Breakfast With Goofy and Bedtime With Mickey

Our last Disney day started with our bonus early entry to Disneyland which meant we got to ride Pirates of the Caribbean & Star Tours with no line--amazing!  We had a breakfast date at Goofy's Kitchen and what a treat that was!  We got to meet seven or eight characters just in that breakfast alone.  The food was so good and we just had an all-around great morning. We rode the Monorail back into the park to spend the day before Mickey's Halloween Party that night.  

Goofy!

Dale and the boys.

Princess Jasmine was so pretty!

Carter loved Pluto. :-)

So cute!

The Mad Hatter was a surprise hit.

Minnie looked great in her Halloween costume!

We partied with the Monsters University crew and danced like rock stars at Mickey's Halloween Party.  We met up with our friends, the Lynch family, who happened to be visiting Disney at the same time!  It was so much fun to see them and spend time with their sweet girls. But, I think my favorite part was having Penny's company on the flight home.  Can we plan all family trips together?!  It sure made traveling with kids much more enjoyable!

Had to steal this pic from Penny's blog because I had no good ones of the kids together.  The girls were so cute dressed as monster sisters.  (Poor Davis was asleep at this point and never even got to put his costume on.)  He did wake up at one point  & I don't know if you can tell, but he's crying at Disneyland with a sack full of candy in his hands.  This was not his finest moment.

Sean loved that the pirate ship was cruising out of a sea of fog.  Creepy.

And then, Iron Man passed out and missed the parade.

Davis was on his second wind at this point & got to see the Halloween parade before we headed back to the hotel.  Sean and I tucked the boys into bed and went out on our hotel balcony to see the Disney fireworks.  It was a great last day/night!

Disneyland, Take Two

On our second day in Disneyland, we got in an hour before the park opened.  Wow, was that a HUGE difference!  We got right on several of the more popular rides, without having to wait in the usual long lines. Nice!  We also got to see several characters.  

No princesses here!

 Even the treats at Disneyland are special.  Mickey cookies and chocolates were a big hit with the Beilmans!

 We met Woody!  Definitely one of the highlights. :-)

 Carter & Sean on the Finding Nemo submarine ride. This was one of the rides that I remember from 1982, when my parents took me to Disneyland! (Although it had a different name back then.)

 Donald and Dale were in the Halloween carnival area.  We even got to color pictures with Donald!

 Davis couldn't resist squeezing Dale's nose. Sorry, Dale! (Or, is that Chip?)

 Davis & I rode Dumbo!

 Yes, we paid a visit to Ride Makerz in Downtown Disney.  It never gets old for this crew.  Even Sean built his own Ride this time! It is such a fun Father/Son bonding experience for them...plus, these cars are a lot cheaper than Sean working on his real street rod!

Happy Magical Birthday

We planned & saved for a year and took the boys to Disneyland to celebrate Carter's 6th Birthday!  It was such a wonderful trip.  Sean and I definitely had just as much (if not more) fun than the boys did.  We told Carter a week before that we were going to see Mickey instead of having a birthday party this year.  He was fine with that!

Carter woke up to birthday gifts from Mickey!

 Disney has people taking photos at all of their major photo op spots, so we got several family pics!  This was just after we got into Disneyland on Oct. 11.  We stopped at City Hall for a special birthday button for Carter.  He got several "Happy Birthday" wishes from strangers throughout the day.  So cool!

 We watched a Star Wars show & even got to see Darth Vader (coming out of the fog here)!

 And see all of the original Iron Man costumes from the movie!  Sean loved this one...

 Yes, we did wait in line for an hour BUT we got to meet Mickey!!!!!!!

 The birthday boy on the Teacups.

 I love these two stinkers!  So glad we rode the Teacups when we did--they were closed for refurbishment the rest of our trip.

 Carter and Davis built their own Light Sabers with their Disney Dollars.

 We ended the big day with dinner in Downtown Disney, but both boys fell asleep before we could finish eating, so it was a very anticlimactic cab ride back to the hotel for us.  BUT, what a birthday to remember!