Touch a Truck

Today we went to the Touch a Truck event to benefit children's cancer research.  It was billed as an opportunity for kids to climb in and explore all kinds of different trucks and unique cars.  Something different and it sounded fun plus it was for a great cause so....why not go?

We met up with one of Kali's preschool friends and they had a ball running around and playing together.  As for the actual trucks...Kalissa didn't like them as much as I expected her to!  Actually, she was pretty much afraid of every truck and didn't want to get in them at all.  She barely got into the 2 hot rod cars that I managed to talk her in to getting inside of!

All in all, it was good clean family fun and you can never go wrong with that!



We're Baaaaack!

Wow, I haven't touched this blog in about 6 months and soooo much has happened since then!  I had a dinosaur of a computer that was making it nearly impossible to post so I just gave up.  Then, my wonderful husband surprised me with a new computer for Christmas and I finally got it all up and ready to go.  So, I'm going to go back and fill in the blanks with past posts and try to get back in the swing of things going forward!

A Day at the Races....



I have an elderly male customer that brings me little gifts to my job quite often...mostly pies and other food items, but this time he brought me free tickets to the Del Mar race track.  I'm not one to bet on horses but I know that Al likes to do it, so I thought it would be fun to make it a family outing.  Saturdays are family day and they have the infield set up with bounce houses, magic shows and even a pony corral so it seemed like a perfect idea....it just so happened that the day we decided to go, was also the Beer and Reggae Festival!  The smell of funny tobacco was everywhere!!  LOL!

Kalissa saw the ponies and of course wanted to ride.  I was a little hesitant because of her first encounter with a pony two years earlier:

She was not a happy camper and cried before the pony could even get moving.  But hey, it's been two years and I can always take her off if she doesn't like it....but she loved it!

 

She liked it so much that she rode twice.  Daddy didn't win any money betting and Candy lost a few dollars too but all in all we had a great time people watching and eating festival food.  I think we'll definitely come back next season.

 



The Magic of Disney

During the days leading up to Kalissa's grand finale birthday celebration, we told her she was going to Disneyland. She would act all excited but then when you asked her what Disneyland was, she didn't know. *lol* We told her all of her favorite Disney friends lived there and that made her smile big, but really she had NO IDEA what she was in for. I had actually planned to wait until her 5th birthday before taking her to Disneyland because I wanted her to remember the experience and be able to enjoy all that Disneyland offered. I refused to have to lug around a stroller so I figured 5 would be the perfect age. But, as her 4th birthday neared, I realized it was time so Disneyland here we come! We made the 1.5 hour drive to Anaheim early Saturday morning. My dear friend, Stella, was going to meet us for breakfast because she had a present that she wanted to give to Kalissa. Kali ate maybe two bites of her breakfast, she was so excited! Then Stella gave her her gift....it was a BEAUTIFUL purple princess gown complete with a purple sparkly parasol. Now, I've seen dress up gowns before, but this one stole the cake. Between the lace up corset, train, tulle petticoat, and all the sparkle...I really didn't know if it was a dress up gown or not! Of course Kalissa wanted to put it on right away, but we told her she had to wait until we checked into our hotel and she took a nap. We said our goodbyes to Stella and headed into the park. As soon as we got there, Kali was on sensory overload!

Once we made it through the gates, the first thing we did was get her birthday button. This button identified her as a "special" guest and so literally every worker who saw her button would stop and wish her a very happy day. She was on cloud 9 and was loving every minute of the extra attention she was receiving.

We headed straight to Fantasyland and stopped to ride the Pinocchio's Daring Journey ride....she hated it! And I can't say that I blamed her...it was dark, loud, and very jerky. Plus, she's never watched the movie so it was definitely a dud. She even cried! Oh nooo! We have to turn this trip around and FAST! We tried a couple other rides in Fantasyland and none cut it until we arrived at It's A Small World. OMG! It was a hit and she loved it. So much so, that we rode it twice!

After getting our fill of Fantasyland, we headed over to Toon Town were we met Mickey Mouse and Kalissa even rode her first roller coaster...and loved it!

