The Blue Bayou's Magical Monte Cristo

Last year I wrote this Disney guest post for Cathy at A Peek Into My Paradise.
I wanted to share it with you on my blog this year since it's my birthday
& for the second year in a row I will not be enjoying a Monte Cristo at the Blue Bayou...
You can find the original post here.

You see, I'm having major Disneyland withdrawals...

We recently moved from the SoCal desert to Northern Indiana.
This is the first year in what seems like a looong time that I won't be going to Disneyland for my birthday
& eating at the Blue Bayou.
It is going to be a very hard day.

We were a little spoiled living so close to Disneyland.
and by close I mean an hour-and-a-half away...
We would go every other week before we had kids,
and we tried to go at least once a month after they were born.
We had Premium Annual Passes up until a couple months before our move.
But with ticket prices going up so much,
we weren't sure if we would be able to renew the passes even if we stayed in SoCal.
So we moved away...
Taking away the temptation of spending more money to renew,
but also taking away the ease of visiting the parks.

We bought a house in Indiana,
but had to wait to close on it for almost a month due to delays in closing our CA house.
We were fortunate enough to stay at a friend's cozy little lake house while waiting to close on our new home.

While we were staying at said lake house,

we enjoyed many beautiful sunsets

and were able to enjoy not only the glisten of the calm moonlit lake,

but also the twinkling of fireflies at twilight.
It was magical.

Now I don't know about you,

but when I see fireflies near water,
and get this magical feeling,

I can't help but think of my favorite restaurant at Disneyland...

The Blue Bayou.

Yes, the same Blue Bayou that I will not get to eat at on my birthday this year.
Yep, you know the one...
It's that nice restaurant with the nighttime outdoorsy feel that you pass while you're on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

If you've never eaten at the Blue Bayou
I encourage you to call ahead to make a reservation the next time you're at Disneyland.
Ask for waterside seating while you get checked in...
You may have to wait a little longer if you want to sit waterside,
but to me - it's definitely worth it.

Fireflies are flickering above the water.
Frogs & crickets are singing their nighttime serenade.
You can even hear someone playing the banjo from the little house across the water while you eat.
It's kind of enchanting in a way.
Sitting waterside is definitely the way to go.
Especially if you have kids...
Waving to everyone riding the boats can be a great distraction while waiting for the food to arrive.

We always go during the lunch hours for two reasons...
1) It's slightly cheaper than the dinner hours
2) The menu is different for lunch than it is for dinner

We order Le Special de Monte Cristo Sandwich
every. single. time.
and it is only served during the lunch hours.
It's my favorite.
It never disappoints.

photo credit: Adrea in Wonderland

Imagine this...
A battered & deep fried sandwich
filled with Turkey, Ham, & Swiss Cheese
sprinkled with powdered sugar
and served with a side of blackberry preserves to dip it in.
It's amazing.

The Blue Bayou has such generous portions of everything that we always split the order.
They do have a split plate charge,
but you can avoid the extra cost by splitting the salad as well.
They just bring out an extra plate & let you divide it yourself.
It ends up being the perfect amount of food for each of us!
Besides, walking around Disneyland when you're stuffed is no fun.

photo credit: Chip & Co

The ambiance is relaxing,
the food is delicious,
the service is impeccable,
& it doesn't feel busy like so many other restaurants at Disneyland.
It is a truly wonderful place.

I would also recommend trying their Mint Julep at least once.
It's non-alcoholic & is one of those love-it-or-hate-it kind of drinks.
You'll never know if you like it or not until you try it.
I happen to find it refreshing.

Because I knew I would be missing out on my birthday Monte Cristo this year,
we decided to make our own,
but with a twist...
Monte Cristo French Toast

It's not deep-fried like the one at the Blue Bayou,
but more like a mix between French Toast,
a grilled cheese sandwich,
and of course,
the Disneyland Monte Cristo.
Not the same, but not too shabby!

I love comments & would love to know if you've ever been to the Blue Bayou or had a Monte Cristo!

