Our Little Princess

The Little Lady had two opportunities to spend time with the princesses. On the first morning, right after she met Mickey and Minnie, we went next door to meet Cinderella, Belle and Aurora.

She was a little unsure of Cinderella at first, but quickly warmed up.



Belle was for sure her favorite princess. Tressie ran right up to her with open arms! It's funny how much more she liked Belle. Belle did call her by name (her name was embroidered on her dress) so maybe that had something to do with it? Or maybe it's just Belle's fabulous yellow dress?!?



Here she is meeting Aurora, or more commonly known to some as Sleeping Beauty.


Tressie also got to have dinner with the princesses one night. Belle was the hostess, here she is greeting the Little Lady.


Tressie liked Aurora more this time around.


I think she's commenting on her crown and how she wants one!


I just had to include this picture. It must be what they teach the princesses at princess school to do to get the little ones to look at the camera. We have a picture of Cinderella doing the exact same thing.


You can't see Tressie's shoes in this particular picture, but she has very sparkley silver shoes on. Cinderella is commenting on her sparkley "slippers."



I think Tressie blew each one of the princesses a kiss. They of course loved that!


Here Snow White and Tressie are talking hair bows.


I'm kinda getting the "man, your smile is cheesy" vibe from Tressie here...


And with Ariel, the Little Mermaid...where's my bop, I'm officially over it!


Maybe our Little Lady makes a better Viking than a princess?!?


{Our dinner was in Norway in Epcot and when I went to round up Tressie and her Dad and Grandpa for dinner, that's what I found.}

Ranch Wives Cooking Club - Texas Sheet Cake

A good Texas Sheet Cake recipe is a must in every ranch wife's arsenal. They're quick and easy to make and big enough to feed a crowd. Tonight is my Grandparent's annual "end-of-the-summer" party, so I decided a Texas Sheet Cake would be great to eat with all of the homemade ice cream!

Here's everything you'll need:


For the cake:
1 cup butter, cubed
1 cup water
1/4 cup baking cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sour cream
(Yes, you read that right, no eggs.)

Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. At this time, I also measure out my sour cream.


In a large saucepan, bring butter, water and cocoa just to a boil.


Grease a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan.


Once the mixture starts to boil, remove from heat immediately.


Add the flour/sugar mixture to the cocoa.


Stir in the sour cream until smooth.



Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.


For the icing:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons baking cocoa
3-3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan, melt butter; add milk and cocoa, bring to a boil.


Remove from the heat. Whisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth.


Pour over warm cake.


Enjoy!

Recipe from Taste of Home.

Breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and Friends

The first morning of our vacation, we had a special breakfast with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet at The Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom.

This was Tressie's first experience meeting any of the characters and she did great! Winnie the Pooh kind of surprised her from behind, that's why she has the unsure look on her face, but she quickly warmed up to him.


She thought Eeyore was pretty cool. They were giving each other high fives!



We did manage to get her to eat a little bit of breakfast despite all of the excitement. I wish breakfast was as fun as Mickey waffles every morning...and they even taste really good too!



Piglet was her favorite of this group. She loved his nose! She just kept hugging and kissing and loving on him!



Grandma and Grandpa bought her a stuffed Piglet to bring home with her since he was one of her favorite characters.



We were away from our table (it's a buffet) when Tigger came by. The place was super busy, but we had an awesome waiter who was determined to get Tigger back to our table, but the Little Lady started to get restless and so we decided to finish up breakfast and move on.

Breakfast at The Crystal Palace is always a great way to start the day at Magic Kingdom!

The Burning Question...

"How did Tressie do on your trip?"

I know that some people thought we were crazy for taking an 18-month-old to Disney World. (Yes, John Wayne was even one of those people for a while.)


The Little Lady did great!

Luckily we saw way more of this face than of the one above!


Seriously, we had a great time and she really took it all in and enjoyed it. Of course we had some meltdowns, and towards the middle of the trip, we had one solid rough day (the result of a bad night's sleep), but the meltdowns were far fewer than I had anticipated and prepared myself for.

She LOVED the characters! She also loved all of the shows filled with singing, dancing and colorful costumes. She didn’t dislike the rides, but probably enjoyed the shows more. Out of all the rides, she liked the carousel the best. (Yes. Yes, I know. I could have taken her to Burlington or the nearest county fair for that one.)

