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SoCal Fun

Camp Spooky is Taking Over Knott’s Camp Snoopy on Weekend Days in October!

October 2, 2014 / Knott's, Orange County, SoCal Fun

One of the most adorable places to visit in Southern California as a family has got to be Knott’s Camp Snoopy! Located just inside of Knott’s Berry Farm, Camp Snoopy features many of your favorite Peanuts characters and it’s just a fun place for kids to encounter kid-friendly attractions, including their 3 newest rides, Linus Launcher, Charlie Brown’s Kite Flyer, and Pig Pen’s Mud Buggies and 2 new interactive experiences for kids, Beagle Scout Headquarters and Peanuts’ Play Lot .

Starting this weekend, Camp Spooky will be taking over Camp Snoopy during the weekend days in October, as well as on Halloween. Camp Spooky provides an opportunity for children to participate in non-scary Halloween activities, that focus on “cheer rather than fear”! The shows and activities are geared towards children between the ages of 3 and 11. Camp Spooky admission is included in the price of regular Knott’s Berry Farm admission.

This year will be our first time visiting Camp Spooky. Although I grew up in Southern California and Knott’s Berry Farm was a big part of my childhood, there was no Camp Spooky back then, so for me, it’s a big deal too. Emi is kind of a planner, just like me, so when I told her we were going, she already starting looking at the park map again and making out her “Camp Spooky To-Do List”!

Here’s what you can be excited to find at Camp Spooky this year:

“The Monsters Are Coming, Charlie Brown“, live theatre show in the Camp Spooky Theatre– Watch your favorite Peanuts characters in this adorable, live theatre production.
Peanuts Costume Parade-Kids are invited to wear a costume when they visit Camp Spooky and participate in a costume parade and contest, hosted by Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang. The contest takes place on Saturdays and Sundays in the Camp Spooky Theatre, immediately following the 3:45 show. Kids have the opportunity to win prizes too!
Mini Monster Maze-Have fun roaming through the obstacles in this mini maze, with sweet treats awaiting guests at the end!
Photo Forest-You’ll encounter a few different interactive photo opportunities in this section of Camp Spooky. Look for the Mummy’s Manor, the mysterious mirrors of Medusa’s Bug Boutique, and The Witch’s Tea Party! You’ll be sure to capture some photo memories to last you a lifetime!
Witch’s Potion Station-for an additional fee, you can mix and match different potions, inspired by the witch’s own potions, to create the perfect and delicious potion of your own to take home and enjoy.

Now we need to come up with little costumes to dress our Snoopy and Woodstock in! Any suggestions?

We’re really excited to see all of our favorite Peanuts characters and get into the Halloween spirit this weekend at Camp Spooky! We hope to see some of you there!

For general Knott’s Berry Farm information, click here. For ticket info, including a place to purchase park tickets at a discount, click here. Knott’s also offers season passes at a very reasonable price!

Connect with Knott’s Berry Farm on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram too!

Christmas Eve Morning at The Disneyland Resort With Our Elf on the Shelf!

December 25, 2013 / Disney, Orange County, SoCal Fun

What do you do when it’s Christmas Eve day, you don’t have to be at dinner until 6:30 p.m. and you still haven’t had a chance to take your daughter to see Santa yet? You head straight to The Disneyland Resort, that’s what you do! What a beautiful, sunny, Southern California morning it was, too! There aren’t too many places you can be where you actually NEED to wear sunblock on December 24th!

Emily & I decided to visit Disney’s California Adventure first! There was NO LINE to see Santa over at Elias & Company! We walked right in and Santa immediately struck up a conversation with Emily. As you can tell by this photo, she was mesmerized by him.

I’m pretty sure she’s asking him for the Frozen castle here.

I love everything about the setup of this Santa location. It’s just so old fashioned and Christmas-y and if it hadn’t been so blazing hot, I would’ve put Emi in her actual Christmas dress for the photo. Regardless, I think we got some beautiful pictures to add to her memory book.

Santa also had an absolutely beautiful elf named “Tinsel” that was helping him and passing out candy canes to the guests as they exited from sitting for their photo. I couldn’t resist snapping a pic of Emi with her also.

Seriously though, how adorable is this elf?

Emi and I also had another mission on our visit….we had to bring her Elves on the Shelf with us! Yep, they had written her a note, asking if she could take them to Disneyland! They told her that Santa had given special permission for Mommy to touch the elves to move them and take them to Disneyland. We just hadn’t had much time during December to visit the parks and since the elves were returning to The North Pole that evening, this was our LAST chance. The tricky part about this was that 1)only Mommy could touch the elves, because children DON’T touch the Elf on the Shelf and 2)We needed to be careful as NOT to spoil any magic for other children at The Resort. I carried the elves in our backpack and we took them out for a few photo opportunities. There was one incident when two small children spotted them and were trying to tell their mom they had seen them, so we just sat back and pretended not to notice the elves and then as soon as the children were long gone, we grabbed the elves, stuffed them BACK into our backpack and ran! It was pretty funny to have elf shenanigans going on!

