Disneyland 4, the flying rides

Here's the Dumbo ride, Jake was pretty excited about all the flying rides. And they had just seen Dumbo for the first time in the car on the way down, so they were really excited about this ride!
They didn't quite get the hang of the lever to fly up until close to the end.
Brian braved the rockets, which were a lot more "active" a ride than Dumbo. This look on his face wasn't a temporary, bad picture thing, this occured whenever he went on a ride that messed with his equalibrium. Yeah, the rockets didn't sit too well with him!
They are the rocket to the far left, and they were pretty high off the ground at that point.

Jedi Training academy

Tyler got picked out of the crowd as one of the 25 kids to attend Jedi Training academy. He got dressed up and given a light saber and got training from real Jedis!
After the training, could you guess who showed up? Yes, the REAL darth vador, two storm troopers and Darth Maul!
Tyler was brought head to head with Darth Maul, in a test of his Jedi skills, he did great!
He would never turn to the dark side!
Darth vador was defeated and the Jedi's now have 25 new members to their ranks

Disneyland 3, The buzz lightyear ride

Star Command's newest recruits! The most ridden on ride of the trip was the Buzz Lightyear ride! We rode this probably 15 times. It was very cool!
Jake wasn't sure what to expect from this ride, so he was a little freaked out at this point
The ride had these cool little laser guns that you point at the targets (on the enemy robots and zurg himself) and shoot. The guns keep track of your hits and you can have your picture, and your score emailed to you. Our are sitting in my inbox.
We had a blast on this ride, Jake especially, the buzz lightyear freak, was really excited to shoot zurg!
Here he is, with the sworn enemy of buzz lightyear in the background, Jake's got his game face on!

Disneyland Set 2

The bridge at Tom Sawyer Island.
The kids "heave-ho-ed" on this leaver and it made the sunken treasure come up from under the water

The boys spent some of their money on shooting, so they had their first shooting lessons with dad

Jake could barely hold up the gun it was so heavy!

The First of Many Disneyland pictures!

You may look at this and wonder, why the stairs? Well, when Brian and I visited Disneyland in our newlywed stage, we took a picture of us by these stairs, we wanted one with the kids to show how much our family has grown.
This was the beginning of the Haunted Mansion, Jake was a little concerned when the "spooky" voice started talking, we convinced him it was like being in a scooby doo movie, then he was okay!
This is post splash on splash mountain. Notice the look on Jake's face, we saw this a lot over the 2 days we were there. Usually after a big, scary, thrilling ride was over.
This is mom and Tyler post splash, Tyler is smiling, but not happy! He did NOT like getting wet, and definatly did not have the giddy, happy look Jake displayed after each big ride. Tyler was very firm, he would ride everything once, but he would not be joining anyone on the thrilling rides twice.
I just thought this was cute. Tyler was not happy to go on the winnie the pooh ride, he said it was for babies, but he certainly didn't mind climbing on the "baby" honey pots!

The cake

Here is my latest cake creation...the tank! I loved making this cake, although getting the shape of the tank just right was a little nerve wracking. The kids at the party loved it! No one had ever seen a tank cake before, and I could tell Tyler was pretty proud of his cake.

Tyler's 6th Birthday

Tyler loves army men so much, he wanted an army birthday party. So we decided on marshmellow guns, face paint, bandanas and tattoos. Yes, the mothers just loved me! The boys went on a scavenger hunt to get "outfitted" for their war games. They found their bandanas first, then the face paints, then tattoos, and finally, marshmellow guns made from PVC pipe. We supplied them with "ammo" (mini marshmallows) and let them shoot each other for most of the party!
Here are the troops in full gear and ready to roll.
This is what we lovingly refer to as the Tylers. This is our Tyler's best friend, Tyler. These guys are the best of buddies and really make a great pair. They play well, are nice to each other and siblings and basically make life a lot easier for everyone when they are together!
This was Tyler's crazy face, he was very intent on "destroying the enemy". This really was a fun birthday. And easy too! the kids just ran around the backyard all day! You can't ask for more than that!