• disney,  personal

    disney 2011- hollywood studios (part 4)

    Are you totally sick of Disney yet? No? Good. Me, neither.

    We hit up Hollywood Studios which basically = Star Wars. All Star Wars, all day. Unfortunately Star Tours was closed for refurbishment but Timmy (and Olivia) got to do Jedi Training Academy. Olivia almost didn’t get in because all the spots were filled but she used her Jedi mind powers and said with a wave of her hand “i don’t need a pass. i will be a jedi.” And it worked! Must be more of that Disney/Force magic.

    We need this for our house. There are other characters at DHS. Really. We ended up getting almost the last of the fastpasses to Toy Story Mania which were actually at the same time we were having dinner at 50’s Prime Time Cafe and then the park closed right after dinnertime. So after speaking to a TSM cast member, we ‘traded in’ our fastpasses and went early in the day. It was great and so nice of him. I made sure I left him a compliment at Customer service before leaving the park. Receiving his lightsaber from the Jedi master. A little training. Uh oh. And the battle is on. And then it was Olivia’s turn. Force push. “you will stop taking pictures of me.” Too bad the force doesn’t work on Mommy. Even the street sweepers are talented at Disney. Done just with water and a broom with a rubberband on it. Trying again to use the force on me. Not working. All the kids at dinner with the remnants of the delicious chocolate shakes. 

  • disney,  personal

    15 for Friday

    Welcome to another ___ for ___ installment. I’m trying for 15- we’ll see how it goes!

    1. I started writing this post earlier this week (what? Do you really think I can just remember everything I want to write? I gotta start writing it down or *poof* it’s outta my head. So I wanted to add my thoughts for everyone in Japan, Hawaii and those with family and friends there too with the developments of this morning. So scary and sad! And California too- hoping it turns out to be nothing.

    2. Buying one of these for Timmy. Wishing I could get the big boys onboard with some bynto boxes too, but they have to be able to throw their stuff away because they can’t make it back to their lockers after lunch but before their afternoon schedule. And you can bet your butt they wouldn’t be happy carrying the box around the school with them for the rest of the afternoon!

    3. Got my new iphone earlier this week! So excited and so happy verizon was able to work it out for me even though I wasn’t really due for an upgrade yet. I mean really, I’m giving you more money and signing a contract for an extended time- what company wouldn’t want that business?? I’m just so happy that my calendar will sync to all my mac stuff now. (imac, macbook pro, ipad and iphone) If any of you blog stalkers have any suggestions for apps you love and can’t live without I’d love to hear them. And how much do you looooooove my cover? Everyone says ‘it’s so you!’ It really is!! And there’s a pink border going all the way around. Like it was made just for me!

    4. The big boys decided to give up Xbox for Lent. Now that is a huge comittment for them and I was really surprised that that’s what they chose to give up. Very impressed, but surprised. Hanging out with their friends here or at their houses is going to really be the toughest part.

    5. We are SO totally Mac’d up over here. Between the imac, macbook pro, the boys 2 macbooks, apple TV, ipad, 3 ipods and 1 iphone we are a walking advertisement for Apple. I just wish my grandpa was still alive to see it all. He would’ve looooooved it. This was the man who owned every gadget and cool electronic- and the very latest of everything technological. Timmy adores the ipad and plays it until the batteries are dead (hence the charging in the photo). Our favorite apps include: air hockey, kid blocks (like legos) nasa, up, jigsaw puzzles, little things, bartleby’s book of buttons (love this one- can’t wait for vol. 2), pokematch, canknockdown, spongebobmarble, playwords, wackaMonsta, StickWars2, AngryBirds, AngryBirds Seasons, Join It, Hess Jet, The Bubbles, Mr.Giggle, WDW waits, smurfs village, ScoreCenterXL, Kindle, Life, People, Sudoko Daily, Backgammon, Friendly for  FB, CNN, and about a thousand books for Timmy.

    6. We bought both boys new Disney jacket/sweatshirts in Disney- one red, one blue (of course). Patrick’s sweatshirt went missing and after checking in the area it was lost and later at city hall, it never turned up. They gave me the phone # for lost and found and I called when we got home figuring we weren’t finding that sweatshirt anytime, ever. Low and behold, it was found and Disney shipped it right to us at no charge. Customer service. None better in the world.

    7. After my 34 day sickness the new doctor I saw who is actually an allergist/immunologist tested me for my spring allergies. Every year since I was little I have been miserable every. single. spring. Itchy eyes, itchy throat, itchy face, stuffy nose, and general miserableness. The only thing that has ever worked is Benadryl but that turns me into a b*tch because all I want to do is be left alone to sleep or just makes me so stupid I can’t function. Being that I’m only allergic in the spring until the trees are done blooming we decided to forgo the allergy shots and he gave me some prescriptions. I’m hoping they work. It would be so nice not to suffer one spring and enjoy all my outside shoots!

    8. I felt every second of my 41 years the other day. When trying to get the serial #s off of some of my camera and computer equipment I couldn’t read the tiny #s. At all. Blind. I had to actually put on those drug store magnifying/reading glasses to see. Horrifying. Seriously.

    9. Why does it always start raining at 3:15pm? It never fails. As soon as you get up to the school to pick up the kids, the skies open up. It can be a beautiful (or at least not rainy) day before that but you can set your watch by 3:15 rain.

