it's my girls' world

As I sit here with the most miserable cold ever (in the summer no less), with only one more week before school begins, I'm only thinking about the wonderful summer we've had! Though I'm linking up today for  My Favourite Summer Moment with Andrea,  I feel like it's like asking me to choose my favourite child. Who can choose from NYC, Magic Kingdom and the Wonderful Disney Cruise (though I might have a very strong bias)? We've had pool time, park time, play-dates and lots of fun outings! So, I'm going to cheat a bit and talk about our weekend in Belleville with friends-- about three hours north of where we live as 1/ I haven't blogged about it yet 2/it was to me the perfect summer weekend with that combo or family, friends, food and fun! 

The pictures will tell all…...

Friday: a backyard BBQ and out-door fun for the kids

Also linking up 

Warning- picture overload…. thank you insta-frame and Picmonkey for the collages created so you guys won't have to look through thousands of pics of what was one of our best family vacations!

I'll preface this by saying that I thought I wasn't a cruise person--- I went on one before and it really wasn't my thing. But Disney has changed my mind. So much so that I booked us to go again sometime in 2017-- well we paid a deposit so we would get a 10% off for future cruises. And though I was super excited to take my kids to Magic Kingdom, they preferred the cruise by a long shot-- it was the perfect combo of relaxation, excitement, food and fun.

The ship was so beautiful and the staff so friendly and accomodating!

There was always so much to do for both the adults and kids. Lots of kids clubs, a dine and play option (where the kids are picked up and taken to the kids club, we used it twice), a Broadway quality show every night, teen and tween clubs, adult only bars, dance parties and lots of of games/activities/ movie theatres every-single-hour of every-single-day we were there.

Lots of character signings/picture opportunities throughout the day with way less lines than Magic Kingdom

Special tickets were needed for Anna & Elsa- obvs. Think almost an hour long line up the day we boarded the cruise for a two minute meet & greet- Crazy!!

Pirate night was lots of fun. A huge dress-up deck party before dinner with characters and then dancing after dinner and fireworks!

We celebrated our anniversary at Palo-- an adult only restaurant. The food was so delicious.

We stopped in the Bahamas one day where my dad, D and I headed to the beach-- it was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever been to- with warm, sky blue, clear, calm seas…. I didn't have my camera but took these pictures of the Bahamas from the ship after.

We also stopped at Disney's private island. Castaway Keys for another day of sun, sea, sand, BBQ and some time at Disney's very own splash-pad!

So much to do!!

The food was so  very yum-- with something to eat every single hour of every single day. I'm not an all inclusive fan as I get sick of it after a few days but this-- this was so yum!! And it was a la carte at night which to me speaks to the quality of the food as well.

My parents had so much fun with their grandkids.

So there you have it. A special vacation for all--  us four preferred it to Magic Kingdom. Way more relaxing but all the Disney Magic included as well.

Can't wait for 2017!