But the oddest thing happened in Mickey's Clubhouse....it was a bit of a wait to meet Mickey but there were plenty of things for the kids to touch and play with so Kali was off checking out the scene. At one point, I noticed this lady staring at her for no apparent reason. Kali was playing about 6 feet away from me and the woman was maybe 3 feet away from me and I was being my super-observant self and keeping watch over my surroundings. This may be the happiest place on earth but I'm still Momma Bear no matter where we are! Anyway, I'm watching this woman watch (actually STARE) at my baby and then all of a sudden she walked over to her and grabbed a handful of her hair and stretched out her curls! She didn't do it maliciously or anything...in fact Kalissa never even skipped a beat. But before I could say "excuse me", the woman walked back to her place in line like nothing happened. How strange!!! The only thing I could think of is that she'd never seen hair like Kalissa's before and couldn't help herself but to touch it! Mind you, it wasn't just a touch....she grabbed a handful of her hair at the root and then ran her fingers down the length of her strands to stretch out the curls! LOLOLOL!! It fascinated her that much that she would risk an angry black woman running up on her for touching her baby's hair! Of course I didn't do that...but she didn't know I wouldn't! The situation wasn't worth me confronting her, but can you imagine?!? The nerve of people! LOL

By this time, it was time for lunch so we decided to leave the park and check into our hotel. As we were leaving, we couldn't help but notice all the children dressed up in Disney costumes. Sooooo, Kalissa's new gown would be perfect. After a quick, and I do mean quick, nap and bite to eat, we got Kalissa into her big, beautiful ball gown and she looked adorable! She was such a Princess! The gown was a little long but she held it up as she walked, so as not to trip over over it, as if she'd been doing that all her life! Everyone who saw her commented on how beautiful she looked and she was definitely the Bell of the Ball and could've easily fit in with the other Disney Princesses!

Night came quickly and with only having a 30 minute nap, Kalissa was fading fast! We rode a couple more rides before Kalissa's legs gave out and she could/would no longer walk. So we packed it in and called it a night. The next morning we returned to Downtown Disney so that Kalissa could spend her birthday money. After eating ice cream, she set her sights on a Tinkerbell doll and cup and was over the moon!

We had a wonderful trip for Kalissa's first Disney experience! We probably won't return until she's another year older, just because she really couldn't take it all in and ummmm....tickets are not a drop in the bucket for a family of 5 (although Candy didn't join us because she had to work). Even still, she couldn't stop talking about meeting her Disney friends and she had one word for it all: "Magical".

Birthday Celebrations!

Start your engines, hear them ROAR! Kalissa Rae is officially 4!!! Ever since last year, Kalissa had been asking me for a race car birthday. I don't know why she latched on to a race car theme but I had been hoping she would eventually change her mind and pick something more girly. I do girly. I don't do boy. But, no luck. As her birthday approached this year, she was still asking me for a race car birthday. Sooooooo, I set out to glam up a race car birthday theme for our little princess. First, I enlisted a baker to make a custom birthday cake with lots of bling and glam. Secondly, I sought out the cutest little race car themed giveaways for her swag bags. Luckily, the movie "Turbo" was just hitting the theater so I was able to tie in elements from the movie into her race car theme. The end result was perfect! But I'm getting ahead of myself....I should start at the beginning.

The weekend prior to her birthday, we did her traditional birthday photoshoot. This year, we ditched hiring a photographer and I shot the whole thing myself. Here are some of my favorites although the girl really didn't take one bad photo.

After the photo shoot, we headed up to GiGi's house so that Kalissa could get her gift: ear piercing part 2! We all know what happened last year so I was praying that it wouldn't happen again this year. Kalissa was completely excited about getting her other ear pierced and she didn't remember last year's debacle at all. We let her pick out her own earrings and she picked the one pair that I was hoping she would not -- the red ones! LOL! She sat in Gigi's lap with a big smile on her face and then WHAM! The earring went in and the water works came on! She cried for just about a minute and then looked at her earrings and all was well. Daddy had refused to be around for the shenanigans this time so when he finally did rejoin us, she proudly showed him her two earrings.

