We're going to Disneyland!!

Well, we went to Disneyland earlier this week. We promised Baby Bear that when she was a big girl and went to the potty like a big girl, meaning no pooping in her undies, that we would take her to Disneyland. Well, she finally met up with her end of the bargain and so we kept our promise.

She was so excited to go to Disneyland and wanted so badly to see Minnie Mouse. She even decided to wear her Minnie Mouse costume, she said that if she wore it that Minnie would think she was her friend. So cute!

Grandma Bear decided to come with us, which was just as fun for her.



The first thing Baby Bear wanted to do when we got there was see Minnie Mouse. So we made our way to Toon Town, which is on the other end of the park from the entrance. Along the way we made a couple of quick stops at the Tea Cups and It's a Small World. It was the perfect day to be at Disneyland, it wasn't very crowded and the lines were short. We finally made it to Toon Town and made our first stop at Minnie Mouse's house. The last time we went, we weren't able to see Minnie, she was getting ready for a nap. Baby Bear remembered that (and that was a year and half ago!) and so I wanted to make sure she saw Minnie this time around.

With daddy in Minnie's living room.



A first glimpse at Minnie.



Wishing Minnie a Happy Birthday! Disney Junior has been advertising Minnie birthday on tv and Baby Bear made it a point to wish her a Happy Birthday. Minnie's handlers were impressed since they all knew Minnie's birthday is this next week.



My Minnie with Minnie Mouse (and daddy too).



She was so excited that she got to see Minnie, she thought that Minnie liked her. That was the longest line we had to wait in all day and it was totally worth it to see my Minnie so happy. The rest of the day we breezed through lines. We headed next door to visit Mickey Mouse.

Mickey liked our little Minnie, he spent a little more time with her and held her hand. Maybe because he thought she was Minnie. We know how fond he is of Minnie.



Mickey liked to hold her hand.



We also visited with Goofy.



Baby Bear asked where Daisy's house was, but we weren't able to find her. So we head out of Toon Town to have lunch. After lunch, we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. Baby Bear was a little scared during the ride, but walked out of the ride singing, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirates life for me..." So I think she rather enjoyed it.

Next up to Critter Country and the Pooh Bear ride. Then we hoped on the train to Tomorrow Land. Since Grandma Bear was with us, daddy and I could take a moment to ride Space Mountain. It was so awesome, the lines were quick and it had been forever since I had been on that ride, it was so much fun.

While daddy and I were on Space Mountain, Baby Bear was with Grandma Bear doing a little driving.





We then went to go see Captain E-O



Baby Bear wanted to go on a few more rides before we went to see the parade. So we headed to Fantasyland for the Carousel and Dumbo.

Along the way we ran into Cinderellla. She didn't have time to stop since she was getting ready for the parade.



The carousel.. a fun shot.




We also love Dumbo!





Baby Bear really enjoyed the parade.



We finally got to see Daisy. She wasn't in Toon Town earlier in the day because she was getting ready for the parade.



We love Pooh Bear.



and Eeyore too.



It was a great parade and Baby Bear had the chance to see a lot of the characters she had been looking for. And she also got to see Santa!!!



We had such a blast. What was awesome was that right before we left, they lit up the castle and made it snow on Main Street! It was the perfect end to an amazing day. We all had a blast. Disneyland really is the happiest place on earth. I know that my girl had the best day and that was what it was all about. It is so fun to see Disneyland through her eyes.

It's Official: We are a diaper free home

We have gone a full week without pull-ups at night and Baby Bear has been dry. We are finally diaper free! Baby Bear has woken up dry for a while now, but a part of me was too lazy to transition away from that night time pull-up. It was a security blanket for a lazy mama bear. The only reason we transitioned was because we ran out of them one night and I was too lazy to go to the store and get some. Baby Bear said she didn't need a pull-up so we trusted her and she was right.

It is definitely nice to have one less expense! It is also nice to have a diaper free household! It is so nice to not have to deal with changing diapers anymore! My baby really is growing up, she's not really a Baby Bear anymore. Sigh!

Harvest Sale Muffins

Tomorrow is the annual Harvest Sale at Baby Bear's preschool. I volunteered to bake some muffins. I hope they taste good since I am not able to sample them. Baby Bear sampled them for dessert and thought they were pretty good. She had half a muffin and that tells me that she liked them.

Baby Bear was so excited to help me bake. I told her that when we got home we would make something for the Harvest Sale and she did not forget about that. She was a great little helper, she mashed the bananas and lined the muffin pan with the muffin liners. They looked really yummy! I hope they do well.



Packaged and ready to go.



Recipe is here.

Trick or Treat 2012

I was actually home for Halloween this year!!

A couple of months ago when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she wanted to be Ariel from The Little Mermaid. But Ariel when she has legs wearing the pink dress not the mermaid. She wanted to be Ariel when she is a princess. Well, they don't sell that costume, they only make the mermaid costume. I wasn't about to shell out a ton of money for a custom costume that she would only wear for a day. I wasn't sure what I was going to do about that. Fortunately, while shopping at Costco we saw that they were selling costumes and she spotted the costume she wanted...

Baby Bear decided to be Minnie Mouse for Halloween. She makes a very cute Minnie Mouse.



I was gone the previous week at a conference in Denver (yes, just after getting back from NYC) and so I was glad I had planned ahead with her costume and buying candy for neighborhood trick or treaters. I had also bought a pumpkin, but didn't get a chance to carve it until the day before Halloween (thanks to Daddy and Papa).

The day of Halloween, Baby Bear asked me about our Halloween decorations. Well, mommy didn't have time to decorate (especially since mommy had only been home for a few days). Mommy FAIL! Luckily, we had the Jack O Lantern and that made her happy.



At preschool they were going to do some trick or treating at some offices down the street from the preschool. Daddy couldn't make it to chaperone the little field trip and initially I wasn't going to be able to make it either due to meetings at work. When I told Baby Bear the night before, she said, "You're not coming?" with the saddest little face. So my mommy guilt set in and I started emailing my students that night to cancel my meetings with them. Having traveled for the last couple of weeks, I felt bad cancelling my meetings with my students. But since I missed Halloween last year, I needed to be there for my girl. Thank goodness I have flexibility at work that I could do something like that. So mommy took a couple of hours to chaperone her trick or treat field trip.

Ready to go...



Trick or Treat!