Hoop Dee Doo Revue

One of my favorite memories of Disney growing up was going to see the Hoop Dee Doo Revue.  This is a country western musical revue that is held at Pioneer Hall at the Fort Wilderness Campground.  It is SO much fun!  My girls and I have been 3 times since 2012.

This last time was during Marathon Weekend.  It wasn't just the girls and I though.  We had a group of 40 from our Disney running group in our reservation.  It was amazing!

What makes Hoop Dee Doo so amazing?  Well, the all-you-can-eat fried chicken, ribs, and sides are a plus.  The food is delicious.  They also offer all you can drink beer and Sangrias.  I took advantage of the free refills of iced tea.  That's my jam.  😄  We had an awesome waiter this time around too!  Genero was sassy and on top of things.  Our food and drinks were replenished super fast.

The entertainment is great at Hoop Dee Doo.  They put on a great show.  This is one of my girls favorite places to eat.  They love the show too.  The performers are great about including the audience.  I think that we had smile on our faces the entire meal.  Nothing beats an entertaining show, a great dinner and great friends.

If you haven't tried out Hoop Dee Doo Revue yet, it is a must!  You prepay for this meal when you make your reservations.  Gratuity is included in the price.  If you are on the dining plan, this meal will take two dining credits.  Many people get hung up with how to get to Pioneer Hall.  There are several ways to get there:

1. You can take Disney Transportation from your resort to Magic Kingdom and then take the ferry to Ft. Wilderness.  The ferry dock is right next to Pioneer Hall.  
2. If you have your own car, you can drive to Ft. Wilderness and then take Ft. Wilderness' internal bus to Pioneer Hall.  
3. If you are staying at Wilderness Lodge, you can take the ferry from the resort to Ft. Wilderness.  
4. My new favorite way to get there is to use the "Minnie Van" service that Disney is offering now.  Disney has paired with Lyft for their technology to have their own "Uber/Lyft" service.  The drivers are Cast Members.  It was so much fun getting to talk to the Cast Members.  The plus side about using the "Minnie Van" service is that the car takes you directly to Pioneer Hall.

Here are some great pictures that my friend Becky Ashley took during our dinner.

I can't recommend this place enough!  I hope that you are able to give it a try the next time that you are at Disney.  Have you been to Hoop Dee Doo Revue?  What are your thoughts?

2018 WDW Marathon Weekend 5K

This runDisney race weekend was very different from the other two runDisney race weekends that I had experienced.  The weather changed the whole experience for all of us.  The morning of the 5K started out at a VERY cold 34 degrees.  I had prepped for the weather, or so I thought.   I was on the 2nd bus to leave my resort, OKW, at around 3:30 am.  Once I got to the race site, I met my friends in the character lines to take pre-race pictures with Disney characters.

The race didn't start until 5:30 am, so standing around for about in an hour and a half before the race started in 34 degree weather was hard!  The plus side of having to stand in the cold was that I was reunited with so many of my Disney running friends.  As you can see from the pictures above, we all decided to dress as the Aliens from Toy Story.  Our friend, Rob from Joyful Miles dressed as Buzz Lightyear and our friend Chris dressed as "The Claw" ("oooh!").  We had so much fun with these costumes!!

Many of our friends were walking this 5K, because they were doing the Dopey Challenge.  This meant that they were running all 4 races.  Since there isn't a worry of being swept on this course, it was more laid back and we just took it all in.  This 5K course took us through Epcot.

There were many great characters along the course.  I loved that so many of the Aliens stuck together.

We also stopped for some great selfies.

After the races, everyone usually hangs out taking pictures and talking about that race.  Not this day though.  It was SO cold.  Everyone made a beeline for the buses.  Disney did a great job having them ready to go.  When one left for its resort, another one pulled right up.  A group of us had reservations at Kona Cafe that morning, so I headed back to my resort to get ready and grab my girls.  After some delicious Tonga Toast we headed into Magic Kingdom for a little bit.  The cold wears you out though, so we didn't last too long.  We left after a few hours to go to Epcot.  Since I am a DVC member, the girls, my friends and I went to hang out in the DVC lounge that is located above the Figment ride.  When it was time, we headed over to Japan to meet up with Jamie and Angie's husbands for our dinner reservations at Teppon Edo.  My girls love that place.  All last summer they kept asking if we could go eat at the chopstick place.  😄  Once dinner was over, we called it a night and headed back to our resort to get ready for Friday's race.

Overall, I enjoyed the 5K.  Disney did a great job with it.  The only thing that I would change, would be the weather.   I have more pictures up on my video recap.  Check it out here.  My recaps of the rest of the races will be coming soon.  Until then...

Chores & Checklists

Hi all!

Today I am going to talk about "Chores & Checklists."  Do you get tired of asking your kids, "did you do this?  Did you do that?"  I do have a child with ADHD, so constant reminders has become a habit, but I want to teach my girls responsibility.  I want them to grow up and be able to function in the real world.  I don't want them to take things for granted and to expect that it to be all about them.  As a single mom, you learn to have a routine, or else you can't function.  This is true for all families, but especially true for the single mom.  We have a system.  My girls know the system.  They know that when they come home from school, they hang up their coats, pull out their binders for me to see, put away their backpacks and empty their lunch boxes.  Last fall after listening to my friend's podcast, I decided that instead of me reminding them everyday, I'd just type up a checklist for them and have them refer to that.  

