Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween


Well Halloween was pretty much a bust this year.  Daddy had to take Baachan to a Dr. appt so we decided to meet in town and have dinner together, then Daddy took them home, we got back in the car and went BACK to town to Trick-Or-Treat at some friends house .... BUT we wanted to surprise them and unfortunately out of the 5 houses we planned we got to see 2 :(  Next year we will probably opt for traditional door to door knocking.  Sakura was happy none the less and got a lot of candy just trick-or-treating those few houses and then Baachan and Jiichan's next door neighbors house.  I took these at Olive Garden while we waited for our food, thank goodness, otherwise I probably wouldn't have any of Sakura in her costume!

This year we opted for MINNIE MOUSE!  Sakura chose when she saw me looking online for costumes she announced I WANT TO BE MINNIE MOUSE ---- well OK who can argue with that?






That's all folks - our little Minnie Mouse was as cute as can be :)

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Pumpkin Carving!

After being inspired by Auntie Misty's Minnie Mouse pumpkin we decided to give it a shot, we've NEVER done one of these fancy pumpkins but were we ever surprised at how good it came out.  
We LOVE our Minnie Mouse pumpkin despite if "fading" very quickly in just a few days :(

Pumpkin carving with Daddy at Baachan and Jiichan's house

Digging out the GOO - ICK!

All done, how does she look?????

We love her!  Great job Daddy!!!

All finished and ready to head home with Minnie

Illuminated Minnie

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Meeting up with two of our favorite families!

We got really lucky this trip, as it happened to be at the same time that our great friends from Hawaii were visiting Disneyland too.  You know any chance we get we meet up with the first friends Sakura ever had, this was no exception ... we planned to meet for lunch at our FAV Naples Pizza.

First we headed to DCA and did some rides, shopping, characters, show ... while we "waited" for our meeting time.  

Yes, ANY chance she gets she dances. There's extra twirl in this top.

HI Mickey!

Chip and Dale too

Just posing for Mommy ... Signature Sakura style too!

Which ride would we head to first, naturally King Triton's Carousel
LOVE the new CarsLand!
Sitting in a cone :)
Time to head over for lunch and look who we spot - SENA!!!  They got there right after we did, Sena wasn't really into posing this trip, he would rather play and watch his DVD but we did manage to snap a couple pictures none-the-less.  We sure love these guys!

Sakura and Sena
Poor Michael is pretty "shy" ... but Sakura doesn't care she will still try and give him a smooch :) 

AND a hug!

The balloon animals/flowers kept them busy, they really enjoyed playing with each other and their balloons.
We headed back to the hotel after lunch so Sakura could catch a nap, yes this girl requires a nap and is always happy to oblige us.
Awake and ready to head back and meet up with Uncle Ward,  Auntie Dale and Sena (and Sena's Baachan) 

I thought this display was too cute to pass by ...  Sakura is pretty fond of Mickey!

Enough to give him a kiss on the nose - LOL!

We LOVE Uncle Ward and Auntie Dale so much!!!

Uh Oh - looks like it's Sena's turn for a nap ... poor guy was BEAT!

Sakura and Daddy enjoying the sites

Sakura opted for one last ride with Ariel ... off we go!

We never tire of seeing the beautiful sites of the parks after dark!

Mommy and Sakura watching the happenings 
We headed over to Disneyland and look who we found as soon as we walked through the gate!
GOOFY!

Last ride on the carousel ... it's time for the Fireworks and there was NOBODY back here!  SO nice!
We woke up bright and early and headed back to the parks, Disneyland today!  We got lucky and got a FRONT and CENTER seat on the monorail - it was pretty cool!!!

With our Monorail pilot!
OK you know we've been to Disneyland .... I don't even know how many times, but I'm telling you each and every visit there is something that is memorable, well this visit topped ALL previous visits.  Sakura had been talking about wanting Ariel to walk with her ... I have NO idea where in the world she got that from, but for whatever reason she's been talking about it (for MONTHS) .... LOOK who was our 1st Princess of the day - Ariel!  Well Sakura walked up, chatted with Ariel and when she was finished I just casually mentioned about "the walk" - Ariel politely said that she couldn't do that, BUT as we were about to walk to Mulan, Ariel said "Let me walk you over to meet my friend Jasmine" - I lost it ... seriously I did not expect Ariel to walk with Sakura at all, but she went above all and made Sakura's "wish" come true.  I couldn't grab the camera of them walking, but I managed to capture it on my cell.  It was SWEET and I couldn't be more appreciative of moments like this - THIS is what makes Disneyland SO magical!

