School or Disneyland?

This morning, I woke the girls up for school, but this wasn't a typical morning.  When I went in their rooms, I told them they had two choices...school or Disneyland?  The look of shock was priceless and the decision was easy.  We quickly packed up snacks and sunscreen and headed out the door.  Unfortunately, when we got in the car, the tire pressure light was on in my car.  After a 1 hour delay at the car dealership to patch up a nail hole (Thanks Tim!), we were on our way.

We bought Park Hopper passes so we could go back and forth between the two parks.  We started the morning in California Adventure so we could rush to the new Cars Land ride...Radiator Springs Racers.

 Cars Land is a great new area in the park with all things from the movie Cars.  We waited in the single rider line and were on the ride in 8 minutes, instead of the standby line which was an hour!

 It was the perfect ride...displaying great scenes from the movie and high speed when we raced another vehicle around the track!  It reminded us of Test Track at DisneyWorld.

We even spotted Lightning McQueen on our way to Paradise Pier.

 We loved the new Toy Story ride, Midway Mania where we had a chance to show off our target shooting skills.  We also did the Silly Symphony Swings and the Golden Zephyr before making our way to Soarin' Over California. Most rides only had 5-10 minute waits!

 We exited California Adventure with a hand-stamp and walked across to Disneyland.

 The castle was our first stop before racing over to Space Mountain. Only a 20 minute wait!

We pretty much walked on Autopia Speedway,

Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. 

 The Matterhorn had cool new individual seats

 and we loved the updated 3D Star Tours ride.  Although our feet were about dead at this point, we still had enough energy to wait 25 minutes for Indiana Jones and walk back over to California Adventure to finish off the night.

 We gave our feet a break and sat down to watch the Pixar Friends parade.  It was a pretty quick one, but we enjoyed seeing all of the characters from Monsters Inc, A Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, Toy Story and The Incredibles.

 We continued to take it easy at the Ghiradelli Chocolate Shop.  Ice cream seemed to cure our tired feet!

 We finished strong with stops at Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, Luigi's Flying Tires and one more ride on Radiator Springs Riders.  Our final attempt was Monsters Inc, but we had to walk out halfway through the ride due to technical difficulties.  It was also starting to get a little chilly so it seemed like the perfect time to head home.
 I was so happy I was able to surprise the girls and reward them for another wonderful school year.  It was a great day spent together!!

Happy Mother's Day to Me

 I had a great Mother's Day and felt the love from my family.  Matt worked into the early morning, but left donuts, flowers and a card on the counter.

While he slept, the girls gave me their gift.  Yesterday, Hank took them to the mall to have their portraits done.  It was such a nice surprise!!

 Once Matt got up we were off to Carlsbad for a beach day.  The sun never came out but it was a nice relaxing day playing Smashball, soccer and lounging in the sand.  We finished the day with dinner at Pat and Oscar's and Baskin Robbins ice cream cake that Matt had gotten earlier in the day.  My greatest joy is raising these amazing girls and I'm so proud to be their Mom!

All About Iowa

    As the 5th graders are wrapping up their school year, they are learning all of the states and capitals.  They were also assigned a state report and float project.  Allison chose Iowa, being that she has a lot of family from there and we are excited to visit again this summer.
    After a few weeks of research, she put together a report on Iowa's government, economy, history, interesting facts and many points of interest.  She learned that the ice cream man is banned in Iowa and the Field of Dreams was built there. Iowa is home to the 1st presidential caucuses and the birthplace of Herbert Hoover and Ashton Kutcher.
    As part of the assignment, she had to create a float out of a shoe box with at least 10 items representing Iowa.  With a little help from Matt, they put this great float together.  They used the Iowa flag, Mississippi River and riverboats, Field of Dreams, Hawkeye logo, pigs and corn and fireflies.  She even added pictures from her first trip to Iowa!  We are excited to visit there again this summer and maybe check out some of the points of interest that she researched!

More Birthday Fun at SKYHIGH

 The birthday week continued today with Allison's party at SkyHigh Party Zone.  She invited 26 friends from school and soccer to help her celebrate and they had a great time!

Reanna, Allison and Turbo being goofy on the inflatable slide.

 Paige, Maddie, Kaylee and Emily sliding together.

 They all had a blast in the glow-in-the-dark room, shooting balls at each other through these cool shooters.

 Zoey, Bailey and Augustina coming out of the obstacle course.

 Brynn, Faith and Lorien shooting baskets.

 Even Madison and Taylor had fun jumping around.

 Allison and Reanna battle it out at the air hockey table.

 Matt tried hard to beat the 11 year olds, but Faith took the title!

 Olivia, Allison and Emma...good buddies since AstroCamp.

 It's almost impossible to get this crew to pose with a straight face!

 Augustina, Hannah and Bailey A.

The DJ did a great job getting all of the girls on stage for the Harlem Shake, Gangnam Style and the Electric Slide.

 There was even a few ping pong and shuffleboard matches too.

 Zoey, Olivia, Isabella, Anika, Aubree and Saige have all become great friends from soccer.

After 1 1/2 hours of jumping, dancing and running around, it was time for snacks, cake and presents in the party room.

Allison was blessed with so many wonderful gifts.  We loved this cute money bouquet from Zoey and Allison loved pulling 25 $1 bills connected with tape out of a kleenex box from Reanna.  The box said "Don't BLOW it all in one place".  Too cute!  She was spoiled with gift cards, bathing suits, a towel, nail polish, a purse, candy, board games and much more.  She has such wonderful friends!

 Our birthday queen is officially done celebrating, but it has been a very fun week!  

The Birthday Girl

We started the birthday celebration a little early because Matt had to work on Wednesday and Allison had soccer practice.  Allison chose Lucille's for her birthday dinner and the girls toasted with

some strawberry lemonade before devouring biscuits, mac n cheese and southern friend chicken.

We topped it all off with this delicious Red Velvet Cake!

 We opened presents once we got home and Allison was eager to get started.

 She loved her new sweatshirt, long-sleeved rash guard, Adidas slides, iTouch case and ear buds.  She can't wait to use her Mission Bay Aquatic Center gift card for a little stand-up paddle boarding and kayaking.

She also loved her new backpack for middle school and was thrilled to find $100 stuffed inside. Thank you to Grandma and Papa!

On the morning of her birthday, she woke up to balloons and streamers all over her room and fresh chocolate chip pancakes.

She celebrated with popsicles at school, had a fun lunch at Rubio's with Faith and celebrated with donut hole stick pops at soccer practice.  A pretty good day if you ask me!

Happy 11th Allison!!

 Happy 11th Birthday to my blue-eyed, baby girl!

 You are beautiful, creative, smart, athletic and oh so funny!

 I love your outgoing personality, sense of responsibility and your willingness to help others.

 You love your family, friends, playing soccer, going to the beach, playing games on your iTouch, performing on stage and eating junk food.

 You have a great sense of adventure, you are the most observant kid I know and you wear your heart on your sleeve.

 You certainly have your own sense of style and your own idea of what a clean room looks like, but you seem to know where everything is!

 You dream of being a Canine Officer when you grow up and I'm confident you will achieve any goal you set.  You bring a smile to my face everyday and I love our morning cuddles.  I am so proud to be your Mom and I can't wait to see what Year 11 has in store for you.

Happy Birthday Allison!! I love you!