So..How was the Quaker Inauguration Party?

Everyone has been asking me how the party was: It was SO FUN! Jessica Gottlieb was the model hostess, fielding interviews from the likes of CBS News and making sure all (adult) guests had mimosas. The Daily News photographer, John McCoy stopped by (I'm in the first photo, holding Lulu on the couch in the back). Who was there? The Republican Moms Playgroup, Katee, who I met, but put in her post that she did not meet me...Hmmm...My buddy Kim Tracy Prince did a fabulous post about the party, so go read hers. She got me off the hook. The Slackmistress was NOT wearing slacks. Fellow Los Angeles Moms Blog blogger, Nouvelle Blogger, joined in. Then over in the corner was Fightin' Mad Mary. Cary Bickley wrote her story as well. Ciaran Blumenfeld gave us a long distance shout out from Orange County. The WiFi was overloaded and the oatmeal flowed freely.

Chasing after Chip and Lulu and speaking with everyone did not make it really easy to watch the telecast. However, I did see Aretha's hat, and frankly, what more did I need?

I don't even really like oatmeal much, but I really LOVED the oatmeal at our party! I'm not just saying that, because, heck, I can say whatever I want and it doesn't matter. But it was creamy and yummy and comforting. Chef Vanessa Bathfield of Mother's Helping Hand catered a delicious breakfast spread. Fresh fruits, coffee and juices. Everyone left with samples of Quaker products courtesy of one of the moms whose husband works for Quaker! So, please, go buy some Quaker Oatmeal and then go to www.startwithsubstance.com and enter your bar code. Let's feed it forward and put bowls of oatmeal in front of those who really need it.

A hearty thank you to Quaker for throwing this party for us. Who knew oatmeal could be so much fun? (Click through to all the links in the first paragraph for photos from the event!)

Inaugural Post

I'm over here on the LA Moms Blog today. A tale of political karma.

Inauguration Party - Obama, Oatmeal and Over It ALL

Tomorrow, I'm co-hosting an Inauguration Breakfast Viewing Party with Jessica Gottlieb (at Jessica's house...I'll help clean up). The good, all-American folks at Quaker Oats have kindly offered to cater a breakfast for a fun mix of: Republican Moms, LA Moms Blog Bloggers, actresses, Hollywood types and assorted others. I'm very much looking forward to a hearty bowl of oatmeal and all the toppings Quaker has promised. Although Obama is not my first choice, I will respect his office and support him as my president. Of course, you know I won't shut up when he screws up.

Our party is just one of 11 parties Quaker is sponsoring all over the country. From Anchorage to Washington, DC, we'll all be blogging and Tweeting our updates. Jessica has already fielded some interviews, including KCBS, and we are expecting KNBC tomorrow as well as the Los Angeles Daily News. The party in Chicago will be streaming.

Quaker is using the parties to spread the word about their "Start with Substance" campaign which runs from January 12 through February 28. By visiting http://www.startwithsubstance.com/ and entering the UPC from any Quaker hot cereal, you will be able to donate a bowl of nutritious oatmeal to Share our Strength. Quaker hopes to reach the goal of 1 million bowls. Quaker's "Start with Substance" Campaign, which encourages consumers to feed their families and "fuel it forward" to those less fortunate, gives American families an easy way to answer the call of the President-elect to help others in a time of need.

Chef Vanessa Bathfield, http://www.mothershelpinghand.com/ will be catering the yummy event for us.

This has been a long and interesting campaign, election and run up to the ascension...um....er....inauguration. I just look forward to the future with as much optimism as I can muster! More than anything. I'm so glad it's OVER!

Expressing Motherhood

I'm joining in with an incredible group of moms this weekend. Everyone has a story and mothers especially have powerful stories to tell. This is a collaboration that will have you laughing, crying and most of all--thinking. You don't have to be a mom to "get" the stories in this show. Come on out to see me as Peter Pan Mom --I'll never grow up! The best part? Parking is free! It's Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm at Electric Lodge in Venice. Check out the website for full details ExpressingMotherhood.com. I promise to let you buy me a drink after the show.

Inauguration Party - Top Secret

I'm co-hosting a big inauguration party with my pal Jessica Gottlieb. Inauguration Day, Tuesday, January 20, 2009. Here's the thing.....I can't tell you who is sponsoring. I can't tell you what the sponsor is announcing and I can't tell who the Hollywood moms who will be there are.....Yet.

Stay tuned. I'll let you know RIGHT away!

