Overheard...

Tonight, Drew was playing with the Little People Nativity set and as he put everyone in the proper place he said "Good night Baby Jesus...be born on Christmas day! I have to go play with my Polar Express now..."
Well, at least we are getting some of the concepts of Christmas down!

Disneyland Birthday Photos...

I want to go ahead and get some birthday photos up on the blog so I'm going to just dump a bunch on here...we'll see if captions get added in the future...

Wow!

Guess who went pee-pee on the potty TWICE today?! Allen! (Ok - technically more than one person in our family fits that description but everyone else is expected at this point to succeed in that arena!) Once at Grandma & Grandpa's this afternoon and then at home tonight! I guess he's headed that direction. Too bad mommy isn't ready for it...I need him to be able to communicate his needs a little better before we go down that path! But maybe after the holiday madness is over we will start the process and see how it goes. Who knows...he may be an easy child to "train"!
The greatest thing about it is that Drew keeps saying "Yay! Allen is potty trained now!" Oh, if it were only that easy...

Human Nature

“You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.” -- William D. Tammeus

Riding the King Arthur Carrousel at Disneyland (and I would love to know why they use the 2 "r" spelling of the word carousel there yet at California Adventure it is King Triton's Carousel...anyone?)

So many pictures...

...so little time! I have downloaded both cameras from our Disneyland trip plus the Day Out with Thomas stop we made on the way home...final count? About 450 over 4 days. Not horrible, but way too many to get through in one night! So I'll get them posted along with some final thoughts about our trip. We definitely had a good time and are planning a return visit in the spring - we hope!

School Birthday

We will return to our regularly scheduled posts after a brief interruption...

Today, Drew had his special birthday day at school. His teachers made it really special - Drew went to the front of the room at circle time and got a crown and chose which birthday song he wanted sung to him (underwater). Then everyone counted out loud how old Drew is and Drew got to pick that many friends to be his birthday "candles". They lined up along the wall and then Drew blew out the candles and each one collapsed down. It was so cute! Finally, he got to pick out a sticker sheet out of the birthday box. At pick-up he chose a birthday song again(cha-cha-cha) and then gave each of his classmates a goodie bag as they left. It was pretty cute!

California Adventures

We had a great day at Disney's California Adventure today. We started the morning with Toy Story Mania which both boys loved. It's in 3-D and Allen immediately put his glasses on when we got them and was so proud...then he put them up on top of his head like mommy and daddy do with their sunglasses. Monkey see...monkey do! We had a great morning riding rides, finding characters, seeing shows and enjoying a new park. At lunch time, Allen was exhausted so Patrick took him back to the room for a nap and Drew and I got to have some bonding time alone. It worked out great - we rode so many more rides and even took an animation class! Drew decided to skip his nap (a decision I may regret later...but for today it worked out ok!) and we plowed right through the afternoon. We ran up to the hotel and changed him into his Buzz Lightyear costume and ran back in time for the Pixar Play Parade. It was really cute and he stayed in costume the rest of the night! We figured if all those little girls can walk around dressed as princesses then he should be able to dress as Buzz! He got tons of attention from cast members and other guests...and he like it! Allen (who decided to skip dressing like Woody...too much effort I guess!) and Patrick joined us right before the parade and we had a really good night! The boys crashed (much later than I had hoped, but oh well!) and I have been getting things ready for the BIG day tomorrow - Drew's 4th Birthday! We're going back to Disneyland, having brunch at Goofy's Kitchen, and generally just doing whatever Drew chooses. It should be a fun day!

Favorites:
Watching Daddy ride California Screamin' (and Allen really wanting to ride too!)
Seeing Jessie (who I'm pretty sure Allen has a crush on!)
Eating fresh tortillas from the Mission Tortilla Factory
Riding Mickey's Fun Wheel (ferris wheel)- just Drew and Mommy
Drew being dressed like Buzz Lightyear all evening
Allen feeding Drew snacks before the parade - Drew's gloves where making it hard for him to eat so Allen took it upon himself to help out...a rare moment of true brotherly love!

I'll post pictures later...the connection is so slow here!

We're going to Disneyland!

Well, actually, we are already here! We survived our first day and the boys did great. Allen even stood in line without too much complaint! Tomorrow we are going to California Adventure and then back to Disneyland on Saturday. I'm sure it will get much more crowded every day, but today was quite pleasant...no complaints!
Favorites:
Train
Monorail
Autopia Race Cars
Seeing Goofy (our first character encounter of the day and strangely the one Allen had been talking about the most...)
Celebrate! Street Party (parade)
Roller coasters (any they have been tall enough to ride have been a hit so far!)

Quotes:
"Mommy, why didn't they make this castle as big as Cinderella's castle at the Magic Kingdom?"--Drew
"Mo Mon-rail!"--Allen

We have really enjoyed how "walkable" everything is here. Our hotel is literally steps from Downtown Disney and Disneyland and even has a back entrance into California Adventures. It helped so much tonight when, after the park closed, we just walked back to our hotel...no more than 10 minutes from Tomorrowland to our room!

Party Time!

On Sunday, November 1, we had Drew's 4th Birthday party at the train park. Everything went great and the kids had a blast! We did the party together with Kenley - there birthdays are 2 weeks apart and this weekend fell in the middle. It was so nice to do a "joint" party - half the work with the same outcome! Here are a few of the pictures from the day. Kenley's Uncle Jason is a photographer and was in town from Chicago for the weekend...worked out great for us! I barely got my camera out which made things much easier. Enjoy!

Such an awesome "blowing out the candle" picture!


Yummm...cupcakes...


Drew riding with his buddies in the boxcar - this is a special treat...Mommy usually says no!


A rare family photo...we never manage to capture one of these at our boys' parties!

Happy Halloween!

Here are a couple of photos of Buzz Lightyear (Drew) and Woody (Allen). There really aren't many good photos of Allen - he didn't want to stand still and his hat kept falling off. But he looked pretty cute all the same! Drew had a great time as Buzz and thinks we should take his costume to Disneyland next week and see if we can meet Buzz dressed as Buzz! We just might do that...
We went to a neighborhood party in our park before dark and then out trick-or-treating. Mommy stayed home for a while to hand out candy and Daddy took the boys. They both got tired pretty fast and were ready to come home after less than an hour! Oh well...they are young and don't need all than candy anyway! And neither do we!!