Celebrate the holidays with Disney's Viva Navidad street party

 

Parades are one of the most popular attractions at the Disneyland Resort. Every day, people line the sidewalks of Disneyland Park's Main Street USA to stake out good viewing spots. It's not unheard of for people to get settled 60-90 minutes before the parade begins, taking turns with family members to get food or go to the restroom. We've done this many times, but now that the kids are older, they prefer to take advantage of decreased attraction wait times during parades. Besides, they've seen all the current parades anyway... or so we thought. At our most recent Disneyland visit, we discovered one of the resort's best-kept secrets: Disney California Adventure's Viva Navidad Street Party. It's festive and fun, and you can arrive with just five minutes to spare and still get a great viewing spot!

Saying goodbye to the Hollywood Tower of Terror

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror has always been my favorite ride at the Disneyland Hotel. No matter how many times I ride it, I always come out with my hands shaking and my throat raw from screaming. So I had mixed feelings when Disney Parks announced that the ride would be getting a Guardians of the Galaxy makeover in 2017. They'll be keeping the elevator-drop mechanism, but completely redoing the exterior as well as the ride visuals and sound effects. I've been through enough ride closures and openings to know that whatever they come up with will be nothing short of Marvel-ous, but I do feel a twinge of sadness at the loss of my favorite ride.

Date Night at Bowlero

Now that the kids are older, date night with Alfie is easier than ever. And yet, somehow, date night is still a rarity. I know all the magazines and relationship experts tell you to schedule regular date nights to keep the romance alive, but honestly, we're happy just vegging out on the couch together when The Pea is at dance and the boys are at soccer practice. It's a lot cheaper and takes up far less energy!

Make your own Mickey Mouse t-shirt with fabric transfers

Who doesn't love a Mickey Mouse t-shirt?  I'm a big Disney fan, so I'll wear a Mickey tee any day of the year, even when I'm not at a Disney Park! Disney tees at the Disney Store or Disney Park tend to be expensive ($25 and up), but fortunately you can find Disney tees for as little as $10-$15 at stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Old Navy, and UNIQLO.

Many people like to make their own Disney shirts, not just to save money but to have something that's truly one-of-a-kind. Mickey is notoriously difficult to draw properly, so most DIY Mickey shirts involve printing a design on iron-on transfer paper. In my opinion, unless you have a really good laser printer, your iron-on design tshirt is still going to look homemade. I would far rather hand paint or screen paint a shirt -- check out my post with instructions for painting a tshirt with freezer paper stencils!

Another great alternative to ironing on a Mickey printout is to iron on a fabric Mickey applique. It's so easy to do, and the result looks great. Watch the video I made to find out how:

A roller coaster of emotions

Two weeks ago, I mailed in my ballot. I was excited. The world was full of hope and change. The past 18 months had been a nightmare of homophobia, xenophobia, and misogyny. My mood rose and fell with Hilary Clinton's standing in the polls, but on the whole I felt confident. I meticulously researched every candidate and measure on the ballot because I wanted to do my civic duty. I was indifferent to a few measure and unsure of others, but I had no doubt that I was on the right side of history with my choice for president.

Halloween Costume Watch 2016

Halloween this year has been a low key -- possibly even no key -- affair. How odd is that? Halloween is my favorite holiday, and for the past 15 years I've decorated the house to the hilt, baked and crafted up a storm, and documented every single bit of it. I just wasn't feeling it this year. Maybe it's because our weekends have been extra busy, maybe it's because the kids are older, maybe it's because I'm older. Whatever the reason, I've ended up taking a break from Halloween. Our only decorations this year were five pumpkins (actually there are only 3 left because we carved 2 of them too early and they rotted. That's why I'm featuring Marissa Mayer's giant pumpkin on this post instead of ours). The only thing I baked this month was a pan of brownies for The Pea's advisory class (they had Halloween sprinkles on them, so plus 3 points for me).

That doesn't mean we're not dressing up for Trick or Treating tonight (hey, I'm uninspired, not dead). The kids must have caught my mood, because they weren't too excited about Halloween costumes... that is, until there were just 2 days left. All of a sudden they came up with all kinds of ideas, so we spent the weekend augmenting their costumes and crafting up a storm. Their costumes turned out great, and all our efforts seem to have reawakened our Halloween cheer!

Haunted Halloween for Scaredy Cats

It's October again, and for teens and pre-teens in the Bay Area, that means Great America's Halloween Haunt is back! We visited Halloween Haunt for the first time last year, and we enjoyed ourselves so much that I bought Gold Season Passes (which offers unlimited Halloween Haunt admission) this year. There just isn't enough time to see all 8 haunted mazes in a single visit, so we have been looking forward to going multiple times this year so we can enjoy each and every one.

The only problem? The Pea doesn't like haunted mazes. She hates getting startled when costumed actors come out of nowhere. The Dia de los Muertos maze, which is more is more artsy than scary, was all she could handle last year.

