Check Out the New Blog!!

Okay -

I Am ReviewMom is up and running! It's just in the beginning stages, but stop by and check it out, especially if you live in the Phoenix Area!! Disney will be in the Valley! Check out the Review Blog to learn more details!

On a personal note, this is what we have been dealing with for the last week and a half. (Can't see it really well in the pictures - Fifth Disease Rash!!) Gotta love the childhood diseases!!

Disney and Childhood illness in the same post...this is my life people. Fun and games one day, rashes and fevers the next.

It's a Small World

I know...you either love it or you hate it. I fall somewhere in between, depending on how many repetitions of the song I am subjected to. But I am excited to hear that Disney is changing their Small World exhibit and getting ready to re-open it. And because they made our first trip EVER to Disneyland so great a few months ago, I am happy to post this little re-mix clip. Sing along...you KNOW you want to.

I like the guy with the guitar the best, although the rapper ain't bad.

Disneyland is NOT for Whimps!! Part 3 - The Final Post!

Here's the Christmas card I will be sending out. Made it at DisneyPhotoPass.com

And here are some cute shots I got of the Men playing.

Are you sick of my travelogue yet? I know what yer thinkin'. It's Disneyland for pete's sake! Mickey Mouse, rides, princesses, blah, blah blah. WE GET IT! Been there, done that. How many posts can she write about Disneyland? Well, apparently 3. I can write 3 posts about Disneyland. Because it was my first time and there was a lot to see and do and because I want to make sure I share everything the good people at Disneyland have done since they hosted the trip! OKAY?!?! So bear with me as I finish up and pass on some REALLY USEFUL INFORMATION!

First, let me tell you about the last day of our trip, Sunday. We all got up early so we could catch a few rides before we had to leave. The room was a wreck and clothes were everywhere so I sent the guys on ahead while I tried to pack up. I was a little ticked about making the sacrifice until I started walking around and realized my feet still hurt a bit from the day before. When I called them and hour and a half later they had already been on 6 rides! They were tired and on their way back! Dang!

So we flew home, exhausted and hungry and elated over our experience. When I got home, here is what was waiting for me:

My sweet hubby had bought these for our anniversary on December 4th and hid them until we were loaded in the car to leave for our trip. At the last second he ran in to "get something." Apparently that's when he set these out for me! For a few minutes I felt bad thinking I had only gotten him a card, then I remembered that my blog is the reason we got to take this trip so...not feelin' so bad about my gift now! But I have to acknowledge the Big effort that Big Man made for me. BIG!! Ya know...he is a really sweet guy sometimes. He can be gruff and sometimes he's a little rough around the edges, but dang it, when he shines, he really shines! Yes, I love that man of mine.

Okay - back to Disney, cause I know you haven't had quite enough. I can tell because your eyes are only partially glazed over as you gaze upon my THIRD Disney post. Here's the news you've been dying to hear:

Disney's theme for 2009 is "What will you celebrate?" To make sure folks enjoy the events they are celebrating to the utmost, they are offering free admission on your birthday! Did you hear me? FREE! ON YOUR BIRTHDAY! I KNOW!! This is so much better than Denny's free breakfast! How cool would it be if you share your birthday with a best friend or another family member and you both got in free!?

Anyway, I think the whole free thing is exciting and wanted to share it. And if you let them know it's your birthday or anniversary or whatever they'll give you a button so when you walk through the park all the Disney workers will greet you! It messed Little Man up everytime someone said Happy Birthday. He would be all "How do they know?" Umm...could it be the GIANT BUTTON that says It's My Birthday on your chest?

So there ya go! Great stuff goin' down at Disney in '09! Was it worth wading through my monotone blog version of vacation slides? I can't wait to go back, but I'm thinkin' I may leave the Boys at home and take my sis or a friend and do the Girl's Weekend thing. That way I can really enjoy all the girly stuff with NO COMMENTS from the Man Clan!!

Disneyland is NOT for Whimps!! Part 2

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, blissful slumber. Which ended abruptly Saturday Morning when Little Man leapt out of bed and started running circles around the hotel room. We'd planned on getting up an d out of the room at 7 am. We didn't do that. We slept til 8, showered and Big Man got some wonderful chocolate filled croissants and hot cocoa for breakfast! Yum!!

Here's the family photo with Minnie that I had put on a DisneyPhotoPass card. I was then able to pull it up at DisneyPhotoPass.com and download it as a jpeg for my own enjoyment! Cool! You can take your card throughout the park and anywhere you see a Disney Photographer, they can take your pic and put it on the card! You have 30 days to view your photos online, where you can make prints, calendars, scrapbooks, all kinds of cool stuff! It works great if your family wants to split up. Just make sure everyone has a PhotoPass card, then they can get pics wherever they are at in the park and you can view them all when you get home! Okay - End of Photopass commercial.

Am I the only one who is continually shocked at how I look in pictures? My eyes must automatically photoshop my own image when I look in the mirror, because I never think I look as fat as I really am. MAJOR goal for 2009 - photoshop my body for REAL!

