Adventures of on-line thrifting

We moved over a year ago and our new house has a bar counter that transitions from the kitchen to the family room.  We had two bar stools that made the move with us and two from my mom.  The space looks and functions best with three.  So I always had one mismatched stool and one auxiliary.  Which is fine, but I feel like if you are gonna mismatch it should be all or nothing.   I always keep my eye out for an inexpensive swap, but haven't found anything that really talks to me.  The stools I have can be found pretty much anywhere on line and I was just about to cave and get two more.
Here they are on overstock.com




Mine are from Ross and I got them for just under $30.
My parents just bought a house around the corner from us so my mom has been scouring Craigslist for random furniture items.
(Quick back story: The house was a foreclosure so I'm going to document the transition and changes.  Probably could be a blog in itself, but I'll do my best to post the updates and changes.  There will be lots of paint in our future.  And she's wants to go all modern on a budget.  Should be quite the adventure.)
She's always showing me her finds and asking my opinion.  As you can imagine, I've seen tons of styles, new and old during her hunt.  Then she shows me three chrome gems!
Catch is they are an hour and a half away.
But.....
They are also at the beach....
The lady is asking $80 for all three.  Great deal, especially with the prices we've seen at full retail.
It is far, so I need to be 100% sure I want to commit before we make the drive out there.  First, I get the thumbs up from the hubs.  He likes them so that's one box ticked.
And after a couple phone calls about stability, price and location.  It's on.
Mom and I decided to take the kids and make a day of it.
It's Florida in the summer, so thunderstorms are always in the forecast.   A motto I've had since college is that it never rains at the beach.  I'm hoping that motto still holds true,but ya never know.  So, I throw a tarp in the truck with the bungees, load up the kids and off we go.
Indian Rocks Beach is still quaint and cute.  Driving on a beach road really makes you want to live on the beach.  In fact, the bar stool lady said she and her husband decided to sell the big house and get the condo on the beach.  Great trade off in my mind, it was a cute two bedroom RIGHT on the water.  Awesome.  Awesome for me too, because her chrome stools didn't match the new look she was going for. :) win. win.
I hate wheeling and dealing, but I did get the stools for $70.  I feel happy, so now off to the beach.
We find public access and parking, put the stools in the truck cab and schlep everything to the beach.
It was great.  Swimming, sun and sand castles.

 While phone pictures aren't my favorite they are the most convenient, I was very happy to get good shots with both kids (mostly smiling) with my mom and myself.  And...no rain at the beach!  More winning.
A few hours later we wrap it up and schlep the sandy kids back to the truck.
I get the stools secured and covered in the back and we head home.
We traveled through three different counties and hit three different storms.  The heaviest down pour was closest to home.  Thank goodness I had the tarp.

The stools were covered with three different colors, deep purple, mint green and mustard goldish yellow on a velour like cloth.  While it was a nice ode to my home town of Nola and the Hubs thought it was awesome, they were getting recovered.
We have a lot of turquoise accents, so I wanted to stay in that general genre.
I found a few micro fiber fabrics on-line but I headed to the fabric store.  I always had a fall back if I didn't find anything that fit.
I sent some pics to the Hubs to Yay or Nay.

The response was Nay, yay, yay.  So I'm down to two.  Ryder's favorite is obvious.  It's by HGTV home, so it's hip and bold.  In the long run I was afraid I would get sick of the pattern and it was feeling a bit too nautical to me.
So what we ended up with was this...
I think they are feathers, the Hubs thinks leaves either way nature theme.  

It's textured and durable, so it will hold up to the kids.  As you can see it changes in different light and angles, so it won't get old.  I actually love it more now then when I first covered it.  Oh, and it was on clearance at $9/yard which was all I needed.
I've also found that the baby can't (or hasn't figured out how to) climb up them.  While they do get a lot of spin and Ryder loves to use the hydraulic up and down, they don't get moved around like the old wood ones because of their weight and wide base.  Perfect.
In fact, after my mom saw how they get used in the space she has narrowed down her search.

