MissE and Me: Halloween

Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

The 'Ember Months

Back Down Under, we made it just in time for Eamon (MrH's younger brother) and Rochelle’s wedding.

Then it was straight back into routine and our adventure quickly became a distant memory. Here are the highlights from October to December, saving a few things for separate posts coming after Christmas.

The fun centre piece I made for Halloween

Although we already celebrated Halloween twice, we couldn’t let it just pass. We donned our Wreck It Ralph costumes one last time (I traded Taffyta for Sargent Calhoun) for the Lithgow Halloween Festival.

Lithgow is approximately 2.5 hours away
and has the strangest weather. It was gorgeous out
then suddenly we came to a halt because it hailed!

King Kong

The next day, MrH and I were surprised with a lunch date, just the 2 of us!

Bilpin is famous for their mountain apples

My favourite cider

Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens - it's warratah season!

The last Friday of October is also Teachers' Day in Australia. I like to combine these with Halloween goodies. This year, the teachers got these adorable pencil cases I picked up in America.

MissE took part in her school production of The Wizard of Oz as a crow over 4 nights (November)

Me: So what are you in the play?

MissE: a crow... thank goodness I'm not a corn.

Me: What?

MissE: A corn. They just stand there.

MrH ran Tough Mudder again. Well, based on the photo we aren't sure he actually ran it since he was too clean. Ha!

And we finished November by celebrating Thanksgiving at TGI Fridays. I am so grateful that they have this available now. It never felt the same, cooking and eating on the Saturday! I did try to get the Thursday off... as an American and all, but it didn't quite get the 'okay' I was hoping for.

Suddenly it was December! MissE received her Orange belt in taekwondo AND was awarded with another trophy this year: Outstanding Student Junior (Contact) Sparring. She is doing so well and we look forward to her starting to compete next year.

Not many to go to black!

Outstanding Student Junior Sparring

She also finished Year 2 - fastest year yet!

There's a lot of happy in this photo!

Until next time... there's more to come to finish 2016: my 4 day trip to Singapore and Christmas, of course!

Sunday, December 18, 2016

I Left My Heart in San Francisco

A short note: we spent most of our time at home with family - yay! I do have photos but I am also aware that they may not like to have their photos posted here so I have respected that and have left this post to mostly the sites we saw in the Bay Area.

Did you know that Halloween is my favourite? September and October is a great time to visit the US. The stores are full of fun Halloween decor and costumes, Pumpkin Spice Lattes are available and the pumpkin patches!

Halloween Headquarters
We had some fun in here:

All this little girl wanted was a hug,

Aratas Pumpkin Farm

This was our first time at Aratas. It was recommended because of the maze. The maze was a lot harder than it looked! It took us over an hour to complete!

We got the golden pumpkins too!

Muir Woods and San Francisco Sites
We didn't have much time for our usual San Francisco day trips, especially because there was a large conference in San Francisco so it was difficult to get in there. So on our last full day, we went straight past the city to Muir Woods.

Shh! Forest voice only!

Walking among the giants

Tree and Tree

We did stop for the "sites" on the way home

The Painted Ladies

And that's it for our 2016 visit! See you in 2018...

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

WDW Day 1: Magic Kingdom

* These posts at Disneyworld will mostly be photos. A note, that I decided to only bring my phone to take photos with as we purchased the My Memory Maker which includes ALL photos taken in the park including ride photos and videos too; this was great because we got some special photos done at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

Day 1 was spent at Magic Kingdom. We rode on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (new) and all our favourites like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Under the Sea - Journey of The Little Mermaid . Here are some of the highlights:

Today was Mickey & Minnie - themed
(I made my skirt)

Yes, I insisted on coordinated outfits!

NOW it's this is the Happiest Place on Earth

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Splash Mountain

There comes a time in every kid's life,
where you are finally tall enough to ride Splash Mountain.
And it was Eden's time!

For lunch we ticked off one of my must-do, Be Our Guest Restaurant. It was okay but it’s mostly for the dining experience. The restaurant is Beast’s castle (Beauty & the Beast). You can dine in the main ballroom, the Rose Gallery, and where we ate, The West Wing. The West Wing storms every few minutes, with the portrait revealing the Beast when lightning strikes.

The grey stuff is delicious!

The enchanted rose

We ran out of time! The park even at reasonably low crowd numbers (me with my crowd aggregators again) was incredibly crowded. We even skipped a few rides that we could ride at Disneyland to tick off what we could.

Hanging around with Rafiki

We were pressed as we had to go back to the hotel, change and then get back into the park as soon as possible for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. By the time we were heading out to change, the lines for the rare character meet and greets were already getting insanely long but we still met one! The party itself was a whole lot of fun and definitely worth it, especially if you love Disney and Halloween. Umm, do you not know me?

We donned our Wreck-it-Ralph costumes again for this event.

All the live entertainment on this night was amazing. Seriously, I would have said it was worth it just for this! We started the night with Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular.