California Adventure - Day 3

Day 3 of our California Adventure was a day parents' live for... our girls could not have had any better experiences the entire day!

Today was our "princess day".  Mommy and Daddy snuck their Halloween princess dresses (created by Daddy, with help from Mommy, and probably now everywhere on Pinterest) in their suitcases... along with the matching tiaras!  We could not WAIT to get dressed up as princesses, and Neela had to bring Baby Snow White with for the day!

Today, we spent the day at Caliornia Adventure... the "newer" part of Disneyland, featuring most of it's modern day movies and TV shows.  To start, we went to a show about all the Disney Junior characters...  3 very happy girls watched Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Handy Manny, Little Einstein's and Jake & the Neverland Pirates perform on stage.  They danced with them, collected gold coins, popped bubbles, and were estatic for most of the show!

As we walked down the street, we ran into "Jake".  Brooke loves pirates, and LOVES Jake!  This is the first character she RAN to to give a hug!

Then, we went on the Monsters, Inc. ride... looking for the little girl who disappeared in Monsterland.

Our next step was the land of a "Bug's Life".  This was full of rides perfect for little kids - and we rode every single one!

Lady Bug Spinners

Neela & Dad on the Bumper Bugs

Mommy & Brooke on the Bumper Bugs

Grandma & Kylie on the Flying Takeout Boxes

 We happened across Pluto - and Brooke walked right up to him this time!

From there, it was on to our very special lunch at Ariel's Grotto.

We did not know it, but Aunt Renee and Uncle David had arranged a very special birthday present for us -- lunch with the Disney princesses!  We were so excited when the Prince came out to announce each princess, we could hardly eat our food!

Princess Aurora (one of Kylie's favorites)

Princess Belle (one of Neela's favorites)

Princess Cinderella (Kylie's FAVORITE)

Princess Snow White (Neela's FAVORITE!)

Snow White even posed for a picture with our "Sleeping Beauty".  The excitement of the morning wore her out... It's hard work being a princess!

After the princesses left, we had birthday cake!  It came in treasure chests, with mirrors, and chocolate Mickey Mouse ears!  Our first candles for our 5th birthday!

Brooke's favorite ride of the day had to be "Under the Sea" - Ariel's ride.  She rode it 6 or 7 times!  Everyone gets to ride in a seashell through an abbreviated version of Ariel's story... and at the end, you get to wave to Princess Ariel and Prince Eric!  It's just magical!

Walking down the street, we encountered the toy soldiers from Toy Story.  We marched, danced, clapped, saluted, and eventually, were listed as certified toys in the toybox!

We also enjoyed another Toy Story ride - this one was 3D, and your guns worked at the shooting range!  We LOVED it!

As the day went on, our tiaras kept getting in the way... one-by-one, the "adult" princesses took over a tiara from a "little" princess, until the adults were the new princesses :-)

We found a toybox we fit in with Daddy... he had fun posing, we didn't quite know what to do!

As we left the park, we ran into more family favorites... Lightning McQueen and Mater!  Ka-CHOW!

It was time for an old-fashioned dinner with Big Papa's big sister, Margaret, and her family in Newport Beach.  We headed over there for pasta, salad, wine, milk and all the fixings!  It was a great visit... even if Neela slept through everything after dinner from the excitement of the day.  Kylie picked REAL oranges off the orange tree, Brooke entertained, and everyone enjoyed the chance to get to know each other better. 

Knuckles for Margaret

Brooke teaches everyone, 'You pull out and down' to make a silly face!

Are you ready for Day 4???