Special Delivery!

Anyone who knows me, knows I love a chance to be a nut ball, as Junie B. Jones would say. I love being silly. So when we found out that my brother in law, Aaron had to go to Afghanistan for 2 weeks, I knew we had to do something silly to help cheer up Shanna (my sister in law) while she was home with the four kids missing him and worrying about him. I concocted the idea with my other sis, Emily, and by the time our ideas were formed, we were feeling pretty darn clever and hilarious. (o: A quick run to the dollar store, a little wrapping, card making, printing off labels and Wa-la! We had a funny pick me up package for Shanna to keep her busy - one present to open each day.

We even got Ned's* mom in on it by utilizing her amazing poem writing skills for the card that would explain what this package was all about. (See above) She writes the most adorable verses, I seriously think she should work for Hallmark. Emily, the amazing card maker, used her talents to make everything look so beautiful. We were a good team!

Some of our favorite things were completely silly and nonsense items like the random balloon wrapped in a fancy box. Or the box that contained exactly two Smarties for each of the kids to enjoy. Or another box that simply had a feather. (Hey 14 days is a lot and the box wasn't big!)

This was a little inside joke, but one of the ones I was most proud of. I still laugh when I read it. On the front of this lotion I made a fancy "Boil Cream" label.

And the lovely bust of a giraffe. The perfect antidote for a day when you're feeling blue.

I am happy to report that the package was received with much laughter and helped Shanna feel just a little less lonely, I think. (o: Love you Shanna!

Nachoooooo!

Have you seen Nacho Libre? It is hilarious. You may think we're a little kooky, but we LOVE this show. The more we watch it, the funnier it gets. There are so many classic quotes. If you are one that only enjoys sophisticated humor, walk away. Me, I just like completely goofy humor and Jack Black fits the bill. It's not even the lines that are necessarily the funny part, it's the way he says the lines with the ridiculous attempt at sounding Hispanic. Nacho Libre

makes me laugh. Our whole family loves it. So a few months ago, when I found out some of my young women hadn't seen it, I decided to host a Nacho Libre party. It is several months later - but better late than never!

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The welcome at the door to let guests know they were about to enter another dimension - the Nacho dimension. Leave all seriousness at the door!

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Yes, Sarah - that is exactly the right kind of spirit to be in at a Nacho Libre party!

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Nat and Angela loved all the stuff I pulled out to decorate!

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Sarah was excited the Phoenix came to watch the movie with her!

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Sarah, Lizzy, Katie (out on the trampoline) and Crystal arrived first and we chatted over - what else? - nacho chips!

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Tylin and her friend Becky who came very appropriately dressed!

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Some of my lovely guests enjoying the Nacho one liners. You might notice that most of the guests have a paper. We played Nacho Bingo during the movie. Each box had a square with a quote in it from the movie. I was surprised how much everyone got into it! Almost everyone eventually got a blackout, but Katie was the first to get a Bingo.

I can't believe Becky kept the mask on to watch! She's so funny! (see above)

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From Blog Favorites #3

Katie's hot pepper bracelet and Mexican cookies - her prizes for winning the BINGO game.

Angela's Dream Vacation

Angela keeps asking if we can go live at Disneyland. She wants to go back so bad. "But," she adds, "This time can we take Twilight? She wants to come too." Yeah, lookout Mickey Mouse - Twilight the kitty is on the hunt.

Angela keeps bringing this up. She is very concerned about Twilight getting to come to Disneyland. No matter how much I try to convince her this would be a bad idea and Twilight would just get lost or go crazy - she won't buy it. "She can stay in the hotel," she says. Ha! I'd love to see the staff's reaction when they come in to make the beds. And let's not even start to imagine riding in the car with Twilight to get down there. Just going to the vet is an adventure! Last time, she escaped from her travel bag and was running all over the car - on the dashboard and under my feet by the brakes and accelerator. I'm glad we survived.

Sorry Angela, it's entertaining to think about a vacation with the kitty, but it's never going to happen!

"You're Right Mom"

I was just looking at the picture of Angela and Tori at Out of This World and forgot to share a very important story that I need to document to read back to Angela someday.

When we arrived there that morning, we noticed a brand new inflatable slide/obstacle course that replaced the smaller and worn out one she had played on at previous visits. Angela is a little hesitant about trying new things. I had to encourage her for about 20 minutes to even go inside the inflatable fun house. It wasn't any scarier than the one next to it that she loved. I told her, "Once you go through it and just see it, you aren't going to want to stop playing in it!" I tried and tried to convince her and finally had to drag her over and walk around the outside encouraging her the whole way, "See? Isn't it fun? Keep going - see? You're doing great! Isn't it fun?" She kept looking back very hesitantly at me and really didn't want to go down the big slide. She was so nervous - which cracked me up, because the other inflatable slide she loves is a bit steeper and bigger.

