the long and winding road...

2012-02-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

Lady and the Tramp
The movie is being released on Blu-ray so the El Capitan has been doing a special showing. I'm not sure I've ever seen the whole movie. Or, if I have, it was a very long time ago. Georgie hasn't even heard of Lady or Tramp. I had to explain to her that they were dogs :-)

We were lucky to be joined by friends Paula and Sophie and Tanya and Gracie. Just the girls, fun!!!

Mickey made a very brief appearance on stage before the show and they played a super old (as in black and white) Mickey and Minnie cartoon short. After that it was time for the main attraction. The movie is very cute although it was very apparantly made in the 50s. There are some not very politically correct representations of Italians and Chinese with the matching Siamese cats singing (in a very stereotypical Chinese voice) "We are Chi-a-nese if you please. We are Chi-a-nese if you don't please." Also I was a bit bemused by the idea that Darling was unable to take a walk with her dog due to her recent pregnancy. Very funny! Overall though the movie was quite enjoyable and Georgie said she "really liked it!"

I have no idea why Hollywood Blvd was fenced off. There must have been some sort of special event or filming in the works.
The girls sharing popcorn and candy.
After the movie we had lunch at Disney soda shop next door. Lots of Lady and the Tramp merchandise for sale, of course.
Later we went for a walk down Hollyweird Blvd. To G no trip is complete unless she has her pic taken with the giant Shrek!

The girls all seemed to enjoy the Grauman's Chinese theater lions. We checked out the crazies on the way back to the car.

I always love movies at the El Capitan. Fun day!

2012-02-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

Sleeping Beauty: The Time-Traveler
Our second show of the Lewis Playhouse childen's series was a modern update of Sleeping Beauty. It was a cute little play--only 45 minutes! We had friends join us which made it even more fun. As usual, G was thrilled to take pix with the "characters" after the show.
Aurora's father, the King
Roland

The Queen

And Princess Aurora

2012-02-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

XOXO
February pictures were fun, fun, fun! G had a great time. Seriously, how cute is this kid???
Georgie adored this bow and arrow! Little goof.

2012-02-06T21:58:00.000-08:00

FCC So Cal New Year's Celebration
I'd considered going the last couple years but it always seemed kind of expensive. But after being encouraged by a friend we decided to go. Wow! I'm so happy we went. What a great event! It was HUGE! I think there were about 200 people. Luckily they do it at the Empress Pavillion because I think that's probably the only place large enough to host it. There was lots of food (advertised as 10 courses which seemed pretty accurate) and entertainment including a magician, a gymnast, and a super impressive lion dance team. One guy climbed on the other guys shoulders making the lion like 12 feet tall! It was pretty neat.

G was probably most impressed by the presence of the LA Chinatown Queen and Princesses... REAL LIVE PRINCESSES! Are you kidding me?? Georgie could not get enough of them and they were really, really sweet to the kids. They danced with them and twirled them and gave them hugs. Darling!

By the time we were getting ready to leave, it had already been a big day. I was hoping G would take a good nap but it wasn't really happening. I think she was too excited about the FCC party.

Finally G was all dressed and ready to go!
"Mama! Take my picture with the umbrella!"
Made it to Chinatown. Of course it was quite a bit less crowded than it had been a week earlier when we were there for the parade. I read later that there had been over 125,000 people there that day!

G with a member of the royal court. You might notice that she's now wearing a huge gold bow instead of the moderately sized black bow in the first few pix. Well shoot in Chinatown, where they're only 3 for $5, you can totally go for broke!

There was lots of dancing. G learned to "raise the roof"

Late in the evening the firecracker bubble wrap was laid out. I was impressed G was able to wait patiently while they did it. Good job G!

Finally the kids (and inclined adults) got out on the dance floor and jumped themselves silly popping all the bubbles. You can see G below, right in the middle of the mosh pit. So funny!

The dancing picked up again and a conga line began. G was in heaven!

More dancing with the princesses...

And pictures of course. Right after I snapped this one of G and her little friend Sophie she said to me "ok mama, take one with just me now" :-)

After a long and very fun evening it was time for us to go. We will definitely be doing this dinner again. Interestingly enough, now that I've been and seen the dinner and all the entertainment they provide, I actually think the dinner is a fairly good value.

Xin nian kuai le!! Gong xi fa cai!! Happy year of the Dragon!

2012-02-05T20:50:00.000-08:00

Playing Hookie
Bobby ended up having a day off work so G and I played hookie from school and work! Sometimes you just need a mental health day, ya know? The weather here has been beyond beautiful (high 60s to mid 70s pretty much every single day!) so we decided to go to the zoo. You know what's great about going to the zoo, mid week in february? There's no one else there! Seriously, I think there were only about 50 people in the entire LA Zoo.

We had a really nice, super pleasant day. Since we have the passes I've been quite a few times with G which is nice because I know my way around now. G does too and always looks forward to hitting the playground just about midway to 2/3's in. That and the gorgeous carousel are always highlights of the day. This day was no different.

G's so funny. Of course there are tons of REAL animals at the zoo but I think her favorite are the animal statues near the playground 8-) She always wants me to take her picture with them.

The "elephant"
A "seal"
A "gator"

The "hippo"

And the ever popular "camel"

And now for some REAL breathing animals!

I'd been wanting to go to the zoo to check out the new tiger cubs. OMG so cute! I so wanted to pet them. There were two of them, totally cute running and playing and jumping all around. This is the best of my not very good pix :-(

Ahhhh....

G loves to do silly faces ;-)

G posing in front of the "stinkingoes". Seriously, they're pretty but sometimes EEK! they really smell.

A great hookie day! Definitely needed and enjoyed. The only bad thing is that G woke up the next morning and asked immediately "where is daddy?" I told her he was at work and that I was going to work too. She replied "ahhhh, I thought we could go to the zoo again today." Nope, sorry. She was all good though after a quick reminder that she was going to school and could play with her friends!

2012-02-04T23:43:00.000-08:00

Fiddler
Amazingly, before yesterday, I'd never seen Fiddler on the Roof. I've seen a few minutes of the movie a couple times but never seemed to catch it from the beginning. My mom and I are doing a few of the shows at the Candlelight Pavillion and this was the first one. As ususual dinner was great and the show was... the only word I can think of to describe it is... delightful! I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the story. It was quite funny and very cute.

After the show the actors came out to say hi to the audience which is always fun. We got our pic with the main character, Tevye. His Yiddish accent was so believable it sounded funny to hear him speak in a normal voice :-)

2012-01-31T23:27:00.001-08:00

LA Woman Weekend, Part 2: Belle Day!
How we ended up having two activities in LA in the same weekend, I do not know. It was bad planning on my part. But we certainly weren't going to let a little bad planning ruin our weekend. G loved her Belle dress and especially loved her little purse and gloves.
Our day started with breakfast with Belle. She was a very sweet Belle and G really liked her.
They spent some time discussing their accessories...

Then it was time to eat! As usual G went with the Mickey waffle

After breakfast we had some time to kill so we looked around in the gift shops and made our way to the giant Shrek in front of the wax museum. G always asks to have her picture taken here.

Then it was storytime with Belle. I had my doubts about how much G would like it but shouldn't have. It was super cute. The basement area was decorated to look like a library. Very well done actually. They had snacks and some coloring activities. Of course G was thrilled by both! Then Belle came out and told "her" story. She was very engaging with the kids and G was very into it. Fun!

Finally, after a very full morning of Belle stuff, it was time for the movie. Beauty has always been my favorite of the Disney movies. Belle is tough and smart, a great combo imo. Putting it into 3d just made it better. Plus, before the movie they did a Tangled short that was hilarious!

G loved the movie. She did get a bit tired in the middle --it had been a long day and a long weekend -- but rallied toward the end. Even though it was a very tiring weekend it was worth it.

2012-01-31T21:39:00.000-08:00

LA Woman Weekend, Part 1: Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade
I'd been wanting to go to the Chinese New Year parade in downtown LA for a few years. It always seemed like a lot of trouble. Each year I'd make tentative plans to do it. Then, each year, I'd chicken out at the last minute. But this year I had someone prodding me. My friend Paula was determined to go. That did it! I was convinced! I was still somewhat put off by the idea of the traffic and closed roads (including some freeway exits) so we decided to take the train. Yeah! More adventure.

Now I realize for many people taking a train is no biggie. But I live in socal where we love our cars and avoid mass transit at all cost. For us, taking a train is big! :-) It worked out pretty well. G loves trains so she was happy as can be. It was nice for Bobby to avoid the drive and not to deal with traffic. But, it was inconvenient having to depend on a train schedule and, truthfully, some of the people on the train were a bit, let's say, sketchy. Yeah, I know, sounds kind of snobby but when people are swearing very loudly a few feet from you and there are no empty seats to move to... kind of affects the experience.

Anyway, G loved the train! I brought her a little craft kit and she was set for the 1.25 hr trip.
As soon as we got there we met up with Paula and her family. After we scoped out a good spot to lay our blankets, we left Bobby to stand guard and did a bit of shopping. My little one loves to shop and immediately found this little fan that she HAD to have. Luckily, it was very inexpensive $1.99!
G and Sophie waiting for the parade to begin.

We brought our swing drum with us!

In true LA style the grand marshalls of the parade were none other than Mulan and Mushu :-)

Author Lisa See was also there. I really enjoy her books so that was kind of neat. I'm not usually a big fan of parades but this one was really fun. There were lots of lion dancers and several very long and impressive dragons. We bought some poppers for G and she had a good time tossing them down and hearing their crack! It didn't hurt that the weather was absolutely gorgeous. It was a stereotypical January day in California: sunny and low 70s.

Being with friends added to the fun!

Georgie loves the lions

After the parade we got a bite to eat. We came across this very cool angel statue. I wish I could read the characters written on the wings.

If I didn't know I was in downtown LA, all I had to do was look at the guy ahead of me...

We were going to check out some of the other stuff they had going on but it was really crowded so we decided to call it a day. Back at Union Station we realized that we missed our train by about 10 mins (oops!) so we walked over to Olvera Street. Bobby had never been there and it seemed like a handy spot to get some dinner. G found a little purple guitar she couldn't live without and spent the majority of dinner alternately playing it and being serenaded by Daddy.

We finally caught our train and made it home pretty late. It was an exhausting but fun day!

2012-01-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

"Wicked" Good Time
Theatre season is off and running! This time it was Wicked at the Pantages. I saw Wicked about 10 yrs ago. Truthfully I was kind of "eh" about it at the time. I thought it was ok but couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about. So when it came up on our series I was actually really looking forward to seeing it again. I wondered if perhaps I just hadn't been in the right mood last time or something. I was interested in giving it another try.

We had a very nice pre-show dinner at Delphines in the W Hotel. I'd been wanting to try it for awhile mostly because it is right across the street from the theater. Doesn't get much more convenient than that! They were having Dine LA week so we gave the prix fixe menu a try. Wow! what a great surprise. The food was really good and the restaurant was kinda W Hotel trendy.

After a 1 minute walk across the street we found our seats and got ready for the show. OK, I'm just going to say it.... I don't know what the heck was going on with me 10 yrs ago but the show was AWESOME!!!! Seriously AWESOME!!!! The set, the music, everything. It was fantastic. I don't think I could clap my hands together any harder. Silly me.

2012-01-21T21:43:00.000-08:00

Surf's Up!!!
We needed to go to Anaheim on an errand so totally last minute, as in while we were on the 40 minute drive, I called to see if we could make a ressie for a character meal. G loves characters!!! We'd never been to the one at Paradise Pier Hotel so we figured what the heck!!! We got there a little after 10am and the place was practically empty. Its a beach theme and they do these little dance sessions every half hour or so where all the kids go up and dance with the characters. As more evidence that G is gaining confidence she actually went up and did the dance. She had so much fun and really got into it.

The funny thing is that even though she's never seen the Lilo and Stitch movie she really took a liking to Stitch. I mean she LOVED him even though I think the only time she's ever seen him was inside of the Its a Small World ride. It was so cute and because the place was so empty she was able to spend a lot of time dancing with him, playing patty cake, and just goofing around. What a great experience! I guess you never know when a last minute thing will turn out to be such fun.

Hanging with Stitch, playing patty cake

So many hugs!

Dancing up a storm

Surfing with Stitch

A few dance moves with Mickey but she'd drop him like a hot potato a few seconds later when Stitch came back around :-)

Stitch pretended he was going to go home with us but he had to stop at the doorway

Group photo hanging ten

After lunch we hit the World of Disney store. G could spend her life in that store. In her defense it is an incredibly large store. We were able to drag her out eventually. Amazingly our day was only half over at that point... we still had a birthday party to go to! Fun, exhausting day with G.

2012-01-20T23:25:00.000-08:00

CNY Preschool Style
G's school did their CNY celebration today, a few days early, because they have another big event planned for next week. Let's just say WOW! I was pretty impressed. The day started out with the pledge done by some of the kids in their traditional chinese dress. Georgie was very happy to be wearing her dress which she loves! Then they showed a very boring --to a 4 yr old but not so much to me --but thankfully very short video about CNY. After that we moved on to some songs and a nice CNY story read by the director.
After that we moved to G's classroom. Her teacher had some activities and then they had snack. It was a special day so they had donuts and chocolate milk. G passed on the milk though. I think I've done a pretty good job of convincing her that its bad :-) She requested plain instead.
Her teacher had a cute water painting activity. It was fortune cookie (at least that's what it was supposed to be) that she had written the kids' names on in wax crayon so when they painted it was revealed. G was quite tickled by such a simple thing.

"Look Mama!!! Its my name!!!"

Finally it was lunch time! Of course there was enough chinese cuisine to feed a small army. Let's just say "yummy!"

And then finally, the lion dancers arrived!!! Georgie loves them, just loves them! I was standing there and thinking about how good they were when all of a sudden I looked over at the drum guy and thought, hey! I know him. It was the same troupe who had been at the Huntington Library last weekend. So funny! Yeah ummm, no wonder they were good!

They did some lion dancing, a bit of martial arts and then they let the kids come up and be involved in the lion dance. I was excited because my timid little girl actually raised her hand when they asked for volunteers to do this. This may seem small to others but for G, who as always been so hesitant, it was HUGE! Her confidence level is growing and growing.

It was such a fun day! I can't believe how much CNY stuff we've done so far and the lunar new year has not even officially begun. More fun is on the horizon!

2012-01-16T18:46:00.000-08:00

Huntington Library
was having a pre CNY celebration. Sort of a kick off to CNY almost being here ;-) Sounded like fun! We went a bit early and enjoyed their tea room. G loves to go to tea. I think it makes her feel grown up to drink her pink lemonade from a tea cup.
G mimicking the scary lion face!
and then came "the pose"

the pink blossoms were so pretty! they provided pretty much the only color in the garden as everything else is dormant. I think they're cherry blossoms but I'm not sure.

They had these awesome stilt walkers. So cool!

Once G heard there was going to be a lion/dragon dance she couldn't stop talking about it. The demos and activities were scattered throughout the gardens, which are absolutely HUGE, and it was sometimes a bit confusing to us where we needed to be and when. After walking around in some very large circles for awhile we finally found ourselves where we needed to be. While we waited G burned some energy RUNNING through the grass, searching for sticks and then creating quite a large pile in the stroller. She was really pleased with her collection and not just a bit miffed when I told her we needed to leave the stick collection there. lol!

I have no idea why she's making this face but its funny!

Check out that make up. They didn't speak and were very, very serious. No smiling.

Finally the lion dance began! They had 5 or 6 lions and they all danced around for about 15 mins. Talk about good exercise. I was exhausted just watching them.

Before the dance began the speaker explained that touching one of the lions is supposed to be good luck. G really wanted to touch one and kept a close eye waiting for them to come near so she could reach. Some kids were afraid of the lions but not G. She LOVES them!

