Disneyland Revisited!

Yes-it's been almost 2 months since our trip-oh well . . .


I was so excited to blow Josie's mind when I told her we were leaving for the airport to go to Disneyland.  But she pretty much took it in stride.  Which just goes to prove my theory-she likes to squash all my fun.  Don't get me wrong-she was happy and excited-just didn't seem to be all that surprised.

I was sooooo correct in not telling her about the trip.  Because the next several hours, all i heard was, "How long before we get to Disneyland?" in some form or another.  She thought the car ride to the airport took too long.  She didn't like waiting to board the airplane.  She didn't like waiting for the airplane to take off.  She didn't like waiting to land in California.  She didn't like waiting for the shuttle.  She didn't want to bother going to the hotel.  She wanted to go to DISNEYLAND, darn it!

So-she doesn't like to wait.  And we were going to Disneyland.  In June.  Yeah.  Fun times.

Josie is not the best traveler-she's so caught up in what's GOING to happen that she can't seem to enjoy the moment she's in.  She couldn't enjoy the flight, the anticipation, the Starbucks hot chocolate . . . .because she just wanted to get there.

And when we did get there?  Holy cow-she drove me and mom nuts!  Whatever ride/atttraction we were waiting in line for-she wanted to be in line for 10 other ones.  She didn't seem to understand that we would be there for 5 days, we would get to (mostly) everything.  RELAX!  We threatened to put her with the hotel babysitting service at one point so we could enjoy ourselves without the whining and complaining.

But finally after about a day and a half-she did relax and get into the groove of the whole thing.  Josie and I would hit the early entry while mom enjoyed her coffee and do as much as we could.  We'd join mom later for lunch and rides and then head back to the hotel for rest and swimming.  The D!sne$land Hotel just opened a new little waterpark (they're still remodeling the other pool) and Josie loved it. Me too-I was following her around until another parent clued me in the the SEVEN lifeguards in the area and told me to sit down and relax!  So I did.  But she did talk me into going down the waterslide . . . .

We waited so late in the spring to go because the new Little Mermaid ride opened on June 4th and we couldn't miss that!  The new Star Tours opened on the same day so it got a little nuts.  But we had gotten some special (hard won, I tell you) Fastpasses from the hotel so we didn't have to wait in line for the Little Mermaid.  We decided to pass on Star Tours (some people were waiting 4 hrs-crazy!) since Josie had developed an aversion to any ride that was in the dark.  The Matterhorn was probably not such a great idea our first day there . . . . .  We did get her on Pirates though and she really liked it.  But oh boy, get that girl on roller coasters, river rapid rides and the (surprising freaky) ferris wheel and she's a happy camper!  She loves the thrill rides! Yay!  Unfortunately she was too short for the big roller coaster and the Big Thunder Mountain was closed.

We saw the World of Color (which was, just okay . . .considering the hassle of getting tickets/viewing spot).  I probably wouldn't do it again.  I hate crowds so something has to be pretty amazing for me to deal with craziness.  

We also had a couple of character meals-Goofy's Kitchen and Ariel's Grotto.  And some meet-n-greet with characters-the Princess Faire, Tinkerbell, and Rapunzel.

Josie's favorite ride (and I say this because we went on it now fewer than 5 times-once 3 times back to back since there was no line) was the Monster's Inc ride.  Why?  No clue-it's cute and all but I refused to go on it a 6th time!  We also went twice on It's a Small World-twice is my limit on that ride.  Funny how I love it the first time and the second time seems HOURS long . .   . 

The new Little Mermaid ride is cute-you're basically going through scenes from the movie while you sit in your little clamshell.  What's funny is the clamshells go through on a conveyor belt and they're pretty quick.  They don't stop so you can get on-you have to practically run to catch up and leap onto one.  I'm sure the attendents can stop or slow it down.  But they didn't.  So there were sometimes empty shells because folks couldn't jump in in time. 


Some pics . ..

Yeah-that's a quesadilla, kid.

Just asked Josie if she was hungry and she said she was.  Went over a few options and when I asked her if she wanted a tortilla with cheese she said, "No!  I want a little PIZZA!" 

Okey doke-got out the tortillas, cheese, turkey pepperonis and pizza sauce (that's how we roll . . . .).  She pulled up a stool cuz she wanted to make it.  She pointed at the jar of sauce and said she didn't want that.  OK.  She pointed at the pepperoni and said she didn't want that.  Alrighty then.  Then-she said she wanted the other cheese (as in, not the mozzarella I had out).  "Which one?"  She picked out the bag of shredded Mexican cheese blend.

"So-you want a tortilla with cheese, then!"

"NO!  I want a little pizza!"

Yeah, whatever kid. . . . .

I heart faces-wind.

This is my favorite picture of my niece.

Do they still do the Lillith Fair?

