If only I had been born in a jungle!

First of all, it has been waaay too long since I’ve blogged. The main reason is because my son’s laptop decided to call it quits and so he has been using mine during the day for school. By the time I get it back, there just isn’t enough time left in the day to do much writing. I’ve actually been working on this blog for several weeks, and just haven’t been able to sit down long enough to finish a complete thought. But, tonight is the night I finish it! (Hopefully my kids keep the peace long enough for me to concentrate.) This may be a little long, but I think if you take the time to read it, you might appreciate at least one thing I’m going to say.

Now, on to the jungle thing. Sometimes I feel like things would be a lot easier to figure out if I had been born in a jungle. Yep…I said it…a jungle, with NO people around (besides my parents of course to bring me into the world).

Let me explain. I grew up in a Christian home. My parents both loved Jesus and talked about Him in our home every chance they got. Prayer was very much a part of our everyday lives as a family. In fact, I accepted Jesus as my personal savior about the age of 4. I still remember coming home from Sunday school one afternoon, and when I was by myself, I “asked Jesus into my heart”. My dad read the Bible (or another kid’s Bible story book) to me almost every day as far back as I can remember. We went to church every time the doors were open. I attended a Christian school from grades K-12. I knew all the kid songs about Jesus, all the church hymns, and all the “praise & worship” songs. We even sang them in our home. My childhood was more than I could have asked for, and overall, my church experience was a positive one as well.

So why the thoughts of jungle living? Well, to understand why I must continue. For some reason, growing up, I struggled with feeling secure in my salvation. I’m not saying I’ve ever doubted that salvation exists, but I have had a very hard time grasping one thing – God’s grace.

I actually have memories of lying in my bed at night as a little girl, and praying this prayer – “Dear Jesus, please forgive me for any sins I’ve done today, even the sins I might have forgotten about or can’t remember. Please forgive me because I want to go to Heaven and be with you one day.”

I remember praying that prayer daily because I didn’t want Jesus to come back without me asking Him to forgive me for everything I “might” have done.

Recently, I started thinking back on that time in my life, and I started wondering why I used to pray that prayer. I know it wasn’t what I was taught at home, and I’m pretty positive I wasn’t taught that idea at my school or church.

Most people that know me, know that I homeschool my 2 kids. They are currently using the same curriculum I grew up using – ABeka. They use ABeka’s online Academy, and actually watch videos of a real class with a real teacher from the main headquarters in Florida. Each day, my kids start their day off with Bible class. In the class they sing songs, pray, and listen to the teacher tell them a Bible story as she relates it to their lives.

One morning, I was in Zoe’s room getting some of her worksheets together when I hear her teacher say something about asking Jesus to forgive us of our sins….and that we need to ask Him to forgive us every day for things that we might have done wrong. Zoe immediately paused her class and asked me “Mom, does that mean if I forget to ask God to forgive me of something I do wrong today, I won’t go to Heaven if I die tonight!?”

Obviously, I explained to Zoe that sin is a willful transgression against God (James 4:17). And that only HE knows her heart. I explained again what it means to accept God’s grace and forgiveness and what it means to repent from our sins and ask Him to help us live for Him. After our conversation, I could tell she was completely relieved and had a better understanding of God’s grace.

Then it hit me! That is the SAME question I had growing up, but for some reason, I never went to MY parents to get clarity! UGH! I SOO wish I would have, because I have sure struggled with that one for a long time.

Somehow I grew up feeling like a slave to the “law”. I knew all the “Dos and don’ts” and for the most part followed them all for fear that God wouldn’t see me as “saved”. I felt like I was always seeking His “approval”.

Recently, I was reading Galatians and found myself just mulling over it and reading it again and again and again. It just came to life to me all over again. Verses that I had heard and read before just jumped out of the pages at me! There are only 6 chapters in Galatians (which by the way you should totally read when you get a chance!) but there is so much good stuff in those 6 chapters! Here are some things that really stood out to me:

I’m going to mix a few verses together here, but they start in Gal 2:16 – We Christians know that we become right with God, not by doing what the law commands, but by faith in Jesus Christ…for no one will ever be saved by obeying the law. Vs 19: For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God’s approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God…for if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die.

