This post has absolutely nothing to do with Disney, but if you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for new birthday party ideas for your kids, so I thought I would share what we did for Colorado Boy’s birthday party over the weekend.

Originally, Colorado Boy wanted to do a “Paris” themed party, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around exactly what we would do for a French-themed party, so I asked him to come up with something else. Luckily, his 2nd idea – a “Clue” themed party – was MUCH easier for me to plan

The Theme
While inspiration came from the Clue board game, the basic premise was that the kids were detectives trying to solve “The Case of the Missing Birthday Cake”. The invitations and games were built around that idea.

The Invitations
To follow the detective theme, I created some simple invitations that looked like a memo you might find in a detective’s case file. I then designed the envelope to have the shape of a folder on it, similar to the “Confidential” sleeve in a standard Clue game.

The Games
I never know if there are going to be kids who show up a little late, so I like to have a few “warm-up” games to play while we’re waiting for everyone to get there. We came up with two games the kids could use to warm up their “observation” and ” questioning” skills to make sure their detective skills were sharp for solving the missing cake case.

“What’s Missing”: We gathered about 20 different household objects (keys, a banana, a screwdriver, a cub scout patch, etc.) and laid them out on a tray. The kids had 30 seconds to look at everything, then we took it away, removed an item and gave the kids 30 seconds to guess what item was missing. We played 4 or 5 rounds of this, making each round progressively harder with either less time or multiple items missing.

20 Questions: Each child picked a piece of paper with a famous person/character (think Mickey Mouse, George Washington, Indiana Jones, etc.) on it and then the other kids had to ask yes/no questions to figure out who it was. Whoever guessed correctly got the next turn to answer questions and so on, until everyone had had a turn. This game proved extremely popular and we played this for quite some time.

Once the kids’ detective skills were warmed up, they were ready to hunt down the culprit who stole the birthday cake. Before the party, I put together a set of clue cards that had pictures of each of the suspects (family members with names like “The Princess”, “The Driver”, etc.) along with a set of clues leading to different areas around the house. Each clue helped them determine if a suspect was innocent or not, and eventually lead them to the cake which was hidden in the culprit’s “getaway” car that happened to be in our garage. The kids seemed to really enjoy this and the only negative I heard was that it was too short. I only did 6 clues, but they got through those pretty quickly, so I probably should have added a few more.

The Cake
We are extremely lucky to have one of Colorado Princess’ daycare teachers who bakes cakes as a side business, so she was able to take Colorado Boy’s request for a “Clue” board cake and turn it into reality. I didn’t want anything super detailed and I think she came up with just the right balance. We were very happy with how it turned out! If you live in Northern Colorado and are ever in need of a cake, I highly recommend Sara. She can be found on Facebook at Sara’s Sweets.

The Goodie Bags
The $1 bins at Michael’s and Target are my favorite places to visit and I was able to find some great items for the goodie bags there. I found nice small spiral notebooks with pens, a Word search book and some mystery gummy candies there and then I also made “Honorary Detective” badges that the kids wore during the party and then added their fingerprint to once they had “solved” the case.

The Supplies
Other than the goodie bag items, the paper and envelopes were already part of my scrapbooking stash, but are available at Michael’s. The badge holders I got at our local Staples and then everything else was just a little imagination and a few Google searches for some appropriate “detective” imagery. I used Photoshop since that’s the program I have, and printed it all out on our home printer.

Colorado Boy and the kids all had a great time so I feel like this theme made for a pretty successful party!

Hopefully my ideas will help inspire you if your kids ever ask for a “Clue” themed party, but I’m curious, what kinds of parties have you done? I’m always looking for ideas, so leave me a comment and let me know what great ideas you have!

To my wonderful little boy,

Wow, I can’t believe you are 9-years-old today! It’s amazing how quickly the years have flown by, but I remember your arrival like it was yesterday.

You were due on Jan. 28th 2003, but you decided that the 29th was going to be a better day to arrive.Your birth went smoothly and you graced us with a “piercing” scream to announce your arrival at 9:22pm. Daddy and I were so excited to have you and we quickly settled in to our new routine with you.

The years have gone by quickly and we’ve seen you grow from a happy, carefree baby to a happy, carefree, funny and very intelligent boy. You never cease to amaze us with the ideas you have, the facts you know and how very, very kind you are. We love that you are your own person and hope you will continue down your own path as you grow older. We are so lucky to have you in our lives.

