Happy Halloween!

Hello Ghosts and Ghouls!  I just wanted to pop in to wish you all a Happy Halloween!

This is also a little bit of a Throwback Thursday post.  This time last year, Eliot and I were actually down at Walt Disney World with my mother and brother for Halloween.  I bought our tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party months in advance so we could celebrate Halloween Night with Mickey Mouse and friends.

It was obviously a bittersweet trip for all of us since my Dad was supposed to be with us.  We debated cancelling the entire thing after he died, but we all knew that we would probably need a little bit of magic at that point.  It was a pretty good night overall.  We missed Daddy so much, but we knew he would want us to have fun.

The photo from above was from when we first entered the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  Eliot and I made new mouse ears specifically for the event.  I wore my new Torrid candy corn dress and the light up Mickey pumpkin earrings I ordered from another small shop.  We spent the evening getting a little candy, taking photos with some of the characters, and watching the parade and fireworks!

This year we don't have any big plans, but I'm sure I'll still find a way to celebrete!

Happy Halloween!!! 🎃🦇👻🕷 I hope you have a spooktacular day!!! °o°

#tbt Cake Decorating Class

I wasn't planning on posting today, but earlier today, I saw a Facebook memories post about my cake decorating class that I took 13 years ago.  I thought that I'd pop in for a super quick Throwback Thursday post to share my first attempts at decorating cakes!

In the spring of 2010, I decided to take a cake decorating class through the local adult education school.  Assebet Valley was only about 10-15 minuets from my house, and it had so many offerings that interested me.  (Boy, do I miss all of those class options!)  It seems like a lifetime ago now, but I took a bunch of adult eduction classes there.

I've always wanted to learn how to decorate cakes, so I jumped at this opportunity.  I wasn't great at it, but I also didn't practice much after class ended.  I have recently wanted to get back into it- whether I take another beginner class at our local Michael's or if I just try to re-learn it and practice on my own!

Anyways, the first cake that I ever decorated was a circle cake that I made a Star of David on.  Eliot's favorite color is teal, so I tried to mix my frosting in that color.  It ended up looking more like a snowflake- I think due to the lighter aqua color of the frosting and the shape of the "star" but practice makes perfect!

My second decorated cake was a Mickey Mouse cake!  When my instructor told us we were going to learn how to decorate characters, I knew I had to make my favorite mouse!  It's still not perfect, but this came out pretty good!  My edge piping was a lot better, and you can tell that it's Mickey Mouse.  I was so proud of this!

As class went on, we learned more complicated designs.  One of the hardest designs was the basketweave.  It really isn't a hard concept, but you had to get the lines just so in order for it to work.  I think my icing ended up being a little bit too runny, because mine looked a little drippy.  But it still tasted really good!

During our final classes, we learned how to make a bunch of royal icing flowers.  I wish that I'd taken photos and notes on how to make each design.  Our instructor made gorgeous flowers.  After they dried for a week, we used them to decorate small two tier "wedding cakes" in our final class.  This was the instructor's sample cake.

It's been a long time since then... but I'm pretty sure this was my attempt at it!  It's not gorgeous, but it's not too bad for a beginner!  I definitely learned a lot in class.

A few weeks after class ended, I made another two tier cake that I decorated.  I think it was for Eliot's birthday since it was in late June and the colors are pink and lime.  Well, pastel pink and lime anyways... gotta work on those darker colors!  (After that, I didn't find anymore photos so I'm not sure if I decorated more cakes or not!)

Looking back at these photos definitely makes me want to attempt it again.  It's been a long time since I got out my cake decorating stuff... and they've made so many new decorating products since then!  I would love to get back into it someday!  °o°

#tbt Our Wedding Reception in Maine

Today we're doing another special edition of Throwback Thursday, because exactly 10 years ago today... Eliot and I had our Wedding Reception in Maine!!!

As soon we decided that we were definitely having our wedding at Disney, we knew we wanted to have at home receptions to celebrate with everyone who wasn't able to travel down to Florida for the actual wedding.  Unfortunately, our California reception never took off the ground, but my parents and I were determined to have one in Maine.

