disneyland – day 2 and 3

Posted on October 21, 2014 by mabufive

Day 2.

We might be just a wee bit excited about a Starbucks in Downtown Disney.

There is this awesome board that makes a chalk outline of what it sees (us), but also allows you to draw on it. Simultaneously, there is a small screen showing the scene in Orlando that is doing the same there. You can make the small screen bigger and play with the people in the Orlando Starbucks. Too cool.

Do you see us? I am the one with the camera.

That’s me with Mickey Ears.

We really are at the front of the line at opening of California Adventure.

Those are my brave boys on California Screamin’.

More Toy Story Mania. We can not get enough.

Luigi’s Flying Tires. “Go right, go right.”

Pluto Lovin’.

Have you had the Mickey shaped beignets? Delicious!

You can tell how good they are just by the mess.

A Lego store stop is always a must.

Rubber Duck races at the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

Harry’s rubber duck might have won if only it had not gotten stuck and needed a rescue.

Rock climbing.

Exploring.

Parade time with Frozone.

Nightime at Disneyland.

Day 3.

Enjoying the fireworks one last time before checking out.

Autotopia. Watch out, looks who’s driving.

The Power City game.

Animation class.

Time to go home is always sad. Until our next trip to Disneyland…..

disneyland – day 1

Posted on October 20, 2014 by mabufive

We’re at Disneyland!!

I wonder what I think is so funny but I am sure Harry is doing something crazy. (Patrick took this one).

He just looks mischievous.

At the Disneyland Hotel (taking a break from the heat).

Do we resemble Walt?

Toy Story Mania.

“Dad, I am totally going to beat you this time.”

Mickey Darth Vader? May the force be with you!

Ice cream at the Cozy Cone Motel.

Enjoying a silly cat video back at the hotel.

a disneyland photo book

Posted on September 23, 2014 by mabufive

The most magical place on Earth – Disneyland. You can see my 2011 photo book version here along with ideas for photos to include.

For our summer 2012 book, I continued to publish through Blurb in a 10 x 8 standard format style. For these yearly Disneyland vacation books, I try to make each a little different. In this book, I decided to stick with the primary colors which feel very Disney (think Mickey Mouse, Goofy, etc.) in swatches, large stripes and in frames around the photos using Blurb’s BookSmart layouts and editing software. I am making good use of the Kingdom font for headlines and Futura for the body of the text.

This Disneyland sign sits atop the water slides at the Disneyland Hotel. It was so hot while we were visiting, we spent quite bit of time attempting to stay cool in and around the pool.

This year’s story.

Our arrival.

The waterslides.

Refreshing drinks and Harry silliness.

Water features and the Lego Store at Downtown Disney.

Duffy ears and finally being tall enough for California Screamin’.

Enjoying the new Carsland.

Luigi’s Flying Tires.

Mater’s Tractor Tipping.

Carsland at Night.

Radiator Springs.

The story of Harry spending his money.

Character photos.

Astroblasters and trying on Star Wars hats.

Harry and I playing Power City and winning!

Space Mountain and playing at the hotel.

World of Color is fun and festive for photographs.

More character lovin’.

Playing in the Sorcerer’s Workshop.

Animation class and drawings.

The story of the earthquake while we were there, yummy treats and the tattoo consolation prize.

Leaving.

The details – maps, buttons, receipts, coasters, schedules, toy instructions, etc.

Have a magical day!

project life/ 365 – 10 (part five)

Posted on April 13, 2014 by mabufive

The final parts of our Costa Rican Adventures…..

Aren’t they cute when they sleeping?

The very elusive toucan.

The toucan in flight. (It is not the greatest photo technically but how neat to capture a toucan in flight).

Paddle battling before white water rafting.

That is the tiniest frog.

Enjoying a new day at our fancy hotel in Guanacoste.

The kids had an evening to themselves and they all colored shirts. This is Harry’s version.

If you are last to arrive you must dance down the aisle to “Hakuna Matata”.

Flying, spinning Devil Rays.

Off on snorkeling adventures.

He is either singing or pontificating.

And life is excellent with a virgin pina colada nearby.

Relaxing after a long day in the sun.

Enjoying my newly created mojito (from the mojito making class).

Trying to do some last minute stocking up on all things good Costa Rican – coffee and chocolate!!!

Not really ready to go home yet.

Thanks for coming on this journey with me.

project life/365 – 10 (part four)

Posted on April 12, 2014 by mabufive

The adventure continued near the Arenal Volcano….

