Best Friends!

Jillian's best friend from Dallas, Yasmine, was in Florida last week with her family. They were staying at the beach in Tampa, but they came over to Orlando for the day so we could take the girls to Disney. My original plan was to not tell Jillian that she was going to even see Yasmine, but I was so excited I had to tell her. She couldn't wait! That's all she talked about for days. I told her it was going to be a surprise where we were going, and I wasn't going to tell her until we got Yasmine.

We met Yasmine and her mom Sara at Walgreens near Disney. I still didn't tell Jillian where we were going - I wanted to see her reaction when she figured it out. As we were driving, we passed the entrance for the Disney hotels, and there are big signs with Mickey and Minnie on them. As we passed them, Sara asked me if Jillian would recognize it. I wasn't sure if she would, but a few seconds later, Jillian said, "mommy, are we going to ..........?" I asked her where, and she said, "are we going to Disney?" She practically whispered "Disney," like if she said it too loud it wouldn't be true. I asked if she'd like to go to Disney, and she said yes, so I said, "okay, that's where we're going to go then!" She started giggling, saying "yay yay yay yay!" It was so cute!

When we got to the park, Sara realized that her camera wasn't working, and I realized that mine needed batteries, so there's a slight gap in our picture taking. But I bought batteries and we were back in business.

Yasmine was so excited to see Cinderella's castle! Jillian was excited to show it to her, too. Waiting in line for the Tea Cups. They did this all day long - hugging, putting their arms around each other, holding hands - it was so cute!

Two happy girls!

LOVING spinning the teacups!

Jillian, of course, wanted to go back to see Minnie Mouse's house. Yasmine was excited too.

While we waited, they peeped in the windows for a sneak peek!

Sharing a cold lemonade on Minnie's couch. Super cute!

Meeting the princesses again. Both girls were very excited. Jillian went first, and she'd walk right up to each princess and hug them, and then turn around and say, "that's my friend Yazzy." The princesses and the photographers kept asking if they were sisters, which we thought was weird, since Sara and I were obviously their mothers, but I think the girls thought it was fun to pretend to be sisters.

Going in for a hug, at a slight run...

And slipping on Belle's dress!

Jillian was thrilled to see Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). Afterwards, she kept saying, "when I went with Daddy, we didn't get to see Aurorie, but when I went with Yazzy, I did. We were SO lucky!"

Waiting in line for the roller coaster. Jillian LOVED it. Giggled the whole time, yelled and hollered. Wanted to go again as soon as it was over. She loved it. Yasmine did not. She was terrified through the whole thing, and was definitely ready to get off when the ride stopped. (You can kind of see their matching necklaces in this picture too. It has Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty on it, which was perfect, since those were the princesses we got to meet. Both girls wore them the whole day, and showed them off when we met characters throughout the day.)

So cute!

Yazzy and Sara up in the air! Yasmine didn't want to ride Dumbo after the roller coaster, but we finally convinced her to go. I'm not convinced she enjoyed it, but she didn't hate it, either.

Riding the carousel. This was the only ride that Yasmine asked to go on all day. I think she loved it!

Holding hands in line at Its A Small World.

We were running out of time at the end of the day, so we gave Yasmine a choice between meeting Mickey and Minnie or meeting the Disney fairies. She chose to meet the fairies. The line for the fairies is LONG. Much longer than waiting to meet the princesses. First, they met Rosetta.

And then they RAN to see Tinkerbell, and gave her a huge hug!

And then Irridescent. I'm not convinced that they recognized Rosetta or Irridescent, but they were so excited about meeting Tinkerbell that meeting her friends was just as fun.

After the fairies, it was time to start heading home. As we made our way to the front of the park, we watched the castle changing colors. Jillian kept saying, "how can the castle do that? How can a castle change colors?" She was impressed!

We had such a fun day! I'm so glad that Jillian got to experience Disney with her best friend, and it was great for me to spend the day with Sara. We're hoping to be able to do it again soon!