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This Little Blog of Mine

This Little Blog of Mine

Category Archives: The Adventures of Little T

Campfires, Trains, and Grandparents

29 Sunday May 2016

Posted by Momma J in life, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

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Tags

Family Friendly Vacations, moonlight train, sugarpine railroad

This weekend we took the Moonlight Train on the Sugar Pine Railroad. I have wanted to go for years, but I’m never organized enough to get tickets ahead of time, and they’re always sold out. Luckily, we were finally able to get seats. 🙂


I think there might be a strange creature in our house who likes to gobble holes in the knees of all of Little T’s pants, because no matter how new they are, the holes quickly appear.

We arrived at 6:30, all the shops were still open and we had fun wandering around. There were plenty of seats and things to do. They served everyone bbq, and had veggie patties on the grill for vegetarians.


After dinner, we boarded the train and rode it to our camp ground. Little T was so excited, he loved looking out the window.


The train took us to a campfire where we sat around and sang songs. Little T also made a friend and found a lot of great sticks for an imaginary fire. 😉 The campfire singers did a great job and even convinced Big T to sing along.


My favorite part though, was when we all howled like crazy people.


The way home was really fun, riding in the train in darkness. 🙂 So if you’re ever near Bass Lake and looking for something to do, check it out! We had a great time. 🙂

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Life and Updates and Things Like That!

09 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by Momma J in life, The Adventures of Little T, The Family

≈ 2 Comments

It has come to my attention, that a few of our friends and family are irritated with my lack of updates on the family blog (you know who you are). You have to excuse me, things have been full speed ahead over here. My days begin at 4-5am and I work until it’s time to get Little T to daycare, then I work some more until it’s time to pick him up, and then I work some more until he wakes up from his nap. Then it’s Little T time until bedtime. Honestly, it would be easier to have him in full time daycare and not wake up at 4am, but I just can’t bring myself to do it. Those long days are tough on him and I like having more time with Little T!

On mommyhood: I can’t believe how much love you can have for one little person. He’s at such a fun and sweet age! I wish I could freeze it in time and that we could just stay here for a little longer. It goes by too fast! I know that everyone always says this, but I don’t think it really hits you until you’re a parent and you watch your child grow right before you eyes, feeling like it was only yesterday that you were carrying them around in a baby bjorn.

Here are a few things I don’t ever want to forget:

1) Little T loves to watch Little Bear. I think it’s so sweet that this is his favorite show. Sometimes he asks if Little Bear will ever come over and play with him, I think they’d be perfect playmates. 🙂

2) Little T loves to cuddle, and I hope he never grows out of it. I love how he still reaches out to hold my hand.

3) Everyone is his friend. I love how he’s a leader at his daycare, creating games and activities for the group, and making sure the new kids in the class feel welcome.

4) He still loves basketball, pirates, and cowboys.

5) If he could, he would spend every day of his life at Disneyland.

6) His favorite things to eat are rice, peas, rice, and rice.

7) He loves the color red…and sometimes blue, but mostly red.

8) His favorite thing to do is listen to me tell stories. The other day he asked me to tell him a scary story. I started out by saying in a spooky voice, “Once upon a time, there was a little boy who wanted to listen to a scarryyyyyyy story, so his momma told him one and scared him so much that he screamed, the end!” Then I had to tell this story about ten more times. He may be my biggest fan. :p

Here’s a few snippets from our adventures…please excuse the iPhone pics, when I’m out I like to be present and not thinking like a photographer, it’s so much easier for me to grab my iPhone and capture a moment and then go right back to enjoying time with my two T’s. 🙂

Brutus the cat, cuddling with some photo shoot leftovers (to make a long story short, Brutus was a neighborhood stray who found our doggy door and decided to live with us one day):

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Poor little T, not feeling well. In the rare day when he’s sick, we pull his bed out into the living room and have a sleepy movie day. Brutus likes to snuggle with him. 🙂

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Having our annual family girls day at Disneyland, and spending it dressed as Minnie’s! Sometimes I try to look sassy, mostly it doesn’t work. heh heh

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Farmers market and veggie shopping!

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A few of my photos were in People Magazine Online and People Magazine! So exciting. 🙂 My two T’s took me out to dinner at Viva Madrid to celebrate! I feel like I should have found out about the People Magazine spread in a glamorous restaurant while I was sipping a nice glass of wine, but instead, I think I was in my pajamas surrounded by too many animals.

