The Lavender Ladybug

Whispering Canyon Cafe

2009-08-17T18:05:00.000-04:00

We headed to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe.

My goal is to try almost every WDW restraurant at least once, so this was one we have never done before.

I had actually never been in the Lodge and was fascinated by the decor.

We were a bit early so hubby looked for the hidden Mickey's in the lobby while my mom, H and I purused the gift shop.

We checked in about 10 minutes early and H played with the Lincoln Logs in the waiting area.

We were seated about 5 minutes after our reserved time. This is a great restaurant for kids as just about any behavior can be acceptable. The kids all got to ride around the restaurants in a stick pony parade and H had a lot of fun doing that.

Hubby and I had the canyon skillet and my mom had the meatloaf. Both meals were excellent. Hubby and I especially liked the brisket and chicken. H got the kids meal with chicken, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. She was even brought more corn when she asked for it. Our server was great, but did have trouble keeping our drinks filled. There didn't seem to be a sufficient amount of wait staff for how fast-paced the restaurant seemed. Just make sure you ask for ketchup!

We passed on dessert since we were heading back to the Magic Kingdom after dinner. This is a restaurant we would do again, it just would not be a "must-d0" for every trip.

Lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table

2009-08-17T18:00:00.000-04:00

Finally, we were able to eat with in Cinderella's castle. I have been trying for the last 3 trips to get reservations here and was finally able to score them! I was on cloud 9 the day I made the reservations.

After check in to CRT we waited in line for about 10 minutes and then were allowed inside to the line to wait for pictures with Cinderella herself. It was cool to be able to spend some time checking out the interior of the room. The stained glass windows are awesome

and we even found Gus and Jaq perched on a ledge.

The cast members in charge of the line here were unnecessarily bossy and could have been labeled the line police. It was being repeated over and over that we had to line up against the rope and then when in the part of the line going straight towards Cindy the groups were being told they HAD to stand shoulder to shoulder to fit as many people in as possible. They really did not contribute to making the experience "magical". They really needed a dose of pixie dust. We felt very rushed through seeing Cinderella, but they did allow us to take pictures with 2 different groups, one with H by herself

and then one with the 3 generations.

Once finished with pictures we started our ascent to the dining room. The whole feel of the meal changed there. They were just introducing the first princess, Snow White, and had us wait until she walked out to be seated. We were seated and promptly greeted by out server who took our drink orders.

We were brought 2 nice appetizer platters to snack on while we decided what we were having. While we waited on our lunch we took these pictures of the dining room.

I decided on the penne pasta, my mom and hubby ordered the Major Domo's pie and H got a hot dog. Our server was wonderful and was right there to help us with anything. He made a point of hinting to me that everything (meaning special dessert) was taken care of. Everyone really enjoyed there meals and there was more than enough food for us.

We saw Snow White,

Aurora,

Belle in her provincial dress

and Jasmine.

H ready for the wishing ceremony...

After waiting patiently for H and I to finish our lunches, our waiter brought out the desserts. The three adults had gotten the Chocolate Cream Cheese Buckle and H got an ice cream sundae. The buckle dessert was phenomenal and very rich.

Little did H know but there was a special surprise coming her way...

A chocolate slipper dessert for the little princess. I had been on the fence with ordering this and almost forgot but called the day before and they were still able to put the order in. She absolutely loved it!

Here she is on the way out of the castle. This was an awesome experience for any little princess!
-M-

WDW - August 2009 - Day 3

2009-08-09T22:02:00.008-04:00

On day 3 of our trip to the world we finally went to the Magic Kingdom. We didn't have breakfast reservations and took the ferry from the TTC. There is still nothing like that first approach to the Magic Kingdom from the ferry.

We missed rope drop by a few minutes, but that was OK. The park didn't seem to be too busy (as predicted by Tour Guide Mike).

On our way to Fantasyland we found the Fairy Godmother behind the castle. So we stopped for a photo op.

H wanted to ride Peter Pan first, we obliged because the wait was about 10 minutes. It's a Small World and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh were next. We went on Snow White before heading to Philharmagic.

We wanted to go to Philharmagic next but it was temporarily closed due to a leak in the ceiling. We were told it would be back online later.

