6th Birthday!

You only turn 6 once and even less common is turning 6 on the 6th and a Saturday.  All of these were used as an excuse last weekend to pack everyone into the little Fit (better gas mileage) and drive the 16 hour round trip to Disneyland to celebrate Evie's birthday.  It all started last Friday after Patrick's morning court hearing.  He made it home by 11 and we were in the car and on the way by 11:30.  The girls were champion car riders and we made it to Anaheim by 8 pm with only really one stop at a California McDonald's (mostly for the playground... my greatest hope is that someday someone will open a healthy place to eat or even just a place to eat where the food is good with equally fabulous playgrounds and I will be a very very happy parent).  We checked into our hotel and the girls were asleep by 9.  Patrick and I even were able to sneak out of the room for a few minutes and watch the Disneyland fireworks at 9:30, then we too went to bed. 

Bright and early on Saturday we woke up and jumped in the car for an early morning entrance to Disneyland and breakfast with Minnie.  Maybe it was the early rising and getting going (we were in the park by 7 am) or just the whole cartoon characters come to life thing but Izzy definetly had trepidations about the whole thing at first.  In fact for most of the breakfast whenever a character would come over to the table she would slunk down in her seat as to make herself invisible so they wouldn't harass her.  Poor kid.  Evie on the other hand was in 7th heaven with all of the attention and birthday wishes (the first thing she received when we got to the breakfast was a giant pin that said Happy Birthday).  Patrick too was pretty excited because he got to see Tigger again :)  By the end of the breakfast though Izzy was at least comfortable enough to see the characters while in our arms and even managed to join a dance party with some of them.

From breakfast we went to ride on the tomorrowland rockets because Izzy was quite intrigued by them and it was early enough so that we could walk right on.  She rode with Patrick and had a blast!  From there I convinced Evie that she was a big enough girl to attempt Indiana Jones with me and so the two of us ran off to try the ride, which also at this point had only a 15 minute wait.  As it turns out maybe 6 was too little for the ride because I am afraid I scar(r)ed her a bit because afterward she refused to go on anything but the little kid rides for most of the rest of the day. 

Aside from the Indiana Jones trauma the rest of the day was a blast for all.  We hit our favorites like the Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, tea cups (twice of course) and Its a Small World (2 times) and Evie got a chance to meet some princesses. 

While Izzy took a nap we watched a little show about Rapunzel and then later in the day she was awake for another show on Belle.  (I am not sure who enjoyed these shows more me or the kids... really, they were hilarious!)  We told Evie she had to wait until she was actually 6 to get a present (aka 5:06 pm), which was really just an excuse to not have to lug something around all day.  As it turned out what Izzy picked out was the onerous thing to carry, but man did Izzy love her larger than her gato pillow pet! 

 We left the park for dinner and then somehow miraculously made it until the fireworks at 9:30.  All told we spent 15 gloriously exhausting hours in Disneyland and then on Sunday woke up bright and early, packed the car and made it back to Tucson by 3 pm.   Whew!