Sunday, December 04, 2011

Titus's 6th Birthday

Titus turned six on Friday. Six! If you'd like to know how I feel about it you can head over here, to my other blog. This one is about preserving family memories. That one is about my thoughts and feelings and things I ponder from time to time.

Anyway, here on our family's blog I now present... Titus's sixth Birthday!

His special day started out with breakfast with Daddy. Daddy almost always takes the kids out to a special breakfast of their choosing for a special date. Titus chose Cork's donuts. He enjoyed his huge donut and strawberry milk before heading off to school with some extra donut holes to share with his classmates. 


We enjoyed a super fun party with friends and family at McDonald's. Despite my last minute party planning, everyone he invited was able to attend which made for a really big, really fun, really crazy adventure. He even had a couple of friends from school attend, which was a first for our family--and totally awesome!

These are Titus's presents from the friends (and family) at his party. Legos, Starwars and Nerf. Yup, that's my son! He was so excited about all of his fantastic new presents and they couldn't have been more perfectly fit for him. 


And the "adults" at the party, minus the mom driving around town to calm her fussy baby, had a little too much fun with the Ronald McDonald lips on a stick that our Birthday party hostess brought out to us... just because they had them lying around. Apparently we looked like the type of people that would make good use of them I guess! 

It was so wonderful to have a stress free party where the food, cake and ice cream all came with the package and there was plenty of space to play and have fun. All we had to do was show up and bring the Birthday boy and his presents. No set up, no clean up, no planning. Having a kiddo who's Birthday falls smack in the middle of the holiday season makes the relatively few dollars spent on the party worth their weight in gold! 

The night before the party I did Titus's six year-old interview since I knew we wouldn't have time to do it the next day. Titus watched me type his answers verbatim as he said them and he literally corrected my spelling, grammar and dictation skills all within the course of this short interview. He's one smart cookie!


Titus’s 6 Year Old Interview
(Questions by mom, answers by Titus)

What is your favorite toy? Starwars and Legos.

What is your favorite food? Macaroni and Cheese.

What is your favorite book? Starwars books.

What is your favorite place to eat? The place where we eat peanuts and drop them on the floor. The warehouse? I don’t remember what it’s called… (Roadhouse Grill).

Who are your best friends? Logan, Weston, Josh and Bruce.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Lot’s of things. Police officer, fire fighter, a cowboy, a worker, a builder, a racecar driver, and that’s it.

What is something you are good at doing? Going through tiny holes. Playing Lego Starwars. Playing the Wii. And that’s it.

What’s your favorite movie? Starwars.

What is your favorite treat? Cookies!

What is your favorite subject in school? Mostly English and Spanish.

What is your favorite thing to do? My favorite thing to do is playing with Legos and my Lego sets.

Where’s your most favorite place to be? At Josh’s house or Logan and Weston’s house and Disneyland and Legoland.

What’s your favorite holiday?  Christmas.

What do you like most about yourself? I have no idea.

What is your favorite game to play? Sorry.

Do you think you’ll ever get married? Yup, of course.

How many kids do you want to have? Ten! Actually, 20. Well, I think 30. I think 40. 20 girls and 20 boys!

Tell me about your family. Daddy’s the funny one. And he likes to wrestle. Leeann’s sometimes freaked out by people and she’s also funny. And mommy likes to do the computer a lot. She does the phone a lot too.

What are you looking forward to about your Birthday tomorrow? Getting lots of Starwars stuff. McDonalds, friends and that’s it. 


Posted by Picasa

Monday, November 21, 2011

California Adventures! Day 7

Saturday was Rob's Birthday. Though it was technically a "down day" (i.e. non-park day), Rob and I snuck into Disneyland real quick to fix an error on our Annual Passports while the kiddos waited oh-so-patiently just outside of the gates.


Rob got a quick Birthday picture on the fire truck inside of the fire station next to City Hall, just below Walt's apartment.



And we also took a quick horse-drawn trolley ride down Main Street. Since it pulled up right in front of us we just couldn't pass up the opportunity!



Then we ventured to Downtown Disney and ate some lunch. After lunch the four of them did a random little boat racing thing and then we headed toward Rob's not-so-secret Birthday surprise. Technically it was a secret, but Rob had long suspected that we would do exactly what we did for his Birthday.



