Field Trip

Evie went on her first field trip today with her preschool class. The kids all made reindeer shirts to wear today. She saw her friend Tyler come in the door and got very excited that they had matching shirts. I'm sure she was even more excited when all her friends showed up in the same shirt! We went to Homewood assisted living to visit and sing to the residents. Evie really enjoyed talking with the older ladies, and I really think I could have left her chatting for hours! Afterwards the class went to visit Santa and have lunch at the mall. Evie liked sitting on Santa's lap, but she was heartbroken when the cookies from Santa had milk and eggs in them. It was our first experience of being upset because she couldn't eat something. I wanted to cry right along with her, but I just promised her that I would let Santa know she needed a special cookie. After I dropped my carload off at preschool I went home and got her some leftover Divvies cookies from Disney World and wrapped them from Santa. She was so excited to tell me that Santa gave Mrs.Lemons some special cookies just for her.

The cute reindeer shirt~footprint for the body, handprints for the antlers, red thumbprint for the nose



Evie chatting with the ladies



She loved her antlers

The class with Santa

Friday @ Disney

Friday morning we went to the Magic Kingdom one last time to ride a few things we had missed and do our favorites again. We thought a Friday might be more crowded, but it was a chilly morning and apparently everyone chose to sleep in under the warm covers and we had the place to ourselves until lunch time. The only must-do that hadn't been done yet was Space Mountain. I can now say I've had the experience as an adult, but I don't think it is one I care to repeat. I'm not afraid of the dark or roller coasters, but the combination doesn't appeal to me at all. It started getting really crowded around 1:00, so we went back to rest up before dinner. We had dinner with Cinderella at 1900 Park Fare inside the Grand Floridian. The kids had been watching boats all week bring people to the Magic Kingdom, so we rode those instead of the monorail to dinner. Before going to eat, we had to check out the huge gingerbread house in the main building. It was so big that two people were working inside it selling cookies. Very impressive! At dinner we got to meet Cinderella, Prince Charming, Drizella, Anastasia, and Lady Tremaine. We were seated in the center of the restaurant and every hour Cinderella and Prince Charming come there to dance. They then pick a child to come dance with them. Evie got to dance with Prince Charming, which was so special. To her, he really is Prince Charming and not just some guy in a costume. It was one of my favorite moments from the entire trip. Phil and I dropped the kids back off at the room after dinner and headed to Epcot one last time to watch the fireworks. It was freezing cold, but we had a great time. We sampled Cokes from around the world and walked to Germany to have a cinnamon pretzel. It was a great last eveing at Disney!

Gingerbread house in the Grand Floridian

Evie and Prince Charming

Drizella talking to Andrew under the table; he was hiding in Papa's lap
Evie dancing with the prince

Fireworks at Epcot~Phil loved all of the explosions

Thursday @ Disney

We all took our time getting ready on Thursday morning. We were tired, it was raining, and we were under a tornado watch. Definitely not in a hurry to get to Epcot in those conditions, but we had lunch reservations with the princess so we were going. We got their around 10:30 decked out in ponchos and under umbrellas. We went to ride Nemo under the Seas and then started walking to Norway for lunch. The Akershus Royal Banquet was a crazy! There were so many people in there and everybody was trying to get out of the rain. It was fine once we got seated at our table, and the food was unexpectedly delicious. I was a little nervouse about eating Norwegian food. We got to meet Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Aurora, and Jasmine. The raining had finally quit by the time we left and we headed back to our resort to rest before dinner. We were having dinner at Chef Mickey's and decided to drive ourselves after the wait we had on Wednesday night at the bus stop. We ended up at the Magic Kingdom parking lot instead of the Contemporary Resort, but it worked out because the kids got the ride the monorail. The had been watching it run all week and were excited to get on it. Andrew calls it the mama-rail which was really cute. We got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald. We picked a good day to do double character dining because it was just not good weather for rides.

