Jennifer Woodbury

The Disneyland castle: smaller and older than other Disney castles, but with loads of charm… sort of like my own house.

Alright, brace yourself for loads of vacation pictures. I had to break this week into two parts. This first part features photos from our time in Southern California.

*DAY 1*

We hit Disneyland right as it opened that first day, and tried to get on as many rides as possible before the lines started getting too long. Ella is my thrill ride lover. Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain
are her two favorites (that’s Ella and Matt below in the back of the log
on Splash Mountain).

Claire, on the other hand, had a much different Disneyland agenda. Her only request while we were there was to “meet princesses.” So when I heard that Rapunzel would be in Fantasyland at 11am, I made sure we were in line at least 20 minutes early. This was the point in our vacation when I learned that Claire’s emotional state is quite fragile when she is hungry and thirsty.

Rapunzel was late showing up, Claire was tired of waiting in line, and she almost burst into tears several times. It was at this point in time that I wondered whether I was just unintentionally torturing her by making her stay there and contemplated forgetting the whole thing altogether. But I made her stick it out, and when I saw the huge smile on her face as she finally got to sit down next to Rapunzel, I knew the potential heat stroke/dehydration/starvation (that Claire would have you believing was imminent) was worth it.

Showing off her Rapunzel pin.

Even though Ella is not a princess kind of girl, she’s not one to miss out on a photo opportunity. And she was really excited when Flynn Rider showed up just as we were leaving. These are the very last pictures taken with Ella’s top tooth intact because right after this we headed to lunch, where Ella promptly lost her fourth tooth eating, of all things, a bean and cheese burrito. (By the way, next time you are at Disneyland go here and buy a bag of cinnamon chips for me, will you?)

Toothless in Disneyland.

After lunch we happened to run into Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother. Check another princess off the list for Claire…

Usually we save souvenir buying for the end of a trip, but Ella had been waiting for months to buy a Tigger stuffed animal and could not wait a second longer (she had brought her own money and everything). Of course that meant Claire also couldn’t wait one more second for the Minnie doll she had been dreaming about:

She kept saying: “I just can’t stop looking at her!”

And thus Claire was set up for the highlight of her day, and possibly the highlight of her entire trip: meeting Minnie Mouse while wearing what she called her “Minnie Mouse dress” and holding her new Minnie Mouse doll. The part I loved the most was that as we moved through the line, Claire kept hiding behind either me or Matt so that Minnie would not see her dress before we got to the front.

The pinnacle Disney experience for Claire.

You won’t see Lucy in many character photos because like most 2-year-olds, she was petrified of all of them. (It reminded me fondly of when Ella was terrorized by Mary Poppins at Disney World several years ago.) Lucy preferred her Disney characters in stuffed animal form. She picked out the same Minnie as Claire, and also finally got a pin purse to match the ones her sisters got on our last Disney trip. We had many people comment on how Lucy was the youngest pin trader they had ever seen.

Lucy passed out with Minnie and her new pin purse.

Can I take a moment to warn you about renting strollers at Disneyland? Okay, good. Here you go:

WARNING: YOU CANNOT RENT DOUBLE STROLLERS AT DISNEYLAND.

You may foolishly think like we did that since they rent double strollers at Disney World, naturally they would do the same at Disneyland. And so you may leave your own beat up but still perfectly good (and most importantly, FREE) stroller in your hotel room thinking it would be better to rent a double stroller so that only one child at a time can complain of being tired of walking. But if you do that, you will sadly discover that there are no double strollers, and since your own stroller is back at the hotel you will be forced to rent the single stroller anyway. And that, my friends, is how you throw $15 right out the window.

With that said, we walked almost 9 miles that first day (as calculated by my pedometer) and I hardly heard one complaint from any of the kids the entire day.

Waiting for the shuttle bus back to the hotel after a long day.

She started the day by shrieking at the top of her lungs from our hotel room all the way down the elevator and through the lobby, but redeemed herself by being delightful for the rest of the day. (By the way, when she performed the same shrieking act the next morning at the hotel, a lady in the elevator told me she thought she recognized her crying from the previous day. Proud mother moment right there!)

Ella and her much sought after Tigger at the end of the day. We marveled about how she entered Disneyland with a tooth in her mouth and left the park without it. (And yes, the Tooth Fairy did find her that night.)

