Meeting a Princess

Sahlin Studio just released another awesome princess kit, called Project Mouse (Princess) Spirited, click on this link to check it out.

It's been a while since we've been to Disneyland. 8 years, as a matter of fact, but the moment I saw this, I knew I had to create a pocket page for my album. 

You guys... Little Madelyn in these photos slays me... She is now on the cusp of looking at me eye to eye. [She is of course, anticipating the day she's taller than I am, and she's so very close] 

I had so much fun looking through our Disney photos again. It was such a great trip. 

The day at the park, we had spent a long time in line, waiting to meet Princesses. When we got there, we were a bit disappointed to meet Princesses we weren't familiar with. Tatiana of Princess and the Frog, a movie I hadn't and still haven't ever seen. Mulan, again, another princess and movie I was unfamiliar with. Then Belle... 

Meeting Belle was lovely, but we'd had an 'experience' watching Beauty and the Beast. Let's just say, that when we got to the part of the movie that the townspeople were after the beast, Madelyn became hysterical, like SOBBING UNCONTROLLABLY UPSET. So much so, that we had to turn the movie off... So there's that. [She has since seen the movie in it's entirety, and rolls her eyes at me when I remind her of her 'antics'] I just hoped seeing Belle at the happiest place on earth wouldn't trigger that particular memory...

After leaving the princesses, we made our way back towards the castle to meet back up with the boys. 

As we rounded a quiet corner, Ariel was walking right towards us! I couldn't believe it! She stopped and immediately crouched down, to talk with Madelyn, to get to her level. 

Disney hires the most incredible people. I hope they know how much they themselves make dreams come true. For Madelyn and I, this was definitely a highlight of the trip. [Because not long after came Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother] We were in the right place at the right time, lucky us. 

I love that I have these memories to look back at. 

I hope we get the chance to get back to Disneyland soon.

The following Sahlin Studio products were used: 

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Princess-Ariel-Kit.html

https://the-lilypad.com/store/Project-Mouse-Princess-Ariel-Cards.html

FANniversary Celebration - Project Mouse

This weekend is the Anniversary, or rather FANniversary of 6 years of Project Mouse Goodies.

There are so, so many fabulous kit collaborations of Disney. If you click here, I have linked to the project mouse pages, or you can simply go to the-lilypad.com, and search Project Mouse. 

This weekend is a big deal. There are lots of things happening, and some super fun challenges over at the FANniversary forum. 

Here are a few layouts I have worked on over the past week, all to celebrate Project Mouse. 

TEMPLATE CHALLENGE

I used the following Project Mouse product: I used the following Project Mouse product: Celebrate Paper, Elements, Word Snips & Photo Overlays. I also used Classic Paper

RECIPE CHALLENGE

I used the following Project Mouse product: 

PM no. 2 - Elements, Journal Cards and Hand Drawn Words

BLACK & WHITE CHALLENGE

I used the following Project Mouse product: 

PM Vibes - Paper, Elements, Journal Cards & Word Art

BIG PICTURE CHALLENGE

I used the following Project Mouse product: 

PM Vibes - Paper, Elements & Journal Cards 

I'd be lying if I said that working with these photos didn't make me the slightest bit melancholy... 

The photos of Barry and I were taken 20 years ago. TWENTY YEARS AGO... We made a trip to Disney World with friends, and I have to say, that Disney, as an adult, is epic. We had such a great time. 

The photos of the kids at Disney were taken 8 years ago. And every time I look back at these photos, it makes my heart swell. It was such a fun trip. They were only 6 and 9, and were so well behaved. We walked SO much, and they were so small...

Would love to try and get back there again. I need new photos to document... 

Reminiscing

We made a trip to Disneyland 3 years ago. We went at the end of September, just after school had started. Mason was in grade 4, and Madelyn had just started grade 1. The trip was awesome. We were  a little bit hesitant on whether or not we'd go, and it ended up being one of our most memorable trips with our little family of four.

When I came back home, I created a small 8x8 album of our trip. It was an idea I had gotten from a Simple Scrapbooks 'Short Cut Albums' magazine. Do you remember Simple Scrapbooks? Man, it was a sad day once that magazine went out of publication.

Any way, it was this mag [and shockingly, yes, I must have paid $23.25 for it...] Though, there was a time at Micheal's that you could use a 40% off coupon on books and magazines... And I put my name on it, because there was a time we used to get together, a group of us, and scrapbook. But I digress.

Here is the album layout idea I copied, from Rebecca Cooper. I absolutely loved the simplicity of the pages, with lots of photos, and just a tiny bit of journaling on each page, to keep the reader up with what was happening. 