At times she made meal time a little challenging. We had the dining plan as part of our package, so we were eating really well. Well, adults like and enjoy a nice relaxing three course meal, toddlers do not, but we always managed without too much trouble. At the end of our meal at Coral Reef, a nice restaurant inside the aquarium at EPCOT, the waitress made the Little Lady’s day by bringing her her own “build a sundae” complete with M&M’S, chocolate sauce and sprinkles in little bowls to top her own ice cream with. I failed to get any pictures, but let me tell you, she thought she was big stuff!

The plane rides went just fine. On the way there, she was wide awake when we got on the plane. About half way through the four hour flight, we had a small meltdown as she was fighting sleep, but nothing too dramatic or long. On the flight home, she was a champ! She was of course tired and worn out from vacation, so she slept probably for two-thirds of the flight and watched her Toy Story 3 DVD for the rest of the flight. We even got complements on how well behaved she was on that flight.

I took a lot of pictures, so you’ll probably get sick of seeing them on the blogs for the next few weeks, but first I just wanted to answer that one burning question. So even though the Little Lady is too little to remember this trip (that’s what pictures are for and we’ll go back), I have the satisfaction of knowing that she did enjoy herself while she was there and I know that I sure enjoyed watching her have fun and take it all in!

The Mickey and The Minnie

So, as most of you all know, we just returned from a week in Disney World. We had an amazing vacation! With the 600+ photos that I took, you'll be looking at Disney World pictures on both blogs for some time. Unsure of where to start, I decided it was only fitting to show you the pictures of the Little Lady with the stars of Disney World -- Mickey and Minnie.

I had no idea how the Little Lady would react to the characters. She watches and loves them on TV, but that's not quite the same as standing next to a six foot mouse.

Well, she LOVED the characters. She walked up to them with outstretched arms (literally) and hugged and kissed them. So sweet and so much fun for Mama and Daddy and Grandpa and Grandma to watch!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

The Little Lady is getting ready for her first big airplane ride...well actually her Mama's getting her ready...I'm pretty sure the Little Lady has no idea she's going to go on an airplane.



I am not so naive as to think this airplane ride is going to be simple or enjoyable...she's a busy toddler, but I've atleast attempted to arm her Dad, Grandma and Grandpa and myself with some fun things to help keep her entertained.

Princess backpack from Grandma and Grandpa

The Little Lady loves to watch TV (go ahead and judge now if you want...), so a portable DVD player with a couple of her favorite movies, Toy Story 3 and Micky Mouse Clubhouse, was a must. She also has an iPod shuffle filled with children's songs. {The only reason my child has an iPod is because I won it at a conference and her Dad and I both already have one.}



Tonight when we were testing the DVD player out, her jaw literally dropped, she got SO excited when she saw the little DVD player...so, fingers crossed!





Her little backpack came with this cute little purse. This should make her very happy, she's totally into purses. When I went on a business trip last month, I brought her home a stuffed animal and I had also bought myself a new wallet/purse. I was showing the wallet to my Mom after I had given Tressie her teddy bear, she wanted NOTHING to do with the teddy bear, but EVERYTHING to do with the wallet, toting it around slug over her shoulder. And what vacation purse would be complete without a cell phone and camera?!?

Little Cinderella Doll

Snacks...a huge variety of snacks. These are just a few, we have a whole other bag just with snacks in it!





A princess flashlight! After buying it I realize maybe not the best thing for an airplane {are they even allowed in carry-on?!? I guess I better check...} but she'll have fun with it at the hotel anyways.

A couple of books out of the Target dollar bin

And probably THE MOST IMPORTANT THING...her bop!

{Yes, we will start weaning her from it when we get home from vacation.}







So there you have it, atleast our attempt at entertaining her!

And I know Grandma has a bunch more goodies in her carry-on bag too...



Wish us luck!

Kit Carson Day

Saturday, Labor Day Weekend = Kit Carson Day
Our annual Labor Day Weekend tradition is to spend Saturday at Kit Carson Day, our town's annual celebration including a rodeo, BBQ and parade.

The Hammer Ranch team and wagon always make an appearence in the parade. This year was extra exciting because my Grandpa just bought a new team of Haflingers (best described as a mini draft horse).

Here's the Little Lady and her Daddy getting to know the horses. Tressie's petting Tom and in the pictures below, Whopper is nibbling on Tressie's sweater : )



The Little Lady had an entry in the parade. Her Daddy and I decorated her little red wagon as a wagon with wings for the "Kit Carson Day 2011, our Prairie Heaven" theme. (Cheesey, I know!)




The Little Lady ditched the other wagons and bicycles in her category and hooked on with the big boys. (She was a hit!)




The Hammer Ranch got 3rd place in the parade. {We're still trying to figure out who beat us?!? Because of course, we think we should have gotten first! : )}