Bibbidi Bobbidi Honey Boo Boo

I scheduled an appointment for G on Monday afternoon at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  YaYa and Bob treated my child to an afternoon of glitz and glamour.

Well, friends, things started off pretty rocky.  

Our appointment was at 2:40 and this little fairy godmother did not come to get Genevieve until 4:10.  It was not good.

We were given a pager that extended to Peter Pan's flight, the carousel, and Dumbo.  

My parents purchased the "Castle Package," which was the top option, and boy was my mother happy to be given that pager like we were at Texas Roadhouse.

Their scheduling was way behind and they accepted walk ins during the morning, which then backed up all of the appointments in the afternoon.

Jane was ready to go Mama June on everyone.

However, we maintained our composure, and waited it out.

I mean, we were at the Happiest Place on Earth, dammit.

I had a lovely conversation with a Disney woman wearing a strikingly serious pantsuit.

After voicing my displeasure about our "royal waiting room time," she handed over 4 skip to the head of the line passes for our crew.  

Disney aims to please.

That poor woman's job can't be fun, but she has a magic pass book so she can tear out passes to appease disgruntled grandparents.

Our fairy godmother in training came to escort G to the boutique.

I followed behind looking like something the cat coughed up.

Genevieve's hair was styled in a bun that was so shellacked it appeared that she had rolled around in Crisco.

She received a tiara and a special Minnie sequined hair clip!

She was sprinkled with pixie dust or glitter or something.

She was quite excited.

Check out that sash!

She was quite smitten with herself.  

She chose Elena of Avalor, the newest Disney princess.  She is the first Latina princess.  

We were then herded over to Fantasy Faire to meet the princesses. We were ushered in front of the 2 million people waiting so we could be first.  You see, you get VIP treatment if you spend a ridiculous amount of money to have your kid greased up.

Cinderella was ever so delightful.

Ariel was a bit shocked that Ursula had lost a lot of weight and was standing next to her with a small child.  

We closed out our package with a photo session.

She sat in a lovely carriage.  

This will look good over the fireplace, I think.  

Maybe this one?

Flora and Fauna?

Astroturf and a fake rabbit?

The whole situation was ridiculous, but she loved it!

Thanks, YaYa and Bob.

It Never Rains in Disneyland

It never rains in Disneyland, except when I show up with these goofs.

My Dad thought we might want to "wait it out, Liz."

Nonsense!

I packed a raincoat because I'm always prepared.

I encouraged my dad to buy a $10 Disney trash bag (poncho) and follow the pink stroller.

The first stop was the Main Street Starbucks.  I ordered mother's drink for Cruella.

Dad said she looked like a villainess in her outfit.

We caffeined up while G noshed on her favorite fruit, pineapple!

They sell pineapple spears in little plastic baggies for like $3.99, which is both economical and good for the environment!

Way to go, Disney.

Snarf.

We went on Small World as soon as we arrived.

Close up pictures are really the most flattering for me, don't you think?

Bob and G went on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

That was the last one she rode with Bob next to her.  He was relegated to riding with either me or my mother.

She said he made too much noise!

I guess he squeals and talks through rides.

Kind of like his soccer commentary.

Buzz Lightyear was the silliest ride.  You just shoot your laser gun as you ride around and you get points for hitting targets.  Dad had like 6,000 points.

I had like 1200.

I was determined to eat as many mickey shaped sweets as possible.  I started with this raspberry macaron.  It was an excellent pick!  

Mother and I wedged ourselves in this little astro ship ride in Tomorrowland.  It was like we were in a bobsled that flies.  We were so wedged in there that we practically needed Vaseline and several Disney employees to get us out.  

I wish I was kidding.

I am about the Vaseline, but not about the several Disney employees.

Vaseline is so passé.  They used coconut oil.

We were nearing meltdown mode here.  I did what I could with a churro.

By that I mean I fed it to my child, although I did think a good flogging would have been nice.

While I went to get the churro, she managed to take 106 photos of these ducks.

I'm not exaggerating. 

She got herself together enough to go nanners on the carousel.

We ended day one at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, which deserves its own headline.

Fall Break Week 2: California!

We left on a 6 a.m. flight for Orange County.  My husband was not happy.  There was a direct flight to LAX later in the morning, but I would rather have a layover and fly into Santa Ana at the crack of dawn.  

LAX is too serious for me.

We were up at 4 a.m. and we landed in Orange County at about 9:30 a.m. local time (12:30 p.m. our time).  So, when we arrived we had already been rolling for over 8 hours.

We were greeted by John Wayne.

This pose is G's new thing.

She looks like she is doing some type of interpretive dance.

Now you may recall we did Disneyland two years ago.  Trinity attended a conference in San Diego and we did one day in Disney. This year that same conference was in Anaheim.  

I hit my parents up to be my travel companions.

We spent the afternoon at Fashion Island in Newport Beach.  

G was doing pretty well.

We went to Lemonade for lunch.

It was quite tasty and had many types of lemonade.

G settled on watermelon lemonade and she was quite satisfied with her choice.  

T and G enjoyed some sort of mint chocolate deliciousness.

