EuroDisney photos

We had the best time at EuroDisney despite some problems finding our B&B. We had been reassured by our carrier we would have coverage in France, but that was not the case. Our B&B host said to just call him when we got close to Disneyland and he would pick us up. We ran into friends from Bahrain outside of Disneyland and they let us borrow their phone, but the guy didn't pick up. We took the bus to the neighborhood the apartment was in. We were a block away, but didn't know it. We had our luggage, two kids, sitting on a bus bench at 10 p.m. at night wondering what we were going to do. Get a taxi to whatever hotel we can? Bu Roger found a McDonalds that was open and had WiFi. He e-mailed the guy a text, and next thing we know there he is ready to take us to the place! Whew! Such a blessing it worked out. And from now on- we are buying local SIMS at airports.
EuroDisney was really neat. It is two-thirds the size of regular Disneyland. I think. There are some differences, like the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House didn't make the Tarzan switch. The Haunted Mansion is in the Wild West and has this crazy dead cowboys and saloon girls thing right in the middle that made no sense. There is an Alice in Wonderland topiary garden maze with a castle instead of the Caterpillar Ride that we really loved. There is no Toon Town and instead of the Submarine Ride, they had a replica of the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Pirates of the Caribbean didn't have the Johnny Depp / Captain Jack Sparrow updates. The cave mazes were all pirate inspired vs. Tom Sawyer inspired. No Matterhorn. But they did have....Captain EO!!! Roger was so excited to see it in all its glory.
It was so much fun. Evelyn's favorite ride was Space Mountain. Edward liked the Peter Pan ride and the Buzz Lightyear Blasters ride. We all had fun driving around on Autotopia.
Instead of California Adventure, they have Walt Disney Studios, which is kind of like Universal Studios. We saw a really neat car stunt show, an interactive Lilo and Stitch show and met some characters- Buzz and Jessie were the favorites. They had a Cars themed ride, a Slinky Dog ride and a RC Racer ride that were good. We did the Armageddon stunt show and the backlot tour which Edward hated because they were loud and scary. Evelyn and I did the Tower of Terror and the French cast member said a bad word to us! That was pretty interesting- the cast members were just typical French people- not super-perky, super-pretty, college-aged Californians! Line management seems a lot better in California too- but it wasn't too bad.
We got poured on our first day and my sweater wouldn't get dry so I ended up buying a GAP sweatshirt I wore the remainder of our trip. Luckily I packed more layers for everyone else! After the rainstorm, the park cleared out so that is when we got most of our rides in. How is that for a silver lining? Also, don't catch the last free shuttle out of the park. I can see how people get trampled to death and that was a mild-mannered crowd of kids, parents and grandparents. Luckily a transit authority was able to establish order and we made it back okay! 
We had a really wonderful time. The kids were the perfect ages for it. It was a lot of fun seeing them have so much fun. 

Fashion Camp

Back in Bahrain, Evelyn is attending fashion design camp. Here is the project she worked on this week, an elastic dress with halter, belt and hand-made flower embellishments. She was a natural at the sewing machine- whipping out row after row of straight lines on her first day. She had so much fun, we are signing her up for another week! So glad she is learning some sewing skills from some pros.

Favorite Edward quotes

Here are some favorite Edward quotes from just today:

"Ro-bot, Ro-bot, Ro-bot. I am a Ro-bot."
"It is a rainbow orange. I have to cut this orange before it dies. Mmmm, juicy."
"I wook incwedable!"
"You are a silly old!"
"Oh yeah!"
"Where is my choke chain?"
"Oh yeah- I will go to Evelyn's school. My mom can be the teacher."
"Only girls are cute! Boys are just handsome."
"I smell like a daddy!" (spraying on cologne)
"Shove you in the air conditioning!"
"Do you want to have a camp fire? I have hot dogs but no buns. And marshmallows." (This was while playing Star Wars with Roger- no matter what we play with him the story line always goes back to a camp fire bbq)

Glamour shot

Here is Edward's glamour shot from modeling class- handsome, just like his dad! (But he lets me dress him and Roger doesn't :)

Chillin at Chilis

Here we are, celebrating at Chili's. My fajitas and the strawberry lemonades were good!

Edward's pizza was the worst we had ever tasted- there was seriously something wrong with it. He said, "It tastes like poison!" Here is his "poison face." As a special treat, Evelyn got broccoli as her side. Oh my! I guess I need to serve more broccoli!

Strike a pose

Edward has been taking modeling classes after being in the Gymboree fashion show, and he loves them. He comes us to us and starts arranging our faces, "Make a mad face!" And he has gotten a lot more expressive too. They do some hair and makeup on them and take a lot of pictures to get them used to that sort of thing. We are supposed to get the pictures sometime soon, but in the meantime, here are some we shot after his classes. So no, I don't apply guy-liner to my three year old, or fake mustaches- but they are sure cute!

 

 A mad face!

 A surprised face!

 A silly face.

A shark face. (Yeah- from Edward's descriptions a mouth-open happy-face is shark face I guess?)

ballet

Evelyn just finished her ballet recital. She was a Wilis from the ballet Giselle. The Wilis are the spirits of jilted women who die before their wedding days. They make men dance to their deaths. Evelyn did great! She is growing up so fast! Being in full stage makeup gave me a glimpse of her as a teenager! Not ready to think about that yet.