Our elves INSISTED on wearing these buttons!

There are always a lot of “good parts” about each trip to the parks but on this particular day, Emi was REALLY excited about getting to ride in the front of Monorail Blue….WITH her elves! Since there weren’t any other children up there with us (who might’ve gotten freaked out), we could have the elves out of the backpack!

Patiently awaiting the front spot on Monorail Blue!

This is Disney Magic at work!
CM Manuel even let the elves help navigate, once we started moving and had to sit down!

It was such a great Christmas Eve morning at The Disneyland Resort! We are so blessed to be able to just run over to the parks for a few hours and be able to do something like this! Happy Holidays!

Our Adventures at the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade Filming

November 12, 2013 / Disney, SoCal Fun

I never take for granted how close we live to The Disneyland Resort! Since it’s just a hop, skip & a jump to the parks, we are often able to attend special events, on short notice, like the taping of the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade filming. This year, we were able to attend the final day of filming, which included the parade portion and a performance by the cast of Teen Beach Movie!

Disneyland opened at 9 a.m. that day and we arrived at the Main Gate around 8:45 a.m. I didn’t realize that guests would be allowed to enter at 8 a.m., so we weren’t able to find a spot that was within the close filming area where the celebs were going to be dancing. We still found a seat on the curb down in front of Plaza Inn. This is where the parade floats, characters, dancers, and giant balloons all approached though, so we had the prime spot for taking pictures of it all. We were also filmed a couple of times in audience shots, so we still may end up on TV, right? I won’t post photos of the actual parade until it actually airs because there were a few special parts added to this that aren’t normally included and I feel like it spoils some of the magic, but I will share a couple of fun pics that we took from the curb!

This is Pooh waiting patiently for the festivities to begin.

Here’s Emi trying to be patient as she sits on the curb, showing off her DisneySide!

Emi was taking her own pics and videos during the parade!

After sitting there for about 3 hours, we were startving and went to get something to eat. After we returned, we saw that the woody from Teen Beach Movie was parked at the front of Main Street and we knew what this meant…..the cast would soon be entering the park!

I’m pretty sure I had to walk up and back Main Street about 6 times just to get this shot because the CMs were shooing everyone to keep on moving!

We finally made our way through the insane crowd to the top of Main Street, and there we waited and waited and waited…..until they FINALLY came out!

I LOVE Maia! She is so adorable!

Well all of them came out except for Ross Lynch. Thank goodness I had Emi there to let me know that Ross’ mommy, Stormy, was walking right in front of where we were standing, and that it looked like she was going backstage, so we knew he was coming out soon.

This is his mom going to get him and escort him out.

Ross Lynch!

I cannot describe my daughter’s expression when he walked out! Not only her expression but the fact that she was flushed too! This is the 2nd time within 2 months that she’s seen Ross & Maia this close up. (our other opportunity was when Ross & Maia were in Downtown Disney)
After the Teen Beach Movie portion of the show began filming, which we couldn’t sit or stand and watch, we decided to head towards the Matterhorn. That was when Emi realized Rydel Lynch was walking in front of us! Yep, she’s Ross’ sister and a member of R5! She was hanging out with Ellington Lee Ratliff ,who’s also in R5. So, of course, we had to pace behind them for a couple of minutes until I got my big “Mommy Courage” up enough to ask them if they’d take a pic with Emi! They were very nice. I definitely see an R5 concert in our near future!

Emi with Rydel Lynch and Ellington Lee Ratliff

It was an amazing day at Disneyland. I also learned what I’ll be doing differently for next year’s taping.
Here are some of my tips if you’re planning on attending the taping for the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade:
1. Arrive at Disneyland 1-11/2 hours before the park opening.
2. Dress festively in Christmas attire and holiday Disney gear so you can attract the cameras’ attention, but also layer because it gets HOT! If you have babies or small children, the cuter they are dressed, they more likely they’ll get on camera.
3. Bring water and snacks because you might not be able to get up and get food.
4. Wear sunblock and bring extra! It is almost ALWAYS hot at Disneyland!
5. For the most camera time, sit on the sunny side of Main Street! It’ll be hot, but it’s worth it!
6. Be prepared to smile and have fun!

It was an exciting day for us at Disneyland.

It’s always an adventure with Emi and I can’t wait for our next trip to the parks!