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it!
If you're new around here...
check out my About Me section,
see what we have in common,
& enjoy surfing my blog!

xoxo

Belated Birthday Boys

Little Dudeman turned four at the end of April.

FOUR!

He's growing up waaay too fast!

We let him open a few presents on his birthday while Grampa was in town for a business trip,

& he got to pick out a cake at the store so he could blow out candles.

He reeeally wanted a Nintendo party

& it happened,
but a month late...
You see, we moved to our new house just a couple days after his birthday

so a party at the old house simply wasn't going to happen

with all the showings, packing, cleaning, & whatnot.

When we finally got to have his Nintendo party
it lasted an entire week.
Dinner one night,
Cake & ice cream another night,
Presents another night.
Playing Nintendo games yet another night...

We had Pizzetti for his birthday dinner
since Mario wanted Spaghetti
& Luigi wanted Pizza.

We also had Goomba garlic bread,
Sonic the Hedgehog salad,
& Princess Peach soda to drink.

We ate this Nintendo themed cake...

It's a blue cake
with blue jello frosting (;

He opened his presents,
among which was his very own Wiimote!

Little Dudeman had a blue room at our old house

& wanted his bedroom in the new house to be blue as well

so we let him pick out paint & bedding for his birthday.

He chose Sonic the Hedgehog bedding that I'm sure my Broha would approve of,

& an awesome blue that he helped Hubby paint!

It's still in progress,
but I'll share more pics once it's all finished!

Hubby had his birthday the week after we moved,

but it was very different than his UP party last year.

We still have a long way to go before feeling remotely unpacked or settled,

the wrapping paper was all hiding in storage at the time,

& we had been making trips to our old house each week for random reasons.

I had plans for his birthday.

I really did.

But then life happened...

So we went out to Kona Grill to enjoy a nice dinner as a family.

The food was absolutely wonderful

& they brought him a huge ultimate fudge brownie for his birthday!

When we came home we did some much needed laundry

then Hubby opened his presents.

They were loosely wrapped in newspaper & packing materials

since we had no accessible wrapping paper or tape.

I even hid one of them so we could play the warmer/colder game,

but apparently I forgot how to play it.

I didn't remember that you can say things like

'ice cold',

'on fire',

'lava hot',

etc...

I stuck to 'warmer' & 'colder' the entire time.
Next time I'll try to be less boring! (;

We ate his cake once we finished eating the Nintendo cake.
One birthday at a time, right?

Check out my Video Game Party board on Pinterest for more ideas
& don't forget to swing by each weekend for the Saturday Dishes Link Party!
The DUTCH OVEN & CAMPING party is going on right now,
& COLD SUMMERY TREATS will start up this weekend...
We'd love to see what you have to share!

xoxo

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Balls

I made these Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Balls
for Little Princess' Lilo & Stitch Luau last week...

I had seen a couple different versions of these here & here,
but neither one included the yummy buttery brown sugar glaze
that is on traditional Pineapple Upside-Down Cake.
I was determined to somehow include it.

1 box Yellow cake mix

1 can crushed pineapple (well-drained, but reserve juice)

1 10 oz jar Maraschino cherries (drained)

1/4 cup butter (melted)

1 cup brown sugar

Vanilla frosting (may not need it)

Yellow candy melts

Make cake mix according to directions but substitute reserved pineapple juice for water called for in the directions. Mix in well-drained crushed pineapple last (I used about a cup, but might try more next time) & bake according to directions. Once completely cooled, crumble with hands or food processor. Combine brown sugar with melted butter. It's okay if not all the brown sugar melts. Drizzle warm brown sugar mixture over the top. Combine well. If the consistency is still off, add frosting little by little until the right consistency is achieved (holds together easily, but not too sticky). Form then flatten a ball of dough & place a cherry in the center. Firmly wrap the dough around the cherry to make a ball again. Place cake balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper, then refrigerate 10-15 minutes to firm them up for dipping. Use a fork to submerge each cake ball into melted chocolate & carefully tap off any excess chocolate. Carefully slide the balls off of the fork onto the cookie sheet. 

