Pretend Cooking with Real Ingredients

Call it a funk, winter blues, post-vacation, depression, anything. I've been down in the dumps lately. I briefly mentioned it in my last post, but at the time I thought I was coming out of it. Not so much. I tried some meds, but they made me sick, so at the moment I'm trying to do it on my own. So I thought to myself, what makes me happy? Emma, of course. And doing things with her is the best! Then I realized, we hadn't done any of our projects in a LONG time. So my current plan is to get active with Em again, and see if that helps! Also, now that I'm back in the blogging mode, I'll try to get a update up from the last THREE weeks! :/

I found this idea on Pinterest and thought Em would love it, so we tried it out! (By the way, this blog, Play Create Explore, has a lot of cute ideas!)

Best part of this project was that we had everything on hand! I cut open a trash bag to make a spill proof mat. Then Em and I went through the cabinets and fridge and picked out ingredients. A couple bowls, a pot, some spoons, and a whisk; and she was ready!

The set up

The ingredients

Cooking diva

The best part? Her running commentary. She may has spent many an hour with the Food Network on...

 The video is just a glimpse of it! She always tones it down with I start recording! Ugh!

The big finale!

And she was so sweet, helped me clean up with NO complaints!

We fed her "famous dish" to the birds! Poor things! Then, I made her some real food with real ingredients for lunch. I can't tell you the last time I COOKED lunch. (It's usually a sandwich or microwave mac n' cheese!)

All her favorites, and it only took like 10 minutes.

You can't tell by that expression, but she liked it! Said it was "a little bit yummy". Ha!

Disney Magic Vacay- Day 7

Sorry it's taken me so long to post this! I've been in a serious funk lately, but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! 

This was our last sea day and our last day on the ship! We would be debarking in the morning. We decided to spend the day with Emma as much as possible.

We must have went to the buffet for breakfast, but I don't really remember! We went to the Open House in the kids club. The Open Houses were the only times when they allowed adults in the club. We hadn't attended any other open houses, so we were excited to see what all she had been doing in there!

Emma had to show us the computer games!

 We had timed it just right to stay for Mouseketeer Training with Mickey!

For some reason, I felt a little seasick that morning, so I spent some of my time in the club sitting and watching the fun! After sitting a little while, I felt better!

We headed to the atrium for the Character Dance Party!

Em and Clinton went up and got ice cream while I waited!

There was a lot of people there! I question the decision to have it in the atrium.

 

Confetti showers! Em loved the confetti!

Em dancing with Goofy!

Get it gurrrl!

Yes, I danced too. That's me in the turquoise.

Dancing with Mickey!

 

After the party, we headed to Parrot Key for the seafood buffet. I was a little disappointed in the selection, but I still wasn't feeling 100% so it was ok! Clinton ate plenty of crab legs for the both of us!

The waiter made Em a napkin hat. Not sure what it was exactly, but it was cute!

 Em loved the make your own crepe station!

I think it had marshmallows and chocolate!

Em was ready to go to the kids club, so I took her back to change while Clinton finished up. After dropping her at the club, I met up with him and we went to do some Movie Quote Trivia! I love Trivia! We didn't win, but we had a pretty high score! Em was staying in the club because they were getting ready for the Friendship Rocks show, so we decided to go on a tour of the ship! The tour was called the "Art of the Theme Show" tour, and was all about the decor and art of the beautiful ship! We didn't get to stay for the whole thing because we wanted to get the theater to get a good seat to see our girl in the show!

There are a lot of pictures of this, but it's not everyday my little girl gets to dance on stage with Mickey & Minnie!

There she is behind the girl in the Minnie dress! She doesn't look happy to be in the 2nd row!

Clinton said "I bet she moves to the front!"

Sure enough, she made her move! See her now?

 

Watching a slide show of the activities. She was in quite a few pictures!

Getting down!

She looked so little on that big stage!

My sweet girl!

 We went to the room to get ready for dinner, then headed to Lumiere's for our last dinner!

My app- crab stuffed tomato. I only ate the crab part, ha!

My entree- beef wellington. Good, but the crust was a little soggy.

Clinton's app- I have no idea what it was, ha! Look good though!

Clinton's entree- again, don't know what it was!

We, also, ordered a soup on this night, don't know why there is no picture. But it was awful! No one at our table liked it. It was the only thing we ate on the ship that was absolutely terrible.

Emma had one last Mickey bar!

Every night, Emma's cup had her name and a Mickey on it! Cute!

That night the show was a parade of the flags of all the Cast Member's flags!

My dessert- baked Alaska. Delicious!

Mine too, I can't remember the name, but it was amazing!

Clinton had a chocolate duo, he said it was really good!

That night's show in the theater was "Remember the Magic". It was cute, but not as good as the others. It was basically reintroducing all the characters from the previous shows! Clinton got so upset because some ladies behind us didn't stop talking through the whole thing! Rude!

We went to the atrium for "Til We Meet Again" to watch all the characters come out.

