trevor and alisha + three little girls: d-day 3

we fueled up at ihop for our last day at disneyland. daddy asked shelby if she wanted a happy, sad, or straight face on her pancakes:

she chose straight. they are so funny!

first things first, we had take graduation pictures since brett's high school ceremony was that very night. try to look a little more excited brett! you're at disneyland instead of your (boring) high school grad ceremony!

he's such a lucky guy. what cool parents he has!

Brett Louis Thawley Foothill High School class of 2012

blue and gold are his high school colors so that cap was perfect!

yeah buddy. we all support your decision to spare us from your ceremony.

kortnie loved her ceremony last year. it's a girl thing probably. i loved mine too!

yay uncle brett! you graduated from high school!

richard tried to get brett to jump for joy. no luck.

at ihop a balloon guy made us fun balloon characters that somehow got popped at the park soon after! wow! how did trevor and i "accidentally" pop them at the same time?

everyone was over it quickly because we soon arrived at shelby's idea of the celestial kingdom:

disney princess fantasy faire.

i hopped into the hour long line to meet the princesses while my mom took shelby over to the princess shoppe and got her royally attired from head to toe! then she and i switched places in line so that i could watch shelby dance with the princesses. cora joined in too. :)

the gloves were so perfect! and she kept that purse on her arm the whole time. watching her JUMP for joy when those princesses walked out was one of my favorite moments from our trip.

they're here! they're really here! and they're dancing!

SLEEPING BEAUTY!!!!!!

i could have watched her do this all day.

and my parents said they could have watched me watch my little shelby all day!

shelby just happened to pick the ribbons where sleeping beauty joins in!

yay!

thanks ladies!

cora's favorite part was the streamers that shot out at everyone.

we'll be back sleeping beauty! first we've got some other princesses to meet.

ariel!

i'm not sure shelby recognized her without her seashell bikini top and tail. shelby had quite the posse with her, me, mom, trevor, and kortnie. after we took pictures with princess ariel and were waiting to see belle, a young man came in with his parents. he was mentally disabled, unable to speak, but could walk with help, and he was SO excited to see ariel. she was unbelievable with him. the way she spoke with him, hugged him, and treated him instantly made every one of us tear up, even trevor. we just stared and listened. it was such a special thing to see. whatever they pay these girls, double it. after seeing all the princesses, ariel held the young man's hand and walked him down to see cinderella and the other two girls. i'm seriously getting emotional thinking about it again. she had such a gift. i'll never forget watching her.

isn't belle just gorgeous? she was richard's favorite. such a sweetheart.

and jasmine was super fun too! aren't they sassy?

the first thing shelby said when they met was "i can see your belly button." ha!

then it was on to tinkerbell! mom and dad had cora duty, meaning they chased her around the park and fed her popcorn and fishies and whatever else made her stop for a second.

the wait was an hour. i was worried at first. but luckily pixie hollow was lovely to look at.

other characters entered the park right by us too, we saw the evil queen from snow white, and the evil stepmother and stepsisters! they were hilarious.

my little social butterfly quickly made friends with the other girls in line. "hi, i'm shelby ann thompson"

my favorite part was when she would introduce me "this is my mom, alisha. she's very nice."

how cute are they? the little girl in the green skirt was taking pictures with tinkerbell for her birthday party invitations! oh to live by disneyland!

ring around the rosie. playing with the other girls in line was half the fun!

but then it was finally OUR TURN.

hi fairy fawn!

shelby's princess dress was a bit long and she was sort of tripping over it. so fairy fawn tied it up for her, "just the way fairy godmother had showed me." it was so sweet, and needed!

hi tinkerbell! what a fun, spunky fairy.

she asked shelby if she had just woken up. (because he was dressed like sleeping beauty.)

shelby was so confused and said, no that she wasn't tired.

though she was a little tired of lines after we waited another 35 minutes to see rapunzel. :)

it seemed like the waiting was worth it once we got in there and shelby saw that indeed,

they had the same golden colored hair.

and just like the 2 girls ahead of us, shelby was very nervous about meeting flynn rider. he handled it fine, and wasn't even offended. after trying to talk to her, he stayed on the other side of the room. i was excited to see him though! nicely done rapunzel, he is CUTE!

shelby gets so sad when rapunzel's hair turns brown in the movie, so she was so happy to see that it was still blond. i wonder if that confuses kids...

shelby june 2012 shelby november 2010

if you're wondering where everyone else (other than my mom and dad and cora) was, well they were riding all the fun rides. it's cool guys. i'll be the adult! last time we were at disneyland i was pregnant and they had a real excuse for riding everything without me! :) here's the 3 of us girls back in november 2010!

last time i wondered if shelby would want to wear a dress all day or if she would think it was too itchy.

you can see the answer!

