What's Up Wednesday

It is time for another What's Up Wednesday since the month is ending.  As soon as we finish Halloween it is time to put up those Thanksgiving decorations and before I know it it will be time to put up my Christmas decorations.


What we're eating this week:  It has finally been cooling down here a bit so I am doing a bit more cooking. This weekend I made a big pot of split pea soup to eat for lunches this week.  As a kid my mom always put cut up hot dogs in it but I stuck to some chopped up ham.

What I'm reminiscing about: Now that the weather has cooled down a bit (at least in the mornings) I am kind of missing sitting by the pool with my mom and sister on our little girls trip to San Diego.  Even though our weather is plenty warm during the summer here I don't get very many opportunities to wear my swimsuit or cute coverup. We has such a fun weekend! 

What I'm loving: I am loving all my fun Halloween decorations.  Last year we weren't quite unpacked enough to put up Halloween decorations so this is the first year I got to decorate our new place for Halloween.

What we've been up to: A couple of weeks ago a girlfriend and I went out to dinner at this fun fondue place we have been going to for years.  We try to go at least once or twice a year since it is a bit pricy but oh so fun. We used to always get the same cheese fondue but a couple of years ago they discontinued that one so now we try different cheese every time we go. We always read the dessert menu and end up getting the same dark chocolate and toffee fondue.

What I'm dreading: My husband and I started IVF a couple of months ago and just finished our second round. We are doing three rounds of egg harvesting before we move on to implantation so I have 1 more round to go.   I start shots again in a couple of weeks so I while I am excited about starting a family I an definitely dreading all the shots and medication especially now that I know all the different things to expect after doing it twice. I am still working on my post about our second round so stay tuned for that once we get the final results of that round.





What I'm working on: I bought a bunch of frames to make a gallery wall on our living room wall so now I just have to pick out the pictures to put in the frames and get them printed.  I am thinking of putting a few wedding pictures, a few from our honeymoon and some other to be decided photos.

What I'm excited about: While I am dreading the parts of the IVF process I am really excited about hopefully adding a new member to our family some time next year.  Fingers crossed.

What I'm watching/reading: I have been watching the new season of Call the Midwife on Netflix and just finished the newest season of the Great British Bake-Off that is on Netflix. I know that in the UK there is one more season that has aired and it is coming to Netflix next month. 

What I'm listening to: Mostly whatever comes on my Pandora which is usually a mix of country and a random mix of 90s-00s pop music.  Everyone needs some Britney in their life every once in a while.

What I'm wearing: I got this really fun flowey grey plaid dress on sale at Old Navy and decided it would pair really my mustard cardigan that has been on repeat all fall.  I decided to make the outfit feel really fall and pair it with my Penny boots. I have had these boots for a few year and love that they come in a wide calf version.

What I'm doing this weekend: I am heading to Lake Tahoe with my husband and his siblings for the weekend.  It is kind of weird time of year in Tahoe because all the summer activities have ended and most of the winter ones don't start until the middle of November.  I did find a skating rink near where we are staying that is going to be open so we might venture there.

Happy Wednesday and Happy Halloween!

Disneyland Decorated For Halloween

In addition to all the fabulous Halloween foods and the fun Halloween photo ops Disneyland and California Adventure are all dressed up and decorated for Halloween.

As you stand at the entrance to California Adventure you are greeted by Oogie Boogie. In addition to looming over the entrance he also speaks every few minutes just to add to the spooky factor.  It looks cool during the day but you really can't beat the night view of the entrance.

As you walk down Buena Visa Street you will see the bell tower of Carthay Circle with spooky bats coming out of it.  Again it looks cool during the day but you really have to see it at night to get the full effect. I love purple so I was a big fan of all the purple twinkle lights in the trees.

