We're Going to Disneyland!

Ever since our visit to Disneyland the summer of 2012, I have dreamed of returning to Disneyland alone with Lia.  In 2012, Lia was almost 4 1/2 years old and in love with the Disney princesses.  However, we had to juggle princess hunting with a nursing baby and a million other needs and wishes.  After promising myself that I would never go back to Disneyland with a baby who wasn't weaned or walking, I did it again this past February.  Although this trip was an amazing success for the most part, it was a ton of work and I found myself once again wishing that Lia and I could just go to Disneyland alone together.  Lia is so well behaved, so pleasant to be around, and such a good traveller AND, we both love doing the same things at Disneyland!  If we didn't have to meet the needs and wishes of a temperamental toddler (who is a boy with completely different interests) and a wiggly baby, it would be a total vacation for me and a total blast!  But I never thought this dream would come to pass, so I quickly brushed it aside.
Fast forward a few months to the beginning of May.  I found myself on the phone with my childhood friend, Andrea, who goes to Disneyland several times a year with her daughter, Lauren, who is only  1 1/2 years younger than Lia.  Lauren is an only child and has never known what it is like to go to Disneyland with other children.  In addition, shes loves Disney princesses as much as Lia and loves hunting for them in the park as much as her!  While comparing notes on these two girls and talking about how much fun they would have together, Andrea invited us to join them for their next trip to Disneyland AND said that we could stay in their room in the Disneyland Hotel with them!!!  Since I am a total Disney girl, it has always been a dream of mine to stay in a Disney hotel in the park...but I would never cough up the money to stay in one.  I'm just too frugal of a traveller.  But when this offer was thrown my way, I was sold hook, line, and sinker!  After running this by Ron, I quickly found and bought airplane tickets for Lia and me to fly to Southern California in October.  However, there was only one problem--I just wasn't at peace with giving Lia such a huge gift without associating it with a holiday, but both Christmas and her birthday would fall after our trip was over.  So, although I am not a big believer in doing much of anything for my kids' "half birthdays," I decided that this was the closest thing I was going to get to a real holiday.  After keeping it a secret for almost four months, I was finally able to give Lia her half birthday present today!  I wrapped up a big box in Frozen themed wrapping paper and let Lia open it up.  After explaining it to her, there was much screaming and jumping by the both of us!  Needless to say, the two of us are soooo excited to go on our first "womancation" together!

Lia standing next to her mysterious, half birthday present before opening it!

Lia tearing it open with Logan at her side.

Lia looking into the box.

I took all nine of Lia's Disney princess Barbies, dressed them in their respective dresses and combed their hair, and put them in a box filled with tissue paper. I then made little signs for each of the Barbies to hold which spelled out the message:  "Lia--we miss you! Come back and see us!"

The first half of the message.

The second half of the message.

As you can imagine, Lia was a little confused when she first opened the box.  But after I explained it to her, this was the look on her face.  Just priceless.

Lia and her Barbies.  Oh, it's going to be fun!