Call in the Reserves!

A few weeks ago we planted our garden. We planted some plants and some seeds. I took a lot of pictures but I am still having trouble with my computer transferring my pics. Anyway, we decided to take a picture of the whole garden but it looks really nice! We both said, 'well, if we don't grow anything at least it looks nice.' Last week I was out weeding the garden and watering it and I found...some shoots coming up! My onions, lettuce, peas, beans and spinach are growing!!! You don't really fully understand what this means to me. This is my first garden and I thought for sure the only thing I'd be able to grow were weeds. I'm still learning a lot and I hope that we actually have a harvest this year. A lot of my plants are doing well and growing too. So, yesterday I had one of those most embarrassing and shameful moments of my life! It was Memorial Day and so I had to get up early to go perform with the Lehi Chorale at our Memorial Day Presentation. This year they honored women veterans which I thought was really neat. Anyway, Jason's dad and brother were going to come over and help him dig trenches around the house to hook up this new blasted irrigation system that our city put in. That way you have the culinary water for your house and the irrigated water for your yard. Anyway, I get home and see that there is a parade of cars in front of my house and Jason's ENTIRE FAMILY is out there weeding my front yard and helping Jason dig. Ok, seriously, I was SOOOOO grateful...but I haven't weeded for like a month or more. I've been pretty good about the beds right in front of my door, but horrible with the other larger bed. I hyperventilate just looking at it! But even the beds right in front my house haven't been done for a month (maybe a little bit longer). I felt terrible that they came and spent their holiday morning working in my yard because I'm too busy (and lazy if truth be told) to do it. Our lawn is mostly dead as well because we didn't have a lawn mower until about a week ago and we haven't been able to turn on the sprinklers because we had to hook this whole thing up first. The sad part is that my house is just as bad as my weeds-overgrown and out of control! I nearly lost control of the tears right then and there. I was talking to Jason about it after everyone had left and I told him how grateful I was to them for doing that but how horrible it made me feel. He said, 'oh well, on the bright side it's done.' And I said, ya, but on the other side, now I have to keep it up! I sat there after they were gone and pretty much the whole day and thought, what do I do exactly all day that my house and the weeds could get so bad? I won't list them all here but I realized that I am actually pretty busy and hopefully things will slow down once school is out. But I'm sure I'll find something else to fill up that time! Anyway, if any of Jason's family are reading this THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mommy Bookworms

Just wanted to let you know that I started posting on my Mommy Bookworms blog again. I was trying to do all that stuff on Goodreads, but it takes way too much time. So, I'm back on that blog. Check it out if you like to read or if you're looking for something to read this summer. I also post children's book on there as well so if you need something new for your kids to read or to read with your children take a gander. P.S. I was at the store last night looking at the magazines while waiting in line and on the cover of one was Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. Gotta admit...he's not that good looking and I'm starting to lose my love of the movies. I hope when the movie is actually out that it will change my mind. I think I like him better as Cedric Diggory to be brutally honest with ya. He looks...scruffy looking and...I don't know...just doesn't look good to me. *Sigh* I know there are better things to worry about. Well, back to my reading!

DAY 6: The Adventure comes to an end!