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Bike rides and neighborhood chalk art. :p

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Apple picking and good times at Riley’s Farm

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Mickeys Halloween party with R, ending with a long and tired escalator ride.

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Little T asked me to take him dancing because he wanted to dance with someone “fancy”, so I took him to the Mad Tea Party, this is the outfit he wore. :p He danced his heart out with a little girl dressed as Elsa, of course.

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He loves those red cowboy boots so much. It’s all he wanted for his birthday and he wears them as much as he can. And here he is again browsing through a local toy shop. 🙂 He’s just starting to be curious about superheroes. He’s never seen anything spiderman or batman, but hears about it at daycare a lot. I have a feeling next year he’ll want to be a superhero for Halloween. 🙂

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And actual Halloween! Little T wanted to be a pirate again. Not a cowboy, because that’s not a costume. :p He decided he would hold a carrot, because nothing says frightening like a pirate with a carrot in his hand!

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For Trick or Treating, we went to my sisters house and had a great time with their family. Little T had the best trick or treating year yet. Usually it’s overwhelming with all the trick or treaters, but it was pretty quiet this year and that made it easier on his SPD.

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Here’s Nana, it took us a while to realize she was in a costume…I kid, I kid….

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And perhaps the saddest picture of the night, was a photo if me on a toy horse in a not-so-great costume and a cocktail in my hand. :p Hey, it was a long day!

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Last week we got to see a sneak peek of Big Hero Six, and had a great time!

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Then we celebrated J’s engagement at the ESPN zone, because we figured we could “talk weddings” while Little T had fun playing basketball. 🙂 He loved seeing the wo’s and mo’s again.

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Little T and I went on a dinner date when Big T wasn’t feeling well, and Little T snickered about how I ordered him soy ice cream. Apparently, Big T wouldn’t have approved, and this deviation from the rules pleased him. :p

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And all of us together at Disneyland. Little T would spend every day of his life there, if he could. Please excuse Little T’s headphones and pacifier, the headphones help his sensory processing on the Disneyland rides, and same with the pacifier, although with the help of occupational therapy we have reduced the pacifier and have been looking for other things to help instead. 🙂

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And that’s some of what we’ve been up to! Thanks for asking! I’m going to try to post here more often, but no promises until after the busy wedding season is over, ack! 🙂 Love you guys!

Friendly Visitors and Little Blog Updates

29 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by Momma J in life, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

≈ 3 Comments

The other day I was showing Little T old blog posts from here, and it made me remember how important it is to keep this little blog going, to help me remember the good days that I never want to forget.

So! I wanted to quickly write about our friends visiting from Vermont. We met ages ago over a mutual love of Harry Potter, and haven’t seen each other for five years. I was so incredibly happy to see them again when they came to visit this month, but next time, everyone had better get over here. LoIKIA’s, I’m looking at you! 😉

We had a busy two weeks, that included photoshoots:

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Here is Erica bringing my vision to life. 🙂 20140429-083336.jpg

And Mindy! 20140429-083353.jpg

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And took a trip to Disneyland and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel. My mom even came up for a day. We spent the night before Disneyland playing in the pool and the spa. We thought it was funny because Little T looks much older than he actually is. He was talking like a tough guy to some other kids in the spa who thought he was perhaps the same age, until he gave it away by pointing to me and saying, “hey, that’s my momma”, and (our favorite), “do you want to see my boo boo?” :p

When it was time to go to sleep, Little T listened to the Princesses on the Disneyland Hotel t.v. as they told bedtime stories. The next day he woke up ecstatic and ready to go. When we were in Star Tours, he pumped his fists into the air and shouted, “this is the BEST DAY EVER!!!!!!!” :p

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I finally went on the Tower if Terror. None of us were thrilled to go, but Little T insisted. I told him I was scared and he said he’d protect me. I told him again that I was scared, and he said, “momma, I told you so many times, I’ll protect you, okay?” :p

That night, Little T stayed up longer than he’s ever been up before, and all of us watched Fantasmic together. He was scared at first, but really loved it. I think he just might enjoy feeling a bit scared sometimes, tough little guy. 🙂

We also took a trip to the Highland Springs resort and wandered around the olive trees.

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And sat next to a garden snake.

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We visited San Juan Capistrano:

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And the Huntington Library, where little T tried to be a trooper, but was just soooo tired, poor little guy.

