Another Disneyland Birthday in the Books

Even though we had to pull Olivia {and Sydney} from school to take them to Disneyland, I really think this was the perfect week to go -- David, Olivia, and I all got to wear birthday buttons at the park!

We arranged a special surprise for Olivia the morning of our first day at the park with Uncle Rhino flying in that morning and meeting us at the hotel before we left.  She was a little confused as to what he was doing at our hotel, but once she realized what was happening, she got very excited that he was going to join us.

It was really great having three adults to two children!  David and Ryan did a great job grabbing fast passes at the popular attractions {Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ... hello, all the mountain rides!} and so we really didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes in a moving line for any ride.  We didn't do any real meet & greets with princesses, but had to go to Minnie and Mickey's houses for Sydney.  We packed in a full day and got to ride all the rides that we wanted, including two that we had never done before! And, Sydney was tall enough to be able to ride everything!

Want to see a gazillion pictures from our day at Disneyland?  Here ya go:

➹ Heading out to California on Sunday. ➹

➹ Olivia was in bed about to fall asleep when I heard what I thought was gunfire.  Took me a minute to realize that it was the fireworks from Disneyland {that we've never seen}. So, we pulled her out of bed and walked out our back door and got to watch them.  She was obviously amazed! ➹

➹ I was worried about how things would go with this wild child, but both girls were so well behaved!  I was so proud of them both! ➹

➹ We had never ridden the Storybook Land Canal boat ride before, and it was one of my favorites of the day! ➹

➹ My little Alice in front of the White Rabbit's house. ➹

➹ Sydney was goofy-ing it up with Goofy! ➹

➹ The very second this picture was taken was the very second Sydney got scared on the ride.  She did cry for about 3 seconds and then was fine.  This picture is the best! ➹

➹ We were hoping Olivia or Sydney would get chosen for the Jedi training session, especially considering she had on the adorable Star Wars skirt.  It wasn't in the cards for either of them, so we went and got spaghetti to eat instead! ;) ➹

➹ I have wanted to get the girls' silhouettes done at Disneyland for the longest time.  I'm so glad I took the two minutes {seriously, she is that fast} to get them done this time! ➹

➹ I LOVE how they turned out! ➹

➹ Oh man.  The parade is always a highlight for us.  Olivia said it was her favorite part of the day.  It doesn't matter that we've seen it ten times already. ➹

➹ So basically Sydney wouldn't smile for the camera.  This face with her arms out in front of her was her go-to move.  The girl cracks me up.  Also, please note that she wore about 4 different outfits the entire day.  ➹

➹ We finished the night with some Fantasyland rides, the carousel, and a Mickey pretzel! Such a full, fun day! ➹

➹ We ended up walking home thinking it would be quicker than waiting on the shuttle.  It wasn't.  But, it put me over 20,000 steps which I'd never done, so despite pushing a heavy stroller up the overpass, I was sort of okay with it.  {But not okay enough to do it again the next day.} ➹

Stay tuned for lots more pictures from our day at California Adventure!