Happy birthday, Lilly!

Lilly turned three last week! (Lord have mercy. She's already three. Excuse me while I bawl my eyes out.) I'm usually all about the birthday parties, but this year, I decided I wanted to take a break.

Instead of throwing a big ol' shindig at some dirty Inland Empire park, we decided to spend the day at our home away from home: Disneyland. (Because, duh, The Ronins love Disneyland. Like, head over heels in love, love Disneyland. I would marry Disneyland if I could. I would have Disneyland's babies if it were possible. I just went too far, didn't I?)

I invited a few people to join us at the Happiest Place on Earth and, of course, Lilly counted down the days. Aaron's mom even flew in from Nashville to celebrate with us.

On Thursday morning, we woke up relatively early and drove to Anaheim. We got there not too long after the park opened and immediately headed over to Fantasyland to ride, as Lilly calls it, Cup of Tea.

Addie isn't walking on her own just yet. She can take a few steps by herself before she ends up toppling over and crash landing on her face. But she snuck in some practice while we waited in line to ride Alice in Wonderland. So efficient, that one.

The lines were super short all day. I don't think we waited more than 20 minutes for anything. Oh! And because there were so many adults in our party, I was able to abandon my children and ride the Grown-up rides. (Oh, Tower of Terror. You are my number one favorite forever and ever. Amen.)

But the highlight of our trip was our lunch date. We partied with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto. It was so rad. A royal messenger came out, sang a few bars and then made fun of my green hair and Da Vinci Code tattoos. (Say what? I didn't get it, either.) He also announced the arrival of each princess and every time a new one showed up, Lilly grinned ear to ear and shouted, "Woah!" I loved seeing her so excited. I even cried a little. I do that a lot.

Addie tried to rub her grubby little paws on all of their gowns. She's hilarious.

 

Lilly's best pirate pal joined us. These girls are hilarious together. They kept asking for coins to toss off of Paradise Pier. Being the big fan of bribery that I am, I took that as an opportunity to score some cute posed pictures. It totally worked!

Haha. Those last two are probably the worst group pictures ever.

Lilly was spoiled by her grandpa, as usual. (She came home with a Perry the Platypus doll, a Tinkerbell figurine/miniature wardrobe and a tummy full of candy/popcorn. Oh, and she also picked out a Donald Duck doll for Adeline. So sweet.)

We stayed until closing and we had the best time! Lilly keeps talking about how much fun she had and how it was the best birthday party ever. I gotta say, it was pretty perfect.