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We wandered around Monrovia:

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Cuddled with the house pets:

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Took selfies and visited Fresno:

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And went to Morro Bay, where Theo found pirate treasures, and Miss Piggy discovered that she loved the beach.

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All in all, a lovely two weeks, and I was so sad to see my friends go. We promised it wouldn’t be five years before we see each other again, and said our goodbyes. It took about five minutes after I got home from the airport for Theo to say he missed them. I miss them too, Little T.

The One True Carrot

11 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by Momma J in Quick Snippets, The Adventures of Little T

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Cal Poly Pomona, cal poly pomona petting zoo, family activities los angeles, family field trips inland empire

At the petting zoo this morning, Little T discovered that he had the “One Carrot to Rule Them All.”

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I wish I had video, then you could hear all the Cal Poly Pomona Petting Zoo animals saying, “my preciousssssssss”. 
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One carrot to rule them all, one carrot to find them, one carrot to bring them all and at the farm store bind them. ~Little T

Little T at Disneyland

03 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by Momma J in life, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

disneyland, vegan cookie activities, vegan new years, vegan sugar cookies

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the year. I feel like we’re always a bit of an old couple for New Years because we prefer to spend it quietly, so this year we went to a friend’s house in Pasadena and decorated vegan sugar cookies, before enjoying a delicious meal. We celebrated the East Coast ball drop at 9:00, then went home and fell asleep before ten. Boring, I tell you! 🙂

Sugar Cookie Recipe from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

Vegan Sugar Cookies Vegan Sugar Cookies Vegan Sugar Cookies Vegan New Years

Yesterday I had an engagement session at Disneyland, so Big T told Little T that he’d take him along to Disneyland while I was working. I don’t feel like it’s been that long since Little T has been to the park, but apparently it’s been ages, judging by his excitement, haha.

At three in the morning he woke us up and was ready to go. He’d packed a bag that included a mini basketball and a pirate sword, which to a three year old is basically all the essentials needed for a Disneyland trip. We told him it was still dark outside, and after a little persistence on his part, told him we wouldn’t go to Disneyland at all if he didn’t go into his room and close his eyes.

When I got up at 5:00 (I couldn’t get back to sleep and finally decided to just get up and work) I heard him humming in his room. I went inside to discover him sitting straight up on his bed with his eyes closed. He took our instructions very literally, it seems. :p

When we finally got on the tram, Little T let us know that he’d decided we should all live at Disneyland. He looked a little nervous when we started talking logistics (Little T can stay in Mickey’s house, and we would be across the way at Minnie’s), but said it was still what he wanted to do.

As the tram pulled up to let us out, he started clapping and cheering, then jumped off the tram and threw his hands in the air and shouted, “WE’RE HERE AT MY FAVORITE PLACE!!!!!!” There were a few chuckles from people getting off the tram. I’d like to think his enthusiasm was contagious. 😉

I didn’t join him until later, but Big T said he was chosen for the Jedi Training academy, but then he started to get a little nervous when Darth Maul appeared and Little T decided not to train. There’s always next time, Little T.

When I did meet with my two T’s, Little T’s CP and a combination of waking up early, was making his leg tired. We said we’d go on one more attraction and call it a day. Afterward, Little T asked if he could please take his nap in his stroller so we could stay, and so Big T and I looked at each other with a sigh decided to stay a little longer.

It actually was nice, we went to the bar at Carthay Circle and had a glass of wine or two while we waited during his nap. We met up with two amazing couples I’d photographed who happened to be at the park, and had some much needed grown up time. 🙂

Disney Friends

When Little T woke up, it was just in time to use his fast pass for Space Mountain. He’d been begging us to go on it ever since he couldn’t go at Disney World (at the time he didn’t meet the height requirement). He was more than tall enough here, so we decided it was okay. He was really excited, and when we got off the ride said he was scared but wanted to go again. I think this photo says it all.

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After that we said it really was time to go home, and started to make the long walk back to the parking lot.

On the way back to the car, Little T told us he loved Disneyland. I’m glad he loves it so much. I do too, Little T. 🙂

Catching up!

21 Thursday Nov 2013

Posted by Momma J in life, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

fall family activities, fall family vacation ideas, Fall family vacations

I realize this post is a little late, but I wanted to catch everyone up on what’s been happening in our little home.

