Califonia Family Vacation: Disneyland, day 2, part 2

Before we left Disney that afternoon, the kids were FINALLY able to do some souvenir shopping.  Maxwell built his own light saber.  Kaylee picked out Minnie Ears and a cute necklace of her name. We then watched a little more of the parade and enjoyed some ice cream.  A tip - if you have seen the parade - go to the photo shop place and cream shops during the parade.  Lines were almost non-existant during the parade and we were even able to get a table indoors to eat our ice cream.

  After ice cream we headed back to our hotel to relax.  Once repacking our bag with waters and evening snacks and long sleeved shirts, we headed to Downtown Disney for dinner.  We did not have dinner reservations, so we were hoping that the wait wouldn't be too long.  We put our name in at 2 restaurants both saying it would be about 30 minutes and I got the first text about 10 minutes later.  While we waited we were entertained by some "slap dancing".

After dinner, we headed back to Disney to await the fireworks.  It was a long wait and while it took a while to find the right place to sit, we eneded up in the middle of the road with a pretty good view.  It was amazing! 

As we were walking out that night, Kaylee took my hand and told me "today was the best day of my life!!" 

Califonia Family Vacation: Disneyland, day 2, part 1

Friday started out with a character breakfast buffet.  The kids were excited about the thought of all you can eat breakfast but their stomachs could not keep up with their eyes!  We got to meet Chip (or was it Dale?), Brother Bear and a few other characters.  Next time we will either skip the character breakfast or make sure its with character the kids are more familiar with...regardless we enjoyed it and were fueled up for our second day at Disneyland!

Upon arrival to Disneyland that morning we had our family pictures taken for our free picture.


We were starting to get sunscreen and I noticed Ariel right by us and a very short line.  Ariel is Kaylee's FAVORITE Disney princess.  We quickly got n line and I was happy to find out that we got there just in time because she had to get going soon and we were the last family that she could meet.  I had to tell some teenage girls, who were trying to sneak in front of us for an autograph, that we had been waiting in line and no they couldn't get her autograph quick.  They looked shocked and my husband was proud that I didn't let them sneak in.  I am not one to make a scene but there was no way I was letting anyone ruin Kaylee's chance to meet Ariel.  I knew from the first day that unless we were going to wait for an hour or more, meeting a princess was going to be tough.

Friday was considerably busier than Thursday and we decided to try out the fast pass for a few rides.  While Matt & Maxwell went on Matterhorn Bobsleds, Kaylee and I went on Astro Blasters for the second time and picked up a fast pass for Star Tours.  She was going to try again and ended up having a blast.  We also grabbed fast passes for Splash Mountain and were so glad because we waited for about 10 minutes instead of the 45-60 minutes that was posted.  Kaylee did so well with that ride - as she is not a huge rollercoaster fan - and I am pretty sure that I got the wettest.  We also checked out the Haunted Mansion and despite some fear from both kids they both ended up liking it.  Pirates of the Caribbean and a jungle cruise were also highlights of the day.  We explored Tarzan's treehouse, checked out Toontown again, explored Imaginarium to see Iron Man suits and a dream house.  

Kaylee is DONE with going on rides at this point!

Califonia Family Vacation: Disneyland, Jedi Training Academy

As soon as we determined we were taking the kids to Disneyland we knew we wanted to try and get the kids picked for the Jedi Training Academy.  Our household is big into Star Wars!  We prepared the kids about no guarantees, being happy if one gets picked, we will have fun watching if no one gets picked, etc. etc.  

We arrived at the location about 30 minutes before the show was to start and got front row ground seats behind the blue tape line.  A good sign since we didn't plan to be there at that time but it just worked out after getting out of a different ride that morning.  A second sign, that I did not plan on when helping Maxwell pick out his t-shirt for the day, is that he was wearing one of his many Star Wars t-shirts. 
Our advice to the kids when the people came out was to jump, wave your arms and try to get their attention.  Apparently they both did well because they were both chosen.  Maxwell was picked first as part of a group of "bouncing boys in the front" and Kaylee was picked as part of three girls a short time later.  Matt and I very relieved that both kids were picked because as much as we talked about not being jealous - there is no way the other one would not throw a fit!! 

Notice my lovely monster high sunglasses - left my regular sunglasses at home, so Kaylee would occasionally let me borrow hers.