2018 🎉 July – December 🎉


July


My lovely husband Tim celebrated his 27th birthday 🎁💗

My niece Evie-Mae celebrated her first birthday 👸🏼

Me & my twin sister Sarah enjoyed our Italian cooking experience.

A friends get together to celebrate some birthdays. Picnic fun in the sun, cycling & a water obstacle course.

Fun at the end of term work do 🎉.

Fun days out with my Uni friends ❤

I finally reached my Slimming World target.


August


The.BEST.holiday.EVER.

My youngest nephew Casey turned two.

I’ll never forget the day I watched him come into the world 💙.


September


Summer BBQ fun with friends 🌞.

My biggest nephew Noah turned four!!!!

We went to the Spa Pavilion to watch ‘The Greatest Show’.

Noah started school nursery and Casey started playgroup.

We watched our friend Livy perform in ‘The Little shop of Horrors’

We booked a holiday to Disneyland Paris 😁


October


Me & Tim joined Jaffa running club.

Evie started to walk.

We stayed in a Hobbit hole for the weekend.

Half term fun!!

Soft play, going to the theatre & games.

Halloween Parkrun 👟.


November


Bonfire night fun 🎆

Celebrating Dans birthday 🎈.

The Christmas decorations went up 🎄🎁

Me and Sarah went to the ‘Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ Double bill.

Fun at The ((Bounce)) Christmas Party! Dressed as Mickey & Minnie Mouse.

A fun weekend away together at Rose Farm in Great Yarmouth.

Friends Christmas meal together.


December


My Work Christmas meal at Zizzis🎄🍽

Meeting up with these guys again and meeting little Bella for the first time.

🎅 Christmas ☃️ festivities 🎄


Happy New Year!


Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

Holiblog: Florida edition pt 4


FOOD


Of course I had to include food in this little series because,lets be real, if you’ve been to America you’ll know that the food is INSANE and so tasty.

I will include my favourite foods/meals and the best places that we visited to eat too.

My favourite American eatery was by far…. Denny’s!! I loved it.


Denny’s


It was everything I imagined an American diner to be and the food was incredible.

My favourite meal (I had it both times that we visited) was ‘Moons over my Hammy’ A delish breakfast sandwich served with their Hash browns on the side.

Their hash browns are a little different to ours but they are super yummy.

I also loved the Dennys milkshakes, I had the Oreo one the cake batter one too.

The cake batter one was amazing, cake-tastic!


Chuy’s Mexican food


My sister noticed this Mexican restaurant when we were in a taxi on our way back from Wal-Mart. The food was incredible, probably one of the best Mexican meals that I’ve ever had.

You were never going to go hungry as they bring over lovely warm and salty tortilla chips (refilled as soon as the basket is empty) These go perfectly with the guacamole 😍

The meals are insane, typical giant American portions but so flavourful.

I went for a combo, which was great as it was made up of different Mexican meals, perfect if you want to try lots of different dishes or can’t decide what to go for!!

We all really enjoyed this meal.


Enclave Suites


Our hotel served some amazing food.

The breakfast was all inclusive and thanks to Virgin we were upgraded 👍🏻

The hot buffet & continental options were fantastic and they changed each day.

My favourite were the Mickey Mouse waffles 😍 Pancakes & their incredibly crispy bacon, it was to die for (put the pancakes & bacon together and your onto a winner)

I also discovered a love of fruit loops too haha!!

Their lunchtime food was also delicious. They did a lovely BBQ on a Saturday which included the usual burgers and hot dogs, as well as some A-MAZ-ING nachos. All very reasonably priced too.

They did delicious sandwiches, crispy fries, quesadillas, platters to share and more. I loved the sound of everything on the menu tbh, it was always a hard choice so we often got the platters to share, as a group, so we could try a bit of everything.


Universal Studios


Now of course the Harryer areas of Universal were my ultimate fave! But the food was actually pretty good too.

