Pinterest Challenge: How to celebrate birthdays at Disneyland

I don't go to Disneyland as often as I would like to but luckily, my siblings and step-family decided to surprise my dad with a trip to Disneyland for his 50th birthday! It was one of the most memorable trips I've ever had to the happiest place on earth. 

Before leaving, I wanted to make sure we studied tips and tricks of what to do when celebrating birthdays at the park. I looked all over the internet and found some great ideas. 

MousePlanet was one of the most helpful sites. It supplies a plethora of must-tries for anyone celebrating a birthday Disney style. 

One of the best ideas was getting a birthday pin. This is a MUST if you're wanting to get the most out of your birthday experience. It doesn't have to be the actual day of your birthday. They don't check IDs or anything. Seriously though, this made my dad's birthday so much more memorable. Anyone and everyone that saw that pin said happy birthday to him. Characters in parades, cast members running the rides, random cast members walking around the park and even Crush from the attraction "Turtle Talk". It's amazing how these cast members are so good at spotting that little pin. I swear they get trained to do so. It was so cool to watch the parade on the sidewalk and literally, dancers would come right up to him and say "Happy Birthday Robert!" and get back into formation and continue with their dance. 

Another fun thing to start off a Disney birthday is to go to City Hall (where you get the pin) and they'll say, "we have a call waiting for you!" and then Goofy gets on the phone and sings happy birthday and tells you how excited he is to celebrate with you. What a simple idea that makes you feel so special right from the get go!

Another fun thing that the pin did was get him a seat right next to the Jungle Cruise captain. He became the butt of many of the Jungle Cruise jokes. It totally made the Jungle Cruise that much more enjoyable and hilarious!

We also had lunch at the Blue Bayou restaurant located in the middle of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride. They give you a delicious free chocolate mousse for your birthday. After stuffing our faces with the Monte Cristo sandwiches, that dessert was the perfect size for all of us to have a couple bites and be completely satisfied. 

There were so many new things we got to experience just because we were celebrating a birthday. I can't believe after the years and years of going to Disneyland (well over 100 times) that I had never actually gone to celebrate something before. Imagine what they would do if you were spending your honeymoon there or an anniversary or a first timer?? If there's one thing I've learned from Disney, it's that it doesn't matter if you're 1 years old or 100 years old, newly weds or a giant family of 12, you will always have a great time. Disney knows how to make you feel like the most special person in the world. 

Thank you MousePlanet for the great tips! I recommend visiting their website before going on a Disney vacation so you can get the most out of your trip. 

Pinterest Challenge: The Amazing Spiderman

Worst. Movie. Ever.

Okay, maybe not THE worst movie, but it has definitely got to be in the bottom of the barrel when it comes to the list of good quality of movies. Of course, this is only my opinion, so go see it at your own discretion. My advice, save the small fortune it costs to see movies these days and go treat yourself to any other activity in the world, because anything would have been better than sitting through that. 

It was beyond cheezy. The lines, the acting, the action, all very cheezy. There is absolutely NO humor, no charm, and absolutely no passion throughout the entire movie. It doesn't compare to one other superhero movie out there. It was definitely at the bottom of the superhero list and most other movies I've ever seen. 

Blake and I went into it thinking they had done to Spiderman what they had done to Batman in the Dark Knight. The Dark Knight revolutionized the world of Batman. The Amazing Spiderman did nothing for the cheezy superhero story of Peter Parker. 

I liked the Tobey Mcguire series better, and he was the worst actor I've ever seen! (If that tells you anything). It is the exact same take on the adventures Toby had with the awful Kirsten Dunst. They did nothing original. 

The only good thing about this movie was the suit. They did the best they could with Spiderman's already too cheezy suit. It looked as cool as it's going to get. It's hard to make a bright red and blue unitard look cool, but they did succeed on that. 


Not recommended and two thumbs WAAYYY down. 

Pinterest Challenge: Arizona Derby Games

Blake and I always like trying out new things together. Whether it's trying new restaurants or visiting new places, it's a fun way to get to know each other better. When you put yourself outside of your element, you get to know people in a different way. It's fun and keeps things fresh. 

I saw a special on Arizona Highways one day that talked about different events going on in the valley. It showed the hostess going to a roller derby track. She tried out the track and the gear and she even got pushed around quite a bit by those masculine women on skates. It looked like a lot of fun and it was definitely something I'd never seen, so I looked up roller derby games in our area. 

Sure enough, the Arizona Derby Games Championship was coming up. At only $10 a ticket, we definitely had to go. We got there and immediately felt out of place. I don't think one of the girls' hair styles were a natural color. Apparently pigtails and pigtail braids are the style for these games? Also, there were a lot of tulle tutus and pink striped knee-high socks. Up until then, I'd only seen these types of styles during Halloween. I was excited to know there were people who didn't wait for October 31st to play dress up! I've never felt so out of place before in my life and I also felt like if I looked at one of them the wrong way, I'd get the crap beat out of me! Some of these women could have probably beaten the crap out of Blake too! They were huge and mean looking and ready to take on the world. 

It was surprising to me that there were so many people that got into it. There were signs and banners and shirts made to support the teams. Granted, there were only about a thousand people there, but I guess I live in a bubble and didn't realize these events actually existed so it was nice to know that there were quite a few people out there that got into these kinds of events. 

We sat right behind who appeared to be the expert of roller derby and she gave her two cents after every "play". She was so hung up over this one kid who was only 18. Everyone that came within 5 feet of her she said "have you seen that kid? he's only 18 years old!!" I thought to myself, "yeah, they all look 18 years old. I'm not expecting a grown man to ride around in circles hitting people on roller skates." but apparently that was super young for a roller derby player. Who knew?

After learning the ins and outs of the game, I realized it was just an excuse to beat the crap out of someone. It's a bunch of girls or guys riding around on roller skates, trying to push the other team down or off the track. It was hilarious. These girls get so into it! This is their life. Most of the girls have normal jobs and families. It's just weird to think that these monstrous women can go back to leading normal lives after that. Apparently, the captain of the Arizona team is the girl who cuts Blake's hair. I was laughing so hard when I found that out. At least now he'll have something to talk to her about when he goes in next. 

 As you can probably tell, we weren't exactly dressed for the occasion.

 After Arizona won the championship, they gathered around the railing and people treated them like celebs. It was weird. 

Please check out the face painting! WTF? Apparently that is pertinent to the uniform.

 All in all, we had a blast. We learned about a new "sport" and we hung out with some interesting people. And who doesn't like to see a good fight every now and then? Haha date night = success.

Pinterest Challenge

I was introduced to Pinterest a couple months ago. I didn't quite grasp the concept at first, but after playing with it for a while, I realized, it's awesome. 

My name is Megan and I'm a Pinterest addict. 

I decided a while back that I was going to start trying out some of the things that I've pinned. I thought to myself, these are obviously things that caught my attention and looked good to me at the time, so why not give them a try?

I started trying a couple recipes and date night ideas here and there but nothing to out of the norm. Then I decided to give myself a challenge. I'm always up for a good challenge. I've challenged myself to try out EVERY pin I've ever posted on that addicting site. Recipes, crafts, beauty tricks, fitness tips, holiday ideas, everything. 

You might think this is crazy, and who knows how long I can actually keep this up, but I'm going to do one pinterest activity a day until I've done them all. I want to see which pins actually work and which pins are just plain crap. Plus, I get bored a lot while everyone else is in school. 

I have 1,564 pins at the moment. I pin about 25 new things a week though so this could add up really fast. I'll try to take pictures of everything as I go. Challenge accepted. Wish me luck!