School supply readiness...

While I am very excited for my boys to be heading back to school, I am still dreading it for myself. Once I get in the swing of things and just start organizing and planning, everything will be fine. But I am procrastinating on the starting of it all. Knocking it out in one day is my plan....we shall see!


The newness of school supplies makes me blissful though I must say. Thinking back to the first day of school as a kid myself, that was my favorite thing. Opening up a fresh box of crayons, and hating that the sharp crayon tips would soon be dull. Cracking the spine on a new composition notebook and sharpening a #2 pencil....it was awesome.


Now I doubt that my kids are all that excited about their school supplies, but I love to see all the newness spread out, and then packed neatly into their backpacks. It's almost like Christmas :)


So the spread looks glorious....

Caleb's supplies....

Jansen's supplies....

Packed into Caleb's backpack....

Packed into Jansen's backpack....

T minus 28 days left of Summer Vacation!

Disney water bottles

Now that I am finally feeling better after my horrible myelogram, I am ready to get back to some creativity.

We want to have our own water bottles to fill up on the ship and to take with us at the ports so they have to be personalized, right? I can hear my kids now..."I can't find my water bottle! Jansen has my water bottle! Is this my bottle or Caleb's?" Vinyl to the rescue!!!!


So I went to Target and found some cute sport bottles in the clearance aisle. I bought two big 32 oz open-mouth bottles for my hubs and I, and because we have some clumsy drinker kids that spill EVERYTHING, two 16 oz straw cups for the boys.

Add some Disney inspired vinyl with our names on them and we are ready to go!!! 

I am so going to fill these up with water on the ship to take with us to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. Remember...never drink the water!!!!!!!! (unless it is bottled or comes from the ship). :)

Um...myelograms hurt...

Yesterday morning was the day of my dreaded myelogram. I had never even heard of this test until my neurologist ordered it. But once I looked up the procedure on youtube....I became incredible nervous.

Well, it turns out it wasn't too bad. My mother took me to the hospital early in the morning, I signed a ton of papers and was taken into a Day Surgery room. We sat there for about an hour until the radiology tech came to get me. They gave me a Valium on the way to help calm my nerves, and might I say...it did nothing. I felt absolutely nothing. I was scared, shaky, and evidently, Valium has no effect on me.

Once I got into the room, they had be lie down on the x-ray table in order to get a few quick images. Once the radiologist came in, I was very, very nervous. I had to flip over onto my stomach, which I just can't do. I simply cannot lie on my stomach without significant pain anymore. They put a wedge under neath my right hip which did take some of the pressure off.

And then, I started crying. The nerves and the pain of being on my stomach for so long was really getting to me. The radiologist was patient and waited for me to stop sobbing because I had to be really still. He found the spot in my spine where he could insert the needle and inserted the Lidocain. Once that was done, the needle went in. Oh boy, I could feel that all the way down the back the back of my leg. Once he put the needle in, he had to take it out and put a longer one in. Then the contrast dye went in and I felt such pressure through my lower back and back of my right leg.

Then, I got stuck on my stomach. They needed me to move to another gurney, and I couldn't move. It took me forever to get onto the other gurney and I started crying again. After they got me onto my back, the pressure was less and I was more comfortable to go into the CT machine.

Then they took me back into my recovery room where I had to lie still for 4 hours! I did not anticipate that at all. They gave me some pain medicine and a snack and I drifted in and out until it was time to go home. My husband picked me up, and I was told to lie down with my head elevated for the rest of the day, and to take it easy for the next couple of days.

I felt ok yesterday, and today...ouch! I feel like I have been in a fight. My back, leg, hip...ugh. So SORE!!!!  It is really difficult for me to get comfortable. Lying on my back, sides, sitting in a recliner, standing for a while, walking around....really sore.

So, on August 3 I go back to my neurologist for the results. Fingers crossed that it is something repairable!!!!

What the heck is a fish extender?

Fish extenders...have you heard about these? I hadn't, until I started researching the Disney Cruise. Honestly, this is a super fun idea! Here is the lowdown.


Participating a fish extender exchange is a fun way to add a little magic to your cruise. It's a Secret Santa of sorts. Outside each stateroom is a metal fish hanger....

People then hang fish extenders to these hangers in hopes of receiving fun little gifts. Most people "meet" up on the Disney boards, find a group of people that want to participate in the exchange, and then when they all jump aboard, they find everyone's staterooms and put some goodies in the pockets of the extenders. It's exactly like a stocking at Christmas!

So what does a fish extender look like? Well, it could be anything. It could be baskets, fabric pockets, tote bags, actual stockings...just whatever you fancy. You can make your own, or buy some off of ebay or etsy. Click HERE for a link to an etsy seller...and HERE.....and HERE. 

Well, to buy or not to buy. Remember, we are having to be really careful so that we can have this cruise paid off in time...so while I would love to buy one of these awesome, embroidered extenders....I have to make ours. PS. I don't sew. So I started thinking about what would be an easy, no-sew option for me to make.

Enter....The Powell Family Fish Extender!

