"This is NOT the once in a lifetime trip I was hoping for!" - (Baby Simba - 12/18)

[Marsheliz]

Happy Birthday Claudia!

 

[FancyNancy]

I'm all caught up on your report finally! Happy Birthday Claudia She is just so cute!

 

[Pluto0809]

I'm a bit late but Happy Birthday Claudia!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Happy birthday, Peanut!!

 

[SAT887]

I am so glad to hear Claudia is ok, however, that is very terrifying!! It is so hard when they can't tell you what is wrong yet, it makes me an over paranoid parent. Zoey had her first ear infection this year and cried all night (no real fever) and told us 2x her ear hurt, it made it so much easier than guessing what was wrong and getting her to the dr first thing in the morning...

And wow, looking at your MK update, and your pictures of Claudia on her birthday --- she has grown so much! Its amazing the changes they go through in just 6 months. HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yes its belated) Claudia!!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I'm a few days late, but happy birthday to Claudia! She is so big now, and I love how much Disney was in just the 2 pictures you posted. Not surprised at all, of course!

 

[ronnmel]

How scarey about Claudia...glad she is feeling better now. Love all the character pics with her.

Jill in CO

First of all, you haven't posted since my Disneymoon, so back!

It was so scary! She is totally back to her old self now. In fact, she's blabbing more than ever!

Thanks!

First of all, I'm so glad that found out what was wrong with Claudia and she is already doing better.

The pictures of you guys with all of the characters are adorable! I especially love Claudia reaching for Mickey's nose!

Part of me is glad they did all the testing they did, but part of me feels bad for her that she had to go through so many painful tests when in the end all they had to do was clear out the wax in her ears and check them. At least I'll know for next time! (Though let's hope there isn't a next time).

It was fun meeting the characters when Claudia was into it.

I am so glad that Claudia is ok. My niece Abby has that happen every so often too and it's so scary.
I have a client that I worked with earlier this year that emailed me recently and she had entered a contest through Delta airlines. She knows my love for Disney and she had to share it with someone who would understand ...but she won the contest. She goes in Sept and she has one night at the castle suite. She got to give 3 choices of resorts as well and I think she got Beach Club if I remember right. Let's just say I am EXTREMELY jealous.

I'm sorry it happens to Abby. I hate that it now means Claudia is more prone to doing it again.I don't want to live that again.

WHAT?!?!?! She gets to sleep in the CASTLE SUITE????? WOW!!!!! I can understand you being jealous. So lucky!

Honestly I'm not surprised and blame you on not getting half of the dream, Mel because I'll be honest with ya I'm still baffled and don't know why I dreamed all that up to this very day I'm still confused by it, and it's probably a dream that I'll never get.

Anyhoo it's update time! Sorry to hear Claudia wasn't feeling very well most of been terrible with that ear infection I actually had that happen with a friend of mine who caught of it from his own daughter and he was sneezing and had a running nose and everything.

(Singing) Oh when the spooks have a midnight jamboree, they break it up with fiendish glee, ghosts are bad but the one that's cursed is the Headless Horseman he's the worst!

Sorry, I had to throw in one reference to the Ichabod Crane segment when ya mentioned the Sleepy Hollow restaurant assuming you have seen the Legend of Sleepy Hollow coupled with the Wind in the Willows segment from Disney. Obscure references for the win!

Thanks for showing pictures of Woody and Jessie, Mel that's another set of characters I'll need to see when I go back and my checklist for Toy Story character has gone into overdrive.

Damn, ya really liked going on Big Thunder Mountain on that day because you went on it more times than when you rode on Dumbo with Otaku just damn man!

Why does Splash Mountain keep on getting refurbished all the time? Maintenance? It's never clear why they keep on refurbishing that ride anyway.

Photo montage in Frontierland! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWYA9BvxMso

I don't think I've been through the gift shop at Mickey's Philharmagic is there anything good to buy there out of cursiosity?

Castle does look nice during the Christmas holidays but I don't I would want to go during winter though mainly because of weather and the crowds basically.

Ah Rapunzel always the charmer and better princess than Cinderella and Aurora at least in my opinion. Kind of helps that she was played by Mandy Moore in the movie though. Hehehehe, Flynn doesn't do anything with his hair, just his smoulder I love it. Oh Ron you always were a goofy one.

Aurora and Cinderella, got nothing to add because they are both bland princesses but honestly I think I prefer Aurora's old look than her new dress because at least she looked like she was in the movie, Cinderella's new look is pretty iffy just eh.

It's always a good time to see Mickey around making everyone smile. 'Nuff said.

The ear infection itself was not too scary, but the convulsions were terrifying!