Happy Birthday, Colorado Boy. We love you SO much!

This week’s Babes in Disneyland Blog Hop theme is “Disney Bucket List” which is something that’s almost always on my mind! It seems like no matter how many visits I take to Disney and how many great adventures we have, I keep coming up with more things to add to the list so who knows if I will EVER complete it

Here’s what’s on my list currently:

Have a meal at Club 33 in Disneyland: This one has been on my bucket list for a long time. I’ve heard the food is really good, and it’s always cool to be able to have an “adult” beverage in the middle of Disneyland, but mostly it’s the mystery and exclusiveness that intrigues me. I really want to see what’s hidden behind that door (with my own eyes!) The good news is that I MIGHT be able to cross this off my list in March if my husband is able to pull a few strings.

Visit the non-US parks: I’d really like to visit Tokyo DisneySea since it seems like such a different experience from the parks here in the States, but if an opportunity comes up to visit ANY of the other parks, I’ll definitely take it.

Take an Adventures By Disney tour: The tour I want to take changes from week to week as I look at the site and discover new places they’re going, but regardless of the location, this is definitely an experience I’m looking forward to sometime down the road. Most of the tours have a minimum age requirement of 5 or 6, so it will be a few years until we can go on one of these trips as a family, but maybe I can convince Colorado Dad to take me for HIS 40th birthday next year…LOL.

Spend Christmas at a Disney park: I know the parks are crazy busy and some people would just call me insane to want to do this, but to me there would be nothing better than to spend my favorite holiday at my very favorite place. I’m toying with this idea the year I turn 40, so who knows, maybe I’ll have it knocked off the list in the next few years.

Take a transatlantic cruise on a Disney ship: It doesn’t have to be a transatlantic cruise, just one of the longer 12 – 14-day cruises. But, now that Disney has announced they’re going back to Europe in 2013, maybe a transatlantic will be an option! Anything that will allow me to spend as much time as possible on a Disney ship.

So that’s my bucket list for today. What Disney experiences are on your bucket list?

Thanks to Lisa over at the Babes in Disneyland blog for hosting the blog hop! Please click through to visit the other stops along this week’s blog hop.

As many of you know, the family and I were in Disneyland over the weekend to celebrate Colorado Boy’s 9th birthday. For this trip, we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, which has finally completed it’s extensive renovations. Colorado Dad and I had stayed here 2 years ago, right in the middle of all the construction, but we were excited to see everything in it’s finished state. I must say, I really like all the changes they made and the long construction period was definitely worth it! Here are some of the main changes we saw.

The Lobby
Part of the Fantasy Tower, the lobby area has been redone with touches from some of the classic Fantasyland attractions like Dumbo and It’s A Small World and makes a lot of use blues and purples. The check-in area has been updated with a nice, streamlined look. And check out that carpet pattern – do you recognize it?

The Towers
The Disneyland Hotel rooms are divided among three towers that have been renamed to match the “classic Disneyland” theme which is a nice touch. First, is the Fantasy Tower which houses the check-in area, the gift shops along with guest rooms that face either the pool area or the parking lot. The Adventure Tower is adjacent to the Fantasy Tower and provides the rooms with park views for prime fireworks watching. Finally, the Frontier Tower is across from the Fantasy Tower and provides rooms with either a pool view or views of the surrounding parking lot. Each tower’s lobby has been themed with appropriate decor both inside and out. I particularly liked the landscape around the Frontier Tower, with the waterfall and mini geyser.

The Rooms
While I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the old room decor, it was definitely getting a little dated and it was time for an update. The new room decor is nice with dark wood tones, and subtle accessories. The carpet provides plenty of opportunity for hidden mickey hunting as does the bedding, which is all white with subtle Mickeys on it. But, our absolute favorite part of the new decor is the special “kiss goodnight” they’ve added to the rooms. I’ve included a video (sorry about the quality, we took it on our old iPhone ) that we took during our first stay in an updated room.

