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!

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!

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 :-)

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!

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 ;-)

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

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.

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 ;-)