Adri’s Birthday Weekend!

My middle baby turned three over the weekend! After Juliana was born, Adri went from being the baby in the house to the neglected middle child. I was determined to at least give her a spectacular birthday weekend.

Earlier this year, friends of ours went to the Character Breakfast at the Disney Aulani Resort. Since Adri loves Minnie Mouse, I figured this would be a perfect way to celebrate her birthday. Her birthday is actually December 7, but since we had originally planned to do some Pearl Harbor events on Pearl Harbor Day, I scheduled the breakfast for Saturday the 6 at 10:30 am. At first I thought a 10:30 breakfast would be too late, but it actually worked out perfectly. We had a small snack at home then headed out to Ko’Olina.

We arrived at Aulani about half an hour early, which gave us a little time to explore the resort and take a picture with Mickey before breakfast. Breakfast was buffet style and included all of the typical breakfast buffet items that you would except: eggs, potatoes, sausage/bacon, cereal. There was a cute mini buffet counter where the kids (keiki) could grab Mickey-shaped waffles, chocolate chip pancake, tater tots and scrambled eggs.

During breakfast, Minnie and Goofy walked around interacting with the patrons and taking photos. Auntie (Hawaiian for pretty much any older female, because we’re all ohana here) was there singing songs and dancing with the kiddies. We took our time eating and enjoying the entertainment. We actually sat through two of Auntie’s performances. The girls didn’t participate the first time, but were all about it the second time.

Afterwards, we changed into our swimwear and headed down to the beach. We found a shady spot to set up before hitting the water. We stuck around for a couple of hours before packing up and heading across the street to Monkey Pod for a late lunch/early dinner. At home, we sang Happy Birthday, ate some cake and opened a gift, all before calling it a night.

On Sunday, which was Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, we started the morning with Adri opening the rest of her gifts. I was hungover and needed a nap, but I was good to go once I woke up. We took a trip to the Aloha Stadium for the swap meet, so that John’s mom could pick up some souvenirs to take home. Since we were in the area, we also drove over to Ford Island, so that she could get a glimpse of Pearl Harbor.

We finished the day off by doing our typical “show our visitors around the island” trip to the east side of the island. I really think that that’s the side with the best views and what I picture when I think Hawaii.

Annnd, now it’s Tuesday. John’s mom is heading back to the mainland. There isn’t much going on this week, so I’m going to enjoy the next few low-key days. I have a lot of blog work that I’d like to accomplish while the girls are in school, so that I can hopefully be ready to start the new year off with a bang!