    10. While we were in Disney on day 3 John got really sick. He fell asleep at Epcot on a bench, and could really hardly make it back to the hotel. He tried coming to meet us at Hollywood Studios the next day but had to leave after 30 min. I called the front desk that night and they gave me the # of a local doctors office that makes ‘hotel calls’. Ok, this is the best thing and I wish doctors here still made housecalls. The dr. was in the room within one hour of calling. Took a full history, blood pressure, temperature- all the usual stuff that would happen in a doctors office. He did a rapid flu and rapid strep test (the strep came up positive) and left John with a full prescription bottle of antibiotics for 10 days. So, you’re feeling like crap, the doctor comes to you so you don’t have to wait in the waiting room feeling miserable and catching everyone else’s sicknesses or drive anywhere, and you are left with a prescription with no drive to the pharmacy, waiting on line, waiting for the prescription. The whole thing cost $300 (they don’t take insurance but they do give you an itimized bill that you can submit to your insurance company). To me, worth every penny even if we get nothing back from insurance. I would totally pay that here if I was really, really sick or if the boys were sick enough to not take out. I think it would be a big, big business here. Doctors, you listening? Housecalls- wave of the past and future.

    11. My friend Brian posted this Adele video on FB and I had to steal it. I loooooove her. Her house looks pretty, too. When I was explaining her to someone I said “she’s kinda like Amy Winehouse but without the crack and the crazy.” But that kinda soulful voice. Enjoy.

    12. Timmy just got some new Star Wars sheets for his bed. (everyone of the boys-and me too actually- loves star wars. Jack just added a picture of Darth Vader to his cell as wallpaper and recorded Darth’s theme song as his ringtone!)

    So, since he’s over the whole Superman/Batman thing I’m selling his Pottery Barn Kids bedding and accessories. One twin set of superman sheets (these have since been discontinued at Pottery Barn Kids), one twin set of batman sheets (this style has also been discontinued), one Superman pillow sham and one Superman lampshade (the lampshade looks exactly like the pillow sham). The sheets cost $60 a set originally, the sham $36 originally, and the lampshade $35 originally. I also have 2 tin wall hangings (one superman, one batman which were $10 each ). Everything is in great shape. I’m offering all of it for $75 (it was about $200 worth at purchase) and you’d have to be able to pick it up. No shipping. Please leave me a comment here, on FB or email me at bethbeyrer@yahoo.com if you are interested.— updated to add—everything is SOLD.

    superman sheets:

    Batman sheets:Superman pillow sham and same colors/logo on lampshade. (sorry about the wrinkles- this was right before I put it in the dryer!)Tin wall hangings:

    13. Been busy downloading lots of new apps for my iphone (some of the ipad ones transferred, but not all). Some of my favorites: QuickTip (a tip calculator for those of us math challenged), Survival Guide, ShakeIt (a polaroid picture app), Incredibooth (a photobooth in your phone- my favorite and you can bet I’ll be bugging you to take a picture with me!), photosync (transfers any pictures taken on your iphone to your computer), solitaire, backgammon, urban spoon, flashlight, and facebook. Any other suggestions would be great! And I was so excited that my ical now syncs to my imac, macbook pro, ipad and iphone that I had to take a (polaroid app) picture!

  • disney

    disney 2011- epcot (part 3)

    On our 3rd day at Disney we hit Epcot (every. person. comes. out. tired.) for the day. After grabbing our fastpasses for Soarin, we went on Test Track (60min wait and was the longest line we waited on for the whole  trip), Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space. We didn’t even make it to the countries. John started really feeling sick while the boys and I were waiting for Test Track and took a nap on a bench the whole time we were waiting on line and on the ride. He headed back to the hotel immediately after that where he stayed for the next 5 days. With strep.

    Of course, no trip to Disney would be complete without the twins seeing the twins.

    So the boys and I continued to conquer Epcot and left exhausted and cranky. We had a long talk that night about cooperation for the next few days of the trip since it was going to be just me and them. It totally worked and they were great from then on.

    Timmy and Patrick had quite a bit of fun in the fountains at Epcot (Jack was busy being cranky). And I never remember to bring a change of clothes. Sorry for the photo overload here- they were too cute not to post.

    Oh, and don’t forget to head over to the bsquared photography facebook page today to enter the new contest. You can find the bsquared facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/bsquared-photography/103463396356620. Good luck! I’ll announce the winners tomorrow here on the blog.

  • disney

    disney 2011- magic kingdom at night (part 2)

    The Magic Kingdom is really a fantastic place and being there at night time only makes it more special. Especially when you catch Wishes one night and on another night you ride Big Thunder during Wishes, watching the fireworks over the castle while you whip around the curves and down the hills. I think that might be my favorite part of Disney (which is only because they won’t let me back into Cinderella Castle).

    Some from Wishes in a great last minute spot in front of the Castle. And having some fun with my new lens toy.

  • disney

    disney 2011- in no particular order (part 1)

    Since the blog has been badly neglected, I’m putting up some pictures from our Disney trip in no particular order- just as I edit them. We had a really great time (well, John not so much since he got sick with strep on the 2nd day of the trip and stayed in bed until the last day of the trip) and rode tons of rides. More details on the trip soon. Just some pictures to tide you over.

    Just doing my part to keep Cinderella Castle as the most photographed icon in the USA.

    Can you see the outline of the Crystal Palace in the left ear of the blue balloon?Happy that Mickey and Minnie are doing photos outside in their traditional outfits. Now that they are homeless since Mickey’s Toontown Fair is kaput I am at least happy for some natural light!John on his one day in the Magic Kingdom at the beginning of the trip. Some teapups!There’s a great big beautiful tomorrow…
    A new show at the castle- looked kinda cool. Yay, Disney!! More to come soon. With trip details, too.