Minnie Mouse Birthday Party

Every year after Christmas I ask my daughter what theme she wants for her birthday party. I ask her WAY in advance so I have plenty time to plan and create. For her 2021 birthday she choose Minnie Mouse. Since 2020 was cancelled and we're still, sort of, living the pandemic lifestyle I want to throw her the best birthday party while taking into consideration appropriate safety precautions. 

We had a total of nine kids including our kiddo. All the kids were in the same school and most were in the same class. I held the party knowing people would have already had lunch and might only want snacks. I did make some snack baskets for each kid using berry baskets but the kids didn't really care, they just picked out what they wanted to snack on. The party started outside but it rained for the majority and the kids played inside while the adults hung out on the covered patio. 

{Sign by local Sign Gypsy}

I thought the party went really well and I was so happy that she was able to have friends over and things resembled some normalcy. 

{Minnie Cupcakes and Snack Station}

Normally I would have gone really big on food and done everything with a "Minnie" theme, like Minnie Corn Dogs, Minnie Carrots, Minnie Water Bottles...etc. But it wasn't the year for that. 

How are you celebrating birthday parties this year? 

Happy Mother's Day 2021

 I wanted to pop in on this wonderful Sunday to wish all the mothers out there a very happy Mother's Day! Whether you're mom, step-mom, dog mom or any other type of mom out there, its a day to celebrate you! 

This mother's day I was able to make some cookies for a few customers and my own mother. I created this cute mason jar bouquet! I thought it turned out really cute!

I spent the morning working out, went for a 5 mile run and then my Pure Barre class. And then I came home to flowers, cards and food!

Hope y'all had a wonderful weekend and day!

COVID-19: Year One

This is the inevitable one year (plus 1.5 months) into COVID-19 post. 

Its easy to start reflecting on COVID because I documented our life day-to-day when we all started a pseudo-lockdown in March 2020. March 16, 2020 my husband was sent home to work from home indefinitely (he is able to do his job from home), March 18, 2020 my daughter was sent home from school and on March 23, 2020 I was sent home for what ended up only being three weeks. 

We did remote learning as best we could for her 4K (pre-kindergarten) curriculum until that ended at the end of May. Once summer stared we happy to have some normalcy back when our daughter was able to attend summer day-camp, they managed with mask wearing on bad weather days but stuck to the outdoors most of the time. We never once had to have her home due to close contact quarantine, we were so lucky! 

Then came the cancellation of our vacation to Hawaii that was scheduled for late June/early July 2020. 

Weeks and months passed and then it was September and it was time for school to start. Our school district sent out many surveys to get an idea of what parents wanted and we started school 100% in-person. That lasted a month and then we were into a two-week virtual stint district wide. Then we went back to in-person for a few weeks and then started the virtual Wednesdays. This virtual Wednesday has lasted up to a few weeks ago! We also had virtual weeks after the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. 

{Reflections of 2020}

After the new year it was much of the same, mask wearing and temperature screening at work. And FINALLY, after so much time on the ground we took off for our happy place, Hawaii! In March of 2021, a year after COVID-19 took over in the US we took our first trip and it was wonderful! Read about it here!

With vaccinations rolling out I hope we, as citizens of the Earth, can put an end to this. I am ready to start traveling again and explore more of this great world! I have 13 more states to visit on my bucket list, hoping to knock out two more later this year, and so many other countries to visit! 

Easter 2021

Easter was EARLY this year! I was happy that I was able to continue to practice my royal icing skills again for this holiday. Check out what I created! I have also been working on taking better pictures. 

Hope you and your family had a nice weekend!

Hawaii on Points

If you're a recent visitor to my blog you may not know that we typically travel using rewards points. We stick to using points with United, Delta, Marriott and IHG (Holiday Inn) programs. 

This trip to Hawaii was no different, we used the following points:

• 135,000 United MileagePlus Points + $33.60 (45,000 + $11.20 per person)
• 220,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points + $150 for hotel parking (for a 5 night stay)
• $360 for rental car

Adding all of that up we're looking at $543.60 for a 6 day/5 night stay on Hawaii Island for three people.

Of course we had other expenses like renting snorkel gear, whale watching tour, manta ray snorkel, food/drink and gas. But our starting point was just under $550 when it could have been between $5,000 - $6,000 if we had booked hotel, air and car individually. 

I highly recommend reading posts from The Points Guy and One Mile at a Time if your wanting to learn more and are interesting in taking vacations for next to nothing! If you're interested in starting the points and miles game use my referral links below to start collecting points! I can be rewarded too if you apply here and are approved for the card. 

United | Marriott | Delta | IHG (Holiday Inn) | Chase Ultimate Rewards

Hawaii Island: 2021 Edition

Our most recent trip to Hawaii Island marked our third visit to this wonderful place (and fifth trip to the state). We absolutely LOVE Hawaii! Our favorite island is Hawaii Island (aka the Big Island) and our second favorite would probably be Maui. What is nice about Hawaii is each island is so different from each other and offers different things. 

Since we could probably start being considered frequent visitors to Hawaii, this trip was purely about relaxation after a stressful year (here's lookin' at you 2020). We stayed at the Mauna Kea Beach Resort which has an amazing beach and that is where we hung out for most of the trip! 