How to make a candy lollipop centerpiece

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and part of the fun is gathering insane amounts of candy that I would never let the kids have any other time of the year. Over the years, the kids have graduated from cute little treat bags to gigantic pillowcases, and those longer legs meant greater stamina for collecting candy on Halloween night. So we've ended up with far more candy that even I would let them have.  The solution? Candy crafts to the rescue! We've used candy for gingerbread houses (which no one eats), candy wreaths, and candy centerpieces like the one in the photo.

Lollipop trees make great holiday table centerpieces. They're also a great way to display the candy given out at the doctor's office or school front office! You'll need a 3- inch styrofoam ball, a 4-inch decorative flower pot, and a LOT of lollipops.

Simply stick the lollipops into the styrofoam ball, all the way around. If your styrofoam ball is dense, don't use the lollipop sticks to poke holes into the ball, because the sticks will bend. Use a metal skewer instead. You don't have to stick the lollipops all the way in; just an inch or so will do. Try not to leave any space between lollipop heads. When you've covered about three-quarters of the styrofoam ball, rest the ball on top of your flower pot.

Printable spice bottle labels

I'm the first to admit I'm not the tidiest of people; let's just say I can tolerate a decent amount of disorganization and mess. So I surprised myself today by deciding to do something I'd normally associate with moderate OCD: I organized my spices! In my defense, my spice cupboard is set up in such a way that the best way to utilize the space inside is to store my spice bottles lying down.  It's not my fault that most spice makers have neglected to add labels to the tops of the bottles!

FLONASE®: Living Life Beyond Allergies

FLONASE® compensated me in connection with statements made in this post.

We are now moving into fall and as the weather starts to cool down a bit, we try to get ready for our allergy season. In October, the leaves begin to fall. Our driveway turns yellow with pollen produced by nearby pine trees. Without fail, my whole family begins to look like we've been watching marathon sessions of sad movies! All of our eyes get watery and itchy. Seasonal allergies affect all of us in a big way. My sons and daughter sport perpetually runny noses and my husband gets nasal congestion.

I wish we could just all stay indoors and hide -- but my kids bike to school, I walk to work, and my sons practice soccer 3 times a week. On the weekends, they play in tournaments and we all go out to cheer them on... but it's kind of hard to celebrate a goal when you're sneezing throughout the game! Obviously we can't let allergies stop us from going outdoors and doing the things we need to do. We're way too busy, and life is too short! We've figured out ways to manage our allergy symptoms so we can seize the moment and live our lives. Here are five things that have worked for us:

Take a shower. We all take frequent showers to wash away pollen that might have settled on our hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, or skin.

Wash your clothes. Pollen can settle on clothes, so during allergy season we never wear anything, not even jeans, more than once without washing. I also launder throw pillows, blankets, bed sheets and pillowcases more often than usual to wash away any stray pollen.

Use a hepa air filter. We have hepa air filters in all of our rooms, and our vacuum cleaner has a hepa filter to keep the air in our house as allergen-free as possible.

Use allergy-resistant pillow covers and mattress covers. If you or your kids are allergic to dust mites, invest in allergen pillow covers and mattress covers, which feature tightly woven fabric so that dust mites cannot survive in the pillows or mattresses.

Use a nasal allergy spray. Before they started using a nasal allergy spray, my boys would absolutely dread playing soccer on grass. Once their doctor prescribed a nasal allergy spray, the problem went away -- but I've found that I prefer the convenience of over-the-counter sprays like FLONASE® Allergy Relief, because it is full prescription strength and I can get it at our local pharmacy, without a prescription first. It is the first and only OTC nasal spray indicated to relive both nasal congestion & itchy watery eyes. FLONASE® has really helped relieve the worst of our allergy symptoms -- the runny nose, nasal congestion, and watery, itchy eyes. While most over the counter allergy pills only act on histamine, FLONASE® helps act on 6 different inflammatory substances, not just the one.*

*Mechanism vs. most OTC allergy pills. FLONASE® acts on multiple inflammatory substances (histamine, prostaglandins, cytokines, tryptases, chemokines and leukotrienes). The exact number and precise mechanism are unknown.

My boys use the Children's FLONASE® Allergy Relief for kids ages 4+ so they can stop focusing on their allergies and start focusing on their game. And out on the sidelines, my husband, daughter and I can stop focusing on our allergies and start focusing on supporting our soccer players!

Just follow the label and remember that consistent usage is key. For adults and children 12 years of age and older, ask your doctor if you can keep using after 6 months of daily use .
For Children’s FLONASE® Allergy Relief, consistent usage is key.  For children 4-11 years of age, talk to your child's doctor if your child needs to use for longer than 2 months a year.

Join FLONASE® Greater Rewards

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How do you help your family manage seasonal allergies? Tell me in the comments and you will be entered to win a $100 Visa gift card!

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