Animal Kingdom

Can you tell the kids' favorite thing to do was to meet the characters?

More Breakfast with Mickey

Day 3 -- at Animal Kingdom

We started day 3 (Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day) at Chef Mickey's for breakfast. We were there at 7:20 a.m. (after Emily and I got back after midnight the night before). But this was probably the most fun part of the trip.



We met Mickey! (yes Emily is still wearing her hair from the night before)

And Minnie!!!

Day 2- at Magic Kingdom again

The next morning (Monday) I took Nathan with me while James and Emily went with the Chapmans. We caught a parade on Main Street, which he thought was pretty cool. After that, he didn't want to do anything else. We wondered around for awhile while he complained, then I finally parked the stroller and made him go on the Its a Small World ride. He cried and griped the whole time we waited in line (and the other moms were giving me dirty looks), but when we finally got on, he enjoyed it. He was singing the song on the way out. Later on, he had really had enough, so we all went back to the condo to swim for a little bit, then Emily and I went back to Magic Kingdom for her appointment at the Bibiddi Bobiddi Boutique. This is her before pic....




And this is her "after" pic....

Oh my goodness, is that Emily??!!!


Princess Keely and Princess Emily, all beautiful and ready to go! (Don't you just love the pink hair and sparkles? The picture just does not do them justice!)


A cute pic of Emily and Ryan

Day 1 at Magic Kingdom, continued

Minnie Mouse's gazebo


We waited in line forever to meet Tinkerbell!



Bye-bye Magic Kingdom, we'll be back tomorrow!!

Day One- At Magic Kingdom

We spent our first day (Sunday) at Magic Kingdom.


We saw a show in front of Cinderella's Castle.



Met Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters (Lady Tremane, Anastacia and Drizella, in case you don't know their names.




Visited Minnie's Country House

And the good mood continues. . .

At Magic Kingdom on Sunday . . .


. . . and again on Monday . . .


. . . and at Animal Kingdom on Tuesday. He got so mad at us Tuesday, he buried his head in the seat of his stroller because he didn't want us to look at him, and fell asleep. But he actually wasn't in a bad mood during the whole trip, he just got hot and tired pretty quickly. I was feeling pretty grumpy myself after fighting the crowds ("pushing and shoving, its the Disney way!", as they say on the Jungle Cruise).

We're finally in Disney World!

Nathan and Ryan, wearing their pirate shirts and getting ready to go on the pirate cruise at the Port Orleans Resort. I should have known by the look on his face, that it was not going to be a good day for Nathan. When we got to the resort to sign in for the cruise, he absolutely refused to go. Sooooo . . . .



. . . . Emily went instead. Thank you Ryan, for being such a good sport!

Road Trip

And we're off! We needed the luggage rack because the inside of the van was packed full of toys, books, computer games, pillows and everything we could think of to keep the kids busy.



Second day of driving-- stopped in Alabama at the rest stop to let the kids get out and stretch. Except that it should be called a "run-stop" when you're traveling with kids. They all got out and played tag. Keely must have lapped the rest area park a dozen times, at least.



I've been in the car too long!!!!

We're Home!

We are back, safe and sound from our half-cross country trip to Florida! We had a great time, the weather was great, the kids were pretty good, and the drive was not as horrible as I thought it would be (but I don't want to do it again for a very long time). I'm going to put up pics a few at a time, since I'm not computer (or blog) literate enough to put it all in one post. So I'll start with some pictures of the beginning of the road trip.





Loading up the van for the big road trip (yes we took the potty chair)


OOOPS!!! Did we seriously just strap the luggage to the top of the van without driving it out of the garage first??? Yes, we did!!! (if it weren't for the fact that I've been having scenes from Family Vacation flashing through my head the last couple of weeks, I wouldn't have even noticed!). Just as we were about to go, I remembered the scene where the Griswolds said goodbye to all their neighbors, and backed out of the garage, tearing the luggage rack right off the family truckster. Soooo, we unloaded the luggage off the top of the van, drove it out, and strapped it back on again. I was hoping this was not indicative of how the rest of the trip would go.

Bad Words

This morning when we were getting ready for school, Emily said, "Mommy, Nathan said the 'd' word!". I asked her, "which word is that?". She said, "he told me DUH". So I said, "Nathan, you know we don't say 'duh'". Then Emily said, "We also don't say the "S" word". "Right, we don't say 'stupid', either". "But especially, we don't say the "B" word". Now I'm a little alarmed, but I asked her anyway, "what is the "B" word"? "You know, butt", she whispered. So those are the "D", "S" and "B" words we don't say at our house!

Valentine's Party Pics

I finally got the latest pictures from my camera loaded onto my computer so I can update the blog. These are from Emily and Nathan's Valentine's Parties at their school.




Nathan is the blue valentine!