A Magical Morning!

We told the kids there would be a surprise for them the morning of Matthew's birthday.  I blocked off the top of the stairs while they were sleeping and hung a sign so the kids wouldn't go down when they first woke up.

 

They were so excited to go downstairs and see what was waiting.....

 

I found some free printables (thank you, Pinterest), raided my party/craft stash and set up a fun breakfast table.  (It was late the night before when I was trying to pull this together and I was so grateful to find that I had exactly the number of left over black plates ~ I think from Matthew's Star Wars party long ago ~ in the pantry for our table and polka dot napkins.  What luck!)

 

They loved the Mickey Mouse table.   And then we told them the reason behind the decorations.....

We're going to Disneyland!!!!

 

I love the stunned faces. 

Last year Shannon's family went to Disneyland, then a couple of weeks later, Katie's family went.  Then the cousin's went.  And the kids started asking, "When are we going?"  Like we were all just taking turns.  I explained to them that you don't just go to Disneyland.  A lot of saving has to be done first!  Which I had already started...but we got out a little jar and started saving as a family.  And the kids have been adding their change in.  And we fill the jar and then count it and put it in our little savings box (which accrues about the same interest as the bank).  And the kids have watched our little fund grow and it has been a good experience for them to understand that going on vacation is really a treat that you have to work really hard to make happen.  (At first they thought once we filled the jar we could go.  :)  I told them it took a LOT of jars!)  It's also been good for them to see how small amounts of money (when not spent on things like Pokemon cards) really do add up over time to make something significant.





(Notice the Lucky Charms on the table?  We're usually a Grape Nuts, Cheerios, etc. kind of family but the birthday child gets to pick out a box of whatever cereal they like.  It's a treat they always look forward to  ~  and it's always lucky charms.)



Soooo excited!!

The gift bags held their autograph books (which I added extra pages in for their own journaling about their trip) and lanyards with trading pins that I found on EBay.   I was not on my A game with pictures this particular morning,  and didn't photograph the books or the lanyards (they are wearing them in the photo above), but here's an iphone pic that I sent a friend....

 

I was really happy with how they turned out. 

We've never done pin trading before, but I heard the older kids really have fun with it, so we are going to give it a try.  The kids were trading between each other that morning. I think Matthew will especially enjoy this. 

And just for fun, a flashback from our last trip....



Love Andrew relaxing on the spinning teacups...I'd have my head in a bag!











This was an unexpected favorite moment.  Matthew held Belle's hand and asked, "What's it like to live in a castle?"  It was so sweet.



Even this young, Kaitlin loved to dress up.  She looks so tiny!



The ride where we lost Andrew.



I am SO excited!  Disneyland is one of my favorite places, it really does just feel like such a magical place ~ I can't wait to go back!!

Disneyland Day 5

Because we had plans for a Princess lunch I put Kaitlin in her Cinderella dress today. I remember last time we were at Disneyland and I was pregnant with Kaitlin. We had just found out that she was a girl and I remember seeing all the little girls at the park in their princess dresses and not really believing that the next time we came we would have one too. And yet, here she is....

I saw those pretty flowers in the photo above and paused for just a minute to take a few photos of Kitti in her dress as we were leaving the hotel in the morning and I was so glad that I did. You'll see why a little later.

We started our day today at "Magic Morning" where we were able to enter the park early. We spent our time doing the last remaining rides that we hadn't had a chance to do yet, along with repeating a few favorites. (Peter Pan, which the boys wanted to ride and is one of my favorites and Kaitlin's favorite: the carousel--whenever she would see it she's exclaim "Ride Horsey!! Ride Horsey!! And it was always a little traumatic when the ride was over).

We also rode Small World which is another one of my very favorite rides.

Around 11 we headed to Ariel's grotto in California Adventure for the highlight of our day: lunch with the Princesses.

We were really excited about this lunch as Kaitlin adores Cinderella. However, I think what Kaitlin actually loved the most was seeing all of the other little girls dressed up like Princesses! She was SO excited, running up to other little girls to touch their dress and show them hers. She is NOT shy and it was a job chasing her around while we waited. (Thanks to my husband for taking that on). She was so happy.

