Surprise!!! She's FREE...I mean THREE!!

So it's happened. Our little girl turned three!! It's so crazy to think that it's been three years since the first joy of my life (our lives) came into this world and that three years ago was the start to a better, happier life for Mike and I...one we never dreamed or imagined possible. I know we knew that having kids would be a joy and a blessing, but to have a Makenna...has just made it that and more! She makes life Fantabulous!! =0)

March 5, 2006

1st Birthday!

2nd Birthday!

Look who's 3!

Makenna is such a beautiful, smart, spunky and wonderful little girl and we love her soooo much. It's been funny to hear her the last few months as she has been practicing sharing her new age. We've gotten many answers, 2 and 1/2, 3 and 1/2, 3 months, 3 and FREE! =0) We're starting to notice that we only wish she were FREE still, she's now turned an age that we get charged for at many places. Luckily we got to celebrate the last bit of "FREEdom" and got some pretty good discounts while we were at it for her THREE/FREE birthday.

WE WENT TO DISNEYLAND!!!!!

With all of the "what will you celebrate" hoopla being advertised and my crazy randomness we decided to surprise Kenna and take her to Disneyland on her birthday and all I can say is we can't wait to return the end of April!!!

Ever since we decided to take Kenna we've been getting her all psyched up by telling her that for her birthday her present is SOOOOO BIG that we had to take her to it because it wouldn't fit inside of our house. If only I could see what her little mind was imagining she couldn't stop talking about it and when she did, her voice would squeal and her eyes would light up...she's so fun to excite!

Mike and I stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG the night before we FLEW so we were extremely tired, but when we woke Kenna up and FINALLY told her where we were going I think she was in total shock because she was speechless...that or she was really tired, LOL. We had been talking a lot about Disney before because we have a trip planned the end of April and she has been super excited about that so she was definitely thrown off with this curve ball. By the time we were on our way to the airport, she was so excited she gave herself a tummy ache! =0)
On the plane!

With Mike's car rental perks (FREE car, FREE gas) we were going to just drive, but then we found an awesome deal through Jet Blue $39 a person to Vegas (one way) and decided that was way worth the money to save us from a 7+/- hour drive with two little ones...and it was!! Unfortunately with our No sleep from the night before the drive to Cali seemed to last forever, but we arrived and crashed at our awesome hotel for the night.
Playin' in the hotel room

Disney lets you in for FREE if you visit on your birthday so obviously we went on K-Bug's birthday, March 5th. It was a Thursday so the park hours we crummy (10 a.m.-8 p.m.--Friday was like 8/9 to midnight!) we had reserved a place to eat at Minnie and Friends character dining so she could meet a lot of the characters but we kind of got stuck in "traffic" just to PARK!! We new we weren't going to make it and I admit, I might have been more of the three year old at that time, but luckily we noticed the Disney Hotel during our traffic jam, took a detour to the hotel and crossed our fingers that Goofy's Kitchen had some tables open. AWESOME, that's all I can say about that---it was the best experience!!!!!! And to top it off, the sweet lady at the register was teasing us about Kenna's age "what time was she born?" I told her 8am and then joked with her (cuz I knew where she was going with this) and said "I mean p.m." (wink, wink)--She let Kenna in for FREE!!! =0) But the BEST part was we got there at a later time, still had more time than we would have had with Minnie and Friends (even if we got to M&F when it opened) AND since we were there later there weren't as many people and most were leaving so GOOFY, CHIP, DALE, and BALOO just hung out with us A TON!!!! Oh, my gosh I was in heaven (I'm such a kid!!!) =0).


DALE became one of our favorites, we had a lot of conversations with him (his was on paper). We talked about Maisy (her name) and then he told Makenna that it would be a crime if she didn't have ice cream on her birthday so he took her by the hand and got her some ice cream and then got a strawberry to put on top....he was soooo cute with us!! Alice came and sang "Happy Birthday" with our waitress and sat with us while Kenna blew out her candle, she was so cute and then Goofy, Chip and Baloo were totally googly eyes for Maisy. They would just sit and stare at her and then shhhsh us when she fell asleep and we were being too noisy---so cute. Seriously, it was the BEST start of the day!!


Playing "Copycat"

Kenna would bounce and then they would copy her, she thought it was hilarious!

We made it to Disneyland and Kenna got in FREE she was even given a "special" ticket along with some awesome badges to wear. Even Maisy got a "first time" badge. So fun. Our main goal for this visit was to meet her HERO, CINDERELLA. And we did, along with some other fun friends...ARIEL, JASMINE, MICKEY and MINNIE. The line was about an hour to meet the 3 princesses and you never know which ones you're going to meet, so we were SOOOOO happy (and relieved) that CINDERELLA was there!!! Makenna was totally herself with the first princess, ARIEL, very cute! We mentioned to her (ARIEL) that she was a little distraught on which princess dress to wear (so many to choose from, but it was between the Ariel and Cinderella one) but that CINDERELLA has been her favorite for a very long time (obsessed might be a good word/explanation too =0)). So ARIEL took Makenna by the hand and told her that she had a surprise for her and to cover her eyes (how sweet was that?!) and then she carefully walked Kenna over to CINDERELLA and told her to uncover her eyes---when she opened them, MAKENNA was in total AWE!!! The princess she dreams about, talks about, refers everything to, BECOMES DAILY was right in front of her---all of the sudden Makenna became so shy and timid, it was DARLING, she SOOOO LOVED visiting with CINDERELLA she didn't know what to do with herself!! It seriously made her birthday PERFECT, a wish/dream come true!!!


Maisy even visited the princesses in her Snow White costume, and boy did we get a lot of inquiries about the outfit and compliments on how cute she was---even the Disney workers raved about her and the costume they'd "never seen in all 20 years of working here". That was fun!

You can only meet characters until 5:30 so we just did rides for the rest of the evening. We tried to talk Kenna into taking a break and getting something to eat, but she just wanted to keep going on rides...she is sooo my daughter! LOL What was great too is I was able to go on all the rides we went to. They allow you to take your infants if they're in a sling, it was great!

It's A Small World Ride




Dumbo Ride

By the time the park finally closed and we put Kenna in the stroller, as soon as Mike started to buckle her in, she was OUT!!...LOL What a party animal!

We've joked around about what we've now done...giving our 3-yr-old Disney for a Day on her birthday, can't imagine what she'll expect now for the rest of her birthdays (or our other kids for that matter, LOL). But we loved having a reason to go, and for me, you just can't pass up FREE! There's definitely not enough time to fit everything into one day, so we are way excited and looking forward to going back next month (end of April), can't wait!!