Mickey's Halloween Party/ミッキーのハロウィンパーティー

Halloween Party #2 took us to Disneyland and has given the Kleins a new family tradition!!
ハロウィンパーティー第２弾はクライン家の新しい伝統にする事にした、ディズニーランドでやっているミッキーのハロウィンパーティーへの参加です!!

Anna is holding the main reason we decided to go...when we had gone to Downtown Disney a few weeks ago, we saw everyone coming out with these Mickey containers and fell in love...when we found out you could only get them inside the park...we hatched our crazy plan...
行く事にした理由の主はアンナなんです...この前ダウンタウンディズニーに行った時にディズニーランドから出て来た沢山の人達が持っていたミッキーゴーストの入れ物...それがとても気に入ってしまって、それから何とかミッキーゴーストを手に入れる計画を立て始めたんです...

We decided we would win tickets off the radio...so we texted at the appropriate time once and nothing happened, so we gave up on that plan and when I got a check I wasn't expecting at 1pm Friday, I texted Anna and said how about Mickey's Halloween Party Tonight and so we went!!
まず最初にあるラジオ番組で一日一人視聴者に当たるミッキーのハロウィンパーティーの券を当てようと頑張ったんだけどすぐに諦めました。そして、金曜日の午後１時頃に思いも寄らなく時間外の給料を貰ったのでアンナと相談して行く事決定!!

We weren't actually sure how the whole thing worked...our ticket said Mickey's Halloween Party was from 7pm to midnight, but that we could enter the park as early as 4pm...so we got there at 5:30pm and were given a yellow bracelet which meant we could stay in the park when it closed for everyone without a yellow bracelet at 7pm. So we weren't sure if all the rides would close and all we would get to do was trick or treat around Disneyland...still cool...so immediately upon entering the park, we see our crowning jewel, but not having eaten dinner yet, we didn't feel like a tub of popcorn, so we wandered around a bit and then after eating dinner it was 6:51pm and they were announcing that the park would be closing at 7pm...we saw one popcorn stand closed so we freaked out thinking they were all going to close at 7pm and after asking a staff member we were told they would be closing so Anna sprinted through the park and tried to make it to an open stand before 7pm...obviously she succeeded...then all night we saw popcorn stands open with Mickey ghosts as the park was business as usual...the only difference was only people with yellow wristbands were allowed to ride the rides and go trick or treating, everyone else had to leave...it was awesome...when we left the park at 11pm (yes Jim and Alyson we left an hour early :-) and saw a stand right at the exit selling the Mickey ghost, we had to chuckle...30 minutes later we were back at our apartment...too cool!!
ミッキーのハロウィンパーティーは夜の７時から１２時までって書いてあったんだけど、パークには４時以降は入れると言う事。僕が家に着いて直ぐ出発してディズニーランドに到着したのは５時半頃でした。入り口で特別にオレンジ色の腕輪見たいのを貰ってワクワク！そして、信じられない事はミッキーのハロウィンパーティーの券を持っていない人達には７時で閉館と言う事...これはすごい！それでも十分たくさんの人が来ていたんだけど４時の人混みに比べたら断然歩き安い...ここに来た第一の理由のミッキーゴーストのポップコーンを買って７時にトリックオアトリートの開始...!!

The way they set up the trick or treating part of the evening was very nice. They had seven trails set-up throughout the park and staff members just handed out handfuls...these signs and the ghosts marked the trail...
ディズニーランド内に７カ所トリックオアトリートの通路が配置されていてそこでキャンディーを貰ったんです...この看板と下のミッキーゴーストがある所が目安...

A family pic taken by a Disney staff member that we thought was getting the whole ghost you see above...there will be a lot of disappointed families who just get pictures in front of what looks like a curtain.
ディズニーランドに入って直ぐ後にディズニースタッフに家族写真を撮ってもらったんだけど、一緒に撮ってもらいたかったミッキーゴーストはどこにも居ない...知らない人がこの写真を見たらただのカーテンだと思うんだろうな。

Dia de los muertos display...spooky!!
メキシコの伝統、死人の日の人形です...怖〜！！

Our little cupcake taking it all in...
じっくりと周りの様子を見ているカップケーキちゃん...