Soon it was our turn to go downstairs to meet Ariel and be seated at our table.

Lunch was a little crazy in the beginning as we jumped up every 5 minutes as a princess would emerge to pull Katie from her high chair, get the boys out of the booth, photograph and video the royal introduction and then get an unwilling two year old BACK in her high chair (who really only wanted to run around the corner to see if she could find the next Princess that would be coming) only to repeat the process 5 minutes later when the next princess emerged. I have to say, I was a little relieved when the last princess arrived and we were able to sit and enjoy lunch! It was tiring!

First out was Snow White or "No-Me" as Kaitlin calls her, which is funny because that's her word for "Snowman." As soon as she saw her she started asking, "Yey-ya? Yey-ya?" For "Cinderella?" We had our photo (which I have to say, I was SO disappointed in my photos at lunch. I should have just shot in auto but didn't and now I regret it. But despite the blur, the memory is still there.

And then Aurora arrived followed by Kaitlin's favorite--at last--Cinderella!! (Judging by all the little Cinderellas at the lunch I'd say Kaitlin was in good company with her preference). She was excited to see her and I'm sad that my photos didn't turn out great, but the cutest part was when she stood next to her and held her dress out as if to say, "See I have a pretty dress too!" It was so cute. (That's what she's doing in the photo below).

She didn't disappoint. Cinderella was especially sweet.

Andrew was largely unimpressed with the princesses (as you can see in the photos) and would pull himself out to stand next to them for a photo, but it was all too girly for him and he was more interested in the food. Matthew however, really wanted to make sure we got a photo of him with Cinderella because she's "his favorite" and then unexpectedly was SO cute when Belle arrived on the scene.

First, it was so funny because as Belle was trying to sign autograph books, Kaitlin was crawling on the floor trying to look under her dress and see her shoes! (Kaitlin has a thing for shoes).

Then Matthew stood next to her and asked her what it was like to live in a castle. I'm not sure if she took his hand or if he took hers, but oh my gosh, it was so sweet watching him hold her hand and see him smiling up at her. The expression on his face was priceless. I'm so frustrated with myself for messing up these photos because I think this was actually my favorite moment of the whole trip. It was precious and totally unexpected.

And while there were many darling princesses to be had at the lunch, I found my 2 little Princes to be quite dashing....

(Did you notice the dessert tray on the bottom right? YUM.

After lunch we returned to Disneyland and did a little shopping including picking out some Christmas ornaments for the kids. I like to get an ornament each year for us and the children that represents something major that happened/or that we did that year.

We also did Autotopia and I had the pleasure of driving with Andrew who somehow took the 12 inch leeway that the car had to move around the little track it was on and made it a harrowing ride. Here are Dan and Matthew in their car.

We also stood in a very long line to see Tinkerbell which ended up being totally worth it. She was incredibly cute, funny and charming. Andrew had a little pirate key that Mom had bought him and he showed it to her and told her that he was a pirate and oh my, she had such fun with that. She had Andrew cracking up! This was one of my favorite Andrew moments of the trip.

He loves to laugh and be silly!

And then, I thought this was pretty funny. So remember Kaitlin looking so sweet and pretty when we left in the morning?

Here is Katie by 2:00 that day.

How funny is that?

We really wanted to see the parade before we left so we went early to get seats. Which for some families would be restful. But not when you are parents of 3 little Energizer Bunnies who despite having walked miles over the course of the week were still going! They could NOT sit still. Kaitlin was busy trying to socialize with a lady behind us that she was certain wanted to be her best friend. She kept climbing up into the bench next to her. I was trying to walk the line of letting her be friendly (the lady was encouraging Kaitlin) and make sure that my child wasn't being annoying. (You know how at first it's cute and then it stops being cute when parents don't ever step in?) Then Matthew and Andrew were just so squirly I didn't think the parade would ever start. This was where I hit my "all done" point. :) I have to say, this is one of my biggest challenges right now at this stage with the children. Just managing my kids' energy is a job.

