Disneyland 2009

We went to Disneyland over Nevada Day/Halloween and it was so fun! Thanks Brent and Michelle!!! We stayed at the Grand California and it was, as always, magical. I want to go in the summer when we can really enjoy all the pools. We went on Wed late afternoon and it was pretty windy but Vaughn put on a life vest and just jumped right in the middle of the big pool and swam and pretended sharks and octopi and fish were after him. So cute! Pax wore her Snow White dress and was in awe of the life-sized Princesses all around her. Vaughn was so excited about being big enough to go on the rides. He especially loved Tower of Terror (3x) Splash Mountain (2x) and Big Thunder Mountain RR (2x). Gage happily sat in his stroller but loved running around in ToonTown and the Winnie the Pooh ride. We went to the Playhouse Disney show which Pax and Vaughn loved. We saw parades and fireworks and of course we all LOVED Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion!!! But by Saturday we were fried and it was so nice to come home and as an added bonus we got home too late to go trick-or-treating which I have to admit was a bit of a relief. Here are some of our pics.

Bumper Cars in Bug Land



Apryl & Pax in Tarzan & Jane's Treehouse



Pax and Gage in Frontierland.



Gage on the Carousel



Pax on Carousel



I'll add more pics as I get them uploaded :) There are some really cute ones with Tigger and Pooh!!

I'm so cold!

So Mindy and I went running this morning for the first time in FOREVER and I felt it! First off I guess I still thought it was summer because I wore my flimsy soccer shorts and as soon as I stepped outside my legs went numb! Note to self: Time to bust out the Under Armor! We did really good but I was so cold! Time for gloves... so I got home and launched myself into bed where Sean was snuggled so warmly. Hehehe. Not for long :) I could not get warm so I got in the shower with super hot water until it ran out and now I'm in my cozy sweats and long t-shirt. It was totally worth it though. It felt good to pound the pavement with my best friend/running buddy Mindy :)

Book Club

So we had book club last night. There were 9 of us and it was so great. We talked and laughed, talked and talked and laughed until we realized what time it was, 11:30 p.m.! I had so much fun but then I woke up this morning with girl-talk hangover and all my insecurities flared up...Did I talk too much? Did I cut anybody off? Do they like me? And as I was making myself crazy outloud driving Sean to work this morning he says, "If they weren't having fun they would have gone home." and I thought okay that's probably true.

So girls I just want to say I love ya. You are awesome, intelligent women. I just love what book club has evolved into, and thanks for your friendship.

Apryl

P.S. Next month SYTYCD will be on! Maybe we should start at 7 :)

Running Tomato Face

I went on a run tonight at 7:30 and I asked Sean to follow me in the car to make sure no one abducted me or anything weird. (I hate running at night, too many people) It was still 98 degrees out and I hadn't gone in a week so I was nervous but I got in 3.5 and even pulled out a sprint at the end (wanting to impress my waiting husband and kids) and when I got into the car panting and with tomato-red-running-in-the-heat-face Vaughn says, "Mommy you ran so fast!" and Pax says, "Mommy are you okay?" It was cute and I thought it was funny. I guess you had to see the concern on Pax's face. I think she thought I was dying. :)

The Cake Part Deux

I am a big believer in reading directions. So I'm lucky I read a little bit ahead to know the cake had to freeze for 2 hours. But I also have a tendency to read parts rather than the whole thing which is what happened when I realized I needed pastry bags (pastry bags!). But the kind people who wrote the instructions foresaw my lack of pastry bags and round tips so they included directions on making a sandwich baggy a pastry bag which my amazing and kind husband was so kind as to make for me (I needed 6).

So then I set to work frosting the cake. I cut out the template, which was itself an adventure, and laid it on the cake and the directions called for outlining the template with the dull end of a paintbrush but that seemed, well I didn't have one of those either, so I used a flat head screwdriver (yes I washed it first!). So by now I'm sweating bullets. Vaughn is so beyond excited about this cake and if I screw up Mickey's ears I'm going to feel awful. So the chocolate is first and I'm thinking I can do this....then the white hand, a little scary and not as pretty, but okay. So I keep going...red clubhouse, yellow foot, blue slide, and it's looking good and then the very last thing, the windows. This involves icing blue on top of the red and then outlining it with the chocolate. I don't know about this part and I will be soooooo ticked if this last thing ruins my perfect cake....and....

GET THIS, IT TURNED OUT!!!!!!!!!

I did a happy dance, a couple actually, and was very pleased to be able to show V his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Birthday Cake. Whoo-hoo!! And here's the pic to prove it:

The Cake Part 1

So Vaughn asked me for a Mickey Mouse clubhouse cake for his 4th birthday which is supposed to look like this:



I'm like, (oh so naively) this will be so fun and easy and look how cute it is and then I go to buy the stuff to make it:

1 box of cake mix.
Food coloring.
4 16-ounce containers of vanilla frosting - thinking wow that's a lot of frosting what exactly am i getting myself into. Then,...
1 16-ounce container of dark chocolate frosting - looking deeply at the picture now thinking how exactly am I supposed to do this? but I'm sure I can handle it...


So today I start making the cake and I'm going along fine and the directions state "Print out the 2-page template (template!) and tape together. (Oh boy this is going to be interesting)
So I printed out the template (template!) and have to cut it out, trace it, and insert one of the 5 frosting colors I ended up having to make with the year supply of frosting on hand.

Right now my cake is cooling and soon I will have to go draw a light blue sky and green grass. Wish me luck with the rest. I'll update with the rest of my tale and a pic of how it turns out. Stay tuned!

Update

Just an update....

It's so hot! I just don't even want to leave the house ever! I have such a hard time when the temperature climbs above 100 degrees. Yuck! I feel bad for Amric cuz I don't want to go do anything. I feel bad for the kids cuz if we go to the park it has to be at 8 and I just haven't been that together this week to get there.

Took Gage to the doctor today and he got some shots. He weighed in at 24.2 pounds and 30.5 inches. He is such a trooper.

I got my Runner's World today and its a Half-Marathon Special and I'm so excited cuz I am planning on running Hoover Dam in October and I was looking for a good training plan. Yay!!

Vaughn is going to be 4 next week!! I cannot believe it! Time is for sure flying. Pax turned into a terrible 2 this week when she screamed at me crazily and started shoving Vaughn. They make me so tired and yet so happy.

Update again soon. Love ya all