WHAT?! I KNOW I’ve read this before, but I guess I just never understood what this really means. It’s like the light bulb finally went on! This is good news! I still believe we ARE to follow what God commands us to do and live in a way that bring glory and honor to Him, however I feel like now I have a much better understanding of what God’s GRACE really looks like.

Gal 5 goes on to say something else crazy. It says: Who has interfered with you to hold you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for He is the one who called you to freedom. But it takes only one wrong person among you to infect all the others – a little yeast spreads quickly through the whole batch of dough!

Just like Zoe’s teacher’s one statement (which by the way was very well intentioned and correct after I re-listened to the whole lesson) confused her and made her question what she (at her young age of 8) knows to be true, it dawned on me, the same thing happened to me. Because I grew up around so many people that taught me about God, I’m certain that at some point in time something one of them said brought on my confusion. It’s almost like sometimes we have too many voices in our life. Sometimes so many people speaking at once can cause more confusion than I’m sure none of them had intended on causing. Things bring me to the idea that jungle life would have been a LOT easier.

I sometimes think about the people who have never heard the gospel preached, yet are able to look at nature around them and see that there is a creator. I’m certain there are those people who are able to have a relationship with God through just observing what is around them and knowing deep inside them that there is something or someone bigger out there. And I like to just imagine how completely raw and organic and amazing their relationship with Him must be. No religious talk around them. No one trying to tell them all the rules they should follow and how they should live their live, or even what someone else’s opinion of salvation is. Maybe just maybe, THEY are the ones who have the closest, most honest relationship with Him.

I know we can’t “undo” things we’ve heard, but I have actually prayed that God give me a NEW mindset, NEW thoughts, and a NEW understanding of His love and mercy and grace. One of the last verses in Galatians says this (and it’s one of my favorites!)

“From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things, for I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus!” (Gal 6:17)

That’s good stuff. I hope you find peace in knowing that no matter what you’ve done, and no matter how many times you’ve sinned against God, He forgives you! If you are born again, it’s that simple – YOU BELONG TO JESUS and nothing you do can take that away!

A new beginning!

A week ago today, on August 5th, we began a new school year!  Jaxon started 1st grade, and Zoe started 3rd. I cannot believe how fast time is flying by!

On the first day, Kory and I prayed together with the kids for their day, and for the year we were about to enter.  Kory asked them what they wanted to do differently this year.  Zoe said that she wants to try harder.  Such a simple answer, but such a good one!  I think we can all agree that we need to try harder at times.  I know sometimes being a stay-at-home mom can become mundane. It’s easy to feel like the grass might be greener on the outside of the home. It is my prayer that I will TRY HARDER this school year to be a better teacher, mom, wife, and woman! To stay focused.  To spend more time in the Word and in prayer. To keep my eyes on the big picture - to raise these amazing kids and teach them all they need to know to function on their own.  And most importantly, to know and love God!

Here are some pictures highlighting our first day:

Happy Breakfast!

Jaxon (6) Zoe (8)

 

Looking forward to what this year will bring!

Happy Homeschooling!