Well, here we are on the last day. (sniff! sniff!) We've had such a fun time I really hate to see it end. The kids have been so good and it's really been nice to spend time with just them and not worry about work and school and other things going on. We had a real bonding moment with our kids. Even Jason commented on how much fun he had! I don't know about you, but packing up to head home is worse than packing to leave. I'm so worried that we are going to leave something behind. Check out was at 11:30 but we wanted to get an early start on the day. We had to leave at around 4 to get to the airport so we wanted to cram as much as we could into our last day. Today we are going to the California Adventure Park. We had a lot more fun than I thought we would. We went to all the shows. First we went on the Monsters Inc. ride. Such a cute ride. We saw the Disney Playhouse show and that was awesome! So much fun for the kids. We went to the Muppet 3D show. I love those 3D things. I had to leave a little early because Nathan was soooo tired but just wouldn't turn it in. So I took him outside because he was crying and by the time everyone came out (which was like 5 minutes later) he was zonked. We saw the Aladdin show. That was fun, but a really long one. The Genie was trying to be funny...but not. You know how they are. Disney is really cheesey sometimes! We stopped for lunch and had some yummy hot dogs with lots of stuff on them. What else did we do?....Oh! We went to Bug's Life and that was fun. Their 3D show was kind of scary for the kids because it gets really dark and then they hit you with bees and such. It's just air but it feels real. During one of the "scary" moments I looked over to where Maddie was sitting next to me and she wasn't there! I kept feeling around for her and finally found her ducking for cover on the floor. It was so funny. I really wish I could have taken a picture of that! They have some really cute rides for the kids in the Bug's Life area. The kids liked the rollercoaster and bumper cars. Then it was time to start heading back. I had to pick up some hats that were being printed for me over at Disneyland so we needed to make our way over there and then load up for the airport. Like I said, we didn't have a lot of time today. We went to the gift shops so the girls could get their souvenires. Maddie chose a really fun Ariel locket and Emma chose a Cinderella locket. Ok, so now the REAL fun begins! Loading up the car was quite the chore. We didn't factor in how many pieces of luggage we had PLUS the stroller. So we all had to share our leg room with suitcases and such. The drive was fun to the airport. We got to do a little site seeing while we were at it. The Long Beach Airport is really small and kind of po-dunk if you ask me. The kids had to help with the luggage and car seats. Emma decided that she could help best by screaming and crying about it the whole time. I think that things might not have been so stressful if she hadn't been throwing a fit. But she's got such a high pitch ear piercing scream and cry that just really hurts your head. So, that's how it began. There were no employees there to help us get into the right line and they weren't marked very well. There were two very nice gentlemen who helped us with our luggage but when it was our turn to go to the counter the lady informed me (quite rudely) that we were in the wrong line. So I kind of snapped back that this was our first time here at this airport and that there was nobody here to help us. Most of the people there were in our line anyway so we figured there was really only one line. Anyway, after that she was very sweet to me. Turns out that one of the employees just up and left. I overheard the lady talking to someone else about it. Nathan started to get fussy because it was time for him to eat and he was tired. So, we had two screaming children, a truckload of luggage and the two of us trying to get it all situated. We finally got all the luggage checked but the kids were still crying. Then came the security. Man oh Man what a hassle. They took my bottle of sunscreen that we forgot to pack in the suitcase because we had it with us at the park and said that it was too big. She told me I could go back and check it or throw it away. I told her to just throw it away because I'm not that desperate for sunscreen to go and check it! Then we had to all strip down again and the girls had on a lot of jewelry at this point. I had to fold down the stroller and strip Nathan, go through, then set the stroller back up and gather all of our stuff and try to get us to the terminal. Fortunately I'm a wiz at the stroller and can do it one handed! Anyway, Emma is still crying all through this and so is Nathan. We get over to the "terminal", it really looks like a waiting room with a little cafeteria and the girls of course tell me that they are hungry. We sit down and I whip out some minnie mouse cookies that I had secretly bought for them and then they were quiet. While I was trying to get Nathan's bottle ready a man came up to me and said that if it was alright with me he had gone ahead and purchased suckers for the girls. I almost