On days one and two the northwest coast had some horrible winds, so we headed south and hung out in Kona one day, walked Ali'i Drive and had some shave ice and the next day we visited Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park and Hōnaunau Bay for some snorkeling. After snorkeling we headed out for some whale watching and saw nothing but spinner dolphins. We did see whales from our hotel lanai (aka balcony) every morning! We even saw a baby humpback. 

***Tip: If you plan on visiting Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park and Volcanoes National Park you might want to look into a National Parks pass. Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park has a $20 entry fee and Volcanoes National Park has a $35 entry fee. An annual National Parks pass is $80 so if you think you'll visit any other national park in the next 365 days it might be worth it to just get an annual pass. 

On our third day we had great weather and the rain seemed to break on other areas of the island so we headed over to Waipi'o Valley to FINALLY hike down into the valley and back up. On our previous two visits we haven't been able to do this hike. The total road portion down and back is about 2.6 miles with some areas estimating to be at a 45% incline and it averages 25% incline. We were both so impressed that out daughter, who is just shy of 6 years old, was able to accomplish this hike on her own! She did have some candy bar incentives along the way and there was minimal amounts of "can you carry me" but she did it! 

One of the negatives we experienced due to COVID was no grocery store or gas station would let us use their bathrooms. And when a kid has to go, they gotta go! It was really frustrating! Because of this, we decided to skip our planned day in Hilo and just stay at Mauna Kea and enjoy the beach and hotel. It was a nice way to spend our last full day on the island.

On our last night my husband went night snorkeling with the local manta ray population at the resort. He said it was amazing and that I should do it the next time we are there! Just another reason to go back. 

Due to some flight schedule changes on behalf of the airline and our horrible 2+ hour wait for our rental car, we only had 4 full days on the island. I wish we had had one more day. In the past we have done anywhere between 6 to 10 day trips so this one ended up being a little short for us (arriving on a Sunday and leaving on a Friday). Had our car rental not taken so long on our arrival day, we could have enjoyed a walk on the beach, dinner and the sunset...but instead we arrived after dark on our first night. 

{How it started vs How its going}

Traveling to Hawaii During COVID

The last flights we took we were to coming home from Australia back in January of 2020...and we hadn't flown since. That is until last week when we took a much needed family vacation to Hawaii (rescheduled from June 2020)! 

Traveling to Hawaii right now can seem a little daunting due to all the extra requirements you need to meet prior to arrival. But once all is done you're relieved and ready for travel!

Testing for Hawaii

First you'll need to create an account with the state of Hawaii's Safe Travels website; here you'll input all your personal and flight information, you'll also upload an up-to-date picture of yourself and upload your negative COVID-19 NAAT test results once you have them.

For us, at the time, our only testing option was Walgreens. This was due to location and our daughter's age (she is under the age of 12) and we needed a NAAT test in less than 72 hours from our departure to Hawaii. Walgreens has a 24 hour NAAT test for ages 3 and up. We tested at 9:15am and had our negative test results in hand by 11:30am the same day. We also chose to test within a 48 hour window of our departing flight to Hawaii due to possible weather delays (we were flying through Chicago and Denver in early March). 

At the Airport

Due to where we live we visited three airports on our way to Hawaii (ugh, connections). The main two were O'Hare and Denver. Both airports made frequent announcements about keeping your mask on, washing hands and social distancing. Many shops and restaurants were closed but the basics were open like fast food places and news stands. I would suggest packing your own food if you have a short connection or don't want McDonalds. 

We ended up literally running from Concourse F to B since our flight arrived late and we already had a short connection. And we did this in masks, which immediately made my mouth and throat dry up. 

Everyone was wearing a mask unless actively eating or drinking.  

On the Plane

Everyone complied with the federal mask laws/guidelines and the flight attendants were constantly making sure people were wearing them properly. 

We flew United and I felt like they were doing a good job with making sure people were wearing their masks properly and that the planes were clean. I could smell the cleaner as we boarded and they handed out a sanitizing wipe as you entered. You also got another wipe in your snack bag. 

Business class were the only passengers that received actual food and I think it was just United's snack boxes that you can normally purchase inflight. Economy was only offered the snack bags that included a wipe, two snacks and a small bottle of water. They also offered beverage service as usual but just gave you the can vs pouring the drink for you. They also had PLENTY of additional snacks in the back should you want more food.

Our flights to Hawaii were fairly full. We had a 2-2, 3-4-3 and 3-3 configurations. One the 2-2 my husband did not have to sit with anyone and since we're a family of 3 the 3-seater options were perfect. And our flights home were fairly empty which gave us some room to stretch out. 

United Clubs

The one thing I don't understand about the airline clubs is why close all but one? Then you're funneling all your passengers who have passes into one area...not good for social distancing. We visited the United Club in SFO from 8:30pm to 11pm and it was empty. Warm food offering was a bean burrito and other options were pre-packaged snacks like chips, crackers and string cheese. Here you also had to ask the bar tender for any beverage, whether it was a beer or water. 

We also visited the United Club at ORD from 5:45am to about 8:30am. It was empty when we first arrived but around 8am it really started to fill up. It started to get really busy to the point where you couldn't social distance and the noise level was getting annoying. So we left and headed to our gate a little early. The warm food here was an egg and cheese burrito or a warm bagel (warm, not toasted) and they had the dry packages of oatmeal you could make with hot water. They also had cereal and fruit. And unlike the club at SFO, you could get your own soda, juice and water at this club.