Dancing Girl's 5th Birthday

Dancing Girl just turned five! Why is that five seems so much older than four? I feel like she's gone from being a preschooler to a big kid already. Now I seriously need to figure out if we're homeschooling or sending her to public school next year. That decision always felt so far away, and now it's here!

Since five is such a big birthday, we made a big deal out of it. She pretty much had a birthday week.  We had one day left on our Disney Military Park Hopper, so we drove up to Anaheim the day prior so we could spend her birthday at Disneyland. On the way, we stopped at CoCo Ichibanya in Irvine for our favorite Japanese curry (We became addicted during our time in Okinawa. Even our kids love it now.).

Yummy curry!!

We stayed the night at the Howard Johnson in Anaheim. If you want the convenience of being near the park without the price of a Disney hotel, you should definitely check it out.  It had a small waterpark for the kids. Despite the chilly weather, my kids had a blast. And, seriously...do kids ever say it's too cold to play in the water?

After we got them warmed back up from the brink of frost bite (not really), we went to Downtown Disney for a special dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. The food is a bit overpriced, but really you're paying for the experience of the animatronic animals. It made for a festive birthday eve dinner...complete with a complimentary birthday cupcake.

I almost got a picture with no people in it! A Disney miracle!

We got up early the next morning so we could get to the park when it opened. We went straight for California Adventures so we could get our fast passes to finally meet the Frozen Princesses. Thankfully that worked out and the rest of the day went smoothly (at least until Messy Boy landed in someone else's vomit, but that's another story). The highlight of the day for Dancing Girl was dinner with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto. That was even pricier than the Rainforest Cafe, but it was so nice to be able to get a photo with Ariel and the other princesses without waiting in lines all day.

Dancing Girl's Little Mermaid Party

To cap off birthday week, we had a Little Mermaid (her new favorite) themed party at our house with some of Dancing Girl's friends. I'm normally not the Pinterest  type (I don't even have an account...GASP!), but a quick Google search produced so many fun mermaid ideas that I couldn't help myself. We had veggie dip with a pepper crab in the middle, oyster cookies, cupcakes with seashells on them, and mermaid punch.  For entertainment, the girls decorated door hangers, made kissing fish pictures, and played with a sensory bin with water beads.

We had such a fun week celebrating our Dancing Girl. She has brought so much fun, laughter, and dancing into our lives! We love you, Dancing Girl!