burst into tears at that moment. I told him he was so sweet and gave him many thank you's. The girls loved their suckers. So, Maddie had her balloon with her that we told her could not go on the plane, but we let her carry it as far as it could go. Then another meltdown because she didn't want to let it fly away and she didn't want to pop it either. So I suggested that maybe we could let the air out of it and save the pink mickey balloon in the middle to blow up later. Ok, so mom's know that you say things to get them to just do what you want. Jason kind of gave me this look like "you can't be serious. There is no way we are going to blow this thing up again." I gave him the look that said "just do it and I will deal with it later." So, being the awesome father that he is, he took care of it and you could still tell that it was a mickey balloon when he was finished with it. She gladly took it and stuck it in her bag. Phew! Another crisis averted. Thankfully one of the employees came over to me and helped me get the stroller checked and then we were one of the first ones on the plane. We flew Jet Blue home and I have to tell you, I REALLY liked them. Each seat has their own t.v. and they give you the whole can of soda instead of just the cup and they had a bunch of different snacks to choose from. The girls thought they were so special. And guess who was sitting behind me? The nice gentlemen and his friend who bought the girls the suckers. The kids behaved themselves on the plane and we had a smooth ride home...until the turbulance hit. It was pretty bad. Well, we were coming home to a nice big rain storm! Anyway some of the drinks spilled because the flight attendants weren't able to get to everyone with the trash bags soon enough but the girls did really well during it. The lady behind us was kind of freaking out and I had a hard time keeping my giggles quiet. All in all, the experience with Jet Blue was really good. AAHHH, HOME! We landed and got our stroller which was wet from the rain but not too bad. We got our luggage...except for Nathan's bag. A few other people were missing bags as well. We flagged down an employee and he went off to find someone to help us because the baggage claim office was closed. As he went down the hallway I happened to notice that something opened up on the wall and out came a bag and the employee went over to get it. It was our bag! Phew! The other people were wigging out and asking us where we found our bag and I told them and set the pack of wolves onto the poor employee. Grandma Childs came to get us and we headed home. With only one more stop...McDonalds. We were starving! So we ate, unpacked a little and went to bed. We were so happy to finally be home and sleep in our own beds and dream about all the fun we had. I can't wait to go again in two years for Emma's birthday! **FYI-Maddie did ask me for about a week after we got home to blow up her mickey balloon. I went through the motions of trying to blow it up and then Jason tried and then we had Maddie try, but in the end, we couldn't do it (surprise, surprise). She was a little disappointed but I told her we could hang it up on her wall if she wanted to. Here we are a month later and she's forgotten all about it.**

DAY 5:

Today we went to the beach. We slept in and had donuts and juice for breakfast. Yummy! We rented a car from Enterprise and so they came and picked up Jason and he came back with a nice little car. We got in our suits, packed our gear and headed off to the beach. Of course, today was one of the colder, windier days in California, but what do you expect? We went to a grocery store and grabbed some things for lunch. We had coupons for sandwiches at Subway and so we grabbed drinks and chips and some fruit. After lunch we went out to the ocean and dipped our toes in. The water was freezing and the wind blowing didn't help things much. Maddie was so excited to FINALLY be at the beach. She's been telling people for years that we were going to the beach. The girls ran in...and then ran back as fast as they could. Maddie enjoyed playing in the ocean until she tripped or got caught in a wave and it "started to carry me away." I asked her if dad saved her and she said no, she saved herself. After that, it was a little while until she would go back in the water. Jason loves the beach! He had a lot of fun playing in the ocean. He made me watch him "tear into the water" several times. I taught the girls how to look for good seashells and we had so much doing that. Everyone agrees that the best shell was found by mom. I found a shell that was still intact and had the clam still inside. We brought home a lot of shells and some sand. I taught Maddie how to play Hari Kari. It's a game my dad made up when we went to Hawaii with my Madrigal group in high school. You kneel down and then when the waves slam against your back you have to try and stay up. It is so much fun and I play it everytime we go to the ocean. It's fun, but man it's a killer on your knees. Sometimes that water is so strong that it throws you and slams you down. I've walked away with many a bump and bruise courtesy of the big blue! Maddie really