Today for #WDWWednesday I wanted to talk about the Osbourne Dancing Lights in Hollywood Studios.
It began as a single home in Arkansas’ display of annual Christmas lights, and then in 1995 was brought to Walt Disney World to be shared with all of us! You can read more about it on the Disney website. This year was the 20th anniversary of the dancing lights, and is sadly the very last year Hollywood Studios will be hosting them.
The first time I saw the dancing lights was for my 21st Birthday, and EVERY year since then I have told my (then boyfriend now husband) that we HAD to go. We never seemed to make it until THIS year, and just like I said he LOVED it!!
We’ve gone twice since we got our annual passes and have just really enjoyed the show. The dancing lights are only here until Sunday (1/3) and then they become one of those Disney memories from long ago (Like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride).
Here are some videos of the dancing lights from December 19, 2015. Enjoy!
Question of the day: Have you ever seen the Osbourne Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Hollywood Studios?
Anyway, Yes. We have Annual Passes to Walt Disney World and since we will be spending quite a bit of time at Walt Disney World I thought i’d start a Wednesday series called “WDW WEDNESDAY” Basically,… I will attempt to refrain from talking about Disney on any other day because, On Wednesdays, we talk Disney.
For my first WDW Wednesday post I thought I’d share about the most recent resort we stayed at.
Over the weekend my husband and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe it’s already been 7 years. 7 years ago we stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and simply fell in love with the resort. We have stayed in the French Quarter a few times since then, and even visited the resort for lunch at Sassagula’s on several occasions.
Being two adventurous Disney fans, we thought we would branch out and stay at on the Riverside portion of the Port Orleans resort. We recently visited the grounds and were excited to stay there for our anniversary.
Here are a couple of thoughts from our visit.
Service:
All experiences with hotel staff was superb, I didn’t meet or see a single cast member lacking in Disney magic.
Comfort:
The room was very spacious, the bed was soft, and there was plenty of space for our belongings to be organized.
Transportation:
Boat service to Downtown Disney (Disney Springs)
Bus to all 4 parks
Bus to Downtown Disney (Disney Springs)
Resort Grounds:
This was a large resort, so with 4 bus stops it was a little annoying driving around to all the bus stops before leaving for your destination and being dropped off at your bus stop.
Beautiful walkways
Beautiful running pathways
Nice pool
Nice playground
Would you stay again?
I don’t think I’d stay on this side again, I much preferred the French Quarter. I love the ability to easily access the main lobby without walking too far, I just felt the Riverside was much larger and spread out.
Any pictures?
I realized when we got home that I only took 1 picture at the hotel… I’m sorry. I do have a youtube video from when our family visited Port Orleans for lunch though.
Someone once told me “the calendar always flips”; that is to say today will end and tomorrow will come. Over the last two years you have taught me more about myself than I can ever express. I thought people were crazy when they told me that I’d want to bottle up your scent and keep it. I thought people were crazy when they told me I’d miss the days of being drenched in your acid reflux vomit. … okay I don’t miss that.
but I do miss your sweet baby self.
We’ve had some pretty exciting days mixed with some days that bedtime could’t come soon enough.
As much as you challenge me, you inspire me to be a better person. I am so thankful for you and all you bring into our lives.
Right after the holidays you are going to turn two years old, and here are a couple of my favorite things about you right now.
What you like…
Your family – You LOVE your mom and dad and baby sister most of all. But I love that you love all your Tio’s, Tita’s, aunties, uncle Brian, Abuelo’s and grandparents and cousin.
Playing – You are SO active, you are non-stop from the time you wake up until you fall asleep.
Water – bath time, swim time, shower time, sprinklers, and even DRINKING water you love it all
Chocolate Che-Che (Chocolate Milk) – You are obsessed with it.
Animals – live animals, animals in books, toy animals, you love them ALL
Mickey Mouse – All Disney really… you just love it.
Exploring – you LOVE to see new places and experience new things
Cooking – you LOVE helping me cook in the kitchen and I love watching you love it
What you don’t like…
naps
sleeping
going to sleep
bed time
the thought of bed time
Family walk – 2 Months Old
When mom was training for goofy challenge (7 months)
First Christmas
1st Birthday!
13 Months
I’m soaking in the last days of having a “1 year old”… and look forward to the excitement life with a two year old will bring.
I thought i’d share 7 of our crazy adventures from the last year with you!
1. Goofy Challenge 2015 – I could NEVER have run 39.3 miles 6 months pregnant without the support of my husband. He stuck right beside me and completed 1:00/1:00 run-walk intervals for every single mile.
2. Celebrating Little Lady’s 1st Birthday!
3. Resigning from my full time employment to stay home – thanks for (hardly) ever commenting on my terrible cooking babe!
