Birthday Trip and Goodies :)

Wow, what a week it's been!  Between school stuff and sick kiddos, my writing and blogging plans have gone out the window! :{  Sorry to keep you hanging for so long! ;)

I don't have nearly as many pictures to share with you as I do for some of my trips.  Part of that is making sure that birthday trips are primarily about my daughters and not my blog. ;)  We took a lot of personal photos instead.  Plus, it just seems rude to tell them to wait to go into the Disney Store so Mommy can get a picture of her doll outside the store first. ;) 

We left last Friday. Mom, Mimi and I picked them up from school and drove straight from there to our first stop, dinner and Toys R Us. :)

We had In-n-Out for dinner...

...and Krispy Kreme for dessert. ;)

As you can see, Tess came along with us.  She'll be sharing her version of the trip on her blog later. 

There were special heart-shaped donuts at Krispy Kreme since it was the day before Valentine's Day. :)

The girls and I each chose a special donut for "dessert day" (something we do every Friday).

We spent the night with my aunt and uncle and enjoyed a great visit with them.  After a yummy breakfast together at Black Bear Diner, we headed on down the road to our next stop: the Westfield Galleria Mall in Roseville! :D

The Disney Store was our first stop, of course. ;) 

There was a nice-sized Cinderella section, in anticipation of the live-action movie's release next month. 

There were dolls, shirts, mugs, and other accessories.

The lighting really made the dolls pop out on the shelves.  Here are the Cinderella and Prince Wedding Day set and Lady Tremaine.

Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother.

I have to say, after the sad little Frozen displays we saw on our birthday trip last year, it was so nice to see the Frozen section fully stocked. :)

A wall of Frozen happiness. ;)

Little Gal checking out the Elsa dresses.

We love this store for its fun displays, like this walk-in castle, complete with "magic" mirrors.  When you take one of the princess dresses or accessories inside and press the bar code to the mirror, it tells the story of the princess whom the dress or accessory belongs to.  Little Gal spent the majority of her time here. ;)

One of the displays on the other side of the castle.

I always have fun taking a picture of the sparkly flooring there, too. ;)

There were a couple of unexpected benefits to going to the Disney Store when we did.  First, we made it for the "Friends and Family" promotion, so everything in the store was 25% off. :)  The other fun thing was that they had a special Big Hero 6 "How to Draw Baymax" activity.  Big Hero 6 has become one of the girls' favorite movies since they all got to see it on vudu.com two weeks ago, so they were thrilled to participate.  Well, at least Middle Gal and Little Gal were.  Oldest Gal is getting a little older and is not as easily impressed with such activities (and in her defense, it was definitely geared towards a younger age group).  Oldest Gal told me that I could just teach her to draw Baymax later. ;)

The activity was really fun, and Middle Gal and Little Gal each got to keep their drawing.  They were each given a cute cardboard frame to put it in, and they also got a set of six postcards featuring each of the main characters (doll-sized posters...yay!).  

One fun thing was that the guy leading the activity was really impressed with Middle Gal's drawing. ;)  He was really good about complementing her without making Little Gal feel bad, though, which was nice for my mama heart. ;)

Poor Mimi started feeling really unwell while we were at the mall, so when we checked into the hotel after lunch, she decided to stay there and rest.  Unfortunately, she ended up being picked up by my other aunt (the one we stayed with the night before) and taken home.  We really missed her for the rest of the weekend, but were glad she was able to go home and get the rest she needed to get better.

By the way, Tess is wearing a different outfit here because the picture outside the Disney Store was actually from our second trip to the store on Sunday.  I just condensed some of the pictures from both days. ;)

We made a few more stops around town that night, had dinner at Panera, and then crashed at the hotel.  We watched episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and Cutthroat Kitchen on the Food Network before bed. :)

The next morning, we enjoyed a continental breakfast and a swim in the pool before heading out for another day of shopping. :)

Our first stop was at the local Toys R Us.  I think we hit four of these on this trip...five if you count the fact that we went back to the first one on our trip home. ;)

I really love how cute this picture is with "Grandma" and all the girls. :)

Later, we got to go back to the mall and visit Build-a-Bear...

...the Sanrio Store, and other fun places.

