A Mickey Mouse Themed Birthday Party

Recently my friend Courtney threw a birthday party for her daughter who was turning two. Mickey is her favorite right now, so she knew she had to throw a "Mickmey Pawty" for her. She made some simple decorations using the classic red, yellow, black and white colors, and threw in some mickey ears here and there to create this ever so cute birthday party for her two year old. 

Take a look. 

Happy Birthday Adeline! Looks like you had a magical day. 

Pixar Pals Monsters Inc. Mayhem Debuts at Disney California Adventure

Two weeks ago Pixar Pals The Incredibles: Heroes in Training debut at Disney California Adventure, and yesterday we got another Pixar Pals debut... Monsters Inc. Mayhem. 

  The Monsters come out and do a little dance, and they are all happy to be there.

 Suddenly they find out that their power supply in Monstropolis is gone, and they all panic.

They need the screams of children to fill up the power supply tank, but where can they find any humans? 

Then they all realize that there are children all around them. Sulley lets everyone know that children aren't dangerous. 

Random guest are asked to scream into a microphone to fill the tank up. 

 When that doesn't work, Sulley tries to scare everyone, but that doesn't fill up the tank either. 

 Suddenly Boo's laughter fills up part of the tank. "Aha!" Now the Monsters try to collect laughter from the crowd. 

 They have all the kids line up and make funny faces. 

 Nope, doesn't fill up the tank. Next they bring a Dad out to make the crowd laugh. 

 When that doesn't work, Mike Wazowski brings out his canned laughter. The only problem is he hasn't figured out how to open it. Once the can is opened, colorful "worms" come flying out, and everyone laughs filling up the tank.  

 Hooray! Monstropolis is saved! 

These little shows are so simple, but they really pack in 10 minutes of fun for the little ones. I think it's nice that Disney puts on a show like this, while the parade is on a break. It's not only cute, but my son enjoys watching it too. 

The show runs Friday-Tuesday at the Sunshine Plaza and Hollywood Pictures Backlot in Disney California Adventure. 

If you missed the Incredibles: Heroes in Training, you can catch it again this Monday and Tuesday at 2:15, 3:25, and 4:15. 

Times are subject to change, so make sure to grab a guide map when you enter the park. 

Character Fan Days at Disneyland

 Family Fun Weekends is back with the much anticipated Character Fan Days. 

Disneyland took a poll online to see which characters we would like to see during Character Fan Days, and they honored every character that won (The top two votes for each poll), and also added a few more characters to roam around and take photographs with fans. 

 Right away we noticed Shaker and Liver Lips from The Country Bears. Our plan was to visit with characters we never or rarely see around the park, so Shaker and Liver Lips were our first stop. 

After that we roamed around and looked at all the character that were out like...

 The Evil Queen and Snow White...

 Donald and Daisy Duck...

and Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow. 

One thing I really enjoyed today was each character that won in the poll was introduced on stage with a brief history, then they would do a little dance and head over to their spot for photographs. It was nice to see this because we were not able to interact with each character, but it still gave us a chance to see them and wave at them. 

Clopin and Esmeralda dancing on the stage before meeting guests.

 We found Esmeralda, Clopin, and Frollo (yes, Frollo sneaks in too) to have the longest line along with the Seven Dwarfs. Their line was so long, that it took us three tries to get to see them. They only stay out for about 30 mins before switching with another group of characters, in their case that would be Alice, The Mad Hatter, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, The White Rabbit, and The Queen of Hearts. 

More characters include Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, and Wendy.

 Also King Louie and Baloo. 

 As I mentioned, The Seven Dwarfs also had a long line. I can't really blame that line though, because when do you ever get a chance to stand with ALL Seven Dwarfs? 

 Here are the times that you can find them, so you can plan ahead. 

 One thing I noticed throughout the day was Pinocchio coloring with all the children. I can't think of a better magical moment then that. 

 Here is the lineup for the shows on the stage. We caught the Dapper Dans singing many classic Disney songs.

 This week you didn't see the merchandise carts except this one. Disney really focused on bringing the characters out, and made it all about them and us, the fans. 

They also provided some famous sketch artists to draw for you. This is free, but just like the characters there is a very long line. We watched one person get in line, and a hour and half later it was his turn. 

We have really enjoyed the last two weekends, but this weekend was by far the best yet. We spent a couple hours back here, and we still didn't get photographs with everyone. 

When you go, make sure to have a game plan on which characters are important for you to see. Remember that you may have to wait in a long line, so be prepared for that. 

Most of all have fun!

You can find the Character Fan Days located back in the Festival Arena right next to Big Thunder Ranch from 10am-5pm through this Sunday.

Next Weekend February 4-6 and February 11-13 will be devoted to the Lunar New Year.

So did you go today? Planning on going this weekend? Who are you looking to seeing the most? 

Did we get our picture with Clopin? You bet, and yes it was worth the wait although Frollo did scare my son, so we weren't all smiles in the picture. Still a great time and memory though! 

Sneak Peek into the Newly Opened Blue Sky Cellar with The Little Mermaid

The Blue Sky Cellar opens today with all new models, videos, and concept drawings for many of the changes happening right now at Disney California Adventure. 

Here is a sneak peek for you.

 Newly designed posters for the Paradise Pier area attractions in a Victorian seaside style.

This moving map replaces the old map to the right of the movie that's shown in Blue Sky Cellar. There are 30 different effects that move around. For example - lightning hits ToT, the monorail moves across the map, there are bugs zooming around near the farm, etc.

The Mermaid Mural is an 86-foot long mural that has been hand painted in the loading area of the attraction.

The evolution of the facade and ride layouts are a few of the hundreds of drawings that were done by Imagineers trying to work out what the ride would look like.

This is a sample of the glass that was hand made for the entrance of the attraction (the ride's marquee), that will be in the former dome of California Dreams.

This is a model of Ursula, that is in Scene 6 - the Poor Unfortunate Souls or Ursula's Lair (the official name of scene 6) section of the ride. The model is 1-inch to 1-foot scale, which gives you an idea of how very large Ursula will be in the attraction (something like 12-feet wide by 8-feet tall).

The Little Mermaid Ride will be about 6-minutes in length and should open by summer. I can hardly wait, what about you?