Our PB&J Adventure Book

Dapper Disney Days
April brought about yet another Disneyland trip. Again?! Yes, it's starting to become a pattern to include a Disneyland visit for each month of year two. We're making it a point to visit the parks more frequently, but for shorter durations this year. Last year, a majority of our trips were for extended amounts of time since Ben was still so young. In between pumping, infant nap times, feedings and more, our year 1 trips had to be on the longer side. This year? Toddler Ben is much more flexible scheduling wise so it makes for easier short, but sweet Disney trips.
This particular visit happened to be a "first" for our little family. We attended our very 1st Spring Dapper Day! You can read all about our fun day getting our most dapper style together HERE.
It was another magical visit in the books and we're already looking forward to the next visit... which just happens to be right in month 17. Here's to hoping our frequent Disney pattern continues!

Elmo Party!
Another fun happening in April? The first time Ben got to attend a special event with me! We had the honor of attending a special mommy and me brunch celebrating Sesame Street and their official sponsor Blue Lizard Sun for the launch of their new sunscreen collaboration! We learned all about staying safe in the sun, had some yummy eats, and best of all? A special guest appearance by Elmo himself!
There's not enough words to describe my utter gratitude for these amazing opportunities we get to take part in. Next to Disney, Ben absolutely loves Sesame Street, so getting to be part of such a fun event, with my little guy by my side was quite exceptional.

Easter Benny
We got to celebrate our 2nd Easter all together as a family. Boy oh boy was this year much different than the last! For starters, Ben was able to egg hunt (with assistance) on his own! We participated in our neighborhood's Spring Festival, which included a fun egg hunt for kiddos. Honestly, it was more like a free for all, but still fun nonetheless!
Ben also got to spend time with family and loved ones for all the Easter festivities!

Milestones and Mr. Independent
And we have a walker! My past monthly updates feel like they've been leading up to this moment and we're happy to report that Ben has taken off on his own two feet! Whereas last month he began taking his few cautious steps on his own, the last week of month 16 saw him literally take off, almost sprinting on his own legs. It's crazy, he pretty much just took off independently and hasn't really stopped going ever since. We can't wait to see the updates we'll have on him next month! I'm sure it'll involve lots of tired parents chasing after their toddler who won't stop running away from them!
We've also noticed our baby isn't so much a baby anymore but a Mr. Independent! Ben is in a total imitation phase where he likes to mimic everything we're doing, including at mealtime. We had to get our little guy his own utensils since he loves eating with a spoon and fork on his own now. Ben also discovered his creativity and loves drawing, coloring (on our furniture, too) and getting crafty, just like his mama.
One of our favorite things this month watching Ben discover his newest obsession: Cars. Anything and everything auto/plane/train related is what our son is totally into. PB and I have horrible eyesight but our son? He can spot the tiniest speck of a plane far up in the sky! Ben loves watching cars drive by on our walks, you just have to see this kid's face light up when we walk though a parking lot! It's priceless.
Overall, this month made us realize that our once tiny newborn is far from that little helpless squish. Ben is a full fledged toddler and we can't hardly believe it at times. He's so full of wonder, discovery and imagination. There have been more than one occasion this month, heck even within the last week where PB and I will just look at each other and say "Gosh, where did the time go?" or just a flat our "why are you so big now, Ben?!?" We've realzied that time is just moving so fast and all these beautiful moments with our little miracle are just so extremely precious.

Month 17 and beyond!
So as we close our 16 months and say hello to month 17 we are thankful for the moments and memories we've had up until now. And now we're looking forward to all the wonders to be had next month. Here we goooo!

Extra- Eggstra!
Our most recent Disney adventures fell on the week before Easter. What better way to celebrate Spring and the upcoming holiday than with a little Egg-citing (how many of these Egg-puns can I add into one blog post?) DIY style!
Always having to go that "eggstra" mile when it comes to Ben's style, I wanted to create something fun to celebrate Easter. I've made it a point to try to craft a piece for each Disney trip we go on, and while it's extra work, there's just something so gratifying about creating and crafting up an idea for my little guy to wear. When dreaming up Ben's spring style, one image popped into my head right away... He just had to become a giant Easter egg!

Want to create your own egg? It's easy!
Materials Needed:
- multi colored felt
- glue gun
- fabric scissors
- polyfil stuffing
- a pen and paper to create your stencil

1. Gather your felt.

2. On a blank piece of paper create your "egg" template. Cut out.

3. Using the template, trace onto your felt 4x. Cut out.

4. Take two pieces of your "egg" shapes and using a hot glue fun, carefully glue the edges of your egg together. Be sure to keep your glue lines as even and close to the edges as possible. *Leave a 2-3in opening at the bottom of your glued egg.
5. Turn our egg inside out.

6. Stuff your "egg" to the desired puffed size with polyfil

7. Glue the opening of your egg shut.
8. Decorate your egg using different colored felt pieces, then glue onto your egg.

8. cut 1-2in wide pieces of felt to use as straps to hold your egg together and for your egg wearer's shoulder width. Just attach the straps with hot glue at the top of the egg. I've found that the hot glue is pretty good in keeping the straps on while Ben is wearing these types of outfits. If you'd like some extra reinforcement, you can hand stitch the straps for extra hold!