Our next stop was the Haunted Mansion. H's favorite part is always when the ghost rides in the Doom Buggy! Our next stop was Pirates, my personal favorite: Captain Jack Sparrow! We caught the Tikis coming to life in Adventureland as we went to get fast passes for the Jungle Cruise.

After this it was time to check in for our lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table. I've been trying to get reservations for this for the last 3 trips and was finally successful. I even called Friday morning from EPCOT to order H a last minute special dessert.

After lunch we headed back to Adventureland to use our Jungle Cruise fast pass. After this we decided it was time to head back to the hotel for quiet time. We got a chance to see Daisy Duck on the way out. I love the colors of H's dress with Daisy's in this picture!

Monorail back to TTC.

After dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe, we used the boat from the lodge to go to the Magic Kingdom. This was a really easy way to get there and we didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes for a boat. Upon arriving at the MK, main street was very crowded while everyone was waiting for the Spectromagic parade. Our destination was Toon Town to see the fairies. At 9PM the wait for the fairies was still an hour and we were not about to wait that long with a tired 4 year old. We left her visit Minnie and Mickey's house and since the line was short in the judge's tent for Mickey we waited to meet the Big Cheese himself. We only had to wait about 10 minutes.

Mickey and Minnie took a lot of time with H because she just kept talking to them like they were old friends. She is just in love with them and they are her favorite characters.

This was such an awesome character experience.

H wanted to play at the play area so we let her do that for about 5 minutes since the train had just left. We were going to take the train back to Main Street to head out for the night, but when the train came through we were told it was done running for the evening. Ughhh, we had to walk back through the Main Street crowds for our departure. We took the shortcut from Toon Town to Tomorrowland and then cut through the Noodle Station. Spectromagic had just finished and the crowds were actually headed towards the castle so we were able to get out pretty easily. We waited for the boat back to the lodge and the fireworks were starting just as the boat left the dock. So ended our third day at the world.

Tomorrow- breakfast with Mary Poppins and another MK day.

WDW- August 2009 - Day 2

2009-08-08T23:15:00.020-04:00

Our second day at Disney World was spent at EPCOT.

We arrived before park opening for breakfast in Norway with the princesses.

The character interaction here was great. H got lots of attention for her custom Belle dress. We saw Belle,

Aurora,

Snow White,

Cinderella,

and Ariel.

The food was good here. I love the cold buffet with the berries and fruits. When we asked for seconds of the hot food it was brought out pretty quickly, which was an improvement from our visit here in May. We had paid and were out in time to pass into future world right after rope drop. Hubby headed to Test Track to get fast passes and Mom, H and I went to the character spot.

We had a short wait for the characters. H is so funny this trip with the characters. She views them all as her "friends" so it takes awhile to get finished with each on because she has to tell them things she's been waiting months to share. We saw Mickey,

Mickey saw her shirt right away and started to laugh about it. It has Pluto with a Minnie bow on his head.

I think Mickey was telling H secrets here and giving her a kiss!

Pluto (who wasn't too happy about the bow),

Minnie (who was checking out the shirt),

Donald (who was goofing around with the toys in her stroller while he waited for her to finish with Minnie)

and Goofy.

We also saw Belle in her provincial dress right outside of this area. We had also seen her here in May.

After this we headed to the Living Seas. We had to take sometime outside so H could watch the seagulls. They're her favorite. We did the ride and stayed to watch Turtle Talk with Crush. We hadn't done Turtle Talk before and we all really enjoyed it. It was really cool how interactive Crush was with the audience and how he "knew" exactly what was going on. We also had to get the obligatory Bruce picture.

Up next was Soarin'. We were able to ride with only waiting about 20 minutes. This ride is one of our family favorites. After the ride we picked up fast passes for later on. We were bummed that Living with the Land is closed right now. My mom and I enjoy seeing all the produce creations in the greenhouses.

We went to Journey into Imagination next. This ride is a sentimental favorite for me. Figment is my favorite non-movie Disney character. I remember seeing an animatronic little figment years ago that was taken around by the professor that used to be in the ride. Figment even sat on my shoulder then. Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was up next. We ended up all the way in the back of the theater, having to crawl over people who wouldn't go to the end of the row and stopped in the middle. H sat on my lap so she could see better. It was nice to cool off in the AC but I don't know that I'd do it every trip.