Most of all, things got busy with work and I found myself waking up at two in the morning on most days, thinking about my to do list until I finally decided to get up and work until I could sleep again. It was a little crazy, but the hard work has paid off and now I’m finally getting to a place where I have a healthy balance of work and home.

We did take a weekend in October to visit Riley’s Farm, the most amazing fall vacation destination. Our family goes every year, it wouldn’t be fall without a trip to our favorite apple picking place.

We usually stay at Serendipity Ranch Bed and Breakfast, but it seems they are getting more and more popular, so they were booked by the time we had called (ack!). Instead we stayed at the Highland Springs Resort, and drove up to Apple Valley from there.

We started out the trip by surprising Little T with his cousin, who showed up at our house after Little T had gone to bed. He put his sleeping bag in the room, and was there when Little T woke up, which immediately made for the best day ever.

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After an epic early morning light saber brawl, we went to see the Halloween decorations at Disneyland. When we got to D-Land, Little T’s other cousins R and N were there, he was in heaven. The highlight of the trip was having their faces painted at the Pirates League. Little T insisted on being the scariest pirate ever. :p

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In that last photo, he was trying to make a scary face. O_o

We played at Disneyland for a little longer:

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And then drive over to the Highland Springs Resort that night. In the morning, we explores and waited for Papa J and Grandy to arrive, then made our way to pick apples.

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Power nap time!

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After naps, my girlfriends and their families arrived, and our Aunt S. 🙂 we went to Riley’s farm to watch the Sleepy Hollow show. I have to say, we actually won the apple bobbing contest this year, and we were way too excited about it, but it’s the little things in life, right? 😉

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Team apple!

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The next morning, the kids went around waking everyone up. We toyed with the idea of letting the childless adults sleep, but then decided against it.

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At breakfast, everyone shared their favorite part of the trip. Little T is such a cutie pie, because now he asks every day what our favorite part of the day was. 🙂 I’m so glad he picked that up, it’s nice to hear what he enjoys every day.

And that’s the shortened-written on my iPhone version. But it was a great time, and I’m so glad we have this tradition to keep.

Disneyworld Days 1 and 2

20 Friday Sep 2013

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

≈ 6 Comments

As a thank you for some of the work I’ve been partnering with Disney on, they were gracious enough to host our family on a trip to Disney World. So far it’s been unbelievable, and I can’t even begin to say what a great time we are having.

The plane trip was our biggest concern with Little T, but it was actually very smooth. To prepare him, we told him that when we get to the airport, mommy and Little T would be in charge of taking care of each other while Daddy took care of the bags. Little T kept checking up on me during the airport trip because of this and it was pretty adorable. He also started telling me good job every time I use the potty. I love how supportive that little dude is. 😉

For vegan traveling, we packed dry oatmeal for breakfast. Starbucks was kind enough to give us hot water, and all we had to do was mix the oatmeal into the hot water cup. For lunch on the plane, we packed:

Trail Mix
Kind Bars
Burritos with rice, lemon, olives, and hot sauce
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Pears (packed in a plastic bag with a napkin to reduce mess)

We also packed tons of activities for Little T, but all he wanted to do was play with the Virgin America screen in front of the seat. So….that was easy, lol.

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When we arrived in Florida, Little T could hardly contain himself. He was happy to see my mom and step dad were there, and he was so excited to be at Disney World. When we arrived at our hotel (the Animal Kingdom Lodge), it really hit home for him that this trip was going to be special.

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The view from our room:

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After we’d explored the resort a little bit, we ate at Boma. The chef made us an amazing vegan meal, and even brought us dessert.

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We ended the night by playing in the pool and spa, it was a relaxing way to end a long journey.

The next morning, we had a surprise gift on the bed for Little T that was from Tinkerbell (teehee), saying she was so proud of him for being a good boy on the plane~an idea I found while reading about Disneyworld with toddlers. Little T loved it, and we told him if he was good for the rest of the trip, maybe Tinkerbell would bring something every day. These were gifts we purchased in the dollar bin at Target and Michaels, except for the first day because we gave him a pretty cool Star Wars book.

When we finished looking through the book, we had breakfast (soy milk and cereal), and went downstairs to meet our guide, Angel. He took us to the Magic Kingdom first. We hadn’t had any time to plan our trip, so we told him we were up for anything.

Our first stop was to see Tinkerbell. I don’t know how this happened, but when she saw Little T, she ran up to him and asked, “did you get it? Did you get it?” She knew all about the book. I’m thinking that Angel must have worked his Disney Magic. 🙂 It was pretty special.

