Planning our Summer Fun

I set to work a few months ago compiling a list of fun things for us to do over the summer.  I wanted our list to include a good mix of camps, places to go (both outdoors and indoors to escape rain and heat), and activities for us to do at home.  I thought I would share what I came up with in case any of you would like some ideas.  I've also including links to websites for easy access to information for you.

Camps:

-Gymnastics Camp @ River City (http://www.rivercitygymnastics.com/Summer_Camps.php)

-Dance Camp @ Joy McDaniel (http://joymcdanieldance.net/)

-Art Camp (this is with the art teacher that I worked with at Arlington Elementary--let me know if you would like her contact info--she also does private art lessons!)

-Zoo Camp (http://memphiszoo.org/camps)

-Vacation Bible School (Ava went to Bartlett Baptist but there are several other churches that will be having one--http://eastmemphismoms.blogspot.com/2012/03/2012-vacation-bible-school.html)

Quick Day Trips:

-Tennessee Safari Park in Alamo, TN (http://www.tennesseesafaripark.com/index.htm).  Such a fun little getaway.  Check out one of my blog posts from our last visit:  http://thedanielsarealright.blogspot.com/2011/07/tennessee-safari-park.html

-Wild River Country Water Park in Little Rock, AR (http://www.wildrivercountry.com/)

Places to Go:

Indoors (in the event of rain or extreme heat):

-Children's Museum of Memphis (http://cmom.com/)

-Cordova Roller Skating Rink (sign up at this link for FREE skating for your child this summer:  http://kidsskatefree.com/cordovaskate)

-Wolfchase Mall (Ava does the Spider Jump bungee, we ride the carousel, and then grab a cookie from the Great American Cookie)

-Library (our local library has storytime and days when your child can read to a therapy dog!--http://memphislibrary.org/mplic-home)

-Pink Palace Museum (next spring/early summer look for registration for FREE summer memberships--http://www.memphismuseums.org/)

-Fire Museum of Memphis (http://www.firemuseum.com/)

-Pump It Up (pop-in playtime offered Monday, Wednesday, & Friday from 2:00-3:30--http://www.pumpitupparty.com/tn/bartlett/home-p1q52.htm)

-Bowling Alley (sign up for FREE bowling here:  http://www.kidsbowlfree.com/)

-Paint-A-Piece (http://www.paintapiece.com/)

-Swimming (our gym, Bartlett Recreation Center, has an indoor pool--http://cityofbartlett.org/index.aspx?NID=152)

-Movies (Malco Kids Summer Film Fest:  http://www.malco.com/subpage.php?page_id=121 & there are a few family movies playing at the Orpheum's Summer Movie Series:  http://www.orpheum-memphis.com/events/2012-summer-movie-series)

Outdoors:

-Memphis Zoo (http://memphiszoo.org/)

-Golf & Games (miniature golf, go-karts, bumper bumps, arcade, laser tag, etc.--http://www.golfandgamesmemphis.com/)

-My Big Backyard @ Memphis Botanic Gardens (http://www.memphisbotanicgarden.com/mybigbackyard.  Check out one of my blog posts from a visit:  http://thedanielsarealright.blogspot.com/2011/06/girls-weekend.html)

-Sprinkler Park (W.C. Johnson Park in Collierville--http://www.colliervilleparks.org/parks/facilities-and-rental-information/wc-johnson-park)

-Shelby Farms (Woodland Discovery Playground, horseback riding, paddle boats, fishing, bike trails, picnicking, etc.--http://www.shelbyfarmspark.org/)

-Jerry's Sno Cones (a summer tradition if you live in Memphis--yum!--http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/50/1453363/restaurant/East-Memphis/Jerrys-Sno-Cone-Memphis)

-Fruit picking at Jones Orchard (It's peach season and I'm so excited to go out and pick some yummy peaches!--http://www.jonesorchard.com/)

-Downtown Field Trip (ride the trolley, watch the Peabody Ducks walk, Mud Island River Park, eat at a great local restaurant--http://www.peabodymemphis.com/peabody-ducks/, http://mudisland.com/default.aspx)

Activities to do at Home:

-Set up water slides, sprinklers, etc. outside for water play

-Get a butterfly kit and learn about the life cycle of a butterfly (This is the one we have:  http://www.amazon.com/Insect-Lore-Live-Butterfly-Garden/dp/B00000ISC5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339624418&sr=8-1)

-Go on a nature walk (wrap a piece of duct tape sticky-side out around your wrists and collect items like rocks, leaves, etc. as you walk to make a nature bracelet)

-Go on an alphabet walk (take a camera and as you walk search for items that begin with each letter of the alphabet and take pics to make a scrapbook)

-Make a homemade bird feeder

-Spend in a rainy day in PJ's eating snacks and watching movies

-Have a water balloon fight

-Dye pasta/rice and make jewelry or pictures

-Fill an ice cube tray with water and food color or liquid watercolors, freeze, and then "ice cube paint" outside on the sidewalk

-Have a Family Game Night

-Go on a treasure hunt

-Craft Day (Check Pinterest for tons of fun ideas)

-Celebrate a crazy holiday (get ideas from http://familycrafts.about.com/od/holidays/tp/specialdays.htm)

-Create a scavenger hunt to use at the zoo, park, etc.--this can also be used to make the grocery store much more fun!