Finally G got to touch them. Looks like the Year of the Dragon is guaranteed to be a big success! I didn't take any chances and made sure to touch the lion too.

Beautiful, beautiful G

We were lucky to be joined by friends Paula, Frank and their little girl Sophie. G and Sophie spent most of the day holding hands, running and squealing. Cute!

The "little family"

The Chinese garden at the Huntington is relatively new and really beautiful. The buildings, ponds and walkways are just like many we saw while in China. There are also a few of these giant volcanic rock formations that were shipped here from Jiangsu the province where Sophie was born. We looked at a lot of these when we were in China. I must admit that when I first started looking at them I thought "whatever". Strangely enough I'm starting to develop an appreciation for them.

The event was partially supported by the PRC and they had demonstrations of various Chinese art forms being presented by people who I think were visiting from Jiangsu. They had a candy/sugar artist, brush painter, paper cutter, and someone doing reverse paintings in snuff bottles and beads. I ended up buying a beautiful paper cutting (olive green rather than the traditional red) and getting G a bracelet with her name painted inside a bead featuring a pig. G was born in the year of the fire pig!

The sugar artist had some relatively simple creations. He may have been able to do much more complicated things but these did not compare to the ones we saw being made in the People's Park in Nanchang.

G getting her bracelet!

G's so funny. She loves, and I do mean loves, to have me take her picture. She saw Sophie getting her picture taken here and immediately wanted to do it too. Good thing I love to take her picture as much as she likes having it taken. The poses she comes up with are great.

The blossoms were so pretty!

They had these lanterns hung about in the trees and G really liked them. This was the only low one we encountered so G "needed" to have her picture taken near it :-)

In the conservatory we came across this giant heart shaped leaf plant. There are some interesting displays there. Unfortunately, G seems to be bothered by the warmth of the building --it's like being in a giant terrarium so it is a bit humid-- so we couldn't really check it out as much as I wanted. Oh well, maybe next time.

Finally!! we made it to the Children's Garden. Georgie was so excited. It is a super cute area and the weather was nice for walking around and looking but it was really too cold to be splashing in the water. G started with fingers, moved to hands and eventually splashed up to her elbows when I finally had to tell her stop. When it warms up we'll have to go back and bring bathing suits.

I was able to snap a pic of G on the walkway on our way out. The lanterns in the trees were so nice!

What a great day! We're planning on going back in a few weeks for their official CNY festivities so we ended up buying a membership. They were having a GREAT deal which made it free after only 2 visits. There's so much to do there. I think G could spend the whole day in the children's garden. As it was we were there for about 6 hours and never walked into a single gallery. Should be fun!

2012-01-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

Live Your Dream
G wanted a Rapunzel birthday party. Ok. I chose as the theme "Live your Dream" which was really the theme of the movie as well. A Rapunzel party sounds simple enough, right? But as I kept looking on the net for ideas I kept finding more and more fun things to do! I really got into the planning of this party and had lots of fun with the preparation but it did get a bit complicated. Its actually quite amazing how much can be accomplished with construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, tape, curling ribbon and TIME. For days I snipped and taped and glued flag banner, lanterns, and party favors. I actually had more things I wanted to do but I ran out of time ;-)

Luckily I had some flexibility at work the week leading up to the party allowing me to devote a lot of time to prep. The day before the party was a real group effort which included Brett, Casey, Casey's friend Maria, and Bobby and I. With all the help we were able to get lots done but we were still up after midnight trying to get it all done. The morning of the party we were up and moving by 7am. We raced around finalizing things for a few hours but by 10am it was pretty much game time as the party was supposed to start at 10:30. G was thrilled when I told her it was finally time to get dressed in her beloved Rapunzel dress. Other than a quick try on when it arrived in the mail a few weeks earlier and a few minutes of wearing at her pictures the week before it had been off limits until the party. By 10:30 we were all about as ready as we were going to get and then, right on time, the first guests began to arrive.

G wasted no time and began enjoying her little playmates right away. Lots of giggling and shrieking ensued. We were off to a great start! G and two of her friends entertained themselves by kissing the Flynn poster!!! Uh oh :-)

To recreate the scene in the movie where Rapunzel paints the sun image while at the lantern celebration we started with sidewalk chalks as an intro activity. It worked out well as it was super easy and avoided downtime by giving the kids something to do right away when they arrived.

We hung yellow curling ribbon "hair" at the opening of the garage. Fun!

Snack table with "Thug Grub": chips, veggies and dip served in cast iron pans. To drink we had lemonade aka "Magic Flower Potion: guaranteed to heal". Notice the braid coming down from behind G's picture? Sadly there is no pic from the front but it was set up to look like her hair continued onto the table from her poster then it wrapped around the cake. Bobby's idea! I'll tell you what, he's getting pretty creative in his old age. It was also Bobby's idea to slip the the left over swords onto the handles of the cabinet doors which I think was super cute!

The interior of the "Snuggly Duckling"! Lots of lanterns and lots and lots of sun flag banner! Fun fact: I was unable to locate a die cut for the sun and I was not going to pay 50 cents each to buy them precut off etsy so I hand cut about 150 of those little boogers myself. Yowzah!

That's my friend Patty in the background of the pic below. She was tons of help slicing and dicing throughout the party. I'm actually not sure how it would have all been accomplished without the help of so many friends who were there. We had lots of themed food including "Mother Gothel's Hazelnut Soup: 'Rapunzel's Favorite'--actually chicken noodle". Confession: I'd originally planned to make hazelnut soup but the recipes seemed complicated and, truthfully, not that appetizing. My next plan was to make butternut squash soup as a sort of faux hazelnut soup. It looked easier and it tastes really good. But I got short on time and didn't end up shopping for the party food until about 8pm the night before. Add that to the fact that I calculated it was going to cost me about $45 to make the soup that I wasn't even sure would come out that good and I was discouraged. For some reason I was still really hooked on this soup thing though so, last minute, I made chicken noodle instead. Funny, I'm pretty sure I've never served or been served soup at a birthday party buffet but it was a huge hit!!! Everyone really liked it and the huge pot I made was almost completely eaten.

Challah: "Braided bread". Get it??? "braided" bread...hahaha!More "thug grub": croissant sandwiches, green salad, "Maximus'" sliced apples with caramel dip, and hot dogs with chili (Bobby thinks every party needs hot dogs :-)

Flynn and Rapunzel were set to arrive at 11am. At 11:10 I was starting to get a bit worried but they ended up arriving about 11:15. Rapunzel was pretty good but, truthfully, I think Flynn was a bit of a dud. He didn't really interact with the kids as much as I thought he should/would. But they both looked great and Rapunzel actually had a super nice singing voice. G didn't notice Flynn wasn't a winner though and she loved every second of it. She danced and sang along with Rapunzel when she did the theme song from the movie. G knows every word. I do too actually because G requests it from me as her nightly song before going to sleep.

Here she is laughing it up with Flynn a bit!

Flynn and Rapunzel played some sort of dance/freeze game with the kids

Princesses at play. The invitation requested that attendees dress as "princess, pirate or thug" if so desired. Most the girls came as princesses, we had one little boy dress as his version of Flynn, and everyone else (including me) was apparantly a thug.

Face painting!

Gurlz!!!

The "little family" photo. I wish we had one of the 5 of us but, alas, we do not :-(

Keeping the theme going

Fruit snacks went with lunch

The official photos:

R & F with many of the kids. We actually ended up with 24 kids and 40 adults = 64 friends/family!! G loved it!

The Happy Birthday song was a big moment for G. Sixty or so people singing at once is pretty impressive. G was in heaven! I love the way the cake turned out. I found the picture on the net and located a local baker who made it look EXACTLY the same. I think she did an awesome job! Plus she was super nice and she delivered!

My brand new and very happy little 4 yr old :-)

With that, Rapunzel and Flynn were on their way and it was time for lunch. For kids this meant mac and cheese, sliced apples (Maximus' apples) with caramel dipping sauce and a blue jello/orange wedge snack "Flynn and Rapunzel's boats" from the scene where he takes her out on the water to see the floating lights! Totally snagged the idea off the net! Decorations included more braided "hair" down the middle of the tables.

Truly loved this cake. It was over 2 feet tall! Pascal, the chameleon, stands guard

During lunch we had a balloon twister. This was not part of the original plan and really had no basis from the movie but we encountered him at the Chick Fil A family night just a few days before the party. He was the most amazing balloon guy I'd ever seen and he was available for the party! It provided a bit of entertainment during lunch. He brought this Rapunzel creation with him. The hair actually had LED thingies in it so it glowed in the dark! G loved it!

With lunch out of the way, we moved on to the few activities that I'd planned. I wasn't actually sure we'd have time to get to them but we did. First was a Tangled/Rapunzel version of pin the tail on the donkey: "smack Flynn in the nose with a frying pan". I made the little frying pans from a printable off the net and strung them on curling ribbon so the kids could wear them as necklaces before and after the game.

This is G having the scarf put on to play but she decided she didn't like it so never actually went forward. Most of the slightly older kids were fine with it. The son of one of my coworkers won but I'd completely forgotten about a prize. In a panic I grabbed one of the shields and a helmet that decorated a table and handed it to the little boy. He seemed thrilled! Whoo (wipe sweat from brow) party catastrophe averted.

I found the wanted poster pic on the net then had it blown up to poster size at costco. Most of the kids liked playing the game and the poster, and the other smaller wanted posters we had printed and hung about, made for cute decorations.

Finally, the craft! Foam shaped butterflies and crowns and lots of markers and little foam stickies for decorating. It was only slightly connected to the theme (the crowns for princesses, flower shaped foamies) but the kids always seem to like these and it provided a nice, calm activity after so much excitement.

With that, I was pretty much out of tricks. It was almost 2pm and I was EXHAUSTED! G was still happy as a little clam running about with the kids who were left.

Party guests were sent home with goody bags that included wands and tiaras and/or swords and shields, a small art set, and a pinwheel. I didn't really like any of the commercially available Tangled party bags --you know those little plastic things they sell-- so I made my own with plain white 2 for a $1 bags and a Tangled image I googled, had printed at costco and backed with a little purple construction paper for color. I thought they came out cute!Not included in the bags but passed out to the kids before leaving were these Pascal blowers. Again, found the pattern on the net at the disney site and it was pretty quick to cut them out and add google eyes and hand drawn expression. The kids loved these!
After the last guest left we went in the house and fell onto the couch. My feet were killing me!! It had been a lot of work but completely worth it. I was a great party and G couldn't have been happier. She had a great time with her friends and I was so proud of the way she behaved at the party. She was a great hostess for a just turned 4 yr old. Before the party we'd discussed the expected social graces but I was impressed that she did such a good job remembering to tell all her friends she was happy they were there and thank you for coming.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to my sweet beautiful girl... LIVE YOUR DREAM little one!!!

2012-01-10T00:43:00.001-08:00

Recent conversation with G
G: Mama, are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Me: I don't know. What are you thinking?
G: I'm thinking the same thing you're thinking.
Me: You are? What are we thinking?
G: I was thinking that you're the best mama ever!

Sweetest. Child. Ever.

2011-12-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

Georgie, Let Down Your Hair!
No, these are not Halloween photos ;-) Anyone who knows Georgie knows that she LOVES Rapunzel and than Tangled movie. She's seen it probably 100 times. She knows all the lines and every song. She watches it and acts out the movie for us. When Rapunzel sits and sobs G sits and pretends to cry also. She also makes us play the other characters. Its hysterical! When I asked her what kind of birthday party she wanted there was absolutely no hesitation before she answered "Rapunzel party!" So, Rapunzel it is.

The party is not til next weekend. Thank goodness because I've barely recovered from Christmas. But, we did our official "Georgie Is Four" pictures today! Of course, G loved having her pictures done and she was as thrilled as can be when she saw the results. Little goofball. The dress was made by this seller who had also made Georgie a Cinderella dress awhile back. And... drumroll please... I made the braid! I'd been looking at pictures on the net for ideas for the last few weeks and it did require a late night, last minute trip to the Dollar Tree for more flowers but, after all was said and done, I'm really happy with how it turned out. More importantly, Georgiana loved it!

This one is my favorite of the bunch. Adorable!!
This is G's reenactment of the scene where Rapunzel is contemplating more painting on the wall. So funny.

Petting Pascal...

She's four!

One more week until she's officially 4 yrs old! So exciting!

2011-12-27T19:56:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day
finally arrived! In actuality it felt like it sneaked up on me. I don't think I've ever felt so unprepared leading up to the big day. I did most of my shopping in the few days before and didn't purchase any of the food until about 4pm Saturday. But, it came together just fine. I love how our tree came out this year. We don't have a theme or anything. We just use as many of our collected-over-the-years ornaments as we feel like hanging and then call it done. And, even though I felt like I'd purchased hardly any gifts, it certainly looks like there were plenty.
I used the timer on my camera to get this family photo...almost everyone is smiling :-)
G was a bit miffed that she didn't have a grinch shirt. Sadly they didn't have one in her size so we went with green fairy pj's instead. Note to self: next year, we all have to match exactly.Last year, since it was the first time G had seen the Nutcracker ballet I got her a nutcracker of Clara. This year I got her a teacher to represent her starting school. I hope to make it a tradition to get her one each year. G was thrilled to find out that cookies are a perfectly acceptable breakfast on Christmas morning!

As it turned out, one of G's favorite gifts was a very inexpensive Rapunzel music box. She loved watching the little doll spin. So cute!

G made us a gift at school. It was two ornaments for the tree. I just love that kind of stuff!

G's gotten pretty good at writing her name. No small feat considering how long it is.

The Case man

Bobby and G showing off their Lakers gear

G's big gift was this Rapunzel tower. I really went back and forth on getting it for her. The online reviews of it were bad complaining about the quality for the price. Truthfully, its not the greatest quality but G really, really LOVES Rapunzel and played with it a lot on Christmas day. I hope she continues to get use out of it. If not, maybe I can find some solace in the fact that I got it on a super sale.

My mom came over for the day

Bobby and I celebrating "Kiss-mas" with G

G with her blanket that Grandma Christie made for her. She loves it!

Brett with his Lakers gear... I guess it was really the year for Lakers stuff. Good thing they're finally playing ;-)

We were lucky to have sweet Talin join us for the day

Overall, it was a nice relaxing day at home. Opening gifts and eating breakfast took several hours. Not because there were so many gifts, but because we didn't have anything we had to do, we could just relax and let G go at her speed. In my opinion, it was the perfect Christmas day!

2011-12-26T18:58:00.000-08:00

G's First Holiday Sing
Georgie's preschool is associated with and on the same property as the school that Brett and Casey went to from K-8th grade. The preschool was started when Casey was in the 4th grade, I think, so they never attended. Even though the preschool is separate, they've adopted many of the traditions that the "big kids school" has. One of those is the annual Holiday Sing.

The school is very diverse with families of all races, ethnicities and religions. It makes for an interesting mix and a more broad world view than I think a lot of kids get. Out of the 18 or so kids in G's age group (she has only 3-7 in her class on a daily basis) we have families that celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Los Posadas, and Ramadan. Throught the school year they do presentations of each culture's holidays that often include food, crafts, stories, books, music and dancing, etc. I really like it and have found the presentations and interaction with the families very educational over the years. Plus, its lots of fun because it seems like every day is another party!

Anyway, the final presentation before winter break is Christmas and on that same day they did the holiday program during which the kids sang 17 songs!! Let's just say that I had been super excited about the day for awhile. Seeing all the kids in their holiday clothes singing their little songs is just about the most adorable thing ever! Luckily --even though it was at 11am on a Thursday--Grandma, Brett, Casey and Daddy were able to make it. G loves to have her family around her and she was thrilled beyond belief that everyone was there to watch her. Neither Brett nor Casey had been back to the school for awhile so it was kind of fun for them too as they met up with a few of the teachers and staff who are still working there.

