The Jones Girls

Rob joined us to go to Downtown Disney to watch Toy Story 3 at the AMC Theaters.    This is the very first time that the girls have seen a movie in the Big Screen Theatre…a what better place to take them for their first time than the MEGA AMC Theatre at Downtown Disney!!

We saw the 4:15pm showing.    We got some great seats, the theatre was not crowded at all.   I got everyone popcorn and licorice.  Everyone was excited and so happy.   It was a great Toy Story 3.    We LOVED it!

Then we went back to the parking structure to get the stroller and a few things and we headed out to the trams and went to Disneyland.  We grabbed some dinner…Turkey legs and roasted corn – can I just say YUM!!

After dinner we sat back and watched Fantasmic!!  This is the first time the girls saw it since last year.   The dragon is HUGE and there are some neat new water effects and pyro fireworks.

Afterwards we watched the fireworks then I got them cute Minnie Mouse keychains.   Then we got back in our car at 10:30pm to drive home.  It was a lot of fun and another exciting day at Disneyland!!

Today I took the girls to San Pedro to see where my brother and their Uncle Ron and Rob lives.   Both of my brothers moved out of their apartment and moved a few blocks down into another apartment.   

We had a nice lunch in the apartment.  The girls enjoyed playing with Ron’s cockatoo.    They ate at in the living room on Ron’s surf-board shaped coffee table.   They thought that was really cool because I only let them eat in the kitchen. 

After lunch Rob drove with us to Cabrillo Marine Aquarium at Cabrillo Beach.  It was maybe 6 blocks away from the apartment.      I was pleasantly surprised to see a playground right on the sandy beach, lifeguard posts right there on the beach watching the kids in the water, and across the parking lot, maybe 100 feet away, was the AMAZING Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

The entrance fee was very nominal – $5 per adult and $1 per child.    Best $14 bucks I ever spent for sure!!     There were so many incredible exhibits with live marine life.  They even had a touch pool that the girls gleefully dipped their hands in to touch beautiful starfish, sea urchins and other sea creatures.

At 3om they have a daily fun activity for the kids.  They let the kids hatch their own grunion fish eggs. It is amazing to see the fish hatch right out of their eggs right in front of our eyes. 

They had amazing fish aquariums and lots of educational and interesting things to look at and see. 

 They have a playroom with fish themed costumes, a puppet show theatre for kids to play and a huge table with comfy chairs for parents and kids to play with puzzles and games that they provide.   There is a neat courtyard with fun photo signs for the kids to peek their heads through and parents take pictures of them. 

This place is like a miniature Long Beach Aquarium, except no crowds!!  This place is a hidden secret, a quiet gem that is a true treasure to come across!!

California Adventure Disneyland opened up an amazing water light show 10 days ago.  Today we spent the day there and then saw the show at 10:15pm tonight.  Feli joined us today.

We waited in line for 45 minutes to get fast passes in the morning. This gave us Priority Seating for a good view.

During the day we saw the theatrical performance Aladdin.  The show will be ending at the end of August and a new performance will begin in the late fall or by December.    It was spectacular and the Genie was so funny!

Then we went to see Nemo & Crush interactive show.  Maryssa especially enjoyed this show!

After that, we went to Play House Disney.  Feli had just as much fun as the girls did!!

We had gotten Fast Passes for the ride Soaring.   Maryssa was too short, so Feli stayed with Maryssa and got her cotton candy while I took the other girls on Soaring.  They went crazy and LOVED it!!  It is a truly amazing experience.

At 5:15 we grabbed a spot to watch the Pixar Parade while getting a bite to eat.    It was fun and relaxing.   The characters squirted water on us!!

Then we went to It’s A Bugs Life Land and rode some rides and watched a 3D movie there.

We did a little shopping and I got the girls Fantasmic Micky Ears and a few other things.   

At 9pm we jumped in line to wait to get our spot to watch World of Color.  One of the Cast Members told me that over 25,000 people a day were watching the show!!  That is amazing!!

The show was spectacular.    We weren’t expecting to get as wet as we did.    Thank goodness I had brought blankets to cover up the girls to protect them from getting wet and to keep them warm.   They stayed pretty dry but I got pretty wet.

This was our end of school year celebration!!

I organized a fun tour of John’s Pizza in Buena Park.  It is like Chuck E. Cheese on steroids.  They have an all you can eat buffet and indoor rides such as the scrambler, bumper cars, airplane ride and indoor playground, plus lots of fun games to earn points to get prizes.