Disneyland at Christmas

I still can't believe how much fun we had at Disneyland! Disneyland and California Adventure are really amazing places to visit during the holiday season. I had the opportunity to visit the parks with Chip and Lulu on three different days this month. We started out at an event for Mom Bloggers at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. This was the first time I'd been in the hotel and I was really impressed. It is beautiful and reminds me of a big craftsman-style lodge. There were Christmas Carolers all dressed in costume in the lobby and Chip got a real kick out of it. At the Mom Blogger event, Chip and Lulu got to spend quality time with Mickey Mouse and Goofy all decked out in their Christmas Sweaters. It was a fabulous event and I learned a lot about what the park has to offer at Christmas and what the plans are for 2009. I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Immediately following the blogger event, we were escorted into Disneyland! It was the first time I had been to Disneyland during the holidays. Wow, it is so amazing. The Christmas tree at the start of Main Street is amazing. The lights and decorations are spectacular. Sleeping Beauty's Castle is lit up in a lilac/icicle extravaganza that is impossible to describe. So please check out the videos below to see for yourself! At the end of Main Street, we were brought to a private viewing area for the bloggers where we were in prime position to view the fireworks display. It is one of the best fireworks displays I have ever seen. The sky totally lights up just above the castle. Be sure to get into position early as people start looking for good spots about 45 minutes before the show actually begins. That night we also had the chance to take a ride on Autopia which is Chip's favorite. It was such a blast to drive through the cool December air in our car as we made our way around the track. Reality hit that I needed to get the babies home to bed so we headed out looking forward to our next visit.

We returned the following week with my friend Heather and her daughter Bella, age 4 and son Harrison, 20 months. This was the best day at Disneyland EVER! We did and saw so much. We started out on Pirate's of the Caribbean which is one of my favorite rides. Chip is on a big pirate kick lately, so this was a dream come true for him. Next we headed over to Santa's Reindeer Round-up at Big Thunder Ranch. We ended up hanging out here for quite a while because it was so much fun. In here you can visit Santa in his house and check out all his reindeer in their corral. Chip and Bella stood on bales of hay at the fence and got such a kick out of the reindeer. Further into the Round-up is a large picnic table area and stage. There are various shows throughout the day. Also in that area is a cookie decorating stand. Chip and Bella both chose Christmas Tree shaped cookies to decorate. The kit comes with frosting in two colors, sprinkles, miniature candy canes and M & M's. They both had such a blast working on their creations. Also in that area were cast members coordinating all kinds of kid activities including coloring projects.

The best part for me was that the costumed characters entered and exited right near our table. We got to meet: Santa, Mrs. Claus, Pluto, Chip & Dale and Clarabelle Cow. Chip (my son) ended up totally hanging out with Pluto for quite a while because there weren't many other people around trying to meet him. Chip (the chipmunk) & Dale are my favorite characters. I finally learned how to tell them apart! Chip has a brown nose and Dale has a red nose. A cast member gave me a tip to remember who is who: Chip has a chocolate chip nose. We next headed over to catch "A Christmas Fantasy" Parade which is held daily at 3:30pm and 6:30pm. We staked out a prime location near "It's a Small World". The parade is absolutely amazing! Every character is in it and the music and dancing is magical. I learned some fun facts about the parade: Each performance of “A Christmas Fantasy” features 105 performers, 18 float drivers and 12 musicians, costumed as toy soldiers from the Disney movie “Babes in Toyland.” In all, approximately 200 performers appear in the parade. Lately, Chip has been really fascinated with Gingerbread Men. The parade featured a bunch of Gingerbread Men dancing which caused Chip to hoot and holler and jump up and down. So funny to watch him. Following the parade we headed straight over to "It's a Small World". The ride has just been refurbished and is better than ever. For the holidays, the ride is transformed into a worldwide celebration of the season. You can't help smiling for the whole ride. Lulu absolutely loved it proving that even an 11 month old has fun at Disneyland.

Next we went over to the Disney Princess Fantasy Faire where you can meet real live Disney Princesses! This was so exciting for Bella, she got to meet Mulan, Belle and Aurora. To be honest, I didn't know any of them, but got to up to speed very quickly. You get to spend time with each princess and have your picture taken with them. You can take your own picture as well as have the Disney photographer take it. They have a new Photopass program that is really neat. Every time you get your picture taken by a Disney photographer, you hand them a card that is linked to your account. They scan it and your pictures are uploaded to the Disney Photopass website. You log into the site and can view your pictures, order prints, e-mail pictures to your friends and family, and make things like cups and calendars. I made a holiday e-card that I believe is viewable for 30 days. We were excited to learn about the reopening of Sleeping Beauty's Castle after being closed for the past 7 years. You can walk through the castle and see Sleeping Beauty's story updated with new special effects. We next headed over to New Orleans Square for dinner at my favorite restaurant, The French Market. Chip and I shared a yummy chicken, mashed potatoes and veggies plate. After a long day with 3 toddlers and a baby, Heather and I headed home agreeing that we had such a great day and couldn't wait to come back.

