Meeting the characters

Before we left, I made the kid's autograph books to go in their "Disneyland kit". (More on that later)

They are just photo books so they can have the autograph on one side and their picture on the other. 

The clips were to hold the 4x6 card down for the character's. We quickly learned that the character's did NOT like the ribbon attached to the sharpee, so we abandoned that idea. 

Here are the kids and their books in action.

Brinly wore her "princess" dress over her clothes for the first hour at Disneyland, when she met most of the princesses. She was in complete "princess" mode as she walked down main street, holding her dress out with her fingers, and doing an occasional curtsey. I loved watching her meet all those princesses. This was the perfect time to go to Disneyland for her. FOr the most part, she got her own picture with the princesses, and then a group one. Chelsea was never into the princesses as much as Brinly, so I don't think she would have appreciated it as much if we had gone when she was 4. 

Anyway, here are the ones we met:

Pluto!

 Buzz light year!

 Minnie! 

(Michael and I got one with Minnie too, but I didn't have my camera out in time)

 Snow White

 Belle

 Cinderella

Aurora

Ariel

Miranda 

(She was my favorite, the way she interacted with the kids. She spoke with a scottish accent too, which was fun)

Jasmine and Alladin

Goofy

 Mickey!

Chip and Dale 

(I don't think my kids know these guys, but they are still cute!)

 Pinnochio

 Buzz...again! (I forgot we had already met him...)

The plastic army men from toy story. They had the kids do a training session. :)

Mater! 

(They must have had a guy inside because he was able to talk specifically to each kid)

 

Jesse

Jesse and Woody switched places before we were able to meet woody, but he gave all the kids still in line a high five. I barely managed to get my camera out to get this one. 

And Brinly's favorite: Sofia the first!

California trip, Day 1

California trip Day 1:

Our flight left at 6:00 AM, but the kiddo's did a great job getting up, dressed, and fed and we still made it on time. It helps to have a tiny airport with zero line to get through security!

We had a two hour layover in SLC. Tyler was very happy to get down a crawl around. Yup. On the nasty airport floor. But that's what soap is for, right?

We took a shuttle to our hotel. Chelsea was pooped, but the other two had enough energy to be silly throughout the ride. They passed out about 5 minutes before we got to our hotel.

We stayed at the Mariott Residence Inn,  in Anaheim. Our room had a little kitchen, and they even did grocery shopping for us while we were gone and put away the food! I'd heard about this service, but was pretty skeptical. It was advertised as "free" but I didn't know if that meant a $6  a gallon of milk "free".  Turned out, I could specify as much as I wanted, as in "cheapest milk" and that's what they got. I was super impressed with this service! They also had a super, hot breakfast buffet, so we pigged out for breakfast, and didn't need much for lunch, then ate back at our hotel. We saved a ton of money this way, not having to eat out or at the park.

As soon as we could find the swimsuits, we were off to the pool!

Great start to our vacation!

Now don't get all excited on me. 

It will probably be months before I post again. I wish I did it more often. 

These kiddos are growing up way to fast!

It's been 2 years since I ventured to JCP for pictures. I had a HORRIBLE experience the last time, due to the staff. However, I figured after two years, they probably had new staff, and I was losing sleep knowing I hadn't perserved my baby's image yet. Plus, he was growing out of this adorable shirt my sis-in-law got him. 

Without further ado....

Tyler Stewart Perry

8 months

This was Tyler's first taste of an apple.  It's even better covered with a layer of snot...

Enjoying the nice spring weather WITHOUT wind. 

Finally got a picture of my boys together. This one is totally going on their wall. 

Time for an update

It's time for another random update of "stuff". 

This is my most recent project. Can you guess what I'm doing? It is going SO slow, since I can't find time to work on the darn thing. UGH.

Michael and Dan practicing their "Kung Fu". They even watch tutorials on the web.

I found these at Costco. So fun watching them bloom, which they did slowly all in one day.

No words. Pure joy. 

It's time for Dan's annual make-over. Except this year there were more hair-pretties!

Michael lost a THIRD tooth! This one had the permanent one growing in behind it, so it really needed to come out.

Michael came home from school one day with this. 

I thought he had fallen and scraped himself. You can't see it very well, but the part around the scab has little blisters. There is even a small cluster in his hairline. 

After a trip to the Doctor, it was confirmed what he had suspected. Herpes! Gross, I know. So, now he get's to stay home from school with me for a few days (MWAh hahhahah!) until it clears up. He feels completely fine, but it looks SO nasty.

This is my cute Webelo's den. We did a service project of cleaning up trash. 

More cuteness. This guy's smile makes my day, and I will do pretty much anything to get one from him. 

Brinly is so good at playing by herself and has all sorts of immaginitive fun. Don't get me wrong, she LOVES to play with friends, but when that's not possible, she is great at entertaining herself.

This is one of my favorite parts of the morning. Watching Tyler stretch out of his "cocoon" or woombie. I need to remember to get a picture of the before.