Sara is Smiling

On being a princess

Parents of little girls, I know you've done this:

-gone grocery shopping with Cinderella
-fought Snow White to wear something more classroom-appropriate
-tucked little Tinkerbelle into bed at night
-hoisted Sleeping Beauty into the dentist's chair
-gently steered her AWAY from the princess costumes at halloween because 5 straight years is enough already!

Being a princess is all part of a normal childhood these days. Not so when I was a kid, but it was always *sigh* a dream. I would've DIED if I was given a princess halloween costume! We made our own so babies, old ladies, hobos and punk rockers were my options. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I finally made my princess dream come true...sorta.

There was some sort of church event..I don't think it was a talent show, but somehow I was in the position of writing a script and having our youth group perform it one night. I, of course, was a princess. I don't remember anything about the script or storyline (except that it was funny..I hope). I do remember that I sewed my own costume from scraps of fabric that I found at the house and with no pattern to follow. It was probably a mess, but I was proud of it.

I didn't go to prom or grad, and when I was looking for wedding dresses my insecurity du jeur was my fat arms so although I tried on lots of princess type dresses I just couldn't picture myself being comfortable all day with people staring at my flabby arms. I went with something simple....with sleeves, of course, and I never took the train down because I'm a complete lunatic. Seriously, I should've been medicated that day. But we've gone over all this before so let's move on.


So I missed all my opportunities to be princess for a day. Self inflicted, of course.

Charlie and I watched the Royal Wedding. I set the DVR since it was on at 3am, but I ended up watching it LIVE thanks to Miss Quinn. When Charlie got up I watched it again fast forwarding the boring parts.
I sighed about how I always wanted to be a princess.
Charlie says matter of factly, "You can still be a princess. Just get some builders and tell them to build you a big castle. Then tell everyone about it. You'll be a Queen and I'll be a princess."

SOLD. Problem solved! I love how to kids anything is possible. :-)

Charlie had a princess themed 5th birthday party. I took these shots to make the invitations, and they're still some of my favourite of her.

Heartbreaker

Yesterday a little girl professed her love for Max. It's the same little girl whose had a crush on him all year, but she's gotten bolder.
She said she loves him, only wants to play with him, really likes his shirt, thinks 'Max' is the best name in the world, and wants to marry him.
He says he can't because he loves his sister and thinks he'll probably marry her.
I was surprised to hear that. I was under the assumption that they were sworn enemies. But not like Spiderman and Green Goblin..more like Spiderman and J. Jonah Jameson.

 

She's Crawling!

Nine Months on the button and she's FINALLY started crawling!

Charlie has been working with her for weeks (possibly months) trying to get this going. She'll sit several feet away from Quinn with a toy or a snack. It sounds like she's trying to train a dog. She pounds on the floor and grins, "Come on, baby! Come to Charlie! Come get a snack! Come on, Quinny!"
It was a combination of persistence and raisins that finally got her to start moving.
She's been pushing herself backwards getting stuck under furniture for weeks so it was very exciting to see those little knees finally show up to the party. We were all there too -- me, Quincey and all the kids. Maybe Quinny was saving her debut for a packed house. :-)

The hard part now is baby-proofing this old 70's house. It's a split level house so there are stairs EVERYWHERE and they all have iron railings which are hard to connect baby gates to. I remember when Charlie and Max were at this stage we lived in the condo - no stairs - and I would dread visiting Mom in her split level because baby care was a complete nightmare.

It was so nice today to get rid of all the crap that's been taking over my house. Swing is gone, excersaucer gone, bouncy chair gone, bumbo gone. We have living space back!
Now to figure out the toys...Elly's favourite toys are little polly pocket sized dolls of all kinds which come with small pieces a-plenty. Not so great for mobile, orally fixated babies and a mamma with a well earned choking phobia.

I started this post days ago (on the 22nd her nine month bday), but didn't post it because I wanted to download my pictures to go with it. Well, I left my camera in the car Q took to work but I wanted to post so I quickly snapped a few with Charlie's cam.

Max in his deepest Darth Vader voice: Quinnyyyyyyyy, the foooorce will make you craaaaawwwwllllllll......


Watch out boys and girls...none of your toys are safe now that Quinny's on the loose!

 

Four Letter Word

Soo..I've started the 17 day DIET. Fadish, I know. But it is healthy. Not like some of my diets of the past such as the Freezie diet or the Whopper diet (both of which worked, actually). And then there was my MOST successful diet EVER - it's the I'm-19-and-have-no-money-to-feed-myself-and-am-too-proud-to-ask-for-help diet. Quite effective.

