i love birthday princess week

my birthday celebration was, as it usually is, spread out over several different outings throughout the week.  you know how i love my birthday, so i'm always good with multiple gatherings.  heh.  plus i get to dress up a little - at least, more than my usual daily uniform of jeans or leggings and whatever fun t-shirt i grab out of the drawer.  first up - brunch with my parents and the old man (because the old lady had to work) at the george in pasadena.

it was a really cute little spot and the food was good, although we happened to be seated right in front of the live band that played for the duration of our meal.  i guess for most people live music is awesome, but when you're literally two feet away it doesn't make for easy conversation with your party.  and there was a huge family group next to us that decided to turn the limited space around our table into their own private dance floor.  fun.

for dinner the next night, i'd cut into some super fun fabric and turned it into a maxi dress that was cute and really comfy.  

we headed out to beverly hills and pulled into lawry's for some delicious prime rib.  it had been years since our last visit - i'm pretty sure it was even before the bean was born.  the old lady didn't even remember coming at all, so it was extra fun for all of us.  

we were missing the old man that evening, but he was at dinner with his mom and so that was why he and the old lady did the ol' divide and conquer routine for the weekend.

my actual birthday was the next day, which fell on a monday.  we dropped the bean off at school and headed down to anaheim for my annual birthday visit to the happiest place on earth.

the old lady was on duty that day, so we found her for a quick hello and selfie before we headed into the parks.

mondays have become one of the busiest days of the week at disneyland, and this day was no exception.  it was really crowded with super long lines for everything, which was kind of a bummer.  although we did manage to grab a walk-up spot at oga's cantina for some snacks and adult beverages.

obligatory castle selfie.

we crossed over into california adventure, which was just as crowded as disneyland.  it wasn't an oogie boogie bash night, but a few of the photo ops were in place.

with zero availability even via walk-up at any of the fun restaurants, we decided to get outta there and headed over to the anaheim gardenwalk.  we ended up at roy's for some lunch, which was practically deserted at 1:30 on a monday afternoon.

and while we were waiting for our food, the hub made a phone call to schedule the next thing:

and then later, when we got home, there was a whole box of cupcakes waiting to be devoured.  we took them to eureka burger in claremont, where we met up with the old lady and the old man for dinner while we waited for the bean to be ready for pickup from school. we sampled a handful of those cupcakes and then left the rest for the waitstaff to share.

all in all, it was a really lovely birthday (as it always is).  i definitely felt the love.

starting birthday princess week off right

the bean and i had actually kicked off birthday princess week with rope drop sunday, along with plans to meet up with our friends a little later that morning for a fun playdate.  we got there bright and early, walking through the turnstile and joining the growing crowd somewhere around 7:45 that morning.

and unlike our last rope drop sunday, the incredicoaster was up and running smoothly.  the queue was still pretty empty when we got back there, and we were on the ride and screaming our heads off by 8:07.

our next fastpass was for radiator springs, and with a little time to kill before our window opened we walked around cars land and took in all of the fun halloween decor.

 the pixar fest-themed posters had been replaced with halloween ones.

and then it was time for our ride.

bugs land is most definitely gone.  there are walls around the whole area, which also effectively cut off our shortcut from cars land to the guardians of the galaxy ride.  bummer.

with just a 5-minute wait for luigi's honkin' haul-o-ween, we hopped into a car to kill a little more time before our guardians fastpass window opened.

even with our fastpass, it took forever to get onto the ride because they were only running at 50% that morning for some reason.  oh well.

by then, our friends had arrived and so we headed over to the disneyland side to meet them for our next fastpass ride - space mountain, which has the annual halloween overlay to turn it into ghost galaxy.  on our way there we literally almost ran into the disneyland band, who was making their way out towards the castle for a performance.

the ride was fun, as always.

in the gift shop, the kids happily stood at the build-a-droid station and put together some robot creations.  the bean said this was her cheer team's official droid.

taking a turn on star tours is always a requirement with this group, which is nice since it's not the old lady's favorite attraction, so we don't get to do it often.

afterwards, the bean talked me into sharing a cream cheese-filled pretzel with her.  to be honest though, you know it didn't take a lot to get me to say yes.

we took some castle pictures together after that, with a stop at snow white's wishing well afterwards.

we decided to have lunch at plaza inn, where we indulged in some delicious fried chicken and lilcee picked up this fun sweet treat for me for an early birthday cake.

thunder mountain was next.

we went on pirates of the caribbean after that.

somehow, we also managed to squeeze in indiana jones and the jungle cruise too.

haunted mansion ended up being the bean's and my last hurrah for the day.  we'd been there all day, and with school and cheer the next day and a super busy week overall, i wanted to get her home to get ready and rested up.

that was one super productive day at the 'land!  with halloween still more than a month out, we have plenty of time to get our fill of the decor, rides and snacks before the *gulp* holiday stuff begins on november 9th.

holy cow.  the year's almost over!