Note: You may have to bake your cake longer than the directions if you didn't drain enough of the pineapple juice, so making sure that you drain them enough is an important step.

Note: You can chop your cherries & mix them in right after the buttery brown sugar if you don't want them whole.

xoxo

Lilo & Stitch Luau

I can't believe Little Princess is two!

She LOVES Lilo & Stitch right now,
so we went with that theme for her second birthday party.

Since I've been dealing with a lot of stress lately
we decided to just stick with our little ohana.
My dad has been in town this week for a business trip
so we were more than excited to have him celebrate with us!

The kidlets love it when Grampa comes to visit! (:
He watched Lilo and Stitch with them
while Hubby & I were finishing up getting dinner ready...

Then we turned on the Hawaiian music Pandora station & sat down for dinner...

We had Pulled Pork Hawaiian Haystacks

with Banana Poi,

(not pictured)

King's Hawaiian sweet rolls,
blue jello jigglers with Swedish fish,
& delicious virgin Piña Coladas that I wish I had more of right now.
(not pictured)

The kids enjoyed their Piña Coladas in plastic coconut cups that I found at Party City,
but they didn't have enough for everyone so I just bought two...
I also bought Salted Caramel Macadamia Clusters from Costco for everyone to munch on,
but we were all so full that I don't think anyone had any!

If you look back at the first picture you can see leis at each seat
& a little dress that looks kinda like a muumuu...
The plan was to have everyone dress up as Hawaiian as possible,
but all of our leis were already packed so I had to buy more.
I bought the dress for Little Princess since I knew she didn't have anything Hawaiian,
but I couldn't find ANYTHING for Little Dudeman.
He ended up wearing a pajama "surf" shirt & some matching non-pajama shorts.
I wore my muumuu,
Hubby wore his Hawaiian shirt,
& we let Grampa borrow a Hawaiian tie.

We let Little Princess decide which color leis we were all going to wear,
but then she decided that she wanted to wear all the leis.
I wish I had a picture of that.
It was adorable!

We never got a group picture with all of us dressed up in our garb.
With or without leis.
But we did get some pictures of the kids opening presents...

Yes, kids.
Plural.
Little Dudeman helped Little Princess open them
because the wrapping paper was impenetrable.

Then,
after a blur of excitement (:

& lots of silliness...
It was time for cake!
Little Princess had a miniature Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
so that she could blow out her candles.

Then we all munched on Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Balls
while eating banana pineapple "ice cream"
made with my Yonanas machine.
It was all very good
but very rich!

By then it was getting pretty late,
we were all really full,
& Hubby had more work to do
so we decided to call it a night.

If we had more time we could have done a few of these things:
Make hula skirts
Make fruit loop leis
Hula dancing
Hula hooping
Limbo
Play the ukulele
Listen to some Elvis music
Science experiments (since that's what Stitch is)

For more Lilo & Stitch party ideas
you can check out my Luau board on Pinterest
or revisit my Lilo & Stitch themed week (:

Also, you can figure out your Hawaiian name here...

Aloha 'Oe

xoxo

Harry Potter Surprise Party (Part 3)

If you missed Part 1 or Part 2 of our Harry Potter Surprise Party,
I suggest catching up before reading this post...

The next morning we woke up ready for our first day of school at Hogwarts.
We began by being sorted into houses...

We had all taken the Sorting Hat quiz on Pottermore ahead of time to determine which house we were in.
Once we were all sorted,
we headed off to our classes.

I switched over to the role of Professor Marissa to teach our first class.
None other than...
Potions.

What did you expect?
Snape is my fave (:
I may or may not have a slight character crush on him...
We created a couple of potions from the Potions Student Handbook
that we found from the potions class post over at Mrs. Nespy's World.
She also has the Master Handbook available for download with additional potions.

