Disneyland (take 3)

Starting off the morning with a big breakfast to get us through the day...Yay! Ella FINALLY (on the last day) decided to wear one of her dress ups!



This day we made reservations at "Ariel's Garoto" for lunch. A restraunt where some of the Disney Princesses come out and greet you while you eat lunch. It was really pricey, I'm not going to lie, but Joseph's and my meals were amazing! The girls...we basically paid $50 for jumbo mac 'n cheese that we ended up tossing in the trash after they were too excited to eat. (nice) But Oh the experience...it brought me to tears seeing how happy my girls were.


Anxiously going down the staircase to meet Ariel.





After a little convincing Ella decided that this was her last chance to meet the princesses. She ran to her and just held on tight. It was so sweet. As you might have noticed...Ariel is Carly's favorite. (look closely and you can see the beloved doll in Carly's hand)

















Our appetizer....pretty yummy.



Cinderella came out first.




It was so cute, she saw Ella in her Cinderella costume and asked her to come talk with her. Ella just ran over and hugged her. No prodding needed. She just held her tight for a little bit. It was so sweet.









Just the happiest little girl after just meeting Cinderella. This smile was worth the pricey (non-eaten) meal.





























Our yummy dessert spread. And yes, that IS a pure white chocolate sea shell! The girls also each got their very own brownie with a candle and were sung to for their birthdays.




Yes, Joseph and I were still there too. Loving every minute of it. (Photo courtesy of Ella)


Just about to leave the restraunt. These girls were on cloud 9. Ella kept saying, "I'm so proud of myself for being brave and meeting the princesses! This is the best day EVER, mom!"






These two pictures were while waiting in line at the Toy Story 3 ride for 45 minutes and then didn't get to ride b/c it broke down when we were next! But heard it's a good one! (Don't worry, you don't need to tell me how beautiful I am here...I already know. Love'n the drenched drowned rat look)








In Pixie Hollow. This one is cool because as you're walking into it, all the flowers start to get taller and taller till they are bigger than you. We told the girls we were shrinking so we could fit into Pixie Hollow. Not sure if they bought it. This was about the time it started raining HARD.



Poor Tink was out there freezing!



We ran for cover in the animation studio. It was AWESOME! There is so much to do there and the girls had a lot of fun.

We met Mickey there! (Check out my jeans! My shoes are SOAKED and so are my pants from the cuffs all the way to my hips! This is just from walking in the rain WITH a poncho!)



And we saw Woody (and one of his green army men) there too. Ella wasn't having it...she just hid her face. Silly shy girl!




The last day we were at Disney we wanted to get a lot done since the past two days we had spent all at Fairytale Land. We rode some rides...for those that have asked... I think our favorite was the Peter Pan ride (Pretty awesome.) and if you didn't do anything else the whole time MAKE IT to the Broadway showing of Aladdin there. It seriously was amazing! We probably only went on like 10 rides. Ella wanted to go on all of the roller coasters. More power to her...I wasn't about to. But then nobody went because it was raining too much and it would've just been pelting her in the face. We went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride...it was fun. Scary for me and Carly b/c of the drop offs, you get wet and Ella was a little freaked out by the pirates. They loved the Dumbo ride and Mr. Toad's wild adventure. Snow White's scary adventure was scary/fun. The girls were a little timid but still liked it. They also loved "It's a Small World" But who couldn't love that? It's fun to see all the different countries. Pinochio ride was fun for them too. Unfortunately we didn't get to ride the famous tea cups because they were full of water. DON'T take little kiddos on the Mickey Mouse "ferris wheel" ride in Cal. Adventure. Ella and Joseph loved it, Carly and I were screaming to get off. It's not just a ferris wheel, it tips and slides all over the place. Mix that with freezing cold and lots of wet wet rain and it = not fun for me. I had this thick cable knit sweater on that was completely drenched! Can you see Carly hiding the whole time under my poncho? lol I had water dripping (from the cars above us) down my poncho and INto my shirt! Soooo Cold!

We ended up having an AWESOME time...sans the rain. Hope the pictures weren't too boring. We can't wait to go back...when it's warm. :)

Disneyland (take 2)

It stopped raining for about 10 minutes so we took the opportunity to ditch the ugly ponchos and get a family group shot. But don't worry, it immediately started raining again. Wouldn't want the weather to be inconsistent or anything.




Carly wore her Snow White costume this day. So we thought it fitting to get her picture taken by the seven dwarf statues. Ella had on her Sleeping Beauty dress but then decided to change out of it as we were leaving the hotel. She gets really nervous/embarrassed/shy when there is too much attention being put on her. I was a little nervous about this as were were going to be meeting a lot of characters and I knew she would be sad when we got home when it was only Carly in the pictures. And after the freak out she had over meeting Rapunzel...I was hoping things weren't going to be the same when meeting these princesses.


PRINCESS STORY TIME


























SNOW WHITE

Snow White and Ariel are Carly's favorite princesses.
Although a little timid at first, her face just lit up getting to meet these princesses...especially Snow White. She taught her how to hold her dress out for the picture and curtsy like a princess.



