We are going to Disney!

Those who follow our Instagram already know that,... however if you are not following us, don't worry, I will make the big announcement here: We are going to Disney World in Orlando!!! Can you imagine how excited I am ?!?!?!?!

In fact we were looking for a vacation in a Resort or a Cruise ship where we would be able to rest and relax from this craziness that is our daily routine, but we ended up changing our minds.

This will not be our first trip to Walt Disney World. Hubby and I have been there in 2005 (feels like another lifetime) when we still lived in Brazil. That was a huge deal since it was our first trip abroad. We made the reservations through a travel agency, but we were not in any kind of guided tour or group. We were relying on our skills and abilities in an age with no wi-fi connection for internet and no GPS (we actually used something made of paper called Map - and we survived!!!!)

I remember how much we enjoyed that trip. We visited the four main theme parks from Disney World (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom) and two parks from Universal (Island of Adventures and Universal Studios).

Our first park was Animal Kingdom and there I got emotional watching the Lion King show. OMG,... that was the moment I realized that dreams do come true! We enjoyed every second of that trip,... watched the parades, got to meet the characters, picture with the princesses,... magical times.

And now I am really excited planning this trip with Isabella. This time we decided to visit only Disney Parks. Despite the fact that I am a huge Harry Potter fan, we decided not to visit Universal parks because we don't think there are many options for Isabella.

I keep wondering about her reaction when Bella sees Mickey and Minnie Mouse!!! For those who don't know the theme of Bella's 2nd birthday party was Minnie Mouse, click here.

Ok, back to the planning, we already have the flight tickets and the place to stay in Orlando booked. We still need to to buy the park tickets and rent the car.

I also need to carefully plan the Fastpasses. There is less than a month!!!

Any suggestions or advice on how to plan a visit to Disney World with a 2-year-old toddler?

Follow our Instagram for more updates!

 PS. This post is ready since last week, but I was waiting to share some pictures from our trip to Disney World in 2005. Little did I know that we don't have the 'CDs' with the pictures anymore. Another reason to create beautiful memories with the family and take lots of photos!

Culinary event in Toronto: Summerlicious 2019

We are the type of family that loves good food,... and we have found good food in restaurants, joints, ribfests, street fests, and street foods.

Have you heard of Summerlicious? This is a food festival that happens each year in Toronto. A lot of great restaurants offer a 3-course-meal limited menu at a "prix fixe". This year the prices for lunch are $23/$28/$33 and the prices for dinner are $33/$43/$53 - drinks and gratuity are separate.

credit: Summerlicious website

There are a lot of options for you to choose from: cuisines and flavours from all over the world, from classic to contemporary styles,... you name it!

Summerlicious website has a list of all the participating restaurants and their menus. Not so sure about which restaurant to choose???,... go to the website and select your preferences from the searching tool: type of cuisine, location, price or even the name of the restaurant. Click here for the website.

This year we decided to go to the Beaumont Kitchen located inside Saks Fifth Avenue at CF Sherway Gardens. The ambience is elegant with whimsical accents.

Look at our choices:

For the first course: Arugula Salad with roasted peaches, candied pecans, mint, feta with honey vinaigrette;

Second course: Baked Salmon with broccoli, chickpeas, tzatziki, pickled turnips and puffed rice;

Credit: Beaumont Instagram 

Dessert: Caramelized banana stuffed crepe with Haagen-Dazs extraaz banana peanut butter chip ice cream, candied peanuts and a chocolate drizzle.

Needless to say that the food was scrumptious and we had a great time at the restaurant. Isabella went with us and she behaved beautifully (one can't predict when a toddler will decide to have a melt down, right?), she had pasta with tomato sauce. She was wearing her birthday dress (click here to see Isabella's Birthday party), and she was not messy at all and the dress was in perfect condition after finishing eating - unfortunately there are no pictures of her :(

If you like contemporary Canadian cuisine this is a great option.

Summerlicious 2019 runs until July 21, so there is still time for you to check it out!

Have you already been to Summerlicious this year or in past editions? How did you like it?

Isabella's 2nd Birthday, a Minnie Mouse Party!

Hi there,

Isabella turned 2 in the end of May... can you believe it? To be honest, I can't,... time is going by so fast. I look at my baby (who is no longer a baby) and I see a little girl, a smart, confident, sweet little girl,... that loves to play and take care of her big sister Kiki,...