*DAY 2*

The next day we went to California Adventure to check out the newly opened Cars Land. If you know how much Ella loves cars, you will understand how excited she was about this moment.

We got there right as the park opened to try to avoid long lines, but apparently everybody else had the same idea. The crowds were crazy. The hot new ride there is Radiator Springs Racers:

Matt and Ella got in line right away but it was still about a 45 minute wait, which wouldn’t have been so bad if the ride was actually running. They had to stop the ride several times while they were waiting. After almost two hours in line, the end was in sight when the ride broke down yet again and Ella declared she really had to use the bathroom and didn’t want to wait anymore. Matt talked her off the ledge and they did end up going on the ride. Ella enjoyed it (although she was mad about being put in a purple car), but she didn’t care to wait in line to do it a second time.

Ella and Lightning McQueen.

After Cars Land we went to find some other rides that we could all enjoy. Toy Story Mania! is one that even Claire loves (Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Small World, and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Disneyland were three others… she grudgingly tolerated Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion).

A few family photos at Paradise Pier in Disney’s California Adventure.

We left the park early this day and drove over to Balboa Island.:

We stopped for a frozen banana (me) and some ice cream (Matt and the kids). There are two places on Balboa Island almost next door to each other that lay claim to being the home of the “original” frozen banana. I tried one when I came to California in March, and I tried the other this time around. I couldn’t tell a difference (both were excellent).

Of course the only logical thing to do after eating ice cream was to go load up on even more sugar at Balboa Candy. Their salt water taffy is seriously good stuff.

After we had sufficiently overdosed on sweets, we made a quick visit to the Pacific Ocean. And no, Lucy’s feet did not touch the sand even for a second.

Corona del Mar

*DAY 3*

This was our last full day in California, and also the day I took the least amount of photos. We were pretty wiped out from the previous two days, so we got up a little later than usual and headed over to Disneyland one more time. We got a few pictures with Tigger and Eeyore while we were there:

Claire was upset because just moments before we got to the front of the line, Piglet left. Apparently they switch up the characters at this particular spot every hour or so. Just like McKayla, Claire was not impressed.

We stayed for the fireworks (which both Claire and Lucy slept through), and that wrapped up our trip to California.

Next stop Portland, OR…

Evening walk.

(I know Claire needs a helmet. But if you could only see how she walks next to her scooter like it is a pet dog on a leash 75% of the time and then rides it at a pace *barely* faster than walking the other 25% of the time, you would understand why the helmet hasn’t quite made it to the top of my priority list.)

I hardly took any pictures this week. Sometimes that happens. It was just one of those lazy weeks where nothing much was going on. At one point when I realized I had hardly any photographic evidence of the week, I even resorted to taking an iPhone photo of my deli sandwich. (I didn’t think anybody would really want to see it, but it was a ham and swiss with spicy mustard if anybody is interested. It’s always been Matt’s favorite and over the years I’ve adopted it as well.) But that’s sort of the beauty of ordinary weeks. More everyday life ends up getting recorded, ham sandwiches and all.

I broke out the iPhone at the pool as well:

That photo of Lucy on the right makes my heart swell. I just love that kid. Yes, she is getting ready to dive into a 9-inch pool of water here. She does this thing where she gets a very serious look on her face, stretches her arms out straight in front of her, then bends her knees, swings her arms back, and jumps into the pool. It’s pretty much my favorite thing on the planet right now.

At the end of the week (Saturday), we did have a little excitement…

… as we boarded a plane and flew across the country. It’s the first time we’ve been to the West Coast as a family since 2009, before Lucy was even a figment of our imaginations.

Being trapped on a plane with an irrational 2-year-old for six hours was the most daunting part of the trip. She actually did pretty well aside from the 15-minute tantrum early on in the flight (I’m still not sure exactly what she was so upset about). Thank goodness for episodes of Olivia and Max & Ruby on the iPhone.

Somewhere between Kansas and Oklahoma. It’s at about this point in the flight when you start feeling like it’s never. going. to. end.

Eventually we did make it to Southern California (part one of our West Coast trip).

Ella and Claire were super excited about the bunk beds at the hotel (if you ever take a trip to Disneyland, we highly recommend the kid suites at the Orange County Hyatt Regency). Of course, the first order of business is always setting up their stuffed animals on the hotel bed.