back in 2010 we had to juice shelby up to get her to sit through storytelling time.

this was from 2010. same sleeping beauty as in 2012!

nice job security!

i love the pink tennis shoes.

reminds me of father of the bride!

it was time for dancing again, and when we got to the floor, shelby saw this cute girl, walked up to her and said, "you're wearing pink like me! pink's my favorite color. is pink your favorite color? i like your hat and face paint." and she took her hand and they were instantly best friends.

it was way busier this time around! parents were dancing too.

we headed over to the same ribbon pole, but this time something MAGICAL happened!

sleeping beauty took shelby's hand and held it the whole time!

they were a perfect match after all. she's not going to go hold hands with a little ariel fan!

and it was the greatest moment of shelby's life,

as you can tell by the look on her face as she gazes up at princess aurora

what was also magical about this pretty lady in pink was that in every single picture i took, she looked fantastic. this girl is so talented. photogenic doesn't even cover it!

thank you sleeping beauty!

then she was gone, but not for long!

i promise i never influenced her, but sleeping beauty has always been my favorite too.

these princesses even hug pretty!

yay! it's grandma kathi's favorite princess!

i can't get over how good these girls are! i want this job!

we weren't fast enough to get a picture with snow white this time.

but she was the only one we got a picture with in 2010! it was the same one this time too!

where was cora this whole time? snoring.

next it was toon town and popsicle time!

richard's not afraid of a little mess.

neither is grandma

i'm not going to say how many of these strawberry popsicles were consumed by my children on this trip! they were fruit ones. it could have been worse.

we were sad that the matterhorn was closed. can't wait to go on the revamped ride someday!

what did any of us do in lines before we had our iphones to play with?

each of us have our favorite apps...

dad: solitaire

richard: fruit ninjas

trevor: plague inc.

brett: cliff diving

me: instagram

mom: facebook/email

shelby: netflix

cora: elmo youtube videos

fyi, shelby had a matching dress, naturally, before becoming sleeping beauty.

this little one was a bit sticky after the yummy strawberry popsicle.

so there was only one thing for grandma to do...

yup.

we did it.

cute. adorable. beautiful. priceless. i can't find a word to describe this.

just the fact that she kept on the ears was exciting,

but i didn't expect to have her absolutely LOVE wearing them!

even she knew she looked cute and tried to take pictures of herself!

she's saying "cheeeeeeeeese"

grandma and i each took a side and chased her which she just loved.

she's a funny girl, this one!

thanks grandma!

what's that i see? a duck!

seeing a tiny minnie mouse chasing a duck and saying "quack quack" would make anyone smile!

this was the only moment where they were in the same picture. thanks water fountain! after toon town we had fast passes for indiana jones. yay! my first ride of the day! mom stayed with the girls.

then shelby, trevor, dad, and i went on star tours! i love the changes they've made. it was my favorite ride by far. shelby loved it too.

there weren't many other princesses in line for star tours!

she's daddy's brave girl!

even the cast members were smiling! she wanted to go again. but we didn't have time.

next up was the real highlight of our trip: the big thunder ranch barbeque. there are no pictures of it because we were all so starving. i borrowed this photo from the internet. it's all-you-can-eat people. we barely spoke! it was the quietest, most delicious meal. last time we were at disneyland we ate there too, so it's officially become the family tradition. cora absolutely destroyed her minnie outfit with bbq sauce. she loved the ribs, chicken, and sausage!

once again, let us reflect on the fact that at that very moment, brett's fellow classmates were at their grad ceremony while he was at disneyland! there were SO many recent graduates there for their senior grad night, so there was a very festive atmosphere in the evenings. and longer lines. grumble, grumble.

outfit #3 for cora!

the girls kept kortnie and brett busy after dinner.

shelby got a bubble gun and it was fun for everyone! she entertained cora for a very long time.

and other kids too! you're welcome fellow parents.

cora sure loves uncle brett. she only wanted to walk with him over to splash mountain.

mom, cora, and i stayed out and watched the ducks and then visited the famous...

Pooh Corner! i had read about it on picky palate's blog and it was just how she described it! so fun and delicious! everyone got something different. shelby was a pink cookie, of course.

my personal favorites were the smores and peanut butter chocolate ones covered things. but richards' caramel apple pie on a stick was amazing (a caramel apple covered in pastry dipped in cinammon sugar!)

cora's chocolate cake pop was also fabulous. the ears were marshmallows!

it was so good that she kept going in for more.

i need to get a copy of the picture of shelby's first time on splash mountain. what a big moment!
she loved brer rabbit and thought the drop was only a little bit scary.

here's brett, kortnie, kevin, and kevin's girlfriend on splash mountain the day before!

after splash mountain we all crammed into one honey pot and enjoyed the last ride of the trip: winnie the pooh! we were so squished and i could not stop laughing!