The Many Adventures of Flat Tyler

We hosted a Flat Stanley these past couple of weeks. He is in transit back to his classroom in Colorado now, but we sure had fun with while we had him. 

We kept him busy and made sure he wrote in his travel log daily. He was very good about posing for pictures and gathering local brochures.

Here is a copy of Flat Tyler's journal:

Flat Tyler’s Travel Log

I arrived safely into the mailbox of my cousins, The Schumacher Family, in California.

Uncle Keith (who is actually my grandma’s cousin) is a middle school teacher and he teaches college. Aunt Mary is the mom of the family and the kids are my cousins, Gracie and Libby. Gracie is 7 years old and in the first grade. Libby is 4 ½ years old and will be in Kindergarten next year. Gracie goes to school part-time and does homeschool part-time.

 They also have a dog named Sandy. She’s 12 years old and very sweet.  

While I was visiting, The Schumachers had company. I met Uncle Ed from Las Vegas, Grandma Helen from Wyoming, Aunt Patty from Montana and cousin Jennifer also from Montana. They drove to California to spend a weekend with me and the Schumachers. Mostly, they wanted to meet Baby Alfred, my newest cousin.

The Schumachers took me to lots of places to see the local sites and experience California culture.  Gracie and Libby taught me to say “Chaw” and “Dude” like a Californian. I never needed my jacket or hat because it’s nice and warm there.  I told them about Colorado; they’ve never been there. The girls didn’t know what skiing is, but they have seen snow and pine trees when they took a winter vacation to Wyoming and South Dakota last year.  

Western Science Center -  Hemet, CA:  Gracie, Libby, Henry and I went to a dinosaur museum. It was a lot of fun! We saw the bones from a mammoth and a sloth. We got to see a short movie about dinosaurs in the Inland Empire (that’s what they call this area of California) and we got to make a fossil out of clay .

Busker Festival at Seaport Village:  We went to San Diego to the Busker Festival. A Busker is a street performer. Seaport Village is a shopping and eatery center along the edge of the San Diego Bay. We saw lots of different street performers and artists. There were musicians, dancers, acrobats and magicians. We also saw an escape artist and a couple of unicycle riding jugglers. 

Duck Pond – Temecula, CA:  One day we went to a city park called the Duck Pond. All it has is a pond and a walking path around it.  It was nice and there were a lot of ducks!  I had to be careful not to flutter in the wind or I’d end up swimming with the ducks.  

San Diego Air and Space Museum: We set out for an adventurous day at the San Diego Zoo. When we got there, the parking lot was packed solid and so was the overflow parking and every parking lot in the area. Aunt Mary finally found a parking spot but it was pretty far from the zoo. Conveniently, she discovered that we parked close to the Air and Space Museum. Gracie and I thought that was a better idea anyway!

The Air and Space Museum has a special Ripley’s Believe It or Not exhibit and we were able to see the museum and the Ripley’s exhibit too.  It was a lot of fun. We came home with coloring pages and paper airplane origami pages for fun at home. I got to see Bumblebee there!

Cabrillo National Monument:  We drove out to Point Loma which is a Navel Base at the tippy end of a peninsula. It was really cool!  From the point, you can see the San Diego Bay, the harbor, and the Pacific Ocean in the other direction.

Cabrillo was a European explorer and he is the first European to set foot on the west coast of what is now the United States.  This monument recognizes his adventures. He’s just like me: an adventurer discovering amazing places!  Cha!  (I’m really getting a hang of the California language).

There is also an old lighthouse at the National Park and you can go down to the shore to the tidepools and caves. There are small caves in the sides of the cliffs that were made by erosion. The land is very interesting and goes from shrub covered hills on one side of the peninsula to sand covered eroded cliffs on the other. 

Coronado Island, San Diego:  We drove across a huge bridge over the San Diego Bay to Coronado Island.  We played in the sand on the beach by the Ferry landing where I met a friend, another Flat Stanley! He didn't speak English, but we played and had a good time anyway.

Balboa Park:  Balboa Park is in the middle of San Diego. It houses the San Diego Zoo, a couple of playgrounds, numerous museums and gardens. The day we went, we just strolled on the walkways and enjoyed the local artists, played in the fountains, and admired the architecture.  Luckily, the bird rescue group was at Balboa Park so we got to see the birds again. We saw them at the Busker Festival too! They save abandoned pet parrots and exotic birds and readopt them to new homes. We didn’t adopt a bird, but we did get to hold a few. Libby doesn’t like to hold them because she thinks they will poop on her. She finally decided to try it and it was a lot of fun.

