a most magical day

our original plan was to head down to disneyland relatively early on saturday so that we could drop off our bags at the hotel, do the pre-check-in and then play at the parks all day.  and we did all of that...just with a little later start than we'd originally hoped for.  isn't that always the case with most everything though?  but no biggie...we finally got it together and in no time were pulling up to the hotel and heading inside.

there was quite a lengthy line to check in, so the hub shooed us away to take the girls to the parks while he and the special friend took care of the boring admin stuff.  the bean decided she wanted to go into california adventure first, so that's what we did.  and after securing our first fastpass using the disneyland app, we headed over to the animation academy to do some drawing.

it was lunchtime by the time we emerged from there with our goofy drawings in hand, and so we headed over to the smokejumpers grill to get some grub.  this is where you can find the frozen jack & coke machine, and the old lady was happy to be our guinea pig.

this is also where you can pick up a s'mores dessert that (i think) is only available here.  it was really tasty - chocolate-dipped graham crackers with a layer of brownie and torched marshmallow in between.

our first ride of the day was the incredicoaster.  one of the bean's friends wasn't really feeling up to it, and so i stayed behind to hang out with her so that her mom could get on the ride.  after all, i can pretty much ride it whenever i want (and in fact, had just ridden it last weekend).  they all seemed to have a great time:

our next fastpass wasn't available yet, and so we walked the girls through the candy shop and then over to the silly symphony swings.

afterwards, we walked over to the waterfront to take a few group pics.  first, the girls:

then the hub volunteered to take one of the whole group:

i wanted a family photo, first with just the four of us:

and then we added the special friend into the mix.

next, we decided to take a moms' picture - and of course a couple of selfies came first.

and then it seemed that everyone wanted to photobomb us:

 and then we were finally able to get our shot.

while the hub went off to stand in the long line to grab some micheladas for one of the moms and the old lady, we sent the kids off to the jumping jellyfish ride.  while we waited for them, i caught a glimpse of a plaid-wearing cast member walking towards us with a small family.  the old lady had seen online that ashton kutcher, mila kunis and their kids were in the park that day, and sure enough...

micheladas!

our last ride on the california adventure side was soarin' over the world, which not everyone had been on before.  it was fun to watch and hear them react to the ride, which has always been one of my favorite attractions in that park.  and then we decided to head across the way into disneyland.  we made our way through the crowds into galaxy's edge, where everyone marveled at the details of the new land before getting in line for the millennium falcon: smuggler's run ride.  the standby line was quoted at 70 minutes, which sounds a little crazy but the rest of the park was pretty crowded and we'd have been waiting around that same amount of time for almost every other ride anyway.  the line was so long that we were ushered into a holding area i'd never even seen before:

but because the line kept moving and we weren't stuck in any one spot for too long, it seemed to go by pretty quickly.  it was somewhere around 60 minutes before we finally found ourselves boarding the ride, so the wait was actually a little less than we'd anticipated.  we walked around galaxy's edge, going into a few shops and giving the girls their first taste of blue and green milk before making our way out and running into chewbacca along the way.

we snagged a quick castle picture of the girls before it started to drizzle on us.

and the hub caught this of me as we made our way down main street and back to downtown disney to check in for our dinner at naples.

we started off with a charcuterie board for the table, plus some caprese salad.

this was the hub's pork chop:

and my porcini and asparagus pizza.

it was around 9:00 by then, and we decided to head over to the hotel to see our rooms and have our bags brought up from the bell desk before it got too late.

is it wrong to love a hotel just for the magical headboard?  because i do.  this is what we dubbed "the adult space."

the girls shared the room connected to us, where there was a small bedroom with a queen sized bed that the bean and one of her friends claimed immediately:

this is a blurry shot of the bed that pulled out of the wall:

in the bathroom there were the usual disney/mickey touches.

after everyone's bags had been delivered and we'd gotten somewhat settled, we headed back out to fulfill one more of the birthday girl's wishes.  she'd managed to hit the 20,000 steps goal for the day:

and so that got her a crazy shake from black tap that she shared with her friends (the four of them shared two gigantic shakes).