At the two separate parks (Islands of Adventure, Hogsmede & Hogwarts castle and Universal Studios, Diagon Alley) they have eateries based on places from the Harry Potter books.

Me and my twin sister Sarah ate at ‘The Leaky Cauldron’ in Diagon Alley during our Harry Potter day and on our last Universal day we all ate as a group at ‘The Three Broomsticks’ in Hogsmede.

They served traditional British food and the fish and chips were to die for!! I had them both times because they were so good.

The ice cream at Florean Fortescues in Diagon Alley was amazing too. There weren’t that many good ice cream places in the area that we were in so this ice cream was a welcome treat and they did some really interesting and very yummy flavours.

The food was so amazing in America, one of my favourite cuisines.

Definatly one of the holiday highlights.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

Holiblog: Florida edition pt 3


Disney


The other main reason for visiting Orlando, Florida was to go to Disney World.

& if you havn’t been, but love Disney, I would highly recommend it! It’s just so damn magical ✨

My husband went as a child and always said this, but I really think you have to experience it to understand.

If I was to try and describe it to you I would just say that it feels really magical, and you wander around in this magical Disney bubble and it’s just fun and happy and full of colourful mickey ears and characters and people bursting into song as if that’s just normal, because at Disney it is, and it’s just awesome.

Disney has loads of different parks so I will share some pictures and memories from each one for you. I will also include a bit on the parades/shows that we saw as they do them SO well at Disney.

Enjoy!


Disney’s Magic Kingdom


The most magical place on earth!

& it really is.

As soon as you walk in you see Mickey shaped topiary, buildings that look like something straight out of an old school Disney film (think Mary Poppins) balloons, lights, vehicles carrying parades and then right at the end of this upbeat Disney street is a truly magical sight, the Disney castle!

Magic Kingdom is home to loads of great rides such as ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ‘Its a small world’ ‘Haunted Mansion’ ‘Space Mountain’ ‘Thunder Mountain’ ‘Splash Mountain’ and many more!

They also do fantastic character parades that are well worth a watch. They really do unleash your inner child!

The ‘Happily Ever After’ Fireworks are also amazing and 100% worth a watch! So magical 🎆


Disney’s Animal Kingdom 🦁


Animal Kingdom was probably one of my favourite parks out of all of the Disney parks. They are all so well themed and this was no exception!

The park is split into different continents such as Africa and Asia and the animal attractions are themed accordingly.

It is all set around the tree of life which is at the centre of the park and is quite a beautiful sight to behold! (& a great photo point)

It hosts many AMAZING shows, and FYI the Finding Nemo Musical is not to be missed!! Seriously one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen and it doesn’t take up hours of your life!!

The Safari is also brilliant! Its such an awesome feature for the park and the array of animals that you get to see it fantastic.

Animal Kingdom is also home to the largest Rainforest Cafe in the world. We had our lunch in there and it’s really cool inside. If you’ve ever wanted to experience lunch in the rainforest then it’s definatly for you!


Disney’s Epcot 🔮


Also one of my faves (unexpectedly) was Disney’s Epcot park! Epcot is quite different from the other Disney parks but is so interesting in what it has to offer.

The great thing about Disney World is the variety that all the different parks offer, there really is something for everyone.

Epcot is so interesting because it’s very much about the future and how we can improve the world and build on the world we have using our minds, skills, resources and technology.

This is shown through experiences, games and rides.

One of my favourite rides, Soarin was a fantastic 4D simulator ride over different landscapes and it was phenomonal.

It also has a cool ‘Finding Nemo’ section within the Aquarium which was cool. The different sea life was great to see.

Plus, they did the best mac and cheese that I had the whole time I was in America haha.

Aside from these things it also boasts a MASSIVE lake that is surrounded by buildings and eateries all themed around different countries, so you can take mini tour around the world as you walk around the lake. It’s like nowhere I’ve ever been to before and it is really well done.