Putting garbage in it’s place

Recently, our trash company changed the day they pick up our trash, and the containers we put it in.  My family recycles, and up until now, we have had 2 small recycling containers that have never been large enough for the amount of recycling we have.  Every week, we would always have an overflow of items that wouldn’t fit into the recycling containers…until now.  We now have a LARGE rolling cart that hold everything!  There is never a need to find another place for the garbage!  I love it!  Why am I telling you this?  Well, you see…garbage in itself isn't bad. Garbage dumped in the wrong place - that's bad.
Sometimes there's way too much garbage that gets dumped where it should never go - in the hearing, in the lives of people who have no business getting the “overflow” of our garbage as we complain about our lives.
One big problem with our complaining is that it focuses on what's frustrating us and it forgets the big picture. When we just look at the irritations and the frustrations in front of us, we lose our perspective, we blow today's little messes way out of proportion, and we forget the larger picture of the great things God's doing in our lives. We miss the big picture!
God isn't expecting us just to ignore our frustrations, or bury our frustrations. He just wants us to dump them out in the right place, which David tells us about in Psalm 142:1 , "I pour out my complaint before Him; before Him I tell my trouble." Bring your complaints and frustrations straight to God. First, He's not going to be hurt by them. He's not going to be poisoned by them like the people around you will. Secondly, He can do something about them much more than the people around you can do.
Now, we all go through some garbage in our lives, and it's true we often need a place to dump that garbage. God has offered us a wonderful place to do that - at His feet.
Be careful not to pollute the environment around you. :)

You want me to give up WHAT?!

I haven’t told many people about this, but I feel like now is the time to talk about it.  Recently our church took part in a 40 day fast. As I was getting ready for the fast to start, I began praying that God would show me what He wanted me to give up.  I knew He wanted me to give up something BIG, but I wasn’t sure what at the time.  One day, I was praying that God would take away a migraine I was having and He spoke very clearly to me, telling me I needed to fast MEDICINE….ALL medicine.  I remember actually answering God back with a “wait, what did You just say?!  Are You SUUURRRE You said what I think You just said?!” 

Some back story: For the past 24 years I have relied on various types of medications for migraines. It’s gotten to the point that nothing works anymore, except one particular medicine that I can always count on to come through for me.  Throughout my life, I’ve seen doctor after doctor and have been given one hopeless diagnosis after another.  I had gotten to the point where I just gave up – excepting that my life will always be one of sickness.

It finally hit me, I’ve been relying on and putting my trust in medicine, and doctor’s opinions, instead of fully relying on GOD to HEAL me.

So, I did it….I gave up ALL medicine for 40 days!  Not even a Tylenol! It wasn’t easy, that’s for sure, but I serve an amazing God who kept showing himself faithful to me over and over and giving me the strength to get through each day.  I also have an awesome husband who encouraged me to keep going when all I wanted to do was give in an take the medicine that I knew would end my pain. He even wrote Bible verses on note cards and taped them to the wall beside my bed so that I could be reminded of God’s faithfulness and His healing power every time I was battling sickness.

At the end of the 40 days, I prayed again, and felt like God was not yet releasing me from the fast…so I kept going, not knowing how long it would be before I stopped the fast. Obviously there was a lesson in all of this I was supposed to be learning, and as the days past, I started seeing what that lesson was. When I reached the 70 day mark, I got another migraine.  This time, I began praying about whether or not to take my migraine meds again.  This was the first time I had asked God in the whole 70 days if it was okay to start them again.  For some reason I felt led to look up the Biblical meaning of the number 70.  When I did I was surprised to find this: Just as the number seven denotes perfection, maturity and completion, the number seventy denotes an entire period or a full state.

It had been 70 days since I have taken any meds! I felt like God was showing me that my sacrifice was complete.  That I had done what I needed to do – fully rely on HIM.

While I am still having migraines, I feel like I have a new outlook on life, a refocused faith. I guess after all the years of having the same mindset, I needed to be awakened, renewed, refocused. 

While I do feel like it is okay to take my medicine now, I will never again become so dependent on it like I was before.  I have learned to go to God FIRST for my help.  Throughout the past 70 days, I have learned that while doctors serve a purpose in our life at times, the only voice I want speaking into my life in regards to my migraines from now on is – GOD.  He created me, and HE is the only one who knows me inside and out. 

I am still expecting a total healing from Him, but until that day comes that He sees fit to heal me, I  know that my patience and reliance on Him will continue to grow. Sometimes it takes us making a drastic change in our life to bring our focus back to what is really important - our obedience to Christ and our devotion to Him.

“Emotions Don’t Have Brains.”

Patsy Clairmont said that at a Women’s Conference and I really liked it!