The kids were instructed to take him by the hand and without saying a word walk him toward his Birthday surprise. It didn't take a lot of convincing to get him inside of the Ridemakerz store since he's dreamt of building his own remote control car since the first time we walked through Downtown Disney together.



He got to splurge on accessories and upgrades to his very own hand-picked, hand assembled remote control car. It's kind of like Build-A-Bear for grown men!



Leeann seemed genuinely interested in watching daddy choose his car pieces and assemble his new creation. Titus was more interested in watching the Monster Trucks that were pouncing cars on a t.v. inside of the store.



Next we went over to the World of Disney store and picked up the last of our souvenirs.



After that we strolled through Downtown Disney some more and enjoyed some fresh kettle corn together.



Leeann chose to get some Minnie Mouse ears as one of her souvenirs.

We hurried back to the pool and Rob and the kids got some swimming time in before the pizza man delivered some pizza to our hotel room. Once they got out of the pool and our tummy's were full we all fell into bed exhausted. It was a nice way to celebrate the Birthday of an amazingly wonderful man!
Posted by Picasa

California Adventures! Day 6

I know I'm way late in finishing out blogging our trip since we've been home for several weeks now, but it's better late than never, right?

I am afraid that the following posts will not be complete with play-by-play updates like I usually provide of our trips. Though I wrote down which rides we went on once upon a time, I currently have no idea where those details are written down at.

On day 6 of our trip we took our kids on "An adventure". We got in the car early in the morning and just started driving without giving them any clues about our destination for the day.

After getting stuck in Anaheim traffic and experiencing a scenic drive down the California coast we finally made our way to Carlsbad, California. Much to the delighted surprise of the three kiddos in the backseat we pulled in to... Legoland!



We have maps of Legoland from previous Disney trips we've been on (brochure freebies from our hotels) that Titus has religiously studied. He's dreamed about going to Legoland for quite some time now. We figured that now was as good of time as any to go to Legoland since Josh, Titus's Lego-loving cousin was with us.

The day started off beautifully, with hardly anyone else in the park. We walked straight on to most of the rides throughout the morning and enjoyed all of the Lego-themed rides and attractions.


Our first ride was fun, though we came to realize pretty quickly that this theme park was geared a little more toward the younger crowd.



Titus showed off his mad driving skills by intensely passing every other kid on the Junior Driving School race track.



Leeann showed off her less-than-mad driving skills in the Driving School where she broke just about every traffic law in the book. Granted, Titus had it much easier since his track was only an oval and Leeann's had multiple lanes, traffic signs and stop lights.



Rob... well... I have no idea what to even say about this picture.



Josh took the kids on some crazy twirly pirate ship ride while Rob and I sat by and watched. It was nice having Josh along!



Chewbacca and R2-D2 made out of Legos. Does it get any better than this?



There were huge Starwars scenes made out of Legos. The boys especially loved these exhibits.



Titus posed in front of a model of San Fransisco complete with trolley cars and vehicles that actually drove around the city.



This part of Legoland was especially cool. We loved seeing tons and tons of well known American icons reconstructed out of Legos.

I don't have any pictures from the rest of our Legoland adventures because it was about this time that I started not feeling well. I spent the next couple of hours leisurely shopping in the Lego store and hanging out on a park bench until I eventually met back up with the others and went on a few more rides to finish up our day.



I loved this bathroom sign so much that I just had to take a picture. Odd, I know!



The whole gang in front of Mr. Jack-O-Lantern.



On our way out we saw this really neat Lego family that looked like they were in desperate need of company.



It has to be sad to be so close to Legoland but never go in. Poor little family...


Posted by Picasa

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Hidden Mickey


You know your family might be a little bit strange when your 5 year old looks in his bowl of Cheerios and excitedly declares, "I found a hidden Mickey!"
Posted by Picasa

Saturday, October 29, 2011

California Adventures! Day 5

We spent day 5 of our vacation at California Adventure Park.

We were once again one of the first few people through the gates and we promptly went on my all-time favorite Disney ride, Soarin' Over California.

Then we headed over to Ariel's Undersea Adventure, which is a ride that only recently opened up. It was really cool!

Josh and Leeann went on the Tower of Terror. Leeann came out in tears, but insisted that she'd go back on it again... funny girl!

Meanwhile I rested a bit and Rob took Titus on some rides in Bug's Land since Titus didn't want to go on the Tower of Terror.

Titus LOVES this ride because it was one of the first rides he was tall enough to meet the requirements of the measurement stick. He insists on measuring himself up against it every time even though he's been able to go on it for years. 