All in all it was a great kick off to the 2 week holiday vacation!

The school day was fairly unstructured. The kids had lots of playtime then it was party/snack. Because many religions are reprsented at the school, the kids to a general prayer before snack and lunch each day. G really likes it and says it at home before dinner sometimes as well.
"Help us do the things we should,
help us to be kind and good,
help us in our work and play,
to be more loving every day."
G love, Loved, LOVED!!! singing the songs. Each song had movements that went along with it (think mock sign language) and she seemed to do a good job at remembering them all. At the end of each song the audience applauded and each time G would look straight at us (proudly sitting in the very front row!) with this absolutely HUGE smile on her face. She must have asked me a dozen times after the show "were you proud of me mommy? when I sang my songs were you impressed?" Again, adorable!
Sadly, these pix are not the best

Ringing her bell along to "Jingle Bells"

Brett and Casey with Mrs Donaldson. She was their lower school music teacher when they were there. I think its fun to think that when G starts at FCDS, she'll probably have some of the same teachers that Brett had when he was in kinder 20 yrs earlier!

G was very proud to show her brothers her classroom

In front of the school Christmas tree at the end of the day.

2011-12-18T23:58:00.000-08:00

Santa's Christmas Wish
More Christmas related activities!! We always love the Candlelight Pavillion. Good shows, good food, good times. G especially likes to see a show. This one did not disappoint. In my book it started out a bit rocky... about 10 mins in I thought "uh oh, this is going to be corney." But then it got a lot better and turned out being one of the cuter shows I've been to.

G tends to be very attentive during live performance which I'm happy about. I asked her at the intermission what her favorite part was and she said "the singing." Personally, I think I liked the tap dancing the best. How often do you see tap dancing in a professional performance??

In the second act Santa and Mrs Claus finally made their appearance. All the kids in the theater were invited to go up and sit on the stage while Santa read off some of the kids wishes. G loved it! So cute. And, of course, at the very end G immediately said "do we get to meet the characters?" Adorable!

G doing her poses... "take my picture mama!!"
Inside the theater. G loves her "fancy" dresses.
After the show with some of the cast: Santa, Mrs Claus, and the elves Jingle, Jangle and Jorge Holly.

This concluded a very long weekend of pre Christmas fun!

2011-12-18T19:07:00.000-08:00

Santa Train with friends!
We love the Santa train at Irvine Regional Park. Its always a fun time. This year we were joined by friends Paula, Sophie and Courtney which made it extra special. G loves to have her girlfriend time.

(Fun fact: We just met Paula's family a year or two ago but we figured out that we were in China, and specifically stayed at the White Swan, at the same time. We probably sat next to each other at the hotel breakfast! Such a small world.)

We were a bit worried about rain but it turned out to be no problem whatsoever. It was a bit chilly but that only added to the feeling of yuletide. We rode the train, saw the big red guy, listened to Mrs Claus read a story, jumped in the bounce house, rode a pony, colored a picture, decorated a cookie and played a game! Two tons of fun for sure!

This was G's 4th or 5th visit with Santa this year. She really likes Santa. She hasn't noticed, or at least hasn't mentioned, that they all look so different. Interesting.
I love this picture of G and Sophie together. So sweet!
A pony ride is a must whenever we go to this park. Usually Bobby leads her around but this time G requested "mama!!"

G remembered Mrs Claus reading a story from last year. While on the train she kept saying "when we get back we're going to hear a story, right mamabird?" It must have left quite an impression on her.

When the sun dropped it started getting really cold so it was time to go. Great afternoon with friends!

2011-12-15T23:57:00.000-08:00

Ballet recital
G loves to be onstage! Its funny too because people often think of her as shy. In a way I guess she is but she also loves to be the center of attention. Confusing sometimes. Anyway G didn't really know her routine that well because they mostly practiced it during November while we were gone. But G still did great! She watched the teacher --who is onstage performing the dance with them-- like a hawk! Good job Georgie! Bobby took video. I'm going to try to load it onto youtube in the next day or so.

She was thrilled to receive flowers from Daddy after the show. So, so cute!

G with her BF after the show.

2011-12-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas time at DL
is so beautiful. Main Street, the castle, Its a Small World (IASW) and the Haunted Mansion are incredible at this time of year. I almost feel sorry for people whose first visit to DL is during the holiday season. I think they are probably forever ruined for future trips.

Several months ago while I was looking at something online, G caught sight of a disney princess Christmas dress that she absolutely fell in love with. I did too actually. I'd ordered from the seller before and had always been pleased with the results. The dress did not disappoint. The appliques are fantastic and feature the princesses in holiday wear --even the little mermaid :-) --and it has lots of twirl!

G really wanted to visit the princesses. Even on a slow friday that can mean a wait so Bobby took her to Dumbo while I waited for the princesses to arrive. It worked out perfectly with Bobby and G meeting me when I was just at the front of the line.

Ariel has always been one of G's favorites. Her absolute favorite is Rapunzel but she has her own meet and greet with its own very, very long line.

After the princesses G spent some time in Mickey and Minnie's houses.
Next stop was IASW which is by far my favorite Chrismas time attraction. Its just so pretty. At almost the last second right at the end of the ride I whipped around and asked the guy behind us to snap our pic. I think he did a pretty good job for being put on the spot like that!!

After that we hit Haunted Mansion (G's favorite) and the newly reopened Pirates. Then we popped over Calif Adventure because we'd make a reservation to go to the princess lunch. G and I have been several times but Bobby never had. I think the food and atmosphere is really good. We were early so G was able to ride on the jumping jellyfish ride. This is something she's wanted to do on previous trips but only recently made the 40" height requirement. It was a hit!

We then took a required ride on Little Mermaid and had just enough time to visit with Duffy in his Christmas attire before heading into lunch.

Not only did G love her dress but it was also a huge hit at DL. In fact the photographer's assistant at the princess lunch --who has probably seen just about every princess themed dress known to man --could not stop talking about it. G enjoyed showing each princess their appliqued counterpart on her skirt. Lots of fun!

After lunch we kicked around CA a bit. Santa was there with hardly a line so we thought we'd have a quick visit.

I like the Mickey wreath made of christmas ornaments in the background. Cute detail!

G rode the carousel which she really loves but I think the real attraction to going over there is so she can splash in the fountain!

Because we have the passes, we've been to DL about 25 times this year but never at night. Normally we arrive at opening and leave around 2-3pm to beat the traffic home. What this means is that G has never seen the fireworks. In fact, G has never seen any fireworks. I know, I'm a horrible mom. But in my defense she gets up so early and she is in bed like clockwork absolutely no later than 8:30. It just never seemed worth it. But G's been asking and asking to stay for the fireworks. We finally made a deal with her. We would stay if she promised to take a rest midday and, most importantly, NO grouchiness. She agreed. So after the carousel she laid down in the stroller and went to sleep. Then we thought we'd go see the Aladdin show. This required taking sleeping G out of the stroller. No worries, daddy naps work too!

About 6pm we headed back to DL. The lines just to enter were awful. They weren't even lines really so much as just a mob of people pushing their way forward and thinking "why the heck is this taking so long?" After 20 mins we were finally in and I was a bit bugged but as luck would have it we walked onto Main Street at a great time! We had made it about halfway between the entrance and the castle when they started the tree and castle lighting. It was a first for me and, although only a few minutes, really pretty. At the end they make it snow! G was up on Bobby's shoulders and loved the falling snow.

It was early still and G said she wanted to ride IASW again but talk about crowded! Just walking anywhere took forever. By the time we made it back near IASW the crowds were crazy, 40 min line! I was so not going to stand in line for 40 mins to go on a ride we usually walk on so we gave up and thought we'd go scope out a spot for the fireworks. It was still about 1-1/2 hrs away but with the crowds it was nearly impossible to maneuver around. There were already hundreds and hundreds of people waiting for the fireworks so we found a bit of curb and parked to wait it out until 8:45. Wouldn't you know, G feel asleep about 30 mins before the show was to start! After devoting nearly 3 hrs of our time to the singular purpose of her seeing fireworks there was no way I was going to let her miss it. With a bit of effort we were able to rouse her from sleep just in time. I have to say, it was all worth it. G loved the fireworks!!! I did too. They're actually quite well done and a bit more than the usual 4th of July things I've seen in the past.

Needless to say after 13 hrs at DL we were all pretty exhausted and it was time to go home. What a great day!!

2011-12-11T14:19:00.000-08:00

Muppets!
Who could say no to Kermit and Piggy? G had little to no idea as to who these "muppet" things were but I knew. Plus any movie starring Jason Segal can't be all bad, right? Not surprisingly we found ourselves right back in Hollyweird at the El Capitan theater for the show and muppet party afterward. I do love that theater.They almost always have these cute little things set up so you can take pix if you want.
Before the show, they had a short Christmas sing-a-long starring Kermit, Piggy and some guy interacting with them. It was cute and G really liked it. When they were done singing they dropped snow from the ceiling. G was in heaven. I wish I could have caught a picture of the look on her face... it was one of pure joy. Oh well, mental image will have to do.

The movie itself is really cute! Although G enjoyed the movie, I think I enjoyed it more. A lot of the humor went over G's head and, of course, the cameos by all the stars meant nothing to her. Between the movie and the party, we had time to check out some of the props, costumes and sets that were used in the movie. They had several of Miss Piggy's costume dresses. G in her normal girly girl style was infactuated with the Piggy's ultra high heeled shoes. So funny!

Always have to get one of these... G loves this mickey.

The muppet party was cute. They did muppet trivia (we were not good at this) and had one of the muppeteers from the movie do a bit about how to make a puppet talk and look realistic which was really rather informative. We had finger sandwiches, fruit and G's favorite part: cupcake decorating!!!!

G was super proud of her creation the look of which she enjoyed for about 10 secs before she decided it was time to move on to eating!

Cupcakes and diet coke, oh yeah!

2011-12-10T22:38:00.000-08:00

The Nutcracker Ballet
I love the ballet. I hope that G will enjoy it too. So far she really seems to! Last year we went to see the Nutcracker with my mom and G really liked it. I was surprised by her level of interest and her ability to sit through a 90 min performance. It definitely seemed like the beginning of a Christmas time tradition.

I was so impressed by the show we saw at Bridges Auditorium last year I thought maybe we'd try it again. In preparation I bought a simple book telling the story of Clara and read through it with G several times in the days leading up to the show. I find with ballet and opera the performance is much more enjoyable if you know the story beforehand.

Once again it was a great show. Beautiful costumes, very professional performance. Again, G enjoyed the show. Such a great thing for "the gurlz" to do together :-)

G striking another of her fantastic poses while waiting for the ballet to begin.
With Grandma of course.

Bridges is a really old and very beautiful theater on the campus of Scripps. It would be fun to see anything there.

Official "gurlz" pic

G loved these large nutcrackers they had set up in the lobby as decoration and wanted to pose with each of them.

More waiting with Grandma. Waiting is considerably easier to do when you have skittles to munch on.

G does love a character. So of course after the show we waited to see them. Here she is with the Prince/Nutcracker. Interestingly enough, the Prince was not the first character we waited to see. That would be the Sugarplum Fairy. When I asked G which dancer she wanted to meet, Sugarplum was her first choice. She seemed really excited to see her so we waited in line about 3-4 mins. We were next to go up when suddenly G decided she no longer wanted to meet her. I really have no idea why. She seemed like a very nice and pleasant young woman. Dunno, G does these things sometimes. No rhyme or reason I can find.

I don't remember what part this girl played. Maybe an angel??

G's favorite part of the story is when Mother Ginger comes out and all the little children (or in this version of the Nutcracker, gumdrop and peppermint candies) come out of her pettiskirt. G caught sight of the girls dressed like sweets and followed them around the lobby. Too funny.

Little gumdrop. These girls are only about 6 yrs old.

Some of the Chinese dancers. The dragon dance during the Chinese portion of the ballet is my favorite scene. Its incredibly well done.

The toy soldiers. Last year G was bothered when Nutcracker killed the Mouse King. This year, since we'd been reading the book, she was prepared and not really bothered.

And finally, with Clara. She did a wonderful job. While watching the show its easy to forget that its being performed by students (well except the gumdrops, they're just cute!) because the performance is very professionally done.

I think this dancer was supposed to be one of the flowers.

I think a family tradition has been established. I can envision an annual trip to see the Nutcracker in our future.

2011-12-09T00:06:00.000-08:00

Goodbye Summer
Hello winter. Well winter in Calif anyway. I've always teased that in socal we only have two seasons: summer/hot and winter/rainy. Well, its not rainy here yet but it has been really, really COLD. For those of you who aren't local "cold" means like 50-55 degrees... I'm talking freezing!

When we left on vacation, it was still pretty hot around here. When we got back the warm days were gone. Summer was over but G had nothing to wear except flip flops and sundresses and she's grown so much that NOTHING from last year still fit. Time to go shopping! I know, so sad right? So G and I hit all our favorite stores to find some cold weather clothes. I think this velour set from Naartjie might be my favorite of the ones we found.
Seriously, how cute is this set?? The soft colors look so pretty on my girl. I love it and so does G. She put it on and immediately began twirling! Within a minute or so it was "mamabird, take my picture!!" A few more minutes "Now take my picture outside mama!!!" Sure baby. No problem.
Beautiful, happy girl.

2011-12-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

YOOOOOO Gabba Gabba!!!!!
It's Time to Dance!!! We had so much fun. G danced, sang and jumped her sillies out. Afterward we went to the "party". Truthfully, compared to last year it was a bit disorganized but G didn't seem to notice. She had fun chasing balloons and meeting the characters. It was a nice Mommy/Georgie afternoon.
We ended up having really close seats, on the side but first row on the aisle. It was nice because no one was in front of us and G could stand in the aisle and dance her little heart out. G loved her dress. She did lots and lots of twirling!
"I like Bugs!!"

I'm not sure why but Travis Barker was there with his kids. His son played the drums and the girls did a little dance. It seemed so random to me. Anyway, at intermission I took G to the bathroom and on our way back to our seats this guy bumped into me. We both stepped back and said "sorry" and I started to step away then I thought, hey!! that was Travis Barker! That's when I realized that there was actually a large group of people waiting to take pix with him. As it turned out, the family who had been sitting right behind us for the show was standing there and asked me if I wanted them to take a picture of us. Uh, ok. So random.

Tiffani Thiessen from Saved By the Bell was also there. Again, not sue why. Odd.

At the party thing after G amused herself collecting and playing with the balloons.

DJ Lance

2011-12-07T01:10:00.000-08:00

Cherish
Three years ago today Bobby and I first held Georgiana in our arms. It was a great day but life with G over these past three years has been even better. I feel so lucky to be her mama. I love my daughter. I cherish my daughter. And, I always will.

2011-12-06T22:06:00.000-08:00

Turkey Day!!
I don't really go all out of Thanksgiving but prep still started the day before. I had promised G that she could help me pour, measure and stir. She was insistant that she wanted to "cook". She did a good job helping me make the cranberry sauce. She poured and measured and stirred to her little heart's content. She was so proud of herself for making "cwanburry". Sweet girl.

Bobby and G feign AMAZEMENT at the boiling sauce :-)

Our little crew enjoying the feast!

Talin brought chocolate raspberry cheesecake... yum!

We were able to steal Casey away from school and friends for a few days. An unusual treat.

2011-12-05T18:07:00.000-08:00

Preschool Feast
Because we were gone, G missed all of the Thanksgiving feast preparations at her school. But her teacher is so sweet, she told us if we came in a bit early, she'd have everything put together for G to do some of the more fun crafts and activities. It was quick but fun.

