California Vacation - Day 3

It's finally Disney day!! The day we've all been waiting for!

Please excuse the picture dump! :)

We all slept as long as possible, I had time to wake up, shower, do my hair, and even put on makeup before the kids woke up!

We got everyone ready and had breakfast. The kids went bananas for the continental breakfast. Mae ate about 4 dozen eggs and Sam had 10 muffins... "Hey, they were mini!"

In our week before vacation we had done a lot of things to get the kids psyched about Disney, one of them was letting the kids pick out their souvenir stuffed animal, but we didn't let them have them until we left for Disney. They sat in a bag on the mantle for a few days and all six kids sat looking longingly at them. 

I had this idea in my mind of all the kids in this perfect little picture wearing the "Original Mousekateer" shirts which are totally adorable, but they didn't have any in Mae and Iris' size, so instead we let them pick out their own shirts. that was equally fun for them and they were REALLY excited when they got dressed and realized, this was Disney day!!!

It took us awhile to get our tickets at will-call. I instantly got a stress headache, if we didn't have tickets I would die. D I E. They kept looking at our vouchers and shaking their heads, seriously 5 women standing around looking at them and searching for our names over and over again. Finally some genius decided to enter our confirmation number and it pulled it up. It was probably a total of 15 minutes of me panicking. I was so peeved. 

When we got in Jerry insisted on taking my picture by the entrance. After all... it was my BIRTHDAY!!!

Our first stop was to City Hall, it was our first visit and our birthdays so we all got fun pins! 

Our second and most important stop was to get Starbucks on Main Street. 

Once we were all set and ready to go we headed to the Tikki Room. It was a perfect way to start! We loved the music and the birds and the great humor! 

Sam had his first meltdown here. I think he was just a little overwhelmed by all the... everything. He immediately started shouting "it's too dark! I hate birds! the music is too loud!" with hardy a breath between complaints. So the two of us left the building and went to wait by the stroller. 

After that we went to the Jungle Cruise, which was also wonderful and such a fun way to start our visit. 

We got our first fast pass for Indiana Jones. Jerry took Joe and Molly and the other kids ran through Tarzan's tree house a bunch of times. Joe and Jerry LOVE fast scary rides, and Molly also says she loves them... however, Indiana Jones was really scary and she spent the entire ride sobbing into Jerry's lap. Joe however, was SO amped up - he even let me take his picture! While they were on the ride Sam was getting irritated by all the people. I decided to let him buy an autograph book. We specifically planned out which souvenirs we would buy in the park, and this was on the list. I had brought a baggie full of every color of permanent markers we had... which is a lot. So Sam was in charge of this. He considerably perked up after this having a "job". 

Jerry decided we ALL needed to go on a ride, so we all went to Pirates of the Caribbean... which wasn't awful. There were three small drops, and then music and touring around in the boat. I had to laugh because Mae just dropped off to sleep right away. It was a little unnerving at the end because the ride had to climb back up to ground level. It wasn't scary, I just didn't know what was going to happen. I'm not a ride person. lol. 

When we were booking our vacation I looked for the dates with the lowest amount of attendance last year. It was the first and second week of February. Little did I know that's Disney's "off season" and SO many rides and SO many buildings were closed. It was pretty sad. Particularly, I was sad that the castle was not only closed, but completely covered up. *sad face*

Mae slept for a solid THREE hours in the stroller. it was amazing!

Since we had purchased three passes we were getting a magical morning on Tuesday and I knew that  Fantasyland and Tomorrowland were the only areas going to be open, so we skipped Fantasyland and the kids had no desire to go to any of the Fronteirland rides. At this point in the day it was almost 90 degrees. Ha! Critter Country was entirely closed. 

We had packed lunch so we sat and ate and then went up to Mickey's Toontown. We saw Goofy first and everyone was really excited! Iris and Lucy were completely blown away by him. Lucy had the biggest smile on her face! Sam was very diligent in getting his signature and picking out the right colors for everyone's signatures. 

We sat down for awhile and had frozen apple juice and frozen punch. It was SO refreshing!! Even though we had been walking around for several hours, the kids needed a place to get out and just play. Goofy's House and Donald's shop were the perfect place... and placed perfectly. 

So most of my kids are huge posers, they all have little list of pictures they want all the time and are always asking, "Oh Mom! Take my picture doing this" or "Can you take a video!?" and they love to watch their videos and look at their pictures, so you can imagine their excitement at all the photo opportunities up here! HAHAHA!

Mae woke up and had the last of the frozen apple juice... seriously, it was amazingly refreshing. She was in a great mood and ready to meet Minnie Mouse!

Jerry, Molly, and Joe went on Gadget's Go Coaster while Sam went to stand in line for Mickey's signature and a picture. I waited outside and let the little girls run around in Chip n' Dales Tree House. Sam waited an astounding full hour for Mickey's Signature. That boy was dedicated!!! He had our photo pass but apparently they didn't scan it so his picture didn't make it into our collection. Super disappointing!!