I had started getting the "are you anorexic" questions. But things turned around as is evidence by my chubby face in the last few posts.
And by the way, that shirt was not a fashion statement. It was a joke..see the other people's clothes behind me? Bunch 'a crazy kids who don't drink out on the town having fun at Value Village! Fun times or what???!!! Geesh.
Someone should've taken me to KFC and shoved a chicken leg in my mouth.

I have 4 beautiful sisters who set the bar high.
Quincey is supportive, but concerned with boob shrinkage. (I say the shrinkier the better)
The kids are upset that their favourites like spaghetti, steak, and rice are out of rotation right now. But it's not for long..this diet has a great maintenance plan.

I'm done having babies so it's time to get rid of this baby weight ONCE AND FOR ALL!!

Quinn on Vacation

Party.Pooper.
The days of kicking back by the pool with a good book while the kids splashed around are on hold until this little troublemaker is older.
She did enjoy her baby floaty thing much more than Elly ever did so that was nice.


But coooome ooooon...we're on vacation! Let's sleep in past 5:30am!
When you're a mom, bringing your kids on vacation means you're bringing your work with you and you're off routine and don't have all your regular tools so it's easily more work than if you had stayed home..
BUT
the weather, the water, the interesting things to see and do and all the family time makes it so worth it. We love our little vacations and all the craziness that comes with it.
And actually, she was exceptionally well behaved at Disney.
Born in the summer, by the time she was "awake" it was cold. The world is a cold, dark, snowy place to little Q. In fact, when I laid her in the grass for a picture this was her reaction:

Feet up, arms up, face up....What IS it????
Being outside in the sunshine and warm air, riding around in the stroller looking at all kinds of things was paradise!

Although I do think she envied the big kids juuuust a little.

So close yet so far away.

I did feel bad for Eloise because I underestimated the amount of walking involved and how zapped the kids get. Ideally, she should've been in a stroller too rather than sleeping on her Daddy's head.


In review:
Quinny + Disney + Stroller + Sun = A+
Quinny + R&R in AZ = Some relaxing, not so much with the resting. A solid B+.

Little Details

Disney sets the benchmark for attention to details. Even the people who sweep up garbage are bright and shiny and in cute uniforms. They've got a brand, and DANG they stick to it.
Here are the kids in their beds. That mural above lights up, and when you first turn it on it plays "A dream is a wish your heart makes". We left it on all night as a nightlight.


In the morning we ordered pancakes, and this is how they came.


This picture was a failed attempt at getting a picture of my horrible sunburned face with white raccoon eyes where my sunglasses were. You can't really see it, but you can see the bathroom sconce in the background..a Mickey hand!


Cotton Candy no less than half the height of your 3 year old.


Photo ops a-plenty.



With all the cool things to see and do in Disneyland, I couldn't pull my kids away frooooom......

frickin' ducks :/

The Celebrities

I didn't think I'd care about the characters and whether we met them or not, but when you're there it's JUST SO EXCITING!
Within minutes of arriving at the hotel, Goofy came bouncing by.
I had to get a picture of Max with him because, you know, they have the same dentist.

Goofy is holding Max's stuffy "Turtle". Not sure why.

I had planned ahead and made reservations at Ariel's Grotto. It's a restaurant where the princesses go around and visit with each and every kid at each and every table. The don't come all at once so our princess experience lasted the entire meal.
Aaaaaand..we missed our reservation. They were nice, though, and said if we didn't mind waiting a little bit they'd squeeze us in. As we sat there we must've seen them turn away at least 20 different groups so we felt very fortunate that they were working us in.
They sat us out on the patio by ourselves which was WONDERFUL because the weather was gorgeous and the kids could run around and not bother anyone. And what a view!! We couldn't figure out why they had it closed that day. When the princesses visited us out there it felt like a private event just for us. :-)


Unfortunately my camera had died so I was using Charlie's camera that Eloise had changed the resolution way down on. Blast. I can't print them, but hopefully they'll show up ok online.
I do have the picture they take for you as you enter.


At our table, first came Sleeping Beauty:

Then Cinderella:

I'm not sure what Elly is telling her here, but she was very chatty. It was cute.

Next came Belle. I wanted a picture of her with Max because he's the beast to her beauty and now that I'm explaining this it feels so like something lame my MOTHER WOULD DO and I'm really embarassed.

You can see how thrilled he is. Also got the girls, of course.

Belle was the coolest. She was super sweet with the girls and held Elly's hand. She loved Quinny and asked for a picture with her.

Quinny was unhappy that she had been interrupted from shovelling salad down her gullet.

And finally we were visited by Snow White. After taking her picture with Belle, I figured Quinn should be included in this picture too.
I laugh out loud everytime I see it.

