Disney Daze

We took a little dream-come-true trip to Disneyland a few weeks ago.  Kind of dropped everything (doctor's appointments, house construction, work, a Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch) and ran.  

But we couldn't not go!  The trip had been long anticipated,

Wes and I had spent a Saturday in April earning two free service day tickets (only good through December!) and we'd pretty much spent our whole summer deliberately soaking up all things Disney.
There were books:

 

We've slowly been collecting Disney's fairytale re-tellings.  You know, the ones featuring concept art from original Disney animators (Mary Blair, for example). The contemporary authors of these little treasures (Cynthia Rylant, for example) enhance the familiar Disney stories with significant artistic flair.  Lucy got Cinderella when she turned four, Snow White was this year's gift.

Maybe next year we'll try Dave Berry's Peter Pan.

In the meantime (and on my good friend's recommendation, thanks Brooke!)  we read our way through J.M. Barrie's original tale.  

Many a summer evening found us snuggled up on the big bed for a chapter of "Peter." I cut out a few of the more graphic pirate passages and did a lot of summing up when the text got tricky, but ultimately Lucy loved it!

Besides the summer reading, we colored and painted ...

and puzzled...

 

and snuggled...

How does one properly prepare for a trip to Disneyland without movies??!  Our kids had only seen a few full length Disney masterpieces, so Lucy's Disneyland birthday package included a series of coupons granting a movie night every Monday until summer's end.      

   

The original plan was to have family night, put Spencer to bed, and then let our big girl stay up with popcorn for an exclusive late nighter.  That worked two times...

Two times was all it took for Spencer to figure out he was getting jipped. 

So Monday Movie Night soon became a whole family affair. 

      

(And guess who liked it more than anyone?)

We watched all of the classics, of course...

     

...with a few character cartoons here and there: 

  

Monday Movie Night became a really beloved little summer tradition (I think Wes and I looked forward to it as much as the kids!)  We finished with Peter Pan (had to save it until we were done with the book!) just before school started.

It's hard to determine favorites...but I think Peter Pan and The Sword in the Stone topped the list.  (L & S have watched The Sword in the Stone a million times since summer...they've even choreographed a little dance to the opening credits.  Cracks me up.  And makes me smile.  S in the S has long been a personal fav.)

There were a few other things that helped us don the Disney spirit before our trip.  I'll catch up about those things in the next few days and then drown you in pictures of Disneyland itself.  Consider yourself warned.  =)