Lily's 5th Birthday

Wednesday, our second day at Disneyland was Lily's 5th birthday.  It is so hard to believe that 5 years ago (literally right up the street from Disneyland) my baby was born.  Five is such a huge milestone and part of me feels like it went by WAY too fast, but when I look back on all that we have done and how she has grown and changed, it has been an amazing and full five years.  Of course, Lily is not your average 5 year old -- she is more like 5 going on 18.  She loves her pop music and can name nearly every tune and artist on the top 40 channels.  She loves her makeup, shopping and of course her friends.  She is hysterical and cracks me up all the time. She is very sweet and extremely thoughtful.  She is stubborn and hard headed and has to get her way, even if we all know it isn't the best way.  Honestly, she is me.  I don't know if that is because we have hung out constantly for the last 5 years or if it is just her personality.  She is my daughter, but also one of my best friends.  I love her beyond words and I hope she had the best birthday ever!

We got up early on Wednesday to head to Morning Madness in Toontown.  Since we are staying at the resort, we had early admission (there are a lot of fun perks when you stay at the resort).  First was a little show with all the characters where we all became honorary citizens of Toontown.  Then we got to play without all the crowds.  Lily was in heaven!

In Minnie's house.

Minnie gave Danielle a kiss and Dani grabbed her nose.  It was SO cute, but we didn't get a picture.

Lily went through Chip and Dale's tree house a dozen times.  It is funny, when they built Toontown, I was older and thought it was kinda lame.  I mean, what a waste of space with only 2 rides.  Who really cares to run and play at Disneyland?  Well, now I know who wants to run and play - 4/5 year olds!  Lily could have stayed in Toontown all three days.

Chip pushing Danielle while she slept and we played.

This picture cracks me up -- Like father, like daughter.  They both love their popcorn.

The one thing I wanted to do was go on the new "Little Mermaid" ride in California Adventure since it was new and I had never done it before.  Lily was excited, but scared since she knew Ursula would be there.  But I convinced her to go with me and that it was all pretend.  It took her a day to admitted she liked it and was ready to go back again -- Seriously we needed a week there to get Lily over her fears and ready to really do Disneyland! 

Next, we headed over to the Bug's Life area where we met Chip and Dale and Chip and Lily rode a few rides while I fed Danielle (I became a pro at nursing Dani in public places under my little cover!)

Chip and Lily on the bumper cars.

For Lily's birthday lunch, we went to Ariel's Grotto for lunch with the Princesses!

It was awesome.  The food was great and as you ate the princesses came out to talk and visit with you at your table.  Of course, Lily could barely eat she was so excited. 

Her lunch couldn't have been more perfect.  She ordered the mac and cheese and it came out with fish crackers on it!  It was an "under the sea" Ariel theme, but it was so Lily.  I am afraid she is going to ask me to put fish crackers on top all her food now!

The desert platter.

Lily immediately went for the white chocolate shell.

After lunch all Lily wanted to do was go swimming at the hotel.  I tried to convince her that we could swim anywhere and we needed to do Disney things, but it was her birthday and all, so I told her to go have fun.  Since only Chip and Lily brought bathing suits and the pool was in direct sunlight (it was 88 degrees!), Danielle and I stayed in the room and took a little nap.  But Lily and Chip had fun in the pool, and that is all that matters.

After our little break, we headed back to California Adventure to see the "Aladdin" stage show. . . .

(we saw Jake from "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" which is one of Lily's favorites, but she was so starstruck and too shy to go say hi).

Chip and I had seen the Aladdin show before and it is a wonderful show.  Personally, I feel it is Broadway quality.  We had VIP seating (with our resort package) and got a spot in the very front row.  Lily LOVED every second of it.  It was one of her top three favorite things from the whole week. 

Danielle slept through the second half of the show.

When the show ended it was dinner time.  California Adventure didn't have a lot of options we could all agree on and we had a fastpass for World of Color at 8pm, so we didn't have a lot of time to go to Disneyland.  So Chip suggested we just go the room and order room service.  I noticed on the menu that there was a birthday cake.  I felt kinda bad not having an actual cake for her birthday, so we ordered it. It was so cute and came with a princess mirror as a present.

Since the unfortunate experience the night before at dinner, Lily swore off chicken nuggets forever (although it only lasted 2 days).  So she ordered and ate a whole hamburger.  I can't recall the last time she had a hamburger!

Happy Birthday to my precious Lily!

Finally it was time to head out again to see "World of Color" a water show at California Adventure.  I had heard only great things about it, but had my reservations -- I mean, it is a water show.  But I figured Disney would do it up and it cost 75 million dollars to make, so we had to see it.    Of course as soon as it is about to start Danielle starts to lose it.  She had been so amazing up to this point and didn't nap as well on this day.  It was 8pm CA time and 10pm TX time.  So I watched the opening number -- it was just a water show -- and took her back to the room.  It was SO great to have the hotel right next door!  Chip and Lily stayed for the show, but weren't all that impressed either.  So I guess I didn't miss too much. 

I can't believe we only have one day left!!