Sometimes it's easy to let our emotions rule us, letting our will for our lives exceed God's.  As I woman, I especially struggle with my emotions at times.

Some verses came to mind today when I was thinking about how we can overcome our”self”.  I’m a HUGE fan of scripture.  I have found that no matter what I’m going through or struggling with, I can turn to the Word for answers and direction.

In cases where others actions are causing us to have negative feelings, Eph 4 says: Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each others faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

In cases where we just want our way, and selfishness creeps in, Galatians 5:16-27 says:  So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

I guess this all goes back to my previous post, about being selfless.  I guess that’s a huge theme of the Bible after all, right?  Jesus called us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him!  He tells us to have self control, grace for others, forgiving hearts….

We have to be careful not to spread our negative emotions to others…

We have been called to live in FREEDOM, even freedom from ourselves! We just have to live in that freedom!

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Be blessed!

My name is Amy Kimbrell & I am SECOND!

This past week I had the privilege of going to camp with our youth group!  This was the first year I was able to go and I was excited beyond words!

Getting on the bus (see, told you I was excited…the moment was picture worthy!)

The speaker at the camp was Jason Petty:

  aka: “Propaganda”

The theme of the week was: SELFLESS

Sometimes it’s so easy to get used to hearing the same thing over and over that we stop really listening.  This wasn’t a new topic for me…I’ve heard many messages preached about this before, but when this week started, I prayed that God would show me something new and reveal Himself in a NEW way to me….and He did. 

Propaganda said something that really stuck out to me.  He said “At the foot of the cross the ground is even.”  My goodness, that’s good stuff!  That means that no matter what our past is, no matter what kind of upbringing we’ve had, when we come to Jesus, we are all the same.  It doesn’t matter how long you’ve known Jesus either! Just because someone might have known Jesus their whole life, that doesn’t mean they are “more good” than someone who just met Him. 

He preached on the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 (which was really great).  Then the last night He talked about 3 things we can do to be selfless:

1.  Give with no strings attached

(Are you ok with giving to someone without getting anything in return?)

2. Desiring the best for others

(Can you genuinely rejoice when someone else succeeds?)

3. Mourn with those who mourn

(Can you really walk with others through their pain?)

I guess the thing I really took from the week was how important it is to view others like Jesus does, understanding that He sees all of us the same, no matter what stage of life we are in.  I feel like once we understand that, it’s a lot easier to think of others more highly than ourselves.

It’s easy to get into a mindset where we dwell on what WE want, what’s important to US, OUR hurts, OUR wants. When someone offends us, we suddenly feel like WE “deserve” something, that the world should suddenly revolve around US and OUR needs. 

What we should be doing is praying that God would help us to see everyone the same, not putting our needs above anyone else’s.  Everyone is going through something. People fail us, but real maturity comes when we can put ourselves aside and put others first.  What is your motive (why do you do what you do)?

John 3:30 says: HE must become greater; I must become less.

It’s all about perspective. Sometimes it’s hard to set aside our own feelings and emotions in order to view the world through someone else’s eyes.   The more we understand that our time on earth is shorter than our time in eternity, the more our perspective will change. 

Luke 9:23 (the voice)-  If any of you want to walk My path, you’re going to have to deny yourself. You’ll have to take up your cross every day and follow Me.

Here are some pictures from camp, just for fun:

And here is a video: (click below)

Day 1 of camp

Guns & Corndogs

Weird title huh? Speaking of weird.  I looked up the definition of the word "WEIRD", and used as a noun, it actually means “a person’s destiny”! 
What does this have to do with guns and corndogs? Well, let me tell you. 