Liz and her son Daniel, and Corrie and her 5 kids met us at John’s Pizza at 2pm.   We got a private room and we were surprised when they told us that we got to make our own pizzas!!   So we all made our pizzas and while they baking, we went to the buffet tables to get salads, pastas, etc.  We were all starving as none of us moms had breakfast or lunch yet.  

We were given cards that had points on them and the kids could redeem them on the rides and games.  After we ate, we  ventured out to the game room and rides.   All of the kids rode on the airplane.   The triplets were not tall enough to do the bumper cars, so Savannah did that.  She was not tall enough to do the scrambler ride. 

Then the girls played in the indoor playground for quite a while.  Savannah and I went to play some games to earn points to win some toys.

After 3 hours since we arrived, we cashed in our points and the girls got dinosaurs, heart necklaces and Dracula teeth.

Today is our 10th annual Arabic Dinner Family Reunion.    I was up late last night and got up at 6am this morning to get a good head start.     Everyone would start showing up at 3pm.

Our friend, Nadia, has triplets that are turning 2 and today is their birthday party at La Habra Heights Park.   So at 9:00am I began getting the girls ready for the birthday party.  Cliff left at 10am to take the girls to the party.  

This gave me an advantage to get a lot of work done.    My brother, Rob, helped me so much (thank you my dear brother!).

The girls came home at 12pm noon.  They played their video games and I continued to prepare the food and the house for the party.   I took a quick shower.

Everything was ready and my family began coming over at 3pm.    We had lots of good food, wine and most importantly the grandest time catching up with each other.  We took a lovely family group photograph.

What a wonderful evening!!

Tonight Cliff and I took the girls to Summerfest in Brea.   It is the world’s largest Catholic private school carnival.    It is an annual event going on over 25 years now and it is organized by the student’s parents.   They have top notch entertainment such as Peter Frampton and all sorts of different and awesome performers. 

Tonight Pat Benatar was performing!!   It is a free concert so I wanted to go and see her.  So when we arrived there, it was 6:30pm.  She was scheduled to appear at 7:30pm.    After many ice creams later, no Pat Benatar. It was past 7:30pm by now.  Our poor girls were having melt downs.

So we left our wonderful point of view spot and headed over to the rides.   We got some tickets and the girls did a really fun roller coaster ride. They screamed so loud and it was hilarious!  Then we went on the horse carousel.   It was now 8:15pm and Cliff was about done.  He wanted to go home.

So we went over to my friend, Wendy Rice, booth. She was volunteering to do the 50/50 raffle.    I asked if I could stay with her at the booth and watch Pat Benatar and if she would drive me home afterwards so that Cliff could come home with the girls.  She said sure…and then she suprised me with a wristband…on the wristband it said “VIP”.    Hmmmm….what was this?  So she walked me over to where Cliff and I had originally been to watch Pat Benatar which was adequate enought to watch.   She kept walking past that spot and then walked over to the VIP section.  We showed our wrist bands and they let us in.   She escorted me to where she has reserved two seats that morning…in the SIXTH ISLE,,,,FRONT AND CENTER!!   OMG!!    

So we chatted for a bit as we sat excitedly waiting for Pat Benatar to make her appearance.   Finally, at 9:30pm, Pat entered the stage.   I tell you, we were so close I could see every detail.    It was so amazing.    Wendy and I sang all of the songs along with Pat Benatar.    Her husband, the guitarist, would through out his guitar pick every 15 minutes to the audience for someone to get.  It was so neat!!

She performed beautifully.  She explained some of the songs and what they were about.   Then she got a standing ovation and performed a few more songs.  Things wrapped up at about 11pm.   

Wendy, thank you so much for giving me such a wonderful gift!!     I had the most incredible time with you my dear friend!!

We set out to go to the L.A. County Fair today.  They had a good deal, $1 per adult if you arrived 10am-1pm.  We were on the road at 11:30am and still stuck in traffic at 12:30pm with no end in sight when we would finally get to the fair.

So we ditched the scene and decided to go to a park.    We ventured over to the Fullerton Arboretum.

What a beautiful place.   It is an amazing botanical garden with lots of water features, bridges,and water falls.  The girls loved looking at the fishies in the stream and made friends with the ducks and turtles at the pond.  

There were so many different areas of botanicals – woods and forest, fruit trees, flowering trees, vegetable gardens…so much to look and see!

This was a fun way to spend the afternoon.  It is free but they do accept donations so we were happy to give them a $3 donation to support such a beautiful place in our community.

What a beautiful day it was today!!