Disneyland Day 1

The kids decided that we'd be going to Disneyland for Oliver's 5th birthday TWO YEARS AGO when we were there for Zoë's 5th birthday, so we started saving then.  ;) There was NO WAY we were going in April during Spring Break so we decided to make sure we could go when it wasn't so busy and still celebrated Oliver's birthday! He wore his birthday button proudly all week and went from being SUPER confused when anyone said Happy Birthday to him on day one to loudly saying "Thank You!" and "I'm FIVE!" whenever he was asked.

We picked Zoë up at school a half hour early and headed right to the airport.  Luckily, Chris' expired license still got him through security and we arrived at our hotel at around 9pm right in time for bedtime.  This trip we decided not to stay at a Disney hotel and chose the Camelot Inn and Suites since it was so close to the park.  It wasn't a great hotel (with TERRIBLE PILLOWS) and we were missing our time at Paradise Pier hotel on our last trip. That's ok.  It was a place to sleep.

The next morning we were up bright and early and to the park by 7:15am so we could enter the park early and BE READY to get our Boarding Pass for the new Rise of the Resistance ride in Star Wars Land.  We were in place for the rope drop and then had to pull over abruptly a few minutes before 8am to get ready.  The ride JUST opened up in January so the park does boarding passes that are gone within a minute of the park opening.  We got lots of good tips for how to score one (close and reopen the app, for one) and got group 34!  We had to watch the app all day to see when our boarding group was called and then head to the ride.  More on that later.

Our first ride was Alice in Wonderland, followed by Dumbo, which was closed last trip, and the kids loved it. It was just their speed.  We hit up the teacups and then Thunder Mountain Railroad which did not go over well. We followed that up with some Mickey Beignets to help Zoë forget about the roller coaster.  Oliver went on Splash Mountain next and he was SO brave!  He wanted me to wrap my arms around him when we went down the big hill.  His quote afterwards was "I wouldn't want to do that again but I liked it!"

We saw so many characters the first day but Oliver was super shy about saying hello until later in the day.  We met Alice and the Mad Hatter, Chewbacca (ok, he was THRILLED to meet him!), Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, Gaston, Cinderella, Ariel, Elena, Jasmine, a super cool spy in Star Wars Land, Rey, and Tinkerbell. Chewie was probably everyone's favorite.

Our boarding group was finally called at about noon so we headed to Star Wars Land and immediately purchased some blue and green milk (we were split on which one was the best...but I say green) and stumbled upon the DELICIOUS wrap at Ronto Roasters.  We had to scarf it down because our group number was getting closer to the deadline but we made it in time and the ride was AMAZING.  Zoë was scared the entire time.

We continued to ride rides, eat delicious food (churros, cotton candy, lumpia and pork bao) and finished the night off by watching Mickey's Mix Magic, a projection light show on Main Street which was spectacular.  We ate delicious treats on our way back to the hotel and fell asleep VERY easily, needing as much sleep as possible for another early morning the following day.

Disneyland Day 2
Disneyland Day 3
Disneyland Day 4 and 5