You probably think that we're crazy for trying to plan a destination wedding and then a reception a month later... but that was just par for the course.  Over the summer of 2011, we went to scope out a potential location for our Maine location during one of Eliot's and my trips home to visit my parents in Trenton.  Thankfully, it was perfect and literally a five minute drive from their house.

A few days before the event, Eliot and I traveled the 5.5 hours from our apartment in Woburn, MA up to Trenton for our reception.  We were renting it for Saturday, October 20th, but they allowed us to go decorate the hall the day prior. 

We held our reception at a local campground's event center and it was very informal and more for fun.  We had a video of our wedding that we showed to our guests before we made our "grand entrance".  Eliot and I both dressed up for it.  (He wore a lime shirt, a pink tie and a black suit to match our wedding colors instead of renting a suit again.)  I wore my wedding gown again so my Grammie could see me in it.  

Katie D, Katie N and Kaitlin wore their bridesmaid dresses and BJ and Jeremy dressed up as well.  It was as close the real thing as we could make it feel.

We had Katie D and BJ make maid of honor and best man toasts.

BJ didn't give a toast at our wedding, so it was special to have him make one here.

Katie gave another wonderful toast at our Maine reception.

We also had a cake.  The girls really bailed me out on that.  They all arrived at Mom and Dad's house right about the same time I was having a breakdown.  Mom and I cooked the cake ourselves and I don't think I let it cool off long enough before I tried to ice it.  It wasn't the prettiest thing, but it worked and tasted good.

My cousin Luke agreed to be our DJ and unofficial "host" of the afternoon, so I gave him my laptop with a bunch of pre-selected songs in a folder that we also had played at our wedding reception in Disney.  Eliot and I recreated our first dance to "Promise".

Then, we also had another father/daughter dance.

Finally, Eliot and my Mom also did a mother-in-law and son-in-law dance.

We brought our wedding guest book for people to sign.

I also had some some fake leaves and a Vinylmation to sign.

We had copies of our invitations, wedding programs, wedding photos and a few other things on display for everyone to look at when they first entered the venue.

I put my Build a Bear plush in the windows along with a few other decorations.

Emery was quite taken with the display, especially the photos.  He pulled me over there and kept pointing me out in all of the photos.  It was adorable!

The best part of the Maine Wedding Reception event was having so many people who weren't able to make it to our Disney Wedding in Florida be there.

I was especially grateful to have my Grammie there.

We also made sure to take a photo with me wearing my wedding gown along with Mom, Grammie and Nana at my request.  (This photo is very special to me.)

I'm also really glad that Eliot and I took a photo with us and all of my grandparents... especially since 10 years later, Papa and Grammie are no longer with us.

Eliot's and my Maine Wedding Reception was a simple, yet very special event.  I'm so glad that we had one, even when planning for it and our wedding was a bit dicey at times.  The only regret I have is that we didn't hire a professional photographer for the event.  These photos are so precious to me and it would have been wonderful to have more of them.  However, I'm so grateful for what we did have.  It was a wonderful day celebrating Eliot's and my wedding that was filled with friends, family and love.  °o°

#tbt DCL's First Visit to Bar Harbor

Today, we're having a special edition of Throwback Thursday.  Exactly five years ago today, Disney Cruise Line visited my hometown for the very first time!

I remember when I first found out that Disney was adding Bar Harbor to one of their fall itineraries.  I was so excited!  The news was huge for Bar Harbor and big for Maine too since no other Disney ships have ever stopped here before.  We had just taken our first Disney Cruise the previous year, in the fall of 2016, so it was a bit unbelievable to find out they'd be making their way here!

Mom and Dad wanted to go on that sailing as soon as they found out.  Before I knew it, they were booked on the Disney Magic for a 5-Night Canadian and New England cruise from New York City to St. John, New Brunswick in Canada and back to New York.  The cruise left New York on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 and arrived back to port in New York on Monday, October 2nd.  (It's stop in Bar Harbor was the 29th.)

We were all excited about Mom and Dad's upcoming cruise.  In fact, Eliot and I had made special mouse ears for the occasion.  I wanted them to have special ears that had the outline of MDI and said Mt. Desert Island on the other side.  Then, Eliot and I chose to make them in our MDIHS colors of green and white.  We weren't able to get them finished before they left, but we had them ready when they arrived in Bar Harbor! 