After that there was a whole school feast including parents and any siblings and grandparents who wanted to come along. As is everything at her school, it was organized and very nicely put together. G was thrilled!

I thought this "Thankful Tree" was really cute!
Ahhh, G's thanks was so sweet
My cute little indian (uhh, native american) girl

I think G was the only kid in her class who ate her food... all of it! G loves to eat :-)

2011-12-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

Purple suede boots
Nothing says fun like purple boots!

2011-12-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

Mom's Birthday Tea!!
My mom's birthday was the day after we came home. In order to make sure that I didn't miss planning something, several months before we left I'd made a reservation for us to try a new-to-us tea house called "Two a Tea". Originally it was just going to be me and my mom which is always nice because we can talk uninterrupted. Unfortunately when we got home we learned that the owner of Bobby's company had passed away and the memorial was to be the same day as mom's bday celebration.

This was a pickle as this particular teahouse doesn't allow any children under 5. But I thought G was capable of doing it and would enjoy a little tea party. Plus everyone always thinks she's older anyway. So, I sat her down and explained to her what would be involved and what would be expected of her. Then I asked her what she thought and if she wanted to go. Well, not too surprisingly my little girlie girl thought a tea party sounded fantastico and she assured me that she would behave like a big girl.

Sure enough she was just as good as can be. She gave the tea a try but decided that she liked the "princess tea" aka lemonade much better. She particularly enjoyed the scones with cream and lemon curd. Mom and I got to chat a bit too. All in all it was a very nice afternoon!

G and her Grandma in front of the tea place. G was able to wear one of her dresses from the cruise and brought her dolly along --with matching dress --for fun.
I like that in this picture they're both laughing about something or other. Its so hard to get a picture of my mom smiling and looking happy. She hates having her picture taken. ((Hi mom)) Happy Birthday MOM!!! May you have many, many more!!!

2011-12-02T18:35:00.000-08:00

South Beach and home
Double waaaahhhh!! How could this happen? The last day??? Shoot! Bobby and I were totally bummed. G on the other hand woke up, looked over at me and said “mamabird, is today our going home day?” When she confirmed it was she said “yeaaahhhhh!!!!” I guess one of us was ready to go home.

Our hotel was only about 20 mins from the airport and our flight didn’t leave until almost 3pm so we thought we’d still try to have some fun! We got up, packed, went and ate our last included breakfast (super tasty btw) and off we went to South Beach. We’d been by there twice before but had never gotten out. I really didn’t think we could leave Miami without making a stop in South Beach. As it turned out we only had enough time to visit a few tshirt shops and pick up some last minute souvenirs but it was still fun. G loves, I mean LOVES, tshirt shops. She’s so my kid :-)

Two boring plane rides later we landed in Ontario and Brett picked us up. We were home!

G posing on the balcony. See? No seaweed on the beach because they just cleaned it up.
OK, there are things they have in Florida that I've never seen in California or anywhere else for that matter. For instance, you can buy a REAL gator head in just about any gift shop or CVS store. Its a real gator head.... yuck. And, they're not cheap $39.95 for a small one and up to like $200 for a larger one. What does one do with this once they get it home?

If you're not willing to shell out the big bucks for a gator head, you can get a dead shark in a jar for like $16.99.... gross! And its nice because the person who receives this wonderful trinket from you will be perfectly clear on the fact that this is a "SHARK".

I guess this sign on South Beach is supposed to make others back home feel jealous that you were nice and warm while they were freezing. But, I checked the weather at home and it was just about the same. Take that, South Beach!!!

And that concludes our latest adventure. What a fantastic, wonderful, stupendous, terrific trip it was! Alright, time to begin the countdown to our next vacation: 75 days = 1800 hours = 108,000 minutes = 6,480,000 seconds. Not that I'm paying close attention or anything :-)

2011-12-01T21:23:00.000-08:00

Miami Day 3
Our last full day in Miami… what to do?? I know!! More butterflies!! Butterfly World in Florida is in Coconut Creek about 30 mins north of where we were staying. Back on the toll road for us. South Florida is filled with toll roads. I’ve never been anyplace with more. Anyways, we’d just been to the butterfly place in St Marten so I wasn’t sure it would be too exciting. But, G likes butterflies so much we figured, eh, we’d give it a try.

Let’s just say, it was AWESOME!! There were tons of butterflies and not just typical, but beautiful, monarchs. There were many, many varieties. They were so beautifully colored and very special. It would seem like a person would get bored looking at and attempting to entice butterflies but we managed to spend a little over 2 hrs there. It’s very peaceful with soft music playing in the background. There’s also plenty of shade and places to sit. I half expected to see fairies flying around. The only negative thing I have to say is that it was a bit pricey. Fortunately G got in for free and we had a coupon so that helped.

That evening we went back to Giraffas for dinner. It was SO good the night before and I needed another $15 filet mignon fix. Yum!! We thought about doing something else but we had booked massages at the hotel for that evening so we wanted to get back. As an aside, we’re not generally massage people. But, the Groupon I’d purchased included two 50 min massages so we figured what the heck!

We got back to the hotel and decided we’d let G swim in the kids pool while Bobby got his massage then we’d switch off and I’d get mine. G had been eyeing that pool since we arrived so she was super excited. Bobby took off and then returned awhile later explaining that there had been a mix up with the scheduling and the girl had accidentally booked us for the following day. Of course, that wasn’t going to work for us because we were leaving in the morning. They said they could squeeze us in for a one hour facial and a 30 min massage. Bobby didn’t really care about a facial and he knew my neck had been killing me so he suggested that I do both. I was reluctant –for about 5 whole secs –then off I went. Lucky me!! By the time I got back to the room, Bobby had already given G a bath!

I think this picture might be one of my favorites ever. It just cracks me up. She's been doing this thumb's up thing for awhile. When we told her we were going to butterfly world she immediately decided she needed to wear her butterfly glasses. How could anyone not cherish this beautiful girl??
The required family photo

The butterflies were so beautiful and, again, incredibly difficult to photograph. I was able to get a few.

G spent a lot of time trying to coax the little bugs onto her finger or whatever. She was occasionally successful.

More beautiful bugs

The lorikeets were a big hit

Georgie loved this swing bridge

They had a bird aviary

The whole place was so pretty. It was a great place for photos

Finally Bobby and came across this fresh butterfly. Being brand new to butterfly-ness he was slow moving. Bobby was able to get him on his finger.

When he made a flight attempt he landed on Bobby's shoulder and then made his way up to his hat

Bobby sporting his temporary passenger

I think its one of the prettiest butterflies I've ever seen

He (she??) was our little buddy for about 1/2 hr

G found a stick and started having more sucess getting the butterflies to stick with her

All of a sudden it jumped up onto her flower top. She wasn't too thrilled as can be seen

She put on a brave face just for the camera

Later that day, G checked out the kids pool. She really liked that it was only like 2 ft deep!
Another great, great day!

Tomorrow: Homeward bound.

2011-11-30T20:56:00.000-08:00

Miami day 2: Jungle Island
More animals!

I’d read about this place called Jungle Island. It’s in downtown Miami and sounded pretty fun. They had a VIP experience you could book where you got to hold and interact with lots of animals. I booked it a few weeks before we left. It was going to be a bit of a splurge but I was hopeful it would be a vacation highlight. I was told by the girl at the time of booking that it was really much better to do the 10am tour rather than the one at 1pm. It seemed obvious; its cooler then and the animals tend to be more active in the am than later in the day.

We arrived a bit early and went to check in. Unfortunately, although I’d received a confirmation of our tour, they had no record of us. After they piddled around for awhile they finally said they could do our tour later… there also seemed to be some question about whether or not they’d have all the amenities available. For what it was going to cost I had some concerns that we were going to end up with a great experience and we decided to just pass. I was kind of bummed. Truth be told, I’m still a bit bummed but what can you do? We decided to just do the regular park entry and we did have a very nice day.

They have a couple dozen macaws and other birds that stand out by themselves on perches and you can buy little bits of food for a quarter from dispensers to feed them. It was amazing to me how entertaining G found this to be. I was concerned at first about G feeding them but amazingly the birds moved very slowly and took the food so gently from your hand that my concerns were immediately laid to rest.

There were a few shows featuring birds and tigers. The place wasn’t too crowded midweek and pretty much everyone in the park moved from show to show. The best one was the bird show. They had a condor and another large bird, a six foot Cassowary, that we were told was the closest living relation to the velociraptor. From where we sat in the front row it was kind of intimidating looking. It didn’t help that the guy came out before the show and gave us a warning not to put our feet between the bars and a sobering explanation about what to do should the animal challenge us during the show. I’m not sure why we didn’t move… I guess it seemed safe :-) As it turned out the day’s highlight was a little photo thing we did with a baby tiger. It was so soft and sweet. They have a thing where you can play with them for like 20 mins that I was interested in but you had to be at least 6. Bummer.

Anyway, it was still a fun day. I’d actually like to go back sometime but I’d choose a weekend when the park would be fully functioning and I’d double check on my tour confirmation.
Dinner was a neat little Brazilian place called Giraffa’s. It was another of my Groupon things and very near our hotel. I guess it’s a chain in Brazil and this one in Miami is the first one in the states. I’m just going to say it…. YUM!!! Bobby and I completely agreed that it there was one of these in Rancho Cucamonga it would make a killing.

Requisite family photo
G feeding the birds. I think you she could have done this all day. As it was she spent a few hours off and on.
G's impression of a llama

I love the way G is holding her dress out on this pic... always posing!

My meager attempt at nature photography

I think these are spider monkeys which means the monkey from the day before, the one walking upright on two legs, wasn't.

So cute!

When we first walked into the park they handed us all these birds, including the one G is rocking like a baby, and said "smile!"
And of course, no florida theme park visit would be complete without a gator
"Rock a by birdie"

And again with that gator

And finally, the tiger!!! We were told that a newborn tiger can fit in the palm of your hand. This tiger is only 8 weeks old. Amazing how fast they grow. Oh my gosh, its fur and little foot pads were so soft. I just wanted to snuggle.

It turned out to be a great day. I'm still disappointed we didn't get to do the tour. Its definitely on my list of things to do next time.

2011-11-29T19:06:00.000-08:00

Miami day 1: Lion Country Safari
When I was a little girl my mom once took me to Lion Country Safari. I believe it was in Irvine. I have fond memories of that day. When I found out there was a LCS in Florida, I was in. It’s a bit of a drive, maybe an hour and half, from the Miami Beach area in a town called Loxahatchee.

After a slow start (return to hotel for forgotten item, emergency bathroom break for G) we finally arrived there just after opening at 10am. Going on a Monday in November was great. We practically had the park to ourselves. We took longer than average driving through the safari part. We had some amusing encounters with an ostrich, saw just how much poo a group of rhinos can make and enjoyed the playful monkeys. The lions were kind of a dud but, hey, what do you expect from an animal that sleeps 20 out of 24 hrs in a day??

They also have a walk thru part that includes giraffe feeding (a total bargain at $2.50 per feed), a petting zoo ($1 for food) and budgie feeding (again, $1) as well as a few small carnival type rides which are included in your entry. We had a fantastic time and almost closed the place down around 4pm. The only drawback of going on a Monday was that a few things were closed like the camel ride but the empty park was a good trade off. We found the whole thing to be a bargain!

G slept hard in the car on the drive back and we picked up dinner at a place called the Flashback Diner. G loved it because she got to have ice cream for dessert after eating hardly any dinner and watch TV at the table on the little flat screen they had mounted there. Hopefully our return to normal life will not be too painful for her.

Another of G's terrific poses
I don't recall now what this animal was but they were super close to the car, like 3 feet
G really liked being so close to the animals. As we went through each group, she began mimicing their actions and/or characteristics. For these she started showing us they had wiggly little tails.

More wildlife

Then G's impression of them eating their food...

and their twisted horns :-)

We had some close and very entertaining encounters with the ostriches. I saw a few people who opened their windows when the ostriches came around. That did not seem like a very good idea to me. I saw them peck at a few cars. I'm pretty sure they would have no problem pecking at someone's face.

G's impression of the rhinos

The actual rhinos. They were fascinating. We pulled the car over and watched them for quite awhile. We all watched with juvenile fascination as we discovered the incredible amount of poop they can make. Really gross, I know! :-)

Q? How does a rhino cross the road? Answer: however he wants!

Again, I love zebras!!!

After we did the drive through safari we checked out the walk thru part of the zoo. They had budgie feeding which is always lots of fun.

G and B and the giraffes. I fed them too!

Then we took a little boat ride. They have these monkeys (I believe they are spider monkeys but I cannot recall for sure) who live on a very small island in the middle of the pond. This one, and the guide there said he is the only one, walks upright!! I couldn't believe it!! I really need to do a bit of research on how common this is. She told me that all the workers at the park were pretty amazed too.

They even have a mini golf course. G did a couple holes.

The mini Crowell gang near the exit after a long day!

Bobby and I agreed that Lion Country Safari was a total winner. A++ day!

Tomorrow: Miami day 2, Jungle Island

2011-11-28T01:11:00.000-08:00

Sea Day #3 and disembarkation:
Wahhhhhhh!! How did this happen?? How did the cruise go by so quickly??

I find the last full cruise day to be the saddest. By then there is no ignoring that it’s coming to an end and then, to make things even worse, I have to re-pack. Ugh. I hate repacking. So depressing. Nevertheless I was proud of us because we got started on it just after breakfast. G was at the kids club and it had to be done. It always takes longer for me to pack up than I think it’s going to. Then there are all those things I realize I haven’t done yet and try to get to. Like, I still hadn’t had one of the made to order crepes in the café, explored a few areas of the ship or taken pix of some things I wanted to remember.

After getting packed up we had a bite to eat and then another LONG nap. Ahhh, a person could really get used to this nap thing! Why is it that toddlers resist them?? Anyway, we switched to a different dining location for dinner and had a bit more success. The food was still pretty crappy but the service was better and it was all served warm. Yippee.

That night they had a pretty good show. It was a Bollywood thing with some Cirque style stuff thrown in. It was by far the most entertaining show of the cruise, nice costuming, etc. G went too but, not with us, with the kids club. She said she wanted “to go with her friends.” Ugh. I can already see what middle school is going to be like. After that G went to the pajama party for about 30 mins and that was it. Cruise over. I repeat, wahhhhh!!!!!

The following morning when we woke up we were already pulling into Port of Miami (POM). First disembarkation was supposed to be 9am, we had tix for 9:35. Not bad. We got off the ship pretty close to that time and then spent HOURS trying to get our shuttle, get our rental car and get to our hotel. What a mess POM was. There were 4 ships in port, two NCL, two Carnival and they were all disembarking one set of cruisers as well as starting to board the ships to go out that evening. The term cluste&uck comes to mind. Sorry but that’s what it was.

At one point, the port authority guys were no longer letting the passengers coming off the ships cross the street to the middle area where the shuttle pick ups take place because the sidewalks were too full of people and baggage and there was no more room to stand!!! People were jumping into the middle of the street to stop cabs that were dropping people off hoping to catch one. This is strictly not allowed by POM security. One guard started screaming at a cab driver and banging on the side of his car. One of the porters loading bags for the new cruisers on the carts was hit by one of the taxis. Thank goodness he wasn’t too injured but OMG what an unbelievable mess.

We finally got our rental car and headed to the hotel. After some confusion and about an hour or so of driving up and down the Atlantic coast, we arrived. Yeah. I booked us at the Newport Beachside which is in a north Miami Beach area called Sunny Isles. I’d been watching the Groupons hoping something would come up in the Miami/FLL area for awhile and it finally did. The deal included an ocean front room, a massage for each of us, breakfast daily and 2 nights of chocolate covered strawberries and champagne! The price seemed pretty fair for the area and it included parking which is big because parking in the area runs between $18-25 per night! It seems that all of Miami Beach is expensive.

