Saturday, June 30, 2012

Friday Night!

before dinner the little did some painting with colored shaving cream... they've asked to do this every night:-)


3 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!


Thursday, June 28, 2012

4 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

the daily goodie bags and snack suitcase is officially packed! after 3 hours of packing today, i'm still not finished.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

a little bit of violet



5 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

I seriously shortened our unveiling video... so excited!

a little violet










recital 2012... hot, hot, hot

isabel did a fantastic job this year at dance recital! we are so proud of our little dancer... take a look at what a doll she is.
 lining up
 ready to go backstage
 ashlyn and isabel

 mommy and isabel
daddy and isabel

6 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

a must have in the parks... autograph book!! this is jaxon's autograph book from our 2010 trip... it isn't full yet but i decided that each trip needed a new book. thank you to my friend Dana for making the littles their autograph books, i cannot wait to see them!

7 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

i started filling their airplane goodie bags today! i'm going to add a mickey head with their name on the front of the bag and hopefully convince a southwest flight attendant to give them the bags while we're mid-flight. their bags will have some snacks, gum, and some disney goodies to keep them occupied while we're flying.

8 Days!! DIsney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

this afternoon i started packing the "snack" suitcase. we do get 1 snack credit per person with the disney dining and 2 meals, but i know that we will need a few extras!! we also plan on eating in the room for 5 of our breakfasts and i wanted to get something easy to eat on the run. jax was full of questions while i started filling the bag.



Sunday, June 24, 2012

9 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!! the single digit countdown has begun.

cousin emily has developed 11 clues for the littles big unveiling scavenger hunt! each clue is based on a disney movie that we own and have a plush of. each clue will be attached to the plush character and will lead them to the next plush... the final clue will lead them to their video message and goody bag!

this week i'm going to tap into my inner crafting goddess, with the help of Dana Hicks, and create their clue cards. stay tuned for the end product!

the littles "clue training" involves watching each of those 10 disney movies until our vacation... tonight's special feature is "The Little Mermaid!" the really funny thing is that max came downstairs this morning and wanted to watch "Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue" which is actually one of our clue movies!


10 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

i have to admit, i'm running out of things to photograph for our 30 day countdown! this 30 day countdown has been the one downfall of surprising the little's with our disney vacation... i can't do anything fun with them:-( it has been exciting to chronicle each day on our blog and the little's will have it forever in their blog book.

so, today's countdown pic... our disney photo pass! the hubs bought me an amazing camera as my "push gift," and trust me... i plan on using it while at disney. when disney sends you all of your travel documents they also send your photo pass card. this super handy card is what you hand the disney photographers and all of your photos are uploaded to your account. the cool thin about the disney photographers is that they can add some fun stuff to the pictures that they take, all you have to do is ask... you can get tinker bell, or mickey shaped balloons, or even stitch. it just depends on your location in the park.

disney gives you the opportunity to pre-purchase your photo pass cd with all rights given to you for $119.95. if you wait until after your trip to purchase it's going to cost you about $80 more, yikes! while doing my disney research i came across a great tip... take a picture of your photo pass card # just in case you lose it in the park! you can also have multiple photo pass cards linked to your account! just click here to check it out.

Friday, June 22, 2012

11 Days!! DIsney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

i have discovered so many amazing ideas to make this the most magical vacation for the littles... here is yet one more.

each day the littles will be greeted with a letter and surprise from a disney character. if we have a character meal it is a letter from that character inviting them to breakfast or dinner. i've picked up little items, shirts, dresses, bows as their daily treats. 

take a look at the arrival letter from cinderella...


i so, so, so hope that we will be making some extraordinary memories for the littles... they deserve it!

Thursday, June 21, 2012

12 days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

another hidden mickey... isabel spotted this while we were making pizza snowballs last Friday. i have her trained well.

13 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

this evening we headed to bed, bath, and beyond and target to purchase a few necessities. since we're traveling to "the world" during the hottest month of the year, spray mist fans are a must. we were able to get these fans for $9.99 and then used our 20% off coupons... good deal.

we also had to make a stop at target:

*sharpies- the ones with the click tops (they're bigger and the tops make it easy for the character with gigantic gloves) for character signatures
*dry erase markers- for the disney whiteboards we already had
*gallon ziploc bags- to pack each day's outfit (shorts, shirt, shoes, panties, hair tie, hair bow, earrings)... the works!!
*tide stick- for the inevitable ice cream on the clothes
*tide laundry pack- for the one load of laundry i'll do
*disinfectant wipes- to wipe down the room

there are still a few more items on my list.


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Family Pictures 2012

we were able to do our family pictures at kauffman gardens near the plaza the week before jaxon's stitches... thank goodness!

if you would like to take a look at our family pictures click here. you will then need to click on events at the top of the page. find our folder and click on it. the password is lopez. enjoy!