Almost as soon as he came out Jerry and the kids were done on the roller coaster so we all went to wait in line for Minnie. It went pretty fast, I think it was about 45 minutes. 

Part of our wait was in line, but the majority of our wait was in Minnie's house, which was really nice, the kids just played and played and had a great time! The time passes ridiculously fast here! 

This was right outside of Roger Rabbit's Car toon Spin. When you pushed it down it made a funny explosion noise and some smoke came out of the building behind us. 

So of course we had to stand there for 10 minutes while the boys did it over and over again!

The kids weer climbing all over this and this picture sort of just happened, then a woman who was suddenly standing next to me asked me if the kids were all mine and "Doesn't that make you nervous!?"
No, it does not. Disneyland is FULL of fun looking things to climb and you're not aloud to climb any of it. Every time you put your foot up there is suddenly a cast member asking them to get down. :)

After Toontown we had only one thing left to do! Time for our first parade!!!

We stopped to watch the parade, which starts at 4:00PM, in front of the Queen of Hearts bathrooms in fantasyland. We brought a blanket and spread it out with our stroller right behind us. Everything about this area was perfect. First of all, everyone was REALLY tired from walking around, secondly, sitting by the bathrooms, which always have a water fountain out front, provided us everything we needed. :) We passed out disney fruit snacks that we had brought. I also took this time to clean up the stroller and empty out all the trash from the stroller. :) Ha!

Here is Joe's blessed Mickey Voice, which was the voice he used 90% of the trip. I simultaneously would never like to hear it again, and hope to never forget it.




We waited about 15 or 20 minutes. The streets are incredibly clean so sitting down on the ground was not gross at all. Everything in Disneyland is incredibly clean, and as a major OCD person, this was such a relief. We still carried hand sanitizer in the stroller and would squirt it on hands frequently. (The girls wanted balloons so badly, but they were $14.00 each! Instead I had packed these blow up Disney wands, which completely satisfied them! Also, I got them at the dollar store!)

Mae was the most exciting to watch during all of Disney. It was fun for all the kids, but Mae just thought everything was so FUN! 

I also really loved the parades! :)

Iris had wanted to meet Ariel, her favorite princess, all day. So of course when she came down the road on a float Iris jumped up and waved and waved to Ariel, it was so cute...

Princess Ariel actually saw Iris, pointed at her, waved, and blew her a kiss. I know these are actors, but... mind blown. haha. I teared up, Iris freaked out. It was SO amazing and magical for her!

Yep, we're all smitten with Ariel!

We decided to leave the park early, around 5. We had done the majority of the park and we were seriously tired from walking! As we were leaving, the sun was just starting to set on Main Street U.S.A, and a voice came over the intercom and invited us to join them in a moment of silence as they lower the flag or the day. The boys immediately saluted the flag. Jerry nudged me, "Kait, look!" it was great! They're such amazing guys! I'm sure this came directly from Cub Scouts!

 

We almost died on our way out of the park because there were several characters out front and NO lines! 

We rushed over to Ariel first, and hugged and loved on her for as long as the girls wanted to. She had long conversations with them and played stix with Joe (it's a multiplication game you play using your fingers.)

 

I asked her if she would mind one more picture with Iris, who was so tired and feeling very timid. She was seriously so gentle, got down on her knees and said the sweetest things to her. 

 

When it was time to go, Iris gave her a nice cuddle. It was so sweet.

 

While the girls were hanging out with Ariel, Joe and Sam were standing in a short line for Pluto. He kept pretending to lick them and eat their heads, which was the funniest thing ever. :)

 

 

 

Seeing as it was my birthday, I got to chose dinner. We went to Genki Sushi at a mall. It was one of those conveyor belt sushi places, which while they're pretty good, I've never particularly thought they had a good variety. But they're good for the kids, who can chose whatever they want... even if it's just french fries and cheese cake. :)

 

Mae is such a foodie. She had stuffed herself... again! :)

Here are a few things I learned on our first day of Disney:

They are amazing at making incredibly long lines, look short. Oh, there are only 2 or 3 families waiting... outside! We actually waited somewhere that zigzagged through a building, up and down stairs... the building itself was super tiny! Ha. Always read the "waiting time" sign out front. :)

The best time to eat lunch and snacks is in line. It was a perfect way to pass the time. 

Stop at every bathroom you come in contact with. Seriously. They feel like they're everywhere but it's about 2 or 3 hours between each bathroom because of all the lines and waiting and rides. 

Wearing a happy Birthday pin is SO fun! I had literally hundreds of people tell me "Happy Birthday Kaitie!" because it had my name written on the front. Even people who didn't work there, but were just walking by would tell us happy birthday, I also tried to tell everyone happy birthday who was wearing one, it was super fun!

I gave the girls super short bathes tonight, and we watched Big Hero 6 on Jerry's laptop. Bringing some movies from home that the kids hadn't watched was seriously one of the best decisions. Everyone needs time to come back to the hotel and relax before falling asleep. I also had packed microwave popcorn (which we never have at home!) and made a bag every night. 

We were all asleep by 9!