Jess's birthday

Once we were happily down in Florida, 

we had a project: putting together gift baskets for all of the wedding guests.  I, of course, was happy to help with this on every step along the way, and it was a long way!
We started by purchasing the baskets and all of the contents back in Chicago - a long Thursday of price comparisons and bargain hunting, but we were well satisfied with our shopping efforts (Jess and I are rarely unsatisfied after a day of shopping).
The baskets contained: bottles of water, packs of pringles and gum, granola bars, blow pops, bottles of bubbles, spray sunscreen, and tissues.    Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the full finished product, wrapped in cellophane, but it looked pretty nice, if I do say so myself.  


 

The next day we were off to none other than the happiest place on earth.  Jess's birthday was on April 22, and we drove to Disney the night before so that we could stay at a nice hotel, get a nice dinner, then get into the Magic Kingdom (Jess got in for free) the next day.  We stayed at the Swan Resort, where we enjoyed a frozen fuzzy navel by the pool, then went mini-golfing at the Fantasia golf course, just a walk away.  I myself found the course especially nice, since each hole had a little sheet of music and description of the course at the beginning.  I also liked dancing with Hyacinth Hippo. . .

 From the hotel, we were able to take a bus into Downtown Disney.  While we were waiting at the bus stop, we made friends with a nice couple of ducks who must have thought that we had food, considering how much they followed us around.  We had a great dinner at Downtown Disney, at the Wolfgang Puck cafe, where we split a bottle of wine, a few appetizers as dinner, and I got to have a great piece of key lime pie for dessert.  

The next morning, we were off to the Magic Kingdom where we utilized the FastPass to the best of our abilities and fit in about 10 rides before we had to leave at 3pm to go pick Jess's family up at the airport.  We rode on Splash Mountain twice and got soaked both times - more so than anyone else in either of our boats.  

We were also lucky to have beautiful weather - not just that day but all week.  We worked on our tans at Disney World a bit, sporting tube tops so as not to get any funny tan lines for our strapless dresses we would be wearing on Saturday . . .