Happiness anyone?

This was the year all my girls were to have birthday parties. I sat down with Reed after Halloween and talked about logistics. We didn't know how we were going to pull off three parties with our crazy schedules (party planning is not one of my talents.) About this time Southwest had an airfare special with $25 one way tickets into LA. Reed presented to the girls the option of skipping the parties for a trip to Disneyland on an airplane. They were all excited. The tickets were booked, two days later they tried to lobby for parties. They were quickly shut down. So this past week we took the first flight out on Monday morning and got to Disneyland around 9:30am. We stayed for the parade that night and got to our hotel at 6:45 (7:45 Phoenix time) just in time for the complimentary dinner. Our kids were very tired and would probably have gone right to bed except when we got to our room it was 62 degrees and the kids were cold and complaining they were still hungry. I got them in PJ's and turned up the heater while Reed got Little Ceasars.
We were at the park when it opened on Tuesday morning and stayed to watch them turn the lights on Its a Small World, had one last turn on the teacups and dashed. We ran to the exit which was not an easy task because by now the parade was going. Good times. Tanner was so tired in the car he was begging to go to bed. We put his pajamas on in the airport and he fell asleep in the stroller. He remained asleep as he was transfered on and off the plane, on and off the shuttle to the parking lot, woke up enough to acknowledge that the car was cold when I put him in his carseat and stayed asleep until Reed woke him up for preschool at 8:30 Wednesday morning. Zoe and Heidi were late to school. Molly was so tired she was sick to her stomach and didn't make it to school because she went back to bed.
having said that, this trip was actually more laid back than our last trip to the magic kingdom because we didn't feel like we had to do it all. We had just been there 6 weeks before and were able to take time to enjoy the decorations and the people watching. The lines were delightfully short. We were able to talk Molly into being in charge while Reed and I went on Matterhorn together, we haven't done that in a long time. Some of our favorites from this trip: the girls loved Mulholland Madness. We had skipped it on our last trip and I think they went on it 10 times. Tanner was brave enough to ride on a horse on the carousel, big step for him. The kids were all brave enough to have pictures taken with characters, and the lines to get pictures taken were not so long that they were forboding. Reed and Molly had an hour alone on Tuesday morning to do "big rides" (Indiana Jones and Pirates) while I waited in line with the younger crowd for Peter Pan and Storybook Land. The longest line was for the new Toy Story ride in California Adventure. Zoe really wanted to go so Reed waited with her and Tanner. Tanner loved it an that is all he talks about. Zoe braved the Haunted Mansion. Flick's Flyers got the better of me. I had to put my head down and I was really glad I hadn't eaten lunch yet.
What a great time. It was nice to have a little break from reality at the happiest place on earth.