Return to the Home of the Mouse

Last month, we went to Disneyland again.  We had a lot of fun.  The first day was a little bit busy, but the next two the park was pretty dead.  It was nice to escape the cold of Utah and enjoy some California sun.

As always, we saw a lot of characters.  Zoe is such a social girl that every time she sees a character she wants to go and say hi.  It doesn't matter how many times she sees the same character.  She really loves them. Robby occasionally enjoys seeing them too, although most of the time he just rolls his eyes.

One of Zoe's favorite characters to see is Sully from Monsters Inc.  I would think he would be kind of scary to a 2 year old.  He is so huge.  But she just walks right up to him like his is her best friend in the world.

We had great fun riding on the rides too. Zoe is discovering a love of roller-coasters. She loved the little kid roller-coaster in Toon Town and even asked to go on the Matterhorn a couple of time. She was sad that she couldn't ride on Space Mountain and Big Thunder. I think she will love them when she is big enough. Robby discovered this trip that even the little kid rides can be fun. He enjoyed the less exciting rides, but even more, he enjoyed helping Zoe have fun on the little rides. It was great to see him being such a great big brother.

We had a great trip with great memories.  I love spending time with my family.

Princess Party

A couple of weeks ago, Zoe got to go to a birthday party for her friend Brooklyn.  It was such a fun party.  Cinderella came, they all got to dress up in fun princess dresses, put on makeup and just have a good time.  She loved it and still asks every day if we can go back to Brooklyn's party.

Mario Birthday Party

I can't believe my baby boy is 9 years old.  He is growing up so fast and turning into such a young man.

A couple of days ago we had a birthday party for him and his friends.  He decided he wanted to have a Mario Birthday Party.  We had fun planning it and getting things ready.

We decided to make the party a game in itself.  The goal of the game was to collect as many coins as possible.

Each kid got a coin pouch when they came to the party.  It went around their neck and gave them a place to put their coins throughout the party so they didn't get lost.  It was also a place they could put their prizes when they turned their coins in.

We came up with three different Mario themed games to play.

The first game was to destroy the enemies with a fireball.  I printed images of Mario enemies and taped them to some bottles.  Then we used Zoe's stuffed red ball, which looks a little bit like a fireball, to knock down the enemies.

Next we played pin the mustache on Mario.

Mario looks pretty funny without a mustache.

Our final game was trying to bounce ping-pong balls into paper cups.  Each cup had a picture of either a power-up of some sort or an enemy.  You got one point for each time you got a ball in a power-up and lost a point for each enemy.

After each game, coins were awarded.  Everyone got at least one coin, but the winners got extras.  Also, after each game, everyone who played was able to stomp an enemy.  I made enemies out of balloons.  Each enemy had different amounts of coins inside.  You had to stomp on your balloon to release the coins.  Some of my balloon enemies turned out really good.  I was really happy with Boo and Chain-Chomp ones.

Others, like the Koopa shells, didn't work out so well, but the kids still loved them.

When we were done with the games, the kids were able to cash in their coins for prizes. I made shrinky-dink Mario keychains for one of the prizes.

We also had punching balloons, Mario fruit snacks, ring-pops, and candy coins.

After the prizes, we ate cake.  I am so not a cake decorator, but I thought his cake ended up looking pretty good.

Then we opened presents.  Robby got some really great presents.

Then the kids played Mario Kart until the party was over.  I think this was their favorite part.

It turned out to be a great party. Everyone seemed to have fun and went home happy. Robby had a blast. I am glad he has good friends and that we could have such a good time.

Pinewood Derby

Last week, Robby had his second pinewood derby. Him and Kirk had a good time designing and making the car. They decided to do a really short car this year, which was kind of fun and different.

He did great. He won every single race, except for the final race, and ended up taking 2nd place. I was really proud of him, not because he took second, but because he was such a good sport. He was cheering for everyone, and was happy, whether he won or lost. He is such an amazingly good kid. I love him so much.

Good job Robby.