Today I took my kids to Sonic to get a slushy and Jaxon’s favorite – a corndog (healthy, I know).  While we were waiting, I saw a man walk up and sit at a table and I immediately noticed that he was carrying a gun – very openly, on his belt. I too have a license to carry a gun, but I always conceal mine for fear that someone will see it and decide to make an issue out of it.  For some reason, I had the urge to go up to the man and tell him how much I appreciated his boldness.  Weird, right?  I didn’t know the guy, but I just felt the need to tell him that.  He said thank you, and we both went about our day.  Later, my kids asked me why I went up and talked to a stranger.  My explanation to them was this:
Throughout the years, I have learned (and am still learning) that when God puts something on your heart to do, you DO IT.  Now, I didn’t necessarily feel like GOD was telling me to go talk to that man about his gun, but it was something out of my comfort zone for sure!  I didn’t even tell the man about Jesus in those few seconds, I just felt the need to tell him that his boldness was noticed and appreciated.  Who knows why. It wasn’t even about the gun, really…it was just the fact that I saw someone being BOLD about something they believe in!  He may not have even known the Lord, but he was living out boldness.  Which made me really stop and think about what we as Christ-followers are called to be – Bold, and not just bold, WEIRD. So many verses rush into my mind when I think about this:
2 Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of POWER, and of LOVE, and of a sound mind!
Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the Good News about Jesus Christ!  Is the the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes.
Proverbs 28:1 – The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as BOLD as lions!
Deuteronomy 31:6 (MSG) Be strong. Take COURAGE. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.

I could go on and on sharing scriptures that came to my mind when thinking about our responsibility as Christians – to be bold and spread the love of Jesus. I hear people say all the time “I don’t know what my purpose is…”  Well, I DO!  If you are a Christ-follower, your purpose is to share the Good News with the world - boldly, and unashamed!  This brings me back to the word WEIRD: a person’s destiny.  We are called to be weird!  To live outside our comfort zones, to do something crazy, outside the box for God – no matter how WEIRD it looks to the world.  God works in unconventional ways – I have learned this to be true in my own life. 

As you go out into the world, whether it be at a job, at home, at the store…if God speaks to your heart and tells you to do something, DO IT!  It may not make sense to you (and most of the time it doesn’t) but if God is telling you to do it, there is a reason and you can be sure that HE will get the glory.  Be bold, be courageous, be BRAVE! Be Weird. 

Another year older, Another year bolder!

I am still having a hard time believing my kids are 6 and 8 now!  Where oh where has the time gone?  Everyone says the time really flies, and goodness gracious, they aren’t kidding!

Zoe is a caring, passionate, emotional, loving, happy child who loves to laugh and thoroughly enjoys the little things in life.  She has such a sweet, sensitive spirit, and has a desire to tell everyone she knows about God.  I can tell she is going to be a bold and determined young lady later in life!

Jaxon has gone from being our quiet, mild mannered little boy to a very opinionated, vocal child, full of non-stop energy.  We like to call him “action Jaxon”.  He has a sensitive side though, that only the people closest to him get to see.  While not everyone we meet is appreciative of his roughness, I am thankful for him exactly they way he is – ALL BOY!  :)

While they argue most of the time, they do have some moments where they seem to actually like each other, and I cherish those moments every chance I get! :) 

Here is a picture of when Jaxon was 1 and Zoe was 3, and then a current picture from today at ages 6 & 8.

 

We didn’t have a party this year because we went to Disney World to celebrate!!  (pretty awesome birthday I’d say!)

Here are some more birthday pictures from today:

 

 

Jaxon wanted to go to Burger King for lunch, so I took a cake with us :)

 

And so another year begins….

Our 2013 Disney Vacation Memories (with helpful tips!)

Well, we finally did it – took our kids to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.  We took them this year to celebrate their 6th and 8th birthdays.  We had been told by several people that this would be the perfect ages to take them, and I believe everyone was correct!  What a FUN time we had!!  I learned a lot from our trip, and I am going to share some of those tips with you.  :-)

We got a 4-day Disney package that included 5 nights at our resort, and 4 days to the parks.  We did not get the park hopper pass, which in the end, we decided there was no way we could have even gone to more than one park in a day!