FINALLY she relented and just came down with a very nervous face. However, as soon as she hit the bottom and was in my arms she exclaimed with joy, "Mom! You were RIGHT!" And she ran around to go back in again.

She played on that thing for most of our visit there.

So - I just had to record these words. How often does a parent get to hear that sentence? It is a treasure. Like a beautiful song. (o: I will come back and read this story to her in a few years when she will probably think I am never right about anything.

Crazy Hair Night!

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How could I have let this one slide??? I can't believe I didn't blog one of my favorite young women's activities! We had a crazy hair night where each of the girls was paired up with a team member and they had to do each others hair in as wacky of a style as they could dream up. We had some great ones. We laughed our heads off that night. It was so fun!

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Britlee in her 80's 'do'.

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Nina looking fabulous! Ready for a Jane Austin movie.

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Janae looks like someone in Whoville! Penny used a plastic cup under her hair to get the height she needed! Hilarious! I wonder what her husband thought when she came home - this was when she was fairly new to young womens. (o:

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I think Cleo was everyone's favorite! What a great sport!

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Melanie ready to go to Whoville with Janae!

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From Blog Favorites #3

Yes, these are the leaders of our teenage girls in our ward! Would you trust your daughters to them? (o:

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Kelly, another leader - looking very youthful in her hairdo!

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Penny and Katie (in the background with a balloon tied to her hair!)

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Close up of Penny - she is our resident hairstylist - the professional and the one who came up with the whole idea!

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Tylin - this wacky hairdo goes well with her hilarious sense of humor! I think she would actually go to school with this 'do' if it stayed in all night.

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Me looking a little scary with Ellie

WOW

WHOA - will this look be on the runways in a few years? If Natalie has any say in it, the answer will be YOU BET! That has Fancy Nancy written all over it!

Self Teaching the Birds and the Bees

Hey moms! I just figured out a new way to teach kids about the birds and the bees. Having the "talk" with Sarah has been on my parent 'to do' list for a few months now. I have procrastinated it 1. because we've been so busy and 2. I'm not ready! However, I have recently discovered that if I just hold off a little, my smart 9 year old will figure it all out on her own. Problem solved!

I didn't ever think that doing a science experiment with Sarah would get the wheels turning on this subject. Our school science fair is coming up and Sarah chose to do an experiment with fingerprints. So she gathered fingerprints from our family, including grandma and grandpa P. who were visiting this last weekend. She is looking to see if there is any similarity between family members' patterns on their fingerprints.

As we got talking about her hypothesis, she guessed that our fingerprint patterns will maybe look similar because of genes. She's always understood about the basics of genetics and how you inherit certain qualities from your parents - she knows her olive skin color comes from me and Natalie's dark hair comes from daddy, etc. But this time she really started thinking about this and it turned into quite the conversation. Chris and I were in stitches by the time we were done...

First Sarah started wondering, "How do I get genes from daddy? I was in YOUR stomach. Daddy's don't have babies." She pointed out to me. I followed up cautiously with: "Well, it takes a mommy AND a daddy to make a baby."

Sarah, "So there's got to be some way to get daddy's genes in your tummy for the baby."

Yikes! Did she really figure that out so fast.

Then, to add to the hilarity of the moment at precisely the height of the conversation, Natalie pipes in with the most random comment.

Natalie: "Well, whoever smelt it, dealt it!"

Obviously, her thoughts were on a different plain.

Sarah said grandma was laughing so hard, she thought she would have a heart attack and I think I almost peed my pants.

Then Sarah guessed, "I know! Daddy's genes go from his brain (ha ha) to his mouth and go in your mouth when you kiss him."

Yep - we left it at that for now. I actually confessed that it was a brilliant thought - but that we would have to discuss the details at a later time when my littler girls who were only thinking of gassy jokes weren't listening.

Oh my baby - I just want her to stay innocent. I'm not ready, but I guess she is - and who knows what she'll come up with if I don't help her out.

Here's some more pictures of the fingerprinting fun.

Angela tried on the microscope cover. Isn't it stunning?

Angela was hilarious trying to look in the microscope. It's a tricky skill when you're 4.

Sarah looks like she's still thinking hard - "So how do those genes get in mommy's tummy?"

A Bat???

The afternoon that Angela and I were anxiously awaiting grandma and grandpa's arrival, Angela announced, "Mommy, there a bat out there." I assured her bats only come out at night, but she insisted. When I finally came to look, I wasn't so sure. It did look like a bat! It was even wiggling around a little bit as it hung from our tree. Yuck!
I walked out to explore and had to look closer and actually touch it to conclude that we were both tricked! It was a glob of leaves hanging from the tree wiggling around by the slightest breezes.

