Disneyland part 3

Tuesday we headed to California Adventure for the day.  It wasn't crowded, which was nice.  Our first ride was Tow-Mater's tractors.  The line was short, and the kids all loved it.  Especially little brother.  He begged to go again, and so we obliged.  Between Tuesday and Thursday, he went on this ride about 7 times.  If not more. 

 There were several rides that the kiddos could all go on.  They loved the tire ride at Luigi's, and there are also several rides in Bug's Land that are perfect for everyone.  We did bumper cars, the ladybug ride (which is a lot like the teacups, so husband didn't do that one) and Flik's fliers.  All cute stuff.  We then headed to lunch in the park.  This was the only day we did lunch at the park.  It was my birthday this day, and I really wanted to do a character dining experience.  I knew the kids would LOVE meeting the princesses, and lunch at Ariel's Grotto would feed us, we could meet princesses and, best of all, not have to wait in the long line to meet them in Disneyland at Fantasy Faire.  I was excited for this one.  We got to meet Ariel first, and then they take you to your table.  If we'd gotten there 5 minutes sooner, we could have sat indoors.  Unfortunately, we were the first guests to be escorted to the outdoor area.  Which would probably be fine, normally.  But since it was 100 degrees that day, it was just HOT.  It's covered, so there's shade.  But I think we all could've used a break from the heat.  Little brother was so overheated that he had no appetite.  So he ate nothing.  Whatever.  There was only 3 other families out on the patio with us, so we got to see the princesses right away.  Big sister and husband had gotten me a birthday pin to wear, so they all wished me a happy birthday.  We met Rapunzel:

 Belle:

 Tiana:

 and Cinderella.

 Apparently they only do a selection of princesses, not all of them.  Which was fine with me.  The kids all seemed happy to have met these 4.  Except for little sister.  Apparently, she had her little heart set on meeting Sleeping Beauty.  When she realized that wasn't happening, she burst into tears.  Yay!  My vision of seeing all my kiddos happy for my birthday did not happen.  That was kind of lame.  Lunch was good, but our kids didn't really eat much.  None of them even touched their dessert.  They did bring me a cupcake and sang happy birthday, and we reassured little sister that we would make sure she got to meet Sleeping Beauty at some point before the end of the week.  Little brother was ornery.  All in all, if I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have bothered.  For our family of 6, it was $200 for lunch.  Considering that my kids barely ate, and Little brother ate nothing, lunch itself wasn't worth that price.  A lot of people had told me that this was the one that was worth it, and the family that was near us seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience.  It was just not a great experience for us.  Ah, well.  We did get our picture taken overlooking the water:

 We went back to cars land after lunch so Husband and the 3 older ones could use their fast passes to go on the big Cars ride.  Little brother was too small, so we just hung out while the others went.  Little brother was not happy about that, but I managed to keep him relatively happy until everyone came back. 

 Cars land is just cool.  They've done an excellent job with radiator springs, and when the Lightning McQueen ride is lit up at night it's really beautiful.  We even got to meet Lightning McQueen!

 Then we headed over to Disney Junior Live! On Stage.  The 3 youngers were in heaven!  Husband and I were thrilled with the air conditioning in the theater!  The show is almost half-an-hour, and the kids LOVED seeing their favorite characters in real life!  Well, as real live puppets, anyway.  They got showered with snow and gold doubloons.  They were wide-eyed and happy.  YAY for happy!  After the show, we headed over and went on the Monsters Inc ride.  After that, Husband took big sister on California Screamin' while I took the 3 little's to Bug's land again.  We went on the rides, and then discovered the splash park area.  Little brother didn't want to participate, so he got sprayed with the spray bottle to cool him off.  Little sister got sort of wet.  Big Brother (as you can see in the picture) soaked himself silly.  He was squishing in his shoes, funny boy.  He was beyond happy to play in the water.  When Husband and big sister returned, big sister was happy to join in the fun. 

 After they were all wet, we headed down the main street and found a shaded bench along the Pixar Parade route.  While I saved the bench with the little's, Husband and big sister went to get some dinner.  I had noticed by Monsters Inc. that there was a smoothie stand.  I told Husband to just get us some smoothies.  It would hydrate the kids, fill their bellies, and cool them off.  Win-win-win.  This turned out to be the best idea of the day.  The kids loved the smoothies and drank their fill.  Everyone was much happier after that.  We went on a few more rides and then headed over to the pier area where they show World of Color.  This is where we discovered that we were woefully unprepared for this experience.  We had no idea that they do fast passes for this show.  If you want to be able to see it at all, you have to have a fast pass.  While the park wasn't too crowded that day, when everyone in the park congregates to one area, it gets crowded fast.  The whole pier area is reserved for the fast pass people.  So we were up above, trying to see over several rows of people in front of us on the same level.  Oy.  To keep the kids occupied while we waited, we bought them ice cream.  3 sets of Mickey Mouse ice cream bars and one ice cream cookie.  They all loved the ice cream, and little brother got chocolate all over himself. 

When the show started, little brother got on my shoulders, big brother on Daddy's shoulders, and the girls stood up on the stroller seats.  We could sort of see.  Not really, though.  The boys kept getting frustrated and we ended up switching.  Except I can't put big brother on my shoulders, so I just had to hold him.  Being only 5 feet tall, he couldn't see any more than I could.  Whatever.  We determined that we would try again on Thursday, and we would get the fast passes so we could actually see.  We headed back to the hotel room and the kids crashed pretty quickly.  Despite a few glitches in the day, it was a fantastic birthday!