Our next class,
Care of Magical Creatures,
was taught in Rubeus "Dad"rid's hut (the gazebo).
He taught from the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
We learned about Kappas, Nundus, & Lethifolds.
I hope to never encounter any of them.

Professor Abby taught us how to do a Patronus Charm
in our Defense Against the Dark Arts class.
We each took turns conjuring our Patronus
while the rest of the class guessed which form each of our Patronus' takes (our favorite animal).
We're now ready to take on all the evils of the wizard world.

Next up on the agenda was our first flying lesson
followed by a quick Quidditch match.
Unfortunately, our lessons were cancelled due to inclement weather
& we all know that you can't play Quidditch if you don't know how to properly use your broom.

It seemed like a great time to head into Hogsmeade (town) for a bite to eat.
So off to Culvers we went for a late lunch / early dinner.
Everything was super tasty as usual
& with our bellies full,
we headed back to Hogwarts
so that we could enjoy the rest of the festivities.

We decided it would probably be best to let things settle before eating cake & drinking Butterbeer.
Sounds like the perfect time for presents (:

After all the card reading & gift giving was over,
we gathered together in the Great Hall
to enjoy birthday cake & Butterbeer
while watching Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

...and that is the moment Hubby's life completely changed.
That's right.
He-who-disliked-Harry-Potter actually enjoyed it!
Not only did he enjoy it,
but a few days after we came home,
he surprised me with that wonderful news
by saying he wanted to watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that evening!
I was completely stunned & overjoyed all at the same time!
I stopped eating to tell McCall of the wonderful news immediately!
I never thought I'd get to watch the Harry Potter movies again,
especially with Hubby (since he reeeally didn't care for it).
We spent the entire rest of the week watching Harry Potter
after he suggested buying the entire boxed set on blu-ray with our Best Buy rewards...
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
I had been wanting that forever!!!
I am still slightly in shock that it actually happened & that he got so into it.
We may have stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching movies a few times.

Sorry... I got a little ahead of myself there,
but we didn't really have much time left to party after watching it anyway
since we had to fly home the next morning.

Overall, we had a quick but fun weekend
and it was great getting to actually surprise McCall!
Happy Birthday Kai
I magma you (:

xoxo

Harry Potter Surprise Party (Part 2)

If you missed Part 1 of our Harry Potter Surprise Party,
you should probably catch up before reading this post...

So there we were.

Waiting at the park.

Little Dudeman & Little Princess were wearing their robes.

I was carrying our robes & the glasses.

People were giving us funny looks.

Some people asked if we were going to a wedding.

I have no clue as to where they got that idea.

Since we had plenty of time to kill
I called McCall to wish her a happy birthday
I put my phone on speaker so that we could all sing to her.
After reminding Hubby to remember to act casual,
she didn't even pick up.
So we all sang to her in a message
& then I was about 99% sure that I completely blew the surprise.
After we had sung, I said something crazy like this:
"Happy birthday McCall! I hope you had a great day today. Call me back when you get a chance to tell me all about your how your 18th birthday went & to let me know what fun things you did. I hope you have fun plans this weekend. You'll have to let me know what you're doing to celebrate. Love you! Bye."
I'm terrible at leaving messages.
That's why I don't usually leave them.
That may not have been exactly what I said, but you get the gist of it...
Seriously though.
If we were home, why would I need to know what her plans are?
It didn't sound casual at all.
I should have just stopped at 'how your 18th birthday went'.
Anywho...
She called back shortly after that awkward message.
We talked & she told me about the football game & how her day went
(which I of course already knew)

Then she said she doesn't think they have any big plans
& that she doesn't even know which day they will be celebrating since they haven't really talked about it.
I explained to her that her present was on the way
hoping to give her the idea that we weren't there after all.
What she said next threw my 99% belief that I ruined the surprise
all the way to 100%...
She said something like this:
"Well, I'm hoping that the present is that you guys are flying out. That would be the best present ever."
Completely stunned by what she had said,
it took me a second before I could regain my composure & complete a decent comeback thought.
I replied, "Yeah, that would definitely be cool, but that's not the present."
Not a complete lie.
We did get her a present.
Our being there to give it to her was just an added bonus.
Slightly bummed,
& in my opinion not fully convinced,
she said that's too bad but that she looks forward to opening it when it arrives.
We stayed on the phone for a while & just talked.
When she told me they were leaving Walgreens
I wrapped up the call so that she could go home
& enjoy the first part of her surprise...
the letter.

