Disneyland April 25 -29, 2010

Now that I am finally getting around to posting about Disneyland a whole MONTH and a HALF late you will just have to be happy with what you get. I still don't like how Blogger wants me to upload pictures. Yeah it's great that you can upload a picture where your cursor is, but I still have to click each. individual. picture....and now I have to do it twice. Sigh. 

Anyway, basically what I am saying is I will write about Disneyland and I am just going to let the pictures speak for themselves. Good? Ok on we go.  

 

We opted to drive to Disneyland because we wanted to have money to actually, you know, eat once we got there. We left Sunday, April 25. I personally adore long car rides. Long car rides with child are not ideal, but given enough preparation it really doesn't have to be torture.

I packed each kid their very own travel basket. I wrapped half of the goodies in wrapping paper and left the other half as is. This turned out to be wonderful. The kids had fun stuff right away to play with, but they also had the anticipation of not knowing everything in the baskets.

The rule was you could only open one present an hour. There where 10 wrapped items which just about made them last the whole trip down. Or it would have had there not been two accidents just after Prim that added two hours to our trip.

The only other snafu of the ride down is we discovered that Tennyson gets car sick on long car rides. Thankfully he is a master vomiter and managed to vomit only in his lap on both occasions. Leaving clean up less than it could have been .

Also a bonus, weird, but a bonus none the less, is that his vomit had no smell. I can't tell you why, but we were super grateful when we realized it.

After arriving at our hotel, The Anaheim Fairfield Inn, we told the kids that grandpa Jim and grandma Candace were staying in the hotel room right next to ours. Karaia must not have been paying very close attention when we were planning the trip because she got HUGE eyes and said, "You mean, Grandpa and Grandma are going WITH us to Disneyland?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!"

It was the best! Might as well have been a second Christmas for her.

(proof positive Jim and I belong in the same family! ~Check out my crazy eyes) 

Kevin and I were SO grateful Jim and Candace were able to join us. They made the whole vacation run very smoothly. Every kid had a special someone to ride the rides with. When the parents kids needed a change of pace they had a friendly, loving face to go to. Thank you so much!!!!!You two really added to the magic!!

We left Sanders home with Meghan & Alex, Emily & Ryan, and Mom. Thank you so much for watching him for us! We knew he was well cared for and it allowed us to just have fun. There are no amount of words to properly thank you enough!!

On a side note, I have done Disney with a 4 month old (with 3 kids) and a 19 month old (with 2 kids), different times, as the youngest member with us. If you can help it, leave anyone under 2 years at home. They are not going to remember it and their attention spans, nap schedules, and over all inability to go on rides makes it more challenging......it's do-able, but we have found it is more enjoyable with the youngest being at least two. If you still want to bring all your kiddos, give me a call and I have some tips for you that will make it easier.

Kevin surprised Tennyson with his first set of Mickey ears while we were in line for Dumbo. There were one size too big, but you wouldn't know it from the smile on Tennyson's face when he put them on. He fixed the size problem himself, kind of, by wearing the strap across his chin instead of under it.

(Tennyson is completely adverse to actually LOOKING into the camera. It's not from lack of trying on our part)

It kept slipping off his head or over his eyes. Undaunted he would straighten it out and be on his way.

We were on the Jungle Cruse when I pointed out the Parana to Tennyson who leaned slightly over to get a better view. Immediately his hat fell off his head into the mechanical fish. I tried to grab it, but the boat was moving too quickly. Oh. My. Goodness. I have never heard a sadder sound come out of a child's mouth. It wasn't the give-it-to-me-now cry, it was a my-heart-was-attached-to-those-ears-and-now-it-too-is-fish-food cry. It was so sad.

We told the cast members what had happened. They immediately jumped into an empty boat, passed the line of waiting people, and headed around the ride. It was all too much for Tennyson and he cried himself to sleep on Kevin's shoulders as we waited for their return.