enjoyed that. I helped her get over her fears of the ocean. Of course, the whole time I'm telling her not to be afraid I am secretly screaming inside. I am so afraid of sharks being there in the ocean that it's almost paralyzing. Thanks a lot JAWS! It didn't help that Jason put the fear of God into the girls the night before. He was trying to teach them not to go off by themselves so that they didn't get caught in the waves and ended up scaring them to tears. I gently tried to tell him that there was a much nicer way of telling them that rather than telling them that they'd get carried out to sea and lost forever or drown. He thought that it was a teaching moment. I agreed, just could have used a better teacher! Little Bud loved the sand. He didn't quite like the water as much. It was too cold for his tootsies. But he had fun in the sand kicking his feet and picking it up and throwing it. He liked to walk in the sand and play with the towels. After a little while we decided to head back. So I took Maddie to the bathroom while Jason and Emma cleaned up and on the way she said, "Well mom, this was a pretty great day!" I was so glad to hear her say that. We headed for home and the kids decided that they wanted to go swimming in the pool. So, they all went swimming and I took pictures and just sat for a minute. After swimming we got dressed and headed out to dinner. Tonight we ate at the famous In and Out restaurant. According to Jason, Californians will fight people to the death about these burgers being the best in the whole wide world. Personally...it's just another burger to me. Supposedly we are getting one out here in American Fork...yippee-can't wait! (that was said sarcastically, by the way.) I don't know, we had to go eat there because you can't go to California without at least going there once. Ok, so I went, now what? I don't feel any different. Maybe a little fatter from eating grease on a bun with onions but other than that? I'll take my McDouble any day! The shakes and fries were good though. After dinner we took Maddie to the Build-A-Bear at Downtown Disney. Her aunts gave her a gift card for there and so we went and spent it wisely. She chose a dog to build instead of a bear. She picked out a heart and a sound. So now when you press it's paw it says "I love you." She helped stuff it and then she had to fluff it and give it a "bath." Then we had to dress it. She picked out a Princess Jasmine outfit. Of course we had to have the complete ensemble with crown and shoes to match. Then we picked out a name and registered it. Guess what she named it? Yep-Jasmine. I decided to make it a different spelling and spelled it J A ### Y N. She's got such an imagination...except when it comes to naming things. I was really surprised when she didn't name it Seashell because that's been the name for everything else lately. Anyway, we got it registered and they gave her a birth certificate and a house for her and she's loved that thing ever since. Emma has already decided what she is going to make for her birthday- a ballerina bear. I think that's only because she didn't see the Cinderella outfits. Anyway, she had a really fun time and is so proud of her Jasmyn dog. Thanks Aunt Nic and Aunt Amy for such a great birthday present! After that we made the walk back to the hotel. We stopped and took pictures by the fountain. My kids love water. Maddie is part Mermaid and so she has to get her fix every once in a while and play in water-no matter where it is. The girls danced to some Peruvian music and then we headed home for a good night's rest. Tomorrow is our last day and we will be heading home. I'm sad. It's been a fun trip but all things must come to an end I guess. Well, see you next time for the conclusion to our adventure. And let me tell you...it was a doosie!

DAY 4:

Well, here we are to day 4 of our wonderful adventure! We are heading back over to Disneyland today. We got up early so we could be there as soon as it opened. We went on all of the rides that we weren't able to go on on Monday. First up, the Peter Pan ride. There was a two hour wait the entire day on Monday and so we decided to go on that ride first. It's a fun ride but I'm still puzzled about why it's so popular that there is a two hour wait! We went on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Pinocchio, Snow White and of course the Carousel again. We went on the Casey Jr. Train ride and walked through Sleeping Beauty's castle. Nathan fell asleep and so Jason and the girls went on the teacups and the Alice in Wonderland ride again while I sat with the wee lad. Then we headed over to Toon town to be there when it opened. While we waited, Jason and the girls went on Small World again. Then we went to Toon town and saw Minnie, Mickey and Pluto. We went on the rides there and Maddie loved Gadget's Roller Coaster. We spent some time there and then headed to get some lunch. That was quite the ordeal! There was some false advertising and we were very disappointed. They had said that there was a Round-up BBQ and so we walked clear to the other end of the park to find it. Turns out that it's a Character thing and it's like $100 bucks to do