Horses, toads and a pirate's lair

Memorial day weekend was very, very busy. And long. We added Friday too.

After dropping my poor middle child off at the school busstop in a light, rainy mist Friday morning, the rest of the family headed north to Disneyland.

There was dancing to be done, and rides to ride, and parties to go to.

We were denied early check-in (the bastids), so headed to Downtown Disney for some lunch before my oldest daughter's first dance competition. We decided on the Rainforest Cafe. You know, the one with howling monkeys and braying elephants? And a thunderstorm every half hour or so?

It was almost scary.

But we survived.

Then we split up. My big girl and I went to go get her dolled up, and happened to run into this goofball.

He was a lot of fun.

Chicken noodle soup, the hip hop dance of the day (I kid you not), went okay, although my girl came off stage crying, saying she messed up the entire second part of the dance. I for one, couldn't tell, but felt bad for her nonetheless. During the awards ceremony they walked away with a gold and were second out of three for their category, so not too shabby, but still lack luster enough to require a team swim.

After a few hours of swimming, sliding, and some quick take out food, it was time to celebrate a 13th birthday. These might be the cutest birthday cookies I have ever seen.

And some of the cutest mouse-eared party-goers as well.

We didn't stay late, as we were determined to open up Disneyland park in the morning.

We may not have been the very first peeps there, but it was pretty early and therefore were easily able to ride trains,

 elephants,

horses,

and little toady cars.

The girls with none other than J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq

We also went to an area of the park I've never been to before. Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. I was shocked to find "twisting wilderness paths, tree house lookouts and dark caverns filled with cursed treasure."

And they weren't kidding about the cursed treasure. It scared the bejesus out of my little one. She is still talking about the bony arm holding an eyeball and the monster that popped out of the treasure.

The skull dome and pontoon bridge were a little frighting too.

But we all made it back across to the mainland without major injury. And after a much more successful second dance performance, where the girls picked up a first place platinum, and fourth overall ranking, we headed south to San Diego to commence the softball portion of the weekend.

But more about that later...