Day four was a special day for us. Callie is turning 11 and Kristen is turning 7. We timed the trip such that we would be here for their birthday. This works out great for Callie and Kristen though I will admit Carter has now realized that we will never be able to do the same thing for his birthday. We have chosen to deal with this via the Alice in Wonderland approach of the 'Unbirthday' on the following day. So far it's working. We'll see whether Callie picks up on this trick in September when it's his birthday.
Callie has been planning this day for months and sometimes it's difficult to fully pick up on her expectations so yesterday we had her write out the complete plan. This worked out very well as we all knew what was next and Kristen got to review the plan and add her items as well. The day started last night with retrieving Birthday Pins from the front gate so that all of the ride handlers knew it was their birthday. This also entitled them to some special mimed birthday wishes from any character they met.
After that we had a few hours to spend at Disneyland. We finally managed to do the Matterhorn. Not all the kids wanted to go on it so Corey, Carmen, Callie and myself went while Kerry took the kids over to the Teacups. We definitely got the good end of the deal. Ryan insisted on going on the teacups four times in a row and the ride was empty enough to allow this to happen. Kerry likes the teacups but after four times the spinning will get to you. It didn't help that Callie then wanted to go as well. Five times on the teacups for Kerry.
Next up on the schedule was a Star Wars area that opened at 10:00. We weren't really quite sure what to expect. The Tomorrow Land theme for the year is "The Season of the Force" and they added some sort of museum area with props from the films. There was also the opportunity to get your picture taken with some of the characters. We didn't know what we were doing and just picked a lineup. Luckily it was Chewie which was the one we wanted. The area also had a lot of high end collectibles. Unfortunately I can't afford $9000 for a full size Storm Trooper.
One of the many highlights of our morning was Goofy's Kitchen. We go every time we come as it is a good opportunity to get pictures of the characters and the kids. Goofy is of course there as well as Chip, Dale, Minnie and Pluto. If you only wanted to have one meal for the entire meal this would be a good place to visit. It's buffet style and we went there for brunch so there was both breakfast and lunch food. I don't waste too much space on that food though. I'm just there for the desserts. If I had a purse I would have taken a few extra cake pops with me.
For the afternoon we headed back to the hotel for a small dinner. We had arranged with the hotel to have a cake delivered to our room but they went even further with a gift basket and balloons for each of the girls. At this point it became obvious that Carter was going to have to have a very special 'Unbirthday'. The girls were very happy.
After dinner it was back to California Adventure. Everything was going to plan and Callie had marked off most of the big items off her list. This was a good thing too because California Adventure wasn't quite ready for us. The major rides had long line ups and had already run out of Fast Passes for the day and the next two ride choices were broken down. Kerry and Corey lucked out though because we had an unused ride share ticket from the day before that didn't have a date on it. They accepted it and were able to do California Screamin again.
The day was scheduled to end with a light show and we had a bit of time to kill so we went to the Animator's Workshop where Callie, Kristen and Kerry learned to draw Pooh Bear. (Some better than others.) The rest of us went to Turtle Talk with Crush. They had already updated it for the new movie as Dory, Destiny and Hank the Septapus all had key roles. It's quite amazing how they manage to make it look like Crush is actually interacting with you. He has actions for all the key questions that kids might ask him.
Our final scheduled event was the World of Color. This is an amazing spectacle of light, water and fire. The great thing is that they update it every year so you aren't stuck with watching the same show each time you visit. This year was emceed by Micky and Neil Patrick Harris. The best part was when they were doing the part of the show with a Frozen theme. We didn't realize there were light, noise and smoke generators right in front of us. I like the fact that they turn a spray of water into a screen for projecting real images. The fire is pretty exciting too.
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