I haven't seen Legend of the Sleepy Hollow. At least I don't think so.

I've heard Woody and Jessie often joke around with each other and the guests. I hope you have fun when you meet them!

Big Thunder Mountain is fun, and with the FPs and Baby swap passes, we did end up going on it a lot. Well, Otaku went on it like 4 times, Ron and I only went twice each.

Yeah, Splash Mountain gets refurbished every January. Not exactly sure why, but I know this time it was really needed as several animatronics were not working anymore. I've heard it's all working now.

No, I don't think there really isn't anything special in the store after Phillharmagic, just Donald coming out of the wall.

Weather really isn't that bad most of the time in winter. We were in our t-shirt all day that day, had gone swimming a few days prior and got even warmer days later.As for crowds, it was bad close to New Years, but as you can see that day the crowds were MUCH lower and we got to do so many things! From that point on, January is usually pretty empty.

I like the Princesses' new looks, though I liked their old looks as well. I'm fine either way.

Yay for Mickey!

I had the same thing happen to my son when he was 9 months old. Definitely scary, but glad everything's OK!

And I love the view of the castle from that side path. Of course, I may be biased, I proposed to my wife at the wishing well there on Christmas Day four years ago!

Tim

I'm sorry it happened to your son as well. So scary. Thanks, she's fine now.

Awww, that's so sweet! She is one lucky lady, to get proposed to in WDW! And on Christmas Day! Was that in 2009 or 2008? Ron proposed to me on Christmas Day 2009.

Great pics!

Thanks!

I am so glad that Claudia is all right. How scary! I did catch some of it on Facebook but my french is really rusty and the "translators" they have are horrible.

It looks like you had a wonderful evening at MK. Philharmagic is one of my favorites too!

I agree that the photopass borders are lacking. On my last trip I ended up using the same ones over and over. I went end of February but they still had all of the holiday borders on there?

I love the pictures of Claudia and Mickey, so cute!

Thanks. I did try to write enough of it in English so that people could understand, but I put most of it in French since I figured it was most important my own family knew what was happening. Facebook's translot is horrible, but some of the free online one are not too bad.

We had such a great day/evening at MK! Probably my favorite day of the trip.

What? Holiday borders in February? I mean, come on!!

 

[ronnmel]

Poor Claudia, and very scary for you and Ron! Convulsions are not fun at all, so glad she is feeling better now.


On a happier note, I love all of your Photopass pictures!

I hated it. The only thing that made it less scary is that I was the one in charge of calling 911, so I didn't see most of it as I was running to go get my phone.

Thanks! We love getting Photopass.

Oh my! I know that you and Ron were extremely afraid that something serious may be wrong with Claudia. Thank goodness it wasn't anything other than an ear infection (not that ear infections are wonderful things but you know what I mean).

Yay for getting to meet the Princesses and Mickey! The pictures turned out good but I do agree that Photopass needs to add more border selections.

The scariest part, besides the actual convulsions, was them checking for meningitis. I totally get what you mean.Though ear infections are by no mean great, I was so relieved that it was *just that*. In fact, if they had found nothing that would have been more worrisome. Obviously there had to be a reason for such a high fever.

We had fun meeting all those characters! I don't understand why Photopass does not include more borders. It's not like it costs them a lot of money to offer more choices.

Hi Mel!!!!!
I am trying so hard to get all caught up on my dising!!! I just read all your updates and they are all great!! We had such a wonderful, magical trip (mixed in with a few non magical moments but hey that's expected right? ) and our wedding was wonderful!

I loved the skydiving update, you are so brave, I hate flying and heights but I deal for vacations and rides but I don't know if I could ever jump from a plane, you rock!!

Of course MK is my fav so I love all these updates!!

I am so so glad to hear Claudia is doing better! I saw your facebook posts, unfortunately I cannot read French so I can't always make them all out lollll but I got the jist that she is feeling better and I am so happy for that. It must have been so scary

Yay for her first birthday!! Cannot wait to see pics

Welcome back! Congratulations on you wedding! I can't wait to hear all about it. No wedding/vacation can ever be completely perfect, but it just makes it more real and makes you appreciate all the other magical moments even more.

What can I say, I'm a bit of a thrill junky.

I think I have one more MK update, but that will come after the birthday update.

The convulsions were terrifying, but she's all good now. I did try to post enough English, either in the status or in the comments, for the anglophones to get most of it.

Very glad everything is ok for Claudia. Febrile seizures are very scary.
Looks like you had a wonderful evening in the Kingdom! The pictures of Claudia meeting Mickey are so cute.

Thanks. It was very scary indeed.

We had an amazing time at MK! Our best day of the trip!