We were so lucky to see the top of the volcano as we were told it is a rare sight. Ready for zip lining. Almost 2 miles of zip line. Definitely not my thing but I was very proud to have made it through. Harry was too little (weight wise) to go by himself, not that he didn’t want to.Love the heliconia – the vibrant color, the unique shape. Postcards in the town of La Fortuna. Beautiful colored sarongs enticing shoppers and giving a flavor of the town. Mosaics everywhere. Painting gourds with indigenous Maleku tribe of Costa Rica. “Capy Capy” means a warm welcome. Lots of Marco Polo playing at the pool. Sunset over the Arenal Volcano. Enjoying the natural Hidalgo Hot Springs.

More to come…..

project life/365 – 10 (part three)

Posted on April 11, 2014 by mabufive

On to day 3 of our crazy Costa Rican Adventures by Disney…

I love butterflies and they were absolutely everywhere. Another boat cruise through the canals. Along the way we encountered this tree full of Howler Monkeys. And some close-ups of the Howler monkeys. Just amazing to see them in their natural environment. Swinging through the trees. The little one holding on is just precious. A beautiful house along the way. A rhino beetle.It actually felt soft and fuzzy. Enjoying the playground at our lunch restaurant.It is important to stay protected from the rain. There is something so beautiful about cemeteries. Time for an incredibly silly, laugh your a$$ off pineapple tour. Patrick joined in the fun. There is nothing like fresh pineapple from the field It is imperative to enjoy floofy pineapple drinks when on a pineapple tour. The photobomb trend was in full force on the trip and Harry couldn’t resist. We finally saw the elusive sloth. Enjoying the stories along the bus journey. I can’t resist a good fruit stand, the colors, the smell, the mouth-watering goodness.

And still more to come…

project life/365 – 10 (part two)

Posted on April 10, 2014 by mabufive

And the adventure continues….

Today we started off at the airport – playing “Who can stand on one leg the longest?” Boarding our tiny airplane. Selfie with my son. View from the sky. Harry’s found object collage upon landing on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Beautiful mosaics at the Laguna Lodge in Tortuguero. A boat trip through the canals of Tortuguero National Park. A lizard. An Emerald Basilisk. Another Emerald Basilisk. A selfie with my hubby. A monkey in the rainforest. We saw 3 different types of monkeys – Spider, Howler and Capuchin. A turtle. A family shot in the rainforest. The next Indiana Jones? A scary looking Cayman. This is probably my favorite shot of the whole trip. Do you see the tiny bugs heading for a feast? The flowers are insanely bright. Odd trash can art in Tortuguero village. Lots of colorful walls that make you smile. Costa Rican gourd art. Having a leisurely moment in the hammock back at the hotel. Drawing some tree fruit for his Field Guide. Loving all the specialty fruit drinks at dinner. Time to relax and be goofy. Dancing time with the Caribbean rhythm. And limbo time. He was so cheating. Musical chairs. And then it was down to two.A small detour to look for frogs in the garden where they only come out at night. Who can resist a frog scavenger hunt?

Good night. More to come…..

project Life/ 365 – 10 (part one)

Posted on April 9, 2014 by mabufive

We were lucky enough to spend spring break in Costa Rica with Adventures by Disney so I have A LOT of photos.

We had the day free in San Jose, Costa Rica so we decided to check out the kids museum (Museo del Los Ninos). Here we are trying on traditional storytelling masks. Like we don’t have enough earthquakes, let’s try an earthquake simulator. My husband as a bug. Dancing away in the disco room. Working on my flossing techniques. Harry is a little obsessed with all things teeth.Playing on a giant chess board. and of course the museum ends at the candy. A really cool art piece outside the National Museum. This building just makes me happy. The artisan market. Just being silly.

More to come……

colored design

Posted on March 24, 2014 by mabufive

With a trip to Hawaii, I wanted to capture, the bright colored flowers, the vibrance of the blue sky and the festive feel so this book was about color. This book measures 8.75 x 11.25 landscape, lay flat pages by My Publisher. The quality of the book and photos is outstanding. I created my pages in Adobe Photoshop using digital patterned paper with color overlays. Each page included a simple tropical border and Ali’s Hand font. Since the pages were bright, if the photos were not full page or very large, I used a black border around the smaller photos to help them stand out on the page.

A little tip: I often pick up artistic postcards on trips and use them for covers or page decoration.

