catching up on our yearly photo yearbook).

After the kids went to bed I read about some SEO stuff and started experimenting with it.  Then I started creating a post of a collection of cute Valentine Card Printables and other Valentine Printables.  That took a while (longer than expected) and when I was finished I was kinda worn out.  When I went upstairs to bed, I felt too tired to do the reading Ken & I have started together and just felt drained.  Evidently the roundup post wasn't the best use of my time.

So, instead of saying to myself "Okay. Resolution FAIL.  Back to normal." I'm taking this as a slow start. I've renewed my efforts.  This morning I'm giving myself one hour to write this blog and check email & what not.  Then I'm turning the computer off for the rest of the day.  Katrina doesn't have school today, so she's having some "Play Doh Time" right now and then we'll do things together.  I'll have to check in again next week to report on how it's going.

I debated whether or not to even post that Valentine Printable Roundup, but then I thought I'd go ahead with it since it is a collection of some really cute printables.  And I spent the time on it- why not share it with you?  Maybe it'll save you the time Google-ing and Pinterest-ing the topic ;)  I'll put that up tomorrow.

For now, I'm turning the computer off so I can focus on "Raising Memories" which, after all, is the whole reason I started this blog.  I'll be spending my hours with this awesome little munchkin- hope you get a chance in this day to do the same with your kids!

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An Upside Down Piano Trick

I have a little piano player who was very excited to show me her new trick!

I thought she had just been practicing normally in the other room,
so I was in for a surprise when I came in and saw this:



I was pretty impressed that she figured this out on her own, with no help!

She once pretended to do this just like John Schmidt, having seen this album sitting around:



...and was evidently re-inspired when her cousin played the piano like that at a family gathering at Christmastime :)

I am grateful for such a cool extended family with talented kids who inspire my kids to spend time doing cool things like this :) AND I am grateful for such a cold day yesterday that school was cancelled so my kids had time to spend doing things like this... grateful that they spent their time doing this instead of watching movies or playing computer games (I turned the computer off for most of the day).

...wasn't so sure I was happy about that choice when I tried to turn the computer back on and it wouldn't! Thankfully my husband saved the day- opened the computer up, took the graphics card out, cleaned it up or something, re-installed it and the computer worked again- hurray!

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