 

Easter:  I celebrated Easter with the Schumacher family. We went to an Easter Egg Hunt party at a friend’s house. He name is Justin and he’s 5 years old like me. His back yard is landscaped with natural California grasses and plants, so it was a lot of fun. They have the best back yard for an egg hunt! 

On Easter Sunday we went to a friend’s house for dinner. We had lots of great food. The Sanchez family had two dogs and two tortoises. They were really neat! They had an area of the back yard underneath the tree house that was their home. They live outside in the yard. One tortoise lost a leg so the family glued on a wheel from a toy car so she could get around. They both crawled faster than I thought they would. They love to eat dandelions. 

Science Center:  This is a museum in Balboa Park. The girls love this place. When we entered the museum the employee who greeted us at the entrance said, “Have fun and touch everything.”  Awesome!  We had a great time playing with all of the science center exhibits. There is a part of the museum that looks like a city and we played there for a while too.

Montessori School: One day I went to school with Gracie. She is in Ms. Andria’s class. Gracie is in a mixed class of 1^st – 3^rd grade. They have lunch outside on picnic tables. Their parking lot is also the playground and the gym. Most elementary schools have a playground but they do not have a cafeteria or a gym. They eat and play outside every day. Gracie and her classmates have never had a snow day.

Disneyland and Cars Land:  On my last day in California, I went with the Schumacher girls to Disneyland and California Adventure.  Gracie and Libby go to Disneyland often because it isn’t very far away. We left after school and got home a little after bedtime.

First we went into Disneyland. It was very exciting! We saw Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Goofy right away. Our first stop was the first aid station because Gracie’s tooth was falling out and she wanted an envelope or something to put it in when it fell out. They were very nice and gave her a little container. We walked up Main Street. Gracie’s favorite part of Main Street is the Magic Shop. It was amazing! Libby wanted to go to the Princess Fantasy Faire. We saw Ariel, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. I was made an honorary citizen of Disneyland and I got a button to wear for the rest of the day. Then we rode the Small World. We then went into Fantasyland and rode Alice in Wonderland’s Teacups.

Next we went to California Adventure, which is where Cars Land is. Cars Land is amazing! It is just like you step into the Cars movie! I got to meet Mater and Lightning McQueen! I also got to see the main street of Radiator Springs and see Ornament Valley. When it got dark, all the neon lights came on and it was just like it was in the movie. We rode on Mater’s Tractor ride which was more fun than anything!

Disneyland with three children

Take three kids to Disneyland all by myself? Sure! Why not!

I'm 47 years old and out of shape, but I spent 8.5 hours in the Disneyland Resort with three kids: my daughters, Gracie, almost 7 yrs old, and Libby, 4 and a half, and  my grandson Henry, 21 months. My age exceeds theirs, but their energy is far superior to mine! This is how I managed the day:

I figured I would be outnumbered by too much, so we'll just do a few things and head home. I don't know why I always think I can go to Disneyland for just a short time. I get too excited when I'm there and I keep doing "one more thing" before I leave. The place is just too happy to want to leave!

I prepped the girls by telling them that it will be Henry's day to choose whatever we do. And we will stop to change his diaper and they will behave so I can pay more attention to Henry, yadda, yadda, yadda...  They nodded, oh yes, mom, we understand, of course mom, yes indeed mom, etc.  Ok, preliminary setup complete.

Selling my double stroller may have been a mistake, or maybe not. I don't use it anymore and now I wondered if I would need it. I asked on facebook if anyone had a double I could borrow but only got one offer and I passed on it because that double stroller would have been like pushing a bus.

There are two times in the day when I have to fold up the stroller, carry it, the bags, jackets, carry a kid, balance a water bottle and guide the other kid up or down steep steps to the parking lot tram or bus. It's not easy, and I would have three kids to herd while packing the stroller and things up into the tram this time. I thought better about taking a bigger stroller and decided not to pursue trying to borrow one after all. Instead, I decided to take my single stroller and Libby would just have to walk all day.

To manage the tram ride, I thought I would use a baby carrier to carry Henry and then I would have two hands free to carry and guide the girls. Two hands are better than one!  So, I made a baby carrier. I then had a baby carrier, a leash for Henry and a stroller. Libby and Henry could take turns walking and riding in the stroller. That would work.

My little plan actually worked out just fine! The two hours that I spent making a carrier were well worth it when I had to strap Henry to my back. He spent about a half an hour in it, but I had it if I needed it later too. One thing I learned though, is I should strap him to my front instead of my back because the tram didn't allow me to ride with him on my back even if I sat sideways. So, the whole entire packed solid tram had to wait for me to untie him and let him out of the carrier, which is easier said than done because I tied him on as securely as I could, and I was trying not to elbow the guy next to me. I joking said it would be harder to get off the tram since I now didn't have the baby in the carrier and would have to herd three of them. The guy next to me offered to help if he could do anything so I told him I'll take him up on that. I would appreciate it if he would pull the stroller across the row and get it out of the tram and over the yellow line, I can do the rest. He said, "that's it? sure!" Awesome. Extra hands - that's perfect!