In addition to all decorations as you enter California Adventure there are tons of decorations in Carsland.  The entrance billboard is all done up for Halloween.  There are so many details in Carsland that it is hard to notice them all. The cones of the Cozy Cone are done up like jack-o-lanterns, there are spooky faces made out of tires hanging and the posters on the left side are all Halloween movie spoofs. Both the Mater and the Luigi ride have special Halloween songs playing instead of their normal songs which makes them extra fun.

Hollywoodland isn't really decorated for Halloween per say but the Guardians of the Galaxy ride turns into Monsters After Dark at 5 PM every evening.  The music is different, it is super dark and the whole ride has a new storyline.  It is really good but if you have never ridden the regular ride during the day I would recommend doing that before riding it at night because the storyline is really like a part 2 to the regular ride.

The decorations in Disneyland are a little more focused on cute and a little less focused on spooky.  Pumpkin Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy greet you as you go through the turnstiles into the park.

As you walk down Main Street in addition the the giant jack-o-lantern in the town square there are tons of fun details on the lampposts, balconies and windows of all the shops. On the nights that there is a Halloween party they even put up Mickey ghosts that glow at night.

I didn't manage to take a picture of it but in Frontierland there is a "Halloween Tree" that has all kinds of pumpkins hanging from it.  It is really neat looking especially at night. 

The Haunted Mansion transforms into The Nightmare Before Christmas right before Halloween and it stays that way until the Christmas season ends during the first week of January. I actually slightly prefer the regular Haunted Mansion but I do enjoy seeing what the Disney imagineers do each year for the gingerbread house in the ballroom scene. The ride that transforms for Halloween that I really don't like is the transformation of Space Mountain into Ghost Galaxy.  I just don't need to see bloody heads and hands flying past me while I go on ride.

The parks aren't the only things at the resort that get all decorated for Halloween. Downtown Disney has all kinds of Fall and Halloween decorations in the planters throughout the area.

I didn't go into Paradise Pier or The Disneyland Hotel but The Grand Californian had some fun fall and Halloween decorations in its lobby. All the flower arrangements had fall leaves and all sorts of gourds in them. The main attraction in the lobby was the giant candy/cake pumpkin display. One afternoon I was sitting in the lobby resting and an acapella group came out to perform Halloween songs which made the experience even better.



All the Halloween decorations will be up for another week or so and then it is time for Christmas.

As much as the Halloween decorations are fun I am a Christmas girl through and through so I can't wait to see what Disney has in store for Christmas.

Halloween Decorations

I meant to switch out some of my fall decorations for some Halloween decorations right around the first of October but life got in the way and I didn't get around to putting up Halloween decorations until this weekend.

While I was at Trader Joe's over the weekend I saw these really neat pumpkin looking "flowers" and decided they called for a spooky arrangement.  I added some dark leafy things and some relative of eucalyptus to make my arrangement and it came out exactly how I was imagining it. 

I put a fun spider table runner on our side table and then added a few other spooky decorations.  My favorite Halloween decoration is that little purple spider that is sitting on top of all the glitter pumpkins.

Since were already halfway through the month by the time I got around to decorating I kind just left my dining area as fall and put a little spooky sign on our TV stand and then called it a day. 

An added benefit of this fun arrangement in addition to looking really cool and spooky is that is smells amazing.  Every time I walk into my house it just smells so good.

Halloween Photo Ops at Disneyland

During Halloween Time at Disneyland in addition to lots of fun decorations and delicious food there are a bunch of different special photo ops around the parks to take advantage of.  As part of my annual pass I have Maxpass which allows me to download all the photos Disney photographers take with their cameras so I like to take advantage of it.  

Right in the town square of Disneyland is a giant smiling Mickey pumpkin.  The pumpkin has two sides to take pictures in front of but they aren't exactly the same.   The side that has the train station in the background is winking and the side that has the castle in the background is just a smiling Mickey jack-o-lantern. When I was there the Disney photographer was there taking pictures pretty much all day so don't feel like you have to do this photo op right when you get into the park but I think the line tends to be shorter earlier in the day.