For this, I used black mini canvas tote bags, ribbon, and felt. I wanted to keep it in the classic Disney red, yellow, and black theme. I cut the handles off the tote bags, cut red squares of felt, and used some fabric glue to attach the felt to the totes. I then glued these super cute yellow glitter buttons to the corners of the felt, cut out Mickey heads, and glued them on as well. 

Next came the ribbon. I layered a thinner black polka dot ribbon on top of a wide yellow ribbon with glue. Measured out the right length to hang the totes, and used heavy duty fabric glue to attach the ribbon to the totes. I made a conscious decision not to add names to it, because it looked too cluttered. Then I added a dowel rod with ribbon, added some extra polka dot streamers, and this is done! The width of the wall where this will hang is only 8 inches. Anything more than that and it will get caught in your stateroom door. These totes are 5 inches by 6 inches. Perfect for the wall and perfect for all the little trinkets we can put in them. I spent less than $10 for the totes and ribbon :) Love it!

Instead of joining a huge FE group, we are going to use this extender as our family gift exchange. Each morning we will put goodies in it for our boys as a fun little surprise. They have no idea...and I am going to do my best to keep it a surprise. Maybe Mickey or Donald will come by and drop some goodies in as well!

School shopping madness

It's that time again. The time when parents start frantically looking for new items to add to their childrens' closets.


This year was completely different for us. Normally, we purchase more things for Caleb (since he is older) and Jansen gets the hand-me-downs. This year, Jansen has had a huge growth spurt and is now bigger than our oldest! And to top that off, each child has their own opinions as to what they want to wear to school. Caleb only wants to wear jeans (he wears footy pajamas year round and never seems to get hot) and Jansen only wants to wear shorts.


Here is what they will be starting to school in:


Jansen gets mostly shorts and t-shirts (plus a hoodie that is being delivered)....

Caleb gets mostly jeans and a few shorts (he needs 2 more pair of jeans though)....

The awesome thing is that their backpacks are still in tip top shape, as are their lunchboxes :)


School supplies are almost complete, as the store has run out of yellow poly folders that both boys need.




Oh school...I love when my boys go, but I sort of dread beginning my next term as PTO President. With a new principal, new counselor, tons of new teachers, new speech therapist, and some new PTO board members....it's a totally brand new experience. It's Caleb's last year in elementary school and my baby is in 2nd grade!!!! Where does the time go????

DIY Disney headband

While there will be many a craft project for my kiddos, I wanted to do a little craft for myself. 

PS, I love a good headband! 


The other day, on my trip to Walmart for the other craft supplies, I saw a remnant square of this black and white polka dot fabric for 50 cents. I quickly threw it in my cart knowing that I wanted to make a headband out of it. 


So today, I put together this rosette headband and I MEGA-HEART it! 

If you want to make one too, here is how it is done. 


1. Get your fabric of choice. I was making a Minnie Mouse head, so I wanted a polka dot fabric.


2. Cut two smaller strips of equal size (about 1 inch wide) for the ear rosettes. Cut a longer piece the same width for the face part. 


3. At one end of a strip, tie a knot. Add a drop of hot glue and begin twisting and wrapping it around itself...adding a drop of hot glue as you go. 


4. Make 2 small rosettes and 1 large rosette. Attach the "ears" to the "face" using hot glue. I also added a quick red felt bow so that it looked like Minnie Mouse.


5. Cut 2 pieces of felt about the same size as the Minnie head. Hot glue 1 of the pieces of felt to the back of the Minnie head. 


6. Sandwich the headband between the Minnie head with felt, and the other piece of felt using hot glue for stability. You are done. 


Right before I wrote this, I found my camera card reader (after I took a couple of pictures of the finished product) so I didn't take step by step pictures of the progress. 

I am super excited to wear this on the cruise. Mark 3 crafts off my Disney Cruise Craft List...only like 100 to go!! :)

DIY Disney lanyards

Pinterest to the rescue!

I saw some cute lanyards on Pinterest and knew that my boys could really use them on the cruise. Not only are they going to need to keep up with their room keys, but we will be purchasing game cards in $10 increments for them to use in the arcade. It would be efficient and easy for the boys to have both attached to them, so hopefully it will be more difficult to lose, right?!


The store had a million rolls of Disney themed ribbon for girls: Minnie Mouse, princesses, polka dots and ruffles...and one that would be appropriate for boys. It's a good thing that it is cute!


This is another easy thing to do. 


Measure out how much ribbon you would like to use. I had some old rope lanyards that I based my length off of.


Attach the two cut ends together with a little hot glue.


Attach the ribbon to the clasp. Basically, I cut the rope off of the old lanyard and was left with this...

So I just threaded the ribbon through and then glued it again. If you don't have one of these, your local craft store has clasps pretty cheap.

I attached one of my old Sail and Sign cards to it just to see how it would attach.

Done! Total cost for 2 lanyards: $1.97 for a spool of Disney ribbon at Walmart. I almost want to make one of the princess ones for myself...maybe :)