We’re home from our trip now, and what I lacked in pictures here I will more than make up for when I post next week’s pictures. I am always a little overwhelmed with photos whenever we get back from a vacation. Hopefully, I’ll be back here sooner rather than later.

Sunday sidewalk chalk.

I love this smile. It’s even better when she adds in a nose scrunch (I’m still trying to capture that one on camera).

A big family hug is the last thing we do almost every night before the girls go to bed. For some reason we call it a “triple hug” (Matt thinks it’s because he started this tradition with the older girls before Lucy was born). We always love it when we finish and Lucy says “One mo’ time!”

I had a really gratifying moment this week at dinner when all three of my kids actually ate and enjoyed broccoli. None of them have ever been great vegetable eaters (I fully blame myself for this), and this small achievement somehow made me feel as if I had succeeded as a parent in some little way. Who cares if the main course was mac ‘n cheese? Broccoli has a way of making any meal virtuous, or so says this post from one of my favorite cooking blogs.

While I have loved being a member of a pool club for the past two summers, I have to say that I really miss all the time we used to spend at the beach before we had a pool at our disposal. We are so lucky to have two beautiful beaches in town. A huge renovation project was just completed at our main beach with a brand new bathhouse and concession stand (in addition to the big playground they put in a couple of years ago), and I can’t believe today was the first time we’ve been to the beach since it was finished. We met a few friends there and the girls had an absolute blast digging a huge trench and generally making sandy messes of themselves.

The girls started up their own “cupcake” stand…

… and they even had a couple of customers.

Lucy has a well-documented sand phobia so I was really proud of her for actually walking on the sand, even if she did keep her shoes on the whole time. She was sitting in her pink beach chair looking longingly at her big sisters and their friends playing over at the water table. You could tell she really wanted to join them, but every time she would slowly start to put her feet down, she would stop just before they actually touched the ground, look at me with huge, frightened eyes and say, “I can’t do it!” It took a few tries, but eventually she found the courage to get up and join the fun. It was a big moment for her.

We ended our beach afternoon with a stop at the swing set.

On Friday night we had our own little Olympics party to celebrate the opening ceremony of the London games. When I mentioned the word “party” to the girls, I was mostly thinking about just having a few snacks and letting them stay up late. But when Ella asked where the party plates were, I knew she had bigger plans in mind.

Thankfully I save all the leftover tableware from birthday parties so I had some festive plates, napkins, and cups on hand (in red, white, and blue no less) to put on the table. We made brownies and I printed out an international flag bingo game to keep them interested during the Parade of Nations (there was a full pack of Starburst at stake). When I also made them a simple Olympics-themed coloring book with coloring pages printed out from the internet, they started screaming that it was going to be “the best Olympics party ever!” I absolutely love their enthusiasm. They are pumped up to watch the games and have been perfecting their “U-S-A” cheers.

Italian ice in the backyard.

Probably the best decision I made this summer was to put Ella and Claire in semi-private swimming lessons together, even though they are at different skill levels. They have both improved so much already. They love their swim teacher Elizabeth (you know you are in good with Ella if she draws pictures for you) and always look forward to lessons, even on days like this when it wasn’t very warm outside.

My poolside buddy.

On Wednesday I had plans to meet my sister-in-law Melissa and four nieces in Manhattan. Our husbands were both working in the city that day and we figured we could play for a bit and then meet up with the guys for dinner. The forecast called for a day of unbearable heat (hottest of the summer so far) and strong thunderstorms in the afternoon, but we knew if we tried to reschedule it would probably never end up happening so we stuck with the original plan.

Our first stop was the Central Park Zoo.

Checking out the snow monkeys. I think everybody’s favorite animal was the red panda. And as a side note, if you ever want an outdoor heat index of 110 degrees to feel cool, go inside the rainforest exhibit at the Central Park Zoo. It was somehow even more hot and humid than it was outside. I am a summer-loving girl to the very core, but I won’t be moving to the Amazon anytime soon.

Hot and sweaty, but still smiling (for the most part).

We saw the storms starting to roll in, so we left the zoo and headed to FAO Schwarz. We walked in the door literally 5 seconds before the heavens opened up.

We killed time waiting for the storms to pass by playing on the Big Piano and generally torturing our kids by making them spend an hour in one of the biggest toy stores in the world and not letting them buy a single thing.

