David's Birthday and Mother's Day

This year, Mother's Day and David's birthday both fell on the same day.  So, we decided to celebrate the special occasions with a trip to Schnepf's Farm for the Peach Festival.  The weather was beautiful, so we weren't the only ones with that same idea, but it was a fun couple of hours outside spent with the ones we love most!  Happy Birthday to David and Happy Mother's Day to my fabulous mother!

Miscellaneous May

I always thought that once both girls were in school {even part-time} that I would have a little more "free time" to work out, keep the house clean, meal plan, but as it turns out, I'm sort of looking forward to summer break to have some free time back!  The end of the school year has been busy with teacher appreciation week and end of the year projects {that I sort of inserted myself into volunteering for and making much more complicated, but hey}.  Anywho, the old blogging at night has been replaced with making memory books for kindergarteners, and my faithful audience of two {hi nana & poppy!} has had to wait to see what all we have been up to {as if they don't already know}.

➸➸ Olivia had field day at her school two days after we got back from Disneyland.  What a rough week she had!  Her field day was mostly water games outside.  The field looked like a pig sty, but I think all the kids had a blast!

After field day, the neighborhood crew came over and went swimming in our pool.  They are nuts because the pool is still way too cold, in my opinion!

➸➸  The moms of two of Liv's friends and I decided to take the five days of Teacher Appreciation Week at school and split them up between us and have the gift be from the three girls.  Do the math...five divided by 3 means there is still a day or two on our own.  One of those days was supposed to be giving the teacher a flower...so we went the route of flower pens.  They are so cheap looking, but it's the thought that counts, right?  We ended up making enough for even the specials teachers.  David helped her pass them out and she was so excited!

➹ This was my day - we did little gift cards to Sephora along with a cute nail file and nail polish! ➹

The girls planned a special lunch with their teacher and favorite aid for that Friday, but one of the girls was sick and so we rescheduled for this past Friday.  The girls felt so special having Olive Garden at school with their teacher!

➸➸  I got to attend my first Mother's Day Tea with Sydney.  It was so cute seeing her sing her songs.  She made some cute little crafts for me and even served me my yummy snacks.  Love my sweet girl.

➸➸ The girls have been rehearsing for their dance recitals for their performance at the end of the month.  They both have to have curly hair and neither of them have hair that holds curls very well.  So, we have been practicing with little twists in their wet hair at night, and when they stay in, the curls look really cute!  One night we did five twists in Liv's hair and ohmyword it was so curly when she woke up.  She did not like it, but I think it might be perfect for recital night.  It's amazing how Sydney's hair curls up in it too!  It totally changes the way she looks.

Two more weeks of May!!  Whoohoooo.

Oh That California Adventure

On Tuesday morning, it was time to get up and at 'em again.  Somehow it is always easier the first day {snacks are already packed, stroller is already loaded as opposed to the second day where you've barely unpacked the stroller from the night before}.  But, we still managed to make it to the park and were in line for fast passes to Radiator Springs Racers before it had even opened!

Our first {and usually second} ride is always the Toy Story Mania ride.  It is my all-time favorite at California Adventure.  While David secured our CarsLand fast passes, we rode Toy Story Mania and then got in line to do it again when he joined us.  It was fun watching Sydney actually play the games inside the ride this time!

We let the guys ride California Screamin' a couple times while we hit up the carousel.  Olivia showed about zero interest in this - and it's something she used to love.  :(  She is growing up.  

After the carousel ride, we made our way into CarsLand where we rode Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before riding Radiator Springs Racers.  Sydney has a new obsession with potato chips thanks to the park. 

After winning our race in the Cars ride, we headed over to the Grizzly River Run.  Sadly, Sydney was about a half inch too short to ride the ride, so instead of getting soaking wet, we did a little hat shopping inside an air-conditioned store.  Olivia loved the ride and actually got to ride it twice. 

Thanks to a lost {and later found} phone, we got to ride the Ariel ride about 4 times back to back.  It's always such a quick line.  After David got his phone back, we headed over to the Bugs Life area and rode a few rides there.  We had enough time to see Sophia the First and ride the Monsters Inc ride twice before the watching the Pixar Parade.  {Thanks, Uncle Rhino, for saving us the best seats!}

After all of that adventuring, we still had three things left on our CA wish list - Ride Radiator Springs Racers at night, eat a sit down dinner {for Ryan}, take a birthday picture of Olivia in front of the Mickey wheel.  Thankfully, we were able to accomplish all of those!

As a bonus, we were able to see even more fireworks on our exit from the park.  Disneyland had closed early so they could practice for their 60th celebration, and we were able to see them!  We even made it back to the hotel in time to watch them from the pool & hot tub.  Such a great ending to our birthday trip.  

The next morning, we headed over to Downtown Disney to let the girls walk around and explore a little before our trip home.  Olivia had gotten a couple different gift cards to Disneyland, and hadn't spent very much in Disney, so we wanted to give her the opportunity to do that before we left.  She was so great with her money, buying gifts for friends before herself.  It made me very proud of her.

➹ The Lego store was SO cool! ➹

As {bad} luck would have it, our car got a flat tire in the middle of the desert on the way home, so we sat by the side of the road for 2 hours before driving home at 60mph with a donut tire on the car.  But, we made it home by 10p, safe and sound with one sleeping child.  I'll call that a successful trip any day of the week!

➹ Turns out we had stopped at this exact McDonald's restaurant when my friend Liz and I took our kids to Disneyland two years ago! ➹