I’m All Ears

Well that concludes our two week whirlwind vacations of Block Island and Disney World. We had a great time but we all didn’t sleep nearly as much as we should. I am exhausted and plan to sleep for the next week. Thank goodness I’m still on sabbatical! Now I have to think about what I’m going to do with my spare time (unfortunately there isn’t a ton because we have so much planned). I’m thinking mainly baking bread and updating my resume (sadly).

The kids seemed to enjoy Disney but they probably would have been equally happy just playing in the pool all day. They were doing a really great job swimming around (even Patricia without a life vest). Oh and I forgot to mention that Julius moved up to the next swim level right before we left! They’re doing a great job. Patricia loves to jump in the pool. We witnessed this pump up speech before her first couple jumps:

Patricia (to herself): you can do this!

It was pretty adorable. The kids also got signatures in their autograph books from lots of characters! Including the famed Mickey himself and everyone’s favorite Disney princess (well with the exception of Princess Leia and Princess Vanellope Von Schweetz which somehow are not counted). Unfortunately the lack of sleep and eating of sugar lead to some cranky episodes for both Patricia and Julius. We were not the only ones seeing this. When Patricia witnessed one such meltdown from the outside she said:

Patricia (commenting on some other child’s meltdown after her own near meltdown): It’s tough to be a kid. She’s just a cranky kid.

Honestly Disney was even a bit stressful for me! I couldn’t handle Patricia’s meltdowns when I was myself hot and sweaty. The stress must have gotten to me because I slept walked on the 3rd night there and somehow ended up bleeding on the floor. I had a gash down my lips that I went to ER for (spoilers they didn’t do anything so it wasn’t actually that bad). I’m still not exactly sure what happened. I probably have to do something about that.

Despite the crankiness and sleep walking we had a great time! Patricia claimed her favorite ride was Pirates of the Caribbean (my favorite) despite the fact that the first time we went on it she was terrified and hiding the gem on her princess costume so the pirates wouldn’t steal it. Julius’ favorite was Space Mountain. Which is Will’s favorite. He got to go on it twice (once with Will, and once with me later for rider swap). Will and my favorite was Guardians of the Galaxy – I think it may have even replaced the Rockin’ Rollercoaster for me in terms of favorites! Patricia asked me the second day why they kept calling her “princess” since she wasn’t a real princess. I told her everyone is a princess in Disney World, but that didn’t placate her. Everytime someone would call her princess she’d look at me like, “see? Another one!”

Well now that we’re done with Disney I can show you the ears I made! I didn’t have time to make a pair for myself but I might later anyway (because I had an awesome idea!) The pattern for the ears and headband is the same, I just did some slightly different things for each. Julius wanted Disgust (from Inside Out) ears. There was no Disgust character in the parks but he did get a picture with Joy. She thought Disgust would not have been disgusted with the ears haha. That is a serious compliment!

Patricia loves Ariel so she wanted Ariel themed ears. For both sets of ears I didn’t buy anything and used scrap fabric I had on hand. The mermaid sequins were slightly off in color from what Ariel’s tail is… but they coincidentally matched the Ariel outfit Patricia chose from Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique. Talk about fortuitous!

Basic Mickey Mouse Ears

What you’ll need:

1 headband (I used these)
scrap fabric for ears and headband
scrap peltex 220
fiberfill
chopsticks to add stuffing
pattern here

1. Cut out fabric for your headband (2 pieces).

2. Cut out fabric for each ear (should have 4 pieces in total)

3. Cut out 2 pieces of peltex ears with no seam allowance.

4. Stitch headband fabric together, leaving openings where indicated in the pattern.

5. Trim close to seam allowance and clip curves then turn right side out.

6. Insert headband into the opening on the end and then stuff the outside portion of the headband lightly with stuffing using the chopsticks through the other openings.