We waited and waited for the rain to die down, but the troops were getting hungry and restless (and by troops, I mostly mean a certain blonde-haired two-year-old). So armed with a couple of umbrellas brought from home plus a few extra $5 street umbrellas, we headed out into the elements. I was in the back trying to push a double stroller with one hand while holding an umbrella with the other. It’s not as easy as one would think.

It turns out if we had just waited an extra 10 minutes, the rain would have stopped completely. But then we wouldn’t have the memory of running through the streets of New York in the rain… right?

It doesn’t get much more “quintessential American summer” than 4th of July week, even if your barbeque is broken like ours is. We kicked the week off with fireworks at the local high school. Where we live, fireworks are not just for the 4th. Each town hosts fireworks on a different night before and after the actual holiday… you could go to a different fireworks show every night of the week if you really wanted to!

Lucy waiting for fireworks to start. We use this quilt a lot in the summer and it is perfect for 4th of July festivities. Matt and I acquired this quilt just after we were married. We were returning a few wedding gifts at Macy’s just before getting ready to drive across the country to start our lives together in New York City. We ended up with a small credit that for some reason we needed to use right then and there, so we quickly scanned the store and randomly decided on the first thing that caught our eye… this Americana quilt. I never would have guessed that 13 years later it would be such an integral part of our summer celebrations.

The fireworks show did not disappoint. Lucy was scared of the fireworks last year but loved them this time around. “I like fireworks. I have fun!” she kept saying afterward. I think Claire may be the only person on earth ever to fall asleep in the middle of a fireworks show (and again on the way home). When that poor girl is tired, she really can fall asleep anywhere.

On the morning of the 4th, we participated in our town parade. I say it every year, but it is absolutely one of my favorite events. Just like last year, Claire and Lucy rode in the wagon and Ella rode her bike, but this time it was without training wheels!

After the parade we settled in for music in the park (with the quilt, of course).

As usual, Ella was enthralled with the band.

It took a while for her to warm up but eventually she was dancing onstage. When the band starting playing a cover of “Dynamite,” she really went crazy.

We had some visitors join us this year. Baby Lily was here from London…

… with her parents: Ashley (Matt’s sister, pictured above with Claire) and Anthony. What made the day extra exciting was finding out that Ashley & Anthony had decided to buy a house in our town when they move back to the US next month. We thought we had lost them to our neighboring rival town, but were thrilled to find out they will be so close. We haven’t lived near family for so long that my girls can’t even imagine what it will be like to have five cousins just minutes away.

Later on that night we let the girls stay up late for sparklers in the backyard. The sparklers we bought turned out to be pretty lame, but thankfully the girls didn’t notice the difference since they had never tried them before.

Claire was done after her first one. A thrill-seeker she is not.

We had 8 boxes of sparklers (they were sold in a large pack), so Matt and I had plenty of opportunities to perfect our sparkler shapes.

The day after the 4th, we all hopped in the car and drove two hours south to spend a long weekend with the New Jersey Woodburys, or simply “the cousins,” as the girls call them. It was hot, as July tends to be, so we basically spent two straight days at their pool.

Claire and Alex. Alex called Claire “Claire Bear” all weekend long.

While we were there, Ella found the courage not only to go off the regular diving board for the first time, but the high dive as well. “It’s not even scary,” she said nonchalantly after her first jump, as we were all wildly clapping for her from the pool deck. She had refused to go off the diving board at our pool because she felt like the water was too deep. She kept claiming, “I can only swim in 4 feet.” Attempts to explain that swimming in 4 feet deep water is the same thing as swimming in 11 feet deep water were in vain. But seeing her cousins do something and not wanting to be left out sure made Ella brave in a hurry.

Let’s hear it for cousins, and for a little bit of positive peer pressure.

The week before the 4th of July was one of those wonderful, low-key summer weeks (as opposed to the week of the 4th, which was one of those wonderful, action-packed summer weeks).

There was a lot of time spent hanging out in the backyard:

Swinging.

Reading.

Ella’s summer uniform: bicycle t-shirt, patchwork madras shorts, Crocs. She likes to get the maximum wear out of this outfit so she only wears it on days when we don’t go to the pool.

When we weren’t in the backyard we were at the pool, where Lucy fell into a summer routine of naptime in the stroller.

