Part 3: Disneyland

Thursday morning we headed back to Disneyland.

First stop: Pixie Hollow.

The fairies were so cute and so nice to the kids!

We had a magic morning so there was no line and we had plenty of time to sit and visit.

Magical!

Don't let Matt's face fool you!  He LOVED Tinkerbell too!!

We randomly ran into Alice and the Mad Hatter.

Lindsay and Alice had similar shoes.

Right after we visited with them a line instantly formed to meet them!  Lucky us!

Every time Darin took the kids on a ride that Andrew was too small for, you would find us here.

Andrew's favorite spot in the park--the water ball.

Can I just tell you how much I love the stroller pass/driver switch program at Disneyland?

What could have had potential for hours of waiting, we rode Autopia 3 times in 20 minutes!

It ended up getting really crowded this day, so we left around noon and said goodbye to Disneyland!

Thank You!

 My favorite part of Disneyland...

Handing out "Thank You" notes.

A week before we left, I had an idea to make "Thank You" notes to give to people at Disneyland.

I thought I was so original until I googled it and found I wasn't the first to do it

.

At the beginning of the week, I told the kids to look for people doing kind things for us.
By, the end of the week, THEY were the ones initiating it!

Someone held the door for us, and Lindsay said, "They are being kind.  Can we thank them?"

I LOVE seeing the expressions on peoples' faces.  And I LOVED seeing my kids notice service.

Everyone seemed to love the notes!  The kids got lots of hugs, nice comments, and even a few stickers and buttons!

One person said they received a thank you note a while ago, and it was still on their mirror at home.
Another said that Lindsay just made Disneyland magical for him.

Most of our notes were generic notes with a butter mint.
But we also handed out a few of these notes that the kids colored before we left.
Then we added personal messages on the side.

One time, after a parade Lindsay started handing out candies to all the sweepers.  

I didn't realize that their boss was walking right behind us.
He said, "Excuse me," (my stomach dropped and I thought we were going to get into trouble) "my crew works really hard and doesn't get appreciated.  Thank you so much.  Would you mind if I take a picture of your kids with my crew?"

If you go to Disneyland, I HIGHLY suggest doing thank you notes!

It was so fun for our whole family, and it was fun to appreciate some of the less noticed workers!

Preparing for DISNEYLAND!

Our family finally made it to Disneyland!

We had the BEST time!  I couldn't believe how well everything worked out.

It really was magical.

Get ready for an overload of blog posts.

But, before we left we had a lot of Disney prep.

We had our countdown chain.

We made a bunch of thank you notes.
(More on that to come, possibly my favorite part of Disneyland).

And of course we watched lots of Disney movies and read a bunch of Disney books.

Part 1: Disneyland

Oh my!  Disneyland was so fun!

I wish I was there right now.  It was the most wonderful trip!

Monday morning we started at Disneyland!

Lindsay giving her ticket to the lady.

(I have a very similar picture of me at that age doing the same thing--I'm pretty sure my hair was done the same way too).

Meeting Snow White.

My brother, Rick, gave us the tip of going to the princesses first.

BEST ADVICE EVER!!!

There was NO ONE there!

Lindsay got about 8 minutes visiting with Cinderella.  Pure happiness!

Attempting to pull out the sword.  No luck.

Waiting to go on Dumbo.

Lindsay saw a youtube video of the tea cups and she couldn't wait to try them out.

They did not disappoint!

Lindsay liked it a lot more than this picture shows.

The kids thought it was so funny that Pluto signed the book on his nose.

Meeting Minnie Mouse!!

I loved all the rides, but the shows were AWESOME!!

Aladin, was the BEST show I've EVER seen!  I'm serious!  I would have paid a whole ticket JUST to go to that show!  It really was incredible.

Matt got picked for Jedi Training!  I was so happy!  I knew he'd love it, and he did!

Darth Vader rises out of the ground and Matt got to fight him!  (Matthew won of course).

And we HAD to get a picture or two by the castle!

After hearing about Dole Whips for years, we finally tried one!

DELICIOUS!!

Matt loved getting to be right in the front of the boat for the Jungle Cruise.

That night we went to dinner with Geoff, Jadi, and family.

The kids LOVED being with their cousins!

The first day was a HUGE success!!