Once we got off the tram and I unfolded the stroller, got Henry strapped into the seat, Libby suddenly realized that Henry was riding in her stroller and she was left to walk on her own two feet. Tears! Agony! Defeat! Robbery! Woe is me! Poor Libby was going to have to walk all day long while her nephew gets to ride! Mom, you ruined my whole life!  She got that out of her system, accepted her fate, and was fine the rest of the day. She skipped and danced all day long. I guess she's outgrown the need for a stroller.

We only went to attractions that were easy to load and unload the kids and kept us all together. The girls and I discussed this before we arrived and we had a pretty good plan laid out. We decided to hit Adventureland and Critter Country, ride the train all around Disneyland and if we still had energy, we would go to CarsLand, Bugsland and then head home. I thought that sounded like a lot of walking for Libby, but I wasn't going to tell her that. I have the baby carrier if Libby can't walk that much. No problemo!

We first went up Main Street and into the castle. The Sleeping Beauty storybook walkthrough was our first attraction that we went to. It was easy enough to manage the three kids. The girls held hands and I carried Henry. It was great. I felt confident that our whole day was going to be a good one. When we exited the castle, I checked my phone and had three texts from friends who were also at Disneyland and wanted to catch up with us if possible. I replied and with where we were and which direction we were headed.  We managed to get together with one friend, but never did run into the others. Once I had a friend in tow, I put him to work helping me out with the kids.

The friend we ran into is the husband of a teacher that my husband works with. Did you follow that? Our spouses are co-workers.

Getting the kids around the park and on the rides really wasn't difficult. Gracie and Libby are well educated about how to conduct themselves in a crowded place and how to wait patiently in line. Henry was so enchanted by the sights and sounds that he was just soaking it all in and very easy to handle. The girls did decide they would climb every railing, wall, fence, or tree they could find. That was annoying! I feared the worst every time their little legs started to scale upward. They never got far off the ground, just a step or two, but I kept imagining my visit to the Disneyland ER with two crying kids and one bloody screaming kid. Didn't think that would be very fun. I spent the entire day saying "no climbing". It didn't work at all, they climbed everything all day long! Amazingly, they never fell. Whew!

Most bathrooms, if not all, I am not sure about this, have a nice diaper changing station. I changed Henry only a couple of times because he just didn't need it. One bathroom had a long line of mamas holding babies who needed a fresh diaper, so I just changed Henry in the stroller. He didn't mind. There is a baby center but we were never anywhere near it.

Luckily, Henry didn't have a messy diaper because I forgot to bring baby wipes! I remembered diapers and extra clothes, I brought a nap blanket, jackets and hats, snacks and water, but I forgot the baby wipes. I did remember lollipops! It's not a good idea to bring lollipops and neglect to bring baby wipes. That was really the only thing I didn't do well all day.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted, the kids were too. We had such a fun day though, it was well worth the extra effort to take all three at once. I think they had a more enjoyable experience spending the day together than if I would have just taken Henry by himself.

Crazy Busy Fun Week

We just ended a very crazy busy fun week! Loved it! Last week was dreary, cloudy, gray, cold, rainy and full of boring homework and housework. We all had the blahs. This week, the weather was gorgeous, school was out at noon each day, we were between homework folders, and we just felt like having fun. So, we did!

Monday: The girls donned their Rapunzel dresses complete with flower hair clips and fluffy petticoats and we went to Disneyland for the day. We spent time in Disneyland and California Adventure. It was so much fun! The crowds were fairly thin except on the most popular rides, so most of our day was easy. The girls had a very special visit with Rapunzel and another with Merida. The princesses were enjoying visiting with Gracie and Libby too! Rapunzel signed our autograph book (which is a Princess Encyclopedia from Scholastic) and then she wanted to read the book to the girls. They loved it! Merida listened and laughed while Gracie talked, who knows what stories she heard, but she sure seemed to enjoy them. The girls twirled around several times with the princess. They had the best princess encounters today!  Among other things, we rode the Raditor Springs Racers ride. It's amazing! Libby loved half of it, Gracie and I had a blast! It was a great day at Disneyland.

Tuesday: We went to San Diego and had lunch at Ikea with Katie and Henry. The girls played in the Ikea play area where they offer free supervised play for an hour. After Ikea, we took the kids to the Fleet Science Center to play. Libby fell asleep between the two and continued to nap the whole time we were at the Science Center. She woke up as we were walking away from the building to the car after we were done. Poor girl was sad that she didn't get to go to the Science Center.