One of the nice things about having a “slow” photo week was that it reminded me to take some more everyday life shots, like these nighttime photos that illustrate Ella and Claire’s unique sleeping styles. (Thank you super high ISO on my new camera!)

Ella always has her covers on and is scrunched up to the edge of her bed to make room for all of the stuffed animals she sleeps with. You can also see the folded-up blanket on one side of her bed, which is there to prevent the stuffed animals from falling off.

Claire never has any covers on and is usually sprawled out in the middle of her bed. She sleeps with stuffed animals, too, but they are much more haphazardly placed. Note Piglet facing the wrong way.

And to wrap up the week, a family portrait by Claire (in which Matt appears to be just another one of the girls).

This week started off with Father’s Day. Ella and Claire were so excited to make Matt breakfast in bed (Lucy was just excited to say “Hap’ Fodder’s Day” to everybody all day long).

Matt is not a huge breakfast eater, but it worked out perfectly because a bowl of berries turned out to be exactly at the girls’ breakfast-making skill level.

I had Ella and Claire draw these portraits of Matt, and on the back I attached a questionnaire that each of them answered. I love how they turned out. I got the idea along with the free downloads to go along with it here (I pretty much love everything she does).

Ella’s portrait & questionnaire.

Claire’s portrait and questionnaire.

We have been spending so much time in the backyard so far this summer (including lots of picnic lunches/dinner out on this blanket) and I am loving it. I’ve found that if I just come and sit outside with them, even if I read a book or even lie down and take a quick cat nap, they will play for hours out here.

Ella and Claire went to tennis camp for three days this week. At first Claire told me she didn’t want to play tennis, but all it took was hearing two little words – “tennis skirt” – and she had found her new favorite sport.

I was a little worried about Claire since she was the youngest person at camp, but the girls had so much fun together. I love what good friends these two are despite being almost complete opposites, as evidenced so clearly by Claire in all pink and Ella in all blue. The other day Ella even told me that she felt like her and Claire were twins.

We kicked off the first official day of summer with blazing heat and our first pool day of the season. We spent almost nine hours at the pool over two days and on top of that Lucy missed her nap both days, so she was pretty much a disaster by the end of the week. But at least we stayed cool!

We joined a new swim club this summer, and Ella is loving the water slide at the big pool. She even convinced me to try it out.

Claire prefers to hang out in the kiddie pool.

Popsicles in the backyard after dinner are becoming a summer tradition.

We are still trying to maintain some semblance of normal routine here during the summer. When Lucy does get in a nap, it’s almost always preceded with a reading of at least one of the Llama, Lllama books (Lucy calls them “Mama Mama” books).

When I bought Claire this Hello Kitty doodle book, I had no idea how seriously she would take it. She spends hours coloring in it every day, carefully completing each page in order. She has also enlisted (or more accurately, demanded) help from Matt and me. Neither of us can appear idle for even a second, or she will insist that we help her color.

“Wash-a feet, Mommy?” Lucy insists on having her feet washed off in the kitchen sink whenever she comes in from playing outside.

After being canceled twice due to bad weather, Ella finally had her field day during the last week of school.

Her class was the first grade tug of war champion, beating both other classes handily.

It was hard for Ella to say goodbye to first grade this week. Here she is with her wonderful teacher Miss N. Ella wrote her a letter after school got out that read: “Dear Miss Neilsen, I miss you very much. I wish you could always be my teacher. Bye bye. Love, Ella”

Ella on the last day of school. Her first day of school picture is here for comparison.

Claire and I painted this poster for Ella and had it hanging on the door when she got off the bus on her last day. I painted the letters; Claire did everything else!

On Saturday we drove north to Mystic, something we seem to do about once a year. This time we visited the aquarium, where the girls said they liked the penguins best of all.

I personally enjoyed trying to spot frogs in the marsh and listening to Lucy say “ribbit”…

… but I was especially mesmerized by the beluga whales. I could have watched them all day long. Our aquarium visit coincided nicely with the string of ocean-themed animal rescue movies we have been watching for movie night recently: Dolphin Tale, Free Willy, and Big Miracle.

Of course, the true motivating factor for making the drive was to stop for some lobster. As usual, the potato chips were the main attraction for the girls (seen here with the same potato chip bag in 2009).

I love how all three girls are crouching down in this photo we took before heading home. Whenever somebody kneels down to take a picture with Lucy, she always kneels down too. It makes me smile.