Disneyland

We spent my dad and Jenny's birthday at Disneyland, which was a lot of fun. It was too bad that Casey had to be back at work in Virginia.



Although she loved Disneyland, and talks about it all the time now, she spent much of the day like this. It may be an understatement to say that she's not really fond of loud noises.




One of Willa's favorite things was the carousel. She must've ridden this one a dozen times.






Just slightly less popular than the carousel was the Dumbo ride.





Andrew was beyond excited for the entire day, couldn't decide which direction to go in, and had this look on his face most of the time:



Willa was totally starstruck by the princesses (which was the longest line in the park by the way).





One of the advantages of going with Grandma and Grandpa is that you get all the churros you can eat. Look at that thing -- it's a big as she is!



We got to have dinner with a bunch of the Disney characters, which might have been the highlight of the day for Andrew and Willa. (I use the term "dinner" loosely, though; they were too excited to eat anything.)





It was a pretty good day. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Belated pics

Here are a few pictures from our recent trip to CA. It was so much fun to be with family, who we miss terribly here on the other side of the country.

May the Force be with You

Andrew had a Star Wars birthday party this year (of course). For the most part it was a normal, average five-year-old party, although it did get off to a bit of a rocky start. On the day I went to Andrew's school to pass out invitations to the kids in his class, another mom was there handing out invitations to her son's Star Wars party, to be held on the same day. We both stopped and looked at each other and kept on handing out our invitations. I went home and agonized over what to do next. I mean, what is birthday party etiquette, exactly? Obviously there couldn't actually be two parties at the same time -- actually hers was scheduled for directly after mine, but still -- but who backs down first? And even worse (for me), this kid is rich and I was imagining pony rides and jumping castles at his party. In addition, we had family coming in from out of town, so it's not like we had much leeway for rescheduling. In the end I decided to back down and move my party to Friday, instead of Saturday, which was good because the other mom "had already booked [her] moon bounce and couldn't possibly change [her] party." Ugh.

As I said, for the most part it was a normal party. Each of the guests got a Jedi tunic for their training, modeled here by Andrew and Ben. (The poses were completely their inspiration, and neither saw the other one do theirs. I love these boys.)



They played games: Rescue Princess Leia; pin the sticker on Darth Vader; Duck, Duck, Goose, Light Saber Training.




They even decorated their own cupcakes with all kinds of frosting and candy.




Now, as a mom planning a party for her son, naturally I wanted to make things extra special. You know, provide some "wow" factor, so that he can look back and remember how great his 5th birthday party was. Since this was a Star Wars-themed party, and all the kids were Jedi, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if after the Jedi are 'trained' they get a chance to defeat their mortal enemy?" It seemed like kismet that Andrew just happened to get a Darth Vader mask for Christmas that just happened to fit Casey, and we just happened to have a red light saber. It was too perfect, right? Casey, for his part, was not so enthusiastic about dressing up and letting a bunch of kids beat him up with pool noodle-light sabers. But his sister Abbie -- who flew in with her family for the party and without whom and my sister Brenda I would never have been able to pull this thing off -- and I worked together and finally guilted him into it.

After the little Jedi finished their training,



DJ Abbie cued the Darth Vader music, signaling for Casey to make his appearance. I don't mind telling you that I was so excited I was about to jump out of my skin, anticipating the enthusiasm of the little Jedi as Darth Vader made his appearance. However, as soon as Casey turned the corner coming down the stairs, we suddenly realized that we had made a major miscalculation. I'll let the video tell the story.



Once the screaming started Abbie cut the music, Casey froze, and I had to rush two of the kids who were particularly upset out of the room. As I sat in the kitchen trying to calm down a hysterical boy, I started picturing myself having to call the parents of every kid in my son's preschool class to ask them to pick up their child early, and explain to my insurance why I was having to pay for counseling for 12 five-year-olds.

After the initial outcry, most of the kids -- Andrew included -- had this reaction:



Fortunately, kids are resilient, and few of the braver boys jumped in and wanted to fight the evil Darth Vader.

And so far no outraged parents have called to give me a piece of their mind.

So if you are planning a Star Wars party, maybe Yoda should be the surprise guest.

Birthday Week

I realize I'm skipping a few things -- like pics from the rest of our trip to CA -- but I promise I'll get to those, and there are some good ones. In the meantime, we must acknowledge Birthday Week. For those of you who don't know, Casey, Andrew, and I all have birthdays within 5 days of each other, so every year we get to celebrate one big Birthday Week.