Wednesday: Every Wednesday morning, I meet my friends for coffee and Libby tags along and has a playdate with her little buddy too. Gracie only had school until noon.  After "mom-therapy", Libby had ballet class. Ballet is always fun - the class is so cute! We picked up Gracie and came home for lunch after which Gracie promptly reported that she was tired and going to bed to take a nap. Of course I felt her head for a fever and freaked out. I just knew she was sick! The kid who never runs out of energy took a 3-hour long nap. I cancelled our park playdate because I had this feeling of impending doom aka puking and such. Gracie was so mad when she woke up! She really didn't want to miss her playdate. I hovered over her like a hawk the rest of the week. Naps freak me out. Turns out, she was just fine. Apparently, she gets tired. Who knew?

We had our parent-teacher conference on Wednesday also. Gracie's teacher is out on maternity leave and she's had a sub for quite a while. The sub is terrific! Miss Tiffiny is the sub and she informed us that she cannot continue to sub for the class because there is a 30 day limit (she must have meant 30 school days because she's been the teacher for a while) so the class will be getting a new sub even though she is capable, willing and senses an unnecessary disruption by bringing in a new person. But, those are the rules and the classroom teacher isn't ready to return yet. I can't help but wonder who thought up the ridiculous 30 day rule. Dumbasses making the rules again. Miss Tiffiny is an awesome teacher; I really hate to see her leave Gracie's classroom. Gracie is doing very well. But... (oh no, there's the big 'but'!) she's bored out of her mind. She entertains herself rather than doing her work, and her work is easy enough for her. She just doesn't want to do it. She's much rather make character out of locks of her hair and have a puppet show. She's at the top of her class and has mastered all of the first grade skills. Because of this, she recommended that we move Gracie up to the second grade curriculum instead of continuing with the first grade work. Hopefully this will help.

Thursday: Gracie didn't seem to be sick in any way and was out of school at noon again (minimum days for parent-teacher conferences). When I picked her up, we didn't even go home. We went straight to Disneyland! We made an agreement that since today was a school-day and so is the next day, our time at Disneyland will be short. We got there shortly after 1:00pm and we were home at 8pm. A short day indeed, only spent 6 hours in the park! Since we were having a short day, we decided to  only visit California Adventure. The girls really wanted to see the Aladdin show and it started at 4:45 which gave us about 3 hours to play before queuing up. We managed to accomplish quite a bit! Our main goal was go have ice cream to celebrate Gracie's good report card and then just do whatever until show time. Whatever turned into time spent in Cars Land and Bugs Land. We had a great time and hopped in line for Aladdin right at the tail end of the line which meant no waiting. After the show, as promised, I said "Let's go home". But on our way out, we had to see this and that and do some shopping. Leaving at 6pm turned into 7pm in a flash. So much fun though!

Friday: Another half school day. Days like these make me realize that full school days are awesome! Seems like noon rolls around way too fast. We didn't have anything planned for today except housecleaning. I was too worn out to do much of that though. I had good intentions! I hired a sitter to come at 3pm until midnight so that I could go with Keith to the Champ and Chump party. (A football betting pool game that my husband organizes for his coworkers, chumps cater a dinner party for the champs) After the week of fun, I really didn't feel like going to a 9 hour party. I would much rather have the sitter come over while I sneak upstairs, lock the door to my bedroom and take a hot bath and a super long nap. A mama can dream. But, I did my wifey-duty and went to the party. I don't play the Champ and Chump game; I don't work at the school with the people who do play, and I don't even like football. But, I went to the party. I really enjoyed being alone in my car. The party was fun and I really had a great time. The people my husband works with are awesome! I admit, at 8pm I was yawning and I thought it must be after 11pm. I was dragging!

Saturday: The girls and I headed to San Diego. I had every intention of taking them to the zoo, but we went to Katie's house to pick up Henry and I just melted into her couch and that's where I stayed for a couple of hours. The kids were happy to play with his toys so I didn't bother with another outing. Katie is exhausted and she just caught a cold, so we packed a bag for Henry, went out to eat and hit the road for home. Henry is staying for a couple of days so that Katie can sleep off her cold, catch up on errands and chores, and just be pregnant without having to chase after a sneaky curious toddler.  She's due in 4 more weeks!

This last week lasted a lifetime! It was such a good week. We had lots of fun and somehow, I managed to survive. Sure wish I could have caught a big ol' nap like Gracie did mid-week, but I kept up.

Disneyland - Second trip this month!

