Day 3 (MK)

Magic Kingdom

When I think back on our disney vacation...THIS is the day I will remember :) :)  It started with the rope drop and then we rode the barnstormer (roller coaster)  for the first of what would be AT LEAST 50 times throughout the duration of our vacation. And since we were there before anyone else, we didn't even have to get out of our seats, they just let us stay and ride and ride and ride and ride...you get the idea.  

Next we did the same for dumbo and for speedway.  Seriously folks, get to disney early.  Ride on everything a million times before everyone else.  And since everyone was in such a great mood and riding on all the rides, I couldn't use my big camera to take pictures.  Lots of iphone quick snaps..  

me and my race car drivers

This is what you look like when after you've done a solid 90 minutes of crazy rides...happy, but tired, and it's only 1030am :)

We rode from 9-1045... until we almost lost OLIVIA!!!  Instantly Tim and I are both running through disney screaming her name with the stroller holding our spot in line to eat.  Good news, she was doing what she was told....bad news...Mommy gave her the wrong information.  Thankfully, we caught up with her and she was only out of our sight for 30 seconds...but that was terrifying long enough.  We ate a lovely meal in Beast's Castle at the restaurant "Be Our Guest" (I mean almost anything can be lovely after you almost lose your child)...but I seriously would recommend this meal.  Plus, for lunch it's considered a "counter service".  Olivia was quite impressed with the atmosphere.  Tim and I were impressed with the technology that was used to deliver our food.

After lunch we headed back for naps.  OH how I loved the location of our hotel.  That night we had dinner at Ohana (in the Polynesian resort).  It was a good meal (all of our meat was a little dry, but everything else was good...including my favorite dessert, bread pudding).  After dinner we rode a boat back to MK (Mason was in heaven).  I mean, the only thing that could replace the monorail....a boat

For the rest of the night we did everything we could think of :)  We rode rides over and over and over.

(long video...watch two seconds and you get the point)

Daddy rode big people rides, Mommy did a dance club with the kids (I closed my eyes for a minute and thought back to the college days and how Joy, Kristen, Tara, Kristin would be right next to me).  Instead I opened my eyes to find myself being sandwiched by chip and dale :o!!!!  Seriously not the same...but still awesome, in a completely different way.  We watched fireworks, saw "tinkerbell fly on a rope" said Olivia...while a group of three adults tried to convince her that she was really flying, and then did more riding.  We stayed at Magic Kingdom way past the kids bedtime and left skipping and sweating at 10:30pm.

Hands down - this was my favorite day.  The magic was in our kids eyes.  We rode the TTA and Olivia looks up at the castle and it's flashing different scenes of movies on the facade....she says, "Mommy, that castle is the most magical thing I've ever seen".  I mean seriously, does it get any better?!?

Day 2 (EP)

EPCOT!

Every morning we set our alarm for 7am and would leave our room around 8am to head to the parks (they opened at 9am).

Must start by discussing the monorail.  Now, I know it's not an official "disney ride"...but don't tell that to Mason.  I believe, one of his highlights of the whole trip was riding the monorail daily.  He loved it.  Begged to ride.  And then plastered himself to the window for the duration of our ride.

Tim was so excited this morning!!  He had an extra bounce to his step and his energy was contagious :)  For the first ride, Tim and Olivia went on Soarin'...poor Mason didn't meet the height guidelines :( Olivia wasn't exactly overly impressed, but she did it once.  Next we went on a few other smaller rides/shows.  Daddy went off by himself for a bit while the kids and I did some pin trading and met characters.  My kiddos were COMPLETELY into the pin trading!!  Smartly, I bought some pins at our local disney store.  They only had monster inc pins, but they were also on sale and only $1.99...at first I thought this was expensive and I only bought the kids six each.  HOWEVER, at Disney, the cheapest I found a pin was for $8!!!!  Needless to say, now I know that $2 is a bargain ;)

After meeting back up with Tim we ate lunch at a Tangerine something...it wasn't that impressive.  But afterwards we got to meet Jasmine and Belle :) 

Daddy took Olivia on Test Track where they designed their own car. I believe Olivia did not find this ride as much fun as Daddy did... But she took some cute photos!

While they were busy with the ride, I took Mason to the gift shop and he tried on hats :)

 And then checked out something Tim bought 10 years ago that is in Epcot....

Here he is in June of 2003

It was time for naps....  While we were gone Olivia and Mason learned that the Mickey and Minnie stuffed animals we got them on their first day were magical and left them surprises :)  First, they made their beds (thank you mousekeeping!!!) and they got a new toy.  Throughout the week, the amount of time that Olivia spent talking about how Mickey and Minnie were "buyers" and went out to shop while we were at Disney amounts to hours.  This was definitely a highlight for the kids and made the transition to leave the park a lot easier.  Yes, this did add up to two toys per day...but most of the items were small (box of crayons, coloring book, lanyard, hat, etc).

We headed back to Epcot that night for a meal reservation at Garden Grill. We got to meet Pluto, Chip and Dale, and Farmer Mickey.  This meal was so-so for me.  It was served family style. 

Afterwards we ate (more) and drank our way through various countries...  And look who we bumped into...  Olivia was completely spellbound by Snow White.  I don't know what it was about her, but Olivia stared at her and smiled and didn't even move...  Priceless moment.

We continued our walk around the countries and found this French Orange Slushie...uh-mazing!!!  I've lost count to how many I've had...  