In the mean time, unsurprisingly, Beckham began chatting up the cast member who was waiting with us. I was just far enough away that I couldn't hear the dialog. If the cast members laughter is to be trusted I can only imagine that Beckham was being his friendly, non-censored, hilarious self. That kid made more friends with Disney employees than most people do in their whole life time. That's just who he is.


They were unable to locate the hat. Another victory for the vicious metal Parana. They were kind enough to give us a voucher for a free hat! Hooray for exemplary customer service! We were able to get a new, smaller size while Tennyson slept hoping he would forget about the whole thing. Nope. That kid has the best memory. He was grateful to have Mickey ears again, but kept asking for his "real" hat.


We ate every breakfast at the McDonalds in the hotel parking lot.

On Monday we went to Disneyland.

Tuesday, California Adventure

Wednesday, Disneyland again.


We had plenty of time to do everything we wanted plus double and triple up on the ones we loved the best. As well as take it slow Tuesday evening and spend some time in the hotel pool instead of heading back to the parks after dinner.

The kids really did great on this trip. Very little whining........unless you count Beckham loudly insisting, every ride, that, "I do not want to go on this ride. I am getting out of line right now!" He is our cautious adventurer and would psych himself out that the ride would be unpleasant before he'd even entered the line.


Not wanting him to miss out on any fun opportunities we insisted that he try every, reasonable, ride at least once. Also, he was no longer allowed to say, "I do not!" which he obliged us by changing it to, "I'd rather not" Most of the time he would finish a ride with a big smile on his face. The only one we should NOT have pushed was the Tower of Terror. But our 4 year old niece had just gotten back from a trip to Disney and loved and gone on that ride 3 times.

It was too much for our Beckham.

He banned us from even saying, "Tower of Terror" for the rest of the day because it made him feel scared.

Meanwhile, Karaia got off the ride and ran right back in line.

I'm always amazed at how different children are.

Tennyson did awesome the whole time. He fell asleep every afternoon in the stroller and really was mostly good waiting in line. It helped there were four adults to bounce between, but for a 2 1/2 year old he did really well.

Bobble head Beckahm

Beckham's Yoda back pack...isn't it awesome?!

Karaia and I waited in line for an hour to see Belle, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. Grandma hopped in line toward the end with Tennyson...he just HAD to see the princesses too. Karaia was perfectly content to wait for that long. We kept our selves busy in line taking blackmail funny pictures.

(Starting sweet...we are waiting to see princesses afterall...)

 Tennyson was smitten with Belle. When we moved onto Jasmine, just across the isle, he couldn't take his eyes off of Belle. Then, of course, at the end you walk right into a store selling all things princess. Tennyson immediately found a Belle barbie doll and really, really, REALLY wanted to take it home with him.

Our favorite rides this year were:

Dad: Pirates of the Caribbean
Mom: Toy Story Mania & Pirates of the Caribbean
Karaia: Tower of Terror
Beckham: Jungle Cruise
Tennyson: Buzz lightyear

 The ride home was awesome. We pumped Tennyson full of Ginger Ale and ginger snap cookies hoping to keep all of his food inside his tummy. They did the trick! Meaning there is nothing eventful to report about the trip home.

We love Disney and can't wait to go again when Sanders is 3 years old and will come with us!

Over Achiever

Karaia walked into the living room, holding a paper, and asked, "Mom, how do you get 100% in spelling?"

A bit confused because she hasn't gotten less than 100% in spelling all year other than the 1 time she fought me on studying and missed one (I know, nice lesson teaching ----if you don't study, you'll only get 99% and then how will you feel?), I said, "studying the words and practicing them. Did you miss some spelling words this week?"

"I only got 20/20 plus then I got the 6 bonus word right. But how do you get 100%?," she said as one who has done all they can do but still falls short.

"Honey, that's better than 100%!"

With tears in her eyes she explained, "But I saw Aidan's paper and it had 100% written on the top. Mine only says 20/20 + 6 on it."

Ah, now I see.

Aidan's mom had shared with me that spelling was a challenge for him this year and that Mrs. Pickett was very encouraging and always celebrating the little successes. I knew getting all the spelling words right that week would have been HUGE for him and deserving of some extra ink love from his teacher.