We headed back to the Land for lunch. We ate counter service in the food court here. I had rotisserie half-chicken with mashed potatoes and salad. Mom got vegetable soup and Caesar salad. Hubby went for Asian and got Mongolian Beef, Ginger Thai Chicken, rice and broccoli. H had macaroni and cheese kid's meal. Everyone enjoyed their meals.

Next we went to the Visa card member at Innovations. I arrived 15 minutes early so we ended up being the 4th family in line. While we waited H and hubby played at H's favorite, learning about fire safety. When we got our turn, we found that we were visiting with Minnie and Goofy. The past 4 (at least) times we've been there it was always Mickey and Pluto. Mom, hubby and I all have our own accounts, so we got three free pictures.

After visiting we headed back to the hotel for quiet time. H didn't sleep, but everyone else got at least a short nap.

On return to the park, we headed to Germany for dinner at Biergarten. In order to cut walk time, we took the boat across the lake from Future World to World Showcase. This was the second visit to this restaurant for us, but first time Mom had been. During our May visit, H had such a good time dancing that we had to return. The food was excellent although they had changed the recipe on the potato leek soup (the consistency was different). Hubby had a 1/2 pint Heffe-Weisse beer with his meal. After dinner, H got to dance with her Daddy.

After dinner we decided to walk back and use our Soarin' and Test Track fast passes from earlier. H stopped to play the drums at the African outpost on the way there.

Test Track was our first stop. H was fascinated by all the crash test dummies on the way to the ride. You can tell by how she looks here that she was tired.

Soon after that we were strapped in and ready to do our test drive. This was the first time any of us had ridden this one and we loved it! This is H ready for take-off.

H faking a scared look.....she's such a ham!
This is the car she wanted to try out
After Test Track, Hubby and H headed to Soarin' and Mom and I shopped at Mouse Gear for a bit and then went over to the photopass center to redeem our free print certificates. We had a great time in EPCOT today.

Next up.....Magic Kingdom!

Walt Disney World - August 2009 - Day One

2009-08-08T16:22:00.008-04:00

We spent our first day at the world in Hollywood Studios. Our first stop was the animation studio building so we could see the Up characters. This is one of our new favorite family movies. It wasn't quite time for the Up characters so we waited for Sorcerer Mickey first.

Then the wait for Up. We weren't disappointed. Russell got so excited when he saw he was on H's shirt.

Carl pointed out the Dug and Kevin on her shorts. We even got a cute photopass pic with Carl putting his hand under hubby's Carl shirt.

After that we went to check on wait times for Tower of Terror and picked up fast passes for that and we able to get some of the last seats for Beauty and The Beast. H loved the show and was so excited when the beast transformed. The transformation is her favorite part.

Next was lunch, since I had been hearing good things about the Starring Rolls Bakery we ate there. My hubby had a roast beef sandwich and my mom and I had a turkey sandwich on foccacia. Both sandwiches were excellent, we would definitely eat here again for lunch. We got a Napoleon for dessert, it was good but a little soggy. I decided I would just wait next time to get one of those in France at EPCOT.

After lunch we headed to the Great Movie Ride. This is one of H's new favorites. We were lucky enough to get the cowboy sequence which we hadn't seen before. Next on the tour was a Indiana Jones, hubby had never seen it before and wanted to try it. The show was good but not what he expected. H was bored during the non-action sequences.

Then onto one of my favorites, Muppetvision 3D. Loved it as usual! Inside the muppet gift shop we got H started on her first pins for Disney pin trading. Even though she's a very social kid, this is really a great experience for her to socialize with adults.

We used out fast passes for Tower of Terror next. This was H's first time on it and even though she's four the faster and spinnier the better. We just kept telling her we were in the basement of the hotel and needed to get on the elevator. I think as we were going up she wasn't quite sure what to think, but once we dropped the first time she was laughing and excited. When it stopped she yelled, laughing, "THAT ELEVATOR GOES UP AND DOWN FAST!" When I asked her at bedtime what her favorite part of the day was Tower of Terror was it!

It was getting to be time to head out for the clambake at the Beach Club so we stopped in the animation building. I had heard a lot of characters show up towards the end of the day and did they ever! We saw Jafar, Friar Tuck, Mary Poppins and Mr. Penguin, Pocahontas and Meeko, Gov. Radcliffe, Foulfellow, The Queen from Snow White, the Queen of Hearts, Pinocchio and Gepetto, and Minnie and Pluto. We didn't get to meet all of them, but it was awesome!

