It's a Party at Mickey's House

Ok I have to throw a huge shout out to my friend Mark who works at Disneyland.  He is a supervisor in the live entertainment department so he gets to develop the firework shows and Fantasmic, etc.  Truly he has the coolest job on Earth.  On Thursday he got us into the park and we got to experience Disneyland Halloween style.  Very Awesome!  We have tons of friends who have passes and they are always saying that we should get them, but every time I go I realize why we don't get passes.  I think Disneyland is a special once-in-awhile kind of place and anyone who knows Don knows that he is not a crowd lover, so it is probably best that we stick to the once every 3 or 4 years Disney visitors.

For Halloween they completely redo the Haunted Mansion.  It was amazing, the whole ride looks different.  Less scary, but very neat.

Autopia- Eli did a good job steering although anyone behind us might of thought we were drunk.

Donald is finally tall enough to drive his own car.

Love my little monkey!

Donald wanted to go over to the Tom Sawyer island and see the pirate caves.  Usually I have to force Don into pictures, so this is one of the rare Disney photos of us together.

I was going to remove the red eye from this picture, but we look so ghoulish I felt it fit in well with the Halloween theme.

This picture was to show that the boys survived splash mountain.  Donald is not a big ride fan.  It might have started the last time we came to Disneyland when he was 5 and we took him on Tower of Terror in California Adventure.  He came out saying "I am so glad they didn't kill us!"  Since then we have to really talk him into things and sometimes he just won't give in.  So he went on Splash Mountain, wouldn't go for Space Mountain and then agreed to Thunder Mountain and loved it.  Eli on the other hand, is up for anything.  He always goes on any ride that we want to go on.  He went on all three mountain rides and said that overall Splash Mountain was his favorite tied with the Buzz Lightyear blaster ride.  Donald said his favorite was Thunder Mountain which is also my favorite.

There is a Jedi Training show where they pick kids out of the audience and let them fight against the dark side.

Donald got picked and got to fight Darth Maul.  This guy was very cool, he did a good job looking evil.

We went to Toontown while we were waiting for some of our fastpass times (I love the fastpass and the person who thought of the idea-  Genius!).

Eli holding Mickey's closet closed.

This is the only picture we got of our whole family.  Mickey makes me feel tall- (te he).

After all the fun we settled down in front of the castle to get a good spot for the Halloween Scream fireworks.  We sat down on the curb at about 7:20 for the show at 8.  The whole place was packed which only made Don hate the situation even more.  Then the show starts and about 20 people shove in front of us.  So I put Eli up on my shoulders and since Donald is too big to lift anymore he was standing next to me.  The 6 foot tall idiot in front of us that came 2 seconds before the show started decides to put his kid on his shoulders and totally block Donald's view.  I was so mad I shouted "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" His wife gave me a dirty look and then whispered to her husband and he took the kid down (for a little while).  I mean, come on, we were waiting there for 40 minutes to get a good view and then you come in and ruin it for my kids.  Jerks!

Even though our view was limited, it was an amazing show.  Zero the dog flew across the sky and the fireworks were unbelievable.

All in all we had a great time as a family, realized that Space Mountain makes us all a little bit sick, found out that the whole theory of no crowds on weekdays during school is a lie (at least during Halloween),  and totally appreciate Mark giving us this opportunity.  Thanks Mark- You rock!

The History of the Jack O'Lantern

My whole life I have been carving pumpkins, never knowing why, just enjoying the fun and creativity it brings.  Well, it turns out that there is a legend behind the carving of pumpkins.  The legend says that centuries ago in Ireland there was a man named Jack.  He was a lying, stingy, drunk who one night tricked the Devil into paying for his drink in a bar.  The Devil changed himself into a coin and Jack, instead of paying for the drink, put the coin in a small bag with a silver cross.  This made it so that the Devil could not change back, forcing him to make a deal with Jack.  He promised that he would leave him alone (some versions say for a year, some say for ten years).  At the end of that time, the Devil caught up with Jack walking one day and was going to take him, but again Jack tricked him, this time into climbing a tree to get him an apple.  Once the Devil was in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the trunk so the Devil could not come down. Ultimately the devil promised never to come after him again.  When Jack died he went to Heaven, but was not allowed in because he was wicked.  Next he went to Hell, but the Devil, remembering his promise, would not take him.  So, Jack was forced to travel back to where he had come in complete darkness to roam the Earth forever.  The only light he had was a burning coal from Hell placed inside a hollowed out turnip.  After that, frightened Irish would place their own light in a carved turnip in their windows to scare the roaming Jack away.  Once Irish started immigrating to America they learned that pumpkins were great for carving and that is why we use them today.

So here we are getting ready to carve them.

Donald designing his Jack O'Lantern. He did both his and Don's (the large greenish one and the smallest one.  He did a great job on the green one, I was impressed).

Eli with his pumpkin.  He did not want to touch the yuck inside, so I had to carve his, but he likes it now that it is clean.

So here they are- our protectors from wandering drunk Irish immortals.

Mine had a scar on it, so now we call it "One-eyed Jack".

Do you think they'll do the trick?

Awhhh, my kids!

So I was feeling rather lumpish today, but then I got to go to the boys end of the trimester awards ceremony.  I always love seeing my kids accomplish things.  Eli got the principal's award for citizenship

and Donald got honor roll.

We got home and Eli asked me what I did today.  I didn't want to just tell him that I had spent most of the day on the couch feeling like digging myself into a small hole to hide in, so I said "oh I did the dishes and did some work on the computer. "(Which was true, but not very exciting).