When we arrived we found the hotel lobby and public areas are nice and the location is good but the room itself is kind of shabby. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a dump and it did suit is purpose but I don’t think I’d be recommending it to anyone. We ended up having dinner at a Mexican place across the street from the hotel that we could walk to: a complete mistake. The food was typical, although not so great, mexican and cost us $50… for chips, beans and tortillas??? Really???

Again, laugh it off. It’s better than being at work :-)

This is the Kids' Cafe area of the buffet. We ate breakfast here almost every morning of the trip. The area to the left is the kids buffet. G loved the fact that she was able to get her own food. They even had scaled down pitchers so the kids could get their own drinks. It was really cute.
Enjoying the view of the beautiful ocean from the balcony on the last day.
We followed this ship most of the last day. Isn't that sunset unbelievable?

Since I booked the hotel from a Groupon I wasn't EXACTLY sure where it was. As it turned out, it was in Sunny Isles which is the more north part of Miami. It actually turned out to be a really nice base camp and, although I do not think I would book the hotel again, I would definitey stay in that area.

The beach was really pretty but it had this seaweed all over it. I didn't care too much since we weren't planning any beach days in Miami. But as it turned out, each morning they had a tractor type machine they used to clean all the seaweed up so it was completely clean during most of the day. Each evening the tide would bring in more... that's a lot of seaweed!!!
G loved this playground area the hotel had on the beach.

Tomorrow: First full day in Miami!

2011-11-27T23:59:00.000-08:00

Sea Day #2
I generally dislike sea days. I find them boring. If G was a little older maybe they’d be better. Maybe I’d lie by the pool or even play some bingo. That doesn’t really work with a 3 yr old that well. Like the other trips we’ve been on the offerings for families are limited. G would have been happy to spend the day in the kids club. I guess a lot of people do that but I don’t like leaving her there for too long. Anywho, our sea days ended up being very relaxing. Late wake up, sitting on the balcony, breakfast, walk around the ship, little snack, long afternoon nap, more sitting on the balcony watching the waves go by, etc. It was super quiet and lazy but in a good way.

Even though NCL is “freestyle” cruising they do have a formal night. They call it “dress up or not” night. Most people choose to dress up. We decided to have our own little second formal night on the second sea day. As it turned out a lot of other people had the same idea.

We got dressed up which included a tiara for G. She really loves that little tiara and asked to wear it almost every day. G really loves to dress up and kept telling me that we needed to get “dressed for the ball”. So cute! She was also excited because they were having a pirate and princess theme at the kids club that night. Unfortunately that excitement really seemed to get hold of G that night and she was such a booger at dinner that we finally just left mid entrée. She couldn’t seem to sit still to save her life and my continual reminders to do so–along with the painfully slow service and crappy food --were not making for a pleasant meal. Even while we were doing our family pix a few minutes later (which is something she normally loves) she was so antsy it was driving me bonkers. Eeek! All she wanted to do was get to that kids club. OMG!

Truthfully, she wasn’t really that bad. I think the problem is that normally she’s incredibly well behaved, almost Stepford maturity for a 3 yr old, that when she has her normal 3 yr old moments I’m completely baffled. It’s one of those “stop acting your age” kind of things :-) Anyway, G went to kids club and Bobby and I went to the show. It was a stand-up comedy thing done by the cruise director. I’d rate it as kind of funny. After that we caught a late snack to make up for our missed dinner and picked G up around 9:00. I was crashed out by 10pm. Bobby jokes that cruising exhausts me. In a way he’s kind of right. I don’t know if it’s the movement of the ship, the weather, the general relaxed atmosphere or what but I do sleep a LOT on the ship when I have time.

I think I dozed off a bit while looking at the ocean...its mesmerizing.
No pix of our lazy day at sea but here's one of Bobby and his little princess after we picked her up from kid's club that night. She was super tired.

This is a few of our professional pix from that night. Its hard to believe that any of them came out any good. G was so squirrely while they were taking them.

Ahhh, so cute!

Our official second formal night photo.

Tomorrow: Final sea day...

2011-11-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

Basseterre, St Kitts
Oh no!!! Our final port!! How did the days go by so quickly??

St Kitts was another new port for us. It was also the port that I’d done the least research on. I’d decided early in my planning that by our 7th port day we’d likely be sunburned and/or exhausted. This required an easy day. I did a quick search and found a tour guide named Thenford Grey who seemed to be the absolute clear choice. I booked him and gave it no additional thought thinking we’d just get on the van and go where he took us. It was also a late port day as we weren’t arriving until noon.

It was a bit of a relief really to just wake up on our own (well on G’s own anyway) and not have to rush, rush, rush. We decided to go to the dining room for breakfast instead of eat at the buffet as we’d done on all earlier days. As usual the service was painfully slow and the food barely passable. Bobby and I joked that we got most of the things we’d ordered and some of it was even edible :-) Not really that funny after 8-9 days but hey, what can you do?

I can tell you that Mr Grey’s reputation was well deserved. He is a real gentleman and his experience and knowledge were quite helpful. As soon as we –along with 6 others from our ship-- got on his little bus he explained that we would be doing the tour in a different order from usual and visit the fort (Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park) first. Apparently there was a party planned for that afternoon and the fort was closing early. We ended up being the first group up to the fort and had plenty of time to explore with no one else around. After a bit a few small groups joined us. I learned later from some of my fellow passengers that the NCL groups skipped the fort telling everyone it was closed for the day. And, many people who chose other guides actually drove up to the fort later in the day and were turned away because by that time it had closed. In this instance my small amount of planning turned out to be good enough.

The fort itself was pretty neat. As always G was fascinated by the canons. She likes to sit on them, lay on them, and pretend she’s shooting something. Then she’ll get down, do some twirly ballet type moves and then run off to find another canon. It’s really quite amusing to watch. She sometimes draws a small crowd with her antics.

Next stop was Romney Manor and Clarabelle Batik. There’s a pretty garden there, lots of awesome photo spots and truly beautiful batiks. Bobby didn’t know where we were when we arrived but he knew something was up because I told him to make sure he had his wallet and the credit card :-) The items, mostly clothing, are pricey compared to most things you can buy in the Caribbean but so pretty. I was able to limit myself to one dress and matching hair tie for G and a beach cover-up for myself.

Next stop was the beach. By then it was pretty late in the day but still very warm. There are some wild mongoose (mongeese??) there. They feed them fruit and people watch them. Someone told me that they’re illegal to keep as pets in the states. Not sure about that one. I guess earlier there’d been green monkeys too but we missed them. Oh well. G played in the waves some and we got a bite to eat while watching her turn into a shadow in the sunset. So beautiful.

We didn’t have to be back on the ship until 6:30 but we left the beach early… some kind of bug started biting at us and it was time to go. We had dinner at the buffet. Again, pretty bad. Sorry to keep harping on it but geez louise. As tired as G was she still begged to go to kids club.

All ready for our day in St Kitts. The formal name of the island is St Christopher's.
Up at the top of Brimstone Hill. Gorgeous!

I love this pic of Bobby and G ((hearts))

G walks into the fort with complete confidence

The grounds of Romney Manor are beautiful

Right behind us is the narrowest part of the island. I believe our guide said its only about 300 yds across. In the distance is St Kitts' sister island, Nevis. Atlantic Ocean on the left, Caribbean Sea on the right.

Moving on to the beach.

Georgie, Mistress of the Sea!!!!

It was going to be our last beach day so I was glad to see her run and run and run. What a beautiful site.

Tomorrow: Sea day number 3!

2011-11-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

Bridgetown, Barbados
Barbados was a repeat port. Last time we did a catamaran trip to a few snorkeling spots and had a fantastic day. So great that we almost just did the exact same trip again. But eventually we decided that we’d like to see a bit of the island and went with a tour company called Glory Tours. It was going to be a full day.

First stop Harrison’s Cave. I’ve been in many caves during my lifetime. At some point it usually involves crouching down and walking in a stooped position. Not this cave. This is a cave the likes I’ve never seen before. It’s huge! So big in fact that you don’t walk through it. They drive you through it in a tram. Some of the open areas are like 100 feet high (they told us the exact height but I don’t remember). It was filled with gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites which are constantly growing. The entire time we were in the cave it was drip, drip, drip, drip on our heads. At first it was kind of annoying but after a while I kind of got used to it.

After the cave we stopped for lunch. I was really looking forward to some flying fish and was told that’s what we’d be having. It’s the national dish of Barbados and very tasty. Alas, when we arrived at the lunch spot we were told they were out of flying fish and we were served kingfish instead. I’d never heard of it but it was quite tasty.

Next stop was the Wildlife Reserve. The main attraction there is the green monkeys. They are a pest on the island. Our guide said that for every monkey tail brought in a person can collect a $25 reward. Ick. Anyway, they’re super cute and not very friendly. They feed them pieces of coconut and surround the reserve area with bananas to draw them in. There’s also a very large walk through area with turtles, gators, snakes, birds, deer and other assorted creatures. The more we walked through there the bigger we realized it was. It’s a beautiful and very serene park that could not be adequately covered in the hour or so we had there. Time restraints are the drawback of this type of tour, of course.

Next stop was a snorkeling trip to see the turtles. We did this last time and enjoyed it so much we thought we’d like to do it again. We made a mistake and forgot G’s snorkeling raft –bummer—but were able to make do with her lifejacket, donut life preserver and goggles. It actually worked out pretty well! We saw TONS of turtles. I’m thinking at least a dozen, possibly more. I love the turtles! I mean I really do love them but there were so many surrounding me that a few times I had to push them away a bit. The boat captain fed them sardines which they must really like because they swarmed us. Awesome! We also snorkeled the shipwreck again which I think is a complete bore. The fish, although plentiful, are all silver and the wreck is kind of whatever with snorkel and mask. If I was to do the trip over I’d request double time at turtles, no shipwreck.

After that it was pretty late and we had to be getting back to the ship. Another great port day from which we were all completely pooped out. Seven port days in a row is a lot. Especially when you do them like us, commando style go, go, go!

The cave was amazing!

The green monkeys

Georgie really wanted to touch and reach toward the monkeys. I had to keep telling her over and over "these are not nice monkeys, they will bite".

G trying to swing like George of the Jungle on the vines :-)

The animal preserve was really pretty. G here with another of her creative poses :-)

This was a gorgeous beach. Although seriously beautiful it also had some obviously dangerous tides. Great photo stop.

Now this is a close encounter with a turtle!

G really enjoyed the turtles

At the shipwreck site we were surrounded by fish. G enjoyed feeding them crackers.

Tomorrow: St Kitts!

2011-11-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving 2011
We've been so busy since we got back trying to get into the swing of things and getting ready for Thanksgiving that I almost missed our November pix. We sneaked in there right at the last minute though. Good thing, I wouldn't have wanted to miss my cute little gobbler!

2011-11-24T15:43:00.000-08:00

Rosseau, Dominica
First things first: its pronounced Daw-mo-nee-kuh not to be confused with the Dominican Republic. Another new stop for us!

Dominica is a stop that few ships make. It’s very natural and, unlike most of the other islands, has no real port area specifically designed for cruisers. There is no Diamonds International. Charming and beautiful but also a bit concerning as tourism is the island’s primary income. Again, through my cruise critic roll call I was able to organize a private tour for 9 with Pepper of Sweet Dominica. Pepper, like most of the guides, is a super nice guy. Yes, they’re paid to be nice to you but I usually genuinely like them. Usually they’re married, they have kids and they’re just trying to scratch out a living as best they can.

Besides its general beauty and beautiful rain forest, Dominica doesn’t have a lot of specific must sees. There are the falls: Emerald, Trafalgar and Titou Gorge, the botanical garden and the sulphur springs. I was really happy that we toured with Pepper and he’d impressed upon us to get off the ship early. Our van was full and pulling out of the port area before most of our fellow cruisers were making their way to disembark. That means that we were the very first ones up the hill to the Emerald Pool. Gorgeous.

After that we stopped by a black sand beach for a bit of swimming and a bite to eat. G is almost always up for some beach time. What’s funny is that each morning as we were getting ready for our day she’d tell us that she didn’t want to go to the beach that day. We’d just say ok then move on. But as soon as we’d get off the ship, she’d start asking when we were going to the beach. Once there she plays, laughs and screams her little head off. Goofball. I’ve discovered I’m not a fan of the black sand beach. That black stuff gets into your bathing suit and never seems to come out.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, only the ship excursions can visit Trafalgar in the morning. All private tours can only enter in the afternoon (after 2pm). Pepper had us up there about 1:45. Definitely unfortunately we had one member of our group—remember that annoying couple from Antigua??? – who had some mobility issues. Sigh. This really slowed us down getting up to the falls so even though we were early by the time we got up there it was crowded. Bummer. It’s a double fall though and still very pretty.

We then made a stop at the botanical garden. For future reference it’s someplace I’d only visit if I was on a land vacation. The garden is large and going through there at a leisurely pace would take a full afternoon. One couple in our group wanted to go to Screw Spa. It’s a sulphur spring. Bobby and I didn’t think it would appeal to G and neither of us like the idea of soaking in community pools so that was a pass.

We never made it to Titou Gorge. I’d like to return to Dominica some time. I nicknamed it “the bumpy island” due to the poor quality of the roads. Next time Titou Gorge will be first on my list of places to go.

Bobby and G take a refreshing dip in the Emerald Pools. G said she didn't want to go in at first. Then once she saw Bobby near the waterfall she changed her mind.
At Trafalgar Falls
The sulphur springs were pretty smelly... G can't stand any sort of smell at all. She has a very sensitive schnoz

Haha

One of the things we could always depend on was the tasty chocolate truffle cake. Yum!!!

Just like on Carnival, the room stewards leave towel animals on the bed each night. G loved them. This is her impression of an elephant.

Great day!

Tomorrow: Barbados!

2011-11-23T08:15:00.000-08:00

St John’s, Antigua
Antigua was a new stop for us. One word: stunning. Truly, just stunning.

We booked a tour with Tour Guide Gordon who was another one of my cruise critic finds. We hooked up with another couple from our roll call to do an island tour and transportation to the stingrays. We’d done the rays on Grand Cayman last year and loved them. I was curious to compare the two experiences. We ended up with a total of 9 on our tour: our 5, a cute young couple, and another couple who really kind of bugged me. Oh well, what can you do right? Anyway, first stop was a really cool fort and historical area, Shirley Heights. I’ve learned a lot about the history of the islands on this trip and the fighting that took place between the English and the French for control over the islands. Nearly every island has forts and it’s interesting to compare them. Antigua was a major stronghold.

After checking out the fort area for awhile we had some lunch and then headed to the rays. On Antigua its run by a single company who about 10 yrs ago built an enclosure on a sandbar about 10 mins boat ride to shore to trap many rays in. After some time and regular feeding the enclosure was taken down allowing the rays to come and go as they pleased but, of course, they now come around freely for the daily food. The rays were HUGE! They can live a really long time and some of these must have been pretty old because they were enormous. We had a pretty good amount of time with them. Just like last time, G was thrilled. Sadly, our pictures are pretty crappy.

Having enjoyed the rays we moved on to a natural wonder called Devil’s Bridge. Seeing it was a trip highlight for me. It is so beautiful. I took dozens of pictures with my pretty decent compact camera but none of them will ever do the area justice. It was absolutely gorgeous. Gordon said it got its name because supposedly slaves were sometimes given the choice to become a slave or jump from the natural bridge and gain freedom. Of course, that almost certainly meant death but some made that choice.

