The Happiest Place on Earth

In 2009, Disneyland has been giving free admission to guests on their birthdays. Since Brett's birthday fell on a weekend, we decided to celebrate it at the "Happiest Place on Earth" and get his $72 admission for free. And really, it was a wonderful day. Brett got a special button to wear that indicated that it was his birthday. I don't think Brett has ever gotten so many "Happy Birthdays" in one day. Granted, a lot of them were from strangers, but I think that it was nice for him to hear it nevertheless.

My sister Jamie has been asking for ages when we were going to take the girls to Disneyland. She LOVES Disneyland and is a season-pass holder. So, we when we made plans to go we immediately asked if she'd like to join us. Of course, she said "Yes" and we were blessed with her presence. Not only is she totally fun to be with, Jamie was was our personal paparazzo as well as a huge help with the girls during the day and at night. She even stayed at the hotel with the girls so we could go back for another hour or two and ride some of the big rides.

Right after we entered through the gate of Sleeping Beauty's castle, Jamie insisted on buying Ella an autograph book so that she could get autographs of any Disney characters that she happened to meet.

Disneyland has specific places throughout the park where you can wait in line to meet the characters. In Pixie Hollow, she got to meet Tinkerbell, Terence and Rosetta. Later that evening and the Disney Princess Faire, Ella also got to meet Mulan, Sleeping Beauty and her favorite Cinderella.

We also stopped by Toon Town where we got to meet the big Mouse himself. By far, the meet-and-greets were Ella's favorite things about Disneyland.

And Lucie? Well, she pretty much enjoyed eating her way around Disneyland. I think I heard "I'm hungry!" from her about a thousand times throughout the day. Of course, when it was time to eat an actual meal though, she wanted nothing to do with it.

As for the rides, Lucie was pretty much scared on every one with the exception of "It's A Small World." She LOVED that one! We went on it at night when it was beautifully lit up with lights. However, I think her favorite part of the day was playing with Goofy's piano in Toon Town.

Overall, it was a lovely day and we made some wonderful memories. I must say, Disneyland is pretty spectacular at the holidays. I wouldn't mind making it a holiday tradition with our family.

If you have a birthday in the next two weeks and want to head to Disneyland for free, click here for details. Otherwise, next year Disneyland is offering a "Give A Day, Get A Disney Day" promotion in 2010 -- you can get a free one-day admission by giving a day of volunteer service with a participating organization.