Disney: Day 7

Friday was our last full day of vacation, and our last day with park access. We went back to Magic Kingdom in the morning to try and get on some rides that we hadn't been on yet and get one more fill of all the characters. We met Rafiki, Mary Poppins and Pinocchio! If you can't tell from these pictures the kids are more than exhausted this morning as we had gone three days without naps. We stayed just a couple hours, all the lines for the rides were under 5 minutes thankfully.
Thankfully we saw a short, but fun, afternoon parade on Main Street USA before we left for naps. We ended up missing the lights parade at night because I had saved it for Friday night but the park was closed to only the people who had paid for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (which was $250 a family and we were not about to fork over any more moolah at this point!) It was bummed about missing the lights parade, but now I am glad for something to look forward to next time we are there!

Our last Disney dinner was shared with Pooh and Friends! I didn't realize when I reserved this dinner that it was another character one! It was a great surprise, the kids, especially Sammy, really love Pooh Bear and friends! This picture with Tigger cracks me up!

We were practicing out facial expressions during dinner (sounds weird but the kids enjoy it). They practice making happy, sad, angry and surprised faces. Like we need any practice with drama in this family! Above is Sam's surprise face, below is Annie's cute face.

Disney: Day 6

On Thursday we headed off to Epcot late morning, after sleeping in and swimming. We met with some more characters first. This was the first time we saw Mickey! How could we pass it up?
They had a little interactive movie at Epcot called "Turtle Talk with Crush." It looked like a regular movie screen but Crush talked back and forth with the audience, it was very cool, Dude! While we were waiting for this the kids were mesmerized by the sting rays swimming in right in front of their faces.

We had a special dinner planned along the Disney Boardwalk on Thursday evening. The name of the restaurant is the Flying Fish. It has received awards every year for being one of the best restaurants at Disney. Mark and I thought it was fabulous! The service was great, the food delicious! This picture is of the kids dessert- edible pain with white chocolate puzzle pieces, and a cupcake! It kept them entertained and it was tasty- what more could you ask for?!

We walked back to Epcot after dinner and decided to stop by all the Kidcot stations set up around all the countries. We got back to Epcot late, so we had to literally run from country to country to get all the paper attachments for the mask. This was a fun activity for the kids. Each country had a representative from their own country. At each station they stamped the stick and added an extra piece to the kid's mask. If there was a different written language from that country, they would write the kids name on the back of their mask. Annie was excited because she already knew how to write her name in Japanese! Sam was excited to color his mask!

Disney: Day 5

What can get better than starting out the morning with Goofy?! We had a wonderful character brunch (buffet!) at the Beach Club Resort Wednesday morning. We met Goofy, Minnie and Donald. The kids really enjoyed having meals with the characters! Mark and I really enjoyed watching their faces light up as the characters approached our table.
We spent the majority of the day at Hollywood Studios. We rode rides, watched a fun parade full of Pixar characters (isn't Mr Potato Head cute?!). We also stood in line for an hour to ride the new Toy Story ride for the second time (since it is AWESOME) and then waited in line for another hour to meet Woody and Buzz. The kids were really good waiting in line and we treated them to some evening pool time.

Here is Annie and I (and her new Baby Pluto of course) waiting for the Toy Story Ride.

After 4 nights of sleeping with the kids they decided on their own Wednesday night to make their own beds on the floor. Mark and I could hardly contain our giddiness! They continued to sleep on the floor for the rest of our trip at Disney. They were very proud of themselves that they each made their own bed. Mark and I practically had a parade when we realized they actually fell asleep on the floor and we had the bed to ourselves!!

Disney: Day 4

Tuesday we had planned to spend the whole day at the Animal Kingdom since our guide book said it can easily be done in one day. Here we are at the entrance (got there before the gates opened up!). Another family offered to take a picture of us and we did the same for them.
We made a mad dash towards the safari ride as soon as we got in the park. A couple of co-workers advised us to do this since the animals are most active first thing in the morning. It was awesome to see so many animals in a natural habitat-like setting. We saw giraffes, hippos, rhinos, ibex...all the animals were very active

As were were just walking down a path through Animal Kingdom we just happened to bump into Baloo and King Louie from Mark's favorite movie The Jungle Book!

We went to see a live 20 minute production of the movie Nemo (they made this one into a musical which was pretty cool). The kids enjoyed it. This picture doesn't give the play justice.

The kids had been begging us all morning to get their faces painted, so of course being the awesome parents that we are we said yes. Don't they look cool? Annie kept her paint on until we went swimming that night, Sam had his off by 2pm because he just couldn't help touching it!

Disney: Day 3

This was our luckiest day for randomly running into Disney characters thus far! Our first ride of the day and Mark spotted Annie's favorite princess! Jasmine and Aladdin were off to the side of the ride, very easy to miss and only a 5 minute wait! Annie was star struck!

Chip and Dale have soft spots in the Flory hearts. not sure why we all like these guys so much but we were all excited to get this picture! By the way, Dale writes his "e" backwards! ha!

Who knew we would also bump into Wendy and Peter Pan!

Look at the kids hooks! We gave Captain hook a tip as to where Peter Pan was hiding...no sign of Tinkerbell though! The kids LOVED the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, we went twice in a row!

Disney: Day 2

Our morning started with our first character breakfast! It was awesome! Jojo's circus and friends from Little Einstein were there. The kids really enjoyed this and liked taking pictures with them/getting their autographs. Every meal in life should include fun characters with singing and dancing!

We let the kids each pick out their own hat. Sam picked out this cute Tigger hat- the tail is so cute! Everyone who sees him in smiles!

We came back to the hotel for naps after a couple hours at Hollywood Studios. Afterwards we went to Epcot for dinner. We only stayed here for a little bit and Mark and I really want to go back to enjoy the food. We let the kids stay up late this night to watch the fireworks.

Mark was enjoying his Moroccan food and paused to take a picture with me!

After this picture there was a Moroccan band playing across the way with a gypsy like dancer (remember Esmeralda?) The kids really enjoyed this show (as did Mark of course!)

Disney: Day 1

The bus ride from the airport to the hotel was only a 20 minute wait, I was expecting worse! The kids were very mellow in the 30 minute ride from Orlando to Disney which was good since we were planning on going to Magic Kingdom that night. When we arrived in our Finding Nemo room (see Dory on the comforter?)I gave the kids a gift- their autograph books!
Cinderella's Castle is beautiful at night!

Mark claims he gets sick on the tea cup ride so I bravely went with Annie and Sam. We had a lot of fun spinning around, how could this ride make anyone ill? We didn't have to wait any more than 15-20 minutes for a ride which was awesome!

How could you walk past cute Dumbo and not want to go for a ride? Just so cute!