Sound like it might get a little stressful? It did.

So it was a moment of joyous excitement when we found out that Miss A had been accepted into a local charter school. We had hoped to enroll her there for junior high (after homeschooling her through 5th grade, but decided since the chances of getting in the school were so slim, we should start trying now).

Well, the stars aligned and things worked out in just such a way that a spot became available for her this year. We jumped at the opportunity, and I’m so glad we did.

Adjusting to life  in “regular school” (though this school is so far from regular, I don’t think it can really be called that – which is one of the reasons we like it so much) took some work for both Miss A and myself, but overall I have to say I am very happy with the switch.

One of the “benefits” of no longer being Miss A’s teacher for everything, is that now I can join the ranks of all the other moms who get treated to special surprise school projects on Mother’s Day!

Miss A made me a lovely Mother’s Day painting in art class, a card with a picture of the family and a poem written inside…

and a really neat card with a note written in Spanish!

She was so proud to present me with all her surprises, and I was so proud of her.

To all mothers – while we are the ones being appreciated today, may you appreciate your home, your family, and your life everyday (and take advantage of your special day in every way you can)!

Hope you all had a holly jolly holiday full of love, laughter, and lots of great memories!

Aside from the fact that we’d have no money left for college (or next month’s electric bill), some stuff she asks for is very spur of the moment, Gimme! Gimme! – and that’s the kind of stuff I know she can simply do without. For the most part, though, I make sure she gets what she really wants – and will go out of my way (like ordering Charlie and Lola dolls from the UK, or digging up vintage Littlest Pet Shops on E-bay) to find and buy something if she sticks with a particular request for awhile.

Here are the two items she asked for from Santa this year:

She saw this at a friend's house and calls it a "Dog Dress Up Set." Thanks Christine for helping me locate this!

Front and center you can see the dolphin I managed to find on e-bay...apparently Sea World put out a series of LPS toys in the '90s.

Overall, I think I earn my gold Mama star in the gift department. Our Santa policy is that you can only ask for one or two things from the big man in red, because he has a lot of kids to take care of, and there just isn’t room for too many toys per kid in his sack. This way, she keeps her list with Santa (whether writing a letter to him or sitting on his lap) short and sweet – and I know the things she asks for from him are what she REALLY wants, more than anything, and that’s what I will work extra hard to make sure she finds on Christmas morning.

So I kinda brought the difficult toy hunt upon myself, because it seems Miss A has decided that if a toy can be found in a store, than that doesn’t go on the Santa list. For example, she originally planned to ask Santa for one of those FurReal cats…but then she saw it in a certain store that starts with a W and told me, “I’m not going to ask Santa for that. If it’s here in the store, you can get it for me!”

That kid is sharp.

I have to admit, I like our Santa policy – sure it can make me have to frantically hunt for things not commonly sold in stores – but it also lets my husband and I enjoy the lion’s share of credit for presents.

And yes, I admit to enjoying basking in the glow of juvenile gift gratification.

Well, I fell in love Saturday night.

Don’t worry, the husband was with me…and no, things didn’t get kinky…(though the 2 of us have been propositioned by others to join in such activities…more than once ).

I fell in love with a little place called Cooper’s Hawk. It’s a winery and restaurant that I want to move next door to so I can get a little tipsy and toddle on home every night. Well, the food is so divine it wouldn’t be long before I did more than toddle, I suppose I’d roll like an overstuffed butterball turkey.

I first learned of the place when I tried their rhubarb wine at a wine festival over the summer.  I finally got a chance to check them out for my birthday (yes, I have said goodbye to another year – or hello to a new one if you’re feeling optimistic).  Oh let me tell you, it is a wine lush’s heaven.

They have a tasting room and you can sample away while you wait for a table. Then once you are seated you can sample a few more to see if the one they recommend with the meal you have chosen is one you actually like. And – if I wasn’t already smitten – and it’s not because I was more than halfway to tipsytown already, but they serve yummy wonderful warm pretzel bread before the meal. I could make a dinner out of the wine and bread, quite honestly.

We had the Viognier with dinner, and it was perfect.

I knew I already loved their rhubarb wine, and tasted (then bought) their cranberry wine. I plan to sample their cherry and plum wines the next chance I get.

I’m thinking of doing quite a bit of holiday shopping there, so if you’re on my gift list, try to act surprised when you get a couple of bottles of their wine.

KCW is a delightful site that creates free newsletters full of all sorts of crafty goodness and great ideas for projects you can do at home with your kids. Based out of Australia, the site is always a fun place to visit.

I just discovered KCW earlier this year, so this will be my first time trying the card exchange. Site creator Amber does a much better job explaining the details so don’t waste your time here - go check it out! The deadline to sign up for the exchange is November 18th.

All shall be revealed in the days and weeks and most likely months to come…and if you get sick of reading about Disney, well then, don’t read it. This is my party website, and I’ll do what I want.

As far as photos are concerned, here is what I learned:

- Be prepared. I asked the husband to order me an extra sd card, he was amazed, saying he doubted I could use up 1 whole 2gb card, let alone 2…but I did.  I didn’t want worry that I wouldn’t have enough memory stop me from capturing one.  I brought my camera charger with, but didn’t plug it in the first night. The next day, I ran out of juice early in the SpectroMagic Parade. After that I made sure to plug it in each night  as soon as we got back to our hotel room.

- Make more mini movies. I was tempted to buy a flip camera for the trip, but didn’t.  I’ve just never been much for doing the recording thing…I’d rather enjoy the experience as it is happening than see it through a camera lens.  I did take  some mini movies with my digital camera, but just a few.  As it turns out,  these are Miss A’s favorite  things to look at: seeing herself play Mrs. Potts with Belle and watching the Dreams Come True parade lets her relive all the excitement again and again. So next time – more videos, I don’t care if I look like a fool recording it.

