Smiling Mom

This wee­kend BC and I are on a spe­cial trip together. eClaire is spen­ding the wee­kend with Hubby at home.  (I think she’s already been to Toys R Us and got­ten a new dolly!)

BC and I took a plane ride yes­ter­day and had a great flight. It’s pretty fun kee­ping a three and a half year old enter­tai­ned on a plane. Way easier than flying with two kids are under the age of two!

Thank good­ness for my Mac! Here’s a few of the highlights.

Hubby cons­tantly talks about my LARGE teeth. This one’s for him:

Supers­tar!

Mom and Son

Hot.

Beetle Juice

Finally!  A rea­son to call BC a butt-head.

I like to call the follo­wing two pic­tu­res, “I’ve got my eye on you!“


And that, my friends is how you enter­tain a thirty-one three year old on an airplane!

As I wal­ked into the cha­pel in which I was to be married, my breath caught in my throat and tears stung my eyes. I had to stop. The fee­ling was overwhelming.

Years later when BC, my son, took his first steps, the same thing hap­pe­ned. These were pro­found moments in my life.

Jum­ping back to my high school days, my father was, at the time a middle school vice prin­ci­pal. And he was escor­ting his eighth grade class on their end of the year class trip to Dis­ney­land. He took me with him.

Gro­wing up in San Diego, I had the plea­sure of going Dis­ney­land a num­ber of times throughout my life. So it sur­pri­sed me as my father and I sat down to watch the Elec­tri­cal Parade make its way down Main Street and my breath caught in my throat and tears stung my eyes.

Memo­ries.

At that moment as I sat on Main Street, I remem­be­red por­tions of many of the trips my family and I made throughout the years to Disneyland.

And I was overwhelmed.

I remem­be­red that my parents took my brothers and me to Dis­ney­land on each of our fourth birth­days. I dis­tinctly remem­ber being able to drive the car all by myself in Auto­pia. A four year old dri­ver! Ima­gine that.

Dis­ney­land has pro­vi­ded me with many won­der­ful memo­ries throughout my life.

On Sun­day I was, again, stop­ped in my tracks as I wal­ked into The Uni­ver­sity Club in Palo Alto. I had to take a breath.

Dis­ney­land Resorts and Sili­con Valley Moms Blog put on a recep­tion for the SVM­Blog­gers, that’s me!, and their families.

Dis­ney trea­ted us like VIPs! We ente­red the room and were pro­vi­ded with gift bags filled with goo­dies for the family, from light up Mic­key ears to auto­graph books.

Dis­ney also brought many peo­ple with them up to the Sili­con Valley to help make this day spe­cial for the kids. There was a woman doing face painting.

A man sketching pic­tu­res of our favo­rite Dis­ney cha­rac­ters, then giving our us the sketches! (We were given Daisy and Donald Duck.)

There were Mr. Potato heads to create, Dis­ney tat­toos for the taking, video games, coo­kie deco­ra­ting, and more! It was amazing.

Mic­key, Min­nie, Buzz Light­year and Cin­de­re­lla also made an appea­rance. Oh what fun!

I think that BC’s crush on Cin­de­re­lla offi­cially star­ted Sun­day. He LOVED her!!

It was an ama­zing day and the start of many Dis­ney memo­ries for my children.

The Dis­ney Effect.

What a feeling.

For more pic­tu­res of the even go to SVMB’s Dis­ney Flickr page. For more pic­tu­res of my family go to my pho­tos page.

I am NOT in the mar­ket for a new dog.

I am not.

No, really. I’m not.

But I’ve become mildly obses­sed about get­ting a shed-less dog when our sweet Kayla croaks.

She’s 4.

And she’ll most likely be with us for another 10 years.

But that’s neither here nor there.

I’m obses­sed.

Mildly.

Just for research pur­po­ses only.

Seriously.

I have deci­ded, much to my husband’s strong oppo­si­tion, that our next dog will be a poodle mix.

They don’t shed.

I’m sold.

I’ve researched the Poo­gle.

The Coc­ka­poo.

The Gol­den­doodle.

The Saint Berdoodle.

Even the Yorkipoo.

Obses­sed. Mildly obsessed.

But I love my lab. So I keep coming back to the Labra­dor Mix.

The Labra­doodle.

The mini-Labradoodle.

The Toy Labradoodle.

Then I found this site.

Not the best site to navi­gate. I espe­cially hate the words that follow you around.

But look here.

I found the dog.

The Dog.

That.

I.

Must.

Have.

I neeeed her.

She’s a Tiny Toy Labra­doodle Puppy.

Seriously. Can you see why I must have her?

My heart aches when I see this picture.

Those eyes.…

So I sho­wed her to Hubby.

And he melted.

He said I could have her.

And I smiled.

Then I told him the price.

And he laughed.

Sigh. It was a good pipe dream.

Now, if I could just come up with $2200…

Got any idea?

Anyone?

Ya, me neither.

Sigh.

Today was so much fun!

eClaire got a refur­bished trike. (Bas­ket, tas­sels, and bell added for the ‘girly effect’)

Santa brought eClaire a dolly this year for Christ­mas.

BC got a bike. It was SO much fun!

You just can’t beat a nice 72º Christ­mas in San Diego!

Hubby and I really enjoy pla­ying Santa!

The perks are great!!