Disneyland, day 4

Having definitely seen all we needed to of California Adventure, we returned for another full day of Disney fun. We were anticipating the park being much less busy, but there was more of a crowd than we'd thought (and more than on Wednesday, the day we went home). Since we'd seen all the big things on Sunday, we spent the day filling in the gaps and redoing some of our favorites (and redoing, and redoing again). The two most exciting things that happened today were Jedi Training Academy and Bibbidi Boppity Boutique.

The kids both wanted to do the Jedi Training Academy, which is like this show where they train you to be a jedi. Jedi come out and teach the kids how to wield a light saber and they defeat Darth Vader with their strong will. See our 2008 Disney World scrap book for more detail. This version was nearly identical, but scaled to include a larger group of kids. It's amazing how many kids are interested in this stuff, and you can tell it's largely because of the geeky parents like us. Only, some were FAR geekier than others. Including the family that had a manila folder of computer-printed signs that said things like "The force is with JENNA". FYI, they did not all get picked.

See, getting picked is a big deal. There are about 50 kids who want to participate and only 20 or so spots. It's amazing they haven't started selling tickets to this. We're over there sweating it, having told the kids to "go crazy" when they ask for volunteers and to stay in front. Kate (in bright pink) gets chosen right away. Sam, not so much. They move to the other side of the group, and then back, and by the strength of his force, gets chosen at the last minute. Thank goodness. We would have been waiting around for the next group if he'd missed. Sam told us afterwards that since he's done this twice now, he's not really a padawan anymore, but a real jedi. Great.

Bibbidi Boppity Boutique is a phenomenon I'd heard about before our last trip to WDW, but Kate was too young to participate. Basically, you pay tons of money to have them make your daughter into a PRINCESS!!! Fake hair! Makeup! Pixie dust! In addition, you can buy complete princess wardrobes (even in Kate's size, which is pretty tough to find). (Princess dress=$75, in case you were wondering, and that's just the dress.) We stuck with the beauty treatment, and she loved it. I was embarrassed about how much fun this whole thing was for both of us. We didn't do the photo shoot (she actually told me today that she thought that was a mistake), but everywhere she went afterwards castmembers referred to her as "Princess," which of course she loved. Monster creator=me.