Belle and Evie

Evie and Aurora~her favorite princess

The "mama"-rail

Snow White with her apple

Andrew high fiving Minnie

Andrew, Mickey, and Evie

Wednesday @ Disney

We got up early and went back to Hollywood Studios on Wednesday morning. We got through the gates and watched their welcome show, then headed straight for Toy Story Midway Mania. Literally everyone else did the exact same thing. I got in the Fastpass line and got passes for 10:45. As I was waiting in line I was watching the return time flip through in 5 minute increments. It was incredible, but I was happy we were going to get to ride it without waiting an hour. We went to watch Playhouse Disney Live. The puppets were a little hard to see from the floor where we sat, but the kids loved it anyway. After the show we took Andrew to see Lighting and Mater again. On our way we got stopped in the street to let the Power Rangers drive out. Our kids have never seen the Power Rangers but they loved them. We had to come back an hour later to get in line for Evie to get a picture with the pink one. After lunch we watched Muppets 3D. Andrew did not like it. He kept saying the bee was going to get his nose. We decided to head back to the room after that. Nana and Papa took off for their night at Epcot, Andrew took a much needed nap, and Evie got to go swimming (outside in December!). We decided that Andrew really needed to see the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom, so we ate dinner in Everything Pop and got in line for the MK bus. That was our worst bus experience while we were there. 59 minutes to get to the Magic Kingdom, over twice as long as it should have taken. We finally made it there at 6:45. The parade started at 7, so we were worried about getting through the crowd, but we ended up just walking down Main Street while everyone else was crammed on the sidewalks to watch the parade. We rode 7 rides in 45 minutes with virtually no waiting. We got to stay on the roller coaster three times because no one else was waiting to get on. At 7:45 we went back down Main Street and stood near the exit to watch the fireworks. The view was great from there, it wasn't too crowded, and we got out quickly. It was also easier to see Tinkerbell "fly" off the castle from further away. The kids were so excited to have that special night with Mom and Dad.

Posing with a power ranger

Minnie's Birthday at Playhouse Disney

Our bowling pin swimming pool

Tuesday @ Disney

Tuesday morning we headed back to the Magic Kingdom and watched the MK welcome again. We rode the train to Frontierland and started going on rides again. The kids were so excited to not have to wait at all for the first hour. We went into Toontown to meet Mickey and Minnie and the kids rode their first rollercoaster, giggling the whole time. We had lunch reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table and on our way to the castle we just happened to run into her stepsisters in Belle's garden and got to meet them and Lady Tremaine. Lunch was an incredible experience. We got to have our pictures made with Cinderella and then went up the castle stairs to the dining hall. The chef came out and let us choose dishes that would work for the kids. We were there for two hours and got to meet Snow White, Mary Poppins, Aurora, and Belle. The girls got wands and the boys got swords plus they both got wishing stars. Evie loved meeting all the princesses, but Andrew wasn't crazy about getting hugs or pictures with them. Snow White tried to give him a hug, and he showed her his sword. It was too funny. This was probably our favorite meal of the whole trip. I had to call 180 days in advance at 7 am on the dot to get this reservation because it is nearly impossible to get in, but I am so glad I did. After lunch we headed back to our resort to let the kids get some rest. Phil and I went to Downtown Disney to check out the shops and Kevin and Teresa went to see the Osborne Lights at Hollywood Studios when we got back.

Magic Kingdom WelcomeMinnie, Evie, Mickey, Andrew

Evie with Lady Tremaine, Anastasia, and Drizella

Evie with Cinderella in her castle

Andrew and his sword at Cinderella's Royal Table

Evie and Snow White

Monday @ Disney

We were all so tired from Sunday, we got a late start on Monday. We got to Hollywood Studios around 9:30 and knew our first stop needed to be the new Toy Story ride. As we were walking to it, we spotted Daisy and Minnie. I decided I would just fast pass toy story while the kids waited, but the fast pass return time was between 3:45 and 4:45 and I knew the kids wouldn't last six hours in park. The standby time was 70 minutes and I knew that wasn't going to happen either, so we decided to just try again another day. After Daisy and Minnie we went in search of Lightning and Mater. I knew they were in Louigi's Garage, but that wasn't on the map. We asked a cast member and finally found it stuck back in a corner. The line was really short, so I guess most people didn't even know it was there. This was one of a handful of must-do's for our family on this trip, and Andrew was fascinated by them. We got to have lunch at Hollywood & Vine with the Little Einsteins and JoJo & Goliath. Our kids don't even watch JoJo, but they both just loved Goliath when he came to our table and gave him lots of hugs. Every 10 minutes a cast member would come out and encourage the kids to get up and dance. Andrew is not usually big on participating in these kinds of things, but by the third time he was the first one up there. I was completely impressed with how Disney handles food allergies. This lunch was a buffet, so a chef came and took me through the buffet line and helped me pick out all the foods the kids could eat. We headed back to our room after lunch and both kids took a 2 hour nap.