I tried to explain to Karaia how hard Aidan had been working in spelling and he didn't always get every word correct so getting them all right was a big accomplishment that Mrs. Pickett needed to make sure he knew just how great he had done. Mrs. Pickett was just as proud of her, but she had not had to work super hard to get good scores in spelling so Mrs. Pickett knew Karaia had the confidence she needed to keep up the great work.

She seemed a little placated by that information. I realized the lesson hadn't completely taken hold when I heard her mumble as she walked away, " I wanted my paper to say 100%"

Wow.  I was SO not like this in school. Don't get me wrong, I got very good grades, but never stressed about it much. This is new territory for me. Luckily for me I have a few amazing friends, who had similar feelings as Karaia, that I will be calling for advice.

Still, there are worse things to be stressed about.

Maidens

My good friend just had a baby. They used her maiden name, Beck, as his first name.

Our kids are very invested in this family and always love to hear happy news about them. When I told them about little Beck being born, our Beckham naturally thought they had named him after him. You can see where a 5 year old would get that.

So that brought on a lesson about maiden names which is not the easiest of all topics to teach a child. I used Karaia as and example and some made-up boy as her husband to illustrate the moving of Karaia's current last name to become her maiden name and her made-up husband's last name would become her new last name.

Beckham, wanting to make sure he understood, but also wanting to let me know of his future plans had this to say,

"So......whoever I marr---Lily's new last name will be D*** and her maiden name will be A********?"

I called Lily's mom right away to tell her that we would some day be related. It's nice to know what our future holds in store for us ;)

near screeching halt

Yes, the Disney post IS coming. It's all written, but I am still fighting with the photos. In the mean time too many things have happened and thoughts have been bouncing around in my head. Kevin's grandpa Frank died today. He was a good man and will be missed.

Death always makes me think about life and what I am doing with mine. It is now nearly 1:30am and even for my night owl standards, it is late. These thoughts need to be expressed, documented, and purged. Lucky you. YOU get to read them ;)

I am struggling with my fabric design dream. By struggling, I mean nearly standing still. Not quite, but to the naked eye I may as well be a statue. The dream is still there. Smouldering, with a white, intense heat. But I am at a loss as to how harness that desire, energy, and talent and convert it to real world tangibility. I know where I want to be, but getting there, well that is part of the fun....right?

I did stumble across an interview with Anna Maria Horner, my current all time fav fabric designer. My designer crush, if you will. Not only do I love her designs, but it's her story that inspires me. She just had her sixth child a year ago. Six people! And she is just barely coming into her own in the past couple years. It gives me hope that this can be done, it doesn't have to happen right. this. second. and it can be done at home, surrounded by the measure of my creation, my children.

My favorite quote from her interview, that I think I will have Annie print in vinyl for me (thanks in advance) is this:

"...even more important is to be like nothing else around you.  Imitating others could get you some attention and success for about 5 whole seconds.  Being you will never be realized by being someone else!"

I think this may be part of my problem. I have glamorized being a fabric designer so much in my head that I have searched, and researched designer's "stories", their beginnings, and then I find I tend to design like my current designer crush. My designs are well designed, but they aren't me.

Once I figure that out (easier said than done) I believe my designs will reflect that and hopefully be accepted.

Right now I feel as if I am running in place. Lots of energy and movement, without any ground being covered. I need something to push me forward...just a little. Just enough to move me off my spot.

There.

They are out.

The thoughts, I mean.

Good night.

Obviously.....

I have a lot of pictures to share. Which explains my lack of posting due to my obsessive need to post in chronological order no matter how many times I try and talk myself out of it.

Still, right now is not the time to post a million pictures. I really dislike blogger's way to post pictures. If I could download more than 5 at a time it would be a different story. And I don't want to do a slide show because I want the pictures to be printed in the books I make of my blog. So there you go.

Anyway, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. There has been a ton going on. Hopefully, soon, I will buckle down and get the pictures on here. I started about 2 weeks ago and it was giving me grief so I gave up for a few more weeks.

Soon.