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Easy Crockpot Irish Stew
Our St Paddy’s Day celebrations aren’t complete without a big bowl of Irish Stew! It’s warm, filling, comfort food at its finest. This Easy Crockpot Irish Stew recipe is a favorite of mine because it can be quickly assembled and then left alone to do its thing for most of the day. You can even combine the stew ingredients the night before, store in the refrigerator, then dump in the crockpot when you are ready to start cooking! You can’t beat the convenience and ease of cooking in your crockpot. Just toss in your ingredients, turn up the heat, and let your crockpot do the rest! I created this Easy…
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Family-Friendly St Paddy’s Day Party
This week, my kids were excited to celebrate St Paddy’s Day with a party we hold every year. We love any excuse to throw a party at my house and St Paddy’s Day is no exception! This week, we indulged in a few leprechaun tricks, created an Irish-inspired dinner menu, and watched a Disney Channel classic – The Luck of the Irish! It’s our tradition to watch The Luck of the Irish on St Paddy’s Day while I try my hand at preparing some traditional Irish fare. Follow along as I share with you some of the ways we throw a family-friendly St Paddy’s Day party! Leprechaun Tricks Leprechaun tricks…
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Disney World Chocolate Chip Cookie Bakeoff: Grand Floridian VS Num Num Cookies
This week, my family and I decided to hold a Disney World Chocolate Chip Cookie Bakeoff! Amidst the global pandemic of COVID-19, the Walt Disney Company has striven to provide ways of incorporating Disney magic into the lives of those who are stuck at home and social distancing. One way Disney fans can enjoy the parks from home is by preparing some of their favorite snacks and treats with OFFICIAL Disney recipes straight from the parks! This is a most welcome gift for those who are really missing their Disney fix! Two of the recipes my family was most excited to check out were the chocolate chip cookies from Grand…
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Top 10 Strategies to Beat the Post-Disney Blues
There is nothing more magical than a Walt Disney World vacation. As soon as you set foot on property, you feel your worries melt away. The only thing that matters anymore, is making lifelong memories with your family and having FUN! But there is one major downfall to enjoying such a carefree vacation – the POST-DISNEY BLUES. What are the Post-Disney Blues, you ask? Well, the Post-Disney Blues (or Disney Withdrawals) refers to the overwhelming feeling of sadness you experience at the conclusion of your Walt Disney World vacation. The carefree lifestyle you adopted while on vacation is suddenly thrust aside by your very real-life concerns and responsibilities. Gone are…
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Princess and the Frog Dinner Night
This week, we paid homage to the Mardi Gras season by enjoying a Princess and the Frog Dinner Night on Fat Tuesday, itself! Hailing from North Dakota, we see little recognition of the Southern holiday in our area. Admittedly, we unknowingly planned our last Walt Disney World trip (and wedding day) around the holiday and were shocked by how packed the parks were! Lesson learned – Mardi Gras is the REAL DEAL. Since we were married on Fat Tuesday last year and Princess and the Frog is a favorite Disney film in our household, I wanted to pay tribute to Mardi Gras with a Princess and the Frog Dinner Night. …
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Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day as a Family
Happy Valentine’s Day, readers! This week , I’m excited to share with you the different ways we celebrate Valentine’s Day as a family. Valentine’s Day has admittedly been my least favorite holiday I seldom looked forward to. I have always viewed the day as a mainly consumerist holiday, laced with expectations of flowers, chocolates, and obtaining busy restaurant reservations. It’s a lot of pressure! Not to mention EXPENSIVE as well! After working several years in the restaurant industry (and on VERY BUSY Valentine’s Days), I decided I wanted to celebrate this holiday a little differently – and that was at home with my family. Once we started to celebrate Valentine’s…
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Moana Themed Dinner Night
Hello, readers! This week’s Disney Themed Dinner is inspired by one of my MOST FAVORITE Disney movies…Moana! I absolutely adore this film because it features a brave heroine, exciting adventures, fun musical numbers, lots of laughs, and a few tear-jerking moments. These elements create movie success in my book, and I couldn’t wait to create a menu for our Moana Themed Dinner featuring nods to the film and flavors of the Pacific Islands. Download a printable version of our Moana Themed Dinner Menu here: “Mmmm That’s Good Pork!” Pork is a popular meat served in the Pacific Islands. This is referenced in the film as Moana enjoys pork prepared by…
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Lilo and Stitch Themed Dinner
Aloha, readers! While it may be snowy and gloomy here in the Midwest, we aren’t going to let that stop us from having our very own tropical luau for our Lilo and Stitch Themed Dinner! For this week’s Disney Themed Dinner, I am doing things a little differently. Rather than test out new recipes for our themed dinner, I will be using OFFICIAL DISNEY WORLD RECIPES!! These recipes hail from nonother than the Polynesian themed restaurant – ‘Ohana! For those who are unfamiliar with this popular dining spot, ‘Ohana can be found at the Polynesian Village Resort on Disney property. In the morning hours, visitors to the restaurant can enjoy…
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Pirates of the Caribbean Dinner Night
Today, we are taking a trip to the Caribbean to celebrate romanticized pirates and island flavors! During COVID-19 quarantine, we realized an epic parental fail of ours: Our 12-year-old hadn’t seen any of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies! Well, we had nothing but time to turn that around and expose her to all the exciting adventures of the swashbuckling Captain Jack Sparrow and his band of buccaneers. To celebrate the end of our movie marathon, I decided to create a themed Pirates of the Caribbean Dinner to enjoy while we watched the final film of the series, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Shipshape Pirate Décor…
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Lion King Dinner Night
Hello readers! Today I want to share with you our latest Themed Disney Dinner…Lion King! The kids have been saying it’s been far too long since we last watched this classic animated film from 1994. While I absolutely LOVE watching the Lion King, it’s always a struggle to hide my ugly crying from the ever-judging eyes of my offspring during *that one* scene. BUT I will suck it up for the sake of my children and this new menu that I’m really excited to try out! Read on to see how we took inspiration from The Lion King to create our very own Lion King Dinner Night! Lion King Dinner…