Little T’s favorite rides were Splash Mountain and Thunder mountain. We definitely have a daredevil in the making. :p Little T was a little scared about going on pirates, but we told him Angel also fought pirates for a living. He held Angel’s hand after that, I think It was a smart move on his part. 😉

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After the Magic Kingdom, we went to Epcot. Little T loved the race track ride, and designed this very sturdy pink race car. Kid has style.

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For dinner, we were able to see Little T’s foster momma. She took good care of him for the first few days of his life until we were able to get to Florida. I think she loved being able to see how we’ll Little T is doing and to give him hugs again.

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When dinner was over, my parents stayed at Epcot for a bit and we went back to the resort to give Little T a good bedtime. He’d had a very busy day, after all.

The next morning, Little T woke up and stumbled over to the stroller in his pajamas. I think he was ready to go back to Disney World.

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We met Angel again in the morning, and he took us to the Animal Kingdom Park. Big T and I loved it there, but discovered that Little T was more of a roller coasters fan than an animal fan. At least for now, anyway.

Little T’s favorite was the dinosaur ride. We told him Angel was a dinosaur fighter, so he felt safe. We thought it would scare him, but he wanted to do it again. Go figure!

Vegan eats:

~Hot and Sour rice and vegetables at the Animal Kingdom

~Mickey Mouse Pretzel

~Blood Orange Margarita (party party)

~Coconut milk ice cream in Hollywood Studios

~Pizza with Daiya cheese at the Pizza Planet

~Veggie Burgers in Disneyworld at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe

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After a few bad attraction photos, we convinced Angel to tell us where all the cameras are for the attractions:

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And he became very skilled at pushing strollers and carrying Mickey backpacks.

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After Animal Kingdom, we went to Hollywood. Little T was laughing with pure happiness on the Tower of Terror, which boggles my mind, because you can’t pay me enough to go on that ride. Little T also loved Star Tours and was picked as the rebel spy, teehee. At the end of the day, Angel drove us home and we said goodbye. We’re going to miss him, he really made the trip special. 🙂

A few more random photos from the past few days:

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And that’s our trip so far! We have a few more exciting things in store for us and we can’t wait for them to happen. 🙂

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

28 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by Momma J in life, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

≈ 2 Comments

We just arrived home from our week long vacation. We’re still settling in and getting back into our routine, but I wanted to share how Little T survived the 14+ hours we spent traveling in our car.

I’d spent a long time searching for strategies and suggestions online. I found a few good ideas, like the Car Ride Bingo, but most of them I just recycled from my days teaching kindergarten. I hope this helps for any soon to be tiny travelers~

The first thing I did, was grab a bunch of big envelopes from the garage. These are pretty cheap to purchase if you don’t have any on hand. Toddlers have short attention spans, so I made ten envelopes filled with different games, then stored them all in this Sprouts bag so I could easily grab a folder during the car ride. I know it isn’t pretty, but I’m busy and wanted them to be functional and easy, so I used a giant sharpee and wrote the names of the games in big letters on the top of the envelope. This made it easy breezy to sort through them.

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

Each envelope had a different activity that were a mix of things for different moods and temperaments. If he was calm, we’d read him a book, if he was hyper we’d pull out the manipulatives, etc. Here’s the game list:

1. Car Bingo
2. Doctor
3. Magazine game
4. Books
5. New Movie (5$ Elmo alphabet movie from Target)
6. Find the colors
7. Guess the letter
8. Manipulatives
9. Map

And here’s a run down of the games:

Group Games:

1. Car Bingo:make a bingo sheet and search for the cars you see on the road.

2. Guess the letter: Write the letters A, B, and C on flash cards. Fold them in half and place them in the envelope. When it’s time to play, pull a folded card out of the envelope and have everyone guess which letter it is. The person who is right, wins.

Keep those hands busy games:

1. Find the color: twist up a bunch of colored pipe cleaners. Give it to them, and ask them to give you a certain color. They will tune up their fine motor skills as the have to twist and turn the pipe cleaners to get the right color out.

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

Manipulatives:
We’ve been collecting cheap little things to keep his hands busy in the car. We have to supervise when he plays with these, but Little T loves it when we pull one out. In our bag we have bubble wrap for him to pop (need adult next to him for this), a twisty man, a little fan, a squishy baseball, party blowers, bird whistle, a rhino balloon, harmonica, and a few other things for him to play with.