One of the neat things that happened while we were waiting, was 2 Disney workers approached and visited with us and at the end of our conversation they asked if there were any rides we'd like to do that might have a long line and proceeded to give us a pass that would let us ride without waiting! It was so nice!

The parade mercifully started and it was fun being up front because the kids really got to interact with a lot of the characters. One of the cute moments was Matthew and Nana dancing in the street together.

Another cute thing was a result of Kaitlin witnessing Dan and the boys doing a lot of "thumbs up" over the week and consequently during the parade she kept giving the characters the "thumbs up" sign. She's also been doing it in restaurants. It's really funny--I don't know what she thinks it means because she does it when it doesn't make sense at all, so it always makes me smile.

After the parade was over Dan headed to Splash mountain with the boys for one last time down the chute while Mom and I took Kitti to Downtown Disney to the "World of Disney" to finish up some shopping that we wanted to do...Kaitlin slept in her stroller the whole time. Then we headed back to the hotel where we collapsed from exhaustion and left our packing until morning!

Diseyland--Day 4 (AKA "The Day We Lost Andrew")

(Note: I wrote this post when I was in California and just added the photos later. So it reads as if this actually happened today).

We spent the day today in California Adventure. Our hotel has its own entrance into the park and it was so nice! We were able to get in and ride a lot of rides before the lines grew.

Dan took this photo of Kaitlin and we all thought it was so funny. At 2 she already looks like a tourist! She's such a little mimic.

We started our morning at Soarin' Over California and the nice worker offered to take a photo of us! I love how the Disney workers are so friendly and polite! Even the tourists have actually been really nice (except one really grouchy lady who yelled at the boys in Disneyland for not walking around her--wow. I felt sorry for her to feel so angry in Disneyland!)

This was taken on the big Ferris wheel that gives you a great view of the park. I can hardly believe Matthew is going to be 7 at the end of this month. He's growing up way too fast....

Dan and I road the California Screamin' Roller Coaster together. (I think that's the name). Dan loves all of the thrill rides. I can do them...once. I used to be able to ride them more. I guess I'm losing my nerve a little bit! We had a little "date ride" and popped over and got to do this one together. It was really fun. Although when it started to go I thought "Uh-oh, was this a mistake?"

Andrew rode "The Tower of Terror"--twice! Seriously! He'll try anything that he's tall enough for! I did start to question, if he should be riding some of these things. Some of the rides were a little scary! But he did just fine. Matthew on the other hand, is so cautious and passes on many rides. They approach Disneyland just as they approach life. And while Andrew can cause me such worry, his adventurous spirit is really fun in this context. So that was the fun part.

And then we lost Andrew. That was the horrible part.

The lines were really minimal and it made it so nice with the children. The one exception was the new Toy Story ride. Which had a LONG line with many many switchbacks FULL of people. We got in line and moved around the switchbacks amongst the masses when I looked down and said, "Where's Andrew?" I'm immediately checking all around our legs...nope. Looking back in the line...did he just not move with us? No. Looking ahead...did he keep walking? No. I started telling myself "Don't panic. Don't panic." I started crossing over the chains and calling Andrew's name. I couldn't see him anywhere. My heart was racing and I'm thinking a million things at once...I'm not sure how long he was gone--I couldn't find him anywhere. I've never lost a child in a crowd like this where a quick sweep of the immediate area didn't just reveal their presence. But everywhere I looked there were just people and no Andrew, and it was scary. It was long enough that I was starting to panic inside and was just starting to look into the ride to find a Disney worker to help us and tell us where to go for lost children when I heard Dan yell, "ANDREW!!!!!!" I looked up and he pointed a few rows ahead of where I had climbed through the crowd. I heard people saying, "They're in the line up!" (Meaning Andrew's parents) and I know I said, "Thank you so much" to the person who handed my little man back to me but I know I didn't thank them as well as I should have as I just wanted to get my hands on Andrew who had such a scared and sad look on his face and as soon as I had a hand on him he started crying and crying. What a horrible feeling. We still don't know what happened except it was awful and scary and Dan and I were both trying to hold and hug and kiss Andrew at the same time. I couldn't hug him enough. Oh that's a terrible feeling.