it. I'm not paying that for BBQ-sorry! So we went to the Hungry Bear restaurant and had some sandwiches and such and relaxed a little. Then we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride and saw Pooh and Tigger. Emma is scared of those kinds of characters and so it was just Maddie and I. Then Maddie got a little to silly and hit Pooh Bear on the head. She thinks that because she is 6 now she can jump really high and touch people's shoulders. So, she was showing Pooh that she could jump really high and hit him on the head. I got upset with her because I asked her to stop doing that. So, then she was upset the rest of the time and didn't cooperate for pictures. But I LOVE Pooh and Tigger and so I got my pictures taken with them. Jason and Maddie went on the Indiana Jones ride together. While I waited with Emma we saw Princess Jasmine!! Oh Emma was in heaven. Now she had seen all of the princesses and the best part for Emma was that Maddie didn't get to see Jasmine. The kids went through Tarzan's tree house and then we headed back over to Tomorrowland. We killed a little bit of time while we waited for a show to start on went on the Mark Twain boat ride. We did the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" 3D show and went on Buzz Lightyear again. We wanted to go on Space Mountain but the kids were getting tired and we wanted to get a good seat for the parade that was starting soon. So we headed off to find a seat and get a snack. I had to go buy Nathan another hat because his was either stolen or fell out. We came out of Sleeping Beauty's castle and his hat was no longer on the stroller. Sad :( So I left Jason with the kids for a few minutes and ran to get him another hat with his name on it and of course found a few other things for him too- a ball and a baby mickey that has a pull string binky that plays music and has embroidered on his little tushy "My first Mickey." AAWWW cute! Anyway, I headed back, got the kids a pretzel and we waited for the parade. It was a dance parade of some kind and so it had some fun music and dancers. We couldn't see very well, but we sure enjoyed watching Emma dance! That little girl loves to dance! She could not stand still without tapping her toe or waving her arms. I took several videos of her. I've included a little snippet for you to enjoy. After the parade we decided it was getting kind of late and we wanted to go get dinner. By now we have gone on all the rides that we wanted to go on and we saw all of the shows that there was to see and we were pretty tired on our feet! We headed over to Downtown Disney and hit the dinner rush. We wanted to go to the Rainforest Cafe but it was too long of a wait for our tummies. So we went to the ESPN ZONE restaurant for Jason. He was pretty happy being in his element with food and sports games. I think there were 12 or so large t.v.'s there each with a different sports game on. HEAVEN! After that it was back to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a fun day at......Found out tomorrow (or whenever I get it up!)

Happy Mother's Day

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=rvqMppmHJ0yCCZIolxOaYTExNzQ0NDEy&referred_by=15798312-74_xsyx&p=moveon Check this out! My friend Heather sent this to me for Mother's Day. What a sweetie. Of course it's not true, but it certainly made my day and made me feel worth something as a mom. Thanks Heather and Happy Mother's Day to you too! HAPPY MOTHER's DAY TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL MOTHERS!

DAY 3:

Our last post left the Childs Family resting after a fun-filled day at Disneyland. What new adventure awaits them today? Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early to catch our tour bus heading to SEAWORLD!!! I love Sea World and Maddie loves animals and water and so I thought the combination of the two would be the perfect thing. The bus ride was long and before we knew it all three of the kids had conked out. In the pictures you'll see them all asleep on the bus. I even fell asleep. Our bus driver pointed things out to us at the beginning of the trip and then as we got closer to San Diego he said that he wanted to point out "a very beautiful building that looks like a castle. The temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints." The San Diego temple is so beautiful and we quickly woke up the kids so they could see it. My girls literally Love to see the Temple. I thought it was really neat that our tour guide would make a special point of making sure we saw that. So, we arrive at Sea World and we look at our map and show times and make our plan of what we're going to do. First stop, the seals and sea lions. Before we went and grabbed our seats for the show we fed the seals and sea lions. Maddie was not paying attention and the very first fish she tried to feed she put up and over the glass wall. A seagull came out of nowhere and snatched it right out of her hand. It really freaked her out and she got a little upset. We showed her the little hand holes that they have for to slip the fish in so the gulls don't get them. She loved feeding the animals. The show was pretty good. They did a t.v. show