9. Poof! You're done!

A colorful reveal
Back in 2018 when the world was celebrating Mickey Mouse's 90th birthday, the Disney Parks were cooking up something quite amazing: brand new character outfits!!! And these weren't just any regular outfits, this was a whole colorful, fun, and festive new celebration style for your favorite Disney pals. I still remember the seconds after seeing the costume reveal and thinking "I HAVE TO MAKE THESE OUTFITS!". There was the strongest pull to Minnie's dress in particular, there were rainbow pom poms, tulle, glitter... It screamed happiness and I knew right then and there that I had to find a way to DIY this look. Mickey's outfit was another that I thought would be adorable for little Ben. The rainbow confetti on a capri suit? Strange on a grown man, but on a mouse and toddler? Adorable!

All the felt in the world
When we booked our March Disney trip in February, I knew I had a good amount of time to prep our DIY outfits. Since each piece of the outfits were pretty specific, I had to scour all of Amazon.com, my favorite Disney style go to, in order to find the items needed. After gathering the base pieces, I next turned to my big o' box of felt, a treasure trove of felts, fabrics and random craft pieces usable for these specific types of projects. Mix in a couple of bags of colored poms from a craft store and you're all set to create a memorable celebration look!

If you want to check out my celebration style Amazon list you can find it HERE **This is an Amazon Affiliate link to my idea list page.**

Mickey capris and confetti
So here's my breakdown of our DIY Celebration style. Once again, much like my previous Donut style breakdown, I apologize for the lack of detail, photos, and more. I wasn't expecting to write up blog tutorials on these looks, so hopefully my random step by step process can somewhat help!

Mickey's style
- White Toddler suit 
- Multi colored felt
- fabric scissors, small size will work best for the little details
- hot glue gun and lots of extra glue sticks
- clear vinyl (about 4x4in)
- loose confetti or glitter

1. Begin by cutting LOTS of felt confetti pieces. I'm really particular, so I went the extra mile and cut various sizes, shapes, etc.
2. Start gluing the confetti pieces to the suit. The park version has more confetti at the top of the suit and gradually decreases as it gets to the bottom.

3. Cut the suit pants to desired length and glue the new hem length. For Ben it was taking off a few inches to hit a little below his knee.
4. Attach felt confetti to pants.


Vinyl Confetti Bowtie
1. Fold your pieces vinyl in half, glue edges together. Glue other end shut, leaving an opening at the top to fill with glitter.
2. Using opening, fill with confetti or glitter.
3. Glue open side shut.
4. Use a small strip of yellow felt to bunch center together, glue. This should create your "bow" shape.
5. Using glue, attach to a blank white onesie.

Minnie Style

Materials needed
- White tulle skirt or plain white skirt (under base)
- 2 yards of white tulle
- waist length of elastic band
- colorful pom poms of varying sizes
- basic white top
- faux yellow buttons
- yellow belt
- clear vinyl
- loose confetti or glitter
**Link to the pieces for my celebration dress HERE.**

Pom Dress
I don't know how to sew, but my amazing husband does! He took a Home Ec class in high school where he learned how to use a sewing machine. Year later, his basic machine skills are coming in handy in the present so he can help me create basic pieces, like the pom tutu!

1. We used the following easy sew tutu tutorial to create the outer pom skirt. Adjust measurements for adult sizing https://www.instructables.com/id/Rainbow-Pom-Pom-Tutu-Dress/
**If you have no sewing skills like me, you can cheat the look by purchasing a white tulle skirt and adding poms to the layers of the skirt**
2. After completing your exterior tutu, set aside and begin gluing poms to your separate under base skirt to create a cascading pom look when the top tutu is layered.
3. Glue faux buttons onto tee.
4. Glue poms onto sleeves of your tee. I used smaller poms starting that the top of the sleeve and gradually increased the size towards the bottom.
5. Glue confetti to belt.

Celebration Minnie Bow
1. Cut vinyl into rectangular shape of desired sizing.
2. Fold vinyl in half and glue
3. Glue one of the open sides shut, leaving the opposite end open.
4. Pour glitter or confetti into open end, once desired amounts of confetti are in, glue shut.
5. Use a piece of yellow felt to cinch the center together to make your bow.
6. Attach to headband or onto a blank pair of ears using glue to finish off the bow look!

A coordinating husband
PB didn't want to partake in the confetti style goodness, but thankfully, he had the perfect tee to match! He's wearing the "Happiest Days on Earth" tee by the amazing Made of Wonders! Here's a direct link to the tee Made of Wonders Happiest Days Tee. The tee ended up matching so well with our over the top confetti and pom style!

The colorful finale!
The Celebration style dream come to life!!! The work that went into these outfits took a ton of time, effort, glue gun skills and most of all patience. Looking back at everything, the outfits were actually super simple in concept, but the details are what can get to you after cutting and gluing felt and poms for hours on end. As hard as it was at times... and never wanting to ever cut felt confetti for the next 5-10 years... I'm so happy with how it all turned out! This outfit was a true labor of love and magic!

So there you have it! A breakdown of our Celebration Confetti style! The construction is actually  pretty straight forward but it's in the little details that can take your outfit to a while other level! It's easy to get overwhelmed by so much glitter and felt, but in the end, it's a colorful and happy result. Overall, with a lot of faith, LOTS of hot glue, and a whole lot of love you can end up with a magical celebration outfits on Earth! Thank you for reading and until next time... take care! 💜