& not forgetting the Epcot fireworks which are hands down the best I’ve ever seen. It was an absolutely fantastic show and the fireworks, lights and music were so impressive! Again, not one to be missed.

Epcot was also epic because I got another character photo with Goofy (my fave) in my Goofy hat & he signed my hat! Awesome.


Disney’s Hollywood Studios 🎬


This is one of the newer parks and is home to lots of the Star Wars action.

Again, this was really well themed.

The streets looked like old style American New York sidewalks with skyscrapers, theatres, gas stations, diners and so on.

The main stage always played host to a show or performance which was cool to stop and watch as you walked around.

We turned up just in for the ‘March of the first order’ of Stormtroopers. Even as someone who isn’t a fan of Star Wars I thought this was really cool. It was so realistic and you just get so swept up in it all that you kind of forget it isn’t real.

Hollywood Studios also has great features and rides such as ‘Frozen’ the ‘Indiana Jones Stunt show’ ‘Tower of terror’ ‘Rockin Rollercoaster’ and loads more.

It’s also home to the brand new ‘Toy Story Land’ which is so cool. Everything in this part of the park is seemingly made out of toys, Knexs for the fences, giant Jenga pieces, building blocks, and so on.


Disney’s Blizzard Beach


Disney also plays host to two different water parks. Again these are really well themed and lots of fun.

The one we made it to was Blizzard Beach.

I was really glad we managed to see one of the water parks however, our day didn’t turn out as planned as a storm hit as we arrived and we were unable to go on any rides. Eventually we had to give up and find something else to do for the day which was a shame.

We did get to walk around the park and see all the themeing for a little bit before the storm struck but, we didn’t really get to experience it in its full glory.

However, this was where I had my first photo with Goofy so every cloud!

The other park is called ‘Typhoon Lagoon’.


I’ve always been a big fan of Disney films but I was never that fussed about visiting Disney, however now that I have been all I would say to you is GO!

Disney truly is SO much more amazing and magical than I could have ever imagined and so much fun, for all the family! It really does have to been seen to be believed and experienced to be appreciated. I’ve definatly got the Disney bug now so next stop Disneyland Paris haha 🎢🎡🏰

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

Holiblog: Florida edition pt 2


Universal Studios

🌎


One of (if not the main) reason why we chose Florida was to visit Universal Studios.

If you know me and my twin sister, or have read some of my previous posts you may know that we like Harry Potter… ALOT! So, making it to Universal and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was a dream for us, for quite a while.

I still can’t believe, as I’m writing this, that we’ve actually been.

And yes, it’s every bit as epic as you can imagine (& then some) because I really think it’s one of those places that you can’t quite imagine until you are there.

Universal has three parks, Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure are the theme parks 🎢 and separate is Volcano Bay which is a water park 🌊

Islands of adventure homes Hogwarts, Hogsmede village, Seuss Landing, Juarssic Park, Superhero city, King Kong and loads more!

Universal Studios homes Diagon Alley, The Simpson’s, Transformers, Men in black, Minions, Shrek etc etc.

The rides are brilliant and, not just that, the queues!!

You never really feel like you are queuing up for ages because everything is so well themed.

The Harry Potter queues were EPIC.

You got to go through Hogwarts as you wait for ‘Harry Potter & the forbidden journey’

And you go through Gringotts bank as you wait for ‘Harry Potter & the escape from Gringotts’

The attention to detail is incredible, it’s just all so well done.

Even if you aren’t a Harry Potter fan you would love it.

It was so cool to go through Hogsmeade, visit the shops, have food in the eateries (just like in the books!!) Travel on the Hogwarts express and Shop in Diagon Alley. It’s just amazing.

The Hogwarts express train takes you from one park to the over so although you can walk this is a lovely way to go.

I will go into a bit more detail about the Harry potter section in a later post as me and my sister had a day at the Harry Potter parts 😁

Some of my other favourite parts of Universal include ‘Seuss Landing’

This is all themed like the different books by Dr Seuss, such as The Grinch, Cat in the Hat, Sneeches, Green eggs & ham etc.