I took this photo after we found Andrew (and had held him for a long time and was finally willing to hand him over to Dan)....

Right before we got on the ride where we lost Andrew--(which ended up being one of Matthew and Andrew's favorites. It was really fun!

And then after we got off....

Another memorable thing that we did was have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. I've never been to one before and it was so much fun!! It was such a soothing environment and the animals kept the children completely entertained. There were gorillas behind the boys that would move from time to time and they spent their whole time watching and waiting. It was great!

And then there were little thunder and lightening storms that were perfectly timed to coincide when Kaitlin was having a little fit and distracted her perfectly. It was so nice! Not to mention, Mom and I shared some lettuce wraps that were SO good. I'd love to go back again.

We also caught the parade--I love the parades. They just are so much fun. They just always make everyone happy. Kaitlin was so funny when the Toy Story characters arrived Kaitlin's eyes locked in on Bow Peep in her pretty dress and she kept pointing and turned and pointed and watched her all the way down. The Bug is all about a fancy dress. It was fun to watch her because I was exactly the same way...it made me smile.

And on the flip side, the Green Army men interacted with Andrew which was so neat because he loves them and was thrilled because "he had a gun." Meanwhile, little Matthew my worrier actually made me hold him during the parade because there were so many people and he was "afraid of getting lost." Bless his heart. Andrew's experience scared him, I think.

A few more images from the day....

We had dinner in the park and then Dan took the boys to a quick stop at the Lego store to play a bit and Mom and I did a little souvenir shopping. Kaitlin picked out a wand.

I really prefer Disneyland but California Adventure was a fun stop. We had a great day, and tomorrow we'll return to Disneyland for our last full day here at the park! I'm so sad that our vacation is nearly over. We've fallen into a little "vacation routine" and it's a nice little life! This weekend I'll have to return to laundry and grocery shopping. But I'm not going to start thinking about that. Right now I'm all about Mickey and having fun with the kids.

Disneyland--Day 3

(I finally finished the post! 5/8--last photos are at the end). Yay!

I took the most photos of our trip on this day (that I liked) so it's taking a while to put this post together. I decided just to post what I have done and I'll continue to add to it as I have the time. I know that I have a sweet little nephew that is looking forward to seeing new Disneyland photos. (Hi Isaiah!! I love you!)

Our first ride of the day was the Matterhorn. Matthew opted out upon warning of the Yettie. Andrew was game though and rode with me and Dan. He loved it!

We spent a good portion of the morning in Fantasyland which was fun because we could all ride the rides together. Here are Dan and the Bug in line for Dumbo.

I love this picture of Dan. Those are his happy eyes...

The kids LOVE Dumbo. I think because they have control over making the elephant go up and down with a lever. As I was taking these photos Matthew was bouncing our elephant up and down. Note: spinning, bouncing elephants and picture taking induces motion sickness.

Tea Cups were up next. I don't do spinning rides (other than Dumbo), so Dan took the boys while Mom took Kaitlin on the carousel nearby. I'm going to end for now with 3 of my favorite photos from the trip. Andrew has taken to making grumpy faces in photos (even when not grumpy...just his new 4 year old "thing") and so I love all of them smiling in this next photo. I love these boys so much.

As they were spinning Andrew just leaned back with his head in his hands as if he were relaxing and Dan was just cracking up at him.

And I love this picture of Dan. It's just so him. And very much what I fell in love with.

I took this next photo of Katie while we were eating a (bad & ovepriced) lunch of Mexican food. :) She (correctly) refused to eat and instead was having fun making faces and being silly.

After lunch we hurried over to do the "Jedi Training" that the boys had SO been looking forward to. They had been talking about it and were really excited for this part of our trip. We arrived early and were the first ones there. We sat down and waited. (Remember when I said these vacation posts will probably be really long and overly detailed? This is where that begins to happen).

The show started and this is where our day went South. The "Jedi Master" chooses around 30 kids to participate in "Jedi Training" to become Jedi. I had prepared Matthew and Andrew that they might not be chosen, but they really had their hopes up.

They didn't get chosen.

Andrew's tears came first. As soon as the last child was chosen he turned to me and cried and cried. I felt so sorry for him....

