Tuesday, July 28

Heatwave!!!

We are currently having a heatwave. Our whole area has an excessive heat advisory for the next couple of days. I am not sure what the high temp today was but at one point it was 99 degrees. We have do not have an air conditioner so lets just say the house too hot!! No relief in this hot weather is expected for the next couple of days. It might get down to 89 this weekend! I am just melting! It is so hot I don't really want to be on the computer, it just lets off so much heat. I probably won't be blogging much until it cools down some. It is almost 10 pm and my room is about 89 degrees (outside is 82).

Sunday, July 26

Birthday Party Bash for Wii Review

Princess A just adores Birthday Party Bash. She wants to play it everyday and would if I let her play the Wii everyday. Up to 12 people can play Birthday Party Bash at a time. Princess A likes setting up parties with 5 or 6 people each time even if she is the only one playing. There are lots of themes to pick for your Birthday Party Bash but the girls pick Princess every time! Once you pick the theme it is time to play the party games to earn your party. The number of people playing a particular game is dependent on how many Wii remotes you have. If you have less than four, we have two, then in our case two of the players in a game are controlled by the Wii remote and the other two are controlled by the game. After the game is played you have earned more of your party, for example decorations, cake and such. The next game is played with the next group of people. So in our house if Princess A picks 4 players then the first game is player 1 and 2 (the other two characters in the game are controlled by the game). The next game is players 3 and 4. The third game is players 1 and 2 again and so on. Princess A loves playing Birthday Party Bash and Princess G likes to watch. Princess A loves playing Birthday Party Bash by herself or with me. After playing the games your party is earned and you get to sing "Happy Birthday." Each time you play through a party the order of the games is changed and there are so many mini games every game is not played during each party. Princess A likes to just play the mini games separately sometime to practice so she can beat me the next time we play. The Birthday Party Bash also came with postcard invitations for a birthday party and a Duncan Hines coupon, buy one get one free. My girls love throwing pretend parties (Hippo and Pinkie have a birthday a few times a week) and so this was perfect for them. Princess A and I highly recommend Birthday Party Bash and I know she will be playing for a long time.

Thank you Mom Central for this review opportunity

Friday, July 24

Zoo Trip with Princess A's Teacher


Before school let out I invited Princess A's kindergarten teacher and her daughters to the zoo. When Princess A was so sad she was too sick to stay for the last day of school her teacher promised a trip to the zoo. The other teacher tried to come but was not able to make it.
Princess G is so proud to be at the top!
When we went to feed the goats we were asked if we wanted to brush the goats. We had only ever feed them before so the girls were very excited to brush them. They made sure to brush each goat at least once.
As soon as we walked into the Budgie's area we were swarmed. I held my camera up to take this picture and four birds landed on me and my camera. Last time we came it took almost forty-five minutes just to get a bird to land on our seed stick.
The aquarium had a new interactive activity for kids: dress up as sea creatures. Princess G did not want to dress-up but Princess A had a blast as a starfish and later a sea urchin.
This zoo visit was the day of new stuff. They also had camel rides available. Princess A's teacher was so nice and insisted on paying for the girls' ride since we used our membership for their admission.
Each of my girls rode with one of her teacher's daughters. The girls all had so much fun together.
After lunch as seeing the rest of the animals the girls all just wanted to play.

Of course no visit is complete with out a ride on 'Roses' (yes she has a few different carousel horses named Roses.)

Princess A usually picked a different horse (or lion in this case) for each ride. After two rides and the tradition zoo souvenir (squished penny and small glass animal) is was time to go home! The whole family is so nice and I hope we get to see them again later this summer.

Thursday, July 23

Dressing Themselves

The other day the girls dressed themselves.
I told them I had a few errands and possibly we would stop by the library. You can see how funny they though it was to dress up as Cinderella and Aurora instead of regular clothes.
The giggling was infectious!

They were giggling and hugging when Princess G was giggling so much she fell down!
We never did leave the house that day. They were just having too much to stop just for a few unimportant errands.

Monday, July 20

I Love Summer

For Princess G's birthday we went to the beach. Even though it was cold they still played in the water. Does the cold ever stop a kid?
This is my entry for the "I Love Summer" Photo contest at An Island Life

Day Five of Our Trip to Disneyland

We were up at at the park by 7 am to use our one early morning admission. Since we went on Nemo's submarine the day before (it was our original plan to go on that the last morning) we let the girls pick whatever they wanted.

They both picked Dumbo!!!!

Next the girls wanted to ride the carousel again and of course Princess G wanted to ride 'Roses'!!

Since the park was not that full we took some pictures in front of the castle.
I just love this picture of Princess A.

We also finally went to met Tinker Bell and Friends in the new Pixie Hollow.

The girls met Iridessa, she was so sweet. The girls were hoping for Silvermist, as she is their favorite, but Iridessa was a treat too.

Of course they loved meeting Tinkerbell and showing her their new Tinkerbell Fairy wands.

Teacups are always a huge hit with the girls. After that we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion again and again. The girls love those two ride and we did each at least six times each, if not more during our trip.
We were all getting a little tired so we decided to go and watch the Aladdin show again. It was fantastic! When we came out we were able to meet Sully. We did not get an autograph since Sully is allergic to paper.