Josie is really into "girl things"-as in certain toys are girl toys and certain ones are "boy toys".  I used to often get her the "boy toy" at McDs (stop judging-my girl needs her some fries!)-but I can't get away with that anymore.


Her new thing is music.  When we're in the car and I turn on the radio-she'll pipe up from the backseat-is this a girl song or a boy song (as in-is the singer a girl or a boy)?  If I tell her it's a boy song, she insists I change the station.  Sometimes it's hard to find a song on one of my 5 presets that is a "girl song'.  We seem to end up listening to a lot of Taylor Swift . . . .

The pics below were right before we left for the Kindergarten Round-Up (!!!!) at our neighborhood school.  She got to sit in a kindergarten class with one of her potential teachers while the parents got all the info in the cafeteria.  Then the kids got to take a 15 minute ride around the neighborhood in a big yellow school bus before joining us in the cafeteria for cookies.  She had a blast.

I actually started to tear up when I left her in the class . .  .what am I going to do on the first day of kindergarten?

Look at her.  All legs.  This girl-she is killing me. 

 

Picture Post: The one in which I try to secretly take pics of Josie in the snow and end up in a one-sided snowball fight!

Even more of the World According to Josie . . . .

This weekend Josie came up with a new insult:

1.) Mom, you're a pair of sock! (Hysterical laughter follows) And yes-sock was singular even though she said a pair . . . . And no-I have no idea why this is so funny.

2.) Josie discovered a hole in the crotch of her tights. She became fascinated with said hole. I'm sure you're getting a mental image at the moment. The rest of the evening consisted of me telling her to "leave it alone!!!!". Those tights are going in the garbage . . . .

Biking with Grandpa Joe

Near the end of last summer my Grandpa decided to buy a bicycle because it was becoming too hard to keep up with her on foot when she was riding. He was a bit wobbly (and still is I suppose!) and completely knocked her down the first time (they were fine), but apparently after this ride (where I finally, thankfully, got some pictures) Grandpa Joe has hung up his helmet. I guess he took a little spill. If he hurt himself, he's not telling. And that's okay-he's 92 years old. He can do whatever he wants!

This is the two of them on the way to the playground.

Family and Kids Festival

We had so much fun at this a couple of weeks ago-lots of free stuff at the booths, cheap tickets for the petting zoo, bouncy houses and reptile booth. Free performances by gymnasts, children's theater, OMSI, etc. We spent about 4 hrs there and I had to drag the kid away.

Free Face-painting! She's so into unicorns right now . .

She also now LOVES flamingos! Thsi was from a booth that will go to a house in the middle of the night and "Flock them" by putting up a ton of plastic flamingos. And sometimes they are in costume-like for Halloween or Valentine's Day. Pretty funny prank. I entered a raffle for a free "flocking" (boy, that sounds kinda dirty!) but apparently didn't win. I entered lots of raffles and Josie must've spun 20 different prize reels. It was all about the reels!

And it was all about the gymnastics-there were 2 different booths from gyms and they both had mini-gym courses and instructors to assist the kids in their forward/backward rolls, etc. Josie spent a lot of time there. Then after a demonstration-they left up the equipment and invited the kids (and one brave, brave adult) to do the course. Josie went round and round until they tore it down. I may have to try some gymnastics classes for her.

It's not too late if my neighbors still have their Xmas wreaths out right?

No? Whatever. Bite me.


Sooo . . .Christmas Eve was at my parent's house as usual.  Below is my dad without his usual Xmas eve bow on his head.  Maybe we hadn't opened presents yet.  We open presents with my brothers and their families on Xmas eve.  With 7 grandchildren-this gets a bit chaotic.

Passing out presents (this takes forever as there must be hundreds of gifts, I swear!)

Rapunzel!

Thankfully, Christmas Eve into Christmas morning passed without any sickness on Josie's part (unfortunately that can't be said for other family members) and Josie awoke to the anxiously awaited UNICORN PILLOW PET!  She'd been asking out one for months (seems everyone at daycare had a pillowpet) and I told her she could ask Santa for one.  And boy did she remember.  Anyone who saw this kid int the months of November and December learned that she wanted a unicorn pillow pet for Christmas.



Behold-the unicorn pillow pet!

More gift unwrapping.  I may have gone a little overboard (though it didn't seem so at the time.)  Anything I wanted to get for her from August til December was put away for Christmas and she got a good haul. 

Playing with yet another one of those play sets with the itty bitty pieces.

Josie got Grandpa a Dora doll for Christmas.  He's supposed to sleep with it.  Heehee.

Playing Tea Party with Grandpa Joe (for like, an hour and a half!)

Love this pic!

Josie taking a "nap" with her new Ariel, Belle and Cinderella dolls.  Unfortunately, only 2 of the dolls fit in the bed so Ariel had to sleep on the floor.