I think it is only fitting that Genevieve figured out how to use my iPhone in California.

She never has had much interest in it, but she has now figured out how to look at pictures and take them too.

Our week was filled with selfies.

She's practically a Kardashian now.

After lunch we sat on the pier in Huntington Beach and watch the surfers.  It was the best kind of people watching!

We managed to stay up until about 8:30 local time.

We were up bright and early the next day for our first day at Disney!

Fall Break 2016 Week 1

The first week of Fall Break 2016 was slow moving.

Genevieve and I spent some quality time together in the great state of Indiana.  

We slept in until 6:45, woot!  We made applesauce!  We picked pumpkins!

We drank pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks and took pictures wearing giant blanket scarves that looked like they could strangle us!  

Just kidding.

This isn't that kind of blog.

Although if anyone wanted to click on a picture so I could get paid money, I'm all for it:)

We left Sweet T for a few nights to go visit my parents.

This is really the only place I can go where I don't have to do anything.

My mother takes care of my child.

I nap.

Speaking of naps, I took one and then snapped this picture from the upstairs bathroom.

Mother has revamped the patio and now it includes a pergola with twinkly lights.

This window offers serious peeping opportunities.

I must say the pergola is an improvement from the hot tub of 1995 which was the site of many make out sessions for my sister and I and our high school boyfriends.

Not at the same time, though.

Again, speaking of high school, I had the opportunity to pretend I was 17 again.  You may not know this, but I was the treasurer of the THS class of 1997.

Go ahead and take a moment to take that in.

It was almost like being POTUS.

I coined the phrase "I'm with her" for my campaign in '96.

Snarf.

Anywho…  my reunion is coming up this summer.

20 years.

Since I was once the keeper of the finances, I had to go and unlock the vault of funds.

I had to use a skeleton key, my maiden name, AND a secret decoder pin that was on my letter jacket.

I used the secret password which was our school mascot, Kimosabe.

This was before anyone realized that the giant Brave with the huge nose was offensive.

I jest.

I did not have a letter jacket.

I wasn't interested in putting my genie lamp for lettering in academics on there.

You read that right.

This genius was a regular on the exceptional honor roll every grading period.

Holler!

I did finally receive a letter for varsity basketball, but that's a story for another day.

In all seriousness, I did sign my name to gain access to all $1368.74 of our moolah.

Then I went to Nordstrom!

Ha!

Moving on…

We spent a night with Sista Katie in Newburgh.

We drove over to see Abby at our favorite park in all of the Bluegrass State!

Attack of the doting grandmothers with weird names!

We visited a pumpkin patch and I managed to snag a picture of my sister's profile.  Or is it my mother's?

I'll never tell!  

We did patch the pumpkins with Jamie, Charlotte, and Liam, but I did not take any pictures.

We finished our week at home with a trip to Trader Joe's for some snacks for our California adventure!

Showering Meghan

Sister and I hosted a baby shower for our sister in law, Meghan.  She is due to birth our ginormous brother's child in November.

If she doesn't deserve a party for that, then I don't know who does.

Robby was 10 pounds and Mother had a natural birth.

By natural, I mean a torture session.

Thank God for modern medicine and epidurals!  

We had children at the shower.

For shame!

Emily Post would chastise the hostesses for sure.

The good thing about having little girls there was that Meghan had a lot of help fetching presents.  They also scurried all over my rug like little mice gathering and hoarding tissue paper before it hit the floor. 

I'm not joking, I found the mother load of crumpled tissue paper wadded up in the back of G's closet like 5 days ago.  

Little girls are weird.

I should know.

I was one.

Meghan was glowing!  

I also served booze at the shower.

Why?

Because I'm classy.

Jamie and Jodi, aka the Strombergs, were not mad about the booze.

Cinda and Katie were not mad about it either.

Katie actually bought it all.

I probably owe her money.

Unlike the Lannisters, I do not always pay my debts.

Amanda and Kirby were really into the wine.

What booze hounds!  

Ha!

My girl was happy to give the baby some of her books that are too "baby" for her.  I was happy to give a gift that I had already purchased years ago.

Just kidding.

We gave the baby boy a new outfit.  

Congratulations to Robby and Meghan!

Fall Activities

I'm officially on fall break, so I plan to do a bit more blogging.  September flew by quickly!

We took Genevieve and Kate to Autumn Fest at our church.  It was like 85 degrees outside.

I wore shorts.  

No, really.

I promise.  

They totally look like they are praying in this picture.  I believe they were trying to distract themselves while waiting in line for a balloon animal.  

 Genevieve carried on her tradition of posing at the Art Museum in front of her new birthday number.

 The 3 of us went on a hayride during the museum's Harvest Family Day.

I took my firsties on their first field trip.  

We toasted each other with apple cider.  

 I discovered my little Marrion can braid hair.  

She just radiates sunshine.

Tiny Bestie Kate brought equally tiny Eloise for a Saturday afternoon visit.  

G and Eloise played like crazy for 2 hours.

We loaded up our menfolk and did it up with popsicles at Nicey Treat in Fountain Square.

I'm feeling so excited for a wonderful two week vacation now!