House of Estrogen

SoCal Day 8: California Adventure and Mickey's Halloween Party

Our next morning at California Adventure was a bit more relaxed. We were mostly trying to knock out a few rides we had missed the day before. We rode Soarin' which is always a favorite. It was probably our last time to ride it as "Soarin' Over California" too as Soarin' is getting ready to undergo major renovations both at Disneyland and Epcot to become "Soarin' Over the World".

 We got warm hugs from Olaf,

and Nina and I went on Tower of Terror.

We were dying to try out the snacks at the Cozy Cone Motel, so we headed over to Carsland.

The Cozy Cone is just too cute. Each cone sells a different snack... Popcone, Cone Queso, Ice Cream Cones, Cone-Coctions, Cones, cones, cones! We tried just about everything.

Elise and J.C. got bread cones filled with chili or barbeque. Addison and Nina got ice cream cones. I got a cone full of mini churros with Mexican chocolate dipping sauce. Delish!

Carsland is all about the details... love it.

Despite all of J.C.'s protests about not wanting to get wet, we convinced him to go on Grizzly River Run which was a blast. Then we had lunch at Smokejumpers Grill and went back to the condo for our usual afternoon siestas.

(Disney Photopass stock photo)

For the evening, we had purchased tickets to Mickey's Halloween Party at Disneyland. The Halloween Party is a separate ticketed event. The park closes at 6:00 to anyone who doesn't have a Halloween party wristband. I had always wondered how they actually enforce that, but they do it quite well. They are checking for wristbands everywhere you go... before you get on a ride, before you get in a trick-or-treat line, entering or exiting different areas of the park. They definitely manage to lock it down to just party guests and escort anyone out who doesn't leave on their own.

I was pretty sure I couldn't convince the family to go entirely in costume, but they were all completely onboard when I suggested that we wear super hero t-shirts to go along with Addie's Wonder Woman costume. I think we turned out rather festive looking even if a t-shirt is a bit of a costume cheat. We were certainly a lot cooler and more comfortable than some of the people we saw walking around in full-on furry or leather costumes in 90 degree heat.  People watching is half the fun of the Halloween Party. Guests go all out with their costumes.

Our first stop was the Little Red Wagon for their famous corn dogs. Holy awesome hand-dipped corn dog, Batman! Excellent dinner! We enjoyed people watching while waiting for the sun to go down, so it would start cooling off.

There is an overlap from 3:00-6:00 when party goers are allowed in the park and non-party-goers haven't left yet. It is very crowded during that time, but as soon as you start approaching 6:00, ride lines drop dramatically. We rode Star Tours and Astro Orbiter.

The Halloween Party was a bit of a mixed experience for us. The kids loved the trick-or-treating. It was fun seeing both party-goers and characters in costumes. The decorations were great, and the short lines for rides were a real treat. On the downside, the party specific things like trick-or-treating, meeting the villains (who are rarely seen in the parks), and meeting the characters in costume all had very long lines.  It was a strange mix of crowded and not crowded. If you wanted to meet Malicifent or Cruella de Vil, your wait was well over an hour, yet if you wanted to ride Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, your wait might be just 10 minutes. The Halloween Party is definitely a great way to ride lots of the popular rides that usually have long waits. The main goal for us though was the more Halloween-specific activities, and those were all more crowded than I had anticipated.

The castle looked appropriately creepy and Halloweeny. The lights and sounds on Main Street were fun, and the Halloween fireworks show is neat.

Rivers of America was spooky as well with fog and special lighting.

(Disney Photopass stock photo)

It was all good. Everyone had a good time. Nina and I rode Haunted Mansion Holiday (Haunted Mansion at Disneyland gets redone this time of year with a Holiday overlay.). I think Addie rode the Winnie the Pooh ride 3 times in a row with no wait, and how cute is Pooh in his bee Hallloween costume?

Am I glad we went to the Halloween Party? Definitely.  Would I go again?  Not sure.  I think you have to go with the right expectations. You are not going to meet every villain. You may not meet any villains unless you are willing to spend a lot of your evening in line. You are not going to see every character in costume. You are going to have to battle bigger crowds at times than you feel like you should given the price you paid for the ticket.

We ended the night with this lovely photo of me on Splash Mountain (which was walk-on... no line at all). Nice.  This was another one that Addie had begged to go on but then came off declaring she would never ride it again.

It was a fun night. It definitely didn't quite live up to expectations, but it was fun regardless.

