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This Little Blog of Mine

This Little Blog of Mine

Category Archives: The Travels

OC Fair Family Ticket Giveaway

16 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by Momma J in The Travels, vegan

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

family, oc fair, traveling, vegan

The winner of our OC Fair Giveaway was Kelly G! She had a wonderful time with her family at the fair. 🙂 Thanks for entering, everyone!

Hello everyone!

Anyone who knows us, knows how much our family loves the OC Fair. It’s a family tradition for us to enjoy a vegan hot dog from Pink’s and a lovely bowl of fresh fruit from Terri’s Berries.

So when the OC Fair contacted me about hosting a giveaway, I jumped at the chance.

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This week I will be giving away an OC Fair Family Packet, which includes:  

  • 4 General Admission Tickets
  • 2 Carnival Ride Cards (3 Free Rides Per Card)

Here are some additional details: 

  • The OC Fair will provide the prize packet directly to the winner.
  • Parking is $10 (cash only) and is not included with the giveaway.
  • Each carnival ride card is valid for three rides or games in either the Main or Kiddie Carnivals. Ride Cards are not valid for food or drinks.
  • Admission and/or ride cards do not have to be used on the same day. Prize must be redeemed during the 2016 OC Fair.

And Some additional OC Fair Information: 

  • Dates: July 15-August 14, 2016
  • Public Hours: Wednesday-Friday Noon-Midnight, Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m.-Midnight, Monday-Tuesday Closed
  • Theme: “Get Your Fair Face On!”
  • Website: www.ocfair.com
  • Admission: General $10, Senior (6+) $7, Youth (6-12) $7, Children 5 & younger are free every day
  • Parking: $10
  • Special Days: Kids Days (Thursdays, 12 & younger are free all day). Visit www.ocfair.com/promotions for more ways to save.

To Enter: 

  • Comment on this post with your name and favorite thing to do at the fair.
  • Or comment on my Facebook Post with your favorite thing to do at the fair.
  • The winner will be drawn by Little T on Monday June 20th
  • I will contact the winner directly and gather their information to email to the OC fair

And just for fun, here are some new food additions to the fair this year, for all you foodies out there (I’m looking at you, Jenny and Anthony). 😉

  • Chicken in a Waffle On a Stick: Chicken Charlie’s making the popular chicken-and-waffles combo portable by cooking fried chicken tenders in a waffle and serving it all on a stick, with a side of maple syrup.
  • French Toast Bacon Bombs: Bacon A-Fair’s new breakfast-inspired offering will make French toast desirable any time of the day as sweet dough stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon is deep-fried and rolled in cinnamon sugar.
  • S’moreo Texas Donut: Bigger is better when it’s a soft, Texas-sized doughnut topped with chocolate drizzle, Oreo cookie crumble, graham cracker crumbs and marshmallow cream.
  • Bacon Nutella Pickle: Pickle O’ Pete’s takes the popular hazelnut cocoa spread Nutella and fills a dill pickle that gets wrapped in bacon, dipped in a funnel cake batter and deep fried.
  • Pork Belly Bacon Dog: At Biggy’s, two feet of bacon are wrapped around a slow-smoked pork belly that is dipped into a corn dog batter and deep fried.
  • Deep-Fried Pizza Log: Mozzarella cheese and pepperoni are wrapped inside of thin pizza dough which is deep fried until crispy and flaky. Served with marinara sauce on the side from the Apple Fries booth.
  • Diabilito Sundae: Fruit Caboose is going loco and adding to their creamy ice cream the Latin-inspired flavor of tangy Tamarindo and hot chili chamoy sauce.
  • Kool-Aid Hot Wings: Chicken Charlie’s taking his breaded wings and tossing them up with his new, slightly-spicy Kool-Aid sauce. He will serve the orange flavor exclusively at the OC Fair.
  • Dole Whip: Fairgoers can cool down with this refreshing, pineapple-flavored soft serve dessert available for the first time inside the OC Fair at Crutchee’s Ice Cream.
  • Bacon-Wrapped Baked Potato: At Bacon A-Fair, a giant one-pound potato is wrapped in a half pound of bacon and slow cooked in a wood-fired smoker oven. Served with butter, the Bacon A-Fair signature bacon-infused sour cream, grilled veggies, blue cheese and choice of hot buffalo sauce or nacho cheese and jalapenos.
  • Bacon Cheddar Brat Burger: Grant’s Tasti Burger is taking burgers and brats to the next level with this massive burger that combines a bratwurst and an Angus beef patty with cheddar, chopped candied pecans, Applewood smoked bacon, Sriracha Bourbon and chipotle sauces, lettuce and tomatoes and served inside a pretzel bun.
  • Pink’s Hollywood-Inspired Dogs: The Daenerys Mother of Doggies pays homage to the Game of Thrones’ queen of the dragons with a spicy Polish dog topped with sour cream, sauerkraut, onions, radish sprouts and Sriracha sauce. The Lord of the Rings Dog highlights the mystical movie with an all-beef hot dog encircled by fried onion rings and topped with barbecue sauce.
  • Juicys: New this year, OC Fair mainstay Juicys is serving up organic meat and nitrate-free hot dogs and sausages.
  • More Offerings: All American Reuben Burger (Grant’s Tasti Burger), Pickle Fries and Pickled Cheese on a Stick (Pickle O’ Pete’s), Shrimp Fried Rice on a Stick (Chicken Charlie’s), Som-Mor-Bacon (Fruit Caboose), Bison Burger (Juicy’s), Lasagna Sandwich (Pignotti’s Pasta), Oreo Churro (Dutchmen’s Funnel Cake).

Best of luck to you all, and I hope to see you at the fair! 🙂

 

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Campfires, Trains, and Grandparents

29 Sunday May 2016

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

≈ Leave a comment

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. 🙂

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.