Birthday Week always kicks off with Casey's big day (I won't say which number it was, but it's more than 30 and less than 40), and it always starts with birthday pancakes.



Followed by birthday presents. Andrew's official position for the opening of presents is right on Casey's lap.



That has been Andrew's position since 2005, which was his first full Birthday Week.



And in 2006.



And 2007.



And in 2008.



But I digress. While presents are fun, cake is far more exciting.



And if you can believe it, Willa got this whole piece in her mouth at once, after meticulously picking off every bit of frosting.



Then it was on to Andrew's birthday -- 5 this year!! We had a small celebration on the day, of course, but this year he had a "friend party." I'll devote a whole post to the party later; it's not something I want to short change here in the middle of Birthday Week.




I got out of making the 2nd birthday cake in 2 days by taking Andrew to dinner at Friendly's. We've done this in the past, but I'll spare you yet another trip down memory lane to see all the times Andrew ate ice cream on his birthday.




And then there was my birthday (again, no numbers, please). By this point we're usually pretty birthday-ed out, so we don't celebrate a lot, there are fewer pictures, and I never have my own cake. But this year Abbie & family were with us, which was a lot of fun, and Casey took care of dinner for everyone, which was AWESOME.

(After I posted this last night, Casey read it and thought I sounded like I was complaining about my birthday. I just want to set the record straight that I am NOT complaining. My birthday was great this year, and Casey was really good about making it enjoyable in the midst of an extremely busy week at work. And we don't have cake on my birthday because by then no one -- least of all me -- wants to eat more cake, not because I'm being overlooked.)

And now at least once a day Willa talks about her birthday in June.

The Airport Game

In February we got to go back to CA to visit family, and since it's been almost a month since we left I thought now I might as well get around to posting some pics. So what is The Airport Game, you ask? Well, in the words of my almost-five-year-old, "It's when you get to go from airplane to airplane and see if you can get on and fly to California." We started off in DC, flew to Seattle where we spent the night -- after our bags with all of our clothes and toiletries arrived safely in LA, I might add -- then tried unsuccessfully to get on a flight from Seattle to LA all day, ended up flying to Portland and staying at our sister-in-law's house (she wasn't there, incidentally), and then flying from Portland to LA. There's all kinds of things you can discover about yourself and your family while you're playing The Airport Game, however. Here's the top 10 things I learned while playing The Airport Game.

1. Rolling backpacks are endless fun. And endlessly slow when you're going from terminal C to terminal N and back again.


2. The best place to take a nap in Sea-Tac Airport is next to gate C9. Even for little girls who DON'T NAP EVER.


3. It's also the best place for a good pick.


4. Given the chance, children will claim ANYTHING their sibling particularly loves, just because they can.


In this case, Cinderella fell victim to the big brother. Or maybe changing a princess's gown has a broader appeal than we thought?


5. Airport Revenue News announced Sea-Tac Airport as the Best Overall Concessions Program in the large airport division as part of the prestigious Best Airport & Concessionaire Awards. And I must say, they were right.

6. While not being able to change your clothes or put on make-up for two days has its drawbacks, there are benefits to The Airport Game. Like being able to ride on an airplane that your uncle is flying.


Andrew thought it was the coolest thing ever that Uncle Jeremy was flying the plane.


7. There's really nothing like family. After 2 long days spent in airports my sister-in-law opened her home for us to crash in, although she wasn't even home and wasn't expecting guests. Honestly, how many of us would ever let guests into our houses before we threw all the clutter in a closet and meticulously scrubbed the place down? I wouldn't. But then again, when I leave for a trip my house does not look nearly as good as Abbie's did. Don't worry Abbie, I won't post any pictures of your house.

8. When you're playing The Airport Game you make a lot of friends, which is pretty easy when you are two and four and have no fear of strangers. Willa told everyone who would stop long enough to listen that "we're going to Seattle," and Andrew spilled his life story to the world so often that I think he memorized his speech. But it tends to prompt nice ladies to give you pieces of gum, or other kids to share their Leapsters and DVD players with you, and nice flight attendants bend over backwards to make life fun with extra cookies, enough juice to drown in, and entertainment.


9. All of you who travel with young children, take note because this is important: never leave home without your DVD player.


10. Oh, and maybe it goes without saying, but if someone tells you to fly standby on President's Day weekend, run away screaming and never talk to them again. I'm still giving myself the silent treatment.