On the day of her actual birthday, 7/23, Candy and I went down to her school to serve cake and ice cream and deliver the swag bags for all the kids. Inside were bubbles, racing flags, racing tattoos, a hot wheels car, a race themed rubber duckie, and a party blower. The cake was absolutely beautiful and the kids were completely fascinated by it. They all wanted to touch it so it was pretty hard to keep their little fingers away. After singing happy birthday, Candy and I served up the cake with milk and ice cream. Unfortunately, the cake itself tasted terrible ....it was completely dry!! The kids didn't seem to mind it but when you pay as much as I did for this cake, you would expect it to taste as good as it looked. Fail!!!

After the classroom celebration, we headed home to give her the rest of her birthday gifts. There were presents from Oma, Nana & Papa, Grandma Barbara, Uncle Frankie, Uncle Felcie, Candy, and Auntie Stella. She loved everything!

Amongst her gifts was her first big girl bike! A two-wheeler with NO training wheels. Not only does it not have training wheels, but it doesn't have pedals either. The concept being that riding a bike is easy once kids learn how to balance. It's much easier to teach them how to balance when they're not concentrating on pedaling at the same time. Once they have balancing down, they will glide and from there you buy a regular two-wheeler with pedals and voila! So even though it's an extra bike to buy, it will eliminate the need for training wheels and then all the falls when you finally take the wheels off. People that we've run across that have these gliders swear by them so we figured we would give it a shot with Kalissa. When we first put her on it, she wouldn't even sit on the seat! She just walked the bike while standing up. After about a week, she gained more confidence and began scooting little steps with it. Now, after about a month, she takes big strides and even glides on it for a few seconds.

 

So far, I think Kalissa is having a GREAT birthday....but the best is yet to come! She has no idea what it is, but we are headed to Disneyland!

Vacation 2013 - part 2

We caught a 7pm flight from St. Louis to Philadelphia. After waiting for our luggage and then the hotel shuttle, we checked in to our Phillie suite at almost midnight...without dinner! Everyone was tired and hungry so Daddy set out to find something, anything to eat. He came back and announced that a hole-in-the-wall pizza place was the only thing open and the pizza should be here soon. OMG...the pizza was soooooo good! I knew this was going to be the beginning of a great time!!! Once everyone had something in their belly, we went to sleep because morning would bring the drive to NJ.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed out to Jersey. It was the 4th of July so the plan was to check in to our new hotel and then head out to Aunt Kathy's house who was having a barbecue for us. We got to visit with Aunt Kathy, Aunt Laura, Grandma Barbara and a bunch of my cousins. Kalissa loved Aunt Kathy's birds!

After eating some delicious food and catching up on each others' lives, we drove back to the hotel and got ready to visit Uncle Felcie and his family. Kalissa had been really looking forward to meeting her cousins Mike & Alex so she was really excited to be going to their house. And of course after meeting them, it was as if they lived around the corner in her eyes! She bonded with them, Felcie and Aunt Raila right away. She especially loved dragging Alex around the living room and ALL the girls loved the basement (the secret play room)

The next day was Friday and we had planned to take a charter bus out to New York but after talking it over, I convinced Daddy that he could conquer the mean streets of NYC himself...and save ourselves a few hundred bucks too! We arrived safe and sound to Times Square around 11 in the morning and it was hot! Candy wanted to shop at the flagship Macy's so we hoofed it from one end of Times Square to the other. Along the way we visited the humongous Toys R Us and took plenty of pictures of us being tourists.

After walking 20 miles (okay, maybe not but it seemed like it) and getting lost in Macy's (yes, it's that huge), we worked up quite an appetite so we stopped for some deliciously famous New York pizza at Famiglia Pizzeria where we devoured a whole pie in record time.  Not wanting to walk the entire way back to our starting point, we took the opportunity to get on the subway (what's a trip to NY without riding the subway??) and Candy got her first NY street caricature done.

After a full day of NY hustle and bustle, we were thoroughly and officially worn out! So we happily packed up the family and headed back down to New Jersey were we would be meeting up with Felcie and family at the hotel for swimming!

The kids had a ball and Kalissa was so proud of herself because she was tall enough to touch the bottom of the pool all by herself. They played in the pool for hours! But all good things must come to an end so we said our final goodbyes to everyone *sniff sniff*

The next morning, we met up with my 'cousin' Robina. I hadn't seen her since I was 7 years old but a couple of years ago, I found her on Facebook and we vowed to meet up with each other the next time I was on the east coast. And the time had finally come!  She and her family drove up from Maryland even with her being 8 months pregnant!

