Popsicle Blog

In partnership with Chevy.

When you drive a 2008 minivan with over 220K miles on it, you get really excited to test drive a brand new 2020 Chevy Traverse with all the bells and whistles for a week. Chevy sent one over for our family to test drive, so the whole family piled in the Traverse and headed to the LA County Fair this past month. And wow…we REALLY loved it. The Traverse AND the Fair!

I’ve been missing out on a lot of new car features driving an older car. Features that I never knew I needed or wanted. But the features in this Chevy Traverse were so great that I can’t wait to purchase a new car very soon. I’ve been waiting for just the right one…not sure if I wanted another minivan, or something larger such as a suburban, or if I could even entertain the idea of getting something a bit smaller, like the Chevy Traverse.

With a family of 6, I thought I was stuck with a minivan. But after driving the Chevy Traverse, I fell in love with it. Surprisingly, the kids said it was just as roomy and much better than our van! So here we are, seriously considering a Chevy Traverse.

Anyways, our trip to the LA County Fair was just perfect. What I love about the LA County Fair is that is takes place at the Pomona Fairplex which is enormous. The fair is nice and spread out, so it doesn’t get super crowded, and there are lots of areas to enjoy and explore.

Things to do at the LA County Fair

The LA County Fair has everything you would expect from a county fair. Food, rides, entertainment, animals, vendors, and really fun exhibits. We really enjoyed the Pop-up photo area with the giant food. There were so many fun photo opportunities. Are these great?!!!

If you like to pet and feed animals, then the barn area is the perfect place to. There are dozens of goats and sheep waiting to be pet and fed. The kids were a little scared, but once they got rid of the goat food, the animals settled down. LOL.

Of course we had to stop by the Chevy booth. My boys LOVE cars, so they really wanted to check out the Chevy Corvette. And since we are currently actively shopping for the right car for our family, we wanted to see what else we might like.

A fair wouldn’t be a fair without lots of fair food. We decided that we wanted donuts, and tried the giant Unicorn and Samoa Donuts. Little miss Dani didn’t want to share. Yum yum.

Finally, it was time to ride some rides and play some games. There are so many rides to choose from. Here are just a few photos of the hundreds I took. So hard to pick just a few.

And that was just a little sample of photos from our visit to the LA County Fair. It really was one of those perfect days. Good times, good kids, good food and a great car to get us there.

What We loved about the Chevy Traverse.

The Chevy Traverse is a Mid-sized SUV with three rows. We really like the captain seat option for our family because they could easily get into the back row. You can also get the Chevy Traverse with bench seats instead. The Smart Slide® Seating feature offers easy and convenient access to the third-row seats as well.

When it comes to your safety, Traverse goes above and beyond. This smart midsize SUV offers a wide range of active safety features that utilize cameras, sensors and radar to help you look out for potential dangers on the road. There are standard rear vision cameras, available forward collision alert, and available front pedestrian breaking. My favorite was the available heated and ventilated front seats. Perfect for hot days in Orange County.

You can close the trunk and adjust the back seats with the press of a button. A hands-free power liftgate with a simple kicking motion over the emblem projection under the rear bumper is also available. Something that I don’t have with my current minivan.

The only thing smaller about the Chevy Traverse compared to my minivan was the trunk space. However, considering the Traverse is an SUV, it has plenty of room for STUFF. Check out our trip to Costco. Everything fit in with no problem with still more room left. Plus you can keep your things concealed in the available storage space behind the infotainment screen or in the rear underfloor compartment.

Check out what is looks like from above. Almost like a minivan…but it’s an SUV.

Thanks Chevy for sending us to the LA County Fair and letting us borrow a Chevy Traverse for a week. We loved it and the kids and I didn’t want to send it back! Now, that I shared our experience with the Chevy Traverse with you, head over to the Chevy website to check out all the info and see if you think the Chevy Traverse is a good fit for your family. There are so many features that I didn’t even get to all of them!

