KidStage Mulan!

Here is the KidStage Mulan post! The final performance was November 19th. Elisa performed as Shang, and Ian got the role of Qian Po, aka The Soldier Who Likes to Eat. Elisa was a little disappointed that she didn't get Mulan and had to be a boy, but I reminded her that Mulan was a boy for most of the play anyway. Elisa's current bff, Jayde was also in the play with her and was one of the two Mulans. The kids worked hard on their roles for this play! I hosted a few extra practices, spent way too much money on Elisa's costume, and picked up her other friend Lily every single practice, even though she missed half of them because of sickness. Speaking of sickness, poor Jayde was too sick to play her Mulan part when the performance rolled around. She couldn't even speak. Elisa almost took up her role, but the director thought it would be best if the other Mulan took up the role instead of Elisa, since Elisa would have had to go through some costume changes, and she didn't want to stress Elisa out. The other Mulan just read the script for Jayde's lines. It was annoying to hold the camera. Next time I'd like to put my phone on a tripod and enjoy the show, and just upload the entire thing to YouTube instead of what I've done here. I don't think a lot of the kids knew their lines, cues, and actions very well. As usual, Elisa and Ian did a good job!

Cute Ian, ready to start the play!

Video 1

The "other Mulan" standing in for Jayde's Mulan. You could tell she wasn't familiar with Jayde's lines (why should she be anyway) but she did a good job of it!

 

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A still shot of Mulan and Shane

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OMG this kid. If Joe Biden were an ancient Chinese Emperor....lol! I think this kid's pants were bothering him. At least his parents will have this memory to cherish! Haha Elisa was trying to correct him. So funny!! Scenes like this (or rather, kids like this) just make KidStage great: cringy, but entertaining! 

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The full cast, waiting as the director announced the names of the Tommy award winners

Cuties on stage, after the play finished

Random November Happenings

Here are pictures of some of our random, miscellaneous activities of November:

Nov. 3

Erik took this picture of a beautiful double rainbow in our neighborhood.

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All of the loomed bracelets I had made in the past month. I had fun making them! The Mario one is Ian's and the donut one is Elisa's.

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Nov. 4

Elisa stayed up at least until midnight to finish some project for school that she neglected to tell me about and had ignored doing until the night before. And yep, she did spill black paint on her carpet!

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Nov. 5

I took Ian out shopping with me on a Saturday. We went to a few places including Michael's and then out last stop was Chick-fil-a. It was our first time eating inside the restaurant since before Covid. They remodeled and closed up the kid's play place. I'm glad my kids are passed that age--companies have been doing a lot of closing kid's areas down recently it seems. Anyway, Ian really enjoyed his day out with me, and he's always happy to eat Chick-fil-a!

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Nov. 8

Some good news about our school! Ms. Mead is Gabe and Ian's gifted teacher, and Ms. Harmon and Ms. Duran are Elisa's current teachers!

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Nov. 8

Elisa hanging out with her new bestie, Jayde. We took the kids to Cafe Rio for dinner. Elisa and Jayde been spending a lot of time together this year. Lots and lots of sleepovers!

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Nov. 9

Ian and Elisa joined KidStage again this year! The play was Mulan. Not my favorite story in any form, but whatever. Elisa didn't land the lead this year, but her character, Shang, had plenty of lines for Elisa to learn. Ian got the role of Quian Po, aka The Soldier Who Likes to Eat. Perfect for Ian, lol! I hosted a couple of extra KidStage practices and invited a few of the kids that lived close by and that we knew fairly well. Elisa's friend Jayde was Mulan and her other friend, Lily, was Mushu. Ian's friend was Shaun Yu (Hun leader). I was too distracted to get a picture of them practicing, darn it. The kids were so cute! There were several sicknesses going around and that time, so we didn't have all the kids together between the two practices, but I think it was helpful for them to work on their lines and cues and such.

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Nov. 10

Oh no! Ian caught somebody's something! Luckily it just lasted an evening and there was no school the next day. 

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Nov. 11

Erik made the last payment on our mortgage. We're finally debt free! We went to Disneyland to celebrate.

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Nov. 13

Baptism preview night! Ian sure had fun. They played a game where every time the word "baptism" was said, the first kid to raise their arm up received a Kit Kat bar. Ian got three! He was asked to play "When I Am Baptized" while the rest of us sang along. I found an easy version for him to play, and he took to it right away! He had the thing memorized in a week. I'm kind of irritated that nobody got any videos of him playing the song. I would have but I was busy making sure he played it okay, since this was the first time he played while others sang.

