Final Disney Post

I am sure you are sick of hearing about our Disney vacation and this is my final post. We wrapped up the trip with some cuddle time reading stories with Nana and Pops before everyone went their own ways back home. Nana and Pops are adored by all 3 girls and it is so sweet to see them all on the couch together.

Monday our family had the last flight out so we had time for the pool. It was Caroline's first time to go swimming and she seemed to really enjoy it. Katherine is a little more cautious and stayed on the steps the entire time.

After swimming we headed to the airport. We got there with time to spare and found a great place for Katherine to run laps and burn off some energy. I was hoping that she would take a nap on the plane (she didn't).

Katherine has flown a lot but that did not seem to matter. She was horrible! She did not want to wear her seat belt at all. Before we got on the plane we talked about expectations. When I mentioned the seat belt she said, "Mommy, I don't have to wear the seat belt. I can sit on your lap. The pilot said." She has such a great memory. On our last flight the flight attendant did tell me I could hold her on my lap for landing because her ears were hurting and she was crying. Now Katherine thought she could do that any time. She would not sit still and she would not leave her seat belt on. She was screaming and thrashing about while Sam and I were struggling to get her quiet and still enough to buckle her up. Of course the plane is waiting to take off, the flight attendants are waiting for her to be buckled and everyone within about 10 rows is shooting me annoyed looks. I wanted to crawl under the seat. My mom told me that one time a family was removed form a plane because they could not get their toddler buckled in. I just knew that was going to happen to us. Finally we literally hold her down and hold the seat belt closed until we take off. After about 5 minutes she calmed down and did fine for the rest of the flight.

... Until she had to go to the bathroom on the plane. Sam took her and it did not go well. Someone else had left the place very dirty and she was scared to use the toilet. I can't blame her but apparently she threw one of her biggest fits in that tiny bathroom with Sam.

She is at a difficult age where tantrums can come out of the blue at any time. She was tired from a long trip. But, she still needs to cooperate and obey. One of the hardest things about traveling is that it is hard to discipline. Where do you take your child for a time out on an airplane? How do you have any kind of consequence? It was hard. As we were driving home we said we were never going on vacation again. A week later I am remembering more of the happy memories and I am sure we will travel again. If we fly, I will take her carseat so at least she is buckled into a 5 point harness that she can't unbuckle on her own.

I have had people ask me if I am glad we took the trip. It was hard and tiring but I am glad we went. I love to travel and have not yet let kids stop me from that. Disneyland is a place that is meant for kids and we were by no means the only ones there with babies and toddlers. But, I would say that it would have been easier if either my kids would have napped in the stroller or they no longer needed naps to stay happy. So, if you are thinking of going to Disneyland think about that. I think our next trip will be a little more low key, maybe a cabin in the woods or a all inclusive beach resort. Hmmmm, maybe it is time to start planning :)

Disney Day 3

Today was our last day at Disneyland. It has been a lot of fun though a lot of work. Packing up everything for the day and riding the shuttle to the park is a chore, especially since you have to fold up the stroller on the shuttle and then let security look through all of your bags.

I made cute outfits for the girls to wear. I decided that rather than buying a cheesy amusement park souvenir t-shirt or Mickey Mouse ears I would make them something that had Disney elements. I saw a few cute things on esty.com and decided to copy and make my own. So, I made pillowcase dresses for Katherine and Sophia that were red with white polka dots. They had black on the bottom and yellow rick-rack border so they were the colors of Minnie and Mickey Mouse. Sophia did not want to wear hers so we missed out on a cute matching picture. I was working on a jumper/pinafore top for Caroline because I knew she would keep untying the ribbon on a pillowcase dress but my sewing machine kept getting the thread tangled (I am a beginner and have no clue how to fix it). So at 3 am the night before our trip I gave up. I made her a cute shirt using "wonder under" and fabric scraps that had the same red and white polka dot with Mickey Mouse ears on it. They were really cute.

Nana really wanted to get a picture with Pops and the 3 kids. They (and mainly I mean Katherine) were not cooperative at all. First Katherine insisted on playing on the fence and not looking at the camera at all. Then I picked her up and tried to hide behind her for the picture.

We also tried to get a cute family picture but again, Katherine would not look at the camera.

After our morning in Toontown we went to ride "It's a Small World". We actually waited in line to ride it before Toontown and when we were the next ones to get on a boat they closed the ride because some of the animatronics were broken. That was a bummer. Luckily it did not take long to wait again.

They have recently redone the ride and added some of the Disney Characters. It was not as annoying as I remembered it from high school. Caroline loved the ride and was bouncing up and down the entire time.

Pops took Katherine for another ride on the teacups while the rest of us got snacks and took breaks. She had a lot of fun.

On the way out of the park we saw Mary Poppins again. She was almost able to get Katherine to dance with her. Katherine really enjoyed the live performances. I wish we had been able to see a parade but with time changes and nap schedules we never were there at the right time.

We went back for a late nap and never made it back to the park. We decided to end on a good note rather than try to push more into the day. We ate Cheesecake Factory in our hotel and swam in the pool.

