So, of course, I dressed her up in her birthday outfit, complete with ears, and off we went to meet The Mouse.
I was a little concerned when we got there and were told that, at our place in line, we had an hour and half wait. I didn't know if I had it in me to wait that long, much less Maggie, but we were determined to give it our best try.
I gotta give it to the Disney Store people: they were all unfailingly polite, made sincere conversation with all of us waiting in line, and had the whole "Meet Mickey Mouse" thing down to an art form. That line moved.
(For the record, we were told our wait would be about an hour and half, and we meet Mickey at the one hour and twenty-three minute mark.)
Maggie was completely thrilled the first time she got a glimpse of Mickey - she was actually twitching with excitement and grinning from ear to ear.
Minnie Mouse was there also, and she and Mickey would switch off every 30 minutes, and when Mickey left, Maggie put her hands to her mouth and called to him "Bi-ckey! Bi-ckey!"
I'm sure he would have heeded her call had he only heard her :)
By the time it was our turn, Mickey was back on stage. The hilarious thing is, Maggie was pulling at me, trying to free her arm so she could run across the stage, and once I let her go, she turned around, saw how big he was, and hit the brakes. The girl would not move! Mickey was very sweet, and got down to her level, but she was having nothing of him - she even pushed him away at one point. No high 5's, no fist bumps, nothing. She totally left Mickey hanging {smile}
Once our turn was over and we were heading off the other side of the stage, she started pulling against me again, and didn't want to go down the stairs, trying so hard to get back to Mickey. I think if she had had more time to acclimate, she would have hugged and kissed Mickey all day long, but it was all so fast, she just didn't have the chance to settle down. The smile on her face was worth it, though - she obviously had a good time.
Afterwards, we went to check out the Disney Store, where my girl became enthralled with a 3-tier display of stuffed Disney characters, topped by a propeller that swung buckets of those stuffed animals high overhead. She kept running around and around, pulling out a doll and saying "Yook! Bickey!" or "Yook! Dondull!" (Donald Duck) or "Yook! Manny!" She ended up choosing Handy Manny, so Nana bought her one to take home.
All of that excitement wiped her out, and she crashed not 5 minutes later.
Mommy and Nana crashed for an hour or so once we got back to the house. A fun and exhausting day for all!
Later in the evening, Maggie and Manny had tea and cupcakes :)
Later in the evening, Maggie and Manny had tea and cupcakes :)
PS: Today she has talked about "Big Bickey" ... maybe next time she gets the chance to meet him, we should better prepare her for his size :)