A Disney Birthday

For Jillian's fifth birthday this year, we decided to take her to Disney!  She was so excited to go on her birthday.  We ended up buying the Wild for Three passes, which gets you three admissions to the parks, so we'll go back for Jake's birthday too.  If you go to Disney on your birthday, you can wear a button that says its your birthday, and the whole cast is really good about telling you happy birthday and calling you by name.  So all day long, all the cast members would call out, "Happy birthday, Jillian" as we walked by.  So fun!

On the tram from the parking lot.  She's ready!

When you first get into the park in the morning, there's a parade down Main Street and around the circle in front of Cinderella's castle.  Jillian was excited to see Mickey and Minnie in the parade.

Jillian is always so excited to see the princesses, and then when she gets in there, she starts acting shy.  We lucked out this trip, becuase Disney had recently moved the location for the princess meet and greets, and either not a lot of people knew about it, or because it was so close to the entrance, people thought they'd catch it on the way out, but either way, there was barely a line.  We practically walked right in to see Mickey and Minnie too!

Jillian picked out an autograph book after seeing some other kids getting autographs.  She didn't get it until after we'd visited the princesses, so we had to promise to take her back by there on the way out.  We did, of course, and she's starting a nice little collection of Disney character autographs.

Sassy girl waiting to meet Rapunzel (who is in her own location - she's not with the rest of the princesses!)

Jake was such a trooper during all these princess meet and greets!  He's so easy going.  We promised him that we'd do boy stuff when we came back for his birthday.

Waiting in line for Pirates of the Carribbean.  Both kids loved this ride!

 Jake and Daddy on the jungle cruise.

The magic carpet ride.  Lucky us - we got spit on by the camel and got all wet!  The kids thought it was hilarious!

I adore the castle when it is lit up like this.  I think its so pretty and magical.  They started a new show at Disney, where they project images and movies on the castle, and its amazing.  Rick and I were mesmerized.  I tried to get pictures, but none of them turned out well.

Good bye princess!

After the castle show, we watched the fireworks and headed towards the princesses for autographs.  Then we headed home.  It had started to rain a bit, and as we walked to the car, Jillian stuck out her tongue to catch the rain. She said, "its okay, mommy.  I can drink this water.  Its good for you because its from heaven!"

All day long, Jillian kept hugging me and telling me how much fun she was having.  During the fireworks, she looked up at me and said, "Thank you so much for bringing me here mommy."  That made the whole trip worth it.  Happy birthday, Jillian!