homemade toys:: disneyland pt. 2

last time we went to disneyland, jane was inspired to create some toy-rides for her hello kitty toys. and ever since we got back from our 2nd trip to disneyland, she has been making more and more rides for the kitties to enjoy. she made a pretty elaborate buzz light year bllaster ride that I wished that I had taken a picture of. it had a blacklight, toy story figures, and all kind of cool features. she also made a toy story mania ride out of legos that had targets for the kitties to shoot at and carts for the kitties to ride through the ride on. it was very similar to the actual ride.

the other day jane said, "what should we make next?" I said, "well, what rides did you really like?" she said, "I liked the swing ride. why don't we make a swing ride?!" that took a lot of thought. deanna suggested that I go take a long shower to figure that out. I do some of my best thinking in the shower. the warm water must warm up my brain. she was right. at the end of my shower I knew how I was going to make it. I made a quick trip to homme depot. I used a lazy susan that we had in our pantry, a dowel for hanging up clothes, some string, some industrial velcro, a bucket-lid, and some clips for hanging mini-blinds as seats. and it works! of all of the toys I have made for jane, I think this is the one I'm most proud of.

being a dad is fun.

-rob

disneyland part 3

this year, jane has REALLY been into toy story 3; and it didn't take us long to decide that our next vacation would have a toy story-focus down at disneyland!

its halloween-time over at disneyland- and kids can come dressed in a costume. on certain days, disneyland closes early to allow for a special halloween party with unique music, decorations, character-meet and greets, trick-or-treating, and a special halloween parade and fireworks show. we were elated when my friend chris surprised us with tickets for this exclusive party! jane got to see her first fireworks show- and she loved it. and she got to dress up in her jessie costume and take pictures with some of her favorite toy story characters:

keeping with our toy-story theme, we also played several rounds of buzz light year's blasters

and we even tracked down buzz and got a photo with him.

we also discovered an awesome new ride: toy story mania! it was broken for most of the time that we were there, and the line was super-long, but we did get to ride it twice. it was worth the wait.

probably the most special toy story moment that we had was during the toy story parade. my friend chris knows jessie and told her that her biggest fan was in the crowd. she made an extra-special effort to wave to jane and blow her a kiss. then she sprayed us with water.

we had lots of other non-toy-story highlights too.

jane discovered the swing ride at california adventure:

after-swings from rob walter on Vimeo.

we also got to see disney's new water and light show, world of color.

jane was in tears when it was over. I thought she was scared- she was sad to see it end.

 

we had such a fun time as a family. I am constantly surprised at jane's great attitude, patience and ability to adapt to new situations. as usual, we got to take lots of pictures, we got to ride lots of rides, and got to meet some of our favorite characters. here are some more photos and videos of our time together. like I often say, being a dad is fun.

tigger from rob walter on Vimeo.