I am going to break down our trips into parts.  By topic (ie: Resort Info, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, etc…)  Enjoy the info and photos, and let me know if you have any questions! :) 

RESORT INFO:

We flew Southwest, and we did not rent a car until after we left Disney. After we arrived in Orlando, and took the Disney Magical Express bus to our resort (the Caribbean Beach Resort). This is where we learned our first lesson!  They tell you to leave your luggage at the airport and that it will “magically arrive” in your resort room within 3 hours of your arrival.  This is supposed to save time and make your experience much easier. So, we left our luggage and boarded the bus.  On our way to the resort, the bus broke down leaving us stranded on a busy intersection, waiting for another bus to pick all of us up.  After about an hour of waiting, another bus arrived, and took us to our resort.  About 4 hours later, our luggage had still not arrived.  Finally, after talking to the front desk and bell service several times, our luggage finally arrived – soaking wet! The luggage not being in our room, and the fact that it was all wet, was a HUGE inconvenience and waste of time!  We needed what was in those bags to start our fun!  Lesson learned: GET YOUR OWN LUGGAGE from the airport and put it on the bus yourself (the bus has underneath storage that no one told us about!) Oh! And we finally got the resort to agree to pay for laundry service so that we did not have to stand in the laundromat washing clothes!

Our room (Mickey ear towels on bed)

more little towel creations left by housekeeping during our stay.  They even let us take them home!

Disney soaps

After we got ourselves situated, we rode the internal resort bus to the main building where they had a large “food court”. 

These buses shuttle you all around the resort area and to and from the parks.

Mickey waffles :)

TIP: GET A MEAL PLAN!!!!  This is an absolute MUST!!!  We got the Quick Service meal plan which included 2 full meals/person/day, plus 1 snack/person/day.  I wasn’t sure the 2 meals/day would be enough, but at the end of our trip, we actually had 2 meals left that we were unable to use or get a refund for!  And that was with FOUR of us eating.  It was probably one of the best perks of our trip!! Without the meal plan, the meals would have cost us upwards of $50/meal!

When you arrive at your resort, they give you each a card.  It acts as a credit card for any purchases at the resort or at any of the parks.  It also acts as your meal card.  Each time you get a meal or a snack, you just touch your card to a machine and it deducts your meals from your plan.  Then they give you a receipt that shows how many meals/snacks you have left.  It’s that simple! The adult meals include an entre (even large, pricey ones), a drink, and a dessert!  Kids get a whole kids meal.  Another great perk, is they give you each a Disney mug (cost $15.99 w/o the meal plan) which you keep and refill anytime you want for free at the resort.  You can refill with soda, tea, hot chocolate, coffee…anything!  Those were WONDERFUL to have, because we would keep our drinks that came with the meal (bottled water or milk or juice) for taking with us to the parks!!

  The mugs (great souvenir)

MAGIC KINGDOM - Day#1

 

Plan your day the night before. We read about each ride and attraction the night before and circled the map accordingly.  This made our day MUCH easier! Then GET THERE EARLY!  Check the park times (each day’s time are different for open and close).  If you get there a few minutes before the gates open, you will get to watch a “pre-show” with all the Disney characters right outside the gates.  Pretty cool, but most importantly, you will get first dibs at the fast passes for the most popular rides! 

TIP: GET FAST PASSES!!  These are a MUST for ALL the parks!  At magic kingdom, the must-have fast passes for us were: Space Mountain (a little intense for our 8 year old, but our 5 year old LOVED it), Splash Mountain (a must-ride) Peter Pan’s Flight, Buzz Lightyear (both great!)  Those seemed to be the rides with the longest lines.  Fast passes are free to everyone, so there is no reason why you can’t get them! It’s all about the timing really.  If you see a line that says the wait is 60 min – go get a fast pass.  The fast pass will give you a ticket to come back to that ride at a later time.  Your wait time with the ticket is generally 10 min…instead of 60.  It’s a LIFE SAVER.  Don’t stand in a line longer than 30 min.  It’s just silly when there are fast passes for just about everything.  You just have to plan your day accordingly.  You get the hang of the fast pass thing really quick.  Just ask a worker to explain it to you. 

