During our Disney World trip in March 2023, we got to cross a fun experience off our Disney Bucket List…Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique! Prior to COVID, Melody wasn’t old enough. We only went once when she was 3, and it was a quick trip. Then on our trips post COVID, they were not open. But they were finally open for our Spring Break trip, and after a lot of research and stalking, I found an ideal time for us during our trip.
Melody’s wanted her 7th birthday party to be unicorn themed. She had it planned for awhile, and she even knew exactly what she wanted her cake to look like. She apparently watched a video on YouTube Kids where they decorated cakes, and she saw one she wanted. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this, and my backup was to just use Publix. I knew they had a unicorn cake even if it wasn’t the “right” one. Well I talked with my cousin at Easter, and she apparently was starting a bakery. Melody was telling her all about the cake she wanted, and my cousin said she would love to make it! Her instagram handle is @bluebirdbakeryelkmont if you want to see her work!
During our trip to Disney World in March 2023, we took advantage of the Facebook group “Ear for Each Other”. It is where castmembers who were laid off during COVID could post different business ventures. One properly option is where different people deliver various goodies to your resort. After looking around on the page, we decided to reach out to Storybook Treats. We were uncertain if they could deliver to Shades of Green (they can!), and once we received confirmation, we decided to order some treats for the trip.
For my best friend’s baby shower back in October, we went with a pumpkin theme. It was a perfect theme for a fall baby shower (or event for that matter). When it came to the food, I tried to incorporate pumpkins, orange, and Emily’s favorite foods.
During our trip to Disney World in March 2023, we stayed at Shades of Green. Most people do not even know this resort exists. There is a list of criteria that you must meet to qualify to stay here. The two largest qualifiers is if you are military/former military (some special rules apply to the later) or a Department of Defense Civilian. We found out about the resort a few years ago, and we wanted to give it a try. It is actually located on two golf courses, so that was how we convinced Brad’s dad to come to Disney with us. It also gave us a great opportunity to try out the resort too!
When we went to Disney World in March 2023, we decided to drive. We had the time, and it would actually be dramatically cheaper AND we could add two nights to our trip. With this we knew we would be asked a million times “are we there yet?” or “how much longer”. So I decided to make a map. I made two copies, one for the drive down and one for the drive home. Once we left and we knew the direction we would be going, I placed 10 stars along with the name of cities along our drive. Whenever we came to a city, I would let Melody know. This gave her a good way to track, and we only got asked those questions a hundred times ;)
The theme for Melody’s 7th birthday party was unicorns. For some of her birthdays in the past, I would make wooden numbers fit for the theme. Well she got disappointed the first year I missed doing that. So now I can’t forget. I let her completely design it this year. It really made it hard for me to step back and do that, but she really wanted to. She painted it herself, and I simply glued on the unicorn horn. The idea is the back of the seven is the tail. I am not entirely sure you can see it, but that is what she was going for!
We have made many Disney family shirts over the years, and it does get hard to make up new ones. I hate to re-use themes from the past. And when you are with a larger group, it is harder to make it all unison but different. So when it came time to design a family shirt for us to all wear for our March 2023 Spring Break trip, I had a little bit of a difficult time. I didn’t want to do favorite rides, because I really don’t know that Bob and Vicki had a favorite ride prior to this trip. Brad mentioned everyone being a different park, but I wasn’t sure how we would narrow that down…and there are not five parks. So after some deliberation with Brad, we opted to try and make everyone a character or favorite “thing” and make it have Mickey ears.
I didn’t take near as many pictures this year during swim lessons. A main reason was due to swim lessons being MUCH shorter this year. Melody did a refresher course which only lasts 2 weeks. Last year we went for 5 weeks. Melody also did dramatically better this year. We didn’t have any tears or real complaints. She even jumped off the diving board since finishing lessons!
During our trip to Disney World back in March 2023, I finally took Brad to the World’s Largest McDonald’s. It is located in Orlando, and it has changed quite a lot from my first visit there back in 2008. While I didn’t research the changes, I am certain they leveled the original building and rebuilt it. Either way, this was all about our experience there in March of 2023.
Melody has made great strides in gymnastics this year. At the end of the season, they had what they call “Gymfest”. It is like a showcase for the gymnasts. It was really neat to finally get to see this. They stopped it due to COVID, and this was the first year back. Those pictures are the ones where she is wearing the blue t-shirt. We did decide to take a break for gymnastics this summer. And I actually signed Melody up for another gymnastics class closer to our house. I can’t wait to share how that goes!
Back in May, we celebrated Melody’s 7th birthday. This year she landed on having a unicorn themed birthday party. I didn’t want to just have a re-do of her Rainbow Rangers party which included unicorns. So I decided to take it to a more pastel colored vibe and super girly unicorn stuff! (Wanna look back at all the parties I have done for Melody? Scroll to the very bottom for the links!)
Summer is already half way over for us, and it has really been a fast one. I tried not to plan too much this summer, yet we still feel like we are going nonstop. My hopes are the last couple of weeks of July will be calm and full of establishing routines and relaxing. But you can check out all we did in June below!
We attended the 2023 Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo back in April. We didn’t plan out things as much as we have in the past when it comes to our outfits. We also only attended Friday of the Expo vs the whole weekend or just Saturday. It was a lot of fun and much more calm on Friday night vs daytime on the weekend. All of the vendors were already setup too. The only major thing we missed was the mass crowd of cosplayers. There still was some cosplayers throughout the Expo though.
During our March 2023 trip, we spent our second day at the Disney parks (third day in Orlando) at Magic Kingdom that morning and Hollywood Studios that evening. We had a big, late breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table, so we didn’t do a real lunch. We decided to make a dinner reservation at Sci Fi Dine In Theater once we secured the plans for Magic Kingdom. Melody had never been there, and I hadn’t been there since our trip with friends in 2014
Melody’s 5th year of dance was this year, and she recently had her recital too. This was her last year taking a combo class, so she was one of the oldest groups dancing in her recital. And I honestly think they did the best. She has really come out of her shell over the last 5 years too!
Back in March 2023, we were able to ride Guardians of the Galaxy for the very first time. It was quite the experience, and I will say, I do think this is one of the best roller coasters there (we have NOT rode Tron yet). However, my experience afterwards was not the best.
Leaving Disney World is always one of the hardest parts. We really had such a fun time this trip, and we loved almost everything about it. (I will speak to the negatives in a future post. All were in regards to changes (such as Genie+.))
It is hard to believe 1st grade is already over! The year really flew by, but it was a great one. With COVID not being as prevalent, things really got back to normal as far as school goes. I was able to be at her school in her classroom at least once a week. And I volunteered outside of that as well. Melody has grown tremendously, and she has really blossomed. And to make things much less stressful, her 1st grade teacher is “looping” and will also be her 2nd grade teacher. I loved her teacher, and so this makes 2nd grade look so much better!