Phil and I decided to take Evie on a special date night to the Magic Kingdom to see the SpectroMagic parade and Wishes fireworks. We wanted her to be able to see these, but we were pretty sure Andrew couldn't handle the waiting. We let her watch the Dreams show at the castle again, got dinner to go, and found a spot to watch the parade. As we were walking, a cast member came over and gave us a Tinkerbell pin. He saw my UNCC alumni shirt and payed a fellow alum a visit. We didn't do the pin trading while at Disney, but Evie was excited to have a Tink pin. She liked the parade, but she really loved the fireworks.

Daisy, Evie, and Minnie

Andrew hugging Goliath

Evie, June, and Andrew

Phil, Evie, and Andrew with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater


Evie and Daddy on our date night

The iced castle

Sunday @ Disney

Sunday morning we made it to the Magic Kingdom around 8:45 to watch the Welcome show. Mickey and some more characters ride the train into the station and let a family throw out pixie dust to open the park. It was a really neat little show and we had time to get our bags searched and go through the ticket gate beforehand, so we could go straight to the rides at 9:00. This was the crowd level we were expecting and only waited in line five or ten minutes, if at all, to go on a ride. We rode rides in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, then headed to lunch at Casey's. Evie saw the end of a show at the castle as we were walking to lunch and wanted to see it. It worked out that one was starting about five minutes after we finished eating. The kids loved the Mickey's Dreams Come True show. Evie got to see it three times throughout the week. During the show Mickey asks what your wish is and Evie said she wished she was a princess. After the show, we let the guys take Andrew to ride the race cars again while Nana granted Evie's wish with a Snow White dress. We then decided to camp out in a spot to watch the parade and have a snack. The ice cream parlor had Tofutti (egg &milk free) ice cream, so we got some ice cream and sat in front of the castle. It was a long wait for a 3:00 parade. This was the only time we watched it because mid-afternoon is a tough time for preschoolers. It was completely worth it though. The kids loved all the characters and Evie had a special moment with Dopey. Since she was dressed as Snow White he came over and kissed her hand. It was really sweet!

After the parade, we got the kids to the bus stop and sent them back to our resort with Nana and Papa. Phil and I took the monorail over to Epcot to have dinner and see the Candlelight Processional. We had a wonderful dinner in Japan at Teppan Edo, then had some time to walk around before our show. The Candlelight Processional was incredible. Virginia Madsen was our narrator. She read the Christmas story pretty much straight from the book of Matthew, and throughout the story the orchestra played and the choir sang traditional songs and hymns. It was a very special experience.

Group picture


Andrew's favorite ride~ the Tomorrowland Speedway

Mickey and Minnie in Dreams Come True

Our little Snow White

Saturday @ Disney

We drove half the way on Friday evening, so it wasn't too long of a travelling day on Saturday. We arrived at Pop Century around 3:00, got checked in, and headed to the Magic Kingdom. The wait for a bus should have prepared us for it, but we had no idea the park would be so insane. Disney had filmed their Christmas parade that day and Hannah Montana was there, so the whole place was just packed with people. Within 5 minutes of being there,however, we ran into our good friends from Charlotte that we haven't seen in a few years. I'm not sure what the odds of that happening are, but I actually saw four families throughout the week that I know. By this point we were all hungry, so we went to Cosmic Ray's for dinner (it was a madhouse!). It took us about an hour to get our food and eat it. We were all a little overwhelmed and wondering what the rest of the week was going to be like. We walked out of the restaurant and spotted the teacup ride. We decided to do this one ride and then call it a day. As we were walking back out the castle had been lit up to look like it was covered in ice. It is beautiful anyway, but it is amazing with the lights.

On our way!


Cinderella Castle

The kids first ride at Disney ~ Teacups

Cinderella Castle covered in "ice"

Disney World

We had an unbelievable time at Disney World this past week! Here are a few of our very favorite pictures. I've started working on a post for each day from our trip. Just one post would have just been enormous!

Mickey's Dreams Come True show at Cinderella Castle

Andrew with Lightning and Mater

Evie with Cinderella

Hair drama

The before

The damage~bangs completely gone, top thinned out, and the left side is considerably shorter than the right


The fix