First day of school!

I interrupt the never ending Disney novel to bring you this very important post:

As of 8:20 this morning I now have a third grader (how???) and my little teeny tiny baby is in KINDERGARTEN!!! Woe is me.

Not only is she in school now, but she lost her very first tooth 2 days ago. It changed her baby face into a big kid face in the blink of an eye.

That's too many changes in such a short period of time for this mommy.

:(




Check out the missing tooth!!!

Disney - part 8 (going home & Photopass pictures)

On our last day at Disney World we were all ready to go home. Our bodies just couldn't take the heat and crazy amounts of walking anymore. We woke up (stiff), got dressed (slowly), then went to breakfast (by now we were choking it down). We still hadn't packed our bags so afterwards we headed back to the room to get started. After check-out at the lobby we had to wait 2 hours for our Magical Express bus to pick us up from the resort and take us to the airport. The girls colored and watched cartoons while we waited. We grabbed one last quick bite to eat at the resort to use up the last of our food credits then headed to the airport for another 2 hours before our flights took off.

Our trip was nothing short of wonderful. Both of the kids were so well behaved and we didn't have any crazy meltdowns while we were there. They were the perfect age to go! They really had so much fun and now have lots of new memories and experiences (which they talked about for weeks and weeks afterwards). It might have been a once in a lifetime opportunity for us so I'm glad that we were able to go as a family.

The weather was less than desirable but I guess that's what you can expect from Florida. You have no control of it so all you can do is make the best of it....which I think we did.

As I mentioned before we did the Photopass offer for this trip (where Disney photographers are stationed throughout the parks and will take your picture for you -using their own cameras - then they put all of the pictures they take on a CD and send it to you in the mail a few weeks after your trip is over). Below are some of the pictures that we got by doing this. Its nice that we have a few pictures of all of us so I'm glad we did it, although the quality of the Photopass pictures isn't quite what I thought it would be.

Thanks for following along. The end.

:)

Disney - part 7 (Blizzard Beach)

By the 7th day at Disney we needed another refreshing day away from the heat, so we headed to the Blizzard Beach waterpark to spend the day swimming. Unfortunately we were only there for about 2 hours before the rain, thunder, and lightening forced them to close the park so we ate a quick lunch then headed back to the resort. Everyone showered, did a little coloring, watched a bit of TV, and rested for a few minutes before we took the bus to Downtown Disney to eat dinner, do some shopping, spend all of our leftover snack credits, and have some fun playing games for a few hours at Disney Quest.

While we were at dinner Steph started to not feel well and went to the bathroom to throw up. When she came back to the table she laid on my lap, took a quick nap, and woke up feeling better. I think the heat and all the walking finally got to her.

We walked over to this huge candy store and spent the last of our 17 snack credits from the meal plan on special treats to take home. Then we walked the Downtown Disney strip going into a bunch of stores and checking out the huge Lego sculptures. Along the way there was a stage and a guy who was playing kids music and getting all the kids in the audience to stand up and dance along. Jen was all for it and got right up in the front row to do the chicken dance, the Cha-Cha slide, and head, shoulders, knees and toes. It was soooo cute!

After that we went to Disney Quest where we spent a few hours playing games and riding the virtual rides. At about 9:30 PM Jen got tired and wanted to head back to the room so Grannie and I split up from Ron and Steph and headed back. We decided to take the water taxi back to the room instead of the bus, which took about 35 - 40 minutes and was a really relaxing ride. We got jammies on and headed to bed. Ron and Steph got back at about 11:30 PM and they had taken the water taxi back too.

Since I didn't take my camera to the water parks, the Blizzard Beach pics below are all from Disney Photopass photographers.








And these are some shots we took later that day:

Disney - part 6 (Hollywood Studios)

On our 6th day in Disney we slept in a little bit. We had to, our bodies wouldn't let us get up. When we finally worked the kinks out and got up we headed to breakfast in the resort (which by now was getting a little nasty because it all tasted the same and we had eaten it for 6 days in a row).

We decided that we would head to Hollywood Studios for the day today. I know I sound like a broken record but the heat was killer today. It was almost too much to handle, especially because we were so tired at this point and our energy was low. We decided it was a good idea to just knock out all of the rides that we had a Give a Day Fastpass for and leave. Some of the things we did were Muppets Vision 3D, Star Tours (twice), Toy Story Mania (twice), and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

After lunch we split up. Grannie took the girls back to the resort (and Steph had to tell her the way back) while Ron and I went on 2 more rides that the girls couldn't go on: Rock N Roller Coaster (which was terrible and I will never go on again - it gave me the worst headache of my life) and the Tower of Terror (which is seriously one of the best rides at Disney). On our way out of the park it started to rain and it felt so good to get a little wet and cool off! We then headed back to the resort and met up with the kids for some rest. After a quick nap we all went to Downtown Disney. We had dinner at the Earl of Sandwich (YUM!) then did a little shopping.

We then split up again - Grannie took the girls to Lego Land then back to the room while Ron and I went to the House of Blues for a few drinks and to listen to a live musician for a little while. At about 8:30PM Ron and I headed to La Nouba (Cirque Du Soleil) which we had tickets for. The show was about an hour and 40 minutes long and was awesome from start to finish! We didn't want it to end!! There was a juggler, trapeze, tightrope walkers, and all kinds of amazing talent. When it was over we went back to the room to kiss the girls goodnite and for some much needed sleep.

Of course, a few pictures:










Part 7 is up next.....