Disney Toontown

On our last day we spent a good portion of our time in Toontown. It was designed to look like you were in a cartoon. None of the buildings had straight lines. We thought it was pretty cool. In Toontown each of the characters had their own house so we were able to meet characters and see where they lived.

We started by going on the Roger Rabbit ride. It was another "dark ride" and was a little scary. Katherine and Caroline did fine though. We enjoyed walking around Toontown and looking at all of the funny things.

The first house we went in was Goofy's house. He had a playground outside which Katherine and Sophia enjoyed. Inside he had a funny piano that played different sound effects instead of notes.

Goofy was not actually at his house but we were able to meet him an hour later walking around Toontown.

Next we went to Minnie Mouse's house. Doesn't Katherine look cute in her Minnie Mouse dress? Of course Caroline still was not too excited to meet characters. This time she did not cry but she was pretty shy.

Minnie Mouse's house is pretty cute. You can see me sitting on her couch and Caroline enjoyed tea while Katherine checked to see what was baking in the oven.

Next we went to Mickey's house. For some reason Katherine was running through the house and so we did not get pictures except of Caroline sitting (and crying) on Pluto's bed.

After walking through Mickey's house, we went to the film barn where he makes movies. Apparently most of the time there is a long line because they had a large room where you could watch Mickey movies while waiting to meet him. We were lucky though and went right in. I was a little bummed that Mickey was in his sorcerer's apprentice clothes but oh well. Katherine does enjoy that book.

While I was getting lunch, Sam and Katherine went to Daisy Duck's boat but she was not there.

A highlight for Katherine was her first roller coaster. She said it was her favorite ride. She was barely tall enough to go on it. We sat in the front row so you can easily find us in all of the pictures. It was pretty tame but fast enough for her.

Princess Lunch

When you take a 3 year old who is obsessed with all things "Princess" you must go to the princess character lunch when you are at Disneyland. It was hosted at "Ariel's Grotto" restaurant and Ariel was the headliner for the day. They called your name and you went down a long winding staircase to meet Ariel (and have photos taken).

After meeting Ariel, we were seated at a large booth and brought appetizers and salad on a 3 tiered plate. We ordered (pretty fancy options really) and waited for the rest of the princesses to arrive. They were each announced individually and we were the first table they stopped by.

You can see how excited Katherine was when Cinderella walked in. The beauty of being 3 is that to Katherine this is the real Cinderella. That was pretty magical.

The characters were all so sweet. They would pose with Katherine and talk to her a little. Cinderella thought it was so great that Katherine was also wearing a Cinderella dress.

After Cinderella left Katherine was a little upset. I did not realize that she thought that the princesses were going to sit at our table with us. I told her we were going to eat with the princesses and it did not occur to me that she would think we would share our meal with them. That seems so obvious now that she would take it literally. I was so sad for her when I had to explain that they just come and say "Hi" but don't sit with us.

Our next princess was Snow White. We did not get to meet her yesterday so Katherine was excited to meet her today.

The third princess was Sleeping Beauty. We also did not meet her yesterday.

Last was Jasmine.

Katherine was convinced that Belle would be coming out next but she did not come to the lunch. She was really sad because she never got to meet Belle. I guess we will have to come back to Disneyland another time for that.

Disneyland Day 2

We started our day in the Magic Kingdom again. Nana gave Katherine a new Cinderella dress to wear to the princess lunch but she wore it all morning. All over the park little girls are dressed as princesses. It is so cute.

I went straight to Nemo's submarine adventure to get our fast pass while the rest of the group was going to go to Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell and the rest of the fairies. It ended up that Pixie Hollow was not open yet and Nemo only had a 5 minute wait. It used to be the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride but they updated it and added Nemo characters. You go in a submarine and it drives through the water. You appear to go deeper but really only are about 5 feet under the whole time. Caroline loved it and was bouncing up and down. Katherine enjoyed it too. Sophia was scared once the sharks came.

Next Katherine and I rode Autopia. It has little 2 seater cars that run on a track. She liked it. Will and Pops rode in the car behind us.

Next Katherine and I rode the teacups. She loved it. We did not spin it around but just let the ride do it for us so we would not get too dizzy. Sam sat out with Caroline.

Next we did the Alice in Wonderland ride. It was another "dark ride" where you ride a car through the scenes of the story. On all of these rides I would ask Katherine if it was scary. She would always say, "Just a little bit scary but I OK."

From there we all raced over to the other park, California Adventure. It is right in the same area as Disneyland but a separate Disney park. I had no idea that there were 2 in California. We went to the Hollywood lot to see the Playhouse Disney show featuring Mickey's Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Tigger and Pooh. It was a hit.

Our family then went to the Princess lunch which will be a post on its own. After that it was time to return to the hotel for naps so we could be back at Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest cafe. We enjoyed it and then had fun watching all of the street performers. Katherine and Sophia had a lot of fun dancing to the music and running around.

Our family went back to California Adventure to finish up some of the kids rides in the "It's a Bugs Life" area and to buy some souvenirs.