We still had one day left on our Park Hopper tickets so we headed back this past Friday for our final visit. Park Hopper tickets allow you to "hop" back and forth between Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure Park. This trip, we were accompanied by Chip and Lulu's babysitter, Jessica, who was home from school for winter break. We arrived in the early afternoon and could tell the place was hopping. We ended up parking on the roof of the Mickey and Friends parking structure which is higher than I've ever had to park! Undaunted we entered Disneyland and went on The Astro Orbitor in Tomorrowland, per Chip's request. Jessica and Chip went in one rocket and Lulu and I grabbed another. That's the great thing about Disneyland, babies can go on most of the rides. Since we loved the "A Christmas Fantasy" Parade so much the last time, we strolled over to "It's a Small World" to stake out a good spot. Following the parade, we went right over to Disney's California Adventure Park just in time to catch the "Pixar Play" Parade. This parade is so fun, it includes all the Pixar characters from Disney films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and Ratatouille! Next we took a couple of rides on King Triton's Carousel and visited "A Bug's Land" which is the perfect area for babies and toddlers. I really love the food choices over at California Adventure, we had yummy chocolate chip cookies and coffee drinks at Baker's Field Bakery and really good pizza at Pizza Oom Mow Mow. To end our day, we walked over to Downtown Disney to do some Christmas shopping.

Coming up in 2009, Disney is offering for the first time: Come to a Disney park on your birthday and get in free! For birthday celebrations, they have cakes in pink jewelry boxes for girls and in blue treasure chests for boys. You can request that this be added to your meal.

Whew! What an amazing time we had at Disneyland this month. The Holiday Celebration continues through January 4, 2009 so there is still plenty of time to visit! Here are a couple of videos to help you plan your trip:

My First Easy Bake Oven

My mother wouldn't let me have an Easy Bake Oven when I was a kid.  The exact reason why is now fuzzy.  As I've gotten older I've met many others who were similarly denied.  It's what makes us American:  Your mother wouldn't let you have an Easy Bake Oven when you were a kid.  Sure, sure, some girls must have had Easy Bake Ovens, because they remained on the market.  Someone must have been buying them.  Probably space aliens, because I know a lot of people and no one I know EVER had one.  If you were shot down in your YEARNING for an Easy Bake Oven.  You belong.  You are one of us.

The Easy Bake Oven of my childhood looks like this:

All orange as things were back then--unless they were avocado green or harvest gold.....

Every kid has had their parent say to them, "When you are grown up and have your own money you can do/have/go to ________."  So now that I'm grown up (that's subjective) and have my own Surfer Guy's money, I got an Easy Bake Oven.  Yes.  I.  Did.  Because I can.

Gleefully, I set it up and called Chip (2.5)  and Lulu (11 mos) over.  They smiled at me, but clearly didn't understand the magnitude of the moment.  Undaunted, I proceeded to make my first cake, 35 years in the making, literally.  Yellow cake (included), mixed it up, put it in the pan and into the oven.  This is what my oven looks like:

And I walked away, eager to pull my golden, delicious morsel out.  I returned 15 minutes later to my creation.  A lovely, tiny, cake.  Next I whipped up the chocolate frosting (included) and frosted my cake!  Chip was excited about the frosting part and actually helped.  Coincidentally it was Surfer Guy's birthday the next day so we called him in and belted out our rendition of Happy Birthday.  We all had a bite, including Lulu.  It was quite tasty, but left us all wanting more. 

As I researched this piece, I learned that it is the 45th Anniversary of the Easy Bake Oven.  In honor of this, the oven is returning to its original aqua color.  In addition, Hasbro, the makers of Easy Bake has launched a search for "Baker of the Year".  The contest allows kids and their adult "assistant" to enter their favorite recipe.  One winner per month will be chosen through February 2009 and all winners will be invited to Walt Disney World for a final baking challenge to be held in May.  For complete info check out www.easybake.com

I most assuredly recommend this Easy Bake Oven but think it is best suited to kids in the 7-12 year old age range.  In fact, I'm passing mine along to the 8 year old daughter of a friend who is dying to have it.  So, for a brief, shining moment, I did finally have my Easy Bake Oven.  Funny how you feel when you get something you always wanted, y'know?  It only seems right to pay it forward.