Mickey Mouse Misadventures

Today was the most beautiful day in the history of the world.  Seriously.  It was so nice to wake up and see blue sky- oh happy day!

Devon went to work, and the kids and I had nothing planned for the whole entire day.

I had a brilliant idea.  The Disney Store was having a Grand Opening event at the mall, and Mickey Mouse was going to be there taking pictures.  Max and Lucy and I would be in line when the mall opens (Joe opted to stay home), and we would get to see Mickey Mouse.  What a treat, right?

We arrived at Bellevue Square right on time, 10am, and we found the Disney employee who was handing out the "special gift" to the first 200 guests.  We each received a reusable shopping bag.

  There was an extremely long line of people who were waiting to enter the Disney Store, and there was a separate area with a stage where only a few people were beginning to line up to meet Mickey at noon.  I thought that we could just get in line to meet Mickey and wait a couple of hours...  but that plan only lasted about 20 minutes.  This was the first of Lucy's many breakdowns.

So, we left our really great spot in line and went to play at the boats to kill some time.

When we returned to the line at 11am, we were quite a bit further back than before.  The crowd was growing.  Radio Disney took over the stage and promised fun, games, and prizes.  But from where we were standing in line, my kids couldn't see the stage.  I held Lucy for a few minutes, but then Max wanted to be held too.  We left our spot in line again to move to the side of the stage for a better view of the dance routine choreographed to Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA."

The first game asked for volunteers, and Lucy jumped up on the stage.  The game was similar to hot potato, except that the kids were passing a basketball, and once the music stopped, whoever was holding the ball would be out of the game.  Of course, Lucy was the first contestant to exit the game.  "We have our first winner!  What is your name?  Okay Lucy, here is your prize!"  She won a Beauty & The Beast magnet, and she was so proud!

Now we had less than an hour until Mickey Mouse would make his appearance, and the line to enter the Disney Store had shrunk, so I thought we'd kill more time looking around the store.  While waiting for our turn to enter, Lucy answered a Disney trivia question and won a Minnie Mouse key chain!  "What was the name of Rapunzel's pet chameleon?"  Do you know the answer?

I wasn't allowed to bring the stroller into the store, and that should have been my big fat clue to not enter at all!  Once inside, Lucy freaked out over the princess displays and merchandise.  Of course she did- what did I expect?  And Max-  Well, without the restraints of the stroller, he ran around, dodging through the crowds, grabbing toys, tossing them over this shoulder, sucking on various straws on sippy cups, pulling t-shirts off of shelves.  He was a whirling dervish.  Lucy began to panic because I wasn't letting her have a moment to take in the overwhelming abundance of princess paraphernalia because we had to keep track of Max.  Finally, Lucy threw back her arms in protest and said, "Max!  Stop escaping!  You are ruining everything!"

With Max clutched between my hip and my arm, Lucy got a chance to ogle a whole bunch of stuff that I had no intention of purchasing.  Why did I think this outing was a good idea?  She cried again.  Real tears.

We left the store with two very inexpensive prizes-  Rapunzel sunglasses for Lucy and a Woody figurine for Max. 

The toy that Max chose was a really dumb purchase.  It had sticky limbs that stuck to the wall like this-

I immediately hated this toy.  Fortunately, Max ripped off one of the sticky balls and then discarded this toy altogether because it was "too sticky, Mama."  Woody was tossed in the bag with the rest of our loot.

Lucy cried again.  I don't remember why.

We returned to the Mickey Mouse line for the third time.  Now we were much farther back.  We couldn't even see the stage from where we stood.  My stomach growled.  Max looked up at me from his stroller restraints and whined, "Out!".

We left the line again.  My next brilliant idea was to just watch Mickey from the second floor.

And here's Mickey!

Now, if I angle the camera just right, I can technically get a picture of the kids with Mickey!

We never did get any closer to Mickey.  My brilliant idea turned out to be a horrendous idea. 

Oh well.  I was just trying to fill the day- do something different. 

I reminded Lucy several times on the drive home that she has already met Mickey Mouse...

and she assured me that she will never go to the mall with me ever, ever again.

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the heat and the cloudless sky :)

No lines.  No crowds.  No tantrums.