All Red-y for Disney...Again.

The unspoken Belle's Castle rule is: if a person or persons is not ready for their family picture when the rest of their family is waiting in the designated picture area, the nearest willing extended family member who is wearing the same colored (but not necessarily same yeared) shirt may and will stand in your place for the picture. 

Should the family still be cooperative enough to pose for a picture with the latecomer, family may choose to do so. They also may choose to be grumpy about it.

How many Excell boys does it take to point us in the direction of Cars Land?

If I were to pick one way my kids acted differently than I anticipated them to act at Disney, it would be that they didn't want to repeat any of the rides. They would ride something and then be D-O-N-E with it. They treated the park as a checklist and didn't care to check anything off the list twice. *exception for Star Tours*

After refusing to ride this ride for unknown reasons days 1-3, they finally agreed to ride one of their favorite rides from last time. Eli's face sums up his feelings on the tractor ride. He didn't say why he was so upset, but I'm guessing the glaring lack of R2D2 and Darth Vader might have something to do with his dissatisfaction.

By day four, we had done all the rides we wanted to at least once, so the only goal I made for our day was to get a picture with Lightning McQueen in our Lightning McQueen shirts. Was that too much to ask? We posed with Radiator Raceways as a backup just in case my dreams never came to fruition. 

Then back to Toy Story Mania so Jeff could come to terms with the fact that he was good, but not high score good. Maybe next time, cowboy. The candy bag became a regular in every line to prevent chain-gulation.

We wandered over by the ferris wheel. Which I usually avoid completely because it reminds me of Lagoon and lacks the magical feel of the rest of Disney. But Eli and I enjoyed Goofy's flight school while Carson, Jeff and Lincoln enjoyed some shade and cheeseballs.

Unspoken rule of Belle's Castle #2 - children's lives will remain sustained through cheeseballs for the duration of their stay.

Here's the thing. Sometimes you go to the library to pick out last-minute Disney movies to cram into your kids' brains the whole way in the car to California so they can better appreciate the rides/experience.

Here's the other thing. Sometimes when you have three boys, you see The Little Mermaid sitting on the shelf at the library and try to convince yourself that maaaaaayyyybeeeeee they would like it.

And then you may find yourself snickering all the way to the checkout as you devise a way to con three...nay...FOUR boys into dabbling in princess movies. And again snickering two days later as you're cautiously sliding the DVD into the DVD player in the car lest the boys notice there is a girl on the front of the movie case while saying things like, "This movie is REALLY GOOD. You will LOVE IT. It's a SURPRISE movie with FUNNY FISH and DINGLEHOPPERS."

Then as the movie starts, the snickering comes from the little boys in the back who can't get enough of Flounder and Sebastian. And hey, that Ariel's not too bad either!

So before you know it, you have three boys who have their first crush on a girl who happens to be a mermaid. And much to everyone's surprise they made faces like this with each round we made through the Little Mermaid ride. Princess movie conversion -- complete!

And would you believe it if I said they repeatedly requested to watch The Little Mermaid on the way home?!? And that one day last week when we were coloring pictures they insisted I draw a scene under the sea as they oooohhhhed and aaaaaaahhhhhed at my depiction? If Star Wars is becoming an intricate part of our lives, I foresee many efforts of equalizing our movie consumption with princesses. So take that, boys!

We spent much of our last Disney day on our own trying to hit everything the boys wanted to do (Star Tours, Star Tours, Star Tours). We ran into my parents in the middle of the day and they took our kids while we had a mini-date on Tower of Terror. We even held hands. Cute. 

We came back to find that the candy bag had been double dipped in. 

Which meant Grandma and Grandpa took great care of the kids and they all enjoyed a little time in Bugs Land. 

The sun began to scorch which meant it was time to propose, "Hey. Let's go see Aladdin." Oh. Dang it. We just saw that yesterday. "Hey. Let's go to the Disney Junior show!"

As we walked out of the Disney Junior show, we turned the corner to see my Day 4 dreams just a short wait in line away.

My boys were oddly unenthused about Lightning McQueen this go-round...until we got up to Lightning McQueen and a sly adoring-arm-on-the-hood-of-the-car would suggest at least minor enthusiasm.

But what they WERE oddly enthused about was Red the Firetruck. Not sure where the love for Red came from, but they were STOKED to meet him.

When it was time to cool down again, we ventured into the Tiki Room for nostalgia's sake.

Then we went to Toon Town. Bleh. We went when it was still super hot. Lincoln was hungry. He wouldn't eat. I was stressed. I was trying to feed him baby food while Jeff was wandering around with the kids. And then he texted me, "We're in line to meet Mickey."

The shock of the words in the text caused me to send baby food flying through the air. Swipe Lincoln's face with a wet wipe. Chuck all my belongings into our stroller and then run through Toon Town trying to find Mickey's House lest I miss the one reason I wanted to go to Toon Town -- to see my boys meet Mickey and to get a cute picture of them!

Apparently Jeff didn't realize I had built this moment up so much in my mind in the 5 minutes since he said goodbye to me to when I was briskly cutting people in line to find him and the boys wound deep in the innards of Mickey's House. And then this is the face I gave him as I expressed my annoyance that he was about to MEET MICKEY without me and Lincoln and I had to slime my way up to the front of the line.

This is my angry face. And that may be Lincoln's angry face too. We don't know. We've never seen his angry face. That looks as good an angry face as any.

We weaseled our way to the front of the line where two adult (probably in their 50s) foreigners slid up in line to come and talk to Lincoln. The husband was right in Lincoln's face, letting Lincoln grab his nose, tickling his cheeks, grabbing his hands. They (rightfully so) thought he was irresistible. Or they were using him as an excuse to butt to the front. Whatever, I wasn't in a position to judge. 

The doors opened and it was our turn to meet the man of the Castle. Or is that Prince Charming? I don't know. We met Mickey. And you'd think the lighting would have been better in a place specifically designated for pictures, but...voila. 

And then the picture takers were like, "Why don't you get in there, mom and dad?!?" So we did. As we did, there was a small crowd behind that camera and EVERYONE was giggling at Lincoln. They could not get enough of him. And Lincoln loves people, so of course he was being adorable back.

Then one of the photographers was like, "You gotta connect with that baby, Mickey."...

So Mickey turned to Lincoln and the room went silent as the crowd relished in the sweet moment. Then Lincoln reached out and grabbed Mickey's nose while gleefully squeaking. And you could instantly feel every heart in the room melt as they gushed over the cuteness.

And THAT's why you don't go see Mickey without me and Lincoln, Jeffery! Huff.

We decided to end our time at Disneyland the same way we did last time -- with a train ride around the park. Remembering all our favorite rides and wishing everything farewell.

This was Lincoln's big day. He had his first set of fans at the Mickey house. Then he wooed the Mickey crowd. Then there was a lady in line for the train that couldn't keep herself away from him. While we were on the train, that man next to him warmed up to Lincoln and started playing with him, and finally on the way back to our parking lot, we sat next to three young college kids who were eating Lincoln up the whole ride. He had 2 straight hours of constant stranger attention. He loved every second of it! But it was clearly exhausting work.

 Farewell Disney. I'm sure we'll return the moment the Star Wars Land is up and running. Grumble.