TWO Weeks!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

i cannot believe that we only have 2 more weeks... i'm ready to start packing now!!
one of their surprise gifts from mickey on morning #1

Disney planning tip:
if you book through the disney website, you only have to place a $200 deposit. i made our reservations for this trip in June of the last year. since making our reservation i can't tell you how many times i have changed our length of stay, and there were never any charges. you can make as many changes or even cancel up to 45 days before your trip all free of charge. another perk of booking through disney is that you can make payments on your trip as often as you like and in any amount, as long as your vacation is paid in full at 45 days before your trip.

Disney's Contemporary Resort... this will be our home 
while exploring Disney

Monday, June 18, 2012

15 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

if you're planning your disney vacation, the disney website has an awesome feature... you can design your own customized maps and they will mail them to you! i believe that you can only order 1 customized map per year and they take 4-6 weeks to be delivered. since i've been planning this vacation for 365 days i was able to order one in 2011 and one in 2012, isabel and jaxon each have their own for their disney goodie bags!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Saturday, June 16, 2012

17 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

since violet is too little for a princess dress, i found a cute alternative on etsy. i'm not sure how well you read this but it says "move over cinderella" and she has on little ruffled butt bloomers. i need to find a cute princessy bow to go with this!

this is her outfit for breakfast at "Cinderella's Royal Table."

18 Days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

it's hard to believe that Isabel had her first disneyland trip in 2008 and picked out her first set of ears... mr. jax was in momma's belly on that trip and got his pirate ears during 2010 disney world trip! as i'm blogging i'm realizing that we seem to do a disney trip every other year, 2014 look out.

on our last dinsey trip isabel was eyeballing my princess ears. i have a sneaking suspicion that she might want to upgrade to her own princess ears this trip. what will we choose for violet... minnie bow ears or princess minnie ears??

Thursday, June 14, 2012

19 Days!! Disney World Countdown...Lopez Style!

i just received the ruffled romper that i ordered for violet off of etsy, and i L-O-V-E it... it's adorbs! the romper came with a minnie mouse headband bow that is equally adorable but a little on the heavy side.

now i have to decide what day miss violet is going to wear this ensemble, so many decisions!



20 Days!! DIsney World Countdown... Lopez Style!

in honor of flag day, isabel wore her red, white, and blue... she has no idea that this is her 4th of july outfit for disney world!


Tuesday, June 12, 2012

2 peas in a pod

neither one of them even knew that i snapped this!

21 days!! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!

on our 2010 visit hector and i celebrated our anniversary at the california grill. this restaurant is on top of the contemporary resort and has a spectacular view of the magic kingdom and epcot. it was the most amazing date i have ever been on! the food was scrumptious, the location was perfection, and the atmosphere had just the  right amount of magic.

our dinner was on our first evening there and i made the mistake of scheduling tomorrow land terrace dessert party that evening as well... big mistake. i felt as if we rushed through dinner a bit since it was our first day and with our reservations that evening. but, we savored every minute we were there.

since my mom and dad are going to be with us on part of our trip, i've scheduled a little surprise for hector. i'm almost certain that he only looks at the pictures on the blog and doesn't take the time to read my posts. but, if i'm wrong... surprise, we have reservations for the 2 of us!! this time i've made reservations late in the evening so that we can view the fireworks from the observation deck. did i mention that they actually pipe in the music from "wishes nighttime spectacular?" a.m.a.z.i.n.g!
last photo courtesy of disney world photography blog

22 Days! Disney World Countdown... Lopez Style!!

the gals have a bazillion outfits and hair bows for the big trip and poor jax barely has a thing! i have picked up some shirts and pirate gear for the dude though. i found this great pirate accessory kit, a foam sword, and a hook in the dollar section at target. have i mentioned how much i love target... love it!

Jaxon vs. Princess Horse

jax decided to go head to head with one of isabel's princess horses and sadly, the horse won. literally about 10 seconds before the fight i had told him to be careful and stay away from violet with the horse... he had been putting it up above his head and then pounding it on the floor full force! never in a million years did i dream that he would ram his face into it... nor did i think the horse could cause an injury that required stitches.

as soon as i took a look at the gash i picked up the phone and called the pediatrician. in 5 years of bing a mom this was the first incident in which i thought stitches might be necessary, i was freaking out a little. i wanted to make sure that he needed stitches prior to driving to children's mercy so we made a quick stop at the doctor and they sent me us on our way.



 the winning horse!

i can't remember what her title was, but there was a lady who came into the room to talk with jax about the procedure. she showed him all of the tools they would be using and let him hold them. she talked about what he would feel and the noises that he would hear. she stayed with us until the doctor cam in for the procedure and even held the iPad so max could watch  a movie while they did his stitches. it was a good experience.