Looks like a pretty awesome day at MK! A little bit of everything! Characters, tons of rides, and some food! Also some christmas decorations, yayaaay! So pretty!

Not only was it an awesome day at MK, it was most probably our best day of the trip! The only one where (almost) nothing went wrong!

 

[ronnmel]

Wow, can't believe its already been a year! Happy Birthday Claudia!

Jill in CO

Wishing Claudia a very happy first birthday!



Emma x

Happy 1st Birthday Claudia!

Considering we've been seeing her in pictures that are now months old, she's gotten SO big! Happy 1st Birthday!

I can't believe your little peanut is a year old already. I feel like I've watched her grow up since birth!

Happy Birthday Little Miss Claudia!

Happy Birthday to Princess Claudia!

So cute!

Happy Birthday Claudia!

I'm all caught up on your report finally! Happy Birthday Claudia She is just so cute!

I'm a bit late but Happy Birthday Claudia!

Happy birthday, Peanut!!

Thanks everyone! She may not have grown much in actual size, but it's true that she has changed a lot in the past 6 months.

Happy Birthday Claudia!!!! June 16 is a great day. 21 years ago to day I had my daughter Paige too!

Happy belated birthday to Paige!

I am so glad to hear Claudia is ok, however, that is very terrifying!! It is so hard when they can't tell you what is wrong yet, it makes me an over paranoid parent. Zoey had her first ear infection this year and cried all night (no real fever) and told us 2x her ear hurt, it made it so much easier than guessing what was wrong and getting her to the dr first thing in the morning...

And wow, looking at your MK update, and your pictures of Claudia on her birthday --- she has grown so much! Its amazing the changes they go through in just 6 months. HAPPY BIRTHDAY (yes its belated) Claudia!!

Yes, the not being able to tell us what's wrong makes it 10x harder. I mean children being sick at any age is never a good thing, but as a baby it's such a guessing game.

Thanks! In the past 6 months she has learned to roll over, sit up, crawl, pull herself up, cruise along furniture, stand up unassisted and has been blabbing SO MUCH! In fact, the day of her birthday she started doing this whole new sound. She has full blown conversations now and it's hilarious! It really is mind blowing all that babies learn in such a short amount of time!

I'm a few days late, but happy birthday to Claudia! She is so big now, and I love how much Disney was in just the 2 pictures you posted. Not surprised at all, of course!

Well obviously I made sure to pick two pictures with Disney in it.

 

[ronnmel]

Tinkerbell Party - Peanut's First Birthday​

Last weekend we hosted Claudia's first birthday party. There were about 30 adults and 12 kids, 9 of which were between the ages of 11 months and 3 and a half years old! We live in a small apartment, so Ron's brother generously offered that we use his backyard for the party. I had a lot of fun decorating it.

A couple of my students helped me by gluing pictures on constructions papers and passing yarn through holes to make all the banners. The first one is her "growth chart": pictures taking once a month with a peanut plushie. The second one is just random photos.

Cakes and cupcakes were done by someone I went to high school with, who now does cake baking/decorating on the side.

Cupcakes were vanilla.

The cake was chocolate with dulce de leche filling. It was DELICIOUS!!!

Here's the little birthday girl!

Family picture.

Daddy's little princess playing with her Tinkerbell doll.

Time to eat the cake. She was being quite delicate at first...

As you can see, that didn't last long...

Proud of herself. I love this picture!

This was followed by removing all her clothes and getting her in the tub for a quick bath.


Then it was time to open her presents. She got spoiled!

She got many gifts, one of them being a Minnie Mouse grocery cart.

All in all, the party was a success! Claudia did great despite skipping her afternoon nap. She only cried a little at first when "strangers" would hold her, but she quickly warmed up to other people and let pretty much anyone who wanted to hold her. We had more than enough food, but the cake was so good that I only had one tiny piece to bring home (which I obviously ate the very next day! ). She seems to love her presents, though I think she has even more fun with the two Tinkerbell helium balloons.

 

[MrsDrewsky]

I missed the updates you posted before Claudia's birthday.

I can only imagine how scary it must have been when Claudia had convulsions and had to go to the hospital. Thank goodness she's okay.

The Christmas castle lights look amazing. I wish we weren't going so late in January as they will definitely be down by then.

I love the pics of the family with the princesses and Mickey. Claudia looks adorable just staring at him.

You did a great job with her first birthday party. It looks like a fun time. I love the idea of taking pictures of Peanut with a stuffed peanut, that's adorable.

I might have asked this before, but what kind of stroller did you use? We currently just have a snap and go, and I need to buy an umbrella stroller in the next few months. The canopy cover on yours seems really big, which seems like a good idea for the Florida sun.

