Claire Bear Turned 6!

November 17th was Claire's 6th!
The weekend before her birthday, Grandma Hass was here visiting so she got to help us keep Claire's eyes closed while she waited for us to bring her biggest present out...

 Claire has had a major growth spurt recently and had really outgrown her old bike!  She loves Monster High for some reason even though the girls don't watch that show, but she got a Monster High bike and she seems thrilled with it.  Later that afternoon we took the girls to see Scrooge the Musical and we all loved it.

We gave her the bike on Sunday, because on her actual birthday the girls had school so we thought it would be more fun to give it to her when she could hop on and take it for a spin.

That night we decorated outside her bedroom and at the bottom of the stairs with balloons and a birthday sign.

 The girls love that we do this, but it might not be the best thing because they wake up so darn early and it makes for a looooong day.  Claire was up around 5am and wanted to celebrate.

 She had a birthday cinnamon roll for breakfast and then it was off to school.

 She had a good day at school and Mr. H and I picked her up with a bouquet of Frozen balloons.  

Later that afternoon she had a fun visit with Gamma and Noah, and since it was a school night, and she was getting an award the next day early at school, and we had plans that Thursday night and for Disney on Saturday, we just had an easy dinner of  In-N-Out which she loves and cookies for dessert.

Happy Sixth Claire!
We are Crazy bout you.

Hannah is 8!

Last Friday November 7th was Hannah's 8th birthday.
Can't believe it.
She was so excited and on the countdown all week for her big day.
After she went to bed Mr. Hass helped me out with a little decor outside her bedroom door to surprise her when she woke up.

 She got up at 5:30, which wasn't really surprising, and she was opening her presents before 6am!  

 I was glad she seemed excited about the softball mitt and balls and bat, she's all signed up to start softball for the first time in the Spring.  I played softball from 8 or 9 years old through high school and I am really excited to teach her a little bit and to play catch at the park and practice hitting off a tee.  Should be fun.  

 She was very excited about the jewelry holder to hang on her wall and inside the striped bag was a hand stamped necklace that I ordered from a blog friend and Hannah absolutely loved it.  Kristy's etsy shop is called Sosobellatoo and she creates the cutest pieces!

 We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and she got to make her first wish of the day before school.

Claire was in a mood and wouldn't pose with Hannah for a picture.  Probably because it's so hard to see your sister opening gifts and getting special treatment, and especially hard knowing your own birthday is just ten days away.  ;)
Mr. H had the day off from work because originally we thought we would take the girls to Disneyland on this day.  Plans changed, but it sure was nice to have him around all day.  
While we walked to school we were saying to Hannah that we couldn't believe she is eight. 
Mr. H asked Hannah "How old do you think I look?" 
and she said, "Hmmmmm, 54...?"
(Laughing Laughing Laughing)
Then he asks her "Well how old do you think Mom looks...?" 
and she said, "28"!
LOL.  
Thanks Hannah, I appreciate that.  ;)

 When we picked Hannah up from school Claire was holding a bouquet of balloons to give her.

After school Hannah had a visit from Grandma GG, and Grandma and Noah too.  She got to open more gifts and play with her new sidewalk chalk while we visited.

 Then it was time for Round 2.
We met up with my sister and Noah later for dinner at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour.
We had not been before but heard that they make a big tadoo about birthdays and thought Hannah would enjoy that.

 The kids loved watching all there is to see while we ate dinner.
And after dinner they came out with Hannah's birthday dessert.
But she didn't get that for free!  She had to stand up with her sister and cousin and dance to a song and pretend that they were Oompa Loompas.  It was pretty funny.

 Then she made another wish!

 Claire was in a mood.  ;)
But really the poor girl wasn't feeling all that well.
I suspected she might be coming down with somthing and that night she was up coughing quite a bit.
Luckily it's just a cold, and I'm hoping she kicks it before her big day rolls around!

The girls REALLY wanted these ridiculous and overpriced hats.

Who can say no to the birthday girls??? 

I think she had a great day.

And we can't believe we've been at this parenting gig for eight years now!!!

Claire and her 5th Birthday

A couple of days before Claire's birthday she was recognized at a school assembly for receiving the character counts award.
We were so proud and she was so excited to be getting her very first award in school.  The character counts award is given for being an exemplary role model for practicing life skills like friendship, honesty, and hard work.

Claire's birthday was on a Sunday this year, and Mr. H had to work that weekend.  Since he would be gone when she woke up on her birthday, we let her open up her gifts from us the night before so we could all see her enjoy them.

 This girl loves anything having to do with Disney Princesses.  
In fact lately, she's taken to wearing a jeweled tiara when we go back to school in the afternoons to pick up Hannah.  
She talks all day about how she wants tons of "Ariel" stuff.
So she was thrilled to open a giant talking Ariel for her birthday.