Running up to Ariel - her FAVORITE Princess!

Chatting with Ariel


The SWEETEST moment in a very long time - as you can see by the look on Mulan's face this isn't something they typically do
Mulan was asking Sakura how old she is .... Three!

I think her name is Tiana?  I've never seen that movie
We headed to ToonTown for a visit with Minnie at her house.
Daddy asked Sakura what she wanted to do before we leave, she said she wanted to go to Pixie Hollow so that's what we did .... except we had NO idea we'd be in line for the longest time ever - close to 2 hours waiting to see Tinker Bell --- UGH!!!

Pixies!



Time to head home :(

Waiting to board the monorail to head home ... we love love love Disneyland and will be SO sad when our season passes expire since we aren't renewing :(

Sad to be leaving
On the way home we made a stop for Baachan and Jiichan at Marukai for some grocery shopping ...

Sakura poses with a BIG Hello Kitty bow
BUGS on our ride home
Not sure how this got out of order, but here we were waiting to ride King Triton's carousel

Saturday, October 6, 2012

A little trip to So. Cal

Things have been a little crazy around here for awhile so Daddy decided that we should take a little trip to our favorite place .... who would argue?  NOT me (OR Sakura!).  The best part was this time we were joined with a couple of our favorite people who recently moved to So. Cal - 
Auntie Misty and Kumi!  We got up super early and drove straight to Tanaka Farms Pumpkin Patch!  OMGOODNESS what a fun place!  We loved it.  It was a super warm weekend, but we didn't let that get the best of us.  We are so fortunate to have the best friends who are more like family that we will get to spend much more time with now that they live closer!  Yay! 

Reunited with Kumi - ready to tackle the maze!
But first a tractor ride .... can you tell they were having a blast!
Riding on the tractor
Sheer joy running after Daddy and Kumi!
That Kumi is QUICK - she's got some long legs and can run FAST!!!
Cheater Cheaters!!!  Who cares when you're having fun?! 
There goes Kumi!

AND Sakura is following behind.....
Heading through the corn maze with Daddy
Time to head to the hotel .... wait up Daddy!

We finished up at the Pumpkin Patch, then headed to Anaheim to check in at the hotel(s).  Misty and Kumi stayed in Anaheim too - so we got a couple of fun days together!  What a treat!  So after we checked in, we headed over to Downtown Disney - well maybe I should say we took a leisurely stroll (I should mention this is a good couple mile walk!) over to Downtown Disney for some dinner and browsing.  Kumi really wanted to eat at Rainforest Cafe, Sakura isn't a fan - but we managed to convince her that it was the thing to do (haha!), we checked in and it was (If I remember correctly) something like a 90 minute wait, so we put our name down, and went browsing through the shops .... but ended up checking our favorite Naples which said they could seat us in 15 minutes so we opted for that - the cool thing is that they now TEXT you when your table is ready and maybe 5 minutes after we got to the Roxy shop, my phone was buzzing.... so we headed over for dinner.


And then pizza ... YUMMMMMMY!
DROOLING over those delicious looking apples!
Kumi and Sakura making some Lego people

Sakura and I got up bright and early and walked over to meet Auntie Misty and Kumi for some breakfast and spend the day together.  Daddy left us alone and went off to wander around 
Frank and Sons.  We didn't have any definite plans and ended up just having breakfast and then wandering around Downtown Disney which is always nice.  WE love Downtown Disney and looking in all of the shops sans men who get bored easier than us women do!

Silly Girls with Auntie Misty
Sakura found something quite funny obviously
Two gorgeous girls at breakfast --- LOVE these girls!
We finished up our breakfast, visited and then headed over to Downtown Disney.

Kumi and Sakura hanging out by Rainforest Cafe


Sakura is CRAZY for Auntie Misty!
A little Downtown Disney fun was face painting, Sakura and Kumi both chose Little Mermaid masks.

Pretty Little Mermaid
Posing with the lady who did their faces

One exhausted Little Mermaid! 
Luckily we were able to eat at Rainforest Cafe today for Kumi, and then sadly we had to say our goodbyes and Auntie Misty and Kumi headed home.