Tag: family

Disney World 2014- Day 2 All Things Princesses and Pirates

I have been waiting for this particular day for soooooo long.  I made reservations at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for Sam to get made up like a princess.  We also had plans for Tanner to get made up like a pirate at The Pirates’ League.  From there we were going to eat lunch with all our favorite princesses in Cinderella’s castle.  Since going to all three of these things is such a big deal, I made invitations for the kids to open that morning when they woke up.  I only have a photo of one invitation and it’s the one inviting Sam to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique.  I also made one for Tanner from Jack Sparrow, inviting him to the Pirates League, and one for all 3 kids inviting them for a royal feast (aka, Cindy’s castle).  I got the idea for the invites from wdwprepschool.com.  Click here to see them or download her version.  The kids had no idea when they woke up that they had some special surprises in store, which made the morning that much more exciting.  We were able to get into the Magic Kingdom before the rest of the public because we had early reservations. I would have taken more pictures of the castle except that they were doing major work on it so they’re were some very large cranes intruding on all my pictures.  I have not one great photo of all of us in front of Cinderella’s castle.  Oh well, I should have taken some anyways just to have, but I didn’t.. I guess we’ll just have to go back again (sigh)…soon 🙂

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My beautiful castle picture…

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The Bibbity Bobbity Boutique:

Sam wasn’t quite sure what she was in for but was being treated like royalty from the moment we walked in.  They had her change into her Belle dress that I brought from home and sat her in a chair at her very own vanity.  She waited very patiently for her fairy Godmother to do her hair and makeup.

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Her fairy Godmother putting her hair up in a tiara just like a real princess 🙂

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Putting on some lipstick.

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Her reaction to seeing herself for the 1st time is priceless 🙂

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Dad told her to give us some sass.  I don’t think she knows what that is, but she pulled it off quite nicely.

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Waiting patiently for rope drop. The calm before the craziness.

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We got to see Peter Pan and Wendy fly by.  I love this photo because they are running flying in perfect unison.

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Pirate’s League:  Tanner’s turn 🙂

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As if he didn’t already took mischievous, those eyebrows killed me.

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Aye aye Capt’n Hook!!

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We battled it out a little.

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The boys on Dumbo

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That’s one way to get us all in the picture:)

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Tanner got shy around Ariel and Sam came alive.  Her first princess meet and greet and I think she could have talked to her all day!

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Cinderella’s castle for lunch with all the princesses…

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Where’s my girlfriend?

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This reaction was for Miss Snow White herself 🙂

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Well there you are 🙂

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No captions needed…

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Time for some rides 😉

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Found a cast member whose name was also Sam.  Because  our Sam was wearing a “Happy Birthday” pin she gave the kids pixie dust in their hands.  Told them to close their eyes and make a wish and then throw it up in the air!  Love witnessing moments like these through their eyes 🙂

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This capped off another magical day at the most magical place on Earth :))

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Disney World 2014- Day 1 Epcot

Just got back from our Disney trip and it was nothing short of THE BEST TRIP EVER!  We’ve been planning this trip for a really long time, and it seemed like it would never get here, but once it came it was such a whirlwind.  We packed so much into that 1 week that we were there and the kids were absolute troopers.  Not even sure how to recap everything about the trip without writing a book (maybe that will be my next project), but we’ll start with the surprise…
We knew from the beginning that we weren’t going to tell the kids about Disney until the day we were leaving.  Considering this trip almost didn’t happen, it was a good move on our parts.  However, it got so hard, planning and packing for the weeks leading up to the BIG reveal.  I had suitcases in our bedroom for weeks (I started packing early), and luckily the kids never really noticed.  We decided to have a personalized audio message made from Mickey Mouse telling the kids that they were going to Disney.  We set up the 2 cameras up so we were hands free and they wouldn’t think it was weird that one of us was recording them.  Plus, we were able engage with them, and that was the best part.  We surprised Tanner once before when Sam was a baby, and he was in shock, plus he had never been to Disney before so he didn’t really understand.  3 years later, he gets it.  Their sweet reactions were priceless.   So glad we were once again able to capture this great memory on film to have forever.
 