Monday, November 19th, 2012

I really didn't feel like going today; I woke up feeling like a head-cold was ready to rear its ugly head inside of my sinuses. I tried to talk the girls into waiting a day and letting me be lazy instead, but they weren't having any of that nonsense! I told them we would make it a short day and only stay for four hours tops. We all agreed to only go for half of a day but we were going. I had a little bit of a temp, a headache, snuffy nose and I didn't have enough energy to argue. They were right, it was a wonderful day at Disneyland! And I forgot all about not feeling well as soon as we got there.

Today, the girls coordinated their outfits. Gracie wore her Cinderelly dress that I made for her for Halloween and Libby wore her new Cinderella ball gown that I just finished sewing. She didn't want it though, I was thinking of giving it as a Christmas gift to someone else because she really didn't like it. She prefers a tattered and torn (nearly to shreds) old cheap store-bought Cinderella dress. I asked her "What is your favorite part of this old dress?" She said it was the button, so I asked her, "Would you like it if I move the button from this dress to the new dress?" Yes! Before we left, I was able to move the button from dress to dress and she no longer wanted to wear that old ripped up costume. Whew! Two Cinderellas ready to go.

The sign on Ball Road said to turn left on Harbor for Theme  park parking. I learned my lesson last week (again), so I didn't try to park in the Mickey and Friends parking structure, I went straight to the Toy Story lots. They were packed! We parked in the Jessie lot and the line to get on the bus was long! Luckily, there were several buses lined up and loading, but this was a pretty good indicator that our day in the park was going to be one of squeezing through crowds and waiting in long lines.  Libby was fast asleep so I figured the long line to board the bus might be in our favor, she could finish her nap in the stroller while we wait. Yay for a long line! Wait, did I just say that?

We didn't get that lucky, the super long line was gone in no time. They lined up the buses and filled them up pretty fast. Libby had to wake up to board because I had to fold up the stroller. I've carried her asleep while also carrying the bag and stroller before, but she's a lot bigger than she was before and so I just made her walk. Being  four comes with a lot of responsibilities. Guess which bus we got? Yup! The plain white one! Darn the luck! Even the girls laughed about it.

When we got past the gate keeper and the girls were giving me their passes for safe keeping, a Disney survey taker approached me. She asked if I would answer her questions so I said sure. The girls were busy soaking up the entryway excitement anyway. She only asked me a few things: What kind of pass did I have? Where do I live? How long do I plan to stay today? Thank you and here is a photopass for my trouble. Score! A real photopass costs $60. They always give you a photopass card but if you want the pictures off of it then you have to pay for them. I've always been very happy with the thumbnails, but this one is a real photopass! How lucky is that!  I'm pretty happy about it because I'm not much of a photographer with my little sand-filled Panasonic.

We went up Main Street to the hub and said hello to Walt and Mickey. Then into the castle. Today we didn't go through the Sleeping Beauty story walkthrough, but we headed east to the Snow White wishing well. This little area is so pretty. The girls made wishes and peered into the well. It was a nice little stopping spot. While we were there, The Fairy Godmother and Cinderella approached from the other side of the walkway (with a following) and stopped in the path. We decided to get in line behind their following and see them. Good thing we remembered to bring our book!

 
Libby really wanted to see them, especially in her Cinderella dress but she suddenly got an attack of shyness. Poor kid, this happens to her when she sees the characters and then she is disappointed because she couldn't greet them like she wants to. Gracie has never had a problem with being shy.

When it was our turn to see Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother, they recognized the girls' dresses right away! They just loved Gracie's Cinderelly rag dress. I was thrilled! I was afraid nobody would know why she was dressed that way, it is a bit of an obscure costume. If nobody else recognizes her dress all day long, it doesn't matter. Cinderella knew! 

We wandered over to admire the ducks and the Disneyland shrubbery that grew in the shape of swans - so much magic! Libby was chattering away to the ducks and Gracie wanted the map. She saw on the map that Wreck-It-Ralph was in Tomorrow Land! We must go see him! Sounded good to me so off we went.

Tomorrow Land was super crowded! It is awful trying to get through such a thick crowd of people. I wasn't exactly sure where to go because the icon on the map didn't seem to match up with the actual layout of the land. Gracie was excited, so we had to find it! After wandering through the thick crowd, I finally asked a Disney cast member (worker) and he pointed me the other direction.  Got to where I thought he said and I asked another cast member. She pointed me back to where I was and then around the corner.  Back through the billions of people. We finally found it, and the wait was 15 minutes. Not bad.

Gracie got to meet Wreck-It-Ralph and Sugar Rush. They both had photopass photographers and they were in a dark arcade type of place, so I didn't bother trying to get photos with my camera. I should have, but I didn't. Their movie just came out in November; I am kind of surprised the girls knew who they were. Guess we'll have to see the movie now that we met the stars. They don't sign autographs, nor do they talk. Only "face-characters" talk. The characters whose faces are covered with a costume face never talk. But a lot of the covered face characters sign autographs, such as Minnie Mouse. I can totally see why Ralph doesn't try writing his name though. Look at those hands!