Our loot...we actually had to purchase another bag to hold the overflow which is hiding under the bugaboo :-)

僕達のお宝...実はお菓子が溢れ過ぎていたので一つエコバッグを買ってバガブーの下に入れなきゃいけなかったほど：）

Madison hugging her loot...
お菓子を握りしめているマディソン...
If you remember the Chickfila incident, we know Madison is not a fan of people dressed as large animals, so we thought we would give Pooh a try, but no luck...if you can see Madison is actually waving and saying bye in between her tears which is what she does now when she doesn't like something...it is super cute...she also did it on the Nemo Submarine Ride and the Toy Story Ride...
マディソンの大敵って大きなぬいぐるみの動物なんです。でもプーさんなら大丈夫だろうと試したんでけど駄目でした...泣きながら“バイバイ！”って...最近何でも嫌な物にバイバイって言う様になったマディソン...そうすれば居なくなると思っているのかな...
Unfortunately we saw this face a bit when things were too dark or too loud...kind of neat to see that she is so aware now...also Madison's favorite ride from Disney World, It's a Small World, was closed for remodeling to get ready for Christmas...so we weren't really able to ride anything she would enjoy...obviously she is upset by the news...
マディソンが９ヶ月の時にディズニーワールドに行った時は平気だった乗り物が今は嫌いみたいで、この顔が結構多かったな〜。マディソンのお気に入りのイッツアスモールワールドはクリスマス用に改装中らしく１１月まで閉まっていたので残念...結局マディソンの気に入った乗り物を見つける事は出来ませんでした...マディソン残念そう...
The Halloween Parade...
ハロウィンパレード...

Madison's cupcake counterpart...
マディソンのライバルカップケーキ...
Our host...
僕達のホスト...

We leave you with the Halloween Fireworks spectacular...unfortunately the longer videos we took wouldn't upload, but this will at least give you an idea...and now you can all plan to visit us next year around Halloween and experience it in person!
最後にハロウィンの花火...もう一つ長めのビデオがあったんだけど、長過ぎたのかここに載せる事が出来ませんでした...なので短めのこのビデオをどうぞ...そして来年この時期に遊びに来れればいいですね！

Halloween Party #1/ハロウィーンパーティー＃１

Tonight we went to the Halloween party in our building. It was chance #1 to try out Madison's costume for this year. She did really well in it.
今夜、アパート内で計画されたハロウィーンパーティーに行って来ました。今年初めてのマディソンのコスチュームのお披露目です。かわいいでしょ？

She kind of stayed frozen at all the dressed up people...it was pretty funny.
沢山の化装した人達を見て一時硬直...緊張してて面白い。

On the way back upstairs we stopped and picked up our mail and were surprised by Grandma and Grandpa Klein's Halloween Box to Madison...upon opening it we discovered Maisy #3
アパートに帰る途中に郵便を取りに行ったら、クラインおじいちゃんとおばあちゃんからマディオソンへハロウィーンプレゼントが届いていました...その箱を開けて見つけたのは３冊目のメイシーの絵本...

Allow us to explain...
説明します...

About three days ago I went to Marshall's with Madison as Anna did some grocery shopping next door...I thought it would be fun to surprise Anna with a Maisy book and secretly put it in the trunk...then Anna took Madison back to Marshalls as I checked out at the grocery store and when we got home, Anna pulled out the Maisy book...then when we opened Gma and Gpa's gift tonight out popped Maisy along with a lot of other goodies...thanks Gma and Gpa.
約３日前に買い物に行った時にアンナが食料品を買っている間に隣に遭ったマーシャルズにマディソンを連れて行ったんです。そこでメイシーの本を発見、アンナをビックリさせる為に買って車のトランクに隠しました。アンナも何か見たかったみたいで僕が食料品のお会計を待っている間に、マディソンを連れて行ったんです。そして、家に着いた後にアンナが袋から出して来たのは僕が買ったのと同じメイシーの本...そしてクラインおじいちゃんとおばあちゃんからの箱から出て来た同じメイシーの本。３冊勢揃いです。

Patriot Game

Welcome to Qualcomm Stadium...after worshiping at a congregation about ten minutes from the stadium we arrived two hours early...just early enough to have the parking gate slammed in our face and told there is no more paid parking (we were two cars back)...so we said..."okay" our first NFL experience is not starting so great...so we circled around and saw a wide open lot that turned out to be for families who wished to tailgate alcohol free (hence why it was so wide open). Unfortunately, we missed the entrance and went to try to do a big circle...during our attempt we would end up on a dead end street and found someone pulling out and instead of paying $25 to park, we had found it for free!!! Things were looking up. Unfortunately after we were at the stadium we realized we forgot the good camera so these pics are courtesy of the iphone...