This year for Knott’s Spooky Farm we decided that we really wanted to make our visits extra fun. Last year we dressed up as the Peanuts Gang and had a blast, especially trick-or-treating and entering the costume contest. So this year we thought dressing up as the Ghost Town Ghouls would be even more fun.

Oh. My. Goodness. Did we have the best time ever! Whoever said that Knott’s was not magical is wrong. We had the most magical time at Knott’s Spooky Farm. The kids got some special moments with the Ghost Town Ghouls and had an overall fun time trick or treating, playing games, and going to the shows. We ended the day with the Halloween Costume Contest in Camp Snoopy.

A lot of people asked me how I made the kids their Ghost Town Ghouls costumes. I can’t tell you how many times people stopped to tell up they liked our costumes. So I thought I’d put this post together to explain how you can make one too. It’s actually pretty simple. In an hour our two, you can make one or more!

The Ghost Town Ghouls wear costumes in mostly grayscale. Black, whites and greys are the colors you need to work with. I recommend first going through your house and looking for pieces of clothing that will work in these colors. You then can work your costume around those pieces. I actually sewed daughter’s costume. It’s a simple peasant top pattern in a grey calico, a dark grey belt, and a black circle skirt. If you can sew, then I recommend sewing one if you want it to be exactly what you are looking for. But you can just as well buy stuff to make one.

Here are photos of the Ghost Town Ghouls for inspiration.

Now that you have seen some of Knott’s Ghost Town Ghouls, let me show you what I came up with. I mostly used things I had at home already, and then added accessories.

For the boys, I had one Cowboy Ghoul, and one Ghost Town Townsperson Ghoul. Here are their costumes.

For the boys, I had them wear black pants and white shirts they already owned. We added a grey jacket to the cowboy costume and a vest and cape to the townsperson. I found the child sized cowboy hat and Derby hat at Party City. I used 5/8″ ribbon for the bow ties, and the plastic chain I also got at Party City.

Here are some items I found online that you could use for inspiration to make your own Ghost Town Ghoul costume.

Derby Hat, Train Conductor Hat, Black Top Hat, Black or White Bandanas, Black Dickies Overalls, Black Pants, Black or Grey Dressy Vest, White Dress, Shirt, Black Cape, Bowtie and Suspenders, Black Boots, Black Cowboy Hat, and black ribbon.

For my daughter, I made her costume as I mentioned before. Here she is holding one of the Ghost Town Ghoul’s parasols. You could add one to your costume if you’d like. I got her mini top hat at Walmart, and I pinned a black ribbon to her shirt.

Here are some options I found online that you could use to make your own Ghost Town Ghoul girls costume. There are also witches in Ghost Town, so you could also go that route.

Spider Veil Witch Hat, Mini Black Top Hats, Tulle Pettiskirt, Long Black Dress, Black and White Checkered Dress, White or Grey Ruffle Blouse, Spiderweb Cape, Witch Costume, Black Bonnet, Grey Pilgrim Dress, Black Corset Belt.

Once you have your costume pieces together, you will need some of the following to decorate them and make them truly Ghoulish. The main thing you will need is cheese cloth. This is what makes those cool spiderwebs that you see all over the Ghost Town Ghouls.

You can buy cheesecloth online or at the fabric store. Just ask where to find it once you get to the store. You will then cut pieces of it, and then cut holes into those pieces. Then rough them up and make them look like spiderwebs.

Once the pieces of cheese cloth look like spider webs, you can sew them onto your costumes. You can also glue them on, but I didn’t want to ruin my kids clothes. If you sew them on, you can unstitch them when you are finished for Halloween. Make sure to add spiderwebs to the hats and skirts as wee=ll.

Here are some options I found online that you could use to finish off your Ghost Town Ghoul costume.

Plastic Spiders Cotton Spider Web Cheese cloth Plastic Chains Costume Makeup Black Lipstick Black Roses

Ghost Town Ghouls have white faces and dark inset eyes. Use black makeup to darken in the shallows of your eyes, and white makeup to give that ghostly glow. Black lipstick is optional, but fun to add! The cottony stretchy spiderweb can be used to wrap around your head if you want to look like the school teacher, and you can add plastic spiderwebs to just about any part of your costume.