-Pull a mattress off one of your beds and place it in the middle of the living room one night.  We build a "fort", eat s'mores or fondue, watch movies, then snuggle up together and sleep in our fort.

I hope this helped give you some ideas!  Feel free to share any of your ideas as well!

Disney World 2012--Day Seven (Pop Century Resort/Trip Favorites)

The Magical Express was picking us up at Pop Century about 10:30 a.m. Saturday morning so we decided not to even attempt going to a park.  We went to the food court at the resort to get some breakfast and spent some time in the gift shop and the arcade.  Then we decided to walk around Pop Century and take some pictures.  As I said in a previous post, Pop Century is so fun for kids.  Everything is BIG and colorful.  Mom, Kevin, and I also really enjoyed seeing all of the memorabilia from the last several decades and reminiscing about items that we had had when we were younger.  There was a lot of, "Hey, I remember those!" and "I used to love that!".  Here is a look around Pop Century:

Ava and Kevin posed by everything to give you an idea of the scale

Ava with a vintage Corvette

 Posing with Beach Bum Goofy

 Remember these?!  A giant Mickey Mouse phone!

 And a huuuuuge Big Wheel!

 Giant Foosball setup

 Mom, Kevin, and Ava with Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head

 Rubik's Cube

 8-track

 This is the view across the lake to the new resort opening next month, Art of Animation.  The back of it that you can see here is painted in a Cars theme.  

 Ava and Kevin posing like Roger Rabbit.  This was right in front of our building.

 The Walkman across from our building and you can also see part of the keyboard to the computer pool. That pool was right outside our building and is where Kevin and Ava swam each night.  Ava loved to run around the keyboard spelling out words by jumping on the letters.

 Laptop by the computer pool

 All of the buildings have popular catchphrases from that decade on their exteriors.

 This was our building.  They were repainting "RADICAL" when we left.  Our room was right behind the blue PacMan ghost.

Pretty cool, huh?  Again, I would highly recommend this resort.  

I polled everyone on our way home to find out their favorites from the trip.  Here are the results:

Favorite Park:

Mom:  Magic Kingdom

Kevin:  Hollywood Studios

Stefanie:  Hollywood Studios

Ava:  Hollywood Studios

Favorite Ride:

Mom:  Soarin'/Expedition Everest (E, AK)

Kevin:  Expedition Everest (AK)

Stefanie:  Toy Story Midway Mania (HS)

Ava:  Soarin' (E)

Favorite Show:

Mom:  Festival of the Lion King (AK)

Kevin:  Finding Nemo (AK)

Stefanie:  Festival of the Lion King (AK)

Ava:  Beauty and the Beast (HS)

Favorite Nighttime Show:

Mom:  The Magic, the Memories, & You/Wishes (MK)

Kevin:  Fantasmic! (HS)

Stefanie:  The Magic, the Memories, & You/Wishes (MK)

Ava:  Wishes (MK)

Favorite Table-Service Restaurant:

Mom:  Coral Reef (E)

Kevin:  Akershus (E)--I think it's hilarious that the princess breakfast was Kevin's favorite!

Stefanie:  Boma (Animal Kingdom Lodge)

Ava:  Boma/1900 Park Fare (Grand Floridian)

Favorite Quick-Service Restaurant:

Mom:  Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe (MK)

Kevin:  Columbia Harbour House (MK)

Stefanie:  Starring Rolls (HS)

Ava:  Couldn't decide

We had SUCH an AMAZING week!  The stars aligned and everything worked out perfectly.  We did 95% of everything that we wanted to do which was great.  We had delicious food everywhere we went, saw world-class shows, watched Ava light up as she met all the characters, rode fun rides, laughed, cried (well, I cried) and enjoyed being together as a family.  I will never forgot what it felt like to experience everything for the first time with both my mom and Ava.  We will cherish these photos and memories forever.  Disney World is truly the most magical place on Earth and a place where dreams come true.  I guess I haven't lost all my pixie dust. :)

Disney World 2012--Day Six (Downtown Disney/Magic Kingdom)

Since we covered so much ground at the Magic Kingdom on Monday, we decided to spend Friday morning checking out Downtown Disney.

We walked around and visited the various stores.

We went to look at the T-Rex restaurant.

 Such a cool interior!

 Ava had a blast digging for dinosaur fossils.