theme and had the Iron Chefs and Dancing with the Stars and a Law and Order kind of a thing and a few others that I can't remember right now. The big pink blob that you see in some of the pictures is a walrus and boy is that thing unpleasant to look at. At first I thought it was a Manatee it was so huge! The little otter was so cute and mischievous. He even had a little stage fright...so adorable. When we asked the girls which one they liked the best, of course Emma said she liked the pink one. Next was Shamu. My favorite. They are such beautiful animals but still strike a little fear in the pit of your stomach. There were a few dolphins in the show and they are so amazing to watch. Maddie started getting a little upset because she wanted to go down and touch the animals. I had made the mistake of telling the girls that you could touch and pet the dolphins because I remember doing that on my last trip to San Diego about 10 years ago. I even have pictures of it. But, apparently they don't have that anymore. If you want to get up close and personal with the dolphins you have to pay through the nose to do it. Which I was more than willing to do for Maddie because I knew how much she loves animals, but the times they had available conflicted with other shows and things going on. Anyway, I tried to explain to her that we weren't allowed to do that anymore. Sure enough, as soon as I get her calmed down, they show a little boy that they had selected from the audience to go do and touch Shamu. That started the tears rolling again because she wanted to that and wondered when it would be her turn. I was trying not to get too upset with her because I knew her little heart wanted nothing more than to just sit and swim with these graceful animals, but she sure wasn't giving up on her whining about it! We took a break and had some lunch. The kids got souvenir Shamu lunch pails. Then off to the other shows. We pet the stingrays. Emma was a little chicken about it and Mads could never get her hands down far enough into the water. Jason helped her a little and she was a little scared at first, but then just loved it. I admit that I was freaking out inside about their barbed tails. Jason could tell and reminded me that they were probably de-barbed, but ever since the Crocodile guy died from that I can't get it out of my mind. We touched some starfish and held a few of them and saw some pretty large sea turtles. We found a few flocks of flamingoes and I took a few pictures of Em doing her best flamingo impression. We went and saw the penguins and manatees and all the aquariums and the sharks. OOOO, they scare me! Had an ice cream treat break and then headed off to see the dolphins. Back to the crying about touching the dolphins again. We sat on the very front row and yep, got soaked. It was so much fun! I didn't get very good pictures though because I kept hiding my camera so that it wouldn't get wet. I'd bring it back out as fast as I could, snap the picture and then hide it again. I don't think the Em enjoyed getting wet though. They had a new show this year. Amazing pets or something like that. They had these dogs and cats and pigs and birds and you named it trained and do a little show for us. It was pretty amazing. They told us that all the animals they trained were all adopted from a shelter or found on the streets. They let the kids come up afterwards and pet some of the animals. FINALLY!!! Maddie could touch an animal. Too bad it had to be a dog and pig, but hey, she was happy! I'm pretty sure we saw all that there was to see. They don't have their really cool shows in the off season but we still had a pretty packed and fun day. Maddie was given birthday money from her great-grandma Redd and so she wanted to buy a necklace. She chose a purple jeweled starfish necklace that broke about 10 minutes later. She was playing with Nathan and it got caught on the stroller and snagged. I've since fixed it but sadly, there are no pictures of it. I let the girls choose their souvenirs. Emma chose a pink dolphin that was attached to a large twisty sucker, and Maddie chose a large stuffed Shamu. Emma lovingly refers to her dolphin as her "pink Shampoo." Maddie's favorite show was Shamu and she has been in love with that thing ever since. In one of the pictures I took of her with her Shamu he is doing a "trick." We headed home on the bus and saw the temple one last time. We had the bus drop us off a little bit before our hotel so we could grab a bite to eat at IHOP's and then headed home. It was such a fun day and I'm glad we decided to take a day out for Sea World. The girls have loved it and hung up their postcards we bought in their room. I'm so thankful that my children have such a love for these amazing animals that Heavenly Father has created. Madalynn reminds us to love all of Heavenly Father's creatures...except spiders. So off to bed to catch some sleep before we wake up and head off to.... WHERE WILL THE CHILDS FAMILY GO NEXT? Find out tomorrow when we return to the CHILDS FAMILY ADVENTURE! The pictures of us standing in front of the Mickey statue were taken in front of our hotel while we were waiting for the bus to come.