The next morning my princess arose pretty early.
These girls of mine are always chanting "We're hungry" before I've even had two sips of coffee.
But, it was a princess' birthday, so I whipped up a giant dutch baby for my baby.

 Then after a while, we got cleaned up and ready to meet up with my family to go see Snoopy The Musical.

 My parents joined us, along with my sister and nephew Noah, and my Grandma and cousin Deanna came along too.

 I was so bummed that Mr. H missed the play.  It was one of the cutest ones I've seen at our local theater.

Afterwards all the characters come out and Claire wanted to go tell Lucy hello.  This young girl was so fantastic in the play and Claire had fun telling her she was great and that it was her birthday.

 Then we went back home for pizza and salad and cupcakes and presents!

I can't believe you are five Claire.
You are such a girly girl, and such an exciting addition to our family.
You have changed so much this last year, and your speech has improved incredibly.
Most days now you don't stop talking, and unlike before, I understand every word you say now.
We love you more than you can know Claire Bear.
Happy 5th Birthday.

Disneyland Part 2

After refueling with a little lunch, the girls were ready to get back out there!
They had been eyeing the carousel each time we passed by it, so we got on that next.

They loved it.

Next up was the tea cups.

And if you follow me on instagram, you probably saw that I opted out of the tea cups because Mama don't play that game. ;)

I guess while they were on it Claire said to Mr. H, "I'm getting dizzzzyyyyyyy."  But other than that, they liked the cups.

The girls spotted the cotton candy cart, and then the cotton candy cart employee wished both my girls a happy birthday by name, and then they begged for cotton candy, so, how do you say no to that?
I read the ingredients on the bag while they ate it.  Don't do that.  Sucralose and artificial food dye.  That was it.  Gross!  But as they say, ignorance is bliss, so they happily scarfed down that nasty stuff while we were in line for the Storybook ride.

Claire was reluctant to try this ride because of the huge whale mouth that the boat goes into.  But we told her it wasn't scary and she really loved it.  It was fun to watch the girls try so many new things and realize that they weren't scary after all.

Next we convinced them to try Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Claire was not a fan.  And truth be told, this one doesn't really do it for me either.  Kind of jerky and loud and dark and we decided that wasn't our cup of tea.  Hannah seemed to like it much better.

The next show time for the Beauty & the Beast inside The Royal Theater was starting soon so we decided to make our way to it and find a seat.

It was SO darn cute.
It was also nice to just sit and rest with some fun entertainment for a bit too.
And in case I forget to mention it later, I must say that we really really lucked out with the weather all day.
In the morning it was cool but not cold, and during the day the sun felt good but not too hot.  
It just seemed like except for that darn cold of mine, everything else just cooperated with us so perfectly.

After the play we made our way into Tomorrowland.
We were just sort of taking our time, walking slow, trying to figure out our next move...
when all of a sudden Hannah yells "Mickey!!! Minnie!!! Donald!!! Look, over there!!!"... and she and Claire took off running!

Hannah made a beeline for Minnie, calling her name and waving with her arms out until Minnie noticed her.

This was a major highlight of the day.

Once Hannah had Minnie's attention she exclaimed to her, "Minnieeee!!!!! Hiiiiiiii!!!  I'm such a big fan! Look I'm even wearing your shirt!" 

That's when Minnie placed her hand up to her mouth and it was THE CUTEST THING I've ever seen. 

It was so cute.
And it totally surprised us.
I didn't think that my kids would be much into the characters.
Especially because Hannah didn't seem super excited about the princesses we met in the morning. 
But Minnie was a different story!

I was bummed Claire wouldn't look up for this picture.  The sun was right in their eyes though.

After Minnie they ran over to Mickey and said hello.
Then Claire was over it but Hannah chased after Pluto until he stopped to say hello to her.

It was so cute to see how excited she was.
That was definitely one of the highlights of the day for me.
I'll never forget Hannah first spotting them, and sprinting up to say hello with such excitement!

Autopia cars were next for us.
Mr. H and Hannah and C and me.
We kept asking if Claire wanted to ride a few rides with Dad and Hannah with me, and nope.  They did not want to switch it up.
After Autopia we hopped on the train and rode it back to ToonTown.

Apparently they really loved ToonTown and wanted to go explore it some more.

The girls both really enjoyed having a little birthday money to spend too.
They wanted to check out the gift shop in ToonTown and that is where they bought their Mouse ears headbands, and Hannah found a Minnie Mouse diary and pen that she had to have.  And C got a Minnie pen too.

After roaming around ToonTown we were ready to make our way back towards Main Street to check in for our dinner reservation.
As we were walking the girls spotted Rapunzel and a Prince walking by!
I couldn't believe the luck.  I was hoping for the girls to get to meet Rapunzel, but I couldn't remember where it was that my friend said to find her, and I knew at this point in the day they wouldn't be up for standing in a long line to meet her, and here she was just walking right in front of us!