A Unique Way to Tour Disneyland

Before going to Disneyland, I checked out several travel guides to Disneyland.

There were travel guides for taking small children, older children, no children,

travel guides for visiting all the southern California attractions,

travel guides with guides to finding the hidden Mickey's,

travel guides for being most efficient and reducing wait time in lines,

guides to eating in Disneyland,

guides to shopping in Disneyland,

but I found a niche that hasn't been covered by any book - that I know of.

What about a guide to Disneyland's bathrooms?

This idea hit me about halfway through our vacation, when I calculated that I had taken (mostly Angela) to the bathroom about twice as many times as we went on actual rides.

This was EXTREMELY annoying - especially because the reason was because she was terrified of the automatic flushing toilets flushing while she was sitting on the potty.

It NEVER happened (the potty flushing while sitting) until the end of our trip, but she was so scared of this happening that she would NOT empty her bladder completely. She would let out about a teaspoon and then either refused or could not physically relax enough to finish.

This meant about 137 trips to the bathroom in four days.

I know, you are thinking of all kinds of things I could have done to avoid this problem.

I tried them ALL.

I tried being very patient and waiting for a long time for her to relax.

I tried reasoning.

I tried bribing.

I tried tickling her tummy on the toilet.

I tried getting really mad and threatening.

I tried making her drink lots and lots.

I tried making her wait so she couldn't 'hold back'.

I tried going into detail about what would happen if the toilet did flush while sitting on it.

I tried letting her see Natalie go and having the toilet flush while she was on it so she could see that Natalie just thought it was funny and did NOT go whirling down the hole with the water.

I tried E V E R Y T H I N G. Heaven knows I had plenty of times to come up with a new angle.

On the last day of our 4 days at Disneyland, she finally went all the way, but it was mostly on the floor. By some MIRACLE it completely missed her clothes.

I am so surprised she didn't get a UTI from holding it in continuously for four days.

It became a huge joke on our trip, but I refused to let it ruin our fun time.

So I decided to make lemons into lemonade. I would use my many hours of time in the bathrooms to photograph and document the many bathrooms for my new book:

"Backstage Pass: The Complete Guide to Skipping to Disneyland's Loo's" (I am naming it after our nickname for Angela (Loo), which is very appropriate nickname after this trip.)

Our tour begins with one of my favorites...

The bathrooms in Sleeping Beauty's castle.

It is next door to the Alice in Wonderland ride, thus the Queen of Hearts motif.

Angela a little impatient as she heads in to try and get an Ace in the hole. HA!

The details in this lavatory are exquisite.

Love the tile. And just in my defense. I was actually not the only one taking pictures in this bathroom. It is a highlight for any bathroom connoisseur.

It's a five star 5*****, which is my highest rating.

I have given each bathroom a star rating on a scale of 1 to 5.

1 star - hold it and find the next nearest bathroom

2 star - if you've got to go bad, it's better than an outhouse.

3 star - nice and clean, nothing exciting

4 star - nice ambiance, clean, worth a visit

5 star - Don't miss, even if you don't have to actually use the "facilities". Go in to powder your nose, you won't regret it!

This lovely bathroom is tucked away near Pinnochio's ride. I love the curves and ironwork on the exterior.

A sign that matches the Pinnochio theme.

3 stars ***

This bathroom is next door to the Toy Story Mania ride.

3 stars ***

This beautiful archway leads into the commode just off of main street.

4 stars ****

Aliens greet you on the bathroom door in Tomorrowland near Star Tours and Space Mountain. I believe the doors inside this bathroom looked like the doors you see in Star Wars on their spaceships, however, this bathroom had a huge line and I was a little self-conscious taking pictures of people in the bathroom.
4 stars ****

These are a little messed up (I hate the way you have to upload pictures on Blogger).

This is a little princess dancing her way to the powder room at Ariel's Grotto.

In Critter Country - the old fashioned bath tissue advertisement was fun.

4 stars ****

A shot of the beautiful interior at the Ariel's Grotto latrine.

5 stars *****

The entrance to a throne room in Fantasyland.

3 stars ***

The Frontierland "johns" were beyond traditional outhouses of the old west.

Beautiful lighting and rustic woodwork. Another favorite of mine.

5 stars *****

If I would have had this inspiration at the beginning of our trip, I believe I would have a pretty complete guide of every single public restroom. I will work on either helping Angela get over this fear of automatic flushing toilets for next time, or I will continue working on a more complete guide to all of Disneyland's commodes.

Until then, I hope you enjoyed this lovely backstage tour of Disneyland's "informal facilities".