 This was a huge, animatronic T-Rex.

We grabbed some breakfast pastries over at Babycakes.

And we had to go to the Lego Store since Kevin was a Lego fanatic when he was a kid.  The selection of Legos nowadays is much larger than he had to choose from 25 years ago!  There were amazing Lego displays all around the store and in the water.  The detail was insane.

 Posing with Lego Woody

 and Lego Buzz

 Ava raced Lego cars with the other kids and picked out one of the new, girly Lego Friends kits to buy with her birthday money.

Our last stop at Downtown Disney was the world's largest Disney Store, the World of Disney.

Wow, one could spend hours in here!  Ava spend quite a while shopping around and spending the rest of her birthday money.  She ended up with a Mickey Mouse necklace, a ring, a Beauty and the Beast figurine set, and some really fancy Minnie Mouse ears.  Mom got some really nice books about Disney, Kevin got a hat, and I scored a super soft throw with Cinderella Castle on it.

The view over one of the sets of doors at the exit--such beautiful princesses!

We caught the bus and made our way over to the Magic Kingdom.  We grabbed a great lunch of fish and chicken at Columbia Harbour House and then had a few hours before Ava's appointment at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique so we decided to go meet some more characters.  First up were Aladdin and Jasmine.

They were really sweet and Aladdin charmed Ava right away with his hugs and sense of humor.

Next, we went over to Tinkerbell's Magical Nook (isn't it pretty?!)

to meet Tink and her friend, Vidia.  Vidia was full of attitude and Ava didn't quite know what to make of her at first.

Tinkerbell saw Ava and ran over to pull her away from Vidia.

She saw Ava's birthday button and wished her a "Happy Arrival Day!"  When she asked Ava how old she was and Ava replied that she was five, we got the reaction from Tink that we had gotten the whole week.  Tink said, "Oh, wow--5!  You're a whole handful!"

 Pictures like this one just make me happy.

When we said good-bye to the fairies, we went outside and ran into Peter Pan.  He saw Ava's birthday button and said, "Noooo, you have to stop growing up!!"

We took a relaxing ride on the elevated PeopleMover and enjoyed our view of Tomorrowland.  Then it was time for Ava's appointment at BBB.  We walked over to Cinderella Castle and checked in at the Boutique so that Ava could get ready for her dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming.

The fairy godmothers-in-training went to work getting a Royal Dressing Chamber ready for Ava to put on her gown.  Ava met her Fairy Godmother, Amber, and picked out the hairstyle and tiara that she wanted.

After hair, it was time for nails.  Ava chose a beautiful silvery blue.

Then she chose her make-up.

Ava prepared to be sprinkled with fairy dust

and Fairy Godmother Amber said those three magical words.  Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo!!!

And it was time for the big reveal!

Her headband to match her dress was the finishing touch.

Mom and I oohed and aahed.  Kevin waited outside so he could be surprised.

Her daddy thought she looked beautiful

and said he wanted to take her to ride Prince Charming's Royal Carousel.

Ava took a picture with the plans for the new Fantasyland.

Our last stop in the Magic Kingdom before dinner was the classic "It's a Small World" ride.

We hopped on the monorail and zipped over to the Grand Floridian to have dinner at 1900 Park Fare.  We really enjoyed the meals we had at the different resorts because we were able to look around and check them out.

The Royal Photographer took our family picture before we went in for dinner.  Kevin and I are just slightly underdressed compared to Ava. :)

As soon as we sat down, we were approached by Prince Charming.

Kevin told me after the fact that I had put my hand in front of the flash.  Oh, well.  

Then Cinderella came over to visit with us.

She had to leave to go waltz with Prince Charming.

Lady Tremaine started to walk our way and Ava wigged out.  She kept saying, "She's the evil stepmother!  I don't want to have anything to do with her!"  We convinced her that Lady Tremaine was not going to be mean to her so she relented.  Lady Tremaine lectured her about what she did for us to earn the right to wear such a beautiful dress and how she always needed to mind her parents.  :)

Anastasia and Drizella, the evil stepsisters, also paid us a visit and they were full of themselves!  They wanted me to keep taking pictures of them because they said they were so beautiful!  Then they would fight with each other.

Ava had had strangers stopping to tell her all evening that she looked beautiful so at this point she was a little full of herself too.  After dinner, she decided she wanted to do a photoshoot in the lobby of the Grand Floridian.  Of course, I obliged.  So she posed.  And she posed.  And she posed some more.

When we got back to our room at the resort, she decided we needed more pictures.  She directed me as to what she would like me to capture (close-ups, twirling, etc.)

After our photo session, we decided to go down to the arcade even though it was about 11:30.  We shut the arcade down a little after midnight.  

We went back to our room and got packed up since it was our last night at Disney World.  :(

Next up, Day 7 of our trip.