This is roughly how things went...
I wasn't there so I don't know firsthand, but I can't wait to watch the video (:
They pulled into the driveway & Dad asks if she can get the mail.
She says sure, then heads towards the mailbox.
Dad closes the garage while she's on her way there.
Baffled by him closing the garage door before she came in, she opens the mailbox.
Inside is but one letter.
Her Hogwarts acceptance letter.
She is overjoyed & takes a gazillion pictures before even thinking about heading inside.
Since the garage is closed, she goes through the front door.
What's this?
Brick walls (plastic backdrop) so that she can't go any further into the house,
& Abby standing there waiting to help her get to Diagon Alley.
She taps on the bricks & leads her in.
They visit many different shops while in Diagon Alley.
She gets her various wizarding school supplies, her owl, & her wand.
Mom was filling in for Ollivander that evening & made sure that the right wand found McCall.
They reached another brick wall.
A dead end of sorts.
They didn't realize this at the time,
but it was actually an extremely rare entrance from Diagon Alley into the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts.
They turned around & headed back the way they came only to find that they were at platform 9 ¾.

They ran through the brick & hopped on the Hogwarts Express.
While inside the train (Ford Freestyle) waiting to arrive at Hogwarts,
they ordered sweets from the Honeydukes Express trolley.

There were Toffees, Acid Pops, Sour Jelly Slugs, Chocolate Pretzel Wands, Chocolate Hazelnut Snitches, Cockroach Clusters, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, & Chocolate Frogs

They had only traveled a few blocks away from where they departed at King's Cross Station,
when they made an unexpected stop at a nearby park to pick up some more passengers...

The second I saw the S.U.Van (Hogwarts Express)
We hid behind the playground,
threw on our robes & glasses,
& we all ran as fast as we could so that the train wouldn't leave without us.
Thankfully McCall didn't notice we were there until we were practically to our train carriage!
After quick hugs & much excitement,
the train departed for Hogsmeade Station.
Upon our arrival at Hogwarts (this time entering through the garage),
I noticed everything really came together while we were at the park.
McCall was given the tour of the school,
& some special guests (church friends) came for a visit.
Once they left, we headed to the Great Hall to enjoy our feast.
She had wanted Poppyseed Chicken, fruit, & salad for her birthday dinner
so we enjoyed that while enjoying each others company.

We had intended on being sorted into houses that evening,
However, the youngest wizard & witch were fast asleep,
we were all quite exhausted,
& it was getting late.
It was agreed that the Sorting Hat would have to wait until morning.

Part 3

xoxo

Harry Potter Surprise Party (Part 1)

A few weeks ago we took a quick little weekend trip
to surprise my sister for her 18th birthday!

We flew out the morning of her birthday
& got to their house around lunchtime.
After eating a quick lunch we laid all the decorations out
so that we could try to figure out where to begin.
Seeing piles of everything there in front of us & knowing that we only had a few hours
to turn the entire house into Hogwarts was a little overwhelming.
So where did we begin?

We turned each of the bedrooms into the four house common rooms by decorating with whatever we could find (misc blankets, tablecloths, curtains, & pillows from thrift shops, and even towels or whatever we could find around the house) that coordinated with the Hogwarts house colors on the beds & throughout each room.
I didn't get pictures of any of the common rooms,
but if for whatever reason you aren't familiar with Harry Potter, here are the house colors:
Scarlet & Gold for Gryffindor
Blue & Bronze for Ravenclaw
Yellow & Black for Hufflepuff
and of course,
Emerald Green & Silver (we also threw in some black) for Slytherin.