Day 8 Favorites:

Addison: Grizzly River Run and Trick or Treating

Nina: Grizzly River Run and Star Tours

Elise: Star Tours, Trick or Treating, and Splash Mountain

Ann: Grizzly River Run

J.C.: Star Tours

SoCal Day 6: Disneyland

When it comes to Disney vacationing, I'm a planner. I like to plan strategically to maximize fun and minimize waiting in lines. Although we had never been to Disneyland before, I had done my research, created my itinerary on Ridemax, and we had a plan.

 

We arrived at the park prior to rope drop, excited to see all the Halloween decorations.

We rushed straight to Peter Pan's Flight, knowing that our only shot at riding it with a short wait was first thing in the morning. So much for my fastidious planning... we got there to find a 35 minute wait. We weren't hardcore enough Peter Pan fans to waste precious morning low-wait time waiting for that one ride, so we gave up on Peter Pan. We'll have to save that for another trip. Fortunately, every other ride in Fantasyland had no wait at all, so we were able to cram in a bunch in that 35 minutes when we would have just been standing in the queue waiting for Peter Pan.  JC ran off to get fastpasses for Indiana Jones Adventure while the girls went on the Teacups. They practically had the ride to themselves!

Next we went on the Storybook Land Canal Boats which I absolutely loved. It definitely ranks up there as one of my favorite Disney rides of all the Disney parks.

It is so beautiful.

(stock photo from Disney Photopass)

(stock photo from Disney Photopass)

We were trying to focus on rides that are exclusive to Disneyland that we can't ride at Disney World, so next we were off to Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Matterhorn.

(Disney Photopass stock photo)

We had just enough time to sneak in a ride on the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage before it would be time to race to our Indiana Jones fastpass return time. I was a little worried I would get claustrophobic in the submarine, but I did just fine. I think it helped that I was one of the last ones in and first ones out.

It is a cute ride. Now that I've done it once though, I don't feel the need to climb down into one of those submarines ever again.

Indiana Jones was next. Most of the family loved it. One didn't. Poor girl... I think we scarred her for life. It wouldn't be the only time on this trip either.

To offset the trauma of the Indiana Jones ride, I took her on the carousel while everyone else went off in search of churros.

We had a mediocre lunch at Village Haus restaurant, took a few more pictures, and then headed back to the condo for naps. It was H.O.T.!

After wonderful naps, we came back refreshed in the early evening as it was finally beginning to cool off.

You may be looking at these pictures wondering if we lost Nina somewhere along the way. Posing with characters is like her own personal version of torture. You won't find her in any character pictures by choice (we did force her to get in a couple photos though later in the trip).

Dinner that night was our best meal of the entire trip. We all still start drooling a little if you mention it. Big Thunder Ranch BBQ. I would recommend it to you, but they are closing it in January to make room for Star Wars Land, so you'd have to plan a trip quick. It would be so worth it though. Seriously. Yum. Heavenly. Mmmmm.

I mean what's not to love about BUCKETS of BBQ?  J.C. thought he had died and gone to BBQ heaven.

Star Wars, Schmar Wars... it is criminal that they are closing this place.

I think we had planned to go on Big Thunder Railroad right after dinner, but that sounded like a big pukefest waiting to happen after our huge meal.

 

We opted for Jungle Cruise instead. Addie was very excited that it was now dark enough to turn on her ears.

(Disney Photopass stock photo)

J.C. and Nina don't have quite the Disney stamina that the rest of us do, so they headed back to the condo. Elise, Addie, and I planned on taking the Disneyland railroad to another part of the park to ride a couple more rides before the parade. The train was out of order though, and our feet were out of order as well. We just plopped down on the curb and hung out resting, waiting for the parade to start.

Addie got to see Goofy again. He signed her autograph book...

and then tucked her pen in her braid.

 

The Paint the Night Parade was fantastic. I'm normally not a big Disney parade fan. We usually skip most of the parades at the Disney World parks. It is Disney blasphemy to even admit that, but I'm just not much of a parade person. Paint the Night is a new parade this year for Disneyland's 60th Anniversary though. I had heard it was spectacular, and I'm so glad we staked out spots to watch it.

 

The fireworks were great too, but my pictures are awful, so I'm not even going to bother sharing them. The parade was really the big highlight for us though. After the fireworks, we headed back to the condo to get some sleep before our big California Adventure day.

SoCal Day6 Disneyland Favorites:

Addison: Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and Mad Tea Party

Nina: Alice in Wonderland ride

Elise: Paint the Night Parade

Ann: Storybook Land Canal Boats, Big Thunder Ranch BBQ, and Paint the Night Parade

J.C.: Indiana Jones Adventure, and Big Thunder Ranch BBQ

 

SoCal Picture A Day: Day 8

Halloween Heartbreak

This Halloween, we had an Elsa, a minion, and a teenager dressed in black jeans and a black shirt who claimed she was a "vampire hunter". Her mother made her put on a cape, so she at least had some semblance of a costume.

