disneyland...day three.

morning two we were a little slower to get going, but so excited to get to spend another day at disneyland!  because most of the trip's expenses were covered by pampered chef, i was excited to do some "extras" with the girls, that we may not have budgeted to do otherwise!  one of them was booking appointments for them at the "bibbidi bobbidi boutique".  i was so excited because i knew my girly girls would just be in heaven.  we made them appointments for first thing in the morning, so after we got dressed, put them in their princess gear and grabbed breakfast, we headed for fantasyland.  

but not before stopping for a few pics by the walt & mickey statue...

i know, totally cheesy... but when in disney, you've gotta pose with tinkerbell in your hand; the photographers made us! ;)

if you have little girls, i would totalllllly recommend bibbidi bobbidi boutique.  the girls LOVED it... and so did we.  there's nothing like watching your sweeties get doted on and feeling extra special.  you can buy dresses right at the boutique, but the prices are insane.  instead, i scored dresses for them at the disney store when they were having a 40% off sale, and they were gorgeous and super high quality.  bella wanted to be sleeping beauty, and emmy chose sofia the first.  

they had each girl choose hairstyles from a "menu".  three of the four options included fake hair extensions.  let's just say i did some persuading.  luckily, the bun style included a tiara, so i think that sealed the deal for my princess girls.  then, the "fairy godmothers in training" get to work... combing, detangling, styling, spraying... all the while another assistant paints their nails and applies light make up.  it's adorable.

once the girls were done, they made a big deal introducing each princess... it was precious!  my favorite part.  i think i got teary eyed.  no surprise there, though.

and emmy...

DEFINITELY well worth the "splurge".  i told nick that was some of the best money we ever spent!  seriously... it was adorable.  have i said that enough?  the best part was, they had SO MUCH gel and spray in their hair, i didn't have to do anything to it for two days, those buns stayed put! ;)

we left the boutique and toured sleeping beauty's castle, which totally freaked out bella.  it definitely was creepy... lots of long, dark corridors.  i was a little scared myself.  then we visited snow white's wishing well...

and a stop at "jolly holiday" bakery... the "matterhorn macaroon" was on my must-have-food-list, what better time than to have one for breakfast?  cookies are totally acceptable for breakfast whilst on vacation.  they're especially good with coffee.

then we headed to frontierland to go one my favorite ride: "splash mountain".  we had been preparing the girls for months that we were going to take them on some rides.  i had shown them videos and told them all about splash mountain because it has always been my favorite.  growing up, no one in my family liked rides except for me... luckily, we always vacationed with my grandparents, and my sweet grampy would go on every ride with me.  isn't that the coolest??  let's just say the girls were NOT thrilled about going on this ride (there was literally NO line; we walked right on at 9:30/10 o'clock, it was NUTS!)... we were totally the parents you see that force their kids to go because they have no idea what they'll end up liking at this point in their lives (we also dragged my mom on).  

as you can see from this photo, they were less than impressed.  but hey--we did it!  and this photo makes me laugh every time i see it!  totally worth it.  in fact, bella was telling everyone that splash mountain was her favorite: "the cave part, just not the big drop" she'd say ;)

pure GOLD

i loved this section of disneyland; new orleans square.  it was filled with good food, balconies dotting winding alleys and the easy sound of jazz bands playing throughout the streets.  we opted against the "haunted mansion" since bella was scared by the pinocchio ride... but we ran into princess tiana and stopped for a photo:

and ran to get on the riverboat before it started down stream...

and we ran into jessie on the way back:

the girls begged to ride "it's a small world" one last time... not going to lie, i was happy to oblige :)

we left disneyland around noon and headed back to our hotel.  on the way back, we made a stop at build-a-bear workshop.  we had told the girls they could get one larger present from our trip, and the past few days all they could talk about was getting princess bears.  so, bella chose elsa and emmy chose sofia.

after lunch, we snuggled the girls in for nap time...

meme slept with the girls while nick and i snuck out and went back into the park so we could ride this:

the "matterhorn"!  the girls were too small to ride it, and it's one of the few rides that isn't at disney world in florida, so i'd been wanting to ride it for years!  the line was one of the longest in the park; about an hour, but it flew by without having to wrangle the girls, keeping them from stepping on people's toes or getting too close, or peeling them off of the railings as they climbed.  we thought about trying to go on more rides, but the park had gotten busy and it was hot, so we walked back to starbucks in downtown disney and sat for a while with iced coffees.  it was a nice break, just us!

after the girls woke up, we packed up again and rode the monorail back into the park:

waiting in line for the monorail

someone got into her bibbidi bobbidi boutique makeup and tried putting it on herself... :)

because we were back so far from the castle the night before for the fireworks, our plan was to save prime spots early for the parade and fireworks!  before scoping it out, we rode on the "alice in wonderland" ride...