DAY 2:

When we left the Childs Family, they had a pretty crazy adventure at the airport. They had just retired for the evening to get up early to go to....Da Da Da DAAAAA DISNEYLAND!!! Today is Madalynn's 6th Birthday! We began our day with a walk to IHOP for breakfast. Their stuffed french toast is to die for! Maddie enjoyed 5 pancakes with each different kind of syrup and Emma loved her cheese eggs. Jason and I got the same thing but differently flavored. Then we headed to our destination for the day, Disneyland. When you go to Disneyland on your birthday they have a few options for you, one of which is that you get in free. We decided to go with the gift card for her so that she could buy whatever she wanted. They gave her a pin that said it was her birthday and all day long people wished her a Happy Birthday. It really made her feel special. When we got there the Disneyland Marching Band (or whatever they are called) put on a little show for us and that was fun. Then we headed off to the rides. First up, the Carousel. This was Emma's favorite ride. We rode on the teacups, Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, Storybook Ride, pretty much everything there. I took the girls on the Matterhorn and I couldn't tell from the screaming if they liked it or not. Maddie sat in front and Emma and I sat in back. Emma kept saying Stop! Stop! I don't want to be on this ride! At the end it slows down and you dip into a little bit of water and that's when Emma goes "WEEE." Maddie did not like the two monsters that were there. I had forgotten about them. But she really loved that it went fast and later asked to go on it again. We stopped off at the Mad Hatter to get our hats. I was adamant that the kids were getting hats with their names on them. After a few tears and fits we had finally decided what we wanted. Maddie chose the princess Minnie ears. I wanted Emma to get that too, but she just wanted the crown that was on them and not the ears. She ended up deciding on a Princess Cap that came with some cute sunglasses. I selected a bucket hat for Nathan that says "My First Mickey Hat" and I look horrible in hats but wanted one anyway. So I chose the Princess bucket hat. The day we went to Disneyland it was like 103 degrees and it was almost unbearable. I wanted the girls to wear hats so that their little heads didn't get burned. Maddie wore her ears for a while and then wore my hat the rest of the time. Jason was a party pooper and didn't get a hat. I should have forced him like I did the kids, but he's a big boy and can choose for himself. If he doesn't want to participate with the family that's his choice...but I'm going to keep rubbing it in for the rest of his life! They just recently opened up Small World again and it is very nice. I don't know if it is longer than it used to be, but they did such a nice job restoring it and adding new things. We ate lunch and had the best corndogs ever! One of the guys that Jason works with told us that we HAVE to try their corndogs. You get them on Mainstreet from a little car that looks like a fire engine. They are verrrrryyyy gooooood! I like that they give you a choice of either potato chips or apple slices. We got both and shared. They have a nice mother's room there now and so I took care of Nathan there, out of the heat. It was refreshing. Then off to more rides. Maddie and I went on Star Tours and she loved it so much that she went and got her dad and went on it again. When she came back she asked me if I saw her spaceship leave. I told her that I did but that I was glad she was back now. The Buzz Lightyear ride is fun. For those who don't know about it you have little laser guns and you're on a mission to defeat ZURG (Buzz's father hee hee). They have targets all around and you shoot the lasers and you can move your car around and such. Well, I didn't know that we were actually keeping score and I had Nathan with me so I didn't do as well as I could have the first time. The second time I sent Nathan with Jason and still didn't do so well. It was still fun and Maddie loved shooting the bad guys. Emma preferred to just spin the car. The Nemo ride is fun and we only waited about 25 minutes for it. It's so amazing what these imagineers come up with! Maddie was so excited to see Bruce the Shark and Emma wanted to find Dori. Nathan enjoyed looking out of the window and climbing around. Jason took the girls to Autotopia to drive the cars. I love that Disney does a rider exchange for those of us who have small children who can't go on the rides. If it was a ride that both Jason and I wanted to go on then one of us would go and the other one waited and then they let you just switch riders and you don't have to wait in line again. In the case of driving the cars they let Jason and the girls switch drivers without waiting in line again. So Maddie got to drive first and then they just went into a different car and Emma got to drive next. I stayed behind and fed Nathan and enjoyed being off my feet for a few minutes. By now it's time to go to dinner. We are having dinner with the Princesses at Ariel's Grotto and that is at the California Adventure Park. So we walked across the way and waited our turn to see Ariel. I don't have the pictures of Ariel up because I paid for the ones that they took and I have to scan those in and my computer runs really slow if I have my printer/scanner on and then I have to restart the computer....so I'll post those later. I thought Emma was going to faint as excited as