Qualcomm Stadium from a distance

Pregame ceremonies with an incredibly loud and well timed fly over by F-8 Jets...

Madison lounging in her seat...lucky for us no one ever came for the seats right next to us so we could spread out a bit...

At halftime we walked up the three rows to the top where Madison could stretch her legs a bit...

On the field action...don't worry they looked bigger to us...the seats, while near the top of the stadium were actually much better than expected as they kind of leaned out over the stadium and you just missed action in the deep parts of the end zone...

Our section...filled with Pats fans too!!!

So the game was great...Madison seemed to enjoy herself clapping and dancing to the music...at 23-6 with 9 minutes left in the fourth we felt she had had enough and I was confident this one was in the bag so we beat the 60,000 plus to the exits and headed for the car...on the way we heard one roar which of course meant good news for San Diego...while on the freeway we listened to the second touchdown and the last second field goal that would have come right at us that hit the upright...whoops!! But we had a great time and can't wait to go back...we hope Anna's alma mater might play in the Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm on Dec. 30th...we are so there...anyone else care to go :-)

物覚えの早いマディソン/Quick learner

今日はマディソンの初めてガムを食べた日...私があげたんじゃ全然無くて、机の上に置いてあったガムを見つけたマディソンが私が、お昼の用意をしている間に勝手に食べていたんだけど...いつもマディソンが何処か見えない所で静かに何かしている時は、何か良い事していない証拠。今日もその通り...ちゃんとガムの包み紙を取ってくちゃくちゃしてる口の中に緑の物体が！飲んじゃったら困るからママの手にベッて出してってお願いしたんだけど、こんな甘くて美味しいもの出す子いないよね...ベッて出す振りしては逃げ回るから結局無理矢理と没収です：）
Today Madison tasted her first gum... I didn't give it to her of course but she found a pack of gum on our dining table and while I was busy getting lunch ready she got a hold of it... Whenever she is somewhere you can't see and being quiet she is getting herself in trouble. And she was... She opened the wrapper and was enjoying this chewy green tasty thing... I was worried that she would try to swallow it and choke on it so I asked her nicely to spit it out on my hand but HELLO! who spits out something so tasty and sweet!? She was having fun pretending to spit it out but not really... So I had to go in there and fish it out:-)

ブログの題名と全然関係無し話でした...
Okay so that was nothing to do with today's blog topic...

お風呂に入る度にバシャバシャするのが大好きなマディソン、その結果お風呂の後の洗面所の床はびっしょり...だから２、３度滑って転んだ事があるマディソンなんだけど最近はとても慎重に歩いてます、いろんな物に掴まりながら...すごいなー、自分でも転びたくないんだ：）
Every time she has a bath she likes to splash and that results in a really wet bathroom floor... She had fallen good in the bathroom for a couple times and what she does now is walk really slowly when she is in the bathroom trying to make sure she doesn't fall again. It's so sweet how she carefully walks holding onto the tub or someone's hand! Good girl Madison:-)

これは先週の話...いつもコップでお水を飲む度に逆さにしてこぼしちゃうんだけどこの日はいつもより多めの水がカーペットに...だからパパが台所から掛かっていたタオルを持って来て拭いたんです...その日の夜かな？水を飲んでいたマディソンがまたこぼしちゃったんです、そしたら自分で台所からタオルを持って来て濡れている所を拭いたんです!!!!!!誰も見ていないのに...ここに居て直に見ていないと分からないかもしれないけど超カワイかった〜！！
I think it was last week when Madison was drinking water and when she drinks water she likes to spill it by turning the cup upside down and that day she spilled a bit more than normal so Dave quickly went and got a kitchen towel to soak up the water on the carpet... Well later on she was drinking water again and spilled it... What does she do? She went into the kitchen, grabbed the exact towel and wiped the wet spots!!!!!!! Oh you kind of had to be there to really take in how cute that was but it sure brought tears to our eyes...

ブログを
I thought I was done writing this blog but this just happened...
Dave just took a trash bag out of our trash can and took it to the bathroom to take out the other trash bag... After watching that and as soon as Dave left the trash can area Madison went over to the cabinet where we keep our trash bag refills and took one bag out of the box and tried to put it in the trash can!!!!!! Alright this is getting creepy!!