That night we stayed to watch illuminations. I remember watching this for our honeymoon :) 

Disney - Day 1 (MK)

Warning - the next seven days will be packed with pictures and information...
 it will probably be boring to anyone but me. 

WOW- we've been waiting for this day for awhile now :)  We've had this planned for a year, a slight hiccup two months ago where we had to switch weeks (but thankfully our disney travel agent, Lisa, was able to get us all our hotel and dining reservations we had before).  Speaking of, if you are planning to travel to Disney, I recommend using a travel agent.  It's free and WILL save you money.  For our particular trip, since we were flexible on our week, we chose to go during one of the slowest weeks of the year and it was during the free dining plus plan week (so yes, we ate for "free" all week).   We knew that we were probably going to still need naps and wanted to be close to Magic Kingdom (since this was where we would be spending a majority of our time).  We found a one bedroom suite at the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary.  The monorail goes through the Contemporary and we could WALK to Magic Kingdom.  Our particular room had views of both the lake and MK, so we watched the fireworks every night (hello awesome).  Thank you to the lovely lady to choose what room we were going to be in.  The Contemporary hotel and Bay Lake Tower is connected by a walk way....on the fifth floor.  Our room was on the fifth floor.  So when we got off the monorail, we didn't have to take extra elevator rides to get to and room our room.  Such a small victory that makes the world of a difference!!!! Also....looooved that we chose a slow week.  Honestly, the park was already crowded (in my opinion).  I can't imagine it being anymore crowded...  We never had to wait more than 15 minutes for a ride!

Our flight was out pretty early, so we had to get up at 4:30am.  The kids did great on the flight (what a difference it makes not flying with a baby or toddler!).  We arrived and Olivia looked like this:

Needless to say, they were already exhausted (not exactly the best way to start disney).  We checked into our room (it was ready).  The lovely Magical Express brought our bags directly to our room, so we didn't have to worry about them at all (meaning we dropped them off at the airport in Houston and didn't see them again until we got back into our room later that night).  We literally walked around our room and walked our way to Magic Kingdom (1pm-ish).

We attempted to get the kids to ride the tea cups.  Neither kid wanted to ride?!?  And Mommy definitely doesn't do the tea cups.  Second attempt, Tomorrowland Speedway... Mason was quick to volunteer, Olivia didn't want to.  

(like father, like son....I love this photo for so many reasons)

Tim and Mason drove around, while I sat with Olivia.  At one point she asked what we were going to do... I explained that we were having fun and that we were waiting for Daddy and Mason.  After the ride, we get popcorn....and the kids spill it ALL OVER the ground.  Soooo...our first hour at disney was not meeting expectations.  Next Olivia decided she wanted to ride Dumbo, but Mason didn't... ha.  

Afterwards we forced both kids to ride It's A Small World...there may have been some tears.  I was literally ready to throw in the towel on our first day at disney.  But I knew the kids were exhausted, everyone was hungry...

Thankfully, we had a nice early reservation at Crystal Palace at 3pm.  So we ate a buffet style meal with the friends from 100 acre woods.  The meal was so-so...but it filled our bellies.  Then the magic of Disney began...  Check out Olivia's face when she met her first character :)  

Mason was definitely a little shy, but would give out a high five and some smiles.

After dinner was a picture of the castle and then Olivia got to meet four princesses!!!  There is a new attraction called Princess Fairytale Hall and we had fast passes to see both sets of princesses :)

That was the perfect ending to our day.  It was 5pm...we headed back to our room, where we put our kiddos to bed...it was only 6pm.  THANK HEAVENS we packed a sound machine, because come 9pm there were fireworks right outside their window.  Mason slept on the full size pull-out sofa and Olivia slept on the twin pull-out chair.  Perfect accommodations.

sweet disney dreams children, we've only just begun...

Tim and I weren't exactly ready to turn in...so we proceeded to drink?!?! entirely WAY too much?!?!  I have no idea why....  We watched the fireworks and then headed to bed, knowing the next morning was going to hurt. (arrow is the castle)

Day one disney...DONE!

Foto Friday

Little man sleeping with his "baby" (the yellow ball with eyes)

Let's Go....HOKIES!

Red and Green Parade

potty trained!

This cutie is potty trained...again!  

He wears pulls ups at night and nap...but the rest of the day is in big boy underwear.  Of course, there are accidents here and there, but we think this time it's for good!

Leaping into Silver

The top picture is Olivia's last class in "kids gym level 2" class.   

The pictures below are her first day in SILVER :)  We are so proud of her improvement in gymnastics.

Happy Fall Y'all

On this BEAUTIFUL first day of Fall we went to our local park. 

And the kids FINALLY flew their kites they received last Easter.  

Tim attempted to show them that they didn't have to run to make their kite stay up....but these two didn't get the memo.

 The moment the kite went up, they started running. 

And ran.

And ran.

Until the cheap kites got holes in them :)  

Oh well, it was definitely worth every cent!

ipad time

if you give her the ipad to play...

...this is where she retreats

Foto Friday

goggles

Fashion Icons

Children's Museum

Her Name

Since Olivia goes to school on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...she gets the "work" from Mondays and Fridays sent home.  Throughout the week, we try to make time do them together.  Her penmenship has really improved. 

This was how she wrote her name in January.

Friends

Oh how I love seeing my girl with her friends.  These two went to the mall together and were giggling, happy, silly, little girls.  I loved every second of this playdate.