- Take a much bigger advantage of the photopass system. If a photographer offered at the time, then we did a photo – but I never really went around and “solicited” the Disney photographers for family shots with the photopass. As I look over the 60 or so shots that were taken on the photopass, I realize how nice it would have been to get some of those “landmark” shots of all of us together (in front of the castle at MK, the Epcot sphere, Mickey’s hat at HS, etc).

- Hopefully, I’ll have a better camera next time I go – one that can take a rapid series of photos so I’m more likely to get a perfect shot, and one that can handle nightime photography better – my shots of the SpectroMagic parade, the Wishes fireworks show, and Cinderella’s castle at night are just not so hot. Too bad, because I thought it was so neat to get a shot of the castle right AT midnight.The pics aren’t perfect, but at least the hands on the clock are visible.

Things are a bit fuzzy and blurred, but with the help of the Pioneer Woman’s “lighten” and “define and sharpen” Photoshop actions I was able to capture a bit of the wonder. Seeing the castle change colors was very very cool.

Miss A's favorite color was pink, of course.

Then there was orange, which we think is Lil G's favorite color.

The golden yellow color was really very pretty too, and set against the night sky it was just incredible. I think I might have been more taken with it than Miss A. She wanted to head towards more rides, I just wanted to keep taking pictures of the castle.

I really liked the aqua blue, but didn’t get any good pictures of that version.

I think it was getting ready to turn blue here...

I did take a picture of the castle when it was aqua while we were watching Wishes, but as you’ll see, the distance and darkness were too much for my puny camera.

Watching the fireworks show with Miss A was wonderful. I hope my memories of that night will always remain clear and bright… even if the photos aren’t.

A Disney “expert” told us in his nearly 30 years of MK experience that the best place to view the fireworks was from the train station platform. So I got Miss A some popcorn and a drink and we camped out about an hour before the show was set to start. We probably should have made it up there a bit earlier, for while there was still plenty of room, all the available chairs were taken. Lucky for us, about 10 minutes til showtime a very nice guy (who turned out to be a Cast Member out on a night off) gave up his front and center seat so Miss A and I had the most perfect chair in the most perfect spot.

The advice about viewing location was great.

Below us, Main Street was a crammed swarm of hot and tired people; but up on the platform there was a nice breeze.

And it was a show in itself to see the sun set and all the lights along Main Street come to life.

As for the fireworks, we had a wide open, clear view of everything, including Tinkerbell's flight.

Did I say it was perfect?

It was.

So for about $2, you will make 10 hats. Pretty cheap, eh?

Start with a sheet of tissue paper.

Step 1: fold it vertically. That’s the long way.

Step 3: fold each top corner in to make triangles

step 4: fold up one side of bottom about an inch

step 5: Fold it up again another inch, so it just touches the triangles.

Repeat steps 4 & 5 on the other side.

Overlap each side and staple at each end.

Staple the feather (I like to staple it to the triangle side, but whatever floats your boat)

And there you have it! Miss A loved making these.

Overall they seemed to be a hit at the party.

What made these hats so great is that making them works as an activity during the party (though me & the other moms ended up making most of them), they work as a decoration during the party (little Peter Pans running all over the place), and when the party is over, they are instant party favors! Not bad for about 20cents a hat.

I’ll be showing you how to make cheap and easy Peter Pan party hats, sharing pics of how we turned the party space into Neverland (be sure to check out my unintenionally manly mermaids), describe some other Peter Pan themed games, and share ideas on thank you cards and goodie bags.

But for today, we’ll start with the most important element of the birthday party:  the CAKE. Miss A drew up a rough draft of the design for her cake (I’ll be sure to post it here soon…)she was very specific about what it should look like, and I think my favorite cake maker, Beth of ShortCakes, exceeded Miss A’s expectations.

Here's a bigger picture, it was just that good.

Really, it was so good, that there wasn’t a spec left.

They done 'et it all.

The other day we went on a shopping trip to Ikea (I needed stuff to help complete the mini-stage for Miss A in our basement…more on that later) and the line was – surprise! – long. Do yourself and your sanity a favor and never try shopping at Ikea on a Saturday.

Anyways, so to keep Miss A amused while I waited in line my husband took her to get a drink.

While in THAT long line, Miss A happened to see a girl wearing the same pink Hello Kitty watch that she had on (not that surprising, since she got it at, gasp!, MickeyDee’s).  That was enough for the two girls to launch into their life stories.  By the time Aishtyn came back with her drink, she was planning sleepover parties.

Wouldn’t it be cool if we could maintain that ability as we got older? We’re in line at the grocery store, and see that someone else has the same babysling or whatever and bam! we’ve made a friend for life.

Now, usually I don’t do cake…it’s really just not my thing. I was that weird kid who didn’t like frosting.

But Beth, my friend who makes all the incredible edibles you have seen me post here, convinced my husband (upon delivering the cake seen in my previous post) that she needed to make a cake for me too.

Finding a theme for me wasn’t too hard (just see #1 & #2 on my 100 things)

And since she knows I’m not a fan of the traditional celebratory confections, she made this for me out of RICE KRISPIE TREATS. Yes people, the Jedi Master is gracing a “cake” made of Snap-Crackle-Pop deliciousness.

Which was actually quite an evil thing to do.

I LOVE rice krispie treats.

Love them.

Luckily the frosting was so incredibly sweet that in order to avoid a diabetic coma I couldn’t eat too much at one time.

Or at least I had to remove gobs of frosting first.

It was worth it and hey – if you’re going to have to face the reality of growing older it’s nice to know at least you’re not like, 900!

The fact that Yoda was a puppet brought to life by the same man who voiced Miss Piggy is of no consequence.