Daddy and his sweet little girl, both sportin' Beavers shirts. 

Josh with Hip Hop Mickey. 

Our munchkins with the mouse. 

Titus staring in awe and wonder at the new Cars Land being built. He got a good view from the top of the Jumping Jellyfish ride. 

While Josh and Leeann rode Goofy's Sky School a couple of times (Titus wasn't quite tall enough) he begged us to take him to King Triton's Carousel, which he and Rob rode twice. My head was spinning just watching these two... no crazy carousels for me!

Leeann and I enjoying some Jumping Jellyfish.

At the top of Mickey's Fun Wheel. It's a long way up, but it offers beautiful views at dusk!

The World of Color is an amazing water show. We got a great front row view from the bridge this year unlike the view of a bunch of people's backsides our short family got last year. It's a standing show, and we can't exactly see over other people very well. It's much better when you can actually see, I assure you!

Paradise Pier. 




About half way through World of Color Titus crawled into the jogging stroller and went to sleep. He was all tuckered out and ready for bed. I don't blame the kid, if the stroller were big enough I would have been in there first!


Rides and Attractions:


Soarin Over California
Ariel’s Undersea Adventure (2X)
Golden Zephyr (Rob, Josh, Leeann and Titus)
Operation Playtime (featuring the green army men) (Rob, Josh, Leeann and Titus)
Toy Story Mania
Turtle Talk With Crush
The Aladdin Musical
Monsters Inc. (Rob, Josh, Leeann and Titus)
Muppet Vision in 3D
Tower of Terror (Josh and Leeann)
Francis’ Ladybug Boogey (Rob and Titus)
Tuck and Roll Drive ‘Em Buggies (Rob and Titus)
Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train
Disney’s Dance Crew Performance
Grizzly River Run (Robyn, Josh and Leeann)
Jumping Jellyfish (Rob and Titus)
Silly Symphony Swings (Rob and Titus)
Silly Symphony Swings (Robyn, Josh, Leeann and Titus)
Goofy’s Sky School (Rob, Josh and Leeann)
Dinner at Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta and Paradise Garden Grill
Goofy’s Sky School (Josh and Leeann 2 more times)
King Triton’s Carousel (Rob and Titus, 2X)
Mickey’s Fun Wheel
World of Color Show 


Posted by Picasa

California Adventures! Day 3

I know I'm going a little out of order here, but between being utterly exhausted and having spotty internet access I haven't been able to blog every night. These pictures are from day 3 of our trip, which was a "down day" (i.e. non-park day).

We spent the day mostly in Downtown Disney, then Rob and Josh ventured out to the grocery store to get our breakfast and lunch items for the week.

Obligatory picture in front of our hotel.


We took a walk to Downtown Disney from our hotel, but stopped by a few of the Disneyland hotels first. Here the kids are posing by a statue in the Paradise Pier Hotel. We like to go in and imagine what it would be like to stay there. Then we quickly leave and head back to reality!


Rob and I got annual passports this year, since we plan to go back for our 10 year anniversary in December. Because of this Rob and I needed to go inside of the gates and get our pictures taken from a Disneyland photographer. Josh and the kids stayed just outside the gates while Rob and I snuck in a few minutes on Main Street. The first photographer we found happened to be in front of this cool looking pumpkin so we stopped for a quick picture as a couple and I'm really glad we did!


The kids stopped by the front gates to "smell the Disneyland air", since it would be another whole day before they would get to go into the park.


We are sad that they took the CALIFORNIA letters down, but we are glad they put this sign up for a photo opportunity.


Pictures in front of the Lego store.

There's something about these giant legos that just demand being climbed on!


I think both of these boys would be more than happy to display this statue in their rooms!


Howdy Partner!


The best part of our time in Downtown Disney was meeting up with some of Rob's family. It was really random that we all happened to be in Southern California at the same time, so we decided to meet up for lunch in Downtown Disney. Aunt Barb and Uncle Ken are from Indiana and his cousin Aaron and his wife Tamara are from Texas. They were nearby on vacation themselves and were kind enough to make the couple of hour trek up to see us. It was so good to catch up with them, though the time went by way too quickly!


The kids stopped for a picture with Elmo the bird.


And I happen to think this picture is incredibly adorable! Okay, truth be told, this kid is adorable. I think 5 is a fantastic age!
Posted by Picasa