Disney Vacation Day Four

Our third day at Disneyland we spent at California Adventure. I think it was a good idea to do it this way. We watched shows, rode on the rides, and had our special dinner at Ariel's Grotto with a bunch of princesses.

We started out the day watching the Playhouse Disney Live Onstage show. It was basically a live show of The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Toodles the Tool-thing gave us three different tools/stories to use to solve the problems that came up in planning for Minnie's birthday (if you're lost, you should watch an episode of it, it's quite cute): Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. Each story came to life onstage and all four kids loved it.

Then we worked our way over to the area with Brother Bear and watched a Totem Ceremony. A new totem was being revealed and Abby was called on to help build a magical fire. Afterwards, the kids got to play with Kenai and Koda. The even played hide-and-seek with Kenai. He stole Emma's shoe and was going to eat it until he got a whiff of it and gave it back to her. He was so cool.

From there we went and rode several of the rides. CA Adventure has grown since the last time I was there. It's got a lot of stuff geared toward adults, but still lots of things for the kids. We went to A Bugs' Land and played at Princess Dot's Puddle Park, we rode Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies, we rode Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. We also rode Monster's Inc, Toy Story, Jumpin' Jellyfish, Mulholland Madness Roller Coaster, and Soarin' Over CA. My favorite thing was one I almost opted we skip and that was the Muppets 3-D show. It was hilarious!! I loved it. The 3-D was great, the actual Muppets in the theater was awesome, and it was so fun to see the girls freak out over the whole thing. If you get a chance to do just one thing at CA Adv, do the Muppet 3-D.

At the Toy Story ride, Mr Potatohead greets you and he's interactive. He spoke to Emma calling her the "girl in the green shirt." Her shirt was actually blue, but it did look green in the shade. He asked her what her favorite character was and she said Buzz. He asked her if Buzz paid her to say that. It was so funny!

At A Bugs' Land:

Not quite a Walking Stick, but I'll take it.

That night for dinner we went to Ariel's Grotto. We thought it was going to be a bad idea after all since the food was very fancy. There are no chicken nuggets on the kids' menu. We were pretty sure Matt wouldn't eat (he just had rolls) and we were afraid the girls wouldn't eat (they ate half their food), but we had an amazing time meeting the princesses. We saw Ariel, Jasmin, Aurora, Belle, and Snow White.

Here's the thing that made it all worthwhile: all the girls were in awe of the beautiful princesses. That included me. I'd like to think it's the leftover pregnancy hormones that made me nearly bawl my eyes out, but what little girl who grew up idolizing the princesses and then seeing them in person wouldn't react to their enchantment? They were amazing and watching the girls become speechless was just as amazing. I didn't expect to be so emotional each time a new princess came to our table.

Emma's favorite rides were Toy Story and Monster's Inc, Abby's favorite thing was Brother Bear's Totem Ceremony, and Matt's favorite ride was also Toy Story.