We hit Disneyland about 10 am and headed right to Tomorrowland for the Star Wars Jedi Training Academy. Have you seen this? It rocks! Big Brother got embarrassed and didn't want to be picked to fight Darth Vader..."Mom! I don't want to go up there. I'm not really into role playing, I'm into the action figures." Okay then, son. Now I know! Little Man managed to wiggle his way to the front row and got picked! It was so fun to watch him and the main Jedi guy was hilarious!! I managed to get my camera working for a few minutes and caught this video:



This is the point where the dropped camera started to fizzle out again, so I missed the pics of him fighting Darth Mal, luckily the Disney Photo guy was there and got the shots and I was able to put them on my...PhotoPass card! Here he is with Darth Mal:

Anyway - after the Jedi Training we hit a bunch of rides and enjoyed the park as much as we could while dodging millions of people and waiting in some lines. My kids did better than my husband with the whole crowd thing. My camera would work intermittently and I would catch a few photos now and then. The Boys thought this nose-picking situation in Adventureland was HYSTERICAL!

We caught part of the Christmas parade and waved to Santa:

We hit the It's a Small World Holiday Ride later that night, which is beautifully decorated with all kinds of lights. While you are riding through it, listening to THAT SONG you will notice that they even added holiday scents! Then we literally dragged our bodies back to the room after 12 hours of walking and waiting in line. We were all too exhausted to even think. Big Man got the bright idea to go check out the pool, then got hooked into taking the boys for a swim, while I laid in bed and watched TV. My throbbing feet thanked me.

Tomorrow: Part 3 - The Final Day! You gotta come back and read the final post for great news about special Disney offers for 2009!!!

Disneyland is NOT for Whimps!!

Can I just start by saying that Disneyland during the Holidays is absolutely INSANE!!?? It's a whole lotta crazy at Christmas!

MomSelect and Disneyland gave me and my family the opportunity to meet up at Disneyland with 50 other MomBloggers and experience the park during the holiday season! (Shout out to Michele Himmelberg- Disneyland Resort Public Relations! She did so much to ensure we had a great experience! Thanks so much!) Since it was my family's first time there, I was a bit unprepared for the MASSES of people we would encounter, but in the end we really enjoyed ourselves.

Wanna hear all the boring details? Okay! First of all, we flew. We left Friday morning. They didn't know where we were going, we kept it a surprise! My boys had a blast on the plane, they have never flown before. Big Brother wants to be a military man of some sort and is really into military planes and jets right now, so he totally soaked up the experience, including the safety procedures the flight attendant reviewed with us (he's very, very safety conscious). He knew exactly how to save our lives when she was done. (Little Man was not asleep, I don't know what he was doing in that pic!)

We caught the Disneyland Express bus from Orange County Airport to the Disneyland Hotel. Jeff was our bus driver. He was...interesting. I'll leave it at that. The hotel is beautiful. We checked in without a hitch, got our 1st Time buttons and they even had an "It's my Birthday" button waiting for Little Man since his B-day was just on the 1st! Little Man, while happy, was extremely perplexed about how they knew! I explained how Mickey is a psychic mouse who uses his powers for good to suprise little kids and sometimes evil grumpy husbands. Kidding! We all know Mickey isn't psychic, just happy! Everybody was extremely pleasant to deal with. Disneyland kind of pleasant. I kept waiting for birds to start singing while circling around their heads! No, seriously, it was nice to have good customer service for a change. It made up for Jeff the Bus Driver...did I mention he was really...interesting? He kind of freaked me out. Something is definitely flying around his head and singing. Nice guy, just umm...interesting. I didn't take his pic, I didn't want to encourage him.

Here is a quick pic of our room and our view, which was chosen so we could see the fireworks from the balcony, which was awesome and useful on the second night, when we could not walk one more step and the kids were able to sit and dirnk hot chocolate and watch the fireworks while my feet died a slow death. I do not have pics of the fireworks. I will explain this later in the post.

We explored Downtown Disney the first afternoon and ran around the park just a bit before attending a presentation for all the MomBloggers Friday night. The presentation and awesome buffet were both held at the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel in the Sequoia Ballroom. The minute we entered we were greeted by Minnie, who promptly embarrassed Big Brother by giving him a hug. (He's 9...still not into girls, especially one's with big heads and ears.) Little Man ran over and gave her a big hug. I could have gotten pics of this if I hadn't dropped my camera and wrecked it, so now you will have to wait for the family/Minnie pic until I get it downloaded from DisneyPhotoPass.com, which I learned about at the festivities Friday night! I will blog about this more tomorrow!

Big Man and the Boys met some dads and ate shrimp cocktails, prime rib, turkey and pasta, along with yummy cookies and rice krispy treats while us MomBloggers learned about all the yummy treats the park makes during the holiday season! Did you know Disneyland makes more gingerbread than any other bakery or restaurant west of the Rockies? Who knew?! More on that tomorrow too!

Anyway, we finished the night at the park, with a special preview of the fireworks show, set to holiday music and SNOW! Disney can make anything happen, right? It was this cool snow looking stuff that fell softly over Main Street as we walked toward the exit. It was awesome and fun and the perfect way to end the night! We headed back to the hotel and had a wonderful night's sleep on those comfy beds, dreaming about the next day's adventures. I had no idea how many miles I would be walking the next day, so I slumbered with no worries. Tune in tomorrow for Part 2!

What We Did This Weekend!

Check in tomorrow for more details on our wonderful trip!!