Hallie's 7th Birthday Party

Matt spent the day getting stuff ready for the party, trying to dry the carpet out, and doing all the laundry...don't be jealous he is that aesome. Hallie found herself a quiet spot and quickly fell asleep. I think we all felt like this.

This is her cake I think he did a great job and Hallie was thrilled with it.

We decided to keep it simple only Nic and Kyle came and also did tacos. It was really yummy.

Hallie was pretty thrilled with her gifts

This was the whole gang. It was nice to do something low key with just a few extras so I didn't have to plan a huge meal and an equally big mess

On Hallie's birthday morning Matt flew out for a work trip so the girls and I celebrated with her favorite dinner and some cake

For school each of the kids in her class had decorated a balloon for her. She loved them and read me each one. I thought that was an awesome idea and so thoughtful of her teacher

Hallie said she had a great birthday and I'm not sure if she is more excited about being 7 or that she only has 1 more year until she turns 8.

A Not So Pleasant Welcome Home

After our flight had been delayed for 2 hours and knowing I had to work the next day at 3 am the next morning. When we got home all we wanted to do was bath the kids and go to bed. But Matt opened the door to the house and our 2 cats came running out. We immediately knew something was wrong. We peeked inside the house and all of the blinds were dishelveled. Matt went thru the entire house and there was nothing else out of place. Then we came to the conclusion the cats had been locked in the house the entire week. We then went thru the house to see how bad the damage was only to find that we had another problem. While we were gone there was a bad storm and flooded Gracie's bedroom! We ultimately found that the flooding was a blessing. The cats had only peed in Gracie's bedroom. With no other food or water in the house when it flooded the cats drank from gracie's bedroom. Also because they had limited food and water they didn't poop or pee as much as they normally would have. We spent the next several hours sucking up water and upacking. I finally got to bed about 1230. Because the carpet was so thick it has taken over a week with 4 fans blowing constantly. We cut out the pad knowing we would have to replace it either way and hoping it would get rid of the cat pee smell. After the carpet was dry we tried several different things to get the cat pee out and ultimately decided to replace the carpet. It ended up being a $700 mistake but now we have new carpet in and are just working on getting gracie's room put back together and working on a solution to make sure it doens't happen again. 

Disney Trip Last Day & Debrief

Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast before heading to the pool for a couple hours before heading to the airport. We were lucky with the dates we chose since the day we left and the forecast showed an increase in temps by about 10 degrees from the weather we had. So the pool was perfect

Em was tired and a little restless/busy so we went in and out of the pool several times. When we were out of the pool we had snacks and hung out under the umbrella

Matt worked with the girls to practice their swimming

Then we headed to finish packing and get everyone bathed and ready to head for home. We drove the coastline to the airport we got to see the huge ships and the storage containers. We passed Redondo Beach and saw some surfers. We grabbed lunch at Arbys just down the street from the rental car place. It was a little crazy once again getting all the luggage from the car to the shuttle. On top of that all the girls needed to go potty so Matt unloaded the luggage and I took the girl potty. We got the the airport in plenty of time and then found out our flight was delayed an hour. To kill the time the girl played games, ran around, and colored. They made friends with a little Asian boy that spoke no English but they just played so well. It was a reminder that even if we are all different that shouldn't stop us from being kind and interacting with them. The flight on the way home wasn't full so we took up the entire row so we had plenty of space. I leaned forward at one point to get something out of the bag Em started scratching my back...it was really cute

By the time we got off our flight and collected our luggage we were ready to be home. We were lucky we were the first stop for the shuttle to take us to our car because there was a flight further down the line that people had a ton of luggage and had to wait a couple rounds before the shuttle could fit them in. We got to our car about 8:40pm and knew by the time we got home we would have to get the kids bathed and in bed so I could get to bed since I had to work the next morning but thats not exactly how it worked out...see the next post.

Debrief: We really enjoyed our vacation. It was not near as stressful or exhausting as everyone said it would be. I think a lot of that was attributed to having planned everything out and not having high expectations. We had planned to go back for lunch and naps and when the kids didn't want to or need them we didn't. The only thing to note for next time is we need to budget more money to eat out at the park more since we didn't go back for the provided dinner and lunch. We are still undecided as to whether or not the suite was worth it since we didn't really prepare meals at the hotel. If we were to do the suite again we would do one that had a table we could all eat at like our suite in San Diego. The kitchen was to squishy. The layout for the room was also not the greatest but it worked

Day 5 Disneyland...Last Day

Since we had spent 2 days at each park we let the kids decide where we spent our last day and they chose Disneyland. We mapped out what they wanted to ride and what we wanted to get accomplished on our last day. On that list of coarse was to get a few classic pictures.

After a bunch of pictures we headed to ride our favorite rides and a couple others that had long lines the other days we had been there. The story book boat ride was fun and so detailed.

The Kasey Jr Train ride was next we got to ride in a cage which made me feel better that Em wouldn't escape

Then Em was ready for a nap so we looked on the app to see what characters were out and went to meet them while Emmy slept. I waited in line while Matt took the girls to ride the Jungle Cruise

Indiana Jones was another definite favorite we did the rider swap and the fast passes since Grace and Em were to little to ride

On our way back to the Matterhorn we ran into Mary Poppins and Burt. They spent quite a bit of time visiting with the kids and playing with them before signing their books

Then it was time to go back for our fast passes to Indiana Jones. ABout half way there Gracie decided she wanted to watch the parade instead so I took her and Em back to the parade we had to go all the way to the end to find a place to sit and it was hot! We got there just as the beginning of the parade was getting to us. Oh the things we do for our kids.

We hit up a few more rides and then Matt and I traded off with the kids and took them to find their souvenir. We told the kids the beginning of the week to keep their eyes open for the souvenir they wanted and at the end of the week we would buy them. 

They both decided on bubble wands which I thought were pretty awesome. One problem was that Disneyland only had the blue Flounder one and Gracie wanted the Teal Ariel one. We had seen them the day before in California Adventure but since we didn't have park hopper passes I wasn't sure what to do so I took Gracie over to California Adventure and explained the situation to the gate attendant she called her boss and they ended up letting me into the park to go find one. I was so impressed at their willingness to go above and beyond. And of coarse the girls were thrilled with their gifts. Em picked a mickey bracelet that she loves to chew on. Then we called it a day and the end of our trip. It was the Mickey Halloween Party and the park was getting really crowded and we had had a great time but wanted to get back for dinner and some time to still play in the pool.

The bubble wands did not disappoint...although we do wish it had a switch that just did the bubbles without the music..lol