Disney - Magic Kingdom!

 FINALLY, we made our way to the Magic Kingdom.  Again, tried to get an early start knowing the kids would want to go back to the pool for the afternoon.  This became a trend.  They like the parks but after a while they started asking for the pool.  It was hot and they were typically ready to cool off and play after lunchtime.  Jay and I were not 12 hour in the park kind of parents.  We did 6 hours tops and we were outta there.  It worked out. 

First walk down Main Street and the castle -

 

 

 

 The Dumbo ride was the first ride for the day (or as Paige called it "Elli's Ride!")

It's a Small World ride which the kids surprisingly really liked.  They picked to do it again the second day.

We ran into the wicked step mother and step sisters.  I told Paige to ask them why they were so mean to Cinderella but she said, "No Mommy, that would be rude to ask!"

Of course the answers changed daily but one day Paige's answer to "which was your favorite ride?" was the carousel -

We saw a couple 3D movies throughout the week.  When we got home Paige said, "we should have kept some of those glasses and watched our TV at home with them, that would be cool"  She really loved the 3D effect.  She would spend the show grabbing for the air in front of her trying to catch whatever was coming her way, very cute.  This was a cute little Mickey show we stopped at in Tomorrowland.

We checked out Garcon's pub from Beauty and the Beast -

 

Time for a sweet treat -

We got to watch a bit of the show before lightning shut it down.  Lucky for us we were safely on the bus before it started raining.

 Luke picked his special gift at the Magic Kingdom.  Perry the Platypus.  Thinking this might have something to do with the fact that the animal he picked in school for his research paper was no other than the Platypus!

We had dinner at our resort.  A seafood buffet.  It was actually pretty good, by Disney's standards.  Paige LOVED picking from the "fancy" dessert table and both kids felt so grown up having kiddie cocktails.

Tonight we decided to walk all the way around the lake over to the Boardwalk area. 

Lots of fun things to do over there.  The kids trying to win stuffies -

Mommy got picked to be part of the magic show -



 

 

Disney - Animal Kingdom!

 

 For day two in the parks we picked Animal Kingdom.  Luke was especially excited about all of the animals. Despite our late nights, we got an early start and were there when the park opened. (something we did not do much considering how late we were staying out) 

 

We started with probably the coolest thing to do in the park, the safari.  We got in these jeeps and basically drove through a zoo.  Super cool!  We saw all kinds of fun animals.  I am happy to report that Luke FINALLY got to see a real live cheetah!  A couple of them were just laying down toward the back of an area when we drove through, a nice surprise after being disappointed in not seeing them in Cincy.

 

 

We went to a really cute little Lion King show that was very well done -

 

The kids were allowed to get ONE thing each for the week.  Paige fell in love with this Dumbo stuffed animal and throughout the day became more and more obsessed with it.  We explained she was using her one gift, she was in love and insisted we get this for her.  She named her Elli (as in Elli the Elephant - do not call her Dumbo please!) and surprisingly she did not ask for another thing the whole week even later in the week when Luke was shopping for his.

 

Parks were hot, lots of frozen goodies to keep us cool -

 

We did not do a lot of characters in the parks.  Mom and Dad were not all about standing in line and the kids, thankfully, didn't mind.  We ran into these guys so posed for some pics and got their autographs.

 

Lunch at the Tusker House with some of the characters.  

 

 

 

Uh oh, this is becoming a trend.  Don't let her fool you, come 10PM she is the Disney party girl -

 

Dinner at the resort, after a shower saw a really nice rainbow -

 

Outside and around our resort -

 

Every night our resort offered roasting marshmallows on the beach -

 

Disney - EPCOT

We made it!!  After flying in and getting settled into our resort, we didn't waste any time.  We were off to dinner at the Wilderness Lodge for the Hoop De Doo review show, one of a few dinner shows they offer.  It was cute and the novelty of being "at Disney" was still very fresh for the kids. 

 

Waiting for dinner -

 Showtime -

 

 Unbeknownst to us, the Wilderness Lodge is geographically undesirable to our resort area.  We managed to wind our way back home, not before posing with a nice topiary Mickey at the Contemporary.

 

We loved the topiaries so much, we decided to make EPCOT our first stop, seeing it was the last day for the garden festival and there were topiaries ALL OVER the part.  It really was beautiful. So easy to get to EPCOT from our hotel, short walk. 

 

First full day, so excited -

 

Posing with the topiaries -

 

We loved Turtle Talk, a interactive animated big screen with Crush from Nemo.  Crush talked to Luke first which was very cute. 

 

 

Luke LOVED the fountains, our water guy -

We had to go in the big golf ball!



 

Lunch in Mexico, which was a very cool space with an inside ride and a volcano -

 

Still in Mexico, passing time as a storm passed -

 

Took this one for Grandpa.  The Terracotta Warriors in China.  Luke really liked it and was asking all kinds of questions.  I told him that Grandpa and Grandma have been and will take him there!

 

We knew Paige had enough when she wouldn't get out of the stroller to see Belle and the Beast topiary...it was time to head home -

Yep, crashed out!

 Nothing a little sugar couldn't cure, back at the resort -

 

The back of our resort was beautiful, a nice lake and a view of the boardwalk -

 

Everyone got their second wind after dinner so we headed back to EPCOT to see the Illuminations show w/fireworks.  Paige, of course, was putting on her own show for the people as we waited, dancing around to the music.