Disneyland

Last week, we went to LA to watch the AVP Manhattan Open Volleyball tournament with some of our good friends. This is a very special tournament for us - its not only beautiful but it is also where John proposed to me - 5 years ago. So we just love Manhattan Beach!

Ethan's actual b-day
On August 11th, Ethan turned 3 years old officially. We spent the day at Manhattan Beach in LA with our good friends Jen and Rommel (and their three kids, Nia, Teo and Emilee). That evening our friends hooked us up with a great BBQ and we had cake and ice cream to celebrate Ethan's birthday. We opened gifts and then Nia and Erisijah performed a dance for us. It was a dance they had choreographed themselves - it was fun and we all got a kick out of watching them perform! Even little Emilee did a little dance! Ethan started to dance a little bit too but ended up getting shy so he stopped. But he had a great birthday!

From left to right - Teo, Emilee (making a funny face), Ethan (the birthday boy), Nia, Zoe and Yaya...

See, even Zoe loved the beach...

Mommy - check us out - we love the sand!

Yaya and Nia - they just met but looks like they've known eachother for years.

Disneyland and California Adventure

On Sunday afternoon, after the volleyball tournament, we headed to our hotel across the street from Disneyland. We were meeting John's family, almost entire family, at the hotel. There were 15 of us in total!! We went to Downtown Disneyland that evening and hung out near the hotel, had dinner and went swimming. The next day, we headed to Disneyland - the happiest place on earth (truly, it is)! We had such a great time! We went on lots of rides and just had FUN FUN FUN. We saw "Fantasmic" and the "Parade of Dreams" and some of the "Dreams Come True Fireworks" and really enjoyed ourselves. We spent the entire day there - we got there when they opened and stayed til 11:30PM (except for the two hour nap - which we ALL needed, not just the kids). I think we all had more fun than we expected.

The next day, we went to California Adventure for half a day. We went on some kiddie rides and then did a little bit of shopping. Ethan and Zoe were starting to get tired and cranky, so John and I went back with the kids to our room. The others stayed to ride some of the bigger rides. After the much needed nap, we all met up and spent the rest of the day at Disneyland.

Some of our favorite rides were:

-Its a Small World - a classic Disneyland ride!
-Indiana Jones Adventure- such a cool ride. Only Erisijah and all the big kids (like me and John) went on this ride. Disney did a great job with this one! This one was probably my favorite.
-Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - fun and scary! I'd never been on this one before - was fun!!!

Here we are - all of us! This might be one of the only pictures we got of all of us!

Carla and Isa(belle)

Grandma, Yaya and some of the boys

Ethan, Yaya and I - on the Nemo ride!

A bunch of rowdy Castillos...

Babbess...wishing she was on the float with Ariel (the little mermaid)...

Ethan and Yaya visiting Mini at her house in Toontown.

Zoe and her Ninong Jeremy (Zoe is trying on her ears to make sure they fit well).

John, Ethan, Zoe and myself...

Sleeping in his own room
Now that Ethan is three years old, it was time for us to move him out of our bedroom and into his own bedroom. Actually, he and Zoe are sharing a room for now. We thought long and hard about it whether or not they should share a room. We weren't sure if they'd wake each other up or if it was okay since they are different sexes. But there were lots of benefits of them sharing. So, we decided that we'd try it! The first night, they both woke up a couple times each. Ethan wanted to come back into our bed and at about 5AM, I finally gave in. I didn't want him to wake up his sister and I was tired of getting out of bed to tell him to sleep a little longer. But, 5AM is not too bad. Plus I missed him. The second night went better - they woke eachother up twice total. Ethan didn't show up in our room until 7AM so that was pretty good! We'll see how the rest of the week goes...