A Disneyland birthday, Disneyland gifts, and a Disneyland event to plan.

As some of you may have heard, Jen threw me a Disneyland-themed birthday party to mark my 40th. She kicked me out of the house with Cami on Friday afternoon, with instructions that I was to wander around until around 12:30 Saturday afternoon. (She had also prearranged sleeping arrangements at my parents' house, so I wouldn't have to be out on the streets all night.) So Cami and I had some daddy-daughter bonding time while our house was deconstructed.

The theming to the house was... extensive. Jen had created it's a small world and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in the kitchen, Critter Country and the Hungry Bear in the backyard, Adventureland and a Tiki Bar right in the family room, Tomorrowland and Pizza Port in the baby's nursery - and even Frontierland with a shooting gallery in the bathroom. (The girls could play too - the bathroom shooting gallery used toy guns.) People stopped by throughout the day for Mickey-shaped burgers tossed on the grill by grillmasters Dave and Becky Breiland, or a Pina Colada by bartenders Brian and Jen Wisselink. Josh Butz created all the slick graphics and signs for the party - he even made a map to the "park" which was handed out to each attendee as they arrived. It was a ton of fun.



Jen and I



Josh Butz, Jen and Brian Wisselink, and Rob Woll



Jeanine and I grew up enjoying Disneyland with these friends, who drove down from Oregon to celebrate with me. From left: Jeanine, Kevin, Christine, Robbin, and Carol.



Dave and Becky handled Mickey Burger duties.



Kristen Woll and Amy Butz enjoy a trip to Adventureland.



Jeanine, Cami, dad.

It was a lot of fun to see everyone, even though sometimes I get overwhelmed with the task of floating around and spending a little bit of time with lots of people. It's hard for me to disconnect-reconnect over and over in such a short amount of time. I think I did okay. And everyone was so generous - I got a ton of gift cards: Chevy's, Home Depot, eBay, Cheesecake Factory, Disneyland, Best Buy, iTunes, and both Cinemark AND AMC movie theaters. Not too many people braved choosing a physical gift, but a few did - the Breilands got me a sweet Darth Vader t-shirt; the Jacksons found me a huge pile of cool vintage Disney LPs that I'll be able to share with Cami someday; Cynthia got me an awesome Jack Skellington sweatshirt; and Kristen Nowicki displayed an uncanny knowledge of my collecting taste by finding me a vintage '70s Pirates of the Caribbean snowglobe on eBay - something I've actually bid on (but never won) a few times over the years.



I've also started spending some of the fun gift cards I received. The Wisselinks and the Herberts gave me some eBay money, so I decided to unleash the < geek > in me and purchase a Pirates of the Caribbean model kit. I used to build these with my dad when I was 7 years old:



Sometimes these things sell for well over a hundred dollars, but I got lucky on this one and only had to pitch in around $5 after my gift cards. And the kit is still sealed in the plastic liner inside with the original inserts! < /geek >

Sorry it took so long to get these pictures online - I've been going crazy planning the DoomBuggies "Swinging Wake" event that we're hosting in two weeks. There are tons of details to see to - I don't think I'll ever decide to go into wedding or party planning after going through this. Who knew renting out New Orleans Square, hosting dinner for 130 guests, lining up 5 Disney legends to speak, and creating t-shirts, lanyards, cloisonne pins, death certificates and little gifts could be so exhausting? I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to share after the event - so stay tuned!