Saturday, October 29, 2011

Our Last Day . . .

Our kids LOVE Disney, but they are not the normal Disney fans.  LB likes the princesses but her favorites are the older Disney movies, Mary Poppins being her favorite.  So, when asked who she wanted to eat with while we were there - Mary Poppins won BIG time.  So, we took the kids to the Grand Floridian hotel for breakfast our last morning to eat with Mary, Alice and the Mad Hatter.  When we got there, Pooh and Tigger showed up as well!!!!


Carter LOVED the breakfast buffets, and was always glad when we told him
that a buffet meant he could eat ALL he wanted!


Don't Slouch!!!!


From there, we went to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our day among the animals!




Another favorite movie - Jungle Book
We were about to leave and the kids had not met Minnie or Donald yet, so we headed to Camp Minnie and Mickey where we lucked out!



Even though we had met Mickey once, they wanted to end the trip with the main mouse himself!!!

What a wonderful trip!
What wonderful memories!
What a wonderful gift!

Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Wonderful World of Potter and Seuss

We could not be so close and not head to Universal for a day.  This was a day primarily for LB and myself - one full of Harry Potter and Dr. Seuss.  LB knew she wanted a wand and we had heard to go to the wand show just to see the magic (with the slightest chance she might be chosen to get the wand).  So, that is where we headed first!

 We stood in line and stood in line and stood in line, but in the end . . .  LB WAS CHOSEN!!!!

It was amazing and she was thrilled with her wand.  From there we all headed to the castle for a wonderful ride through the castle.  The kids LOVED it!!!! I was very worried that they wouldn't, but they did!  Inside the castle, as you waited for the ride, you saw all sorts of things from the movie! UNBELIEVABLE to say the least!

We also all had to have a taste of Butterbeer - tasted just like a melted butterscotch candy!  We all loved it!

The kids sent Owl Post to friends.  We walked through Honeydukes.  We went to the bathroom and heard Moaning Myrtle.  We even met the conductor for the Hogwarts Express!!!

It was everything I thought it would be and more! I would love to go back another time and spend more time in the shops, but it was great!! From there, we went to Dr. Seuss world and it was FABULOUS!!!

Ate lunch with the Grinch

and the Cat in the Hat
 Took a ride on the Caro-seuss-al.

Rode One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish again and again

I think Dr. Seuss would be proud.  From there we went to Marvel world to meet some super superheroes!

Wolverine, who Carter said looked like Dan Uggla - everything goes back to baseball with this boy!
 and Captain America!!!

This day was not as long as other days.  We had a great time, and it was nice to turn in early before our last day at Disney.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Not-So-Scary Halloween Time

One of the things we were blessed to be able to do while we were at Disney was to go to the Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party the night we were at Magic Kingdom.  You had to have an extra ticket for the night and the park magically transformed before our eyes.  You could trick or treat, dance with the villains, see the AMAZING parade (led by the headless horseman), and awesome fireworks.  You could also trick or treat in the park.  The kids really did not care all that much about getting the candy.  They wanted to see things you could only see on nights like this night, so off we went . . .

First stop, to meet the princesses WITH THE PRINCES!!!!  I just could not believe it to be honest with you! I really had to control myself from jumping in there with the kids in the pictures!
Snow White and The Prince (that is how he signed his name).
He was great with Carter!


Yes, ladies, watch out! This guy looked JUST like Flynn Rider!
He was WONDERFUL with the kids!
Carter wanted to meet Goofy; LB, the Genie.  It took us awhile and we really thought we were going to miss him, but we got there JUST.IN.TIME!


Then the night ended with wonderful fireworks only Disney can produce!  The villains came out to give us special Hallo-Wishes on this very special night.


As Carter learned and continued to tell us during the trip,
"Everything at Disney is magic!"

A Magical Day

We finally made it to see "the castle!"  The kids were so excited to finally get to see it.  We were not going to kill ourselves to get there first thing in the morning, but the kids were so excited we almost opened the park!!!
The family on Main Street USA

As we went through the castle to get to Fantasyland, we saw Cinderella's stepmom and ugly stepsisters.
Anastasia, Lady Tremain and Drizzela - they were HYSTERICAL!

Of course, we had to ride on Dumbo!

Showing some love for one of our favorite movies The Sword in the Stone

Tea Cup Time - LB and I are getting our own next time!


We took a break for lunch where we got to eat at the Crystal Place with Winnie-the-Pooh and friends.  We loved it!

After lunch the search for Goofy continued.  We could not believe that we had not run into him during all this time, and Carter had been so patient!!! We FINALLY found him!


Then, we ran into Jessie and Woody.  The kids had to wait awhile to meet them, so they changed into their Jessie and Woody shirts (which is what they were going to be for the Halloween party that night) to meet them.
One of my favorite pics from the trip!


What a day, but it was not over . . .
After supper, we changed back into the clothes you see here for

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Around the World . . . in 10 hours!

I was a little worried about our day at Epcot.  I really did not know how the kids would respond to it because it is such a different park.  However, it was one of their favorites - Carter will tell you it was his favorite!!  We did have a wonderful day!
Family Photo thanks to the Disney Photo Pass people, again!

One of my favorite pictures of the trip with characters
We had a little time to spend looking around the park before we headed to Norway to eat breakfast with the princesses.  It was wonderful!!! Belle met us as we came in and we were able to take pictures with her.  As part of our dinner, we were able to get a 5x7 and 4 - 4x6s with the family with Belle!!  As we ate, we were able to visit with Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White and Ariel.


Since we were already in the countries, the kids wanted to stay there and do some of the activities there.  They were able to do a craft that they added to in each country.  They really liked that.  They even had their names written in Chinese which they thought was cool!  Their favorite thing was the Kim Possible missions.  They signed up and were given a cell phone.  From their phone they were to go to different countries to solve crimes.  It was awesome!!!!  We did one crime investigation in the United Kingdom and one in China.
Getting their next assignment.
I love these pics from Epcot that the Disney people took!


In China, as we waited to meet Mulan, LB met a little Chinese girl.  They could not communicate without the little girl's dad, but enjoyed looking at autograph books together.  We ran into these same people on Thursday.  Each girl's face lit up when they saw each other.


LOVE some Mulan!!!

For dinner, we left the park and headed to the Beach Resort where we ate at Cape May Cafe.  HIGHLY recommend this to anyone!!!!  Seafood and meat buffet for days!!!!! It was lovely!


Walking to Test Track at night . . . loved this pic!
We had a great day and loved just having fun together as a family.  We turned in before the night show because the next day was a BIG day!!!