日曜日の出来事.../Our Sunday happenings...

今朝、起きて外を見ると...

This morning we woke up to this view...

そうです、今日は一年に一回行われるロングビーチマラソンの日。そして、そのマラソンコースがアパートの目の前なんです。しかも行きと帰りと二回も...行きがけに通ったのは朝の７時ぐらいでクライン家はぐっすり眠っていたので見れなかったけど、帰りがけに後1.5キロのところを窓から応援する事が出来ました：）来年デイブ参加してるかも...
Yes, today was the annual Long Beach Marathon and as you can see the route goes right on our street... in both ways so fortunately we missed the out crowd as we were snoozing at about 7:00am but we were able to watch and cheer on runners that are finishing up their last mile to their goal:-) We were really worried that we were going to be totally blocked and not be able to get out of our garage to get to Church so last night we parked our car by a park right by us which turned out to be a great idea.

教会の後向かったのはディズニーランド!!!!って言うかダウンタウンディズニー!!!!そこでやっとフェデックスが郵送中に壊したデイブのお気に入りのマグを買い替える事が出来ました。もう２つ違う柄を買って４つセットの完成！ダウンタウンディズニーを通ってあっという間にマジックキングダムの目の前に到着。年間メンバーパスを買うのは来年って決めていたんだけど、もう少しで買っちゃう所でした、危なかった〜。しかもディズニーワールドみたいにバスやモノレールに乗らずに、ダウンタウンディズニーから歩いて１０歩の所にマギックキングダムとカリフォルニアアドベンチャーがあるなんて信じられない：）でも、やっぱりアプコットのあるディズニワールドが世界一だな!!
After Church we went to Disneyland!!!! I mean Downtown Disney!!!! Where we were able to replace Dave's broken(Fedex did it) Dopey mug along with two new additions to complete a set of 4! We walked through the downtown Disney and we were standing in front of Magic Kingdom wishing we could walk right in... We are waiting until next year to get a yearly pass to the Disney Parks, but we got soooo close to giving in and getting it right there... It was so weird to be walking out of downtown Disney and to have a choice to go right to the California Adventure or to go left to the Magic Kingdom... No Bus or Monorail necessary:-) Still the Disney World Resort in Orlando is the coolest mostly due to Epcot!!

起きたばかりのマディソン...まだ眠いみたい!?
Just woke up from her nap... Can't you tell!?

マジックキングダムの入り口：）

Entrance to the Magic Kingdom:-)

風船銃を持っていた男の子のおかげでマディソンご機嫌！
Thank you bubble gun boy for entertaining our girl!

Tiny Tumblers

Today we took Madison to her first gymnastics class...she took about 30 seconds to take it all in and then she was off...
she predictably ran to the giant wedge first as she is in love with ramps...
And the good times began...we played with the rings...
We jumped on the trampoline...
We climbed through tunnels...

We swung over bars...
It was Daddy's first time too...

We did somersaults...sort of...


But we got better...


We did cartwheels...


We balanced on the beam...

We played with a parachute...

We got a stamp...

We had a great time!

Flea Attack of 2010!

Yup! The horrible creatures that us humans despise have crawled into the Klein household today... I don't know how long they've been making right at home in Ellie and Coco's fur/hair but I discovered this terrible truth as I rolled Coco to comb her hair...First I thought wow she is getting lots of tiny black mold like spots... Then I froze right there... I didn't know what they were since I've never seen fleas before so I wasn't sure if they were regular tiny bugs like ants or horrible, horrible fleas/ticks... I quickly took Coco and left her in our bath tub as I pulled myself together and looked up what fleas looked like... Yup, they are fleas:-( I really didn't know what to do with this situation but I decided to give her a bath... But I still spotted fleas after thoroughly washing Coco's hair so I asked her to stay in the tub for a while and went to get Ellie. Ellie also had been another victim of the flea attack and spotted a few so I put her in the tub and washed her hair...

After inspecting Ellie for some reason I didn't see any fleas so I gave her a go and let her run around in the apartment but I knew I would have to shave all of Coco's hair as soon as it dried...
As I was turning Coco into a Chihuahua Dave got home and found out the horrific afternoon I experienced... Then I picked Ellie up to show him that I don't see any fleas so I think she is okay, and then I saw one moving around in her thick fur... and it was all over... I would have to shave Ellie also:-( Shaving Coco was very easy as she has human like hair but Ellie has fur that is consisting of an under layer that is like cotton and an outer layer that is more like coarse hair... Both girls were great through all this especially Ellie was amazing as it took me much, much longer to shave all of her fur...