It was absolutely brilliant. So colourful and fun you couldn’t help but enjoy yourself in there. We had a lovely lunch in The Circus Mcgurkis too which was fun as one of the rides goes through the restaurant.

This was a big hit with my nephews, very child friendly and as I said, lots of fun!

I also loved The Simpson’s area; ‘Springfield’ this again was so well done. The roads and decorations were all done in a cartoon style so you really felt like you were walking through the Simpson’s.

There were loads of the iconic shops like Moes Tavern, The Kwik i Mart, Lard Lad doughnuts etc. It was great. The Simpson’s rides was also one of my favourites too.

Universal have loads of Simulator rides which are fantastic, you really feel like you are in the experience whether it be the Simpson’s, Harry Potter, Spiderman. If you are a fan of 3D/4DX simulators then you’ll love these. They were great for me as I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to rollercoasters haha.

One of our favourite things about Universal was the refillable cups that they had on offer. You paid to buy it and then you could refill it as many times as you want! The machines had LOADS of different beverages with so many flavours. Each day you had to re activate it but it was cheaper to do so and when you are spending the whole day there it saves you alot of money.

It was a god send in the August heat!!

Universal was so easy to get to from our Hotel, we could walk in 30mins, although it wasn’t always advisable in the heat with small children, especially at certain times of the day (but we did go in August!!)

Our hotel also had a free shuttle to Universal and there were free shuttles to Volcano bay too which was super handy.

Volcano Bay

We spent an afternoon at Volcano bay water park and it was really good fun.

It’s quite a new park.

It was super easy to get to as I said and once you were there, there was lots to do.

You get these cool Tapu Tapu wristbands that allow you to book a space on a slide so you never have to queue, you just get notified of when there is a space!

We loved the lazy river 🌊

The Volcano at the centre of the park was really impressive and although I was too much of a wimp to try out the hideously high slides coming from it, it did look really cool.

We could even see it smoking from our hotel a few miles away haha.

It looked really cool lit up at night.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂

Holiblog: Florida edition pt1


Part one: The Hotel & local area


So, if you’ve followed me for a bit you’ll know that back in 2016 I did a Holiblog (Holiday Blog -See what I did there?!) Series when we were on our honeymoon to Sardinia.

Well, for the last two weeks we have been on our dream holiday in Orlando, Florida and I really wanted to do the same for this trip, as a nice way to capture the experience.

We packed alot into two weeks so I’m not 100% sure how I will split the blogs yet as I will only know how long they will be when I’m writing them, but that’s why it’s a series aye!

For the first edition I thought that I would show you guys the amazing Orlando area inc our lovely Hotel/Apartment.

So without further ado, let’s get stuck in!


The Apartment/Hotel

We stayed at the amazing Enclave Suites off International Drive.

We had a two bedroom apartment for the 6 of us (Casey in a travel cot) Both bedrooms had lovely en-suites and the lounge and kitchenette were great.

We also had a lovely long balcony with an awesome view of the pool & surrounding area. Love a balcony.

The hotel had a lovely big pool which our apartment over looked.

It also had lovely grounds with lots of lush greenery and a quaint gazebo area overlooking a lake.

The hotel had a restaurant onsite which is where we had our complimentary brekky, it also did some really yummy lunch food and was Pizza hut in the evening!!

The staff were SO friendly and made you feel so welcome and at home.

I would 100% recommend checking them out if you are off to Florida and I would love to go back.

➡️ The Enclave Suites


The local area

The surrounding area was really lovely.

We were close to busy International Drive so it was very commercial but the roads are lined with beautiful lush grass, palm trees and man made lakes.

And of course the beautiful blue skies help with the lovely feel of the place 🏞

As I said some of it very commercial but it’s so COOL and you really feel like you are getting the full American experience.

Until next time,

Roseanne 🙂