And here is the album I bought. In Seattle, at Target in 2005, with my clothing club gals. I knew ONE DAY, we would take our kids to Disneyland. I adored this embossed Mickey 8x8 album. [Miss Madelyn was a mere 4 months old when this was purchased]

So I created a very simple album, to capture some of my favourite photos and moments.

It was super simple. Just a collage of pictures, and a few sentences to jog our memories.



Since then, I have become a creative team member for Sahlin Studio. If you don't already know, Sahlin Studio and Britt Design have collaborated together to create a bunch of different digital Disney themes. Check out all the Disney themes out by clicking here:

It has been so much fun to work with these bundles, and every time she releases something new, I go through my photos and select pictures, and reminisce again about our trip. Here are some of the layouts I've created with the latest kits:

 Project Mouse: Frontier

 Project Mouse: Frontier

Project Mouse: Tomorrow

 Project Mouse: Tomorrow

 Project Mouse: Villain

Project Mouse: Villain

What I know, Disneyland was awesome. We had a fabulous time. At 6 and 9 the kids were the perfect age, to be on the move, all day long. With every release from Sahlin Studio, of new Disney themes, my album gets more and more full. I simply can't wait to go back another time. Imagine all the layouts I can create from another trip. Dreaming of Disney...

Following Sahlin Studio Product Used:

Project Mouse: Frontier
Project Mouse: Tomorrow
Project Mouse: Villains

Home from the Happiest Place on Earth

It's true, Disneyland is one of the happiest places on earth. They are really happy there. I was astounded by their attention to detail. Everyone we ran into, no matter what position they held, were polite and kind. I have to tell you one thing, right off the bat, I could NEVER work at Disneyland. I simply could not be that nice, all the time. [Seriously, ask the people I live with, they'll vouch for me for sure]

But for my sake, and my kids sake, I'm really glad that there are that many people, willing to smile and be kind to everyone they encounter. In fact, I'm pretty sure Madelyn came back with a bit of a swelled head. Everyone smiled nicely at her and called her a princess... [Upon our return, that came to an abrupt stop] We had a great time. The weather was great. The park [although busy as an ant hill] was great. The rides were great. We met characters, took lots of pictures, went on lots of rides. We figured out Fast Passes. We were finally able to visualize what it looked like to have 2 parks across from one another. We saw how the Downtown Disney area fit into the equation. We saw the laser show and the fireworks. We watched the parades. We re-went on our favourite rides. All in all, we couldn't have had more fun.

One thing I'd researched and knew about ahead of time was the Disney Photopass. There are dozens of photographers around the park, at any given time, and you can have your picture taken by them. They take your picture, scan a credit card type thing, and return it to you. This allowed me to be in numerous photographs [in fact,these photos will prove that I was on vacation with my family!] This was a no brainer for me, and we have lots of pictures to show for it, so fun. It also took a lot of the pressure off taking pictures all the time, though my camera was never very far from reach.

Disneyland had been transformed for Halloween. It was neat to see. Some of the rides were catered specifically for Halloween [the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain] there were meet and greet with villains [we met 3!] There was the Main Street Pumpkin Festival [over 300 different carved pumpkins] Here are just a few pictures:

Look at that, even I'm in the pictures this trip! And imagine running into Tinkerbell there! How lucky were we?

This was the Jedi Training Academy, we tried this 3 times, until the kids were chosen to participate... The battle against good and evil. Mason got to battle Darth Vader, while Madelyn was up against Darth Maul. Both won't forget this experience for a long time.

Here we are with vacation Mickey. Madelyn's most favourite mascots are Chip 'n Dale. We luckily found them, and got a picture! And then there's Woody... He's much taller than I thought he'd be!

The kids were at the perfect age for this trip. I couldn't imagine them being any younger. We went hard for a whole week. I'm not kidding, we did 12 hour days. We walked and walked and walked. There was no complaining. Little girl had to be carried on Barry's shoulders a couple of times, but both of them did great. We did nearly EVERY ride in both parks. It was awesome. I was suitably impressed by both kids.

Having said that, the next vacay, will be just the Mummy and Daddy... :-)

I'm happy to be home, and I can't wait to put a little scrapbook together of our Disney Adventure.

A Big Suprise...

Last night we had a small little birthday celebration for Barry. We had a BBQ, we blew out a few candles, we ate some birthday brownie and then...

We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland.

It was worth the anticipation of the surprise, and I'm pleased to say, we were delighted with the result. Their reaction was truly disbelief and excitement. And then, for the rest of the evening they walked around saying "I can't believe this" and "Thank you!".

I made journals for the kids, to document their trip. [Also part of their 'homework' as they're missing a week of school]. We picked up a couple of t-shirts as part of their celebration uniform as Barry called it, and I made up made some fun luggage tags that will go on their backpacks.

Can't wait to see how they do... We're pretty sure we're capturing them at the most perfect age... Here we go!