Sarah & Casey

Ahhhh the magic! Really though... that place was magical.

Last Thursday (can't believe it was a week ago) Aunt Lorie, Uncle Ed, myself, Casey, and Eleanor went to the most magical place on Earth, DisneyLand in California. I had never been to any Disney park and Casey had only been to DisneyWorld in Florida. Aunt Lorie & Uncle Ed had only been once before and that was in 1984, so everything was pretty new for all of us. I had been reading this book and I'm SO glad I did. It made our trip so much easier and orderly which meant less time standing in lines and more time having fun.

Soooo here's the rundown! We entered the park at 7:30 and headed straight for FantasyLand. We oooed and ahhhed over Sleeping Beauty's castle (although it was WAY smaller than I expected) and waited for the "line to drop". At 8am the opening music and announcements came on and I was excited as I've ever been. We headed to the back of the park and immediately got in line for Peter Pan's Adventure. We rode Peter Pan and then King Arthur's Carousel which Ellie LOVED because she is obsessed with "horsies" right now.

After that we did Dumbo and the Teacups... a must for a first Disney trip.

After a few more rides and walking around FantasyLand a bit we headed back to Toon Town to ride Roger Rabbit and check out some gift shops. Of course we had to buy ears and we even talked Casey into wearing a Mousekateer style hat all day. You may think I'm joking, but I never found him sexier than seeing him wear those ears for his daughter. I loved it!

We rode toooons of rides throughout the day and I even saw Nicole Richie walking around! (Not going to lie, that was one of the highlights of my day).

In case you were looking for a gift for a Disney lover, you can always buy this Swarovski encrusted replica of Cinderella's castle for ONLY $37,500. It's a steal!

After walking around the park a bit and grabbing some lunch in TomorrowLand while watching the Jedi Trainings, we headed back to ToonTown to visit Minnie. Here's some background on the "Mouse" for Ellie... Since Ellie was about 6 months old, she was not interested in any television shows EXCEPT for Yo Gabba Gabba. It's no secret that Ellie is a Gabba Addict, but we've been trying to help her branch out a bit by sometimes putting on other cartoons like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Backyardigans. Again, not interested. I wanted her to be familiar with some Disney characters so we've been watching some Disney movies and reading Disney Princess books. I've also been pointing out the "Mouse" everywhere we go. I took Ellie to the Disney store in the mall the week before our trip and she immediately gravitated toward a stuffed Minnie Mouse and kept saying "Mouse! Mouse! Mouse!". Sooooo when we got to Disney, Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ed bought her a Minnie doll and she LOVED it.

When we stepped into Minnie's house (you have to go through her house before you meet her), Ellie was in heaven. She was running around pointing at pictures of Minnie and playing with everything. She climbed up on Minnie's bed and sat at Minnie's table with me. When we finally turned the corner to go see Minnie (after waiting in line for over an hour, because I didn't follow the instructions in the book to go see Minnie as early as possible to avoid lines) Ellie's entire face lit up and she started getting giddy with excitement. "Mouse! The Mouse! Minn Mouse!", she kept saying.

We had been watching the other children's reactions to Minnie to prepare ourselves in case Ellie had a meltdown (most of the other children were screaming in terror while the poor parents tried to snap semi decent photos of their children), but Ellie was ready. She ran over to Minnie and I picked her up and she immediately grabbed Minnie's face and gave her the BIGGEST kiss on the nose. Minnie seemed very grateful to have a kid who was excited to see her and not terrified.

Here's Ellie kissing the Mouse and a group shot of all of us.

After the mouse we got ready for the parade. I will have to say that this was one of the best parts of the day. The Disney cast was on point and did a fantastic job. Ellie loved it and was dancing the entire time.

We had dinner at Cafe Orleans and if you ever go to DisneyLand I highly recommend going there. We had the Pommes Frites (amazeballs) and Casey and I shared the Gumbo Crepes and Monte Cristo sandwich. YUM!

After dinner, Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ed headed back to the hotel. We were getting tired too so we figured we would be right behind them. Nope. We all got a second wind and had a blast riding more rides. We stayed for the fireworks (which were incredible, btw) and after spending almost 15 hours in the park with no breaks, we both had tears in our eyes as we walked out.

Yep. That's right. We are now "Disney People". I can't say enough how wonderful the cast was and how clean the park was. The food was excellent and as long as I followed the recommend routes from the book, the line times were super easy (no more than 15 minutes in any lines except for Minnie Mouse). We will definitely be going back.

Well, despite everyone's advice, I now have a vegetable garden! Let me back up a little and explain...

I am terrible with plants. Just awful. I kill them before they even have a chance. For Mother's Day, my mother in law got me a nice potted flowering plant and as she handed it to me, said "Don't worry, it's very hardy". Yep, it's going to need to be to survive the Texas summer and my forgetfulness. (Luckily that sucker is still alive).

Since I can remember I have had the dreaded "black thumb". My mom was amazing with plants and always had a wonderful veggie garden and lovely flowers. I so much as look at a plant and it dies. I'm hoping that this year is different.

I started out with two hibiscus potted plants and one Meyer lemon tree in a big pot on the deck. These were my attempts to try to keep plants alive. Well, I managed to not only keep them alive, but they are thriving -yay! With such good luck, I had to go bigger and better, right?

Enter: Casey and his handiness. He built me a raised bed out of cedar in about an hour and a half without any plans or anything - he's amazing.

Here is my new garden!