There are vendors at the coast selling their trinkets on small card tables. I always try to look at what they’re selling and often buy something small if it catches my eye. I wonder, as they sit there hour after hour day after day in the heat and humidity, if they’re even see the beauty of their location anymore. Probably not. I think it’s a hard life. Each day they sit there watching tourists jump out of air conditioned vehicles sporting expensive sunglasses and snapping pix on their uber pricey cameras then jump back into the comfort of their vans. I wonder if it bothers them when people try to bargain them down from $5 to $4 on the shell encrusted frame they’re selling? I hear a lot of people complain about the vendors and I understand it can be a bit bothersome to be approached by yet another young woman wanting to braid G’s hair. But, I try to keep in mind that we tourists are their number one source of income and there is a lot of competition for our dollars that they need to keep their families going. I try hard to remember that our family is very fortunate to be able to make these types of trips when others are struggling just to get their basics satisfied. I try, and hope we are teaching G, not to be an “ugly, entitled tourist”. Then I either look if interested or politely say “no thank you” with a respectful smile.

Back on the ship we went to dinner. I don’t remember what we had but it was probably pretty crappy. The food has been consistently bad throughout. They seem to have difficulty getting all the meals done at the same time so someone’s food is always cold. Plus, the food itself is just not good. It ranges from barely edible to downright gross. There are a few things that are tasty and we eat those: broccoli soup, wild mushroom quesadilla, chocolate raspberry truffle cake. As has become our routine, after dinner G goes to the kids club for the evening program and we go to the show. Tonight was the hypnotist, Terrance B. Oh my gosh what a stupid show. It just goes to show the lengths that some people will go to get themselves on stage, and a cruise ship stage at that. Phooey. It was so bad that it was comical so Bobby and I enjoyed ourselves by laughing at the silliness of it all.

No canon is safe from G. She will climb it, lay on it, jump on it!
Isn't this a gorgeous view? By the way, that group buildings on that hill in the pic is Eric Clapton's house!! Can you even imagine???
Overlooking the bay where the English hid their ships from view of the French during battle.

This is one of my favorite, non Georgie, pix I took on our trip

Devil's Bridge is the structure in the middle. I so wish my limited photographic skills were enough to capture the beauty of this place. There are tubes drilled into the rock below your feet here and as each wave came in we'd hear a whoosh and a rumble. It was awesome!

This stop was late in our day and G had fallen asleep in the van. Bobby said he's just stay with her while I went to look. Once I saw it, I walked back up to tell Bobby he couldn't miss this one. Luckily, G had just woken up!

With the rays. This one was fairly representative of the size of most of them.

G liked feeding them. She held the fish then I put my hand all the way around hers to feed. Rays eat by sucking their food up very hard. Its like a very strong vaccuum hose so you have to be careful or it can hurt.

Awesome day!!

Tomorrow: Rosseau, Dominica

2011-11-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

St Martin/Marteen
We had a smidge of a plan going into this port. We wanted to go to the butterfly farm and we wanted to go to the beach. Last time we went to a really nice beach called Orient (nude on one side, topless on the other :-) so that seemed like an easy choice.

We partnered up with two couples that we’d met on the ship to share a private excursion and off we went. We ended up visiting an iguana “farm”… dunno about the “farm” part. It just looked like some beat up old buildings with a bunch of iguana hanging out. Our guide bought a bag of bananas to feed the iguana. One thing I learned is that iguana are good swimmers! They move through the water quickly kind of like an alligator. Very cool thing to see. There were also about a dozen small cages (maybe 3x3’ square) holding some extremely well groomed roosters. My fears were confirmed by our guide: cock fighting. Apparently completely legal and acceptable on the island. So sad. We fed the iguanas some bananas, pet them a bit and then moved on to the butterflies.

The butterfly farm is really just a very large screened in area filled with tropical plants. Can you say HUMID? Yikes!

G had a single goal: she wanted to have butterflies land on her. I didn’t think this was going to be a problem but it turned out to be a bit more challenging to accomplish than expected. The butterflies hardly ever landed. It seemed like they were in constant motion. When they did land it was for an extremely brief time (think ½ to1 second) and then they were off again. Or, if they did land, they’d close their wings. After awhile I started to really wonder if G was going to get to hold a butterfly. She usually has an incredible amount of patience for a three yr old but she was starting to lose it a bit. It didn’t help that it was about 100% humidity in there and we were all dripping with sweat. Finally, Bobby found the newly emerged butterfly section and managed to get one of the newbies onto his hand. Since it was young and weak he was able to transfer it to G and then it just sort of stuck there. Yeah! Success! G was very gentle and after holding it for awhile Bobby helped her put it back into the newborn section. Tragedy avoided.

Next stop Orient Beach. G had her normal fun laughing and screaming as she played in mostly less than 12 inches of water. Then we had a quick lunch and worked our way over to Maho Beach in hopes of seeing the planes take off and land. I could have skipped it. We did it last time and I felt like I’d BTDT but the others in our group had never been. It is a St Marten must do. We got lucky because a big plane was just landing when we go there. Then, that was it. We sat there almost an hour and the only thing we saw was a few cessnas taking off. Kind of a let down.

Final stop: ship! At least that was the plan. As it turned out, Queen Beatrice of Holland, was visiting her island and set to leave that afternoon. What this meant was that all traffic came to a screeching halt and we ended up sitting parked in the van for at least an hour. Its times like this that I really appreciate how agreeable G is. We sang some songs, she played with her doll and she was fine. The one positive out of the whole thing is that the queen’s cavalcade came right by us. She and her entourage came through in a large black expedition type vehicle led and followed by a few motorcycles. All I could think is that the Dutch must not be too worried about her safety. If it was the American president there would be car after car of security and other people and he would never come through in a vehicle without tinted glass. Ah well, I guess that was my brush with royalty. For a split second we were less than 10 feet away from her.

Back on the ship for dinner. Tonight’s was my worst. It was cold, sent it back, returned cold again. Uhhh, ok, skip that. Then G went to the kid’s club for their Very Merry Unbirthday party. On a side note, G has been loving the kids club! It seems to work out to have her go for about 1.5-2 hrs in the evening after dinner. They have lots of activities then and we get some down time. Nice. Thankfully, with a bit of intervention from the Asst Cruise Director, our issue with the supervisor was resolved, hopefully for good. Without G in tow, Bobby and I decided to go to the show! It was a not very funny comedian. Even so, it was nice to have a bit of grown up down time.

Checking out the reptiles
They really went for those bananas
There's this lookout area where a local stands and shows tourists sea life like urchin and sand dollars and such. He has a collection of shells there for the taking conch, etc and you can give him a buck or two. G picked this huge sand dollar. The animal is not inside any longer. Conch is a very popular food in the islands. I'll have to try it some time I guess but it just doesn't look appealing to me whatsoever.

At the butterfly farm. Trying to get a picture of one with its wings open was an incredible feat. It didn't help that I was using my pocket camera with the auto focus.

This is the butterfly G finally got to hold. Isn't it beautiful? It almost doesn't look real.

Again, it looks like it was photoshopped onto her hand.

At Orient Beach. G body surfs in like 12" of water. Its hysterical to me that she enjoys it. It seems like she just gets washed up onto the shore than runs out to do it again. Certainly this is what seashells feel like.

At Maho... here comes the plane...

and there is goes!!

Tomorrow: St John's, Antigua

2011-11-21T16:36:00.000-08:00

Tortola, BVI
We were in Tortola in March of this year. Reading in preparation for the trip it seemed that there was one place that everyone raved about: the Baths. I wanted to go SO badly but was dissuaded from doing so by people seemingly in the know based on their opinion that it was too challenging a trip with a toddler. So instead, last time, we went to a gorgeous beach and had a great time.

When we booked this trip which included a stop in Tortola, there was one thing I knew for certain, I was going to the Baths. I booked an excursion quite some time ago with a company that had a good reputation and had been around for awhile. In fact, it was the same company we did our last Tortola trip with. I was set! But, just a few weeks before our trip, the company went MIA. They stopped responding to emails and that was it. We tried to find another company to book the trip through and came up empty handed. The next alternative was to book through the ship but I wasn’t a fan of the idea. Finally, we decided to go it alone.

The day we docked in Tortola we quickly made our way to the ferry and got our tix. A 40 min ferry ride to the island of Virgin Gorda and a 10 min drive in an open air safari bus later and we were there, the Baths! Well, almost there. We walked down the hill –a bit muddy in a few places but really no big deal --and came to a beautiful beach. But that’s not what we were there for. No way. We wanted Devil’s Bay which is only accessible by climbing around, through and over these enormous boulders. Some places were a bit tight. Some required tromping through the water. We even got a bit confused and ended up taking a longer and more difficult route but we finally found our way and boy was it worth it! As we came through the last tunnel we were thrilled to find an absolutely gorgeous beach. Beautiful, amazing, breath-taking… are there some other words synonymous with pretty that I’m missing?? G frolicked (there really is no more descriptive word for what G does when we’re at the beach) in the waves. She screamed and ran and jumped herself to exhaustion. After that we hiked back.

The amazing thing was that G was just fine. In fact, in many ways the trip was easier for her than it was for us taller adults. Where we had to bend and squat or turn sideways to navigate, she could just walk right on through. And, I was so proud of her. She didn’t whine or complain even once. What a trooper!

The other shocker to me was how easy it was to do this outing on our own. The people on the ship's excursion rode on our ferry and our same safari bus. The only difference was that they were driven from the ship to the ferry and we walked... all of 10 mins at a casual pace. Of course, almost none of those people used the return transportation so they could walk back through the shopping area. For that they paid double what it cost us per person plus, if we would have booked through the ship, we would have had to pay for G. The way we did it, she was free!

Back on the ship it was time to shower and dress for dinner. We always enjoy dinner in the MDR. This one is very nice. The food really leaves something to be desired though. It’s not terrible. It’s just not that good. Whatevs. Not going to ruin my trip. After that, G was excited about going to the kids club. It was pirate night! Unfortunately we had an issue arise and we had to take it up with the supervisor. Still unresolved we scheduled a meeting with the cruise director to address it. Hoping it all works out well.

Overall A+ day in port, C- on ship. Hoping it improves.

Another of G's now infamous poses. This time with a view of our ship while waiting for the ferry to take us to the Baths.
G loved looking out over the ocean on the way over
We begin our desent

This way to Devil's Bay

G gets so much enjoyment out of playing in the water. She shrieks and laughs and has a great old time

You can see the rock formations in the distance. So beautiful

Making sand angels. All that sand would make me itchy but it doesn't seem to bother my girl

The walk to/from Devil's Bay is filled with these cave areas.

Goofball with her mouth wide open

Tomorrow: St Martin/St Marteen

2011-11-20T02:54:00.000-08:00

Samana, Dominican Republic
Unfortunately, Samana is a tender port. One of the nice things about this itinerary is it’s the only one. They just take up so much darn time. I think Samana is a relatively new port to the cruise ships so there aren’t too many excursions available. There are even fewer available with a toddler. We decided to have a beach day. This left us with two main options: first, the ship excursion to their private beach (easy but so pricey) OR second, something on our own. Somehow I became the group leader of a private excursion to a beach called Playa Rincon. Supposedly it was voted in the top ten Caribbean beaches by Conde Nast. Getting there involved the tender, a 40 min taxi, and a 10-15 ride on a little tiny open air boat. Very exciting!

The beach was fantastic. Very few people (in retrospect I'm not sure there was anyone else there other than our group of 10), super clear, warm water and what may have been the softest white sand I’ve ever encountered. G loved playing in the water and digging in the sand. She can pretty much do it for hours. After a bit we had a very nice lunch at an open air palapa restaurant. While we ate our BBQ’d chicken I watched some men shaving the bark off some logs with machetes in preparation to build another palapa. Hmmm, machetes.

Driving through the DR made me feel like we were in another time. We saw lots of stray dogs as well as roaming donkeys and goats. There were even men and women walking down the street balancing huge baskets of stuff on their heads—no hands!!

Back on the ship we showered up and went to dinner. The food was pretty good. Again, I haven’t come across any dish that’s been particularly good but it gets us by. A lot of people skip the included restaurants and go to the upcharge places. Bobby and I have talked about it and it just seems like we can get by on the included food. I guess we could change our mind at some point. So far, my favorite dish has been the wild mushroom quesadilla. Yum! Next best was the buffalo wings.

G wanted to go to the kids club again but we’d just missed the group as they’d gone to a magic show. Plus, she was so tired after her big day and only a 30 min nap in the taxi we thought we should get her to bed.

Off the tender and waiting for the last few members of our group
G playing in the sand which was of the very, very soft white variety
Notice the "sand toys"? One of our goals for our $50 cab ride to wal mart had been to pick G up some sand toys. I figured its Miami, should be no problem even though its November. Ummm, no. The employees I asked looked at me like I was crazy. So I picked up a cheap stack of plastic cups, a couple dollar kitchen spoons, and a water pitcher. I also nabbed the cheapie plastic ice bucket from the hotel we stayed in. G didn't even notice they weren't the conventional toys and had a great time!

Ahhh, this is the life...

This is just a picture I took of the beach. It was so beautiful I kind of wished I would have brought my big camera on the trip.

On the boat ride back. G takes every opportunity to do the hands up/roller coaster thing. Goof.

We had an awesome day. I am so glad we managed to put this trip together. This was especially true after talking to some of my fellow cruisers who were less than thrilled with what was offered in Samana. Several were very unhappy with the town and had experiences so bad they were questioning why the ship would even sail.

Tomorrow: Tortola!

2011-11-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

Dress up night
The evening of the Sea Day. G was excited because she got to wear her tiara!

Georgie loved this model of our ship. Each night she's say "mama, I love this. Can we get it?" She could not be convinced that it was not for sale and that, even if it were, we wouldn't be buying it.

Bobby and I asked someone to take this picture of us as proof that we were really out by ourselves :-)

2011-11-19T01:07:00.000-08:00

Sea Day
One of the nice things about being in a ship cabin is how dark the room is. G is like a rooster. She pretty much crows at first light. But when it’s dark, she sleeps in. Yeah! We got a slow start on the day. G started on one of her crafts I brought her and did a puzzle. I sat on the balcony and looked at the clouds roll by. We had a late breakfast, sitting in the kids section. It’s pretty cute with little tables and its own little buffet table. Then we went to a meet and greet for the cruise critic people. I’m not too chummy while on vacation. I just don’t usually have much interest in really getting to know others. But I’d organized a few excursions with some of the people from the online group and wanted to make sure everybody knew where to go.

After that, we hit the Blue Lagoon which offers 24 hr a day appetizers like buffalo wings and fries. Yum! By then it was definitely nap time. I could have used one also but decided to go to the ship’s library while she slept and grab her a few more books. This ship has by far the best library of any ship we’ve ever been on --super nice selection. Anywho, after that it was time to hit a cupcake decorating thing G’d been excited about attending. It was less about decorating than it was about eating the frosting but G didn’t care. She loves frosting!

Amazingly, by then it was time for us to get ready for dinner (I do believe we ate all day long). NCL’s concept is “freestyle cruising”. That means instead of having “formal night” they have “dress up, or not” night. We chose to dress up. At home we’re super casual so it’s fun for us and G likes it. I guess it makes the evening sort of special. We did some pix and then had dinner in the main dining room. The room is gorgeous. The food is really just so, so. G had pizza and fruit, Bobby had some kind of steak he said was good and I went with starters: broccoli soup, wild mushroom quesadilla and salmon tartare. The starters are very small servings so three of them ends up being a nice meal. We tried apple cinnamon pie for dessert but we were not at all impressed and skipped it after one bite.

By then G was chomping at the bit about going to the kids club… she’d been promised face painting by one of the counselors and she was letting that go. We dropped her off and decided to go get the dessert we didn’t have at dinner. It was nice and weird to walk around the ship sans G. After an hour, we were done being without G and went to pick her up. She couldn’t figure out why we were back so soon but still left willingly. Uh oh, I think my baby’s growing up!