(From overstock, The southern mission and defysupply)
They all spin. :)

How he defeated Vader at Disney's Hollywood Studios Jedi Training Academy

Well, it's official.
My oldest son has become a Padawan.  He received a diploma and all!!

When you stay in any hotel in the Orlando area there is always a channel dedicated to Disney and what all it's parks have to offer.  Genius marketing.  It automatically comes on when you turn on the TV and continuously cycles a ton of super cool stuff that appeals to all kids.  Which transforms into, "Hey Mom, can we do that?" 
This is what lead to wanting to become a Jedi, which is offered at Hollywood Studios.
Since Ryder is totally consumed by Star Wars these days for his 6th birthday his grandmother gave the whole family passes to the park.  Fantastic gift and a slight moment of panic for mom.  Is becoming a Jedi something that I can actually make happen??
It better be, because I would have one let down kid on my hands if not.
A good friend of mine had recently visited the park, so I called and drilled her with questions.  She has girls, so they didn't have the same priorities we did, but she had good info about where to head and what was probably gonna go down.  When we checked into our resort I went over and asked the "Disney planning desk" the same questions and got a few extra tips.
Basically what I needed to do was:
Be the first one to enter the park.
Head (haul butt) straight to the ABC studios.
Get him signed up for one of the classes which only hold 12-14 kids

No biggie, right?  There are only hundreds of kids at a Disney park on any given day.

After getting the shuttle schedule we decided to drive ourselves to the park.  The shuttle left at 8:50 and the park opened at 9:00, not going to cut it AT ALL.
We left at 8:00 and got there at 8:10.  We parked pretty close but were definitely not the first people there.  I had a second of panic when I thought "How many of these people came early to sign up for Jedi training?"
We already had our tickets, so no Will call lines for us.  I had the baby, stroller and all the baggage so the Hubs took Ryder ahead just in case.  We ended up in the same line because the park hadn't officially opened yet.  I think they started letting everyone in around 8:30, I'm not 100% sure because I was trying to contain a crazy toddler and the anticipation was killing me. 
Once the flood gates opened we headed toward the Hat and veered left as directed by everyone.  The ABC studio area was next door to the American Idol experience.  I felt like everyone was headed in the other direction, it was a good feeling.  As we approached, we knew we were in the right place, because there was a cast member with a light saber ushering us inside.  No line! We walked right up and got signed up for the first show at 9:20!!  I was giddy and relieved.  But the running wasn't over.  The nice girl told us we had time to go get a Toy Story Mania fast pass before we had to be back at 8:50.  So we did, great tip because that line was super long all day.  (side note: one of the only 'rides' I could take a one and a half year old on.)
We get back and it's time......
Here's what happened.....
He looks so, so proud.  He's totally ready to get this party started.

 Ewok village that surrounds the Star Tours ride.

A lesson and briefing of what will be expected of the trainees. 

 The class was cute.  Lots of moves to learn...swing, strike, duck, repeat.

 Da da da dun da da dun da da

 Uh oh.  He's trying to get the youngsters to come to the Dark Side.

 HOLY COW! He has to fight Vader...alone...solo...

 There was an ambush during Ryder's fight sequence and he must use the force to defeat these Storm Troopers!

 I'm so proud.  At this point I was happy to have my sunglasses on because I was having a Disney magic moment and my eyes were welling up. 

 Boo,of course, wants to be just like his big brother and had to get in on the action.

And my favorite picture of the whole day, I took with my phone.  Not the best quality, but definitely the best action shot. 

Growing up watching the original Star Wars as a kid, I never thought in my wildest dreams that my own son would be going up against the Dark Side at the age of 6.  Happy Birthday, buddy!  Disney prevails and dreams do come true.
(And the baby got to meet Mickey Mouse yet another magical moment)