On September 29th, the Disney Magic sailed into Bar Harbor and I had to be there to see it.  Nana had stayed with me at a hotel across the street from my chiropractic office.  The night before, Eliot, Nana and I drove up to Trenton to Mom and Dad's house so we could be there to see them arrive.  I remember driving up to Paradise Hill so we could get a good view of the ship.  (Once my parents were close to land, they were texting us to let us know where the ship was putting down anchor.)

Seeing a Disney Cruise ship in my hometown was such a glorious sight!

I was beyond excited.  I'm definitely not a morning person, but Eliot and I hopped right up out of bed that morning, woke Nana up and got ready so we could be in town.  We missed the Magic actually sailing into town because it got there a little early, but we were up on Paradise Hill well before 8 am taking photos of it.

Naturally, I had a special outfit for the occasion.  I'd gotten out my new Disney Cruise Line nautical shirt and some bright red pants.  Then, I also wore my DCL logo earrings from Hokey Donut and brought my new DCL tote bag that a girl I follow on Instagram graciously got for me at the outlet store in Florida.  It was the perfect outfit!

We made our way into town and parked down on the pier.  We were there when Mom and Dad got off of the whale watch boat that was shuttling passengers to land from the ship.  The Bar Harbor Pier was a flurry of activity of cruise passengers heading into town or getting on their tour buses.  Mom and Dad arrived with a Disney Cruise Line shopping bag filled with a few of the plushies I'd asked them to get for me.

They didn't have grand plans that day.  Dad actually made a few work phone calls from home and they checked up on all of the business stuff.  But we did make time to go into town to take some photos before they had to be back on the ship that evening.

We made another stop up on Paradise Hill where we took a bunch of photos.

We took plenty photos of the ship, but we also got a ton of photos with us and the ship in the harbor.  We took a few with Eliot and me.

We took some of our donkeys.  (This was before Meep Meep joined the bunch.)

Eliot and I also got a "family" photo with our donkeys.

We took a boatload of photos of Mom and Dad with the Magic in the background.

We also got a few photos with Nana!

I also tried to get a few photos looking back towards town with the Magic.

Eliot and I also went up to the top of Cadillac Mountain with Dad where we took more photos of the ship, town and the Bar Islands.  (The Magic is the one on the left.)

I made sure to get a few photos up there with my new Captain Mickey Mouse plush!

We got a few photos with Dad and Captain Mickey Mouse too!

I had to get in on the action with one more photo of my outfit and the ship!

At both stops, I also made sure to take photos with the MDI mouse ears we'd made.

Later in the afternoon, we all went down to the pier so Mom and Dad could get back onto the whale watch boat shuttle back to the Disney Magic.  Before seeing them off, we took photos of Mom and Dad with their MDI mouse ears on the pier.  (While there, I also got a few photos of the mouse ears with the harbor in the background.)

Eventually, it was time for them to be getting back to the ship.  We bid goodbye to Mom and Dad as they walked down the dock to the boat.  Eliot, Nana and I waved as they rode off on the whale watch and back to the Disney Magic.  

Eliot, Nana and I sat on the pier for another few hours to see them off.  Eventually, it got dark and we watched as the ship sailed around the Bar Islands and off around the corner and into the night.  It was funny to see the Disney Magic from the shore... you could see the giant television screen above the main deck flashing as it sailed along.

It was such a magical day, but I think the best part was how well it went over with everyone aboard the ship.  Mom and Dad talked to a bunch of people and the overall consensus was that Bar Harbor was amazing and people wished they had more time there.  (Apparently, St. John didn't go over nearly as well.)  We were all pleased about the good reaction, and we hoped that Disney Cruise Line would come back to MDI and Bar Harbor again.  (I believe they had another cruise there in 2019.)

Having Disney Cruise Line visit the town where I grew up was an incredible experience and something that I'll never forget.  I'm so glad that I was able to personally be there for it's maiden voyage to Bar Harbor, and that my parents were able to be on that exact sailing.  The entire thing was definitely a very magical memory.  °o°