This was all stuff that they had been doing already, but all typed out for them.  I placed one in their room and one in their bedroom.  I added a few things like a morning devotion, making their own breakfast (one child was NOT happy about that), making their own lunch, and washing their face.  I've learned that one child LOVES having a checklist and the other could care less.  😂  One day not too long after we started this, my youngest asked me..."Mommy, now that we are doing all of the work, what are you doing?"  😂  "My heart is filled with peace that you too will be able to function in the real world someday."  😂

My friends Jenn & Courtney talk about doing chores in the podcast too.  I have slowly been adding those throughout the years.  Since I can remember, they have been responsible for clearing their plates from the table after they eat.  They have been folding their own clothes for about a year.  After hearing their podcast, I decided in December that it was time to add a chore chart.  To make it fun, our Elves brought them one Friday night.  

I was very surprised that my girls were okay with this.  They made sure to point out that even mommy had chores.  😄  Some parents do a weekly "allowance" or "commission" for doing chores.  I have not started that.  I want my girls to understand that doing chores is what family does.  We all have responsibilities.  We are a team.  I'm also not at a place yet to pay them (darn you Disney).  😄  Next year, that will be a part of my budget and they will get a weekly "commission", because you earn it, from doing extra chores.  

Start now to teach your kiddos to be responsible adults.  We won't always be there.  My mother passed away my senior year in high school. Teach them to cook and do laundry.  Also mamas...if they forget something at home (a project or lunch, or whatever), leave it at home.  It just takes you not bailing them out ONE time to learn to be more responsible.  You won't be able to bail them out when they are in college or if they have a project or deadline for their job someday.  Wouldn't you rather them learn now while they are under your roof and the consequences are smaller?

One more thing...there are so many great devotionals out there.  I went the free route.  I got the girls each a binder and downloaded this daily devotional for them.  It also has a journal page that the kids can write their reflections and prayer requests on.  We are just keeping it simple.  😃

Our life isn't perfect and we don't get every item done on our checklist everyday or on our weekly chore list.  It's a work in progress for all 3 of us.  We are growing and learning from it though.  I am very blessed to be a mama to these sweet girls.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on what works in your home.  We are on this journey together mamas.  Oh and if you would like a copy of my checklist and chores, you can download them here and here.  Talk to you again soon!

Ann

WDW Marathon Weekend Expo

Hi all!
We are back from Disney and slowly getting back into our routine.  I am still processing Marathon Weekend.  There was so much going on and it seemed to go so fast!!  We ended up taking a later flight this trip.  Since we were getting in later this time around, I sent our main suitcase with our friend Meredith who had an earlier flight and it was non-stop, so that when we got to our resort, our luggage would be waiting for us in our resort room.  Thank you Southwest for letting 2 bags fly free!!

Our plane got in close to 6:00 pm.  I didn't want to risk us getting backed up with Magical Express, so we took our first ever Uber Ride.  This girl watches way too much Criminal Minds, so I may have been a little nervous.  😂 Our driver was awesome and a Vet, so I got to hear about his military days.  He drove us straight to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.  This is where the runDisney Expo is.  We got there a little after 7:00 pm and the Expo closed at 8:00 pm, so we didn't have a lot of time.  We went (with our carry ons) to pick up all of our bibs and race shirts.  I had chosen the wrong size for my race shirts, so we also went to exchange my shirts for a different size.  That was super easy.  It was cold outside and some of the bib pick ups were outside, so we didn't stay long.  My girls were such troopers.  Usually we linger at the Expo and take TONS of fun pictures.  We hadn't had dinner yet, so we didn't stay too long at the Expo.  I didn't even go in the building where they were selling runDisney merchandise.  We did make sure that we stopped to get a picture with Jeff Galloway.  Mia asked me "What's the big deal about getting a picture with him?"  😂  Jeff has been the one that has gotten me through my two years of running with his run/walk/run method.

I'm a little sad that I didn't get a chance to really explore at the Expo this time around and say hi to some of my favorite vendors.  I did shout an "I love Sparkle Athletics" as we walked by their booth.  😂  After we got our picture with Jeff, we headed to the buses to hop on the bus our resort, Old Key West.  The Romagnolo girls were STARVING, so we grabbed our dinner from "Goods to Go" at our resort and took it to our room to eat and unpack.  Old Key West is our home resort for DVC.  I never stayed there until last February during Princess Weekend.  I LOVE it!  The Cast Members are awesome and the rooms are huge!  It is also very close to Epcot and the start and finish lines for the races, so you have a shorter wait.  They also got us an air mattress so that my girls didn't have to sleep on the floor.  They were super excited about that!

Even though we didn't get to do a lot of what we normally do our first day there, we were happy to be at Disney and on Thursday morning I would be reuniting with my people.  Since I head a wake up call of 2:30 am (yikes), we were in bed soon after we ate.  Stay tuned for more to come about our weekend and the races.  

Flat Ann for the 5K