Tangaroa Terrace and Trader Sam’s
Tangaroa Terrace is the new island/tiki-themed quick service restaurant that replaced Hook’s Pointe. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as providing several “grab-and-go” options like pastries, fruit, cereal and drinks. Ordering food from the kitchen is done via touchscreen and you pay for everything, including “grab-and-go” items at one of two cashier stands. Once your hot food is ready, it is brought to your table. Most of the food is pretty standard Disney fare – burgers, chicken sandwiches, salads – but with an island flair. You can see the menu over at Allears.net. We had dinner there one night and we all really enjoyed it. The kids got chicken nuggets which came with rice instead of fries (yay!) and I had the Hawaiian Cheeseburger, which was quite tasty. I had some technical difficulties (ok, it was user error) with my camera that night so don’t have pics of the food. We sat out on the patio and enjoyed the tiki torch light and island music being played by the live band. It was really a very pleasant place to eat and a nice alternative to the other restaurants at the hotel.

Trader Sam’s is the new bar at the hotel and is probably one of the coolest bars across any of the Disney properties I’ve been to. Inspired by our favorite friend from the Jungle Cruise, the bar is chock full of island artifacts. There is SO much to look at, you really need to spend a good amount of time there to see it all, even though it’s quite a small space. There are some interactive elements that are fun to see and the drinks are fun, tasty (and expensive). My only complaint was that the bartenders the couple nights we went in weren’t the most friendly. But, I have heard great things from other people, so don’t let our experience stop you. Trader Sam’s is a must-see stop and even though it’s a bar, the kids are welcome to come in and look around. They can even order a non-alcoholic beverage, like the delicious Skipper Sipper, that looks as fancy as all the other drinks.

The Pool
And finally, the new pool. I don’t really remember the old Neverland pool so don’t have much to compare the new stuff to, but I was quite impressed with the updates that were done. The big attraction for my kids was the very cool Monorail slides at the end of the main pool area. These empty in to a shallow pool so are the perfect thing for young kids to play on. Of course, I made the huge mistake of thinking my kids wouldn’t want to swim in 60 degree weather so didn’t bring their swimsuits. I should have known the pools were heated and they would have been fine, but they did have to just settle for wading with their pants rolled up. Oh well, next time for sure!

That about covers the big changes at the hotel. I think all the updates are really well done and the new theme for the hotel is definitely an improvement. While my favorite hotel at Disneyland is still the Grand Californian, the Disneyland Hotel runs a very close second and I’m sure I’ll be spending a good amount of time there, even if it’s just to visit Trader Sam’s

I’ve consolidated all the pictures I took into a single slideshow below, so make sure to click through to see all the “new”ness!

Full Disclosure: As part of a business-related trip for my husband, our stay at the Disneyland Hotel was complimentary. I was not compensated for this post, and the opinions expressed within are my own.

This week’s Wordless Wednesday blog hop theme is “Wildlife”

During our trip to Disneyland over the weekend, I was walking around the Disneyland Hotel grounds early one morning and spotted this “wild” creature hiding in the bushes.

Not sure if this guy is part of the group of “Disneyland cats” or if he was just passing by, but it was quite interesting to run into him!

Thanks to Deb from Focused on the Magic for hosting the weekly hop! Click on the image below to see some other great Disney pictures in this week’s Wordless Wednesday blog hop!

Ok, so if you read my post last week, you’ll know that I arrived at the Disneyland Hotel in a less than stellar mood. The cookies helped me feel better, but was what it that put me in a crabby mood in the first place? Well, that’s this week’s trip tip and a perfect example of “do as I say, not as I do”. Oh, and a word of warning – if you don’t care to read about other people’s kids and their body functions, you might want to skip this post

Everything went well and we survived the takeoff and first 15 minutes of the flight without incident. Colorado Princess was a little squirmy, but we didn’t think too much of it, because we were confident she would tell us if she had to go, since she has been great about that so far. She was settling in to watch a movie, but wanted to sit on my lap, which is something we often do at home. Since the fasten seatbelt sign was off, I figured it wouldn’t harm anything, so plopped her on my lap. But, less than a minute later, my lap was suddenly warm and wet. Colorado Princess had peed…ON ME!! UGH! Of course, I didn’t have anything to change into because we had checked our bags, so I got to sit there for the rest of the flight in damp jeans. Who would have thought it would be ME that needed an extra change of clothes?!?! And yet…

I SHOULD have known, because it’s happened to me before. When Colorado Boy was 3, we were traveling to North Carolina when he got sick…on me. And again, I had nothing to change into. I SHOULD have known better

So, as a public service to all of you who might be traveling with a toddler some time in the future, today’s Tuesday Trip Tip is to make sure you pack a change of clothes - not only for your toddler, but also for you! You never know what might happen when you’re stuck in a plane and it’s always good to be over-prepared.

