Alice in Wonderland Themed Baby Shower Games!

Welcome to those of you joining me from Return to Disney and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the 4th stop on our Magical Blogorail.  I will be exploring the games and activities at this virtual Alice in Wonderland themed baby shower! 

Part of Your World: A Mermaid Themed Baby Shower

 

My daughter and I were excited to throw a fun, mermaid inspired bridal shower for my sister in law.  Of course it would need to have many nods to our favorite Mermaid of all...without being specifically Ariel themed.  Could we pull it off?  Come see!

Mad Hatter Tea Party Shower!

In the first post in this series I put the above picture collage from the most awesome Disney-themed party I've ever had.  However, I had no hand in throwing it since it was my Bridal Shower! Instead of bugging my sister, mother, and the other shower-planning helpers about where they found all the elements that they created for my special day I thought a picture tour would be the most fun! :)

First, the big goofy classic Bridal Party chair was placed at the head of the table for me (here I am with my sister and niece, June 2009). 

As you can see in the original collage pic, the drinks (iced teas of course) that were served while everyone waited for me with their noshies had "Drink Me" signs on them.  And the cupcakes read "Eat Me".  My mom created a topsy turvy cupcake stand with paper mache, paint, and her creative magic.  She put fondant flowers atop each cupcake as they would around the stand and on the table. 

Sometimes food really can be a work of art! The party was held outside in my grandparents' backyard for a garden party feel.  There was a big white tend set up and everything was in bloom thanks to the time of year.

Some of the most notable parts of the decorations were the hanging paper lanterns and pop up bells.  There was also a large Mad Hatter hat (which you can see the top 80% of in the above pic), and lots of colored buckets as vases for bright colored gerber daisies and big handmade paper flowers!

The tables were set up in a small "T" with the guests sitting down the long end and my chair at the head of the top. My bridal party sat with me at the ends. The colors popped so much agains the green grass and table cloths! And the mismatched heights and multi colored decorations added to the whimsy. 

The tablewear featured some mad mis-matched plated and bright colors favor cups! The cups includes crazy straws, tea candies, and some tea-- even a personalized tea bag featuring Alice & the Hatter with a cute saying. :)

Besides both hot and cold tea they served cocktails (we're all mad here) all in awesome cups and mugs.  And there were teapots spotted around on the table and even the watermelon was cut into one for the fruit salad. Here (above) is my Grandma taking a sip for no other reason than that I love and miss her. 

And from this glimpse of the table you can catch some of the finger foods that were served.  Lots of really adorable apps and finger sandwiches (you can check out a closer pic of the sandwiches in the collage pic).  We had real tea party with a nice Disney twist.  The tea party food and drink, the outside setting, and the great decorations made this Mad Tea Party one of the most amazing and love-filled parties anyone has every thrown for me. :)

How do you celebrate your unbirthday with a Disney twist? Don't forget about the unbirthday contest running through September 15, 2013.

In My Bag- Twenty Essentials For the Perfect Disney Park Bag

Twenty Essentials for the perfect Disney Park Bag

Mad Tea Party

Although I can't take any credit for it since my mother, sister, and the rest of my bridal party surprised me with my Wedding Shower- it had an AWESOME Mad Tea Party theme! Here are some pictures to grab some ideas from if you are thinking of theming any or your wedding parties (or other celebrations) this way!

Wish by Matthew Cordell- Book Review

Have you been looking for the perfect Father's Day gift?  Perhaps you need something for a baby shower or a christening?  I am a big fan of giving books as keepsakes.  Once in a while a book comes along that is so special it has the power to speak to everyone.