Shortly though, Darth Vader came out and he was fascinated by him and still had a fun time.

Matthew's tears came later, and I have to say it took a couple of hours for him to completely let this go. He was incredibly disappointed. So we headed to Star Tours to try to cheer them up...

It worked, until the ride emptied out into the Star Wars STORE where Matthew really wanted a Jedi Robe and a light saber like the ones the children used during "Jedi Training."

And this is where sometimes it's SO hard to be a parent....I would have loved nothing more than to buy those things and make Matthew happy, but Matthew already had some souvenirs and I didn't want to buy these things just because he was sad--I want him to learn to work through being sad without needing something to comfort him like a treat of some sort (food, toy or otherwise). (However, I did actually buy a robe for him for his birthday at the end of the month that he didn't know about). Anyway, he was really sad and said, "I've had two disappointments today."

And this is where we have talks about character and being happy when things don't go your way that I'm sure the kids will grow to be irritated with. But he did pull out of it and we agreed that we remembered what we saw and Matthew could practice at home and we did have a good day. But I'll bet my heart was aching for the boys a lot longer than theirs were. I hate seeing them disappointed and sad. I know it will happen and they have to learn to deal with it, but I just hate it. And perhaps if the kids read this someday they'll know why Mom didn't give them everything they wanted--and that I really was always thinking of their best interest. :)

Around lunchtime we noticed that the bug's Diaper was getting really full and we remarked that she needing changing but got in a rush for the Jedi training and then the whole sadness happened and I was distracted by that. Pretty soon Kaitlin got really fussy and we pulled her from the stroller to find that she was sopping wet. Poor thing! What an afternoon! So Mom and I headed back to the hotel to change her and paused at this fountain where Kaitlin wanted to see the water.

Meanwhile, Dan and the boys ran into Goofy and Dan took this cute photo.

Then they stumbled on us at the fountain and Dan took a photo of a common scene in our family that I'm including because I'm sure this is how my children will remember me.

Yes, Disneyland was not all sunshine and butterflies....

But with a little patience and perseverance, the fun did prevail. So much of life is dependent on our attitude. I really hope we can be a good example of that to our kids. It isn't always easy!

We took the kids back to the hotel and got them cleaned up and changed for "Goofy's Kitchen Dinner." We took these photos on the way. The boys loved the Lego store.

I realize Katie looks like she's missing an arm in this photo, but she looked so cute I had to include it.

We went to the Disneyland Hotel for "Goofy's Kitchen Dinner."

We were seated by Minnie which delighted the Bug to no end.

The characters circulated around to all of the tables which was great and then occasionally there would be a fun activity with Goofy like baking a cake or....

Dancing!

Matthew LOVED all the characters and was always excited to see someone. Andrew enjoyed them if they were funny or engaging and fun. And as you can see in this photo, if they weren't animated or wearing a beautiful gown, they simply weren't worthy of the Bug's time and attention. Mac 'n Cheese is more interesting than Aladdin in Katie's book.

Matthew was so cute to watch with the characters. He really just loved them....

Katie saw her first princess--Snow White. And she was mesmerized. The cutest part (and I don't have a photo) was after she hugged Snow White and the princess was about to leave Kaitlin faced her and held the skirt of her dress out with both hands as if to say, "See, I have a pretty dress too." Snow White sweetly acknowledged Kaitlin's dress.

The boys loved Goofy. He was so fun and playful with them. He actually came to our table twice--he was really great.

Kaitlin was challenging on the way to dinner and during as well and ended up with 3 time outs from when we arrived to when we left. Afterward, I looked in her stroller and saw this sweet sight....

The poor thing was exhausted! My kids do not sleep in their strollers so she had to have been so tired. No wonder she was a bear. Mom sweetly offered to take her back to the hotel room and so Dan and I popped into California Adventure. This is where we loved the hotel location. We popped in and entered right at the Grizzly River Rapid Run--we took a "before" photo....

And here we are after riding twice....

Soaked!

Then we went back to the hotel and warmed up in the hot tub!

Did you think this post would never end? (If anyone is still reading....) Me too! :)