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Nov. 15

Gabe got to try out his hand at some woodworking for a Young Men's activity Tuesday night.

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Nov. 16

I told Lisa to get me a plant stand for Christmas. She obliged, but never told me when it was coming so I opened it. I figured I might as well get as much use out of it as possible, so I set it up. Its wobbly and probably should have been returned, but since it just sits there, no one can tell that its messed up.

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Nov. 14

A couple of fun shirts I ordered off of Amazon. The left (light blue) I originally ordered for Gabe, but he wasn't interested in it, so I kept it for myself. The sleeves were stupidly long, so I tried to hem them shorter, but it still looks stupid but hopefully no one can tell. The shirt on the right I bought and wore for Thanksgiving, but I wore a white cardigan over it (it was cold) so no one hardly saw it.

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Nov. 18

Talking maps with Grandma! They went over maps for like an hour lol. Ian loves maps!  He also really likes lists, he's a smart and silly boy.

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Nov. 18

Erik and Grandpa went out to get Pho for dinner (it took a long time, see above pic!). It was ok. I ordered the beef and the beef itself was nasty. The noodles and stuff were interesting and fun to try, but for the price (and the wait time) I don't think we'll be back.

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Erik bought this over-sized calendar for us sometime in September or October at Walmart. As you can see, November was a very busy month!

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Here's a video of Ian playing a song (Malaguena) from level 3A Piano adventures.

Disneyland, Part 2

For lunch, Erik wanted to try the Jolly Holiday Bakery because they had macarons (and macaroni and cheese for Ian). If you use the Disneyland app, you can now order your food in advance. Unfortunately, there are limited time slots. By the time we were ready to eat, the next available time slot for online orders was 3 hours. Instead, we stood in line because it didn't look too long. We ended up waiting almost an hour to order our food, which was much longer than we waited for any ride that day.

The kids and Erik ordered grilled cheese sandwiches, and I ordered the roast beef sandwich. It was okay; definitely not worth the hour-long wait.

The Matterhorn Macaroon was coconutty.

The santa hat macaron was chocolatey and pepperminty; it was my favorite.

Their classic cookie is the raspberry rose macaron. It was good with the fresh raspberries inside, but I liked the santa hat macaron better.

The afternoon was another blur. We used Genie+ to ride Star Tours, Small World, the Haunted Mansion (yes again), Autopia (yes again), and Buzz Lightyear. Erik tried 2 more times to get a lightning lane pass for Big Thunder Mountain, but it kept breaking down. Genie+ converted our Thunder Mountain pass into a pass that could be used for several other rides. We ended up using it for Pirates (after it finally opened) and Nemo. Somewhere in there, we took a break for Mickey Ice Cream Bars and rode the train a couple times.

Ian put on his 3-D glasses as soon as we sat down for Star Tours.

The Disneyland Railroad is much more fun with a Mickey Ice Cream Bar.

The dolls alternated between singing "It's a Small World" and "Jingle Bells."

Haunted Mansion again. You can see Halloweentown in the background.

This is Snow White's Grotto next to the castle.

Gabe was all by himself on Buzz Lightyear.

Look at that tongue sticking out; it helps him focus.

It was hard to get around in the evening because the Christmas Parade kept passing by, and we had to wait for it. We waited in line for the new Snow White's Enchanted Wish, which was not very different from the old ride; it did have a few more special effects. Elisa really wanted to go on the Matterhorn, so we used Genie+ to skip the line. The kids also wanted to ride Splash Mountain again, so we used Genie+ again. It ended up being a complete waste because there was no line. In fact, we asked the cast members if we could ride it again since there was still no line when we finished. They said sure, and the kids got soaked because they were in the front. We also walked onto Winnie the Pooh since everyone else was watching Fantasmic.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle was all decorated for Christmas too.

We rode the Autopia again at night thanks to Genie+.

These 2 got completely drenched riding Splash Mountain twice in a row.

Erik and Gabe share the same goofy gene posing for pictures.

