Vacation

Because of a grand occasion, Brandon decided we should take a vacation.  I was actually looking forward to the week or so of vacation, mainly because the weather at home was utter crap.  When we mapped out the days we were going to be gone, we realized that Brandon's family was still going to be on their vacation so we decided to surprise the kids with a vacation within a vacation.

So we spent a jam packed day at Disneyland.  Yes I said a day, Brandon scored some free tickets and we tried to cram everything in that we could.  The kids were really excited, and the walk to the park didn't dampen the enthusiasm.

This picture makes you think they all slept together, doesn't it?  Well, this lasted about three seconds after the photo and then Britton slept with us.

These were my "if the kids get lost we can show the authorities what they look like" photos.  And an excuse to show off their cute shirts.  I made them.  I know, you are all wowed, but if you know me well you know that it has to be one of the simplest things or I wouldn't attempt it.  Okay I probably would attempt it, we don't need to go into the projects I come up with after looking at craft blogs.

We saw Mickey almost as soon as we got into the park.  We also saw Cruella Devil but she was gone by the time we got over to where she was taking pictures.

Brandon and I took a picture of this statue when we went on our honeymoon so we wanted a picture of the kids there.  None of them were willing to be by the statue until they realized we were going to take the picture without them.

 Our first ride was the carousel and William was so excited to get the horse with the gold tooth.  If you enlarge the picture I think you can see the gold tooth.  We watched a video about the secrets of Disneyland and found out that the one horse on the carousel with a gold tooth was Walt Disney's wife's favorite horse.

 So excited.  She wanted to ride again and again.

 Bradley grabbed hold of the handles and screamed.  He absolutely loved it.  He was very upset when the ride finished and Brandon had to pry his fingers off the handles.

Hey Daddy.

We met Goofy and Caitlyn wasn't very excited.

 Goofy's backyard.

Caitlyn was eaten by a jack-o-lantern.

 The one roller coaster we rode on.  I say we loosely because I didn't ride it.

Caitlyn said she loved it, William said he didn't like it.  Can you guess which one likes thrills?

We met Mickey again.  I love this picture because Bradley is growling at Mickey.  Lately when he sees an animal, a picture of an animal, or an animated animal he growls.  It was really funny.

 They let us all sit together in a Tea Cup.

And my kids loved it.  Bradley was having a ball.

 Bradley did succumb to sleep for a short time.  He wouldn't sleep while we held him and woke up as soon as he was picked up.  What makes me laugh is Britton fell asleep while I was holding her in a line.  She laughingly told me she was going to sleep and then she did.  At least until Brandon let her fall face forward into the side of a ride.

I had to include a picture from the elephants because Britton really wanted to ride on them and Brandon took ten pictures but only two with us in them.

 We shrank down to fairy size and met Silvermist.

 Bradley looked cute sitting on the flowers.

 Caitlyn pretenting to be a fairy.

 We did get to meet Tinker Bell.

The kids got to choose some ears, I suggested hats they could wear later but they really wanted ears.  I didn't get a picture of Britton riding a fish, apparently that was the highlight for her because that is what she tells people about, but here is a video Brandon took.  I have to warn you, there isn't any sound for the first little bit and it is in slow motion,  on purpose.

This was at the end of our day, we managed to do most of the things the kids wanted to do.  The next morning we drove to Newport Beach.  It was an adventure for the kids, they didn't really like the waves.

 On the pier.

 Caitlyn found some shells and spent most of her time playing in the sand.

 William did venture out into the water but he was wary of the waves.  If you look closely he is holding his breath even though the water is only up to his knees.

 He got knocked off his feet a couple of times and then he was done.

Britton was not excited about Brandon taking her into the water.

As this post is now incredibly long, part two will come later.  Then we will actually get to the occasion that warranted a vacation.

Freezer Paper

I have a new favorite craft object, I guess that is what you would call it.  It is freezer paper.  You may have heard about it, I know I had but I wasn't sure about trying.  We decided to surprise the kids with a day at Disneyland and I thought it would be the perfect time to try it out.  So I made some freezer paper stencils.  I really wish that I had taken pictures of the process, but I wasn't very confident in how it would turn out.  I found some pictures I liked, a Mickey Mouse face and  Minnie Mouse face, and I used an exacto knife to cut out the stencil.  The hardest part for me was looking at the picture and figuring out which parts I had to keep for the inside bits.  Basically I cut out the areas I wanted to show up black and kept the bits that I wanted to not be painted.  The coolest part is putting the stencil on the shirt.  Freezer paper has a plasticy side (I'm sure that is a real word somewhere) and that is the side you put on the shirt.  Then you iron it on, iron on low, and it sticks.  If you aren't happy with where it is, you can pull it up and iron it down again.  When it is ironed on it creates a seal and you can paint inside without the paint bleeding.  When it dries you peel it off and it creates a crisp clean edge.  Like so.

 The kids were very excited about their shirts, and we got many compliments on them.  I did learn a few things during this process.  I probably could have used the big pieces of the stencils twice, if I put a cloth over the painted bits, but the little pieces ripped as I was trying to peel them off so I had to make more stencils.  The second set I printed directly on the freezer paper.  This was so much easier than printing and then tracing or cutting through two pieces of paper and hoping that they didn't shift.  I didn't have any pieces of cardboard to slid inside the shirts, so I ironed some freezer paper on the inside of the shirt and that prevented the paint from bleeding through to the back.  When I cut out the stencil the second time I was able to save the parts I cut out and use them for shirts for me and Brandon.  They look like this.

Okay, clearly this is Brandon's, mine has Minnie Mouse.  I cut a square of freezer paper and then put the face outline and stuff inside the square.  These took a lot of paint and took forever to dry but they were cute.  So now I just want to get a bunch of plain t-shirts and print out coloring pages.