San Diego Trip- Day 2... DisneyLand!

Mike and I both had not been to Disneyland since we were teenagers, so we payed a visit with our 4 year old!  It is so much funner (is that a word?!) to experience the excitement through the eyes of your child :).  Being off season, (if Disneyland really has an off season!) the lines were much shorter than I remember (~20 mins being the longest wait) and the weather was perfect.  It was a great day in good old classic d-land! 

***Long blog alert... This posting is for memory's sake and so that interested family and friends can see what we did, I had a hard time narrowing down the pictures!***

Main Street in its fall colors

Do you see the sparkle in his eyes as he is about to go on his first ride?

It was the Jungle Boats... In the end he was unclear if what he saw were real animals or not.

Next stop was Tarzan's Tree House... I think it used to be Robinson's Family Tree House?!

This is one of Josh's favorite Disney movies, so he knew every detail and was eager to see every bit of it.

Bird's eye view from the top

Long walk up and down for a prego!

At the bottom there was a place to swing on the rope like T himself... AAAAAHHHHH!

We convinced J to go on Splash Mountain (sorry no pictures) and after being a bit shaken up by that he insisted that we go on the Pooh ride!  Interestingly, at the end of the night a lady asked him what his favorite ride was and he proudly said "Splash Mountain!"!

The map kept him busy while waiting in line... He was always scouting out his next adventure!

We couldn't forget the 'Peter Pan' ride, although he told us that he was getting "Lazy about Peter Pan lately", translated into he isn't into it as much as he used to be. 

J standing in front of the Castle after we took the inside tour of it.

While waiting for a table at lunch we did some window shopping for a souvenir... What else do you think J would have picked?  He was excited about this particular sword because it had a cover.

After lunch we took a raft to a Pirate's Island.

There was all kinds of interactive things to do there!

We pumped water, walked bridges, went though many underground tunnel mazes, visited a wrecked ship...

...And found the treasure!

We had to catch J for a quick picture!

You can't go to Disney without visiting 'Its a Small World', after telling J that this was Grand Dee Dee's favorite, he said it was his too (this was before we even went inside).  He thought it looked like a castle.

I forgot how cute the decor and dolls were!

Josh sporting his new hat that he picked out himself.  Hummm.... Is that the look that I am taking too many pictures?!

Off to Mickey's Toon Town!

Goofy's Garden playground

Donald's Boat

And Josh proudly standing outside the roller coaster that he rode.

After a long hard day of riding rides and going on adventures, a late afternoon snack is in order... What is better than a HUGE mouse ear cookie and some milk?!

Evening Parade... do I see some heavy eyes?

Main Street all lit up... 

I saw so many parents lugging babies and toddlers around in strollers and in carriers and I was so glad I left mine at home...  Off season and with your 4+ year old kids is the way to go :)!  We can't wait until K & J are old enough to enjoy it.



San Diego Trip Day 1

What a blessing it is to have family live so close to home!  We got the opportunity to take a short trip with big J and leave the babies (and all the equipment & scheduling that they require) at home with my parents.  J & K had a great time getting spoiled by both of the grandmas and didn't even seem to miss us!  Meanwhile, we were spending some one on one time with the big man and watching him experience many new things.  It was a relaxing trip and Mike & I were able to finish our conversations, hold hands, talk about the whirl wind of parenting that started 5 years ago when I was pregnant with J (among many other conversations) and dream about our future goals. 

First memorable airplane ride

Our hotel

View from the parking lot... it was a great place to stay- totally kid friendly, on the beach, reasonable pricing & NICE!

These are the kind of flowers you only see when you are on vacation!

This was the restaurant that was across the street from the hotel... We didn't end up eating there like we wanted, but it gives you an idea of how cute the city (aka Village) of Carlsbad, CA is.

After walking to and eating at a casual outdoor fish restaurant on the shore, we took a walk down the ramp to see the beach...

While Mike rested from his busy work week, Josh and I explored the resort, borrowed a few board games and watched the sunset on the ocean from the grass courtyard... You can tell it is off season, we had the place to ourselves ;)!

 Josh was ready to play some games & I was ready to relax and watch the sunset!

 This was the view from my chair... It is hard to see in the picture, but the ocean is right there on the horizon (just a flight of stairs down to the sand)- I could hear the waves hitting the shore and smell the salty air!

 When J has your full attention he is a very cool kid!  We played Memory and talked all evening. 

 His personality really starts to come out...

 He is really sweet, smart and caring...

 Silly, competitive & spunky...

 But mostly curious, inquisitive & eager to learn about everything!

What a perfect start to our vacation!

Weekend Crafting

When it rains it pours!  It seems that all the birthdays and other special occasions get bunched up around here & that always leaves me scrambling to figure out what to do for gifts.

Making a trip to Target (our usual gift getting place) has been a big challenge lately... I am 'THAT' mom!  It seems that someone is complaining, crying, climbing, grabbing or screeching at all times of our trip.  I get the looks and I usually get stuck in the loooonnnggg line that is having some kind of technical problem with pricing, etc and by that time of the exhausting trip, I begin to melt down right along with the kids!  Because of that, I attempted to make the gifts for this weekend's celebrations from items that I already had or could quickly pick up while Mike was waiting in the car with the kids.  It was fun and released a creative outlet that I especially get while I am pregnant... Come see what I made!

The first project was for Mike's childhood best friend's first baby (did you get that?!).  He was born earlier this week and Mike was headed to their house the day they came back from the hospital, I could not send him there empty handed.  I fell in love with my friend Jessica's (yes, the sewing friend I always refer to) homemade versions of the 'Taggie Blanket' and had to attempt it myself.  I just made them according to how I remember seeing her do it, but you can go check out her's and follow the link to the tutorial that she used if you are interested in making one yourself... Babies love the different textures of the 'tags' and they are the perfect lap blanket size to throw in the diaper bag. 

This baby boy is another J... Jackson to be exact!

Next project was for a birthday party for the only little girl in Kyle's playgroup... Little Olivia, she turned 1! 

I found an easy tutorial for making a simple pleated skirt at Homemade by Jill (you have to click on the link from her page to view the tutorial).  I had purchased some must have jersey knit cotton fabric with a bright owl print a few weeks ago from the clearance bin and knew I had to use it to make little Miss O something, so here it is!

The denim is from an old pair of jeans that were in the donation pile... I also plan to attempt a maternity pencil skirt with the remainder of the jeans (also from the Homemade by Jill blog).  I will keep you posted if I ever get to it. 

The plain shirt was bought on clearance at Target and I embellished it with matching ruffles.

These are the best concept... I can't wait to make some for our next baby!  They are leg covers that are great for crawlers or new walkers- basically they are tights that don't have to be removed during diaper changes.  They are made from women's knee high socks (which happen to be on clearance at Target too, but are only $2 regularly).  They are super easy to make, I followed this tutorial.

The final celebration of the week that we attended was for a 3 year old girl... Tatum.  It was a Princess Tea Party and what is more fitting then a box of cupcakes for her tea table?  I have seen felt food before and decided to make some felt mini cakes after seeing some pictures of them on the internet.  I free handed the pattern by using a cupcake cup as a template and after messing up the first one, I figured it out...

They look kinda yummy, you know you want to taste one!

This felt food thing is a little addictive... They are just too cute and fairly easy to make!  The kids are already asking me what kind of food I can make them.  For now though, I better go spend the rest of the week with hubby... I am sure he is sick of my crafting!