They basically just came out and waved then did last minute pictures and autographs for those who didn't get them before. We had already gotten everyone so we didn't have to stay! Em wanted to go back to the club, so we dropped her off and went to the room to pack!

We had a bunny this time!

After packing, we went to do one last event. Another trivia show called Pop!, a pop trivia game. It was really fun! And our team won, of course! We finally picked up Em one last time and headed to bed!

The next morning we had breakfast in Lumiere's to say goodbye to our tablemates and servers.

We had to take a picture with the servers, Nesha and Marista!

Emma wouldn't look because she was tired, it was early!

Debarking was painless, but sad! We walked right off the boat, no waiting. Had a short line for Customs, and walked right up to the shuttle. Before long, we were in our car and headed home. Tired, but happy! It really was the best vacation we've ever been on!

Disney Magic Vacay- Day 6

I woke up to the sound of Clinton going out on the veranda. It was his morning routine to go out there as soon as he got up. This time he was watching us approach Cozumel, Mexico!

We got dressed and went up to the buffet for breakfast. After eating, we went to the atrium to see Goofy! He was the one character that we didn't have a good picture with! We were surprised to find Max with him! Em went crazy!

We gone back and forth on whether to get off the boat in Cozumel or not, and we didn't book another excursion. We eventually decided to spend some time walking around the port, then spend the day at the pool.

We had to wait about an hour before we could get off, so we wondered outside on Deck 4.

Silly girl!

Another huge ship...

Emma playing shuffleboard with her daddy!

Finally, there was an announcement that we could disembark (I think that is the correct word!). We headed out to Cozumel. The walkway took us directly into a shopping mall area. And  we were immediately bombarded with people trying to sell us stuff. It really made us nervous to have Emma there, so scared that she would wonder away and someone would snatch her. I know it could happen here, but Mexico is Mexico so we were wary. We literally spent like 30 minutes walking around and went straight back to the ship. Next time, we will definitely book an excursion to take us the beach instead of trying to go by ourselves.

Actually, as much as we loved our excursion in Grand Cayman, we would do the opposite next time. Excursion in Cozumel and walk around Grand Cayman.

We were at the pool an hour after we left!

It was really nice because it wasn't windy and there weren't many people there!

Somehow, Clinton talked Emma into going on the slide. 

Happy, excited face...

Wet face...

Not happy face!

She kept saying, "I went under!" She hates to get her head/ face wet. When you ask her about the slide, she says "It was fun, but I went under!" Ha!

After a couple hours of pool, we went to the buffet for lunch. We snagged a great table outside. I snapped a few pictures from the table.

Em said this was Captain Jack's ship!

We went back to the room to rest for a little bit, and I actually did a load of laundry! Crazy! Em changed into her new costume, and promptly went to sleep!

This afternoon is where we made our big food mistake. We ordered Emma some room service so she could eat before the show, because she was going to the kids club right after. We had reservations at Palo at 7:15. So I was about to order Emma a pizza at around 5, when Clinton said he'd like something. So I went ahead and got us all something. So stupid. So we ate, and went down to the theater for the show at 6. The show was Dreams, and we had heard a rumor that Ariel was in it, so Emma was excited! It was great! Lots of Disney characters singing the famous songs from their movies, included Sebastian the crab singing "Under the Sea", my favorite!

We walked Emma to kids club, and headed to Palo. I was excited, but dreaded it because I wasn't hungry! WHAT was I thinking!

We were seated, and Vitor came took our drink orders! I got a glass of wine and Clinton got a Manhattan. He's become quite the whiskey drinker! Vitor, then, prepared an antipasto plate for the table.

This was a pizza dough bread. Sorry for the bite, it was really good!

Then the appetizers.

Mine- grilled shrimp with pesto.

Clinton's- calamari. We had never had it, and both wanted to try it. We love calamari!

We didn't think we could eat a pasta course, but wanted to try the lobster ravioli. So Vitor brought us two to try! 

They were so good. I managed two bites, I think.

Entree time!

I had the osso bucco with saffron risotto. Really good, rich, and I couldn't eat it. *Sob* I had one bite.

 While recapping this, I am seriously hating myself for not getting to eat all of that good food!

Clinton's entree- rack of lamb. Didn't try it, but he said it was good.

 Before dessert, we told Vitor that we were done, unfortunately. He said we had to try to chocolate souffle, and that he had already put in an order for TWO, but would cancel one.

I hadn't liked any other chocolate souffle I had had before, but this one. Oh, this one...

As full as I was, I basically licked the bowl.

 I was sad, then, that he had cancelled the second one!

Vitor, also, brought us a tiramisu to try!  I was too busy eating the souffle to try it, but Clinton said it was good!

We left there miserably full, but happy from all the good food!

We were just leaving the restaurant when we got a text on our wave phone that Emma wanted to be picked up, a first! When we got there, they said she was tired. We took her to bed, poor baby.

A lobster was waiting for us!