4. The move to Southwest, Florida. – It’s not ideal to accept a new job, sell your condo and move while your wife is 9 months pregnant, but the Lord was with us and we are surviving.
5. The Birth of our Love Bug – She’s truly a gift.
6. New Orleans Adventure
7. New York Adventure
I can’t wait to see what adventures await us in our next year of marriage!
Christmas is right around the corner and if you have young children you know all to well that they will soon be showered with gifts from loved ones. One of the values we want to instill into our children is gratitude.
How do you instill an attitude of gratitude when your children are 8 and 23 months old? Well,… the short answer is you live it. Our daughter is approaching two years old faster than I care to admit. I swear I just found out I was expecting… how do I have a two year old? ANYWAY… I’ve been having a lot of conversations with my little lady about saying please and thank you, and we have had many talks about the Season and why we celebrate Christmas.
One of our conversations was about how on Christmas we give gifts to those we love; and how it is important to always take the time to acknowledge that someone thought of you. Since my girls aren’t able to form beautiful sentences and write lovely letters of thanks to all who have given them gifts I decided to let them make their own note cards.
This is not an original idea of mine, I have seen it on various social media sites. In fact, a quick search of “zip lock bag finger painting” on pinterest will yield lots of cute ideas!
Tools.
Heavy Paper or Cardstock
Finger Paint
Markers
Gallon Size Zip Lock Bag
Scissors (to cut the cards out, when dry)
Instructions.
make dots or designs onto paper with various colors of paint
put paint in gallon size zip lock bag
seal bag
allow children to play with the paint and create designs
pull paper out of bag and let dry
cut out note card shapes
(optional) write a message on front with a marker
Notes.
This was SO much fun. My youngest (7 months when we did the craft) LOVED to feel the paint and watch the colors mix. I loved that this was a painting craft that didn’t end in me giving baths in the middle of the day or cleaning paint out of my carpet.
If you are doing this craft with more than one child, I would recommend getting a couple of bags set up in advance. My oldest daughter loved this a lot more than I anticipated and so it was a little hard for her to wait for me to make more bags with paint and paper for her to play with.
Over all I am extremely happy with the results. I think they are so cute, and will be a fun little way to include the girls in the Thank you note writing fun. When it is time, I will allow my oldest daughter to help me “write” the notes with a crayon. She loves to send letters, and it will be another opportunity to talk with her about gratitude, and why we are writing letters to our family and friends.
Question of the day: Do you hand write thank you notes?
Running through Central Park is beautiful, there is no question about it.
Running through Central Park on your birthday… MAGICAL! We left our hotel room around 7:30 and set out for a run around Central Park. We weren’t sure how far we would run, but we knew we wanted to see as much of the park as we could before we got too hungry.
The perimeter of the park seems to be where most people run and there were LOTS of people out running. I wanted to see the inside of the park and explore some of the bridges so my hubby and I turned into the park and went exploring.
We ran 3.70 miles and took lots of pictures. It wasn’t a run for time or anything, it was a run for FUN!
Here are some pictures from our run.
Enjoy!
like my new baby hairs?
The question of the day: Do you run for fun when you are traveling in a new city?
I have started to type out the details of the most magical Birthday ever (and I’ve been spoiled by my husband a few times before), but I just couldn’t find the words. I am so thankful for my family and friends who made this trip possible. My in laws who sacrificed sleep to drive us to the airport and watch our babies, my parents who gave us gift cards to use for food and trinkets from our travels, and all the wonderful Facebook comments and text messages wishing me a Happy Birthday. I am one loved girl!
I picked a few pictures to show you the adventures we took during our 30 hours in New York!
Every year since 2012 my husband and I have participated in the Miami Turkey Trot every year. Recap from 2012. – 10K.
If you saw my Thanksgiving vlog you saw the weather was less than ideal. Since it was POURING down rain we decided not to bring the girls. The last thing we needed was for them to get sick, and I’m sure they had more fun with their grandparents anyway!
By the time the race began we were SOAKING wet, and I was shivering. My feet were drenched from the puddles and I really wasn’t sure why we stayed – but we did.
The race started and we just started running, and I felt GREAT! Since I was so cold I just kept running and before I knew it, we were at Mile 1. I took a little walk break and then ran some more and then MILE 2.
Since it was still raining, and we didn’t have to worry about our children staying dry my husband and I just ran through all the puddles, and laughed together for the last mile.
Just like that, we were done!
As always, running in Miami was SO much fun. The crowd is always dynamic, and the vibe is incredible. I missed Miami so much and was Thankful to run in Miami again!!
Question of the day: Did you run in a Turkey Trot this year?