Part 7 2007: Parades, Pilots, and Pork Shao Mai

We made it to Magic Kingdom very refreshed around noon. As soon as we came in we got a fresh photopass picture and he kindly took one with our camera as well! Then we headed to accomplish our goals of the day: Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean and lunch at Pecos Bill. So we headed over to Frontierland and I hopped on the 40 minute line for Splash Mountain , while Rob grabbed us fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We luckily were able to ride one right after the other in the unrelenting heat. I decided to wear my poncho on SM, (we were drenched head to toe last time and we hadn’t planned to return to the room until pretty late that night). It was so funny, the CM getting us on the ride yelled at me and told me that I was a cheater when he saw me put the poncho on. It was cute. I love both SM and BTMRR so it was very exciting. Next we headed over to Pecos Bill for lunch— Rob loves their burgers and it was delish.

In any case, after lunch we waited about 25 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean which was pretty darn cool to see updated with Jack Sparrow for the first time. On our way out of Adventureland we came upon the end of the Share a Dream Come True parade! This was great timing! We weren’t planning on seeing this at all this time around since we had a great spot our first trip and it hadn’t changed at all that much! It was just great and perfect timing. We stopped to take some pictures before heading over the monorail to get on over to Epcot for dinner.

So, after a bit of back and forth arguing over who would ask the driver Rob asked if there was room for us to sit up front on the monorail and there was! Us and a couple on their honeymoon sat up front and even though it started to sun shower it was so awesome! We took some pictures and it was just fun and happy! And miraculously by the time we got to Epcot the rain had ceased! AND we got awesome Monorail Co-Pilots licenses from the driver on our way off! This was such a cool surprise! Neither of us had any idea they did this but it was so rewarding and great!

Since we had some time before dinner we headed over to Club Cool again, because frankly we were thirsty and out of water and we thought it was pretty dope! Then since it wasn’t looking so crowded we headed over to Mission: Space. The Green team had a no wait so we hopped on. Afterwards we headed over to China for our ADR at Nine Dragons! We decided that China was great to try once, but we would probably leave it to a Counter Service if we every returned. Rob and I had a double appetizer sampler that was fried dumplings, shrimp spring roll, and Pork Shao Mai or something like that. We then both had honey-sesame chicken which was like the gourmet version of regular fast food Chinese food you could get anywhere. After dinner off we went to re-board the monorail. But first we rode my favorite one more time: Gran Fiesta Tour! 

Stay Cool with Disney Snacks

Welcome to those of you joining me from 400 Miles to Disneyland and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the final stop on our Magical Blogorail.

As my fellow Disney lovers have been discussing, there are a lot of strategies for beating the heat in the Disney Parks (and really in Florida all together).  Being a New Yorker, believe it or not, I don't find the humidity all that different from my home state.  The only difference in the summer humidity is that it actually breaks here in New York after a shower or thunderstorm!  Albeit hot and sweaty I don't mind lathering up in sunscreen and heading into my favorite park in any heat or humidity.  However, there are some days where these bad boys are necessary for my survival:

I love the theming of Disney pools and I love to take a break at my resort hotels so I can freshen up for late summer nights, but grabbing a quick snack is one of the best ways to take a break from the heat.  You can sit in the shade and people watch or dip into a quick stop for some air conditioning reprieve while you enjoy a snack.  My favorite mickey shaped treats can be found throughout all Disney parks in carts that never seem to far away!

There are also great ice cream stops within the parks that you shouldn't miss! My husband love's Auntie Gravity's Galactic Goodies in Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland (I always get Root Beer Floats here) and I love the ice cream choices around world showcase (like the Gelato at the Italy pavilion) but a good ole Mickey Premium Ice Cream bar hits the spot any day!

Thank you for joining Magical Blogorail Peach this month. We will be back on August 6th with an all new theme. If you are looking for more Disney magic, you can make your way over to The Magical Blogorail website to see all our members and their blogs.

1st Stop ~ Disney in Our Blood
2nd Stop ~ Can Do It Mom AKA Mouse Fan Diane
3rd Stop ~ 400 Miles to Disneyland
4th Stop ~ Picturing Disney

Finding Nemo Squirt Cupcake Recipe!

How cute are these Finding Nemo Squirt Cupcakes?  Want to make your own?

