Mickey & Friends

You can't go to Mickey's stomping grounds without meeting the mouse himself! And thanks to a combination of luck, planning and Grandpa, we got to meet a lot of Mickey's friends too! We did a character breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen, which I had never done before, and very randomly ended up doing a character dinner our second night as it was the fastest and closest thing open on our way out of the park. Both were great opportunities to meet some lesser-known characters and get to actually spend some time with all the characters. You get a picture with Goofy on your way in and then all the other characters come around to your table while you eat for pictures, autographs, etc. They spend several minutes at each table, and it definitely beats waiting in long lines in the park! We got lucky with a few of the other characters in the park, like randomly running into Minnie Mouse after we took a wrong turn onto a seldom-used path in California Adventure and steeling ourselves to wait 30 minutes to meet Mickey as the sign said outside his house in Toontown only to basically walk right in to meet him! We also went to meet the princesses by Sleeping Beauty's castle, which I knew we had to do for Madison. Everyone told me to plan on waiting about an hour, but we randomly got there right after their lunch break and were the third group in line. Sweet!! As I look back on this trip, I still can't believe how many things just went our way! It was AWESOME!

Most people do autograph books but I've always thought that was kind of dumb - what is my 3-year-old going to do with an autograph book? So instead I bought an 11x14 photo mat for all the characters to sign, then we'll print a picture to put in it and hang it up! I think it turned out great! We got Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Belle, Cinderella, Fairy Godmother, Mickey, Baloo, Jasmine, Dale, Minnie, Pluto, Ariel, Rafiki, the Mad Hatter, Goofy and Chip. Not bad :)

Our first princess - Princess Aurora

Talking to Ariel

Those are McKinley's arms reaching out for Ariel. Kudos to her since McKinley rarely goes to anyone! :)

Happy Girls!

Cinderella. Madison says meeting Cinderella was her favorite part of the trip

Ready for breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen! He's a pretty good chef :)

The Fairy Godmother. Madison was a little hesitant with the first couple characters who stopped by

Shaking Pluto's paw. McKinley's impressed :)

Grandpa's loving it!

The Mad Hatter. Madison has never seen Alice in Wonderland so this meant nothing to her. But McKinley liked his giant nose and hat

Playing peek-a-boo with Rafiki

By this time, she was getting excited! She's waiting anxiously for Dale to come over!

McKinley was just happy to be eating :)

He finally came!!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip! Hugs from Baloo

Chip ... who looks eerily similar to Dale ;)

We randomly ran into Minnie Mouse on the back side of California Adventure. We were heading to the entrance and took a wrong turn, which wound us around Grizzly Country for a while. But it ended up being the best wrong turn ever! 

Eskimo kisses with Mickey!!!! She was really hesitant when we came in the room, but this move by Mickey totally broke the ice!

We love Mickey!! McKinley has a thing for noses :)

A great big Mickey hug! She loved him!

FLASHBACK: July 2011. Madison and Mickey go way back :) Lucky girl!

As we headed out of the park on Friday, we were trying to figure out what to do for dinner. Everything in Downtown Disney had a long waiting list but we knew if we got in the car, the girls would fall asleep before we could drive anywhere to get food. So we wandered back over to the hotel to see if Goofy made dinner, and he didn't disappoint! We had already changed the girls into their jammies, but they had a great time and it was the prefect ending to our trip! We even got to see Minnie again!

McKinley is obsessed with noses! But she's cute so she can get away with it :)

Discussing her day with Jasmine

Belle ... so sweet!

Our cute girls with Belle; I promise McKinley is smiling, not crying! But can you tell they're a little tired?! The morning after we got back to Memphis, they both slept until 9! That's by far the latest either of them has ever slept in! I'm pretty sure they were busy dreaming about princesses and mouses ;)