Alice in Disneyland

For Vienne's first ever day in Disneyland, she came dressed as Alice and Bethy came as her White Rabbit. They charmed everyone who saw them and they got numerous compliments. Bethy had done a marvelous job preparing V for what to expect at Disney, they had been watching youtube videos of all the rides for months and V was ecstatic to see them all in person.

The ride V was looking forward to the most was the tea cups, she would request to watch videos of that ride on the daily. Her little mind was blown when we walked up to the ride and she saw it for the first time in real life.

She. Loved. It.

We were lucky enough to see the Mad Hatter right as we were exiting the tea cups! What a fun surprise.

This little door in the Mad Hatter store is one of my Mom's favorite Disney details in the park. We have numerous photos of all of us at different ages posing by this door. Now we have one of V! The fact that she is dressed as Alice for her "little door photo" is perfection.

Next up, Alice in Wonderland of course! Bethy had given great care to describing the dark rides to V, and they had watched tons of videos of them so she would know what to expect. However, you never know how a child is going to react to something, so we were all excited for her to experience this ride but also a little nervous, we didn't want her to feel scared at all. V LOVED it! She was asking for "more" when the ride was over. She is such a champ!

We all took a spin on King Arther's Carousel ...

... and took a cruise through Storybook Land, where we saw David Hodges from CSI Vegas getting off one of the boats, I love celebrity sightings at Disney! I especially loved that we spotted him on this ride, as I recall I don't think he had any kids with him...

By now we were completely chilled to the bone, the weather was not warming up and we even got misted on a few times. So, for lunch we got warm tomato basil soup and buttery grilled cheese sandwiches from Jolly Holiday, the perfect comfort food for a chilly day. It totally hit the spot and lifted our slightly chilled, hangry moods.

After lunch, it was nap time. I love doing Disney on a toddler's schedule, early morning, back to the hotel for afternoon nap, then back to the park for the evening, if you feel like it. It's a different pace than rushing around the park, fitting in as much as you can every minute of every day. I have done Disney both ways, and I love them both. But the toddler's way is much kinder to my body and feet.

We half walked, half danced our way back to the hotel for nap time and to warm up. After we had all woken up, we assessed how we were all feeling and decided to have an easy going night. We grabbed dinner at the Earl of Sandwich (Their holiday turkey sandwich is to die for) which was right next to our hotel, danced to some live music in Downtown Disney and went to bed early, to make sure we were well rested for another fun day of introducing V to the magic of Disney.

Afternoon Tea on Star Wars Day

I was excited to be in the parks on Star Wars day, May 4th! I made sure to wear one of my many star wars shirts to celebrate, and it was fun to see how other Star Wars fans celebrated our day.

We spent the morning in California Adventure

I had been super excited to try these special addition rose cake pops, yet another fun item created to celebrate the new Beauty and the Beast. It's a chocolate cake pop with a fruity sour punch straw twisted around it. I normally am not the biggest cake pop fan, but that zingy, fruity surprise made this pop super delicious, I may have gotten more than one throughout the week... not to mention it's super adorable.

We drew Piglet in the Animation Academy 

Then I said goodbye to Alexis and Taylor as they are heading home today, I am meeting up with the Madisons later today for an extension of my Disney adventure! I had a few hours alone before meeting up with Laura for tea at the Disneyland Hotel so I headed back to Disneyland to spend some quality time strolling through the Main Street Shops.

I did some window shopping and documented a few items to add to my Disney wishlist, such as the gorgeous snow globe music box pictured above. I also was FORCED to buy a Disney sweatshirt because the temperamental weather decided to turn from sweltering heat to cloudy and chilly at a moments notice, which I didn't plan for and had no warm clothing in my suitcase. After shopping and  bundling up, I decided to catch a ride on the horse drawn trolley, I hadn't ever ridden this classic Disney vehicle so I was pretty excited about it!

When I jumped off the trolley and said goodbye to the horse and driver, one of the Old cars was waiting for riders so I figured, why not. I hopped on board,  and we waited for other riders for a while, then the driver decided to take me on a solo ride. She told me all sorts of fascinating Disney stories from her time working in the parks, she has had every Disney job imaginable, it was such a fun ride!

After saying goodbye to my super friendly driver, I figured I should complete the list of main street vehicles and take a ride on the double decker bus. It was nice to have some down time to ride some of these fun vehicles that I have seen and passed by a hundred times but never took the time to ride. It was chill and relaxing.

I got great views of Main Street from a different, higher up perspective from my seat on the double decker bus.

After my fun and spontaneous rides up and down Main Street it was time to head to the Disneyland Hotel to meet up with Laura for afternoon tea!

I changed into more appropriate afternoon tea attire and swooned over the adorable wallpaper in the women's restroom.

We were given miniature rock candy sticks with which to sweeten our tea, can you say perfection??!

When the food arrived, everything was absolutely exquisite!

I asked for a peanut butter and jelly finger sandwich instead of the traditional salmon and cream cheese sandwich because I can't stand salmon. I was thrilled to discover my PB&J was cut in the shape of a mickey face, so adorable and delicious!

After our delectable meal, we were given chocolates as a tea party favor and asked if we would like a drink to take with us, um YES! I LOVE when restaurants offer drinks to go. I got a delicious fruity, flowery iced tea to go.

After saying goodbye to Lu, she and Rob are leaving for home this afternoon, I checked into my room at the Disneyland Hotel! This is the hotel we used to stay at when we would come as a family when I was a little girl. It has gone through quite a few changes since then but I was excited to be back! I was most excited about the light up headboards that play a twinkling version of When You Wish Upon a Star when you turn the lights on! So magical!

I relaxed in my room until I was notified the Madisons had arrived!!! I was so excited to see them! This will be Vienne's first visit to Disneyland and I am beyond thrilled that I get to experience it all with her!

More magical Disney posts to come!