Here are some of the pages from our Hawaii 2011 book:

Title page – Location and dates. The rent-a-car and arriving at the hotel. The view from the room and an activity at the hotel. Details. Water slides and snorkeling. Jacuzzi and antics in the hotel room. A new outfit. A selfie. A loose tooth and stopping at Starbucks. Details at the USS Bowfin museum. The USS Arizona Memorial. A scenic shot and thoughts about witnessing this piece of history. A Luau. More details. Dancing at the luau. Learning the hula and fire dancing. Breakfast. Paddleboarding. Enjoying the beach. Playing. More playing. He lost his first tooth. Thanksgiving dinner. Hawaiian crafts. The Nui (a little luau). Visiting the North Shore. Lunch and stories. Iconic images of the North Shore. Another sunset and details. The Art. Swimming. Leaving and heading home. A collage of all the paraphernalia – tickets, map, postcards, certificates, wristbands, brochures, receipts, etc.

Don’t be afraid to use color, but I did find that the pages with a bit more muted tones worked much better than some of the bright, over powering colors.

a disneyland photobook

Posted on February 4, 2014 by mabufive

Disneyland is an annual trip for us, it is our happy place as a family where we let go of electronics, work and focus on being present, laughing and enjoying each other. My goal is to make a photo book every year to celebrate these trips.

Here are some of things I make sure to capture in photos while at Disneyland:

The hotel room
My child’s excitement in line
If I can, the look on my child’s face during the ride ( ex. Small World)
“Selfies” throughout the day
My child wearing ears – the ultimate essence of Disneyland
My child participating in a show (ex. Jedi Training)
Characters
Playing with a new toy
I always buy the photos of us on a ride
Details of the Disneyparks (castle, small world ride, the Walt/ Mickey statue)
“Selfies” with 3d glasses
Scores on rides (Toy Story Mania, Astroblasters)
Scenic shots at night with lights (castle, ferris wheel at California Adventure)
Playing in the hotel room at night
Playing in the character’s houses in Toontown
Accomplishing tasks ( ex. at the Redwood Creek Wilderness Explorer Camp at California Adventure)
Playing at the pool
Traditional photos in front of the castle
My child being just tall enough or not tall enough for a ride
Eating meals and meal signs
Balloons
Mickey shaped food
Parades
Fireworks

I also make sure to scan or photograph the following:

Certificates (Jedi Training)
Drawings ( Animation Classes)
Receipts
My child’s writings about the trip

For this series of books, Blurb was the photo book printer of choice. A “10 x 8 standard landscape” using “standard paper” with the “hardcover image wrap”.

This book I organized chronologically. I usually chose two fonts for my photo books – one for titles and one for the journaling. Any more fonts and it gets too busy. I knew I would be doing a series of these books, so I splurged and bought the Kingdom font for titles and downloaded the Glasket medium font (free) for the journaling. I used Blurb’s simple layouts with a little adaptation here and there and white pages as a base.

Here is sampling of pages from our Disneyland “Summer 2011” photo book:

Capturing the Hotel Room Harry’s favorite ride – Star Tours and him trying on Mickey R2D2 ears Jedi Training and the battleI also scanned the Jedi Training certificate.

The lightsaber he bought and characters in Tomorrowland. A selfie and the Spacemountain ride. A scenic shot at night, a “selfie” with 3d glasses and Toy Story Mania scores. The Build-a-Bear experience. Meet “Disney” ( I know not very original, but he’ll always know where it came from). Harry’s new Build-a-Bear. The hotel room at night, playing light sabers with “Disney”. Character lovin’. Enjoying Minnie’s house with “Disney”. Harry trying to accomplish all the goals to be an official “Wilderness Explorer”. Harry kept enjoying the fact the “Disney” was a camoflauged bear so he would stick it next to anything green and ask ” Mom, can you find Disney?” All the details at the pool at the hotel – scenic, slides, fancy drinks, floating in the water, etc. The traditional photo in front of the castle. Harry finally was tall enough on this trip to ride “Indiana Jones”. Harry tried to teach me how to cross my eyes at the Rainforest Cafe and then we just had to stop at the Lego Store. Another Space Mountain ride shot and the Astroblasters ( I love that you can e-mail it to yourself). Playing at the pool some more. Shots with the Cars characters and still not tall enough for California Screamin’. This trip we bought a book “Disneyland’s Hidden Mickey’s”. There is also an app of the same name. We found several but we could probably spend a lifetime finding them all. These were some of our favorites. No trip is complete without an animation class. Love watching Harry learn to draw and through the years he keeps getting better. Love the photo bomb as we were making our exit. After the trip Harry, was writing a journal, I scanned his journal page and included his version of the trip. More of Harry’s highlights. It is always fun to get everybody’s “favorite” part of the trip and include a little journaling about it. And the back cover.