Brandy524

What a way to celebrate Mother's Day. Maybe she was unhappy with her gift.

We rented 2012 last weekend. It was the same gimmick over and over: First they're outrunning destruction in a limo, then in a small plane, then in an RV, then in a big plane, then in an ark. Some of the special effects weren't even that good. No repeat viewing for us, thanks.

So sorry to hear of your loss. I'll be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers as you go through this difficult time.

So glad to see you two continuing your adventures in Orlando!! Love the thread!

A friend of mine does the Wild West gun fight show every summer. He said the stage was torn down because the damage was so bad. All of their equipment was ruined; sound equipment, props, costumes, everything. They are moving the gun fight show to another location in that area. It's the building that used to be a shooting gallery game with the animatronics. So the gun fight show is not gone for good. He said the new building is going to be a lot better; bigger backstage area, etc. He said the old building was in really bad condition before the flood, so it's actually turned out to be a good thing!

I've had several people tell me how funny Zombieland was so we finally rented it. It was good. Pretty funny. It was cute, if you can call a zombie movie cute. It's not something I'd want to watch over and over.

It was a great day! Thanks!

I knew y'all would come through! You're awesome! Thanks, everyone!

Thanks, Chrissie!

Awesome trip report, Big Mike! Hopefully one day I'll be added to the list who have made the Big Man the first TPR member they meet in person!

Thank you! Just getting a trip to USH would be prize enough for me! But of course the $100,000 scholarship fund would be nice, too!

There's a contest going on right now that I've entered my oldest daughter's photo into on facebook. It's for ages 4-7, so I couldn't enter both girls! It's from Next Direct clothing. They're launching in the U.S. and looking for children to be the "Face of Next Direct" not to mention the $100,000 scholarship fund included in the prize. And for the theme park related element, the Top 50 entrants get to go to the finals at Universal Studios Hollywood. I've seen what y'all can do as far as contests and voting goes! So if you wouldn't mind voting for Ally I would greatly appreciate it! Here's the link: http://apps.facebook.com/next_direct/gallery/show_entry/183 You do not have to be signed in on facebook to vote. You can vote once a day. Voting ends on March 18. Thanks, everyone!

Thanks y'all! We had to distinguish between the two otters by tying the ribbons around them! Sorry, I guess I should have told you what kind of camera it is. It's a Kodak Z950. I know nothing about specs and such. I just researched highly rated cameras and the Z950 was one of them. Here's one of the reviews that I found that really sold me on it: http://www.digitalcamerareview.com/default.asp?newsID=4085&review=kodak+easyshare+z950. I just wanted a good point-and-shoot and this one delivers. It also has manual controls, but I have no idea how to use them yet!

During the month of February the Tennessee Aquarium is having College Days: Show your college ID and you and your whole family get in for half price. Since my husband just happens to be a college student we decided to take our girls. So I took the day off last Friday and we headed up to Chattanooga. I'm not sure why the first few pictures say 2/18. It was Friday, 2/19. We'd only been once before, when our oldest was just 5 months old, so it was completely new for the girls. They really had a great time! The otters were their favorite and we bought two beanie otters for them to take home. New favorite animals. On to the pictures. My camera battery died right after the penguins, so everything after that was taken with my phone and the picture quality is lacking. Note to self: Charge camera the night before. Ally on the way to Chattanooga. Cammy on the way to Chattanooga. Husband driving. And me taking pictures. I'm so useful! We ate lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger before we went in the aquarium. I turned the flash off so as not to annoy the people sitting elbow to elbow with us, so that's why it's orange. Seriously, the tables were too close together! Danny loves the panoramic mode on my new camera. Bridge outside the aquarium. There are all kinds of little things to climb on around the buildings. Love my new 10x zoom! First we did the River Journey. It's the bigger exhibit. Do you see the seahorses? Sea dragon. We found Nemo! Obligatory "inside" the tank picture. Otters are absolutely too fast to photograph! They were climbing up on this rock and jumping, showing off for their audience. It was impossible to get a good picture. But they are so fun to watch! What's that? That's a trout. What's that? That's a trout... "Whoa, Dude. Mister Turtle is my father." I can't think of anything cute to say about the ray. He was actually a little guy, I just got a close-up. The girls were fascinated by the blue frog. Sturgeon feel very strange; like stiff leather. Weird. The girls were afraid to touch them. I took this picture purely for immature amusement. Moving on to the Ocean Journey building. On the top floor of this building there is a Tropical section, which included parrots. Rays are soft and slimy. The girls were afraid to touch them, too. They were fascinated by them, though! Also on the top floor of the Ocean Journey building is a butterfly garden. The girls were afraid the butterflies would land on them. We had to get through there quickly. I have no idea what kind of butterflies these are. This picture looks like a know a thing or two about photography. It was taken on auto. My camera is that awesome. I could have stayed in there taking pictures of butterflies for the rest of the day. The penguins were really fun to watch, too! The penguin got red-eye. They had little colored bands on their wings that coordinated with a chart on the wall so you could find out what each penguin's name was. From this point on the pictures were taken with my phone. They had to pose in the shark cage. This was their "act like a shark" pose. Da dum, da dum, da dum... They had a big jellies exhibit. I'm not sure what kind this is...umbrella jelly or something like that. These were upside down jellies. This picture is extremely dark, but this was in the undersea cavern portion. And that's it for the Ocean Journey. It's mostly one big tank with lots of viewing areas. And since I didn't have my camera I didn't take many pictures with my phone. After the camera charged we took pictures of the exhausted girls! Notice the otter. They fell asleep a lot faster that night! All that walking wore them out!