...and then found an empty spot on the corner of the parade route!  it was perfect.  we spread out our blankets and sat, suffering in the sun until it went down.  nick went and got us food while my mom and i sat with the girls.

churros in the shade of the bench while we waited...

gumbo in a bread bowl for mama

turkey leg for daddy

our favorite part of the whole disney experience was definitely the parade and fireworks... they were absolutely amazing!  we had the best seats for the parade this night; we literally could have reached out and touched the floats and characters!  so, so fun.  just watching the girls faces and hearing them call out to the princesses was the best part.  

almost show time!

taking it all in

"paint the night"

the first float of the parade; tinkerbell and peter pan... so fun seeing that come around the corner!

pure magic!

"cars" segment: we thought the song was marketing genius "when can we do this again?" we are totally asking ourselves that question...

"the little mermaid"

princesses... if you listen closely you can hear emmy call out "belle!  look at me!  and bella!" i love it.

"frozen"

olaf

once the parade was over, we made a mad dash into the middle of the street and this is how close we were to the castle:

it was so fun being so close to everything, and felt extra magical.  literally under the fireworks.  

"step in time" from mary poppins!  this time we saw the projections on the matterhorn from where we were standing...

"tangled"... this part in the fireworks made me cry... both times.  

such an amazing night!  we headed back to the hotel and got tucked in, ready for a good night's sleep and our last day at disney (sighhh).  love these pics of my sweet girl:

disneyland...day two.

our first morning at disneyland, i think i woke up at four a.m.  yes, you read that right.  four a.m.  between the time change and the flutters of excitement in my stomach, i couldn't sleep.  for days leading up to our trip, i had that giddy, sick-to-my-stomach excitement... you know, the kind you'd get as a kid on christmas eve.  i definitely held my expectations loosely; i knew disney with a three year old and a five year old could hold some not so magical moments... but i just couldn't help myself.  i was over the moon.

i laid in bed, wheels turning, until it was an acceptable time to start thinking about getting ready for the day.  because we were staying in a disney hotel, we had extra magic hours if we got to the park by seven, which was our plan.  i think we were all up by six, ate breakfast from our food stash in our room, packed up and stepped out of our hotel doors into the morning california sunshine.

girls posing with minnie and mickey just outside our hotel

i LOVED staying at the disneyland hotel for many reasons, but one of them was that our hotel doors lead right to downtown disney.  it was about a five to ten minute walk through the shops and restaurants of downtown disney to the gates of the parks.  all around, disneyland was so much more laid back than disney world, where i grew up going.  which for us, having young kids, was perfect.  compared to the pomp and circumstance in florida, having to take a boat ride to even catch a glimpse of the front gates, in california you merely walk up to the gates and there it is.  i kind of loved it's simplicity... no fuss, no strollers, our kids walked the ENTIRE time.  it was awesome.

here we were!  first glimpse of disneyland... we were a little excited (and the girls had no idea what to think!) ;)

heading through the gates, i couldn't wait for the girls to get their first glimpse of the castle.  again, much more simple than disney world... but it was partly pink, so that was a win in their book, nevermind it was half the size :) it was fun to see walt disney's apartment above the fire station and walk the streets he used to walk early in the morning before the park had opened.  after this trip, i am totally fascinated with him as a person.  pretty amazing what a little imagination can bring to millions of families in countless generations.  so inspiring.

first glimpse of sleeping beauty castle!

walt & mickey

it was fun being there at 7:30 before the crowds had gathered... first stop: family pics by the castle, of course!)

we rode a couple of rides in tomorrowland before heading straight through the castle to fantasyland.  after completely terrorizing bella on "pinocchio's daring journey" (literally: she was shaking), we decided the carousel was a good place to go... followed by some rides in storybookland (which was my favorite part of the whole park!)

all dolled up for disneyland's 60th birthday!

carousel!

circus train

dumbo!

