Happiest place EVER!

Avery was about to turn 5, and we felt that since she is obsessed with princesses and we only live 7 hours away from Anaheim, that it was time for a Disneyland trip. 

We told her that for her birthday we were going to the beach because. We wanted to surprise her. We drove to California and stayed in a hotel across the street from D-land. The next day was her actual birthday, so we let her open up a present. It was another princess dress! We told her she could wear it to the beach (come on Avery, do you really think we would let you wear a new princess dress to the beach?) Anyways, she bought it and "off to the beach" we went. When we arrived at the park we asked her if she could see the beach yet, she couldn't. Then we told her that we were playing a trick on her and that we were actually at Disney Land. 

This was her reaction

What the wha?

She is kind of like her mom and contains her emotions well, but we could see the big smile she was trying to hide.

Then it was over after we told her we were going to eat breakfast at Ariel's house with all the princesses.

Off to Ariel's Grotto we went. You will find one common theme in Disney Land. WAY expensive, but irresistible. This was Ariel's Grotto. The eggs and pancakes weren't really worth the 40 bucks, but I would pay it again seeing how happy my girls were when they saw all the princesses.

They flipped when they met Ariel

When it was over and Ariel was saying good bye, Brooklyn started singing the "ahh ah ahhh ah ah ahhh ah ahhhh" that Ariel sings and Ariel thought it was the cutest thing. It kind of was.

These pictures are kind of crappy because I had to crop them from a video (we lost our camera so all the pics are from Trav's iphone, sad.... pretty sure Brooklyn got it out of my purse and left it somewhere, oh well, chalk it up to another Disney expense!)

Cinderella

 Snow white

Belle

 Sleeping Beauty

Here is the breakdown from my point of view. Ariel was probably the happiest and friendliest, followed by Sleeping Beauty. She was cool. Snow White seemed very uptight and all business. Cinderella was nice, but you could tell she was just at work and needed to move on to the next kid, and Belle was super flighty and tried too hard to be in character.

Breakdown from Trav's point of view. Belle was the hottest. The end.

This was fun!

Then on to the madness of both California adventure and Disney Land.

Avery was tall enough to go on the Tower of Terror. I looked over at her during the ride, and she was just frozen, but didn't make a peep. After the ride, I asked her what she thought, and she said, "I don't want to go on that one again OK?" It was kind of scary. She said that about Ghost mountain, not a fan! She is a brave girl. She loved Splash Mountain, the auto bot ride, cars and any ride with the video simulation.

Brooklyn surprised us with her willingness to try rides, she usually won't even go on the 25 cent slot machines at Walmart, so we were proud of her for trying. But for the most part, she didn't really like most rides. She did love the Ariel's ride of course! We went on it 3 times.

We of course had to try all the yummy food. The first day, I packed snacks so we could save money, but who was I kidding. We needed to try the 7 dollar corn dogs, the 4 dollar churros, the 10 dollar soup and bread bowls, and the 4 dollar cotton candy. Its just what you do at Disneyland.

And of course we had to splurge on the Blue Bayou. I don't know if you knew this about me, but I am obsessed with pirates. You know those people who get attacked by the pirates around Somalia? Well I'm jealous of them. I want to have a life of a pirate. It just seems awesome. Anyways, Pirates of the Caribbean is my favorite ride, and they have a restaurant right in the middle of it, and there was no stopping me. It was magical!

Both Trav and I ordered the Monte Cristo sandwich. It is a turkey and ham sandwich, battered and fried, served with jam. Sounds weird, but it is amazing!

We were totally spent by the end, but all in all it was a huge success!

A couple things we learned

1) Don't cram it all in one day. That would have been insane! We did a three day pass, and it was totally worth it.

2) Take breaks, we were half a mile from our hotel, so one day we actually took a break to go and have naps.

3) Its Disneyland, so its ALWAYS going to be crowded. We developed a strategy for this. We mostly rode the rides in the morning, using fast passes. In the afternoon, when our kids were tired and over doing the rides, we would go and see a show or eat a meal or ride the train. Their shows are amazing!!! I think my kids liked those more than the rides. Then we would ride more rides in the evening, and then find a parade, or another show. The world of color show was spectacular, no joke, I don't cry much during movies or things like that, but I was really choking back the tears. I want to watch every Disney movie now.

It was a great birthday for Avery, and the last night we were there, she bawled as we were leaving the park. Happy Birthday my 5 year old!