Scarlett the Starlet: L.A. Part 2: The Happiest Place on Earth

The kids were pumped for Disneyland, and were ready with their shirts from Max's Mickey Mouse party. (Several times that day I was momentarily taken aback when a stranger would call one of the kids by name until I remembered they had their names emblazoned across their chests).

First up, obligatory photo just inside the entrance in front of the Mickey flowers. Let's do this!

Chip and Dale in their Christmas finest (the whole park was decked out for the holidays) were the first characters we encountered. Scarlett was skeptical. Max wanted absolutely no part of them.

Walking down Main Street.

Scarlett, her Daddy, and the castle. Apparently, this is Sleeping Beauty's castle and Cinderella's castle is at Disney World. Scarlett was certain this was Cinderella's castle, so we'll just go with that.

The gang with the Matterhorn in the background.

Big girl on the carousel.

Max is a little iffy. He made it about halfway through the ride, then "Mama hold me!"

Maya!

Emma!

Crazy hat #1.

Crazy hat #2.

Dumbos. (To be clear -- the ride, not the two grown men riding a tiny elephant ride.)

This one cracks me up because you can't see Scarlett and Emma, so it looks like Chris and Mark stood in line for 30 minutes to ride Dumbo by themselves. Not that there would be anything wrong with that. (Who am I kidding, there would totally be something wrong with that.)

Happy girls on the teacups.

Spinnnnniiiinnnnngggg!

Getting ready to ride It's a Small World.

Admiring the sights.

My cute little Mousekateers.

Maya tries to pull Excalibur out of the stone. No luck ... maybe next time.

Max and I stumbled across this nice ~~random dude in a feathered puffy hat~~ prince on our way to lunch. Max actually stopped to check him out, but when I tried to get a photo of them Max freaked out and ran for his life. Here he is fleeing. (Maybe the prince was handing out poisoned apples? Maybe he was in cahoots with those scary Pirates of the Caribbean (see below)? Apparently you can never be too careful.)

Aladdin and the Genie (Jasmine was on a break). Scarlett still leery, but look at the Genie's perma-grin. Can't say I blame her.

Ready for the Christmas parade!

Not so ready for the Christmas parade. Max almost slept through the entire thing, including a huge marching band less than 10 feet away from him. He woke up just in time to see a dozen giant rollerskating reindeer whiz past him, which had to be disorienting to say the least.

Roller skating snowflakes.

Elves.

Santa.

Waving at the princesses.

Sweet kisses from Max while in line for the Pirates of the Caribbean. Had he known we were about to get on a ride that would scar him for life, he might not have been so generous with those kisses. Scarlett did great, but Max clung to me like a magnet, silent but trembling. Afterwards I asked him if he had fun and wanted to go again. He said, "Not go again, pirates MEAN!!" He was still talking about the pirates the next morning, poor thing. I tried to tell him that the pirates were pretend, but the problem is they totally look real so I sounded like a big fat liar. I finally convinced him that the pirates are just on that particular ride, because he started talking about how all of Disneyland was "MEAN!", presumably because he had visions of roving bands of terrifying pirates pillaging the entire place. But no worries -- it's all sorted out now: Disneyland is fun. Pretend pirates are fun. Real pirates are mean. Real pirates stick to the scary ride.