Last Day of Disney

Moving on through the May madness documentation...

Saturday, May 7, was the last day we could go to Disneyland with our annual passes so we decided to go out in a blaze of glory by celebrating my husband's birthday (which was that same day), Sofie's birthday (which was the next day), and Mother's Day (also the next day) during our last epic day at the two Disney parks.  We spent a total of fifteen hours there in an attempt to soak up every last bit of fun from our year of Disney.  It was a long but lovely day and we felt like we had gotten our money's worth.  We figured out that we probably averaged about one visit per week to at least one of the two parks.  Wow, that was a lot of Disney.  Maybe we should get passes to a museum or something- think of how smart we would be if we went somewhere educational that often.

Here is how the day ended...

Disney Animation Academy

Nearly a year ago my husband and I made the somewhat irresponsible decision to purchase Disneyland Annual Passes.  We figured since we had backed out of a trip to Scotland that would have ended up costing us a couple thousand dollars, Disneyland could be our much cheaper, year-long consolation prize.  I don't regret this "investment" one bit; however, our passes expire on May 7th and we have no plans to renew- not until at least one of us has a "real" job anyway- basically if my nearly three-year-old daughter wants to enjoy another year in Mickey's house, she's gonna have to start pulling her weight around here.

Anyway, as our time of fun and frivolity at the city of Anaheim's famous theme park winds down, we've been going out of our way to spend every possible moment soaking up the magic.  We've also been trying to hit any of the attractions we have previously overlooked due to time constraints, seasonal availability, or age/height restrictions.  Today, on a whim, we decided to attend Disney Animation Academy in Disney's California Adventure- we had just gotten out of Turtle Talk and the Aladdin stage show didn't start for another hour.

The way Disney Animation Academy works is you get to sit in a stadium-style classroom setting where a happy Disney person walks you through the necessary steps to drawing a Disney character.  Everybody draws along with the instructor on their own drawing board with their own Disney-supplied pencil on official Disney paper.  During our session, after the instructor showed us how to add Piglet's ears, he said, "So, now your drawing should look pretty much like Piglet."  To which an elderly woman sitting near us responded, loud enough for the whole room to hear, "I thought you were going to say Bugs Bunny, because that's who mine looks like."  The room erupted with laughter.  The instructor played it very well and joked that he wasn't allowed to teach us how to draw "he who must not be mentioned" for fear of a lawsuit.  It was all kind of awkward.

Anyway, we haven't bothered to try this until today because we weren't sure if our little munchkin would be able to handle it.  Well, she managed to at least sit through it but, as you will see below, it will probably be a while before she gets any jobs as an animator.

Josh's Piglet

My Piglet

Sofie's Piglet

Ah, good times.  It will be sad when our year of Disney is over but fun while it lasts for another few weeks.  I feel very blessed to have enjoyed these fun moments with my family in "the happiest place on earth."

Obligatory New Year's Day Blog Post

Happy New Year everyone!


I spent part of New Year's Eve with my husband and my daughter along with some good friends of ours at Disneyland. It was crazy crowded but we got some free hats and noise makers! At midnight we watched the spectacular Disney fireworks from our friends' backyard- much more comfortable than camping out in front of Sleeping Beauty's Castle for sixteen hours.

What will 2011 bring? More blogging I hope!