Parents Can Go to the Movies Again ~ Thanks to the Harkins Theater

07 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by Momma J in The Family, The Travels

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

harkins theater child center chino hills, harkins theater childcare review, inland empire childcare, inland empire children movie theaters, kid friendly movie theaters

One of the things that has been hard for Big T and I, is finding ways to have a date night. Our family lives far away, and our friends have full time jobs. The nanny service that we use is wonderful and reliable, but pretty pricey~so we only use it on rare occasions. Thankfully, we discovered the coolest movie theater, and I just have to share it with you all.

If you like going to the movies, you have to check out the Harkins Theater in Chino Hills. They actually have an on site childcare center. For only six dollars, they’ll watch your child for the duration of the movie. Parents are given a buzzer to hold during the movie in case the childcare center needs to reach them, and children are given access to a pretty cool and fun place. It’s run by childcare professionals, and they have a area for kids to watch movies on their own, an art center, a game station, and lots of other fun things for the kids to do. The first time we took Little T, he thanked us for taking him and asked when he can go again, so I’m thinking it was a success. My mom gave us a gift card for my birthday, and said she was happy to give us date nights since she can’t be here to babysit and give them to us in person. Isn’t that sweet? The gift of grown up time! 🙂

Play Center From the Outside:

Harkins Theater Child Care Center Chino Hills Inland Empire Harkins Theater Child Care Center Chino Hills Inland Empire

Here’s Some More Info for You:

  • For children Ages 3-8
  • Must Be Potty Trained
  •  Walk-ups are welcome and reservations are recommended
  • Sun thru Thurs First Show to 8:30 pm
  • Fri & Sat First Show to 9:30 pm
  • PlayCenter staff members are trained professionals who work exclusively in the PlayCenter. They are background checked and fingerprinted.
  • Complimentary Popcorn and Water

Allergies and Dairy Free Food at the Theater:

One of the cool things I love about the Harkins, is that they have a lot of healthy options at the snack center like almonds and dried fruit. None of their concession food items have transfats, and they are dedicated to making sure there are healthy food options available. At the play center, they give complimentary popcorn and water to the children. I was able to confirm through Harkins that their popcorn is gluten and dairy free.

The child care center said I was welcome to leave our own food for Little T with the Play Center Staff, in case I wanted him to have another option besides popcorn, but Little T was so excited about the popcorn that we didn’t think he needed anything else during the movie. Popcorn one of his favorite snacks and he told us all about having popcorn at the theater after we’d picked him up. 🙂

All in all, it was a great experience and we are so glad to have discovered this! I hope you all get a chance to see those great holiday movies that you may not have had a chance to see otherwise!

For more information and other Harkins Locations: Check here! 

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. 🙂

Are we there yet?

11 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by Momma J in life, Photography, The Family, The Travels

≈ 3 Comments

This was one of those unusually busy weeks, where Big T becomes Mr. Mom while I hop from one event to the next. It was a lot easier this time around, physically and mentally. I think this means it’s starting to become a normal for us to have crazy lives. 😉

Wednesday: Wedding at the Grand that had me genuinely surprised when I turned around and saw everyone had formed a giant pyramid…

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Thursday, the family checked into the Grand and back I was back for another wedding. The details were gorgeous and Heather did most of them herself!

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Friday: Working for the Mouse!

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And taking a quick break at D23 to see my family. Little T had a lightsaber and was determined to take Darth Vader down a notch or two.

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My sweet mother in law may not look so sweet in this photo, but she did spend the weekend with us at the Grand to help out. 😉

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Even though I had carried two cameras and a heavy back pack all over the place, I was back at 7:00am Saturday morning. I’m not going to lie, I was super excited to be there. :p

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I finished around noon and drove to Pasadena for wedding #3! They had a big Band playing and Louise and I felt like we were at a concert, it was magical!

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The next day, we took Little T to Disneyland for his birthday. He has now discovered Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and he thinks it is incredible.

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I was so exhausted, that when I got home and parked in the driveway, I fell asleep in the car. Big T had to come wake me up and get me. He’s good like that.

The next day, I was back working for the mouse, and on Tuesday I was in Pasadena again for an e-shoot. Today I’m off to Newport. Tomorrow? I sleep.

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. 🙂

Our day at the OC Fair

23 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by Momma J in The Family, The Travels, vegan

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

oc fair, vegan fair food, vegan lifestyle

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Last week we made the drive to the OC Fair. Grandma K and I surprised Little T by picking him up from daycare early, and telling him we had someplace special to go. When we got to the fair he gave us both an enthusiastic round of applause, which always feels good…even if it is coming from a two year old. 😉

Now lets get down to business, and by that I mean-lets talk food. For lunch, we had Vegan Dogs from the Pinks food truck. Mine had all the fixings, but Little T has a delicate palette and opted for a more conservative soy dog.

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Later….okay, so five minutes later-we had a glass of champagne and berries from Terries Berries.

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Once we were fed, we stopped to visit the butterflies.

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And then we left to try a few rides. Little T is still talking about his bravery on the dangerous motorcycle ride. Please excuse the mis-matched clothes. Little T had a wardrobe malfunction. It happens to the best of us, Little T.

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We also got to visit some really cool displays and exhibits:

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After the fair, we stopped at Native Foods and had a strawberry parfait, peanut butter parfait, and a cupcake:

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And we made a final stop at Mitsuwa Market, for some grocery items that I can’t ever find at other grocery stores:

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It was a great day, I love going to the fair. Little T also had a great time and there were lots of food choices for us. According to Little T, it was also a day full of thrills, bravery, and danger, seeing how he rode that scary motorcycle and all. 😉

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