Hello from sunny Disneyland Resort! While we’re in our room taking a rest, I thought I’d share a quick thought for the day…

Last night, we arrived at the Disneyland Hotel about 30 minutes later than expected due to a delayed flight, and, after a not so stellar experience on the plane (the whole story coming in an upcoming post ), the kids were exhausted and I was a tad bit grumpy and just ready to call it a night. When we got to our room, we were greeted by this:

and immediately my grumpiness was gone. Those smiling Mickey and Minnie cookie faces were just what I needed at that moment. And really, isn’t that why we love Disney? The big things are cool, but it’s really just the little things that make the Disney experience so special. Now, if only I could figure out how to get that awesome Tinkerbell “D” plate smuggled out of here…:)

This week’s Disney Wordless Wednesday theme is water, water everywhere! Here are two of my favorites from our first cruise with the kids – Western Caribbean on the Disney Magic.

Thanks to Deb from Focused on the Magic for hosting the weekly hop! Click on the image below to see some other great Disney pictures in this week’s Wordless Wednesday blog hop!

Whew, what a busy weekend! I am WAY behind on posts here, but it was all worth it. We went to see Beauty and the Beast 3D (very good), visited the National Western Stock Show (always entertaining) and did some planning for Colorado Boy’s 9th birthday party. But, now I’m back to prepping for our trip to Disneyland on Wednesday and I have a great tip that we’re going to use for the first time during this trip.

I’ve seen early morning seating times at all of the restaurants below at various times, but definitely check with either Disneyland or WDW dining to make sure your preferred restaurant is still serving breakfast:

Disneyland Resort

• Disneyland – The Plaza Inn: A character breakfast called “Minnie & Friends – Breakfast in the Park”
• California Adventure – Ariel’s Grotto: A character breakfast with the Disney Princesses

Walt Disney World

• Magic Kingdom – Cinderella’s Royal Table: The end-all-be-all of Princess dining at Walt Disney World.
• Magic Kingdom – The Crystal Palace: Character breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends.
• EPCOT – Akershaus Royal Banquet Hall: The 2nd Princess dining option at WDW and a cheaper option that CRT. We did this with Colorado Princess last May and she had a FANTASTIC time. I highly recommend this if you either can’t get a reservation at CRT or want a cheaper (albeit only slightly) option.
• Hollywood Studios: Hollywood & Vine: A good character breakfast option for the preschool set, this breakfast includes characters from Disney Junior favorites like Little Einsteins, Special Agent Oso and Jake and the Neverland Pirates
• Animal Kingdom: Tusker House: A character breakfast with some of the Fab 5 like Mickey, Donald and Goofy.

If you’re visiting me from the Babes in Disneyland blog hop, WELCOME! and thanks for stopping by

Last week I posted about the Disney vacations we’re planning this year, so you might remember that this is the year of the West Coast Disney trips for us. We have some cool trips planned, but there are a few specific things I’m looking forward to for 2012:

• Our trip to Disneyland next week is to celebrate Colorado Boy’s 9th birthday and I’m so excited, because we’ve never actually celebrated anything while we’re in the theme parks. We’re planning a special “pirate” celebration at Blue Bayou, so I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.
• We have our cruise to Alaska scheduled for early June and I can’t wait. We’ve never been to Alaska so I’m looking forward to that, but I’m also excited to head back to visit the Disney Wonder and hopefully reconnect with some of the crew members we met on our Mexican Riviera cruise last year.
• The release of Brave. Pixar movies are some of my all-time favorite movies and this one looks really good. Love that they’re finally doing a movie with a female lead! But how in the world are they going to get the Pizza Planet truck to show up in a movie that’s set in the ancient highlands of Scotland?? Can’t wait to find out!
• Lots of big happenings at Disneyland Resort this year, but I think I’m most excited about seeing Buena Vista Street. I have always been drawn toward things from the 20s and 30s, so can’t wait to see how everything looks and what kind of “retro” merchandise is available.
• In August, D23 brings back their popular Destination: D event, and this time the focus in on Disney Animation. This is where my love of Disney started, so I’m excited to attend what I’m sure will be really great sessions and panel discussions.

So that’s what I’m looking forward to this year. What about you?

Thanks to Lisa over at the Babes in Disneyland blog for hosting the blog hop and coming up with this week’s great topic! Please click through to visit some of the other stops along this week’s blog hop.