she was to see Ariel. She was just bustin out the seams with each new princess she saw. The restaurant is decorated in a Sea motif, of course, and the booths that we sat in look like a big seashell. Shortly after we sat down someone was being sung Happy Birthday and Maddie started to cry. I told her that there were a lot of people here today who had a birthday and that when it was her turn she would get sung to as well. We ordered our food and boy was it delicious! Maddie ordered the Sea Shells and Cheese and Emma chose the tri-tip beef or something like that. I had the Spinach and mushroom pasta and Jason ordered the tri-tip beef that Emma had, but in a larger portion of course. Their beef was so good and very tender. The girls also got souvenir cups with a Tinkerbell light on it and thought they were queens! The appetizer is a four-tiered plate that has jello squares with fruit in it on the first plate, various veggies on the second plate, more veggies and some spicy cheese balls on the third, and a really yummy salad on the bottom plate. The dressing was so good. It was some kind of vinaigrette that was so light I didn't even know the lettuce had dressing on it. They gave the girls some crowns to decorate with stickers and they had fun doing that. While we waited for our entrees the Herald came out to announce the arrival of the princesses. He started to read his scroll and announced that there was a family here celebrating a very special day and he called our family up and everyone gave a toast to Maddie for her birthday. Then we got to read the scroll and announce the first princess...BELLE! The girls were so excited and I think Jason was excited to because Belle is his favorite. He is a little disappointed that he didn't get his picture taken with her. My camera is so crappy sometimes and I was so worried that it wasn't going to work with Belle there that I didn't even think about Jason being with his princess. Sorry Honey! After that we went back to our table and Belle came and signed the girls books and got her picture taken again and headed off to the next table. One by one the princesses were announced and came to our table for autographs and pictures and they each wished Maddie a happy birthday. Cinderella is Emma's favorite and she told the princess that. Ariel is Maddie's. We also saw Snow White (whose voice was REALLY annoying-and on purpose!) and my personal favorite Sleeping Beauty. Emma was disappointed that Jasmine didn't come. After dinner came the desserts. The table on the other side of us had a birthday and then one other table had a birthday right after that and Maddie was starting to get a little frustrated. Everybody was getting a little brownie with a candle in it...but not my princess. I had ordered a very special cake for her. When it was finally her turn they brought out a pink jewelry box with a hand mirror. Inside the box was a cake with Ariel and three Mickey Ear balloons. They sang Happy Birthday and then she blew out her candles and dug right into the cake. So, I didn't get a picture of it :( Jason and I enjoyed a platter of chocolate everything. Well, I enjoyed the huge piece of double fudge brownie and the chocolate molten lava cake. He enjoyed the raspberry tartlets. There was also a large conk shell made purely out of white chocolate that looked to pretty to eat. But Maddie saw to that an gnawed on it the rest of the night. After that we headed back to Disneyland to see if we could get on some of the more busier rides. We also thought that there was supposed to be a fireworks show, but they only did that on the weekends. The paper we had said that it was a daily thing but apparently that was only for the week of Spring Break. We did see the fireworks from our hotel the night before but I wanted to see the show. So we went on Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion (the girls did better than I thought they would on that) and something else but I can't remember. Sometimes the best time for the more popular rides is at night. I told the girls that they could choose 1 souvenir each day and so we went to buy those. Maddie also had her gift card to use. Emma chose a PINK Minnie doll and Maddie chose a balloon with a pink Mickey Balloon inside of it. Trust me, she only got that because it was her birthday! With her gift card Maddie chose a Belle music box, some little princess dolls and a baby Duchess cat wrapped in a blanket. After we had all our stuff we headed home to the hotel. I can't remember how Emma ended up in the stroller but she fell asleep on the way home. Maddie told me that she had a pretty good birthday and I am very glad that we were able to celebrate it at Disneyland. Of course, Emmie had a little bit of a hard time because Maddie got to buy more things than she did. But we told Em that we would come here for her birthday and she is very excited about that. She's already decided what she's going to buy with her gift card. I asked Jason if we could come back for my 30th next year and he said no :( ( I told you he's a party pooper!) Ahhh, another fun day done and four more to go. We needed to get to bed because we had a really early morning to go to....TO BE CONTINUED! Find out where the Crazy Childs Family goes to next! The slide show is of the swimming pictures that I forgot to put in yesterday and our day at disneyland and Ariel's Grotto. I can only fit 50 pictures in the slideshow so consider yourselves lucky because there are WAY more pictures than that. Until tomorrow...