Next we finally went to Turtle Talk since Princess A had a very important question to ask. "How did Marlin end up on the turtle's backs?" She did not get picked to ask her question the first or second show. We asked the host the question in case she knew. Since she did not know the answer she called Crush back and he answered our question. It was so exciting to have just the four of us and the host all alone with Crush to ask our questions.
As we came out of Turtle Talk we saw Woody! Princess G is so into Jessie and all of the other Toy Story characters right now. It was a great end to a great trip.
It has been over a month since we went to Disneyland and the girls are still talking about everything we saw and did. They are already planning our next trip. I think it might be a few years but you never know it could be sooner, at least I hope so!!!

Saturday, July 18

Day Four of Our Trip to Disneyland

We woke up early and finally went to Toontown Madness. It comes with our Disney package we bought through Costco but we never go. This year we finally went it it was really fun.
We got this great picture right before Minnie and Mickey left to get ready for the show/parade.

After the show no one got in line for pictures with Pluto so we kept taking more and more.
The girls got a picture with both Chip and Dale, I have no idea which one this is!

This year we also tried the roller coaster in Toontown for the first time and both girls loved it. We went on it a few times in a row before they would let us go somewhere else.

Isn't this a great picture. Last year we only had one family group picture so this year I made sure to get a few.

The girls really wanted to go on the Nemo ride so we went to get in line. When we found out it was over an hour wait Daddy went to get the stroller. While we were waiting Princess A was admiring the pins of one of the attendants. We ended up trading some pins and with out us asking he put us in line for the very next sub. As we were heading to California's Adventure Park we saw Pinocchio. We had never seen Pinocchio before so this was the first time we were able to get a picture with him.

The day before Princess A was so excited to meet Ariel she forgot to show her the picture she drew of her in the scrapbook. She was so disappointed I went and asked at Ariel's Grotto if we could get Ariel to sign it. We had to wait a little while, until brunch started, but then we got the signatures and some extra pictures.


We then went and rode Toy Story Mania one more time and the girls each won another stuffed animal at the Rubber Duckie Carnival game. (Princess A won a platypus and Princess G the largest prize, the large duck!) When we were coming out of the Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular (which was great) we saw the Heroes. That is what the girls call the Incredibles.

We happen to get them as they were headed back inside so we had to get this picture as Mr. Incredible was walking. What a mommy does to get her girls a picture.


The last thing we did was watch the Pixar Play Parade. It was so cute and we all enjoyed it. Much better that the new parade in Disneyland, Celebrate! A Street Party. We really tried to like it. It is really not a parade but more a Disney character version of High School Musical. So if you like High School Musical you might like it but we did not. The music was not that great either, we actually ate inside so we would not hear it. I just miss the great parades from before, especially the Parade of Dreams. We still sing the Welcome song all of the time.

Wednesday, July 15

Day Three of Our Trip to Disneyland

This was the day of characters, besides Pooh and Tigger we did not see any Disney Characters the first two days. As soon as we entered Disneyland we saw Pluto.

We saw Minnie but while in line we spotted Donald Duck with almost no one in line. This is the first time the girls have taken a picture with Donald and they were very excited.

We hopped back in line with Daddy and they got to meet Minnie Mouse! I just wish we had the Minnie Mouse ears that day.

We also met Alice, the Mad Hatter, Cruella and Goofy.

Next we rushed over to Ariel's Grotto in California's Adventure Park to have brunch with the Disney Princesses. This girls were very excited to meet Ariel. Princess A was so excited she forgot to show her the picture she drew in her sketch book of Ariel and we had to come back another day to show her.
The girls barely ate since they we so excited waiting to meet with Cinderella.
The next princess was Snow White, she was so sweet.

Princess Aurora is Princess G's favorite princess and she was tickled pink and kept dancing in circles waiting for our turn.
Princess G's second favorite princess is Belle. The girls just love seeing the princesses and it is so nice to see almost all of of them in one spot instead of trying to find them all over or waiting in that huge line at the Princess Faire in Disneyland.

Daddy wanted a picture with Lightening McQueen and Mater. This was new as we did not see them last year.
We also went in the newly updated Small World. A few Disney characters are now incorporated in the ride, it was fun trying to find them all. We found new ones each time we went on the ride.

We finally took the girls to Mickey's Toontown. Their favorite room in all of the houses is Minnie's kitchen. They would stay for hour if we let them. We always have to make a wish in her wishing well on the way out too!!

Last year we went to a small Aladdin show in Disneyland and got to meet Jasmine and Aladdin afterwards. The show was cancelled but when we came off of the Jungle Cruise they were at the entrance taking pictures. The girls were so happy as they both were a little disappointed that the show was cancelled (we still saw the big production in California's Adventure Park but they love the more personal show too!)
We were getting hungry and decided on chicken sandwiches for dinner. While we waited for Daddy to get the food Princess A was picked for the Jedi Training Academy. Last year she was picked but when she saw Darth Vadar and was scared that he would hurt her with his Lightsaber and left the stage. I explained to her that it is against Earth Law to bring real Lightsabers to earth so he was just using a practice one. Once I convinced her of that she couldn't wait to battle Darth Vadar the next time we came. She was so excited to be picked and she did defeat Darth Vadar in battle! I will post the video later.
We finally rode the Autotopia and we all decided to call it a night.