Wha la! You have a Ghost Town Ghoul costume.

I hope this post inspires you to attend Knott’s Spooky Farm and to dress up your kids! It doesn’t have to be a Ghost Town Ghoul, but I can tell you that we’ve never had more fun doing so. There is a Halloween Costume Contest during Spooky Farm, so if you do dress up, make sure to enter. It is at 3:15pm on each day in Csamp Snoopy at the Camp Snoopy Theater.

We had so much fun entering and actually won a prize!

Also, if you are heading to Knott’s any time soon, you will want to read this post. 101 Tip for Visiting Knott’s Berry Farm. These are my best tips and tricks for visiting the park. You are sure to find something useful!

The is a sponsored post.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Susan G. Komen More Than Pink walk at Fashion Island in Newport Beach on behalf of the City of Hope. As expected, it was an amazingly inspiring event with lots of beautiful breast cancer survivors, their friends and family, and others who were there to support the walk.

I was happy to see City of Hope as a sponsor of the More Than Pink walk, and I had the privilege of checking out their booth and also taking to some of their staff and doctors.

City of Hope is coming to Orange County

Good news! The City of Hope is in the works of investing more than $1 billion dollars to develop a comprehensive cancer campus that will change cancer care in Orange County, California. The campus will be located on approximately 11 acres of land at FivePoint Gateway in Irvine will include an around 190,000-square-foot building that will be a center of innovative cancer research and treatments. It is expected to open in 2021 ahead of schedule.

The new City of Hope Orange County comprehensive cancer campus will be Orange County’s only specialty hospital dedicated solely to treating and curing cancer. It is expected to include:

• An outpatient cancer center offering diagnostic imaging and screenings, precision medicine and early detection, medical oncology, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgical oncology and ambulatory surgery.
• A clinical research center offering phase I-III clinical trials.
• Personalized supportive care services that include palliative care physicians, psychiatrists, social workers and others who partner with patients and their families to address the many physical and emotional issues that can arise during and after treatment. City of Hope is the model for other institutions across the country.
• Access to a wide range of solid tumor and blood cancer specialists dedicated to finding the best treatments for each patient.   

Why is City of Hope Expanding to Orange County?

Nearly 20% of residents leave the area for advanced care, with many heading to City of Hope’s main campus in Duarte, California. This can be as much as a two-hour commute away. In addition, despite its reputation for healthy living, Orange County is not immune from the one-in-three national statistic for cancer incidence. In fact, the cancer incidence rate in the county is projected to increase by 18% over the next decade. Cancer risk increases with age and the county’s population is aging faster than the U.S. average. 

The Orange County campus will be an extension of City of Hope in Duarte, providing access to highly specialized cancer experts and treatment for the most complex cases, such as bone marrow transplants, stem cell transplants and CAR T cell therapy. 

City of Hope Consultation Offices Open in Newport Beach

City of Hope’s expansion to Orange County has already started. It will include additional clinical locations that will provide medical oncology and infusion services ensuring easy access to care throughout the region.

City of Hope is planning to open its Newport Beach facility this January, providing residents with a more convenient way to receive leading-edge medicine. Offices in Newport Beach will be open for consultations and resources! Doctor Wade Smith, M.D. is very active in bringing his expertise in a variety of cancers to City of Hope and will be here in Orange County to help patients at these offices.

What a great morning learning about the new of City of Hope coming to Orange County, and also being in the company of so many amazing people supporting the Susan G. Komen More Than Pink walk. City of Hope and Susan G. Komen work closely together so this is a great partnership.

Before I left the walk that morning, I stopped by City of Hope’s renowned “Wishing Tree” installation. They brought it onsite to the More Than Pink walk for survivors and co-survivors to interact with during the event. IT was City of Hope’s way to introduce to Orange County that they will be creating a world class comprehensive cancer campus of the future right here in the OC. I know there are so many people who are so grateful for this new and will welcome with open arms the new City of Hope Orange County campus!