That night, we enjoyed a yummy dinner (on Middle Gal's ACTUAL birthday) at Red Robin.

Here's my go-to meal at Red Robin: the Whisky River BBQ Chicken Wrap and fries.  Unfortunately, it's not very Weight Watchers friendly.  I think the wrap itself is 28 points. (I get 31 for the whole day.) ;)  I was very proud of myself, though.  I only ate one half of the wrap, and even ended up throwing away the second half the next morning instead of eating it before we left between meals. ;)

The girls each got a mini sundae and had servers sing to them in celebration of their birthdays. :)

As we headed back to the hotel, we got to enjoy this beautiful sunset.

Gorgeous! :)

A picture of my mini stash the last night. ;)

That's actually all of the pictures I got of the trip itself.  The pictures from the last day all have the girls' faces in them. ;)  We had a really wonderful trip and made lots of fun memories. :)  The girls enjoyed themselves and found some fun goodies for their birthday presents.  I'll try to get some pictures of their stuff at some point, but to be honest, it's already scattered all over the playroom. ;)  Middle Gal and Little Gal both bought Disney Store Cinderella dolls, but they're already dressed in modern clothing and fulfilling other roles.  In fact, both dolls were in Middle Gal and Little Gal's own rendition of "Cutthroat Kitchen" the other day. (I think the show really made an impression on them!) ;) 

In the meantime, you'll just have to be happy with seeing my goodies from the trip. ;)  After a stop at a couple of Toys R Us stores on the way home, this was what I came home with. :)

Yes, I did succumb to the Disney Store Cinderella, even though I like the Mattel face better. ;)  Between the 25% off promotion and the Anna doll I brought in to exchange, she was a really good price.  Plus I really love her dress. ;) 

And she looks gorgeous at certain angles. :)

What's interesting to me is how much happier she looks from an upward angle.  Hmm, maybe I should display her this way. ;) 

This Ever After High DVD was free with my mini Lalaloopsy purchase at Toys R Us.  It contains four complete episodes: "The World of Ever After High", "Raven's Tale: The Story of a Rebel", "Apple's Tale: The Story of a Royal", and "True Hearts Day".  There's also a very condensed version of the "Legacy Day" episode that works more like a trailer.  

Toys R Us had a "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" promotion on all of their Zelfs.  Sadly, we didn't find any of the newest ones (I'm hoping for Zelicious Mermalade, Ooma, Cyril, and possibly Oceana), but they did have a Petal...

...and a Frostette, which I've been wanting to add to my collection. :)

We also found Lalaloopsy blind bags. :)

At a Goodwill store, I found this little fast food Raggedy Ann.  She'll go perfect with my fast food Raggedy Andy.  He's been missing her. ;)

Hobby Lobby had this really pretty mermaid charm.

I got an adorable Fluttershy Squishy Pop set at Toys R Us...

...as well as Lalaloopsy mini Furry Grrs-a-lot.  She makes me think of Monsters Inc., one of my favorite Pixar movies. ;)

I also got an Applejack MLP Squishy Pop set, but I forgot it in my mom's van and haven't picked it up yet. ;)

Singing Anna from the Disney Store came home with me, too.  She looks great with my other Frozen stuff. :) 

And lastly, I picked up this really cute Beauty and the Beast shirt. :)

The Beast has some inaccurate coloring on his clothing, and in this sketch he's a little too short, but I'm willing to let it slide because the shirt is really fun and actually in my size! :D  (Wow, do I sound picky, or what?) :}

I'll be doing some reviews of some of my goodies in later posts. :)  I also have NOT forgotten about my YouTube vlog.  I've been struggling to find the time to get everything accomplished.  Thanks for waiting so patiently.

I've discovered that trying to do a blogging hiatus with scheduled posts isn't working really well for me.  I ended up getting sucked back into things because I wanted to publish and respond to comments, plus connect things on my Facebook page. :}  So, starting next week, I'll be taking a real hiatus for two weeks.  The deadlines for the writers conference are weighing heavily on me, and I really need to focus on that for a while.  Posting might be sparse in the month of March, too, but I'll be back into the swing of things after that.  I've just really got to focus right now.  I'm sure you all understand. :)

Hope you all have a great weekend! :)