G and Bobby at lunch. But really its a picture of the ceiling behind them... I thought it was so pretty.
They had a cupcake decorating activity that G loved. She was her normal particular self.
The creation!

Trying to keep it away from the Daddy monster

Tomorrow: Samana, Dominican Republic

2011-11-19T00:24:00.000-08:00

Anchors Away
The day started out pretty early… G woke up first I think. Time to go have our included “breakfast”. Uh, not really… some hard boiled eggs, bagels you toasted yourself and some fruit loops don’t really qualify as “breakfast” in my book. But, what the heck! We figured we were going to be spending the next almost 2 weeks on a cruise ship with pretty much unlimited food so whatever. We caught a 10am shuttle to the port and were on the ship by 11am. Our travel docs said that there wouldn’t be boarding until noon and actually advised against arriving before 11am but I’d read on cruise critic that this particular sailing would be boarding early. Gosh I love the internet! Also, we really didn’t have to wait in any lines. One of the little perks of traveling with a toddler is that we’re almost always told to go to the front or sometimes even to bypass the line all together. Sweet!

We headed to our cabin to check it out. I was pretty impressed. Forever ago when we booked this trip, NCL was having a fantastic deal: kids sail free plus a free upgrade to a mini suite. Basically what we got over a regular balcony was an extra 100 sq feet which, while still being a small space, gives us a bit more floor space, tons more storage plus a real bathroom (separate facilities and a real tub!). This was a big improvement over our last cabin on Celebrity which was so small we literally tripped over our stuff and each other for 10 days. Don’t get me wrong, getting to take a cruise in any cabin is great and we feel super fortunate just to be able to go, but the extra space is a perk.

First stop after the cabin and our traditional photos on the balcony with G, was lunch. We hit the main dining room. G had a double decker grilled cheese (never saw one of those before), Bobby went for the Philly cheesesteak sandwich and I had spaghetti alfredo. Honestly, other than G’s French fries (which were 2die4) I’d give the experience and “eh”. The dining room itself though is very pretty. In fact the whole ship is rather nice and looks to be in great condition. I guess it was recently refurb’d and it shows.

G had been begging to check out the kids program. This is kind of an odd one. On our last trip she stayed at the kids club one day for about an hour then got really upset and didn’t want to go back. But this time, leading up to the trip, she said she wanted to go. I don’t really care too much one way or the other. I’d just as soon have her stay with us. I enjoy hanging out with her. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind having an hour here or there of adult time. So, anyway, we went off to check out the kids club and G couldn’t have been more excited! She wanted to stay right then but it was only open for registration. We told her she could go later.

After a nice little nap it was time to check out the kids pool area. G loved it! The T-Rex Pool Area consists of 3-4 small pools and a couple water slides with a very cute dinosaur theme. The great thing is that the water in the pools is only 2.5 feet deep! This means that G, still a non swimmer, could enjoy the area somewhat independently. Of course, we still stuck to her like glue because, as everyone knows, a kid can easily drown in 2.5 feet of water and not everyone’s kid is careful around the little ones. We hung out there until it started to get windy then decided to get dressed and grab some dinner.

Since we’d done the MDR for lunch we thought the buffet might be a good choice for dinner. Actually somewhat poor planning on my part since apparently it was lobster night in the MDR. Oh well. Except for the salad bar (which was fresh and had good variety) and the veggie Indian food offering, the buffet was underwhelming. As a result we went super light. G had a couple slices of paper thin pizza that looked gross to me but must have worked for her cuz she wolfed it down. Bobby tried a couple things none of which appealed to him.

Also, coming out of Miami the water got really rough causing plenty of rock and roll. A few days in I don’t think it would have phased me but only having been on the boat for an hour or two I got a bit queasy. Not terrible but enough that I was sure happy when an hour or so later the seas had calmed.

Next: a self tour of the ship. After almost one full day I still find the ship somewhat difficult to navigate. There seems to be a lot of things that can’t be accessed unless you walk down one level, down the hall, then back up a level. I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it but it might take a few days. We made sure we located all the included dining areas and even stopped at the Blue Lagoon for some buffalo wings. The ship has 7 premium restaurants that are an add’l $10-25 pp. Bobby and I agree we’re going to skip those… plenty to eat without paying more imo. While looking around we were serenaded by G asking us “is the kids room open yet mommy?” over and over and over and over again. Finally, the answer was “yes” and we headed up there. G was thrilled to give the kids club a chance. We went back to get her within an hour and she seemed pretty happy. It wasn’t clear to me if she wanted to go back again. She was super tired by pick up time and I was unable to sort it out. Either way, I guess she can let us know tomorrow.
We finished up with a quick bath, stories, and songs before G fell fast asleep. Poor tired little thing. Truth be told, I’m a little wiped myself.

Almost there!!
Our home away from home for the next 11 nights
What has become our traditional sail away photos

Goodbye Miami!!! See you later

Checking out the pool

G couldn't wipe the smile from her face

Sunsets over the ocean are the best

Tomorrow: Sea Day #1

2011-11-01T19:47:00.000-07:00

And away we go!
Wow! The last few days have been a whirlwind. Sunday night I went with my mom to the Pantages to see our first show of the season Come Fly Away. It was Frank Sinatra music accompanied by some pretty amazing dancing. The show was only 80 minutes long but you could really see why. I don’t know how much longer those dancers could dance without keeling over. We did a pre-show dinner at Katsuya. I really like that place!

Monday was Halloween, of course. So we got up early so I could get G ready for her school costume parade and party. G felt very special in her costume and had lots of fun. Her party ended about 10:30 which was a good thing because, as of that moment, we hadn’t packed a single thing. Once we got home I spent hours packing. It always takes so much longer than I expect it will.

During this time we also did trick or treating which G loved!!! Not surprisingly, she was a lot more confident this year than last and we covered quite a bit more ground. Every house we went to commented on her costume and G would say “off with their heads!” So funny. I hardly had to remind her about saying “trick or treat” and “thank you” and each time she’d get a candy she was so excited! Super cute.

Tuesday morning started with us dragging ourselves out of bed at 4:15am which got us to the airport at about 5:30 for our 6:45 flight. It was an ok 2:40 flight to Houston. Then after a quick lunch we reboarded the same plane and flew another 2 hrs to Miami. Again, not bad but still super tiring. We got lucky only having to wait about 5 mins for the hotel shuttle to pick us up and take us to the La Quinta. I’d describe the hotel as serviceable. Not fancy but clean and for just one night, including free airport and port shuttle, breakfast and wi-fi, a bargain. The only bummer was that we needed to go to a store to get some last minute things which required a taxi ride --$46 round trip! Most expensive trip to Wal Mart and Chili’s ever!

Anyway, tomorrow is Get on the Big Boat Day at last. Seriously can’t wait. Yeah!!!

Here are a couple pix from last night. First G all decked out and ready to go.
This is after we got back from treating. G loves to play with the candy. She'll look at it and sort it and ask questions about it all the while trying to eat as much as she possibly can. Silly girl!

2011-10-31T01:19:00.000-07:00

Halloween 2011
This is G's actual costume which she actually likes much better than the other one. I asked her which she preferred to wear for Boo at the Zoo, school party and trick or treating and, with no hesitation she replied, "the long sleeved one!" I think she likes it better because it looks more like the "real" Queen of Hearts costume. Again, the scans are not very good. I'm not sure what the issue is...maybe the red??? Whatever. There will be a few editions to the costume for actual trick or treating. Its become somewhat more elaborate as time has passed. Hopefully I'll have time to post pix before we leave.

What a little cutie!

2011-10-29T22:45:00.000-07:00

Boo At the Zoo
Friends Paula and Sophie joined us at the LA Zoo for Boo at the Zoo. Super fun! The zoo has a few trick or treat stations where they pass out candy and there were lots of little ones in costumes but otherwise it was a pretty typical day at the zoo. Fortunately, with the zoo membership we were able to get in early when it was less crowded. What the means is that at 8:15 am I was standing in line in front of the zoo. Eeek. It was early.

G enjoyed collecting (and eating) the candy and playing with Sophie. I enjoyed seeing the animals. I don't know if it was the weather or what but the animals were so much more active than usual. The black bears were wandering, the jaguar pacing, the tiger played with a ball int he water. Even the koalas were moving around! Before we knew it we'd been at the zoo for 7 hrs! I was exhausted. G wanted to stay longer :-)

Sophie and G in the pumpkin patch. G was stoked to have a chance to wear her costume. She loves that costume.
I thought these masks were really neat
We've been to the zoo now 3-4 times in the last few mos. I knew there was a train there somewhere but we'd never found it. We were bound and determined to find it and we finally did. Truthfully it wasn't that exciting but G and Sophie thought it was great!

The LA Zoo recently opened their brand new $2.5 million carousel. Its really beautiful. G chose to ride the zebra for her first go round.

Apparantly a Puss in Boots movie is coming out. To promote the movie they had two of the movie characters there for pix. G always loves a character!

We always stop by to look at the meerkats.

The last stop of the day was a hands on exhibit featuring hissing cockroaches. G enjoyed petting them but passed on having it sit on her hand. Yeah, can't say I blame her much. Little goof.

2011-10-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

First Official School Pic
Fall theme obviously. I love this picture. So cute! As always, Georgie was totally excited about picture day. My sweet, sweet girl.

2011-10-24T00:45:00.000-07:00

Yeah Casey!
He's not officially 21 but he will be in just a few days. Scary. How is it that my kids keep getting older and older and older??

2011-10-19T00:37:00.000-07:00

Dinosaur Train at the Zoo
I'm pleased to say that we were able to make another trip to the zoo this past weekend. Yeah! Getting some more use out of our family pass. Brett and his friend, Talin, joined us. G was thrilled. She love, loves, loves Talin. She's convinced that the reason she comes to our house is to see and play with her :-) Brett's not completely sure its untrue.
Buddy the Dinosaur from Dinosaur Train was there for a meet and greet. As always, G was thrilled to meet a character.
I love zebras. They're so beautiful and seem so gentle. I wish I could pet one!

It was such a nice day. The weather was nice, the company was good. Just an all together calm and pleasant way to spend a sunday!

2011-10-18T23:44:00.000-07:00

Crazy, busy day!
Boy we had a busy weekend. Saturday morning started out with dance class at 8:45. After that we quickly came home, changed clothes and picked up our present for a birthday party later that day. G loved the birthday party!!! It was a Barbie theme. Barbie is kind of a new thing to Georgie but I think she swallowed it hook, line and sinker. There was a LOT of candy at the party though and every time I looked at G she was shoving it into her mouth. She has very little self control when it comes to sweets.

After the party, G took a nap in the car while we drove home. We picked up Bobby because we had tickets to a play, Honus and Me, at the local theater. As usual, it was very well done. I'm constantly impressed by how good the productions are for a local community theater. This one was a bit over G's head. Thankfully it was pretty short so G just hung out on my lap and chilled. After the play she told me she really liked it and she wanted to go meet the "characters". She was even excited about getting her picture with the villain! So funny.

After that, we had dinner with the family. I think we got home at about 8pm. I was exhausted!

G enjoyed helping her friend, Gracie, celebrate turning 5!
G shows off her Barbie cupcake. She didn't like the cake part but managed to wolf down all the frosting. I told you, this kid has a wicked sweet tooth.
Just before the play. G's doing Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas hands. I tried to get her to do them when we met Sally the week before but she wouldn't. Ever since then, she's been showing me her "sally hands". I think she's regretting not doing it before. So funny. We might have to hunt Sally down and take another go at it.

With the "characters". The guy on the left was the baddie. The actor on the right was "Joey" the main character. He was very good.

With Honus. The expression on his face is priceless!

2011-10-17T18:56:00.000-07:00

Fire Dept Visit
Preschool is so much fun!! G's class had fire prevention week which was to culminate with a visit from the fire department. G was so excited. I mean really, truly excited about the fire truck coming to her school. All the kids were. Isn't it great when you're three, something so mundane is fantabulous???

There was an emergency which delayed the firemen's arrival by about 90 mins or so. But when they finally did arrive, the kids cheered!!! It was as if Santa himself was on site! Super fun. The firemen explained what to do if there was a fire, they talked about 911, and they passed out coloring books and sticker badges. Oh yeah!

Here's G getting ready for morning snack. BTW, omg my kid is a pokey puppy. All the other kids had eaten their pretzels and drank their juice and there my little one sat with a plate full of pretzels and a cup full of juice. I asked her if she wanted to be done, "no" she replied, "still working on it". Her teacher told me she is consistently the last one done with snack and lunch. Criminey.
While we waited for the firemen, G had a rip roaring good time collecting leaves from the playground. Some of the other kids joined in and eventually they were all running around like crazy people collecting every leaf they could find. What a fun activity!

Finally, the firemen were there. All the kids enjoyed getting to sit in the driver's seat!

Fun day!

2011-10-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Cowgirl pix
My favorite photographer, Carol at Joseph Carroll Photography in Murrieta , does these special theme shoots every once in awhile. Her most recent was Vintage Cowboy. I thought it sounded fun and different. Different is important. We do LOTS of pix so I'm always looking for something different.

I found her a cute dress, western-styled but feminine, and a pair of boots and off we went! I really like Carol. She's calm and super nice. She's totally fine with me making a suggestion but I usually don't because she ALWAYS has a vision. G had tons of fun that day. She giggled and goofed around a bit. It seemed like it went well but you can never be too sure of these things until you actually see the results.

A week later, Carol posted some of the pix on her facebook page. OMG!!! Fantastic! I was blown away. Carol named this first one "Waiting" but I call it "The Thoughtful Cowgirl". Either way, awesome photo imo.
A smiley one.
Seriously, how beautiful is this little girl?

The only problem now will be choosing which ones to order. Ugh. Decisions, decisions...

2011-10-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

Passholder Event
Disney had a neat promotion for annual passholders (APs). You had to email and request one of 1250 free tickets to a special after park closing event. If your email was chosen as a winner you could bring in yourself and up to 3 additional APs. I heard about it too late to enter but through the generosity of another AP and the magic of the internet, managed to score 4 tickets for G and me plus friends! I was a bit nervous as the event officially ran from 8pm -midnight. G is usually in bed about 8pm but decided to give it a try figuring if it was a complete disaster we could just leave and go home. As it turned out, wow!!! what a great evening! It was on a wednesday night so we got there a bit early to avoid the traffic. While waiting for our friends and benefactors we took the opportunity to do a bit of character hunting.

We got to see Mickey in his fall wear:
Goofy in his Jack Skellington costume
And Bre'r Fox. G didn't know who he was but when I told her "Bre'r Fox" she said "oh, he BLEW the house down!!!" Fox, wolf, close enough I guess.
Once our friends showed up we hit the Haunted Mansion real quick. Only Tomorrowland, Fantasyland and Main St were open for the event so we thought we'd get a quick Nightmare Before Christmas fix before those areas were closed for the evening. By the time we finished with the mansion it was nearly 8pm and the park was starting to clear out the day visitors. You couldn't get on the rides if you didn't have one of the special orange wrist bands. By 8:30 or so, the rides were all pretty much walk on! I've never seen Disneyland like that ever. I guess DL capacity is about 70-75k but for this event the maximum number of guests in the park would have been 5000. In about 2 hrs we rode Star Tours, Buzz, Rockets, Alice, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Mr Toad, Snow White, Tea Cups, and watched a parade! Amazing! Georgie and her friend Gracie laughed and squealed and ran from place to place like the crazy exhausted little things they were.
I also got to meet Shelby from My Year With the Mouse and her family. That was pretty cool! How cute is her little boy??? Unfortunately we had only a few spare moments to chat and never got to have a churro together :-( A definite must for next time.