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

More Mellow Activities:

1) Doctor: I grabbed some coloring pages and told Little T that we were going to play doctor. We had him clean off Belle with a dry towel or tissue, then pretend to put medicine on her with a q-tip, then put on a band aide. This was one of his favorite games.

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

2) Magazine: Use a kids magazine and go through it ahead of time. Make a list of things for your toddler to find as they go through the magazine. Tell them what they need to find, and once they have found it move on to the next object. To simplify this, I wrote the list on the folder with a sharpee.

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

Map: Print out a google road map with directions to where you are going. Circle towns that you will go through, and mark it with stickers as you pass through the town. I taped the map to the outside of the folder.

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

When you need a break:

1) New Movie: we have a DVD player that we use for wind down and quiet time. Purchase a 5$ movie or borrow one from a friend. We bought Elmo’s alphabet jungle. We also have a few favorites on hand, but this was a nice short movie to pull out and surprise him with.

2) A New Book: We mingled a few new 1$ books we found, along with some of his favorites. I bought some really simple books and read him the story, then I had him “read” the story back to me. We also just let him look through the books.

The other thing we did was pack a travel snack box. When he was hungry, he loved being able to choose what he wanted from this box. We threw in Kind Bars, apple sauce, oranges, instant oatmeal (we stop and get hot water from the gas station to make this when we travel) apple juice, and fruit bars.

Road Trips and Car Rides with Toddlers

I think the most important thing to remember is that kids have short attention spans. Little T loved all these games, but we switched around a lot. We also adapted the games a to make them a little different on the way back. Overall though, they were a really big success and didn’t take up a lot of space in the car. He started asking to play games first thing when we got in the car, so I think he really enjoyed it. We’re going to keep some in the car for good.

Happy car traveling friends. Let me know if you have any travel ideas that you think Little T would also like. We’re taking another long trip this summer and have a plane (ack) trip coming up. Definitely open to ideas. 🙂

OC Fair Discounts, Deals and Veggie Options

12 Friday Jul 2013

Posted by Momma J in The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

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oc fair, oc fair discounts, vegan fair food, vegetarian fair food

Hello everyone, just wanted to post this info for anyone planning on attending the OC Fair. They have a lot of promotions going on that will help you have a great time and save. We’re planning on going next week.

First off, for my vegan/vegetarian readers, I wrote the OC fair to see what offerings they might have. I didn’t expect a response, but they actually sent me this info, so yay!

  • The Spud Shack offers baked potatoes with veggie toppings along with grilled corn, veggie kabobs and grilled peppers.
  •  There is a Hawaiian Bowls place that offers a veggie/tofu bowl
  • Terries Berrie’s has really fresh fruit and berry bowls, dipped in chocolate or not
  •  There is pizza for non vegans. A veggie dog at Pink’s Hot Dogs.
  •  Tasti Chips is fresh made potato chips. Most of the desserts are vegetarian friendly even if not too healthy such as funnel cakes, churros, etc.
  •  Most booths you can take a look and be surprised to find a healthier option. Vegans will have it harder than vegetarians. We do allow you to bring food into the Fair if you’re on a strict diet, however

Now for discounts:

OC Fair Super Pass: offers passholder admission all 23 days of the 2013 OC Fair plus express entry at all gates, 2-for-1 tickets for select Pacific Amphitheatre concerts, 20 percent discount on tickets to select events in The Hangar and the Action Sports Arena, and a carnival savings book. The 2013 Super Pass prices are General $35, Senior (60+) $30 and Youth (6-12) $25 and is available for purchase online at ocfair.com/superpass through July 5, from the on-site Box Office at the Pacific Amphitheatre or at any Fair gate during Fair hours.

Opening Hour: Free admission and parking for everyone during the first hour on the first day of the 2013 OC Fair (Friday, July 12, Noon-1 p.m.) Parking lots open approximately an hour before the Fair gates.

Kids Day: Every Thursday, children 12 and younger are free all day.

Seniors Day: Every Friday, guests 60 and older receive $2 off a senior admission ticket and free Ferris wheel and merry-go-round rides all day.

Every Saturday and Sunday, early birds can save with the Rise & Shine promotion, featuring $3 admission from 10-11 a.m. on weekends.

Every day, Active-Duty U.S. Military and Veterans receive free Fair admission (with ID).