Here are a few other things I learned:

- TAKE A BACKPACK – TRUST ME…you’ll need it.

- Take or buy ($8/person) a rain poncho for if it rains…don’t even think about it – just buy it.  It’s better than being soaked – trust me. The Disney ones were pretty nice – with hoods.

- Put sunscreen on before you even leave your resort in the morning and take it with you to reapply during the day! None of us has a single burn spot the whole time we were in Disney!

- Drink lots of water – I know this sounds obvious, but I was dehydrated the whole trip. Make sure you take those extra water bottles with you!

- Skip the face paint!!!!  It’s $15 (waste of money) AND one of our kids had an allergic reaction that lasted the duration of the trip:

:(  You could still see the design for days after the paint.  Bad idea!

- To trade or not to trade?  (pins that is)  It’s really up to you.  I heard about this whole pin trading thing from another family who went and enjoyed it.  Basically what you do is you start off with some pins of your own that your child wears on a lanyard (which you can purchase all over Disney), and when you see a worker wearing pins, you ask “may I please look at your pins?” and if you see one you’d like, you trade one of yours for one of theirs.  Cute idea, but they ended up being more of a nuisance than a fun thing for us.  The pin backs were constantly falling off and it frustrated the kids, so we ended up just putting them away.  I will say, if you do want to trade pins, get your pins off ebay before you go (I did).  Pins at the parks are super expensive ($8+ for ONE pin!)  You can also buy lanyards there too, but again…I got my kids before we went for $1/each.  It’s up to you.  Your kids will never know they are missing anything if you just skip this part!!  But…here are my kid’s pins:

 

MUST HAVES – Autograph books and large pens!  Again, you can buy autograph books at the parks, but I made ours at home out of $2 scrap paper books.  I used a Disney font that I printed out and glued on the fronts with their names on them.  Then I laminated them.

  As for the pens…I forgot our pens so we did buy 2 Disney pens, which ended up being great because some of the characters need larger pens to sign with…they are $5/pen.  And if they stop working, just go into any gift shop and exchange it for a new one. Here were some of our autograph pics:

 

Snow White was the BEST by far!  The characters with masks don’t talk…but Snow White was AWESOME…played her character the BEST.  Same with the fairies (Tinkerbell and the others).  Worth the wait in line!  Snow White stood and talked to Zoe for quite a long time, even braided her hair while they talked!!  Then, she asked if she could meet her brother, and when Jaxon came over with his book, she kissed the picture he had drawn of her in his book and left her little red lip prints.  He was in love.  :)

After our first full day at Magic Kingdom, the kids were wiped out! We stayed up ‘til about midnight the first night.

We decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom on our 4th park day.  We were all in agreement – there was just so much to see and do.  Here are a few more pictures of our time there:

Zoe got “pixie dusted”! There is a place there called the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique where girls get their hair and makeup done to look like princesses.  Zoe heard about it and had been talking about going for weeks.  When we got there, we were told reservations are needed at least 6 months in advance!!  She was SO bummed out.  Well, when we came back to the Magic Kingdom on our 4th day, I found out there was a little store right next door that would sprinkle “pixie dust” in her hair for FREE!!  Pshh! Who needs bibbidi bobbidi when you’ve got mom to do your hair and FREE pixie dust.  She was completely happy :)

Jaxon got a pirate hat/wig, a sword, a knife, and rubber handcuffs in “Adventureland”.  He thought he was really somethin’! :)

Zoe got a pretty cool personalized umbrella the last day we were there.  There was a lady that painted on them right there on the street.  Zoe got to pick what she painted.  Zoe she got her name and two pretty pictures.  It’s even waterproof.  Turned out pretty neat:

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS – Day# 2

The day we went to this park was May 4th. They were having a Star Wars event called “May the 4th be with you.” Jaxon LOVES Star Wars, so he enjoyed everything there that had to do with that. The kids built their own light sabers. That was pretty cool, but we let them choose 2-sided ones, which ended up being WAY to large for them…but it’s whatever…

Zoe’s – top / Jaxon’s – bottom (this picture shows them closed!)