Alright, alright, bad idea.

I'm not sure why I didn't have MY picture taken with any of them! Everytime one would show up I'd literally fly out of my chair and yell, "CINDERELLA!!" in a voice much more high pitched than normal. Slightly pathetic perhaps, but I'm sure they see overly enthusiastic moms all the time :-)

Our travels also brought us face to face with Captain Jack Sparrow.

You've got a little something on your shirt.....

And Alice in Wonderland pulled Max into a parade with the Mad Hatter, Mickey Mouse, Pinochio, and others. I thought I was video taping the whole thing. I wasn't. Camera malfunction numero dos. Got a super crappy picture, though, to prove I'm not lying.

He ended up holding Mad Hatter's hand and dancing around with all of them in celebration of their un-birthday.

Just another of the kids watching Mickey.

There was one other incident of our interactions with Disney Celebs, but it comes with video so I'm saving it for another entry :-)
Can you tell we had the greatest time???

A bird in the hand is worth two in your hair.

As you can see, my hair has gone completely out of control. It's super long, it's frizzy, it seems really thick but is falling out by the handfuls, and it has completely lost it's colour. It's in desperate need of some TLC.
This past week while at a parrot feeding exhibition it became - literally - a bird's nest. The bird you see above had some self control, however, the next bird couldn't believe his good fortune. A completely turn key piece of real estate.

He comes in for a closer inspection...
...decides he'll take it, and after some minor home improvments...

ahhhhh....Home Sweet Home!

It was a spectacle. Strangers were taking pictures of me.
The staff had to come and rescue me...or the bird, depending on how you look at it.


Max was bird friendly.

Charlie was having fun, but too skittish to hold the birds. And Elly....weeeellll...

it was a living nightmare for little Eloise. :-)

My Favourite Night at Disney

We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel so to get to Disneyland everyday we'd have to walk straight through Downtown Disney. The pretty little shops taunted me (and Charlie too) as we rushed behind Quincey's heels to get to the park.
One night after the baby was down and Quincey was doing a little work, I decided to take the big kids on an adventure.
Disney is so exciting at night! It looks totally different than it does during the day. It's a different place with a different vibe. It's electric! Everything shines or flashes! There are bands playing! It's an energy you can't help but feel a part of.
The kids were literally bouncing as we walked, "I'm so happy I can't even stand it!" Max said. Charlie said, "I just can't wipe this smile off my face!"
We went in and out of stores and enjoyed everything going on around us when we were out in the street.
At one point the fireworks started so we sat and watched them and listened to the band.

Ok, so they don't look as super excited as I've described them in this particular photo.
Two reasons: 1) This is Max's new picture face. Get used to it. You'll be seeing it a lot. 2) They are looking in the opposite direction of the fireworks. I'm a mean mommy :-)

Better?

Charlie and I had our matching Minnie ears on, and I tried to get Max to take a picture of us but he couldn't stop bouncing and giggling and being that it was dark and the shutter speed slow all I got was a bunch of blurry blobs. I tried to do a self portrait, but my ears got cut off. Boo. Oh well, it's sorta cute anyway.


There's a show called World of Color at night that Quincey and I went to. Pictures do not do it justice. It was fantastic! It was a water/light show. There was music and video was projected directly onto the MIST - no screen! It was awesome.

Not the greatest picture, but the only one I got where you can clearly see the pictures projected on the water. In case you can't make it out, it's Nemo and Dori.
You have no concept of how huge this show was.

Just look at how teeny tiny the people are in comparison. You can't even see the enormous Mickey ferris wheel that's behind this. So much fun.

You need tickets to go, but we didn't want to stand in line. Quincey sweet talked the concierge at the hotel who called ahead and got us VIP seats. :-)
This is not my video. My video was too big to upload.

Perfection

Days don't get more perfectly lazy and indulgent as this.
Charlie, Elly and I went shopping this morning. Quincey handed me his credit card as we were walking out the door. Score!
We shopped and had lunch and then headed back home where we all jumped in the pool.
We spent hours enjoying the sun and the heat. Quinn even had her afternoon nap in the pool.
 

Unintentional, of course. She was floating around minding her own business and I guess the rocking and the calmness (no fighting, whining or screaming!) lulled her to sleep.
When she was finally out of the pool I noticed her little baby zombie feet.
 

The mark of a great day indeed.
We finished the day off with a bbq, and then shortly after 8pm Elly came up to me with her jammies on and showing her teeth.
"I bwushed my teef and now I go to bed!"
The other two followed with nary an unkind word.
Well now, don't that beat all!