We arrived at Castaway Cay for day 3 of our Disney Cruise aboard the Dream Ship. For those of you unfamiliar, Castaway Cay is Disney's privately owned Island in the Bahamas. It's only visitors are those who come for the day via Bahamian and Caribbean Disney cruise ships such as the Dream. Conveniently, the Disney Cruise Ship Line is able to dock right at this island port making embarkment and disembarkment as easy as walking a gangway.
There are several port adventures offered here, but we chose to simply hit the beach, swim in the ocean, and check out the other amenities of the Island on our own. Fun discoveries included the in ocean Pelican Plunge waterslide and the Spring-a-leak water pad area for the little ones.Castaway Cay Tips:
We brought some items from home to maximize our day at the beach fun. Among the items we brought were $1 dollar store items such as blow up rafts and floats, snorkel masks, pails and shovels, as well as a couple bags of plastic dinosaurs. We passed along our blow up floats and pails to other guests when we reboarded the ship. We also brought swims socks, swimmies, hats, sunglasses, and plenty of sunblock. Many of these items are available for purchase or rent on the island, but bringing your own is a great way to keep expenses down.
We began by playing in the sand and worked our way up to swimming in the ocean with the littler ones. Before long they were anxious to try the slide, so hubby and our son Hayden took them to try it while I took Cordelia to get hair braids. We met up again for lunch dining at one of the two open-air BBQ dining locations. After lunch we continued with more sand and ocean play, some fun at Spring-a-leak, and wandered a bit before heading back to our ship.
Castaway cay was absolutely beautiful, what a perfect place to swim for the twins to experience the Ocean for their first time.
Our final evening on the ship included dinner at the amazing Animator's Palate as well as attending the show Disney's Believe. Our dining experience and the show were both A+! We definitely lucked out in terms of the dining rotation with saving the best for last and I'd say the same about the shows.
Summer Break is just two short weeks away for my crew. Two weeks, yikes! Time for this Mommy to get working on signing them up with a few summer activities to occupy at least some of that idle time. I also need to keep restocking the house with healthy snacking options. I don't know about your kids, but some of my kids tend to snack more when they get too terribly bored. I find that when keeping them busy fails, keeping a variety of healthy options available is my best defense.
My Summer breaks as a child consisted of day after day swimming at the local pool. My childhood Summer evenings were spent playing games like ghosts in the graveyard or catching lightening bugs in saved jelly jars with perforated lids. Each Summer break would feature a 10 day road trip to somewhere new, a trip to the zoo, a movie on a rainy day, a lemonade stand, a few backyard cookouts, a sleepover, and a couple bike rides.
Our year long commitment to Trend Micro's The Digital Joneses study is making headlines here in Chicago! 
I had to take photos of my twin sons holding up words the other day. It was for their class gift to their teachers that one of the other moms is putting together. Each child was assigned a word as part of a special message. One of my twin boys had the word "how" and one had the word "feel". I snapped up the needed photos quickly and sent them on to the person awaiting them.
I know through my own experiences that the potential for rewards are worth risking the potential for heart breaks. I know my son is going to be a much better man some day for having known this special boy "Mammo", many many people will be. I also know that my realizing this fact won't make my son feel better right now about losing this friend. Now is when my son will feel things I wish he didn't have to feel like Sorrow and Grief. Now is when my son will find himself and others asking questions, questions like how? How did this happen? 
I've been losing weight...yay! But now I need to buy new clothes...yay! and ugh! for the pocketbook. Losing weight is great, but it certainly can get expensive when you need to replace all your clothes. I'm trying to go cheap while I'm in between sizes, but one thing I've had to go ahead and replace are my bras. As all women know, as soon as we lose weight we lose it in our chest first. And wearing a bra that's a wrong size is one of the most uncomfortable things there is.
Unless you've been on a media fast, you know everyone is talking about The Lorax. Although we haven't seen the movie yet, the book is one of my favorites. It presents such an important lesson is language children can understand. I really adore the book.
Fellow mom and blogger 
Whether you're nerding out, having a little ironic fun, or bringing back the awesome '80s for your kiddo, you should check them out.
