I just had to do something for my daughter's first birthday to celebrate the fact that we survived our first year as parents and because generally hubs and I take birthdays pretty serious. We don't really do a lot of extravagant things but when it comes to birthdays we go big or we go home!
We are pretty big Disney nuts at our house so I thought Penny's fist birthday should be at Disneyland. To the naysayers who say Disneyland isn't for babies, I'd say you are wrong!
Despite the fact that Penny probably won't remember her first birthday I know in my heart she had a great time. She had a big smile on her face the whole weekend and I loved watching her take new things in like going on Dumbo's Flying Ride or the very colorful It's A Small World. The thing about taking a baby to Disneyland is that you can't overdue it. Just the few things we did made baby tired. You have to get the naps in and you can't go thinking you are going to do the whole park. My goal was to do a couple rides, eat some food and have Penny smush her face into some birthday cake. All were accomplished and all were accomplished with two naps. We actually thought we would start our day earlier than we did but Moses' daycare didn't open til 9am and then we hit some traffic so we didn't get to Disney until after 10AM. We were bummed but in hindsight it was perfect. We checked into the Disneyland Hotel and then by the time we got our tickets it was 11am. We had to take Penny on Dumbo's Flying Ride. ">
She was born in the Dumbo ward across the street from Walt Disney Studios so we thought it was only suiting. She didn't cry at going up in the air. She hung on tight though. Afterward, we were going to take her on the circus train but only one train was running so instead we went to It's A Small World. I thought this might make her cry but she loved it. She scootched herself closer to the edge of the boat to take in all the colors, sounds, and music. I think it was a bit of sensory overload as I could see her processing it. But in the end she liked it. She liked the dolls and she does like music.
By the time we got off It's A Small World our friends Lisa and Tim arrived. We were all so hungry so we grabbed a quick lunch in ToonTown. I had never been to Toontown so the building were a new experience for me. I bought Penny some cotton candy because Grandma LaLa reminded me how she bought Will some at Walt DisneyWorld and he loved it.
Penny made a weird smirk upon first taste but soon she was gobbling the fluffy stuff up with a smile on her face.
I didn't let her eat too much because she had a bite of donut in the morning and of course, there was cake coming. So she settled on eating mac n cheese and applesauce for lunch.
After lunch we went to Goofy's house and played in his play ground. She loved the playground. Took several trips down the slide and had fun playing in the tunnels.
We went inside and she played on Goofy's piano. By the time we were done at the playground it was 1:30 and time to head over to Main Street for the big cake party.
Apparently, everyday at The Plaza Inn, Pat E. Cake leads a birthday celebration. The celebration includes a cake decorating contest, singing and meeting special guests. Several good friends of Penny's joined us for the celebration. Out group of 12 plus a baby had fun decorating.
Penny received her plate and she immeditately grabbed the frosting! She stuck the red, blue and yellow dyed frosting in her mouth making quite the scene. Then she tore apart the vanilla cake. It was sooooo hilarious! I took a million pictures of it all.
When she was completely covered in cake, frosting, sprinkles and more Mickey and Minnie came out to celebrate. Penny got her picture taken with them, sprinkles and all. It was a really fun event. One I highly suggest if you have a birthday coming up.
When we were done Penny was exhausted. We went back to The Disneyland Hotel and went up to our room in the Frontierland Tower. We laid Penny down on one of the two queen sized beds and she laid there still for 2 hours.
While Penny slept Mom and Dad checked out the room. The beds had a huge wooden carven headboard of Disneyland that not only light up with lights but had music! The big comfy beds had beautiful linens on them. I plopped myself on the other queen bed and looked out the big windows (with a great view) and rested while Penny slept. Dad had to go back to the park to check out the new Cars Land.
Penny woke up at 5:30pm. I changed her out of her cake soaked clothes and put on a pink dress. We went to dinner at Goofy's Kitchen, a character buffet. Penny not only enjoyed all the food at the buffet but had fun meeting characters. She met Pluto and rubbed his nose like she does to Moses. It was so cute!
She also met Snow White, Cinderella, Rafiki and more. It was great fun to watch her meet the characters. She didn't cry at all.
Overall, our day at Disneyland was so much fun! Penny did a great job! She had big smiles on her face so I have to think she loved it. It was just enough excitement to make us tired yet happy. The hotel was super expensive but it was awesome! I believe if you work hard its okay to splurge every once in a while and splurge we did. I definitely want to stay again and check out the other two towers' rooms. Happy birthday to my sweet girl! I love you so much! Can't believe you are a year old already!
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