Family time Pics 2# (Disney time)

I'm gonna go ahead & spare you my 2 cents on Disneyland, since anyone who knows me well will already know about my ongoing issues with full-body-suit-people at amusement parks (Retch!!). But when you have kids you gotta make sacrifices, eh? Here's how Day 1 went down:

If you ask me, Amy-in-law came up with one of the best Birthday ideas of all time. It was Lady Charlotte's very 1st birthday and we contemplated buying a cake at the hotel then thought we'd make one & bring it with us......but get this Amy in a moment of sheer genius (probably somewhere between making a cappuccino & snitching what I was making for dinner) suggested we eat it for breakfast.
What a lovely idea and what a lovely little lady. We probably sang to her 10 times that morning alone, would you be able to restrain yourself?. Look at that, she's in her PJ's and everything! Awww!
And did she eat it? YES, She did! (There really is no failure like a kid tossing their very first birthday cake, the cake you toiled over on the floor, I think that's my ultimate Birthday cake fear)

And if you're a regular here, I'm sure you recognize what cake we went for. (Big-bill's without the walnuts) The frosting though was somewhat of a (temporary) nightmare.

Let's put it this way. Marscapone does not act in the same way that cream cheese does & does not mix with butter & icing sugar. I tried everything and if I hadn't had a few cocktails with Amy I might have just settled for curdled frosting. I let Bruce have a go with it on full blast. I dumped it in the blender & woke Lawyer boy at 11:30 with my blending, and just when I was about to admit defeat....I decieded to try......(come on, cooks you know what I did right?) I threw an egg yolk in the blender & VOILA!! (Whew!) Folded in 1 cup of whip cream & 1 tbsp of lime juice & 1 tsp lime zest. I think the stress was definately worth the results though. The frosting was true Awesomeness.

Well, since I somehow forgot to add pictures of all of us crammed into one van like the "good old days" (???) of professional "van-cramming", I'll just show you this! The kids happy to be in "their" hotel, The Ambassador.

This was just too classic, doesn't she look just like a little Muslim girl. Once the rain started to realized that we forgot our "back up" umbrellas in the van at the hotel. So try as we might to bundle the kids up in their hoods & jackets it was clear we'd need some extra protection.

Some were thrilled about the rain coats......some.....were not!

Just making themselves at home in the hotel lobby as they wait for check in. As you can imagine the little people didn't last in Disneyland for very long so the mommies bailed back to the hotel for an early check in.
Ah....nothing like running around in your diaper in your own hotel room. While the kids ran around frolicing in the land where dreams really "DOOOOOooo come truuuuuue" (yeah, if you dream about giant Mickey Mice trying to hug you. Arrrggg)

Despite long lines & the off & on rain, they trooped back to the hotel predicictably with energy left to recount the important little details of their adventures. NEXT, we were off to eat dinner.

Becky & I discovered this restaurant called "Rainforest Cafe". And what a perfect place it was.

Besides being totally covered top to bottom in green leafy vegetation & tangled vines the life sized & extra large animal replicas kept the kids just looking around the restaurant for half the time we were there. We were seated by a massive cylinder fish-tank with tropical fish for the kids to look at while we waited for our order. We also discovered that every 1/2 hr or so the lights were practically turned out for a "thunderstorm" complete with flashes of lighting & crazy animal sounds. I contemplated the idea of threatening "naughties" with the "tornado feature" that strings them up by their toenails to the ceiling as an example for all the other kids in the restaurant.

Awww....here's my cocktails whose name I forgot but I do remember that it was a frozen mango & Malibu liquor mix. Yummmmola!

Here's the pic of us all after our table sang Happy Birthday to Charlotte so loudly that we got 1/2 the restaurant singing along. That pile of fudge brownies & ice cream was somehow tucked away & then we headed back to the hotel.

Kids were thrilled about being in their own hotel beds & new bathtub to splash in. The classic moment for me was when they were about to jump in the bathtub but someone saw the fireworks going off above the Cinderella castle & 4 nekid little kids jumped up & down in front of their window watching their own hanabi show.


Happy Ending to a long day!