We learned our lesson from lunch and ordered dinner with the Disneyland app. We got soup in a bread bowl from the Royal Street Veranda, and we ate it at the dining area for the French Quarter. Elisa spilled her hot chocolate all over the table and all over me. Next, we saw that Big Thunder Mountain finally opened up, so we went to ride it again. The cast member told us to save our lightning lane for another ride because there was no line for Thunder Mountain. Then we tried to use our pass for the Jungle Cruise, but the cast member couldn't get it to work. She told us to just skip the line and use the pass for another ride. They changed a lot on the Jungle Cruise. I guess some the old stuff was racially insensitive (insert eyeroll). Erik suggested that we use the pass for the Millenium Falcon ride, and we wouldn't have to wait. We walked all the way to Star Wars land and rode Smugglers Run, but I could tell the kids were done. As we left Star Wars Land, Erik bought a cup of blue milk. It was weird; it tasted like fruity, sweet shampoo.

Soup in a bread bowl. The gumbo was quite spicy.

They directed us to leave the park behind all of the Main Street buildings since huge crowds were waiting for the fireworks to start.

On the way out, Gabe wanted to look for a Disneyland Train, so we stopped by Downtown Disney. We found a monorail, but it was around $200. Gabe definitely didn't have that much money on his spending card. We rode the tram back to the van, drove to the hotel, and went to bed.

The next day, we slept in and had breakfast at the hotel. It was okay. After that, we drove straight home, and it didn't take much longer than about 5 hours since the traffic was clear.

Disneyland, Part 1

November 11, 2022

Erik got a huge desk calendar for us to keep track of our schedules. He said that we had nothing planned the weekend of Veteran's Day, so we should go somewhere as a family. I thought we should go to Sedona, but he said we just went there. Erik wanted to go to Disneyland and try the new Genie+, which replaced the old fastpass system but costs $25 per person. I said that it wouldn't be very fun because it would be too busy and the kids would be too whiney. Long story short, Erik talked the kids into going, so we left shortly after everyone got home Friday afternoon. The drive wasn't too bad. We stayed in a Residence Inn, which was more like a small apartment with a small kitchen, sitting area, and 2 bedrooms. Even though it was 15 minutes away from Disneyland, Erik said it was the same price as one of the dumpy hotels across the street from the park. My friend Autumn came to visit us that night as we ate dinner from the Crab Cooker. We talked for a few hours while the kids watched tv in their room. Erik tried to get Gabe to do some missing school assignments on his Chromebook.

Elisa enjoyed the salmon and crab cakes from Crab Cooker.

Autumn and I have known each other since 2003.

November 12, 2022

The next morning, we got up and ate a small breakfast from our own snacks; the complimentary breakfast didn't open for another hour. We drove to the park to the Mickey and Friends parking structure. Unfortunately, parking didn't open until 1 hour before the park opened, so we had to wait in line for 10-20 minutes in the van. First line of the day. At least we were sitting down in our warm car. We walked through the cold parking structure, through security, and onto the tram. We walked right through the gates after they took our picture to pair with our tickets. We quickly walked down Main Street noticing all of the Christmas decorations. They made us wait at the end of Main Street until the rest of the park opened at 8am. Erik reserved a lightning lane with Genie+ for Indiana Jones. After what seemed like forever, they opened the park, and we went straight to the Haunted Mansion. The kids liked that it was decorated with the Nightmare Before Christmas theme. After that, we waited in line for Big Thunder Mountain, used our lightning lane for Indiana Jones, and waited in line for Splash Mountain.

Main Street was very Christmassy.

It was pretty chilly on Big Thunder Mountain even with the sun shining.

Elisa got to drive the jeep for the Indiana Jones ride; she was surprised that the steering wheel didn't turn.

Genie+ also gave us free pictures. Erik's leg got soaked on this ride.

Disneyland days are always a blur, so I'm not sure I'll get everything in. We took a quick snack break at Pooh Corner after we exited Splash Mountain. Erik bought some Tigger Tales, cake balls, and maybe a brownie. We made a lightning lane reservation for Big Thunder Mountain, but it broke down. Erik wanted to ride Pirates and Nemo early, but Pirates was down. When we looked at wait times in the Disneyland app, the line for Nemo was already long, so we went to Casey Junior instead. The kids were already hungry again, so we got some churros to tide them over. Good thing too; we waited almost 30 minutes to ride Casey Jr. We also made a lightning lane reservation for Space Mountain. While waiting for our return time, we waited in line for the Autopia. 

Who could resist this cute kid? Oh, and all the sweets too.

Sharing churros just like Lady and the Tramp.

Ian got more cinnamon and sugar on his face than in his mouth.

Ian was grumpy because we teased him about how he danced to the Casey Junior song the last time we went on this ride.

Erik and I like taking videos of the kids driving their Autopia cars.

Gabe and Ian got to ride in the front for Space Mountain, while I had to ride all alone.