Now that G is tall enough, a lot more of the park has opened up to her. She was excited to give Star Tours a try. She really liked it. Me, not so much. As I've read, yes, the ride is less queasy inducing than it was before but it still made me feel putrid. It always seems so hot in there to me. Ick!

The parade is called Soundsational. I'm not really much into parades in general but this one was very good. The floats were beautiful and quite impressive. Each of them featured a different Disney movie or theme and was accompanied by costumed dancers. G's favorite was definitely the princess float which I think had every princess on it!

After the parade, they pulled the floats onto Main Street along with their characters and you could have your pictures done with them. We did wait in the long but very quick moving line for the Aladdin float and then caught a quick pic with Mary Poppins. I would have loved to find the princess float and do a picture with that one but, alas, it was almost 11pm and Georgie was toast! It was definitely time to go home.

All in all it was a great evening! I'd been worried that it might be a complete disaster but instead it was probably one of the more enjoyable times I've ever spent at Disney. Yeah!!!

2011-10-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

"Off with their heads!!!"
Georgie modeled this set for this seller Heavenly Things for Angels on Earth. I'm not sure why the scans look so crappy. I had a lot of fun making the crown, the heart wand and the candy bag. The red spot on her cheek is a heart-shaped jewel which Georgie LOVED!! We now have two Red Queen halloween outfits. This one and a long sleeved, much more serious one. I guess it will depend on the weather which one she actually wears =) It was 100+ the other day so who knows??

2011-10-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Disney Firsts!
Eager to make the most of our annual passes, we decided to hit DL again this Sunday. Due to it being a holiday weekend, I was a bit concerned about crowds so we thought we'd get a super early start on the day. To encourage us to get up and out on time I made a 7:10 ressie for the Minnie and Friends breakfast. We arrived in the parking lot at 6:50!!! Egads, really?? We weren't the first car there... we were about 10th :-) In case you were wondering, this is what a nearly empty Disney parking lot looks like:
The great thing about having the very first breakfast reservation is that when we arrived at the restaraunt, we were the only ones there! Well, you know, us and the characters. There were a few on hand to play ring around the rosie
Georgie loves character meals. She really enjoys character hunting and getting their autographs. I must admit, it has become a bit addicting. We'd met Rafiki before but that was in WDW last year and I don't think G remembered. Plus, we'd recently seen the Lion King movie which made it fun.

We've seen Captain Hook many times. G likes to say "tick, tock" to get a response from him. Or rather, she likes for me to say it :-)

It's Minnie's breakfast so you're guaranteed a visit from her

Fairy Godmother showed up and asked G about dresses and glass slippers and other such things

More fun with Pooh and Eeyore

Mr Penguin from Mary Poppins was new to us. G was trying to do some sort of penguin footwork but she ended up looking like she was going to fall.

Tigger is one of G's favorites

After breakfast we went past Pixie Hollow and found out that Fawn was there! We've had no luck finding fairies. The line wasn't so bad so Bobby waited in it while I took G to ride the rockets. By the time we got back he was first in line and had been letting people pass him. Yeah! Having Daddy there gave her front of the line access. Fawn was very sweet.

Recently, G has had this huge increase in her quest for adventure and all things new. This whole week she'd been telling me that she wanted to go into the "skeleton house" which meant the Haunted Mansion which currently has the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. I really was a bit concerned that it would be too scary for her. I explained to her a bit about what was going to happen and tried to show her a youtube video in preparation. After the rockets and the fairies G said somewhat insistently "mama, I want to go to the skeleton house". Bobby and I agreed, if she thought she was ready we weren't going to hold her back. So off we went!

As we made our way through the line, Bobby and G made scary faces at each other. This was practice for what they were going to do when they saw Jack Skellington inside.

This next picture is so funny!

And "how did G enjoy her first trip inside the Haunted Mansion?" you might ask. She loved it!!! In fact, she loved it so much that she asked if we could ride it again, right then. So we did! It was my first time seeing the Halloween overlay. It is really cute!

Brazened by her success with the mansion, G pointed at Splash Mountain and said "I want to go on that one!" I was fine with taking her but I wasn't quite sure she was tall enough. You have to be 40" to ride Splash. About a month ago we were at DL with some friends and tried to get G on Star Tours. She was close but definitely not 40" tall and was unable to ride. Bummer. I was pretty sure she hadn't grown a sufficient amount in the last 30 days. But, we let her give it a try. Sure enough, G had grown!! Holy heck! G was so excited she started jumping and yelling "I made it!!! I get to ride!!!" The kid manning the fast pass thing was amused and as a little Disney magic gave G an instant fast pass. Yeah for us! G and I rode in the back. I got a little wet but poor little G got soaked! And, on that last drop, she screamed!!! She loved it.

After Splash we were back to our quest for the ever elusive characters... I'd read on the disboards that Jack and Sally were in the park. G kept talking about seeing the "skeleton man" so I started asking around. As seems to always be the case no one can ever really tell you exactly if, where, or when they characters will be around. But, finally we found him!! In fact we were super lucky because they cut the line right after us. Then a few mins later Jack returned... with Sally. Jackpot!!

We finished up the afternoon with a visit to the Tiki Room. I think this is G's new favorite attraction. Yes, she enjoys the birds and the music but mostly I think she looks forward to the Dole float she gets for a treat while we wait.

Fantastic day!

2011-10-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

Preschool Harvest Fair
Once Georgie heard what would be happening at the preschool fair-- petting zoo, bake sale, pumpkins --she was IN! Seriously, animals you can touch? Sweets? Crafts?? Oh yeah, let's get this party started.

G had lots of fun petting the goats, chickens, pigs and bunnies. They were awfully cute.
I'm not really sure the bunny wanted to be brushed but he didn't have much choice in the matter
With the baby pig, Petunia

Finally it was time to pick a pumpkin! The school had them delivered about a week before and they'd been out on the grass creating patch ever since. Each morning when we walked into school G would look longingly over at the pumpkins and explain to me "no touching mamabird".

G and I spent some time decrorating her pumpkin. Those jack-o-lantern stickers really helped out.

It was a great morning!

2011-10-05T23:37:00.000-07:00

Halloween time at Disney
I'd never been to Disney at Halloween time. Wow! Super fun decorations and lots of slightly spooky stuff. We got lucky and ended up there on a pretty quiet day. Short lines, yeah! Bobby had the day off so he was able to join us. Yeah again!

Here's our official day at Disney photo. Just a bit of fall decoration in this part of the park. The day marked a really big first for Georgie. The last few times we've been to Disney, G's been taking some long looks at the Matterhorn and has mentioned a few times that she wants to ride "that one mama!" She's still a bit frightened by the Toontown coaster which is much smaller and more mild so each time she'd ask I'd tell her maybe next time. But, apparantly the time had come because she was quite insistent this time. As soon as we came around the corner from the fairies (G's number 1 favorite place) she caught sight of that giant mountain and said "Mama, I want to ride Unicorn!!" I was a confused for only a second... unicorn, that's a good one! After asking her if she was sure, I said ok and off we went to wait in line. We told her it was going to be fast and I explained about the abominable snowman and she still wanted to do it. As we waited in line I thought she might change her mind but she didn't. She chose to sit with mommy and off we went. I think she screamed but it was kind of hard to hear. I spent the ride holding onto her as tightly as I could in hopes of preventing her little body from slamming into the sides of the car. That ride was a lot more rough than I remember.

Once we got off the ride we asked G "was it fun?" .... "no" ... "were you scared?" ... "yes"... "do you want to ride it again?" ... "no"

But then, a few hours later, I asked her what was her favorite thing we'd done so far that day. Without hesitation she said "the snowman coaster". So I asked her if she wanted to ride it again and she said "No, I just wanted to give it a try." So cute!

Here are Bobby and G waiting to get on the "Unicorn"And with mommy after conquering the mountain!
Because its Halloween time they have a villian meet and greet set up. Georgie was happy to meet the queen. She told her she was her favorite and she was going to be the Red Queen for Halloween. The queen was so funny. She spent a lot of time interacting with Georgie. I think its because most really little kids don't really like the villains but G loves them! Later, the queen got down in Georgie's face playfully trying to intimidate her. No way, didn't work on my girl. She just crossed her arms and gave it right back to her. So, so funny! Even the photopass people were cracking up. Next was Jafar. After they took her picture she turned, shook her finger at him and said "you should be nice to Jasmine!" Haha! Georgie really enjoys her character interactions.Off to Toontown we went. As usual G could spend her life in this area of the park. I think Bobby was amazed by how fascinated she was. It is somewhat astounding how much time she can spend in Mickey and Minnie's houses. She lays on Minnie's bed each time we go. Mother daughter tea party
Georgie baking the cakeShe explained to me that this is HER birthday cake. No trip to Toontown is complete without a visit with Mickey! We caught him in his tuxedo this time. I think there's only one mickey left for us to see, Steamboat Willie.

Georgie being silly in Goofy's garden. I'm pretty sure the pumpkin is always there but its a really great prop for Halloween time. Once we left Toontown the coronation had just begun. Yeah!! More princess time. We stayed for storytime and got to hear Snow White's story this time.

We were starved but had enough time to check out all the neat Halloween stuff in the Big Thunder Mountain area. First stop Woody and Jessie. Ok, here's something odd... G is actually a bit afraid of Woody. I'm not sure why but she always has been. I'm not sure how this is possible when she shows no fear for the baddies whatsoever. Anyway, I guess since Jessie was there it made her feel more secure.

The pumpkin carving and sculpting was pretty fantastic. The Little Mermaid one was G's fav.

This is several hours later after G had taken a good long nap in the stroller while we had a bite to eat. What a great day!

2011-09-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

3 years ago
I received the call that I'd waited years for. It was the call saying that finally, we had a little girl. I've written one of these posts each year on the anniversary of our referral call. Each year I'm shocked by how quickly the time has gone. It seems as if the last three years have whizzed by in the blink of an eye. And, at the same time, it seems as though Georgiana has always been with us.

Having Georgiana in our lives has been such a gift. I as myself everyday, how did we get so lucky??

These are the first pictures I ever saw of my baby... such a little sweetie :-)

2011-09-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Lion King 3D
I'm fairly sure I saw Lion King in the theater when it first came out many years ago. Not completely sure though. I do know I've seen it dozens of times. The thing is, although I like the movie a lot, I've never been able to get past the scene where Mufasa is killed by his brother Scar. It has always been very disturbing to me. I certainly did not find it any less disturbing in 3D. Other than that, the movie was really good. The 3D effect was more noticeable to me in the early parts of the movie but I like 3D in general. It pulls me into the movie more.

G is always excited about going to the movies but when I told her we were going to have breakfast with Timon, she was really excited! It was nice because rather than just having Timon there for pictures, he came out and danced and interacted with the kids. Cute!

G showing off her Mickey waffle. She's always really excited about ordering them but she's never that into eating them. I think the idea of the Mickey waffle is better than the actual thing.

Waiting for the show to begin

G sporting her 3D glasses and munching on the popcorn. Life is sweet!

2011-09-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

Beach again???
Yes! G had so much fun last weekend we thought we'd try it again. Weather.com said it was supposed to be sunny and what seemed like warm enough. Uh, yeah. Not so sunny and barely warm enough but still funtastic!!! G spent about 4 hrs running and playing. She made friends with another little girl and they giggled and dug in the sand. Me? I sat in a chair and dug my toes in the sand. Ahhh, relaxation. We barely had enough time to stop at the local Ruby's and get 1/2 a grilled cheese in her before she started falling asleep mid bite. Poor little thing... we really wore her out. Its not surprising she slept really well that night :-)

"I command you!!!!"

Bobby and G begin working on their creation

G as Ursula the sea witch... hence the angry face. Bobby was not terribly happy with the result. As he explained to me he has a plan for a much better Ursula next time. Haha! Bobby takes his sand art seriously ;-)

2011-09-27T23:16:00.000-07:00

Moon Festival Celebration
We left the beach and drove straight to a friend's house for a little get together to celebrate the Moon Festival. G had a great time with the other kids playing, decorating paper lanterns with paint and markers, and playing princess dress up. The adults spent the time chatting. It was a very nice day. Thanks Tanya!
The princess and Prince Daddy

2011-09-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

Beachin'
The saga of my groupons continues... I bought one for a beach photography thing awhile back and time was running out. The location, Aliso Beach in Laguna was gorgeous, really beautiful. I'd never been before but we'll definitely be going back. The photo thing was just ok. G was her normal uncooperatively cooperative self but once the words "say cheese" came out of the photog's mouth I lost all confidence. We'll see. Seriously, who trains these people??? The good news is, Georgie had a lot of fun getting the pix done and then playing in the sand.

I don't think I've ever known a kid who liked the beach more than G. She just loves digging in the sand, running from the water, chasing seagulls and "saving" or imprisoning any little bug that may come into her reach.

Bobby always seems to make these sand sculptures. Lately it seems G wants to be buried in them. She's such a goof!

Even though we'd done the pix and then let G play on the beach for a couple hours, it was still only 11:30 am when we left to go to our next stop. Busy, busy, busy day.

2011-09-25T23:30:00.000-07:00

More fair
We had so much fun at the fair the weekend before we decided to do it again the following weekend. G had a good time the first time but explained that she didn't get to do "any fun stuff at the fair." What she meant is she hadn't gotten to go on any of the rides.

We spent another 5-6 hrs there without duplicating anything that we'd done the first time. I guess I'd kind of forgotten how huge the LA County Fair truly is. Its enormous! As always, G had lots of fun. She started out dressed in a shorts outfit but one of the vendors was selling these super cute cotton dresses and once G got a look at the pink princess one she was sold! Didn't take it off the rest of the day.

G loved this big reptile. I'm not exactly sure who was supposed to be watching it. G's normally pretty brave though. She hung out with the lizard for a long time and we only saw a couple other people during that time who would even get near it.

This is G holding a scorpion! She was totally fine with it at first until Bobby made some joke about it pinching her, then she got scared.

She was fine with mommy holding it

In the flower and garden building. I've always loved that building... so pretty.

And finally G got her rides!

This car ride was incredibly bouncy and jerky. It would have either snapped my neck or made me puke. Georgie loved it!! She rode it twice in a row and begged to ride again. Ugh. She just laughed and laughed.

The airplane was a much calmer ride.

It was another really big day at the fair. Bobby and I agreed that, for sure, we don't need to go anymore this year and maybe not even next year ;-)

2011-09-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

Its official, she's a preschooler
Summer school had gone so well that I had high hopes that the first day of "real" preschool would also go well. We got up early, had a little breakfast, put the apple outfit on and off we went! G was happy on the way, listening to her music and chattering at me about the things we were bringing to school. We got there and she had a HUGE smile on her face. She was thrilled with her teacher, her little friends, you name it! Again, what a relief. All the parents stayed for about 30 mins and watched them say the pledge (G got the wrong hand again, oops =). They did the calendar, sang a song or two, and then the teacher "suggested" that we all leave. Then off I went. I had to go to work anyway. As will be usual, Bobby picked her up. She had a GREAT day! She loves her school so much. So cute.

G all dressed up and ready to go!
With Mrs Davis who is possibly the nicest teacher in the whole world
Happy girl and a happy mama

Carpet time. Georgiana got a big smile on her face when Mrs Davis complimented her on having her hands in her lap... then all the kids put their hands in their laps too... darling!

Saying the pledge. By this time Mrs Davis had switched G's little hands. Only 10 mins into class and already learning =)

2011-09-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

Apple Of My Eye
These are G's official September pix. Seriously, how cute is this kid??? As always, G loved her outfit. She's always really excited to dress up and get her picture taken. When I explained that we were going to run by the grocery store to buy an apple beforehand she was thrilled! Isn't it great that it takes so little to thrill a 3 yr old?