and this was the fruity pebbles shake that the old lady and i split.

our last stop was the jazz kitchen for some beignets, and by the time everyone was done with their treats we caught a glimpse of the fireworks show from behind the trees.  we'd thought for sure that it would be cancelled that evening due to the weather and so hadn't made any real effort to secure seats with a decent view.  oh well.

everyone was pretty tired by then, and so we all trudged back over to the hotel and got back into our room.  pajamas came out, teeth were brushed, a few showers were taken and that was that.  just before midnight, all the lights were out and everyone was fast asleep.

day 1 of the disneyland extravaganza, check!

prepping for the bean's disney extravaganza

because i am extra like that, i decided that we had to have matching shirts for the bean's birthday extravaganza at disneyland.  we'd reserved a 2-bedroom connecting junior suite at the disneyland hotel and invited a few of her friends and their moms to join us.  the hub and the special friend had their own room down the hall, and we were a merry group of 10.  our plan was to play at the parks on saturday, have dinner at downtown disney and then relax at the hotel until brunch the next morning at 11.  pretty good plan, yeah?

after i polled everyone for their favorite colors, i started hunting for design ideas.  and then since my source for wholesale bulk shirts had moved to the midwest somewhere, i turned to amazon for our tees.  i originally wanted to do them in a heather gray, but because i couldn't seem to find everyone's sizes in the same color i ended up ordering plain white shirts.  i guess that ended up being okay anyway, because that way any of the vinyl colors would pop.  at least that's what i told myself.

the old lady helped me narrow down the designs for the shirts, and then once all of the shirts arrived i started cutting out the vinyl.  of course, for one reason or another i found myself finishing everything off at the last minute.  most of the shirts arrived on time, but i ended up having to reorder a couple of them because i'd mistakenly ordered v-neck instead of crew for one size.  and you know it wouldn't be me if everything went smoothly.

once i got rolling, everything seemed to flow pretty well and i was in a groove until i got to the old lady's shirt and the vinyl she'd chosen didn't want to stick.  i literally had one shot at it because i didn't have another shirt to work on, and i was SO PISSED when half of it just flat-out refused to adhere.  i was sweating it big time.  GAH:

so i asked her if she minded if i subbed in a silver metallic vinyl instead - and as i expected, she was totally open to whatever i could get to work.  i cut out another piece of vinyl and this time it pressed on perfectly.  phew.

and then the day before the big day, i got a bug up my butt to make the girls some little matching crossbody zipper pouches to hold their money and whatever else they wanted to put in there.  i found some embroidery files that i'd bought ages ago and hadn't had a chance to test out yet, and put my machine to work.  i threw in a cute little monogram charm and look how cute:

i'd already made special ears for them a week before, and so this is what each of the girls got:

and the bean's looked like this:

so fun!  props for the best group photos ever.  you'll see.

the bean is 12 (!!!!!)

i just can't believe we've gone from this:

  

to this.

her last night of being 11:

and then i scrambled to put this together for her door.  since she closes it all the way and it makes a really loud noise when you open it, i couldn't get away with sneaking in to put the balloons on the floor for her this year.  i was kind of bummed, but i guess it's just one more thing...

and as i'd been planning since my own birthday two weeks ago when she bounced into our room bright and early with breakfast she'd gotten up to cook for me, i reciprocated with some 6:30am red velvet pancakes.

i think she was a little sad not to have the annual balloon covered floor too, but she hid it pretty well.  and she endured my "happy birthday" song and dance as i presented her with her breakfast and her first gift of the day.

and she did like those streamers, by the way.

it's just amazing to me that she's already 12.  she's the same age her sister was when she was born.  in 3 years she'll be in high school, and in 4 years she'll be driving.  6 years from now she'll be a legal adult.  and it's all going to fly by so quickly, it'll be a huge blur and we'll have to work really hard to slow down and enjoy every moment.  she's smart, funny, hardworking, a perfectionist, sarcastic as hell and a bright light in our lives. 

happy birthday to my little girl.  i love you oh so much.