A crowd started to form around her right away.  And the girls got a bit shy, but I just kept saying walk right up to her, and say hello.
And finally Hannah did, and she asked her to sign her new Minnie diary.  So cute!

And then Claire got in there.  But she was still being a little shy so we got this smile.  ;)
That made their day again though.
I think Claire asked if this is where Rapunzel lives and Hannah told her that they all live in the castle together.
Oh the innocence!!!
If only that lasted forever...

When we got to the Carnation Cafe, even though we had a reservation, we had to specify that we wanted a patio table where we could see the parade.
They said no problem, but then seated us a little ways back, and there was a table right in the front that was against Main St, the people seated there were just leaving, and I asked our server if we could move to that table so our birthday girls could enjoy the parade better.
He said it was no problem, and I was fist pumping in my head.  Yesss!  Again, I couldn't believe how smoothly the whole day seemed to be going.  

Our server was great and very helpful.  We ordered for the girls first and then for ourselves.
Of course right as my hot plate of food was delivered both girls began whining that they were freeeeeezing.
It wasn't freezing, but the sun was completely gone and it did cool off quite a bit.  Luckily I brought a change of comfy pants for them both, so we made our way to the bathroom which was conveniently located on the patio by our table.
And right when we came back, our server and several others, were approaching our table with huge scoops of ice cream and sprinkles and candles to sing happy birthday to our girls!

Talk about special!

They were in heaven!

Wearing their Mouse ears, with their light up Mouse necklaces, eating their birthday ice cream sundaes!

Heaven I tell you.

And moments later, the first float of the parade went by and the girls jumped up and down and yelled "It's starting! It's starting!!!"

The second highlight of the day for me was sitting back in my chair, sipping some hot tea for my throat (and it was keeping me warm), and watching my girls standing on the railing with their arms out, waving at every character that came by in the parade.

They were smiling, and talking to each other, and laughing, and just having the best time.

At one point Cinderella floated by and the girls both lost it.  They were SO excited to see her in the parade and they were waving like crazy.  She waved back and it just made their nights.  And you might laugh at this, but I suddenly had tears streaming down my face.  It was just so neat to see them enjoy the magic of it all so much.  And it made me a bit sad to realize that one day it won't be as magical to them.  So that moment on the patio watching the Christmas parade at Disneyland, celebrating their 7th and 5th birthdays, is a moment that I will never ever forget.  

Santa sealed the deal at the end and they loved seeing him too.
They were so sad that the parade was done, but we told them that now we can go see what the castle looks like all lit up and they seemed to be happy about that and forgot about the end of the parade.
We settled our bill, and left our server a hefty tip for helping us to get that awesome table and letting us squat in his table for the whole parade, and then we were back at it.

I think it was close to 7pm at this point, and we had been going since 7am.
We found out that the fireworks were at 9:25pm and Fantasmic show was at 9pm.  We really would have liked to have seen one of them, but we just weren't certain how much longer we would hold up.
We made our way to the tiki room to see the show and get a whipped dole pineapple soft serve.

And a big thank you to my friend Shelbie who told me the trick with the soft serves.  She said that it is so good and there is always a line of 50 people long to get one, but that if you go inside where the tiki room is, you can also purchase from that side of the bar and it was so helpful because there was just one other person in front of me on that side!  And by this point my medicine had all worn off, my body was telling me to call it a night, and my throat was on fire, so the whipped pineapple soft serve felt so good on my throat.

I had never seen the tiki room show before and it was cute.
It's a nice place to sit for a few minutes too.  There's all sorts of talking/singing birds, and talking tikis.  The girls loved it.

We made our way back to The Haunted House because Hannah wanted to do that again but the line was just way too long.

We were all hoping to ride It's a Small World again after dark too, but the line for that was 90 minutes long!  So we just stood outside it for a few minutes and enjoyed the light show.  It really is beautiful all lit up.

The carousel didn't have a long line, so we hopped on that again.

And then we started to have a couple meltdowns and we decided we were all tired and cold and ready to call it a night.

Right before we left was probably the most crowded we had seen it all day!
I think because it was a Friday night, lots of locals have passes and maybe came for the Christmas Parade, or Fantasmic, or Friday night fireworks, etc.
But we decided to end on a good note and we were ready.

Hannah had hit her wall.
Claire was still going pretty strong.
Claire knows how to pace herself much better than Hannah.
I hope Hannah will learn that soon.
She just gets so excited and goes full steam until she crashes.
And when she crashes, well, I'll just say it ain't pretty.
But that's ok because the day was beautiful.
We wound up getting home at 10pm.
So many firsts.
So much fun.
So many memories that I will cherish forever.
Happy Birthday Hannah and Claire.
I hope this one goes down in the books!