After having a horrible breakfast as Crackerbarrel (first and last time I will ever eat there!), we headed out to visit Grandma Barbara but on the way, we stopped off to see my Dad's twin, Aunt Fannie and her husband, Uncle Gene. When we got to their house, we were greeted by Rocky...a big, slobbering, lovable lapdog (NOT!)!!

After our quick visit, we were back on the road to Grandma Barbara's house who was waiting to take us to Atlantic City. It's been about 13 years since I've been to A.C. and it sure has changed a lot!! We had a great time people watching and getting pooped on by seagulls (oh, that was just me??)

After yet another long day of touring the area, we snuggled in for our final night of sleep away from home! The next morning we had a delicious breakfast prepared by Barbara before heading the the airport. We left in plenty of time so we made a pitstop at Geno's so I could FINALLY get my hands on an authentic Philly cheesesteak! We boarded our flight with no problem but then...they announced that our plane was being diverted due to bad weather heading into St. Louis (where we were to catch our connecting flight home). We ended up stuck on the tarmac for over TWO HOURS! Our layover in St. Louis was only 2 hours long so this would mean that we were going to miss our connection. Oh well, nothing we could do until then so we tried to enjoy the short flight. We landed 20 minutes after our connecting flight was scheduled to depart and guess what? They were holding the plane for us!!! We heard over the loud speaker, "Whitaker, party of 5, your plane is waiting at terminal 9" WOOO HOOOOOO!! You didn't have to call us twice! We ran over to the terminal and settled in to our seats. It was the best feeling in the world to be headed HOME! And sleeping in our own bed that night was the best sleep ever!

We had a wonderful vacation but there is no place like home!

Vacation 2013 - Part 1

From 6/28 - 7/7, the Whitakers were off doing our biennial vacation.  This year, all FIVE of us made the trek to St. Louis and then to NJ.  Would we all get along for 10 days on the road?

Our trip started bright and early Friday morning.  We had a 7 am flight to catch to St. Louis to visit Daddy's side of the family.  This would be Kalissa's 2nd trip but she had no memory of the trip when she was only 2.  She was definitely looking forward to getting on the plane and was completely fearless!

As the plane was taxiing, she said, "heeeeey....why isn't this thing flying??"  Daddy joked that we were going to drive all the way to St. Louis in the airplane.  *lol* but then the plane took off and she loved it!

Once we got settled in St. Louis, we spent the day reconnecting with Nana & PawPaw.  Kalissa helped him water his plants and set up the sprinklers in the yard.  During the 6 days that we were in town, the girls went to see the play, The Wiz, with Nana & PawPaw, we hung out downtown and played in all the water features, visited lots of family, ate at Sweetie Pies, and just had a great time with our family.  Candy and I even learned a bunch of line dances with Nana and her bestie, Mrs. Waters.

Kalissa could not get enough of running around the back yard with her cousins.  Made me kinda sad that she doesn't have that at home.  And she was FASCINATED by PawPaw Whitaker (her Great Grandfather).  She was eating dinner next to him and I had to go tell her to stop staring at him!  I know it's because she's never been around such an elderly person to her memory and even though he didn't seem bothered by it, it was down right rude!  Sadly, Big PawPaw (Nana's father) passed away a few weeks before our trip.  Kalissa would always pick him out in our pictures and say, "That's Big PawPaw!"  But she'll always have the photos of them together from our last visit when she was 2.

We had a wonderful time visiting with Daddy's family.  Everyone is always so welcoming and warm.  And seeing the generations together is beautiful.  The weather held up for the most part and only lightly rained one day.  We couldn't have asked for a better visit...except to extend it!

Of course traveling with Kali is like traveling with a celebrity.  On our return trip, she caught the fancy of a TSA worker and after exchanging a words a few times he found us at the end of the long security check point and said, "follow me" right to the front of the line!  He told the check point TSA officer that Kali was his grandbaby and to treat us right.  Front of the line privileges....can't beat that!  *lol*

Next up....East coast!