 He said, "You know what my favorite thing of today was?"

"What was that?", I said.

 "My favorite part of today was when I saw you watching me get my award.", Eli said.

Really without my kids I don't know what I would do, I would probably be a puddle on the floor.  And I realized something...  Sometimes I don't feel like I deserve my kids and how can I possibly be what they need.  Today I thought maybe Heavenly Father put them here because he knows I need them.

Another example:  Every Monday Eli's teacher sends home Happy Face Cow with the best student of the week.  Eli brought it home this Monday.  It comes in a little cow backpack and you have to spend the day with it and then write down what you did together in it's little journal and draw a picture.  So Eli decided that we needed to play with the little cow and everyone had to give him a ride....on our heads.

Poor Don got left out of that fun activity :).

Then we had to take the cow out to frozen yogurt (Eli said that the cow asked him if we could).

Good times with Happy Face Cow!

Vote for Eli!

Hey all, I entered Eli in a Gap photo contest and one of the prizes is by popular vote so go to http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/?cmp=OTC-Gap-Vanity and enter his number 611283738. Show how cute you think he is and vote for him please! You can vote once a day.  

What's New?

A couple days ago Eli got contacts.  Yes, you heard me right, my six year old has contacts!  At first I asked about them because Donald has them (he got his when he was 9) and they are so much easier than glasses. It takes two seconds to put them in and then you don't have to deal with them until it takes 2 seconds to take them out.  Glasses are always getting bent and scratched and dirty.  Sometimes I don't even think that Eli can see out of his glasses.  They always slide down his face and then he looks like an old man tilting his head back so he can see out the bottom of the spectacles on the end of his nose.  I asked our Ophthalmologist what he thought and he said that he felt it would be okay if I was willing to put in the effort.  So I call to see if the Optometrist would give him a prescription at such a young age.  They give me an appointment and I go in, pay the $150 fitting fee and the doctor tells me that he is too young and she won't give them to him.  I was ticked!  Why did you have me come all the way down here and pay money so that you could just tell me "NO"?  Why didn't the other doctor say he was too young? Why didn't the appointment center say he was too young?  She said that no one else knows what they are talking about, but he is too young to handle them.  Then she gave me back my money and I went home frustrated to forget about it.  Three months later Eli and Donald had check ups with the Ophthalmologist.  He asks "Hey, I thought you were going to get Eli into some contacts?"  I explained the frustrating visit and he starts typing away in his computer and tells me that the other doctor had no right to tell you that your son was too young.  There is no set age, as long as the parent is motivated to help.   About a week later I get a phone call from the head of the optic department's office saying that Eli is scheduled to get fitted for contacts.  Apparently, when the doctor was typing away, he was sending an email to someone who was in charge.  He told me that she handles all the young children cases, usually it is only for specific reasons that they give young children contacts, but it shouldn't be a problem if the parent is willing.  
The fitting was set for October 7th.  I had to take Eli out of school and drive over to Riverside again, pay the $150 again and go into a room where a doctor told me that she had never given that young of a child contacts and did not think that it was a good idea.  Are you kidding me!!!  She was actually really nice about it and asked Eli if he was serious about wanting contacts.  He said yes and she turned to me.  I told her that I didn't want to seem pushy, I wasn't even the one who asked for another visit, if she really didn't want him to have them then that was fine, but I was willing to try.  Ultimately she decided that we should try to put them on him.  If he had issues then we would wait a couple years, if he did good then we would come back in two weeks to evaluate if we should buy more.  She leads us to another room where a consultant explains the procedure to me (which is funny since I have had contacts for 10 years and my older son has had them for over a year, we have the procedure down).  So I told Eli to stand up (all the while I was terrified that he was going to freak out and make me look like an idiot who tortures her children), and I put the first one in- no problem, the second one in- no problem.  He did not make a noise, or move at all, he just opened his eyes and there they were.  After a couple blinks he walked around the room looking at all the mirrors and out the windows commenting on how he could see so much.  I was soooo happy!  Then we went back into the doctors office and she said he did amazing and seems to be mature enough to handle them, so we will see her again in two weeks for the follow up.

Woo-hoo!

Comments

I think I finally figured out how to have comments appear under my posts.  I have always had it checked that they were allowed, but didn't know that you had to change the post layout.  Oh well, they are there now, feel free to comment at your leisure.

Weekend in San Diego

This past weekend we went down to San Diego to spend a couple days on my Dad's boat.  I am always amazed at how beautiful San Diego is.  Pictures just do not do it justice.

On Saturday, It was warmer than it was supposed to be, but since I am cold-blooded, it was still too cold for me.  Luckily, Don was there to keep me warm :)

Apparently, I was not the only one that was cold.

(My nephew Evan and his cousin David).

Eli always loves driving the boat with my dad.

(That's my sister Tina sitting next to them).

My stepmom Beth and I

I need a new camera, sorry the picture is blurry, but it was a beautiful night.  We docked the boat somewhere in there and headed over to Ruth Chris' for an amazing steak dinner.  Yum, Yum!

We stayed in the Kona Kai hotel and then in the morning we went for a little cruise, ate breakfast and headed home.  It's good to get away every once in a while, even if it's just down the freeway a bit.

Curb Appeal

Do you ever watch those shows on HGTV that transform the front of a house into something amazing?...Ok so maybe we wouldn't jump all the way to amazing, or say that I transformed the whole yard, but here is my attempt.

Before

After

I still have to do a few things so it isn't completely done, but it does look a little better, so I guess I accomplished something.  It will be interesting to see it next year after all those plants have grown.