We had to wiggle our way through the over crowded Tomorrow Land again. When we got to where it merges with Fantasy Land again, yay! Right in that spot was the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland. They were walking and talking, but they stopped to say hello to Gracie. She got her book signed too! The Mad Hatter was quite comical. He said Gracie and Alice were in the "Apron Club" and he tried to curtsey his coat like an apron too. He told Gracie to hold hands and "Let's walk" and so they did. Libby remained in her safe space, the stroller. Characters were not going to be her thing today.  Darn.

Libby wanted to go back to the castle. I thought maybe she would feel better and her mood would improve if we followed her lead for a bit, so we did. The girls had a great time just sitting in front of the castle looking at the ducks in the moat, wondering how the trees grow in squares, and they even spotted a different sort of bird and a turtle in the water. I think they could have sat there all day long, just enjoying the sights and being at the castle, but I wanted to go find the hidden bathroom before I burst.

We went to where it should have been, but it was gone! Something new is coming and I hope they put in some nice bathrooms with plenty of stalls.

We decided to head toward the Adventure Land restrooms or the Tiki Room, it has a restroom too. I really have to start wearing depends adult diapers because it seems like our wanderings always hinge on my need to find the nearest bathroom. Upon entering Frontier Land (taking a shortcut, I think) Gracie spotted a sign and wanted to stop to read it. What do you know! A homeschooling opportunity struck right there! We clogged up the gateway in order to read the sign, people just had to walk around us - this was important. The sign talked about different flags and what they stood for. Some were displayed around on the other side of the gateway. We went around the corner to find them, but the breeze had the flags blowing the other direction and they were hard to see.

After this, we got distracted by the wonders of Frontier Land and I missed the turn that takes you into Adventure Land. We ended up at the Rivers of America and they were running both the big ferry aka "Tiana's Boat" and the Columbia, aka "The Big  Pirate Boat". Libby really wanted to ride a boat, so we hopped on board! She just loved it! I'm glad she was having so much fun, Gracie too. Libby was having a great time as long as I wasn't trying to shove her into the arms of a stranger dressed in a character costume. The boat ride was lots of fun.

When we were coming down the stairs off of the boat, the cast member there to assist people said to Libby, "Be careful on the stairs, Cinderella, we don't want  you to lose a shoe!"  I really laughed over that one!

Finally, we went to Adventure Land! Ahhh! After our potty stop, we saw Aladdin at his little meet-and-greet station. Jasmine wasn't with him, but we saw her last week. We were able to step right over to meet him and there wasn't even a line. Love it when we don't have to wait in line! He was more than happy to sign the book, and it had a page for him too. After he signed it, Gracie said, "I got my first Prince!"  This autograph book is really fun. When the girls were younger I thought the autograph books were annoying because they took up so much of the character's time and we were waiting in line and waiting for them to sign all of those books. But, now, I can see that it means so much to the kid who can read to  have the character sign his name. It really doesn't take long if you have the  page and pen ready and it's a great souvenir. Gracie just loves her book and the autographs make it extra special! It's very fun for her to have them sign their names and she gets to take it home and admire it.

We decided to skip the Tiki Room this trip (actually, I was outvoted), and we went toward Main Street. It was parade time! And it was very crowded. I sure didn't time that very well, on a busy day like this, we should have found a place to see the parade a lot earlier than right when it's starting.  I parked the stroller and we found a place in the back of the crowd. We might be able to see it from here, we'll be able to see the tall floats and that'll be good enough today. The girls were too excited to care about sitting down anyway, so they stood so that they could see over the four rows of people in front of us and there was a double stroller in front of the girls too. Another row of people fell in behind us. I took this golden opportunity to sit on the sidewalk and rest my feet.

A lady behind me tapped and asked me to tell my girls to sit down.  I told her, "No. I won't. They need to stand in order to see, there are people and a stroller right in front of them, but you are up against a wall, you can stand and you won't block anyone's view." Smile. She didn't smile back and she didn't stand up.  This is how my kids watched the parade, standing, pointing, shouting and waving the whole entire time! My arm would fall off if I did that much enthusiastic waving.

I know they didn't have a great view of the parade, but they loved it! Glad we were able to see it. After the parade, the crowd filled Main Street and so I took the girls through the Main Street stores. They are all connected and  you can pass hundreds of people by going that route.  That is, if you just walk right through. If you stop to admire all of the merchandise for sale, then you really don't gain any time. But it is a lot more fun and exciting to walk through the stores!