The vampire hunter deserted us for a friend's neighborhood. That's the cool middle school thing to do. Elsa had a great time in the gorgeous dress my mom made.

She trick-or-treated with Batman for a while and then hooked up with several other Elsas and assorted princesses. She was even brave enough to to reach over this not so dead corpse to grab candy.

The adult trick-or-treating was pretty stellar this year. I ended up with a glass of wine, a toasted marshmallow shot of Kahlua, and a Frito pie. Plus, I stole all the girls' Kit Kats. Score.

Then we have the minion. Weeks of planning went into putting together the perfect minion costumes with a friend. Minion socks, a minion jack-o-lantern, figuring out who would be the yellow minion and who would be the purple minion and then deciding they should both be yellow minions, making minion goggles... it seemed to be the grand master plan leading up to a perfect night of minion trick or treating.

Until it wasn't. Nina burst into the house sobbing, completely heartbroken. Apparently her minion partner in crime had left to trick-or-treat in another neighborhood with another friend. With tears streaming down her face, she declared, "I don't want to trick or treat at all!"  It ripped my heart out just a bit to see her so upset. She had been looking forward to this night for weeks. I don't know how things fell apart, whether Nina had bigger expectations about being together that night than the friend, or whether the friend got a better offer and ditched her, but at that point, it didn't matter. She was learning that awful lesson that we all learn at some point... friends sometimes let you down, and it hurts. I gave her a hug, wiped the tears off her face, and told her not to let that ruin her night. I convinced her to go find another friend. By the end of the night, she had hooked up with four other girls and had a ball. Thankfully, the night was salvaged.  She came home with a big sack of candy and a smile on her face.  She still can't really talk about the whole minion ordeal though. It was definitely a night of Halloween heartbreak for one yellow minion and her mom.

Come On Over! It's a Party Around Here!

Wednesday - Kid #1 started throwing up during the night.

Thursday (Halloween) - Kid #1 threw up again during the day.

Friday - Kid #2 threw up every 45-60 minutes for twelve hours straight.

Saturday - Parent #1 felt lousy all day and stayed in bed the entire day. Kid #2 continued to throw up.

Sunday - Kid #2 has been asleep for 19 hours. She shows no signs of waking up any time soon. Kid #3 just woke up saying her stomach hurts. Parent #1 seems to be feeling better. Parent #2 still seems unaffected, but I'm worried he may run away.

Good times.

A Shadow Hunter, A Vampire, and a Sick Little Cowgirl

Ever have one of those days where nothing goes quite as planned? Halloween was that day for us this week.

Elise decided to dress as a heroine from young adult literature for the second year in a row. Last year, she was Katniss from the Hunger Games. This year, she was a Shadow Hunter from City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments series). Our Shadow Hunter had made plans to trick-or-treat in a friend's neighborhood and was all excited about that prospect; however, on Tuesday, she twisted her ankle at school. Her ankle was still bothering her a lot, so she decided she was better off staying close to home where she could easily head home at any point to rest her ankle.

Our teenage vampire had also made plans with friends that fell through. She and a friend had solidified trick or treating plans at school without talking to the other girl's mother. It turns out their family had plans with family friends, so Nina was stuck trick-or-treating with her sister instead. She was less than thrilled about that.

Our poor littlest cowgirl spent the day throwing up and lying on the floor of the bathroom. As she so aptly put it, "This is not my best day ever."

J.C. spent the day cleaning vomit off of our family room carpet and leather couch... definitely not his best day ever either.

I had plans to leave work early, pick up a jack-o-lantern pizza to bake from Papa Murphy's, and help the girls get ready. Instead, a customer issue cropped up late in the afternoon that required an "all hands on deck" approach at work. There was no way I was going to leave early, or even on time, for that matter.

J.C. left poor little Addie in the hands of her big sisters to go pick up the pizza. Usually Papa Murphy's fashions a stem out of pizza dough, so it looks more pumpkin like. This guy is just more of a smiley pizza than a real jack-o-lantern. At least it tasted good.

After dinner, the big girls took off with reminders to say thank you at each house and to cross the streets very carefully as they were pretty much invisible in all black.

At some point, the little cowgirl rallied and decided she could venture out. She couldn't stand the thought of missing out completely. I took her to about 5 houses, and then we came home. I was glad she felt up to at least a little trick-or-treating. She had been so excited about being a cowgirl.