Gov. Radcliffe had to check my hand and then tried to steal my rings!

Max and Goofy had a great time with H. First was a group hug,

then Max stole her pin lanyard and put it on his nose

and was swinging it around,

Max signed her book on her head.

They definitely were in a playful mood.

We went to dinner at the Beach Club. The Cape May Cafe's clambake buffett was awesome! All of our food was great. They only complaint was the drawn butter to dip the clams in was cold. They did eventually remedy that for us. Overall a good experience and it will go on our repeat visit list.

Day one was a success. Tomorrow EPCOT!

-M-

Busy, Busy, Busy!

2009-07-15T23:21:00.004-04:00

Wow! My sewing and embroidery machines have been smoking lately. I've been super busy getting all of H's outfits finished for our trip to Disney World in less than a month! I only have a few to finish but I am feeling the crunch. Here's some of the items I have been working on...

The Up Outfit...

Vintage Minnie Peasant Dress

Ariel Vida

Minnie Flipflop Halter Sundress (my first Etsy.com listing!)

Alice in Wonderland Precious Dress

There are more pics to come soon. I am having such a good time sewing these and really hope I can make it into a means toward becoming a stay at home mom! Look for more listings on Etsy after we return from Florida.

H was just telling us tonight that she really misses Mickey. It was great to be able to tell her she will get to see him in soon. I have a feeling we will be counting down the days until then.

-M-

Pluto Set Completed!

2009-06-18T21:28:00.003-04:00

I finally got around to updating with the Pluto outfit. H loved it and wore it most of the day last Saturday. I think it will be one of her favorites! Here's the finished product.Notice she's pretending to hold a skirt up, that's what she usually does when modeling dresses....so cute!

-M-

New Machine

2009-06-12T20:34:00.003-04:00

Well, after waiting all week for it to arrive my "new" sewing and embroidery machine was delivered by FedEx this afternoon. It's a Singer Futura CE-150 that I bought from a fellow disboutiquer. She upgraded her machine and offered to sell me hers and also a super double wide hoop. I haven't tried out the embroidery function yet, quite frankly, I'm a little scared of it, but it sews like a dream. I can't wait to try some quilting on it with the hand sewn quilt stitch. I was able to applique using a blanket stitch a shirt for H today. I saw the clipart awhile ago but didn't trust my old machine to not make a mess of it.

I thought it was a good attempt at my first character applique. I plan on making easy fit shorts in the pink polka dots to go with the shirt.

H was so happy I was able to get this done today. She loved it and wanted to know when she could wear it!

Here's a close-up...

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll be posting the entire finished outfit soon!

-M-

Why the Lavender Ladybug?

2009-06-03T19:06:00.004-04:00

I chose the name after much deliberation. I wanted something that would create a mental image and would represent our family. My favorite color since I was little has been purple/lavender and now it's H's favorite color. I don't even have that much purple around the house so that choice was totally on her own. Although it could change a week from now, you know how 4 year olds are.

The other reason is that H has an infatuation with ladybugs. Her and Gama found a ladybug on one of Gama's burning bushes last year and she's loved looking for them whenever she's outside.

This was at the ladybug release at the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival last year. H was definitely the ladybug charmer. There was a photopass photographer that came over and couldn't stop taking pics of her because the ladybug just wanted to stay with her.

We bought ladybugs last summer to release in our yard to help get rid of the aphids on my roses. We had lots of fun letting them go.

And here's H's ladybug dress. This is one of her favorites. This picture was taken in Hilton Head, SC this spring.

A name can say a lot....

-M-

Welcome to the Lavender Ladybug

2009-05-31T21:41:00.002-04:00

Well, I've finally decided to create a blog for the humans in the household. After dictating a blog for the dogs for 3 years I've decided it's time to tell about the humans who reside here.

I'm not quite sure how the blog will progress as time goes on, but I plan on highlighting my crafts and hobbies. There will be some children's clothing, cake decorating, scrapbooking, gardening, quilting, travel, and just things I've found interesting.

I hope you'll stay tuned to see what's in store!

-M-