We saw a cartoonist drawing a picture, artwork, clothing and toys, and then we went into the Magic Shop. Gracie's favorite! The cast members in the shop do magic tricks (which  you can buy and go home to amaze your friends). The girls just love to see them do the magic tricks, they are good!

 One thing we've never done, and we really need to, is to stop in and see the memorabilia and the show called about President Lincoln. We decided to just peek in and see the memorabilia and we can see the show another day. Seeing the museum portion of it was great! We got to see a replica of the castle at Disneyland in Paris. Of course, that made us all think of Fenna and wish we could have her with us today. Someday, we'll have to go to Paris and meet up with Fenna at Disneyland there.

Just like last week, we spent the last half of our day in California Adventure. Gracie and Libby both wanted to go into the Imagination Theater on Hollywood Street and see Turtle Talk with Crush. I promised we would do that if Crush was there. They were hopping up and down, smiling and saying please with so much hope. Sure hope Crush is there!

First thing we saw was the Newsies singing with Mickey Mouse in the Street. Mickey had a suitcase and a dream, what a cute show!

We took a left and went down Hollywood Street toward the Imagination Theater. I'm not even sure if that is what it's called, but it's something like that. It is one of our favorite places. What a great place to take a break. There is a big room with movie screens all the way around and they musical clips from movies while you rest and enjoy on the carpet.

Turtle Talk with Crush is in this building. You enter a little theater with plenty of floor space for the kids to sit right up in front of the big screen. This area is called the "seafloor". The screen is a "window to the Pacific Ocean" and has a hydro-mic so that Crush can talk to the crowd. The turtle is a digitized puppet and there is an actor that talks for him. Somehow, the turtle can see the audience and interact really well with people. He has a seafloor assistant running around with a microphone for the audience members to talk to the turtle. Of course, Gracie and Libby ran right in and grabbed spots on the floor right in front of the screen. I'm sure Crush could see them very well. They both raised their hands to try to be chosen to talk to Crush, but they weren't chosen today. I was wondering what Libby would do if the man stuck the microphone in her face to talk to the turtle!

When the show was over, we watched the movies in the main room for a bit and then I realized that Libby's jacket was missing. She was wearing it in the turtle show and now she wasn't, so it wasn't lost for long. I went to the Turtle show door attendant and told her that I thought we left her jacket in the theater. She called someone and next thing you know, here comes a guy with Libby's jacket! Whew!

This is a new jacket that I just bought in October. I got each of the girls one, so they match. Plus, they are Cinderella jackets! I've lost Libby's jacket three times including this time in the Turtle show, and currently, I have no idea where Gracie's jacket is. These jackets are jinxed! They are wanderers! Anyway, I was glad to see Libby's jacket returned and it was so fast - nice!

We adventured into another area of this building, the Sorcerer's Workshop. I didn't realize there was anything there, the entrance is a long ramp along the back wall and from the floor it really doesn't look like there is anything there. I saw someone go down the ramp and never come back, so I wondered, hmmm, could there be a nice restroom down in there or what?

Or what! We found such a cool place!  There were three areas to the Sorcerer's Workshop. The first area was an animation exhibit. It was pretty cool, but I didn't really look at the spinning things too much since I get dizzy so easily when I look at spinning things.

We did see the Evil Queen's magic mirror. Scary! I might have to make them some new Snow White dresses so they can have their pictures taken here. That would look pretty cool. Better yet, Evil Queen costumes! Wonder if they'd go for that? Probably not.

We entered the next area. We came around the corner and my jaw dropped in awe! We were in the Beast's library! Whoa! Amazing! This place was fabulous! The beast's library had little kiosk stations where you could answer questions and discover which Disney character is most like you. Gracie got Sally from Cars and so did Libby! I am most like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch. I just loved being in the Beast's library. It was like being in the movie!

From here, we entered Ursula's Grotto. It was very dark and had a cave-like feel to it. There were several stations here too, I don't know if they all did the same thing, but they looked different. We entered one alcove and Gracie operated the kiosk and followed the instructions. Ursula told her to choose to sing or act and she chose to sing a song. There were four song choices, karaoke style. Gracie sang "Heigh Ho" from the Snow White movie, and then Ursula played a recording of Gracie's singing back to us. She stole Gracie's voice! Libby had enough of Ursula and her dirty tricks, so we left her grotto and found ourselves right back in the big room of movie screens.

Outside, it was dark now. It sure gets dark early these days. And chilly too! I knew there was a Christmas movie in the Muppet theater, and even though we just saw the Turtle show and got to sit down for 20 minutes, I wanted another opportunity to sit and relax. I suggested to the girls that we go to the Muppet theater and they were really excited to go. Off we went!  They didn't realize there would be a Christmas movie, so they were pleasantly surprised. We saw "Prep and Landing" in 3D about two elves who team up to turn a naughty kid into a nice kid. I sat between the girls and heard the best laughter in stereo! This is Disneyland magic!