 

[SAT887]

Looks like a great party!! I love kids birthday parties. It's so much fun to do all the decorations and fun party ideas. Claudia is adorable and she looks like she had so much fun!

 

[FancyNancy]

OH my gosh I love the party pics. First birthdays are so special. I love her little dress she is so cute!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Sounds and looks like a great party! I love that she started out eating the cake so dainty, then dug in and got messy.

 

[jenseib]

What a fabulous party! Looks like fun.

 

[shan23877]

What a great party Mel! I love the picture of Claudia surrounded by all the gifts and paper with her Minnie cart. It's my opinion that beautiful little girls should be spoiled on their birthdays.

 

[monica23535]

Great birthday pictures Mel!

 

[ronnmel]

I missed the updates you posted before Claudia's birthday.

I can only imagine how scary it must have been when Claudia had convulsions and had to go to the hospital. Thank goodness she's okay.

The Christmas castle lights look amazing. I wish we weren't going so late in January as they will definitely be down by then.

I love the pics of the family with the princesses and Mickey. Claudia looks adorable just staring at him.

You did a great job with her first birthday party. It looks like a fun time. I love the idea of taking pictures of Peanut with a stuffed peanut, that's adorable.

I might have asked this before, but what kind of stroller did you use? We currently just have a snap and go, and I need to buy an umbrella stroller in the next few months. The canopy cover on yours seems really big, which seems like a good idea for the Florida sun.

It was very scary. She's been very whiny today and I must have taken her temperature two or three times just to make sure that it wasn't due to a fever... Thankfully I think it's just teething.

The Christmas lights were gorgeous! Too bad you'll miss them, but you should have lower crowds instead, which is also awesome.

We watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse quite often, so Mickey is Claudia's favorite.

Thanks. She got the stuffed peanut as a gift when she was born, so that's how I got the idea.

Check out this post from my PTR. It talks about which stroller and shade I bought. The canopy was actually pretty small (as is the case for almost every umbrella stroller, so we bought a "add-on" sun shade from Summer Infant. It goes with pretty much any stroller and folds quite small.As for the umbrella stroller itself, my two main criteria were lightweight and easy to fold. The one I got folds with just one hand so it was perfect. What was even more important to me was that it reclined far so that she could sleep in it. We didn't care that it didn't have a cup holder, but if it's important to you, you can buy one as an add-on as well. We also didn't care about the storage space, as we were going to carry backpacks anyway.

Looks like a great party!! I love kids birthday parties. It's so much fun to do all the decorations and fun party ideas. Claudia is adorable and she looks like she had so much fun!

Good thing I love kids birthday parties too because hers was our 5th in one month, and we have 2 more coming up in the next two weeks. I think Claudia enjoyed herself as much as a 1 year old can at a party.

OH my gosh I love the party pics. First birthdays are so special. I love her little dress she is so cute!

I really wanted to go all out (within my means) for this first birthday. I had so much fun planning it all! Thanks, I fell in love with that dress. Walmart has such cute kids clothes.

Sounds and looks like a great party! I love that she started out eating the cake so dainty, then dug in and got messy.

It was, thanks! Dainty, that's exactly the word Ron used.

 

[ronnmel]

What a fabulous party! Looks like fun.

Thanks! It was fun.

What a great party Mel! I love the picture of Claudia surrounded by all the gifts and paper with her Minnie cart. It's my opinion that beautiful little girls should be spoiled on their birthdays.

Thanks! I love that picture too.It's like she's in a sea of gifts. I agree 100% with your opinion about spoiling beautiful little girls on their birthdays. As many gifts as she received that day, none of them were from us.She got those on her actual birthday. Her favorite is a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse foldout couch, which she loves to climb over.

Great birthday pictures Mel!

Thanks!

 

[Starscream275]

Ya want me to quote the series don't ya seeing as I'm a fan of it? (Sighs) Alright I'll do it. (Deadpan) Born of Laughter, clothed in cheer, happiness has brought....video games and movies for me some crap about nature and sparkly stuff, blah blah blah blah, yours truly Starscream275. Anyways joking aside, sounds like it was a great party for Claudia and seeing as a new update from you time to make of fun of it!

Claudia: Me want cake! Me want cake! Me wanna eat cake!
Cake: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Claudia: NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM! OM NOM NOM!
Ron: (Playing with the Tinkerbell doll while singing) I feel pretty! Oh so pretty! I feel pretty and witty and ROOONNNNN!
*Ting*
Me: And that's when Ron got in touch with his girly side and found out he loved Sex in the City. God help us all...