Vacation is all I ever wanted...

Vacation had to get awaaayy....(The Go-Go's in case you're wondering).

Aaaah my heart melts for vacation.

This one has been in the works since last January, yes that's correct over a year of planning. I take my vacations pretty seriously and my usual obsessive-compulsive-self planned all of our meals, activities, packing items, well in advance. I had lists upon list of websites I used for my planning, things I needed to take for the girls, crucial tips for getting to places I wanted to take the girls and also fun ideas for all of us to enjoy while on vacation.

Me and the peanuts worked on the preparations. They got their favorite outfits from all of the great birthday gifts they got this year & we were ready to go!

And J was in charge of figuring out how to get me and everything I absolutely needed to our vacation spot, ORLANDO! Contrary to popular belief you can take two 2-year-olds to Orlando. And yes we visited the Disney parks and lived to tell about it. It was one of the best family vacations we've ever had & the girls had a blast. And I have a feeling they might just remember this trip. Sometimes I hear the Dumbo song being sung by someone randomly. It's a song we made up while waiting on line to ride Dumbo.

Here are some of our favorite moments of our family vacation.

We made lots of new friends!

Turns out Valentina is a real charmer :)

Catalina showed The Mouses' a new dance. LOL! Too funny!

And here are my little dancing queens strutting their stuff at Minnie & Mickey's party.

And these fuzzy little chefs made us a fabulous BBQ dinner that day. Yummy!

We were a little skeptical about the chipmunks but eventually the girls warmed up to our chefs.

Disney is no place to lounge around all day so we made sure to keep active....in the sweltering suffocating heat.

There's no place to beat the heat than in the pool! The peanuts learned the word "pool" real quick & every day they asked about it. Not sure how we're going to break the news that we don't have one of these at home. uh oh.

And sometimes the rain would come and set us back but we would patiently wait until it stopped so we could get on with our vacation business.

And sometime we would hide from the rain so it wouldn't find us...

But OUT came the sun & so would the peanuts!

So off we would go again on another adventure.

And after lots of running around you must refuel with great food & DRINKS!!!

I swear I didn't give her any of my mojito :)

Cati truly enjoys a good meal.

And so does Val

And so does J

And these were some our absolutely fun fun fun moments...it's Dumbo!! Dumbo! Dumbo!

We're next!...on the TEA CUPs Yippee!

Round round & round we go..

And my daughters enjoy even the simpler adventures like

...the slide.

...and the choo choo train.

But if you ever decide to take your toddler to Disney here's a few tips I can now offer after having experienced it myself.

-Pack appropriately...food, drinks, strollers, child harness of some sort, a water mist fan, and caffeine for yourself.

-Get a hold of a map & plan out your visit to the park. Break it up into 2 parts early morning & late afternoon. In the middle go back to your hotel and take a nice bath, nap,& have a hearty lunch. Your kids will thank you and so will your psychiatrist. I promise the park isn't going anywhere & they're open late.

-For the little ones it's easy to just pick 2 maybe 3 places that has appropriate entertainment for their age group. We picked 2 parks, Magic Kingdom & Hollywood Studios.

-Pick a character meal that's also age appropriate & there are LOTS to choose from. Oh yes, and before I forget book & pay for these at least 3 months in advance. We picked Mickey's Backyard BBQ, it's a little known secret that this one doesn't get booked too fast & the characters just hang out on the dance floor the whole time. This was very much our style. I loved the laid back and real home style BBQ atmosphere.

-Hang out at your resort pool and use ALL the amenities it offers. We had a great time just minutes away from our room. The kids had no idea we never left the complex!

-And take some time to enjoy nice meals, naps, and just lounging around when the kids are fast asleep.

Oh my little peanuts I can't wait to tell you all about your very first visit to Disney. You girls had such a great time & so did we.

Till next year vacation...we will miss you!

It's Cool to be 2!

Here are my two cool 2 year olds having breakfast on the morning of their birthday day. I know I know it's almost a month ago but we've been busy livin it up for their birthday month!

We've had a month full of events to celebrate their big milestone into toddler-hood. I've also been celebrating the fact that I have survived 2 years with twins. I'm pretty independent when it comes to most things but this has been the hardest endeavors of my life. And I'm very proud of having accomplished just a few things like cooking food my children will eat....sometimes, going grocery shopping with both of them by myself, taking them to the doctor check ups by myself, and going to the park just me & the peanuts. Not bad huh?!

Birthday breakfast was heart shaped banana pancakes & Valentina loooooved it!

And so did Catalina :)

Later that day gramma bought them their very own cake & they didn't look like they were going to share with the rest of us! lol

And a couple of Doras and Diegos and Boots...yes we do 2 of everything.

And after the cake we read our birthday cards...

They were musical cards & as you can see it was a big hit.

So because it was a Wednesday and we couldn't have a big ol party in the middle of the week we did the next best thing. We went to Chuckie's because it's ALWAYS a party at Chuck E Cheese's! And just our luck the big cheese himself showed up for our special occasion.

A couple of days later we threw the girls a birthday bash that I think they really enjoyed. I love birthdays and I love to celebrate them to the fullest (especially my own). And no birthday can be complete without some good friends and family to celebrate with you. I also want to make sure that the peanuts have great memories of their birthdays or at least great pictures that show how much fun they had at their birthdays. I never ever want them to doubt how very special they are to us. We love them both so much and are so grateful for the day that they entered our lives.

Our party was....DDDDD DOOORAA!! What else? These kids live, eat & breath home girl. We party-ed it up Dora style :)

Decorations...check!

Entertainment...check!

Cake.....ummm I dunno what the heck happened to Dora & her little monkey friend but J thinks she may have been hanging out at the beach too long. I was a tiny bit annoyed here since we got this cake at very reputable bakery in Hoboken, NJ. If anyone watches TLC, then you know who I'm talking about. At least the fox looked good & that sneaky fox is Val's favorite character.

And finally our guests...

Happy Birthday my babies! I love you more than I could ever put into words. The last 2 years have been so much fun. You have filled my life with so much happiness.