Without meaning to, we’ve unintentionally created a tradition for the past 3 years of celebrating Selah’s birthday at Disneyland. It started by fitting in a “last trip” before she turned 3 (the ‘last ditch kid is still free’ trip), last year we went again around her 4th celebration, and this year we wanted to visit the Frozen celebration before it ended May 1, so we again used her birthday as our “reason” (as if anyone needs an excuse to visit the happiest place on earth, right?).
This time was really fun with Asher because it was his first trip that he really understood what was going on. Watching anything through your child’s eyes their first time has got to be one of the best things in life, so this was no exception. He even enjoyed meeting his sister’s idols, the princesses…especially his beloved Mulan:
She was his first princess and he was pretty impressed – enough so that each princess we met after he had to ask, “Where Mulan?”. He loves that movie, so it was perfectly timed.
The two were lucky enough to meet I think 11 princesses in their two days! Here’s the recap in photos: 
I’m missing a few that were on Jesse’s phone, but this captures the basic idea well enough!
Other favorites were:
Dumbo
A cotton candy treat (you’d think we deprive her of sugar from her reaction!). But what’s a birthday trip without a sugar high?:
The Frozen experience in California Adventure was pretty cool. Real snow and a little tiny hill for sledding. Who would have thought my kids’ first snow experience would be in close to 100 degree weather during a drought, in shorts, but we’ll take it!
Asher’s belly laugh while throwing bits of ice into the frozen fountain was too much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QbOLdG48wE
And Selah loved sledding with Daddy (I got to go with her too, but only have his video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16elzKANLnA
Selah was pretty tentative with the rides still. We did Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Cruise, Tea Cups, Autopia, the large Ferris wheel at CA Adventure, and the carousel. 
She did surprise us the 2nd day by loving the Goofy’s flight school ride, which is a legitimate roller coaster! We actually figured out through some conversation about why that one was ok and others were “too scary” that she’s actually scared of the movie-based rides because of the “bad guy” character appearances, not the actual rides. She said she was fine with the turns and drops on the roller coaster because those were “really fun”, but even on a tiny Ariel ride she was so nervous about potentially seeing Ursula, she hid her eyes the whole time. So, lesson learned there.
Asher was too little to go on most of the larger rides, but he loved the ones he did go on (& we foresee many roller coasters in his future if he could just get to that height limit!). If I could have recorded his belly laughs all day I would have! The ones on this lady bug spin were the best:
They also both really enjoyed the water portion on California Adventure – jumping fountains and a big misting mushroom…perfect on a hot day. And I came prepared with extra clothes and bathing suits! 
We did not even begin to capture the joy Asher had in the fountain, but here shows him running around a bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0AwGiIOiR0
They also really enjoyed the “Adventure Park” in CA Adventure. I didn’t get many pictures, but it’s modeled after the Disney movie “Up” and has a little tire zip line, and a bunch of rope net ladders, slides, and other kid energy burning activities. Fun for both of them, but here’s Selah on the mini-zip line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmejjJua494
All in all, a great two days, and we certainly tired them out both days (& they’re still recovering!)
All in all, a fun beginning to a “birthday month” of celebration coming up for Daddy and Selah! Here’s one more of the kids completely passed out on me last night (2 days later) because they’re still recovering:
Sweet little beans. Guess being at the “happiest place on earth” turns out to be pretty tiring too! 😉❤️😘
Seeking Joy With the Wheelers 