Since we were so close, we went to ride the Monsters, Inc ride. We've been watching this movie a lot with Charlie lately. Such a fun ride! I don't know why, but the ride attendant put me and the girls all in one row of the monster taxi and left the row behind us empty. We were so squished! I wish I could have climbed over the seat and sat in the back. Oh well, next time we'll ask for two rows.

When we came off the ride, we were told to walk around because there was a show ready to happen right there in that spot. So we were lead around the show set and we ended up right in front of this little staging area. Next thing you know, cool mist was being sprayed (really? do we need to be sprayed with cool mist? it's freezing outside! probably a frigid 60 degrees!) then Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum came out and introduced the Mad T Party. After they did their little act the crowd, which was behind us and now on both sides as well, was herded through the mist archway and into the Mad T Party area. We found ourselves right in front of a big stage filled with crazy colorful lights  and a rock n roll band. Honestly, they reminded me of Keith's band back in Pierre when he played with his music friends. The song they sang was one of the same ones that Keith's band played often, oddly enough, Keith's band was named "Mad Hatter".

Tweedle Dum bent down and looked right at Libby in her stroller and gave her a wink, smile and cute little wave. She ignored him, but giggled about it the next day. She was so tired at this point, and I was too. We were done for the day, Gracie of course could party all night long. She's a firecracker!

While strolling through California Adventure, I nearly flipped out! I saw a little girl wearing the cutest retro waitress dress and she had a little V8 hat, somewhere on her she had embroidery that said "Flo's V8 Cafe", I think on the apron. Anyway, I just caught a glimpse of her and I was dying to see her little outfit better, but I suddenly felt like a creep, so I just controlled myself and said, "Love her outfit" to her mom and moved on. Now I want to make a Flo's V8 Cafe waitress dress for Gracie, I think she'd enjoy that. But I didn't get a good enough look at that little girl (she had a jacket on too) to copy it, but I can copy the idea.

We were done for the day, but we needed to eat. I was thinking we could hit up an In-n-Out on the way home, but I could see that Libby was way too tired to stay awake long enough to get some hamburgers. I decided that she would need to eat before she fell asleep for the night, so we had to eat there. We went to the Taste Pilot's Grill where they have delicious hamburgers. I had the Wild Blue Yonder burger, which is covered in blue cheese crumbles - yum! and I got the girls a plain hamburger and fries, not from the kids' menu though. They actually get a better burger and more food if they split an adult meal instead of each getting a kids' burger. Plus, it's cheaper that way. The Taste Pilot's Grill has a condiment bar, so you can dress up your burger any way you like. I got Libby a little dish of ketchup and Gracie a little dish filled with pickles. They were both very happy. Me too!

On our way to the exit, we saw Goofy. Gracie wanted to see him because he looks like her daddy. What? Yeah, he looks like Daddy, that's why she likes him so much. He's really tall, like Dad. And today he was wearing a tie, like Daddy. Ahh, well, if it was necktie that won her heart then by all means, let's go see him! She didn't want him to sign her book; I have no idea why. She just wanted to see him. Libby didn't. That didn't surprise me, she hasn't been interested in getting up close to any of the characters today.

Gracie had a great time visiting with Goofy, but he wasn't satisfied with just one Cinderella he came up to Libby who was half laying down in the stroller and played with her a bit. He took her Hello Kitty hat and stuffed it in his mouth and then he dropped it, ate it again, took it and wiped his armpits with it, tossed it around and then gave it back to her. She was laughing her head off!  Goofy was great!

We made our way to the Toy Story buses and we finally got a blue Toy Story bus! It was 8:30 when we got to the van. We just spent 9.5 hours at Disneyland! And I said I didn't feel well and wouldn't stay longer than 4 hours! Ha! I forgot all about not feeling well. More of that Disneyland magic! It's great medicine.

The day was a great one! We had tons of fun, more than I can describe in this really long blog post! More than I can express with my plentiful use of exclamation points!!! But before I'm done, I have to brag a little bit about the girls' dresses. I heard a lot of comments about their dresses, especially Gracie's Cinderelly dress. People recognized it and I received so many compliments on the girls' dresses, not just from cast members and Cinderella, but from passers by and all sorts of people. I loved that! Makes me feel so good when the girls are complimented and made to feel special because of something I made for them. Someday, that will be a special memory for them that will be one of the great things their mama did for them. I hope they always know that their costumes are made with love. And so are these fun filled days at Disneyland.

Can't wait to go back again!