She is my everything!

Isabella is not allowed a lot of screen time. However she watches a few baby/toddler shows: Wiggles, Sesame Street and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She loves all of them, but lately she's been really excited about Minnie Mouse, or as she says "Mimmie". So for her second birthday I thought that it would be fun to throw a Minnie Mouse themed party. Also, I thought it wouldn't be difficult to find cute and inexpensive party decoration.

With that in mind I started the search for her outfit and once I found the dress I ordered the hair bow from Brazil.

We ordered the invitation from Inspired by You Designs and they did a fantastic job, as always!!!! They created exactly what I was looking for in the perfect color scheme. We didn't print invitations this time, it was all virtual.

I found these water bottle labels online and we customized them for Bella's birthday party,....

We hosted the party at our place, and we ended up preparing most of the food at home; We served pulled pork sliders, vegetarian frosted layered sandwich loaf, veggies (tomatoes and carrots) & hummus. As for sweets we had brownie bites, M&Ms, passion fruit mousse and overnight oats.

You might be thinking: 'it is different (not to say odd) to serve overnight oats in a birthday party!',... and you might be right hahaha,... but we were thinking about the birthday girl -  Isabella has never had any refined sugar or sweets so far (and we intend to keep this way for a bit longer), so we wanted to have something that she really loves eating. We served them in little cups with spoons. It was a huge success: everybody in the party asked us for the recipe. If you guys want the recipe, I am happy to share it with you, jus leave us a comment here!

Isabella's Godmother baked the birthday cake. It was a Kit Kat cake with M&Ms,... OMG,... it was delicious and beautiful. She is not a professional baker (although I strongly advise her to start a business in baking!!!) and she took the time to do it for us. Thank you so much dinda Lu!!!!

Isabella stayed up late that day enjoying her party,... she ended up with tomato seeds and oats all over her dress, but it didn't deterred her from dancing until the last minute. I was not expecting to have a toddler, who didn't nap that day, in such good mood and showing her dance moves by 9pm!

We want to thank our friends that came to celebrate with us and again a huge thanks to Lu and Ana (including husbands) for all the help in organizing and setting things up for Bella's birthday party. We have no words to thank you enough!

This is one of the few pictures with the 3 of us!

The birthday girl and her sister dressed to impress!!!!

This selfie was taken at the end of the party,... when Isabella had her dress (and face) covered in cherry tomato seeds!

Again,... a big thank you to dinda Lu and tia Ana!

Invitation: Inspired by You Designs
Party decoration & balloons: Party City
Isabella's dress: Walmart
Isabella's hair bow: Menina de Laço
Mom's top: Guess

We are back,... oh Summer!

Summer is finally here and I couldn't be happier! We had such a long, cold and snowy winter and almost no Spring weather.

I know, we live in Canada, so we should be used to the snow and the cold weather, but it is so good to have warm temperatures and sunshine :)

A lot has happened during the past months that I did not have time to write/post. I don't know what is happening,... life is so busy, but in a good sense. We are busy with family, work, weekend activities, some family visits,...

Yes, we had family staying with us for the Holidays. Our niece came from Brazil to spend 45 days studying English here. Those were magical, busy and snowy days. We traveled to Ottawa and Niagara while she was here.

Isabella is doing well at the daycare. She loves spending the day with her teachers and friends (by the way, I received some questions on how the process to pick a daycare was, and I am writing about it). Isabella also started ballet classes - it is a 'mommy & me' type of class and we love it! Ms. Jessica (the teacher and studio's owner) is an awesome teacher, but this is old news if you follow us on Instagram, right?

Our family welcomed a new baby girl!!! Yep, I am an Auntie again,... My sister had a beautiful and precious baby girl in the end of March. My mom flew there to stay with them and help with the baby.

After staying a while with my sister and her family, my mom stopped by for a quick visit,... she came to spend the Easter weekend with us. It is always a joy to have my mom around, specially during Easter. Isabella and vovó (grandma in Portuguese) had a great time together.

It was Isabella's first egg hunt,... she was so excited (once she was able to understand how it works). The egg hunt was just for the pleasure of finding 'not so' hidden eggs - because there was no chocolate or candies inside them. We didn't give her any of those things yet.

This is a quick update on a few things we have been doing these past few months! We still have a post about Isabella's 2nd birthday coming soon,.... stay tuned!