Recently rented Surrogates. It was slow and pretty boring. I was not impressed. It was an interesting concept, but a slow story. Also rented The Time Traveler's Wife and loved it! My husband was expecting it to be a chick flick, but he thought it was crazy good. A little hard to follow in some parts (though time travel movies usually are). Awesome actors, though, and a great story.

Speaking of Superman, I saw this article today: http://www.deadline.com/hollywood/its-a-bird-its-a-plane-its-chris-nolan-hell-mentor-superman-3-0-while-preparing-3rd-batman/ "Warner Bros is trying to ready its DC Comics stalwart Superman to soar again on the Big Screen, and the studio has turned to Chris Nolan to mentor development of the movie. Our insiders say that the brains behind rebooted Batman has been asked to play a "godfather" role and ensure The Man Of Steel gets off the ground after a 3 1/2-year hiatus. Nolan's leadership of the project can set it in the right direction with the critics and the fans, not to mention at the box office."

Thank you!! We were very proud of that one! And the birthday girl loved it, too.

I thought about still doing the step-by-step thing, but since we're both working on them now, it's hard to use our time wisely while trying to photograph everything. Not to mention some pieces (like the musical logos) are done separately; she did two of them at her home, so I can't photograph that either. Anything that I do on my own, though, I will definitely document!

Congratulations, Big Mike!! Whoo hoo!! Glad I could do my part!

Thank you!! Just in case any of you are interested in following our new cake blog, here's the address: http://cakesbybrandyandkim.blogspot.com/ And if you're friends with me on facebook, please become a fan of our cake page.

I've kind of abandoned this thread because I've started making cakes with someone, hopefully it will turn into a business eventually. If you're friends with me on facebook, you may already know this. So now that someone else is working in the kitchen with me, I've stopped taking pictures of every little step. However, we've started working on a 30th birthday Broadway themed cake, with logos of the birthday girl's favorite musicals, and since I know there are lots of Wicked fans in here, I had to show y'all this: I did this last night. Looked at the logo and freehanded it on fondant. I think it turned out awesome!

Good one Big Mike, Nicely done, Come on Big Mike, Let's win another one!

I can't believe you're moving! This thread is so entertaining! Please keep it up in Orlando.

He's fired up, he's sizzlin. He's turning up the heat. When it comes to football Big Mike can't be beat! Ashes to ashes, dust to dust hate to beat you, but he must when you're up, you're up when you're down, you're down when you're messing with Big Mike you're up - side - down! Yell for Big Mike, He can't be beat So you'd better watch out, 'Cause he'll knock you off your feet!

Hilarious: "One great big pile of 'no'." Ugh, that picture made me cringe. But it looks like a cool little place. I, too, like the chinchillas; very cute!