We had Hubby watching the kidlets and cutting out potion labels & chocolate frog boxes,
since he knew nothing about Harry Potter & was probably the least excited about the party's theme.
He hadn't read any of the books or seen any of the movies, & had no intentions of ever doing so.
But let's get back to the party set-up.
We'll discuss Hubby's dislike for Harry Potter later...

My other sister Abby came home from school & got right to helping us!
She worked on finishing up the Hogwarts acceptance letter,
which was undoubtedly the most important part of the entire party
for without that letter,
her dreams would not come true.
You see, she had been waiting for this letter her entire life.
Well, ever since she was 11...
It turns out they had sent it with the Weasley's owl Errol
(don't ask me why they sent it with him),
but he lost it along the way.
He flew around trying to find it again
but due to his extremely poor eyesight it took him 7 years.
Better late than never, right?

We did a little rearranging of furniture in the living room & dining room to turn it into the Great Hall,
where we would later have our feast.
My mom bought some house banners online that we hung up along the wall.
We had also intended on hanging floating candles,
but naturally ran out of time.
I guess that's what happens when you attempt to turn an entire house into Hogwarts
with less than enough time to do it.

Keeping her away turned out to be kinda interesting...
She's a senior in high school,
& she doesn't have very many classes that require her to be at school.
She takes a lot of online college courses that are doubling as some of her high school credits as well.
Fridays are one of her short days,
so we had to figure out how to keep her away from the house.
She had been wanting to go to work with Dad for a while,
so we thought she could just hang out with him from lunch on.
They had a lunch date, then went back to his office until he was done with work.
We still needed more time so it worked out perfectly that there was a football game.
My dad dropped her off at the game, then came home to help.
McCall texted Abby asking if she was coming to the game,
& called when she didn't get a response.
We had to be completely silent since she didn't know we were there.
Since keeping the kids quiet was quite the task,
we sent her upstairs with the phone to come up with a reason why she couldn't come.
A little while later,
she called the house saying the game was almost over,
& asked for a ride home.
We were far from ready and tried to think of more ways to stall her.
Then Dad got a text saying something like this:
'Just kidding, it's only the end of 3rd quarter'.
Really, McCall?
Really?
Was that mini heart attack necessary?
Did she know something was up?
We knew we didn't have much time left
so we hurried as fast as we could,
Abby planted the acceptance letter in the mailbox,
& we were still running all over the place trying to finish
when she called saying the game really was over this time.

Mom & Abby stayed home to finish getting things ready
while Dad dropped our little family off
with our Harry Potter glasses & robes
at a park only a few blocks away from the house.
We had to wait anxiously & patiently
while Dad headed to the high school to pick up McCall,
then to Walgreens to get a new SD card so that we could record her reaction,
then back home so she could get her acceptance letter
& go to Diagon Alley where she would get her wand, owl, books, & school supplies.
Finally everyone would pile up in the Hogwarts Express to come get us at the park.

So there we waited.
& so shall you...

Part 2
Part 3

xoxo

UP Birthday

So I found this half-written post of mine that I had started before we moved...
Rather than re-write it, I'm going to just post it as-is.
Simply because I can.
& also because I giggled a little when I read through it just now.

I've had so much going on with the move that I've really been slacking on my blog.

But that is a-o-kay with me...

I honestly don't want to have to stress about catching up on here in addition to the other million things that need to get done.

But I will still write a little here and there.

I will publish my posts once my thoughts are actually complete.

I am entitled to a break from packing every now and then right?

Good, because I am burnt out with this whole packing/moving thing & want it to be done already!

So we had a Cars party for Little Dudeman's birthday a while back

and the following weekend we had an UP themed birthday party for Hubby's 30th...

Ya know...

Since he's growing "Up".

I'm punny.

He really wanted to avoid his 30th birthday altogether, but I told him that it was inevitable.

Sooner or later he would have to face the fact that we all get older, and that it's not such a terrible thing.

