Disneyland Part 1

Oh, where to start? I guess the beginning is about right. Hi my name is Lena and I am a Disneyland virgin. My husband is one too. Most people's mouths drop about now. But it's true we had NEVER been to DL!! Deprived, right? Anyway, I think because I had never been there I honestly never thought too much about it until my friend April kept post pics and comments about how much she loved it and I guess it got me thinking. About 6 months ago Vern and I were trying to figure out what to do with our credit card rewards which was about $700 dollars and instead of being responsible adults and saving this money WE SPENT IT! It paid for all of our hotel stay. AWESOME I know! Vern also got some other cc incentives which paid for our gas and groceries. My husband is amazing!

Ok Ok, getting on with the trip.

Day 1: We drove to Mesquite and stayed at the Casablanca. Which was about a 7 hour drive, we weren't sure how the kids were going to be so we decided to take our time and break up the drive. The girls did great by the way:) The Casablanca had a great outdoor pool with a slide and waterfall we really enjoyed. When you stay at this hotel you get a free round of golf for a 50 min massage. Vern is so sweet he scheduled me a message.

Day 2: We drove to Anaheim about 5 hours. We ate at Fire and Ice (Mongolian BBQ) we ate at the one at Lake Tahoe over 6 years ago. It was YUMMY!

I took this picture with my pnone sorry it's blurry.

Day 3: Disneyland! Which was so fun. It wasn't too crowded, like 30min waits for the big rides and almost no wait for the little rides. Gwen was tall enough so we just took her on the big rides. She did great! I loved that we weren't separated very much and were able to ride a lot of the rides as a family.

Every morning we were at the park the girls got presents. The first day they got these cute shirts and sun glasses.

The second day they got princess accessories for their princess lunch. The third day they got little Minny mouse dolls. They just loved waking up to opening presents :)

Here is the list of what we did that day:

Space Mountain,

Buzz Blasters,

Astro Orbitor, Nemo's underwater ride, Pixie Hollow,

Mater horn bobsleds,

Alice in Wonderland, Small World, Train (that goes around the park), Toontown,

more Toontown,

Big Thunder, (a favorite)

Winnie the Pooh ride,

Pooh ride again,

Splash Mountain,

Train again (Gwen really liked the dinosaurs we see on there) while Vern went to the haunted house, Tarzan, Tiki room while Vern and Elsie went on Indiana Jones, and then the Parade. I videoed a lot of the parade but the pictures I took really didn't turn out very well.

It was a great first day!

First Day of School!

I am a little late but I wanted to post Elsie's first day of school picture. Back at the beginning of Sept. she started Kindergarten! Her teacher is Mrs Petersen at Greenville Elementary and Elsie just really loves her. I am going into her class to volunteer every other Thurs. So far I really like it. Elsie is doing very well in school so far and I hope she continues to love it!

Milestones!

My girls are growing up WAY TOO FAST!! My little family hit two milestones this week. Well, the first one may not be a true 'milestone' but I am going to call it one. Friday morning I got out two bowls of cereal for the girls, then told them I was getting in the shower. When I got out of the shower every single bite was gone (not uncommon) and the bowls were IN THE SINK!!! No asking, telling, begging...I am getting really sick of telling the girls over and over and over to do certain things so I was pretty excited to see that I was getting through to them. ~Milestone~

The second thing is Elsie learning to ride a bike. She has been ready for a while but we have been so busy this summer. Finally Vern took her out this evening and she just took right off. ~Milestone~

She already needs a bandaid :)

No-poo!

I have been wondering about this whole "no-poo" thing since I heard about it a couple of months ago. I was wondering if any of my readers have actually tried it or know of someone personally that has tried it. I think I am going to try it. I also think it will take a little while to get some of the products but I'll keep you updated :) http://www.oneshetwoshe.com/2010/07/no-poo-your-hair-she-kate-p.html

Gwen turns 2

Wow, I cannot believe my Gwen is 2. It feels like I was just posting her one year old birthday party. Well, I hope she had as much fun as I did. We started out at the Fun Park. The kids played in the soft play for a while then we played lots of video games.

Here is Gwen at the soft play.

Elsie coming down the slide.

Of course Kaylix and Tayson were there. (Gwen's cousins)

Gwen and Tayson were playing with the little air hockey. They were so cute. Tayson really got into it.

Vern and I playing while Kaylix and Elsie played each other.

Gwen and Tayson really loved the balls too. I think Tayson is going to be a basketball player or a baseball player.

Then we came home for some cake and ice cream and presents.

Say cheese.

Make a wish. With some help from Elsie she got the candles out.

Thanks grandpa for the McDonald's bucks!

Gwen got a new bed spread, a big play dough kit, a big box of safari animals, a barbie from Elsie and her very favorite present was from Jenny a little package of 6 lip glosses. She is finally starting to call it lips stick but for the longest time Gwen has LOVED lip gloss and called it "lips."

She didn't touch her cake and ice cream because she wouldn't stop putting on lip gloss.

She was excited about her new princess bed.

But she STILL didn't take a break from putting on the gloss.

She was willing to share with everything.

But Tayson seemed to like it.

We also played with the Safari animals that night, Tayzilla was knocking everything down before we could even set it up. The next day we had a play dough party with her new play dough. We had such a fun day. Gwen has been such a blessing in my life and I couldn't have asked for a sweeter child. I hope the terrible twos by pass and we have a great year.

What is a word for non-photogenic?

I can not get a good pic of Gwen just looking at the camera and smiling. Why? I don't know every time I pull out the camera she just looks like she is in a trance (deer in headlights) or if she is actually trying to smile for me it always just looks goofy. I am not an obsessive person but for some reason it bothered me that there wasn't a good "smiling" picture of my sweet Gwen. So I took the girls, did their hair, put them in matching colors and tried my hardest to get just one pic of Gwen looking at the camera and smiling. This is the best I could do.


Seriously what is up with this kid?


I have a million of Elsie smiling, she LOVES the camera.

This is cute, Gwen was copying everything Elsie was doing, even her arms.

Finally I just told them to run around the coffee table and I got one of her smiling, but she wasn't looking at the camera. Still unsuccessful!

Here they are at Halloween, Gwen is not assuming her character as Winnie the Pooh she is just in her trance. I can't think of a better word then trance.

Family Photos

I've been wanting to get a few Fall family photos and I asked my client and great friend, Kylie, to take some and I think they turned out great. Here are a few with the family.



Gwen looked like a deer in headlights for most of the photos.

I love my sweet family. My husband and girls are so precious to me. It was a great day playing in the park and taking photos.