Feb 2011: 100 Things to do with 100 Hours in Disney- Part 3

Note: I used a multiple upload featuring for all the parts of this trip report so my apologies for the low-res quality of some of these pictures! I have used a bunch of them already in previous posts on the site and on Facebook so I hope you don't mind! The April 2011 Trip Report will be back to the old upload quality again!!




The next morning we were well rested when Mickey and Stitch rang our phone for our wake up call! While hubby was in the shower I noticed my first hidden mickey of the trip... in a huge painting hanging by the beds in our room there was a girl drawing mickey in the sand! I was really into the whole theming of the Polynesian, especially the turtles everywhere! I just heart turtles!

 
We headed out for breakfast at Captain Cook's and got to have a nice interaction with some of my favorite creatures on Disney property: Disney Ducks! We also got to see a great view of Cinderella's Castle we hadn't noticed from the Poly the day before!

 
After breakfast, we headed off to Epcot.  We had a tour scheduled this morning and got to enter the park before it opened! Very cool! Great picture ops AND I love that guests with early breakfasts can do this too!



We headed to guest relations (we were the first couple from our tour to arrive and after checking in made friends with the castmembers here! The CM from Germany told us all about the Duffy the Disney bear hype (and I realized I have a Duffy from the World of Disney store that used to be in NYC) and one from the states got us all checked in.  We got to meet one of our guides and when I literally tried to sweet talk him into letting Rob go run and FP Soarin' for us we got a little Disney magic! A No Strings Attached Fast Pass!!!!



We headed out on our Segway Tour of World Showcase! It was an AMAZING experience!! If you are at all interested- DO IT!!!! Here's alink to my Chip and Company review of it with some extra pictures from the ones below and you can find some pics on the Picturing Disney Facebook.

   
After we retired our Segways, we headed into The Land for our first ride of the day on Soarin'! We were smart about it... before we road we fast passed it for later! ;)  Once we had returned from our gliding adventure we headed over to Spaceship Earth.  I am not sure why some people skip this! Its amazing! I adore it! Literally, I want to bring every one of my students to Epcot when we go on it... it LITERALLY would help them review for their Global Studies final!!! Maybe someday!

  
After our ride into our future we decided to head back into World Showcase and stop and see the Flower and Garden Festivaltopiaries that had already been put up! Just to give you an idea on this map... 2, 8, 12, 15, 16, 22, 26, 27 were all up and complete and we could see Bambi and part of Toy Story under tents.  So we really got to enjoy about half of the topiaries and it was a couple weeks early!

  

We headed into the Germany pavilion for some Brauts and Beerfor lunch.  I love this pavilion.  I shared with my husband the story behind the fountain center here and now I will share it with you.  Medieval lore often used Dragons to represent the devil, and with such a huge emphasis on Catholic faith you could imagine the reverence St. George would receive for this doozy... Long story short: supposedly a dragon was destroying a bavarian village and a beautiful princess was offered to the dragon in return for him leaving the village alone.  When King George heard of this he headed straight for the dragon and fought it to its death, both saving the village and the princess.

We ordered our meal at Sommerfest, shared a table with a lovely couple from Las Vegas, and then headed into the shops here to find a couple gifts.


 
We then made our way into the China Pavilion! We walked through the video area and saw the replicas of the Terra Cotta Army that can be found here! Seriously, just another reason why I feel my students need to take a field trip down to Disney!

 

Next we made our way over to Norway for our first ride on Maelstrom! Very cool! And being that my husband is part English and I am part Irish, we more than likely have some Viking in our past so this is a nice look at really the heritage of most any people of European descent.




Moving right along, we stopped in Mexico for a little bit of time next... some shopping in the Marketplace and then a ride on my FAVORITEGran Fiesta Tour with the Three Cabelleros!!! And we were lucky enough to meet Donald in his Mexico garb on the way out!! Woot woot!

 
Being that we had fast passes in our hand that we couldn't use until after dinner and we had seen most of the park, we decided to head back to the resort and soak up some sun by the Polynesian's pool before we needed to freshen up for dinner at the California Grill! On our way out we grabbed some more photopass pics with my favorite golfballl! ;)