It was pretty cute. When Carly walked up to meet her, Snow White put her hands on her hips and with a big smile says, "Have you been shopping in my closet?". Carly got the biggest grin on her face and just giggled and said, "nooooo, Dis is Cah-wee's"





CINDERELLA

Having a little chat.

Ella wanted nothing to do with her...so sad, since Cinderella is Ella's favorite.



I finally coaxed Ella into the picture....as long as she could stand by me and Cinderella didn't talk to her. Silly girl.




AURORA

Look at the smile on her face. Well worth all the money spent to go.





Ella and I sword fighting after she ran away and hid from those "evil" princesses.





Since we went for the girl's birthdays we let them each pick out a toy/souvenir at one of the many Disney shops. Ella picked out a Minnie Mouse brush/make-over kit and Carly of course picked out an Ariel doll equipped with all of Ariel's gear. She carried that doll around with her EVERYWHERE. I was a little worried she'd leave it somewhere but it was always clutched in her tiny pudgy hands. After a long long day we got to our hotel room around 10 or 11 pm. The girls went to bed and fell right to sleep. As I was getting ready to lay down I peaked over at the girls to make sure they were tucked in and saw Carly with that little doll STILL clutched in her cute little hands.

Disneyland

Joseph and I decided now would be the best time to go to Disneyland, right before Carly turned 3 because then we'd only have to pay for the 3 of us and Carly would be free. So we went as a birthday/Christmas present to the girls. (This was our Christmas gift to the girls but Santa still came so trust me...they were all but barren on Christmas morning) We kept Disney a secret for about 3 1/2 months! It was so hard to do (especially for Joseph who kept slipping right in front of the girls) We waited up until we pulled up to Disneyland before we told them what it was. I'm not sure it was the best idea for them. I think for Ella it was a little overwhelming and she was a embarrassed to have everyone staring at her and a video camera in her face. We have it on video but it went a little something like this: Me:"ok, we're going to go get your present now."
Ella: "can we unwrap our present now?"
Me: "Well, it's too big to wrap so we didn't wrap it. You'll have to just look outside and tell me when you see it."
Ella: "Is it like as big as a sign?"
Me: "Bigger"
Ella: "like as big as a car??"
Me: "Bigger"
Ella: "Like a building??"
Me: "Nope, even bigger! Just look out your window and tell me what you see"
We finally pull up to Disneyland and stop. We asked her, "so what do you see?" and she looked out the wrong window and says in the most excited voice ever, "IHOP!!!!" She was bouncing up and down in her seat with the biggest smile on her face. We were thinking, "uhhh, err....no." I told her to look out her other window and she sees Disneyland (and you can totally tell it was Disneyland). She got real quiet and you could tell she didn't really know how to react. So she folds her arms across her chest and says, "I didn't ask for this ya know." Wha Wha Wha??? You mean we didn't have to spend over $1000 to take her to Disneyland we could've just gone to IHOP??? Nice. But after telling her, "oh, ok. Lets go back home" she came around and said, "no no no, I would like to go here it will be fun." We ended up having a great time. It rained the whole time, we were freezing most of the time, we didn't get as much in as we wanted too and we are in Ponchos for most of the pictures but we still had a lot of fun. It must be the happiest place on earth if we can have fun in the rain and cold. Although we only hit about 1/4 of the parks, it was nice to have some leisurely fun and not have to rush from place to place. But we'll definitely have to go back so we can see the rest of the park.



First thing we did was make our way into Sleeping Beauty's castel. I think this was one of Carly's top 3 favorite things. She wanted to go in it over and over.






Our camera man.





Dumbo Ride. A lot cooler than I thought.







RAPUNZEL! I Loved her! This was the first character we met. She was just so sweet and cute with Carly. Ella was way to shy to want to talk to her. She threw a fit about just going in the same room with her until she found out that she could hide behind Daddy's legs off in the corner. Carly was a little bashful but wasn't going to let that get in the way. I don't know what it was about her but I kind of wanted to give her my very own hug and squeeze her so tight. Maybe it was the fact that she made my child's day magical and that made my day magical. I will not deny or confirm if I got a little teary eyed.









































Flynn Rider- He really makes a good Flynn! He was so cute with Carly as well. As we were walking out after finishing with a good 5 min with Rapunzel he knelt down by her and pulled Rapunzel's crown out of his satchel. Carly's eyes lit up and she says, "Wepunzal's Cwown!" Then he tells her, "Yes, she asked me to keep it safe for her" It was really sweet.




Participating in Princess story time. I think they saw about 3 different princesses tell their stories. We pretty much spent most of our time in "Fairytale Land".







Princess Coronation program.


They let all the kids come down and help participate. Ella would do this as long as she had a good safe distance from her and the princesses.



Joseph and I on the It's a Small World ride. It was really cool how they got everything ready for Christmas. Ella took the picture. She did pretty good.




I liked this picture of Ella on the It's A Small World ride. Her eyes just lit up at everything around her and all the characters she recognized. Both girls loved it.






The one picture we got with the Castle before leaving the park for the night. Day 1 of Disneyland down...2 more to go.