They also built their own little droids:

Zoe named hers “Z3PO” ha!

Jaxon got a star wars mickey and goofy (also pictured is the “baby Rapunzel” Zoe picked the day before)

Jaxon was passed out :)

Overall, this park was ok, but not the kid’s favorite. Kory (the movie buff in our family) enjoyed it the most. The two rides the kids LOVED was the Toy Story ride and the Star Wars ride. Again – FAST PASSES and an absolute MUST for the Toy Story ride. We messed up and ended up waiting about 2 hours in line for this ride! NO GOOD. Again, don’t wait in ANY line, longer than 30 min if fast passes are available!!

 

There is a “honey I shrunk the kids” play area. While it looks cool, it is nearly impossible to keep track of your kids!! We let them play for a short time but then left because there were just too many kids running around!

 

Here’s a couple more pics from Hollywood Studios:

 

EPCOT – Day #3

First thing you gotta do when you get to Epcot is head straight to the ride “Soarin’”!!  This is a MUST RIDE!!  We got to Epcot when the gates opened, and walked straight to the ride.  We only had to wait about 10 min.  Then, after the ride, we went and got fast passes to ride it again!  It was THAT cool. 

Once you head over to the “World Showcase” area, be sure that you stop at the first gift shop you see and ask for a “passport kit”  They look like this and they are $8 I believe and totally worth getting:

The kit comes with "Epcot Passports”, tons of stickers for each country and a world traveler pin.  Every time you enter a new “country”, you look for one of these tables:

Someone from that country will stamp their passport and write a little message to the child in their language.  Here is what Zoe’s looked like after Japan:

Her name is on the far right!

Then later, your child can fill up the rest of the page with the stickers from the kit.  Definitely keeps their interest as you move along around Epcot!  They can also get one of these things and color it (my picture shows the back) and have the person stamp on them too and draw their countries flag (this is FREE to do, if you don’t want to buy the passport kit)

  But be careful with the wood, as I got a huge splinter in my hand from holding them for my kids.  Eek!

My favorite thing to do at Epcot is HENNA!  Here is what mine looked like when it was first done:
so pretty!

And here it was the 2nd day (tattoo-like) it last about a week.

There aren’t a lot of fast rides at Epcot, but our kids enjoyed them ALL.  As far as the World Showcase goes – what we did was we picked a few countries that we knew we wanted to try food from (Mexico, China….) and got ONE menu item and shared it between the 4 of us.  That way, we didn’t fill up in one country and were able to continue on our food sampling travels :)

We were at Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival which was really pretty to see:
 

Here are some more random Epcot pics:

DOWNTOWN DISNEY – Last night in Disney

We went. We saw.  We weren’t impressed. 

Granted we got there a little late in the evening (8:30ish) by then it was pretty much geared to adults.  We had heard about this Disney Quest place (indoor theme park) but when we got there, they were closed.  We also found out it was pretty expensive – like $50/person – so we were kind glad it was closed.  But, there was some live music and Zoe had a great time dancing outside. The DJ even threw out hula hoops and so she was lovin’ that!  Then we went and shared an appetizer at “T-Rex” themed restaurant – exactly like Rainforest Cafe…then we headed back to our resort for the last night.

BEACH – Last 2 days in Florida

I called Enterprise and they sent someone to pick us up at our resort (no extra charge) and took us to get a rental.  We drove to Cocoa Beach which was under an hour away!  We stayed at the International Palms Resort RIGHT ON THE BEACH.  I believe it was 38 steps to the sand from the sidewalk by our room. :)  The resort itself wasn’t anything spectacular, but who needs a great room when the whole point of being there is for the beach? They did have a great outdoor heated pool though! It was a great time…just as expected!

The last day, we rented a bike for an hour and rode around the neighborhood.  What a workout that was, but a fun memory:

We had a really great time together!!  It was definitely a vacation that we would do again and will always remember!  :)