One magical 7th Birthday

Our youngest E was the first to have a birthday since coming home and recently turned 7 :cake:. She has been counting down to her birthday since Christmas, and had gone through many different ideas of what she wanted to do for her party. At different times she wanted a bounce house, a baseball party, clown, water slide, bowling party, and of course to take all her friends to Disney (we are working on value of money with her!!). We told her we could go to one of the theme parks but she could only bring 1 friend.She ultimately decided she wanted to go to Animal Kingdom and chose one friend. Little did we know that this would turn out to be one magical day for our youngest (and us!). The weather was beautiful and the crowds were light, Disney gave her a button that said it was her birthday and all the Disney staff made a huge deal about her and said Happy Birthday to her all day long (if you go on or near one of your kids birthdays be sure to get a button at a ticket window). We were able to ride her favoite ride twice in a row with no lines (Expedition Everest rollercoaster - hey the kid likes rollercoasters - fast fast rollercoasters). Then we went on to a dinosaur ride which scared her last time we were there but she decided she wanted to go again (even with me offering to sit it out with her). She probably didn't want to be outdone by her sisters. On the way into the ride you stop in a smaller room where they give you the back story for your ride and out pop two Disney employees saying everyone in the room just won Dream Passes. Well my DH and I had no clue what this was but everyone else was yelling and clapping. We quickly learned they were clapping because the Dream Pass is AWESOME!! It lets you fast pass the top rides (once) but anytime you want so you aren't tied to the normal fast pass times. Then we went on the ride, our birthday girl wasn't scared at all this time and even was waving and saying Hi to the dinosaurs! As we walk out of the ride another disney employee stops us and askes us if we would mind answering a few questions - why did you come to the park, where are you from, and will you be here all day. Then she asks us if we want to be in the Parade and ride on Mickey Mouses float no less :thankyou:! The girls were so thrilled the rest of the day revolved around how long until the parade. They loved going behind the scenes and putting on costumes. But the reality of waving and smiling for 40 minutes wasn't as fun and their arms got lower and lower as the parade went on (although all said they would do it again - luckily for my DH and I it was a once in a lifetime experience). The girls would wave then look up at Mickey, wave and look up at Mickey. It really was a magical 7th Birthday.