The side of pumpkin that has the castle in the background always has a longer line so unless you have your heart set on having a bit of the castle in the background (the pumpkin covers most of it) it is a better use of your time to go to the side that faces the train station.

In California Adventure in the Plaza de Familia over near Paradise Gardens there is a fun photo op.  Not only are there these really beautiful wings but there is also a smaller set made for a kids photo op on the wall right next to this one. While Plaza de Familia is centered around Dia de Los Muertos so it is going away at the end of the Halloween season I am not sure if these walls are temporary or a permanent addition. When I was there I didn't see a professional Disney photographer but lots of people were taking pictures so it wasn't hard to find someone to take mine.

In California Adventure in Hollywoodland there was a special photo op for Annual Passholders. It was in a little courtyard in the back of the land kind of next to the Monsters Inc ride.  In addition to the photo op you also got a Annual Pass Halloween button. I love how the colors of my cardigan and Mickey and Minnie shirt go so well with this backdrop

The best part of this photo op was that they had a smoke machine back there to make the photos look extra spooky.  There were only about 4 or 5 groups in front of me when I went in the middle of the day so the wait time was pretty short for this photo op.

In California Adventure right near the entrance to Carsland there is a whole little Halloween set up for taking pictures in front of.  The line for this photo op tends to get longer and longer as the day goes on so if you are there in the morning and see a short line I would recommend taking advantage of it.

This spot had a fun photo op during Pixar Fest too so I am hoping there is another fun photo op for the Christmas season.  I will let you know next month!

After all these fun photo ops around the park you can't forget about character meet and greets.  All the classic characters are dressed up in their Halloween best in both parks.  Each character has a different outfit depending if they are in Disneyland or California Adventure.

At Disneyland Goofy was dressed as a skeleton and I really wanted to take a picture with him but it didn't work out this trip. I did get to take some fun shots with Mickey Mouse and he quite liked my blue Mickey Mouse shirt

In addition to my Micky photo op I also found the very lovely and festive Minnie Mouse all dressed in her Halloween best. Fun fact about my Micky Mouse skeleton shirt: It glows in the dark!

There are a few other photo ops around the parks that I didn't make it to and a bunch of special photo ops and villains to take pictures with that are only available at Mickey's Halloween Party but since I didn't buy a ticket to the party this year I missed those.  Can't wait to see what special photo ops there are at Christmas and I have a whole post about some of the more permanent photo ops coming soon.

Stitch Fix #36

I requested this month's Stitch Fix right before I started my first round of IVF.  I knew that all the shots would make my abdomen sore and puffy so I asked for comfy clothing to wear. What I didn't know was that I wouldn't want pants of any sort so dresses would be the only thing that would fit.

The first thing I got in my box was this very cute burgundy striped dress.  It is hard to tell from this picture the but dress is slightly fuzzy and super comfy. It fit well and looked cute even when my stomach was all puffy so I kept this dress and put it in my rotation of dresses to wear during IVF.

Now after the high note of the burgundy dress there were these burgundy leggings that were the low note of the box.  They were a thick polyester type fabric with a black and white stripe down the side and they were just about the ugliest thing ever.  It was a very easy decision to send back these leggings.

This dress fit fine and was kind of cute but I don't really like the cross across the neckline and I felt like it veered a little bit too cowgirl for me. It would have been cute with a pair of cowboy boots but that is just not really my style.

This shirt was super super soft and cozy but by the time the box arrived I had figured out that IVF and pants don't really go together so I didn't need a shirt because I couldn't wear pants at that point. 

This could have been cute if it had been a dress but it was a tunic so it was not very useful for IVF so I sent it back.

I only kept one thing this month but part of that was due to the fact that I didn't know to only request dresses or accessories because shirts are useless when you can't wear pants. This month I gave a much better description of what I can wear and can't wear so I am looking forward to seeing what comes in my box this month.