Fairgoers who want to give back to the community while also saving on admission can participate in the We Care Wednesday weekly donation drives, which offer free admission and one free carnival ride with the proper donation. Donation requirements change weekly:

  • July 17 (Noon- 4 p.m.) – Food Drive (5 cans of food)
  • July 24 (Noon-4 p.m.) – Children’s Book Drive (1 new children’s book or 3 gently used children books.)
  • July 31 (Noon-4 p.m.) – Clothing Drive (5 clothing items)
  • August 7 (Noon- 4 p.m.)- School Supply Drive (1 new school supply item valued at $5 or more.)

Foodies looking to save a little dough and still fill their stomachs can take advantage of the $2 Taste of Fair Food promotion every Friday from Noon-4 p.m. when most Fair vendors offer $2 tastes of some of your favorite Fair foods.

Thrill seekers can save in both the main carnival and Kiddie Carnival with the $2 Rides & $2 Games on Fridays from Noon-4 p.m. or $30 Unlimited Ride Wristbands on Wednesdays and Thursdays (sold until 5 p.m. and valid until 8 p.m.)

Little bookworms can receive three free carnival rides though the Read and Ride program, where children ages 5-11 submit book reports for free carnival tickets. The required book report form is available online at ocfair.com. 

Hope that helps! Have a great time at the fair! 🙂

Happenings Via Instagram

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Momma J in life, The Adventures of Little T, The Family, The Travels

≈ 2 Comments

Things have been moving full speed ahead in our household, with more time spent away than at home. Our little family is just hanging on and enjoying the ride. 🙂

Last week I had to stay at the Grand Californian (after trying to check into the wrong hotel-haha), while I photographed a few events over the course of a couple of days. Little T, Grandma K, and Big T met up with me on Friday night. On Saturday morning, Little T woke up and was amazed that the moon had disappeared from the window (we had the blinds open). He was moon gazing all night, sweet baby boy.

After we woke up, we went to Disneyland for a little bit. Little T met all of the princesses at the new Fantasy Faire, and was quite the little charmer. He’s learned that the ladies really enjoy it when he blows them kisses, and had a blast telling Cinderella and Snow White about every single cut, bruise, and scrape he’d ever gotten, and then threw in that he really really loved basketball.

photo (14)

photo (12)He didn’t know who Princess Aurora was, so he told her all about how he’d just met Snow White and Cinderella, while probably wondering why this Aurora lady was dressed up so fancy.

photo (11)

After we met with the princesses, we had to change hotels and move to the Disneyland Hotel. Big T and I photographed an awesome wedding that night until about 1:30 in the morning, but this didn’t stop Little T from waking us up at 7:00. 😉

photo (10)

We went swimming in the pool for a while, then drove over to San Diego for Baby N’s birthday party. By this time, I was too exhausted to lift a finger and couldn’t take any more photos!

Last week, I got to be a part of an art show in Pomona that features local artists. When we got there, my display kind of fell apart, ack!

photo (7)

Big T and I were the oldest people there, and my photography was by far the most cheerful. We decided that in order to fit in, next time we’ll need to take angsty pictures of parenthood like dramatic photos of Big T at 6 in the morning with Little T jumping on the bed trying to wake him up. Holy moly, we’re getting old. I may or may not have needed a glass of wine the size of my head to get through the night. 😉

photo (6)

On Friday we drove up to Fresno. I was amused that Big T’s head was cut out of this picture, and told him I was going to make it my Facebook profile, heh heh. We celebrated my mom’s birthday, and had the hardest time fitting all those candles on her cake. 😉

photo (5)

We took Little T to the park and played for a while:

photo (4)I can’t decide, is it lazier to not use your arms and bend over to get a drink, or to do it the usual way?
photo (3) photo (2)

On Sunday, we went to celebrate the life of my late step sister at her memorial service. There were so many people there, which just goes to show how so very loved she was. Here’s Little T with his cousins after the memorial.

photo

We’ve mastered the art of a four hour drive with a two year old, and came up with this sticker reward chart. Every time he is good and gets to certain places on the map, he gets a Cars sticker. If he gets all the stickers, he gets a lollipop. This kid is super motivated by lollipops.

photo (18)

In one week, going to two birthdays, two weddings, and a memorial service made me realize how important our family is. They’re the ones who get us through life. The good times, the hard times, and the bad times. So I’ll end this post with a quote that I love,

“Family, we may not have it all together-but together we have it all”.

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