for months before our trip, we watched youtube videos on all things disneyland.  our favorite videos were those that told us all about the amazing food at the parks.  seriously; we each had a list of all of our must have snacks (by all of us, i mean even our three year old).  sadly, we hardly got any of them... surprisingly we weren't hungry often, and it was difficult to get to different places we wanted to go if we were in another area of the park... especially with two little ones... even in the name of food.  BUT... we did get churros a couple of times; they were our family's fav.

alice's tea cups!

my favorite disney ride growing up was "it's a small world."  i think i was in preschool when i would make my entire class sit down while i performed the song for them (super embarrassing, but it's true... unfortunately).  anyways, i was so excited to take the girls!  i knew they'd love it.  little did i know how AMAZING the small world was at disneyland!  i think it was almost bigger than the castle.  way cooler than florida; the line is outside where you get on boats, and can even occasionally spy some of the dolls dancing out cuckoo-clock-style as you wait.

turns out, it was the girls favorite ride (we went on it twice)... and, as this video prooves, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree ;)

next on to toon town, where we got to visit several of the characters!  and get lots of pics :)

pluto!

minnie's house was by far our favorite.  the line was probably the longest one we waited in the entire trip (about 45 minutes) but it was fun while we waited to see all of the details of her digs.

as we got to the front of the line, the girls were getting so excited.  bella said "i wonder what she'll think of us!  we look like her sisters!" ;)

next up, mickey's house!  apparently he was filming a movie and was on the set that day, hence the scarf and sailor props.

our key to no toddler meltdowns on this trip (seriously... i was shocked) was that we would go back to our hotel room every day around one oclock.  we had a nap, some snacks and recharged for the evening.  on our way out of the park that afternoon, we spied someone really special:

that evening, pampered chef put on a special reception for all of us who had earned our first trip with the company!  in typical pampered chef fashion, it was amazing... it was held in one of the ballrooms at the disneyland hotel and included mickey shaped treats, photo spots set up with several disney characters, music and LOTS of celebration.  i definitely shed some tears of joy and gratitude... so so special.

signage

walking into the reception to several of the big wigs and home office employees cheering, clapping and high-fiving

the ballroom

some shots with belle

everything tastes better when it's shaped like mickey :)

family shot

fun getting to see and reconnect with pampered chef friends, meet new ones and especially get to see my upline director, nancy.  she believed in me from day one and sent me encouraging notes and mickey reminders throughout the year, cheering me on toward earning this trip!  loved watching her dance with my girls :)

goofy!

twirling, twirling, twirling

we left the reception and headed back to the park!  

here is the entrance to downtown disney right by our hotel

we went on a "finding nemo" submarine ride and then went on the hunt to find the girls lollipops... we had prepared them for weeks that they could pick out one larger gift while we were there, and a smaller treat... they chose lollipops :)

nemo submarine ride

all this girl wanted was a big, swirled lollipop!

after a lollipop/drink break at starbucks, we stumbled out to the streets already lined for the parade... we ended up wedging ourselves into a spot on main street so we could see.  come to find out, the parade and fireworks were our absolute FAVORITE part of our disney experience!  there's nothing like it.

waiting for the parade

"paint the night" was the special electric parade in celebration of the 60th anniversary

everything about the parade and fireworks was magical.  the girls were absolutely in awe (and so were we).  this is my favorite moment of the whole evening... when bella saw the princess float rounding the corner for the first time... i just love her sweet little face.  pretty much sums up everything that i loved about this trip with my girls:

the thing i love about disney, is the childlikeness it brings out in all of us.  you forget that you're in your thirties, and instead find yourself belting out songs at the top of your lungs, dancing to the music you danced to when you were eight, and waving "hi" to all of the characters with just as much excitement and enthusiasm (or maybe in some cases more) than your own children.  it's awesome.  and what makes it so fun.

after the parade was finished, everyone poured out into the street for the fireworks.  we were a ways from the castle, but the magic sprinkled into main street too, as you can see :)

the fireworks show was a medley of all the disney favorites complete with tinkerbell flying from the top of the castle and projections all over the park.  here are a couple clips where you can see what i mean... bubbles projected onto main street buildings and sea plants popping out of the roofs for "under the sea" (oh, and that's totally nemo "swimming" up to the castle at the end; crazy!)  during "let it go"?  it snowed.  only in disney.

the end to the most magical fireworks show; this soundtrack gets requested in our house daily still, just so you know...

this pic is a little blurry, but i love it.  daddy carrying out his girl at the end of the most magical day.  our hearts were full, and our trip wasn't even half over!  time to get to bed to start over again tomorrow.

best.   day.   ever.

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(read about day one here)