I've sprayed our carpet with a home remedy solution to kill fleas/ticks I found online and we've been able to spot the last few stragglers on the Beans easily so I really hope this will take care of all of it and once again we will have peace in our household... Thanks to the fleas, the Beans will be mostly indoor doggies until Ellie's hair grows back and she can feel confident enough to be out in public with us again.

You may wonder where Madison was during all this!? Oh She was amazing! She would just watch me give the Beans a bath and hair cut, or occupy herself with toys or getting into the Beans' toy drawer... Whatever kept her happy and busy I appreciated:-)

So here are the pictures of our naked Beans to get some sympathy from you readers... Feel free to send them encouraging cards and gifts...:-)

Poor hairless Coco Chihuahua...:-(

Sweet Ellie is consoling Coco...

Now it's Ellie's turn...

The Weekend/週末

So another Southern California weekend has come and gone far too fast...on Friday night we ran our errands as usual to make sure we opened up our Saturday for nothing but fun!!!
あっという間にいつも終わってしまう週末でも、金曜日の夕方にスーパーに行ったりとしなきゃいけない用事を済ませて土曜日は家族で楽しい事いっぱい!!!

Here Madison prepares to leave on our shopping trip...
金曜日の午後買い物に出掛けるところ...

Anna made one of her signature yummy desserts on Friday night...
金曜日の夜アンナが得意なデザートを作りました...

Saturday we headed to Shoreline Village for the annual Pirate Festival...
土曜日はショアラインビレッジで毎年行われる海賊フェスティバルへ...
while we arrived a little early we still got to see a little bit of a Pirate Play and listen to some Pirate tunes as we walked around and cringed at the decorations...
ちゃんと時間を確認してなかったので少し早めに到着したんだけど、海賊の格好をした人達が歩き回っていたり骸骨の飾りがいっぱい!






Here Madison enjoys her lunch of Edamame...
マディソンのお昼は大好物のえだまめ...

Sunday after worship we were invited over to a fellow church members house for lunch...Madison always falls straight to sleep in the car on the way home from Church so we knew we wanted to give her as much time as possible to sleep so when we learned that where we were going to eat was about 3 miles from Disneyland (the Church building it turns out is only about 10 miles) we took the opportunity to head to Disneyland Ave. and check out Downtown Disney which we were pleased to see had free parking for up to three hours...it is pretty amazing, but even though we didn't even get to see the Magic Kingdom you couldn't help but smile as you went up the drive and saw the Mickey ear statues...unfortunately our free time was about up and Madison was sleeping of course, so we just circled through the parking lot and vowed to be back real soon.
日曜日は教会に行ってその後教会で知り合ったおばさんの所にお昼に招待されていたので行って来ました。教会の後は車で直ぐ寝てしまうマディソン、おばさんの家は直ぐ近くだったんだけどマディソンにちゃんとお昼寝を取らせてあげたくてちょっとドライブ...実はそこからディズニーランドまでたったの５キロ、ちょっと行ってみる事にしました。こんなに簡単にディズニーランドに行けるなんて本当に感動！しかもダウンタウンディズニーは３時間まで駐車場無料なんて！さっそく近い内に来るつもりです：）今回は良い子に寝ているマディソンのせいでユーターン...お昼の時間：(

After a very nice lunch we headed to the Cerritos Public Library which rightfully so, has won many awards for being the coolest public library on the planet...
お昼をごちそうになった後セリトスにある図書館に行ってみる事に...噂に聞いていた通り何回も表彰されているのが納得の凄い図書館でした。
the place was truly amazing...
本当にすごい...
all Madison wanted to do was sit at the fish tank...it was really cute.
マディソンも巨大水槽に感動、ただじーっと見ているだけ。
Here she is blurrily waving at the fish...
魚に向かって手を振っています...ブレていてごめん。
After the library we went to a very cool playground right across the street patterned after a New England town...
図書館の後直ぐそこにある凄い聞いた公園に寄って見る事に...ニューイングランド風に作られた公園は一個の町みたい...

Finally it was time to circle back for evening service and then head home after one fun-filled Sunday that was over all too quick.
そしてまた教会に戻る時間、そしてあっという間の楽しい週末はお終い、お終い。