Her sisters showed up hours later with plenty of loot to share. We certainly have no shortage of candy despite Addie's very abbreviated trip out.

This year definitely didn't rank up there with the best Halloweens ever, but we muddled through it. I hope your Halloween was full of shadow hunters, ghosts, vampires, princesses, healthy cowgirls, haunted houses, jack-o-lantern pizzas, and plenty of candy!

The Annual Fall Check-in

2005

 

2007

 

2008

 

2009

 

2010

 

2012 - Just Addie

2013 - Addison and two kindergarten friends. She grew a lot in one year!

The Great Pumpkin Patch Tour of 2013

The past week has been the House of Estrogen Great Pumpkin Patch Tour of 2013:

Saturday - pumpkin patch #1 as a family

Sunday - corn maze for Elise with her Girl Scout troop

Thursday - pumpkin patch #2 for Addison's kindergarten field trip

Friday - corn maze for Elise with her jump rope team

Saturday - pumpkin patch #3 with Addison's Daisy Scout troop

I have no pictures from the corn maze because after going through this particular corn maze with Elise's Brownie troop six years ago, I vowed to never set foot in it again. Elise spent about an hour and half in it with her Girl Scout troop this year and over two hours at night with a flashlight with her jump rope team. That doesn't sound even remotely fun to me, but she claims to have had a good time.

The pumpkin patches were a lot of fun though. They all had the obligatory photo ops:

pumpkin patch #1

pumpkin patch #2

pumpkin patch #3

They all had hay rides (some with more hay than others!)

pumpkin patch #1 (still haven't figured out how they get by calling this a "hay ride")

pumpkin patch #2

They each had a corn crib,

pumpkin patch #2

and

goats,

pumpkin patch #2

and of course, they all had pumpkins (although I'm not sure how the third one can claim to be a "pumpkin patch". It is really just a "big field with pumpkins".)

pumpkin patch #1

pumpkin patch #2

"pumpkin patch" #3 (Seriously? pumpkin patch? Um. No. Pumpkins. In. Grass.)

Then there were the odds and ends that made each place unique.

Pumpkin patch #1 had the way cool swing.

Pumpkin patch #1 and #3 both had a bounce pillow (although we didn't play on it at #3 since they charged extra)

We didn't think we would ever get Addison off the pedal car racers at pumpkin patch #1. She thought she was an Indy 500 racer.

We ran through a hay maze at pumpkin patch #2,

raced down the big slide at pumpkin patch #3

and played a little tic-tac-toe at pumpkin patch #1.

The week ended as all good pumpkin patch visits should... with jack-o-lanterns and proud smiles.

We are definitely ready for halloween now.

 

Three Thoughts for the Day

1. In the past week, my five year old has cut her own hair and put blue streaks in her hair. We have a future hairstylist, perhaps?

2. Remember the girl in the movie Sleepless in Seattle who spoke in acronyms? That's my nine year old right now. "SYL, Mom! BTW, I'm going to JH. I'll BRB."  It makes for challenging communication at times.

3. Candy corn Oreos are in da' house!  Every Target near me had sold out, but a friend at work snagged three bags for me at a Target near her. Score!

One Last Halloweenish Post

Halloween has come and gone. The Halloween Witch finally showed up with books, and the candy sugar rush has died down. I still had a few last fall pictures to post though.

Addie's preschool class took a field trip to a pumpkin patch this fall. Can you tell they were excited? (Yes, they are all the same age. Addison just got the head-taller-than-everyone-else-my-age genes like Nina.)

Mr. B. handed out the stickers,

and then they were off!

The corn crib was a big hit.

We went on a hay ride, of course.

Here is Addison with her awesome teacher Mr. B.

Then it was time to play on the hay bales. There was some serious team work going on trying to get everybody up there,

but definitely no help needed getting down.

Last, they were off to find pumpkins...

scouting out the perfect one...

Success!

So, the littlest had a fun outing with her friends, but the oldest had one too. Elise's jump rope team headed out to a corn maze one night. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may remember my corn maze post a couple years ago when I seriously thought we were going to be lost in there forever, and my body wouldn't be found until spring.

The jump rope team planned to tackle that same corn maze AT NIGHT! WITH FLASHLIGHTS! You couldn't pay me enough to accompany them on that death wish. Fortunately, Elise was teamed up with a group of kids, including a couple high schoolers with cell phones.

They treated the maze as a race, and I believe the fastest time out was just under an hour. Most groups took over an hour. I'm impressed they made it out at all. I'm pretty sure I would have plopped down in the middle of the maze sobbing and waited until daylight to claw my way out. That probably means I'm not cut out for being on a jump rope team. You probably knew that already though.