It just allows for different phases of our life to happen.

For example, take Carl in the movie UP...

We get to watch him & Ellie grow old together,

and that's a beautiful thing.

We get to see how life can be an adventure,

and that we create new adventures throughout each phase of our life.

Hubby recently decided he wants to learn how to fly...

So for part of his birthday present,

I told him that he can start flying lessons after we move

so that he can get his pilot license.

What an awesome new adventure now that he's 30 right?

We had a busy, yet fun-filled weekend.
I spent all day Friday making 'balloon' cake pops
& filling up balloons with helium.

After work, he was greeted with this Spirit of Adventure balloon attached to a stick.
I forgot to take a picture of it flying solo,
but at least I remembered to take a picture at some point.

He saw the rest of them when he got into the kitchen...

You see, I had sent a facebook message to family & friends asking them to write messages on the balloons and then mail them to me.
I'd say I got a pretty good response (:

81 balloons.
Only 2 partial losses.
One flew away (to the ceiling).
One casualty while I was filling it with helium.
(which I laid next to the house so he could read the message)
We had pizza for dinner, then watched Up.

Saturday morning I gave him a Wilderness Explorer pin badge and told him,
"The wilderness must be explored! Caw, caw, RAWR!"
I informed him that we had some badges to earn...
I was going to make sashes & everything, but time got the better of me with the move.
Ah well.
First, we went to the park and had a picnic lunch in 110+ degree weather.
It. was. hot.
The kids wanted to play at the playground, so we spent quite a bit of time there.

We looked at the clouds and tried to make shapes out of them.
We didn't see any turtles, flying elephants, or babies,
but we did see some pretty cool clouds.
To be honest, I don't remember what shapes we saw.
I guess that's what I get for finishing this post almost 4 months after the party...

 After the park, we visited the Palm Springs Air Museum.
It was pretty cool since we had never been there before.

Hubby even got to try out a flight simulator!
Well, sorta...
They have a super advanced one that he wanted to try,
but they wouldn't let him since he doesn't have his pilots license yet.
Lame.
Instead they let him do a computer game version...

It was pretty similar to the flying app that he's been playing on his phone & the tablet.
Only the lady wouldn't let him do that by himself either...
She was constantly hovering & telling him to do this or that rather than let him just do it.
Her instructions made him stall the plane when he already knew what to do.
Silly lady.
Never underestimate my Hubby (;

The museum was getting ready to close
and we had seen just about everything that we could see,
so we loaded up the car to head to our next stop.

We were going to get ice cream cones,
sit on the corner,
 and call out red & blue cars...
But it was waaay too hot.
We decided to just go home and have ice cream there instead.

When we got home I put 3 balloon shaped toothpick candles into one of the balloon cake pops.
Then we sang Happy Birthday so that he could blow out the candles & make a wish...

Cake Pop Flavors:

Red - vanilla cake w/ pink lemonade frosting & red candy melts

Orange - chocolate cake w/ orange frosting & orange sherbet flavored candy melts

Yellow - vanilla cake w/ homemade fruit dip & yellow candy melts

Green - vanilla cake w/ key lime frosting & key lime flavored candy melts

Blue - chocolate cake w/ cream cheese frosting & blue candy melts

Purple - mystery flavors of cake & frosting (basically whatever was left) & red/blue candy melt mixture

After getting stuffed with cake pops & ice cream,
it was time to open presents.
The kids & I got him some UP themed gifts...

Clockwise:

With this baby, you'll NEVER get lost! - Certificate for Black Ops II map packs,

81 balloons with messages from family & friends,

Paradise Falls jar with approximately $65 dollars of change in it,
Caramellos - His favorite chocolate to lure snipes (we all know Kevin loves chocolate),
an Adventure Book with plenty of pictures & memories of his life thus far,
his Wilderness Explorer badge,
and of course,
an Ellie badge...
He earned it.

Happy {belated} birthday Justin!
You're the besterest!

xoxo