Taylor's Disneyland Birthday

Well, it took two visits, but I managed to get all the pictures required for Taylor's birthday.  We looked for the villains both days we were there, but we either just missed getting the pictures or they weren't anywhere to be found.  Taylor loved that she was able to have such a birthday celebration.  She was still totally bummed out that her friends weren't able to come over and celebrate, but this was a pretty amazing trade-off.


Now, just to have it out there since I've been very nostalgic about it all.  I mean, my daughter is officially a Tween.  Not happy about the hormone shifts and weirdness that is going on, but her birthdays remind me of what I went through for her.  Taylor was originally supposed to be a Halloween baby, so it's no surprise that she loves the holiday most of all.  However, she decided to come very early and spent a great deal of time in the NICU.  She was a good size and weight, but her lungs just weren't done, and the doctors and nurses didn't think she's ever be able to breathe on her own.

I wasn't able to get out of bed for a few hours after the C-Section, so the nurses brought me a picture of her the following morning.  Compared to the other babies in the NICU, she was humongous!  There was one little girl next to her that was the size of my hand!  Taylor looked like a giant, and yet she had less of a chance to live than the others because of her lungs.  The doctors were always worried she wasn't maintaining her weight, etc.  They put her on 22 calorie formula for a year which I still believe totally screwed up her body, but I was able to finally take her home.  She surprised everyone by not only getting up to "normal" levels but surprising the doctors by not having weak lungs, but she is also cognitively ahead.


So, I have taken to celebrating each and every year she has.  The first day we spent for this birthday was actually an evening at Downtown Disney where we waited for the fireworks and enjoyed some supper.  The girls were also able to get some Halloween costumes for their Build-A-Bears. 

Waiting for fireworks

And this is when the fireworks were first spotted.  Note the chocolate cake being spit out in her excitement!

The next morning, we met up with Sean and his girlfriend, Danielle to spend the day at the park.      It was Taylor's actual birthday, and the thing she wanted to most was the "Birthday Button."  Haha.


We just weren't able to get pictures with the characters.  Every time we went, they were just going on break.  Taylor wanted to spend her day riding the rides, and sadly, Pirates of the Caribbean  was closed for renovation - it's their favorite and mine.


The Haunted Mansion was made over for the Holidays, and everyone had a great time with The Nightmare Before Christmas theme.  Sean had never seen it and neither had Ken, so it was fun to share with them.


Now, I have already shared all of the pictures I took from the first visit, but here are the Disney photos that I finally got:

I love that you get bonus pictures when you buy the CDs.  It makes the cost seem more easy to bear.   


The second trip to Disneyland paid off as we made the time to wait for the characters.  We again missed the Villains, but we managed to get the characters in their Halloween outfits, and it was really cool.  Sean and Danielle joined us again which made it that much more special to the girls.

Having a bit of conversation and getting to know Bert

Pluto tried to sneak back to his doghouse, and the girls loved it!

Chatting with Jack!

This picture captures why I love Disneyland so much - the amount of wonder on her face!!

My completely handsome and wonderful guy!

Jordan with the $4 holiday cookie!

I love that Mandy is sideways trying to get her score!

And he keeps kicking my ass!!  He claims it's because he is The Ken

Always a great time to be had at Disneyland!!  We rode Grizzly Rapids last, so we were soaked going back to the car.  It was amazing fun, and I now have Ken excited about our anniversary trip since I showed him the  hotel and gave him some details.  


Now, we have the rest of the Disney photos.  I love to celebrate holidays, and Halloween/Fall was never one of my favorites.  I don't know why it wasn't, but I have to say that I have changed my opinion.  Of course, if I had the Disney money to decorate with, I wouldn't mind at all, but even the little things have made it better.  These pictures came out really cute (and yes, that is me wearing a tank top!  It was still 80 degrees on October 23rd!)

Girls' picture!  (really love this one!)

Now, since this post is just NOT long enough, I am also going to share some amazing bonus pictures that came with the CD from Disneyland.  These were the Halloween pictures.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to take pictures at Disneyland when there are no people around??  I would get amazing shots like these!