 
We split our stay at two different resorts.  When we landed in Orlando at 8:30pm, the magical express bus dropped us off at Port Orleans-French Quarter.   We were all exhausted and hungry, so we had pizza in the room around 11pm and then it was off to bed.
 
 
Day 1: EPCOT
This was our first time visiting Epcot, and throughout the trip, it quickly rose to the top of our list for favorite parks.  So glad we did this on our first day.  We didn’t have any real plans and were able to just walk around at our own pace and be spontaneous. Although we were a little spoiled since the Flower and Garden Festival was going on.  
 
We saw Pluto right away and had to get his autograph and some pictures.
 
 
 As you can see, Sam’s skiddishness of characters has diminished since our last trip when she was a baby and was absolutely terrified.
 Even Landry surprised me with his playfulness with them all. (Hey, Lan, I think Pluto wants his ear back :))
 
Chip and Dale
Tanner wanted to meet them, Sam did not (obviously).
 
After meeting Pluto and Chip and Dale, we moseyed our way toward Norway in the World Showcase.  Not because we actually thought we would get to meet the “Frozen” sisters.  Oh, no, no, no. Unless we wanted to stand in line for 3+ hrs.  
 
Taking in all the pretty flowers and topiaries made into different characters.  If there’s one reason to visit Disney in the spring, this is it.
 
 
 
Playing in the fountain :))
 
 
 
 
We hit up Maelstrom which I thought was going to be a little boat ride, and instead turned out to be the boat ride from Hell that went down a hill backwards, had what looked like scary trolls and polar bears that flashed their teeth at you and left our kids screaming till the very end and covering their eyes.  First Ride! I can kiss that dream of getting them on other big kid rides goodbye. We tried to distract them afterwards with lunch and dessert from the Norway’s Kringla Bakeri.  It worked.  Just look at those goodies!
 
I’ll take that..and that..and that.
Before dessert we all shared a club sandwich.  It was also delicious!
 
Walking through Mexico…
 
 
 
Trading our first ever Disney pin!
 
 
The rest of our day at Epcot, we rode Nemo and Friends, Soarin’ and talked with Crush the turtle.  Unfortunately, we did not ever make it to Test Track, or any other ride at Epcot the rest of the trip.  The kids loved Soarin’.  They felt like they were really flying and even went on it twice!  Crush the turtle was also a huge hit. 
 
Just so we’re clear, this is the Nemo ride (which came after Maelstrom-dark and scary ride). Naturally this is now an instant reaction for the rest of the rides following suite.
 
 Tanner got to talk with Crush!
“Hey, Little Dudes!”
Bathroom Break for everybody else.  Landry didn’t think he was getting enough camera time out of the stroller.  I agreed…SELFIES!!
I may have lagged a little behind the group, and found a margarita stand in the process…

This little guy swam past Tanner probably 30 times and literally waved at him every time.

 

 
Oh Canada…
 
 
England

TICK-TOCK, TICK-TOCK

Aye aye, Hook!

Look! It’s Pan!

Messing around in Mexico…

We walked around the World Showcase, and Tanner and I split a Mickey ice cream bar while the younger 2 took naps in the stroller.


 Daddy enjoyed an ice cold beverage
It’s time to go…
A little bit of swim time at the pool
1 day down, 6 to go.
 

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Disney Surprise is Almost Here!

Well, the day is almost here.  I’ve been planning our Disney vacation for about a year now and have had an official countdown since day 222.  The best part is, the kids have absolutely no idea.  I refrained from telling people really early on, just to make sure the surprise stayed a surprise.  Now that the trip is nearing, more people know, and hoping we can keep this a surprise for 19 more days!! When we decided that we were going to go to Disney this time around, we knew we wanted it to be a surprise.  This trip almost didn’t happen, so I’m really glad the kids don’t know.  Of course, it would also be fun if they knew and we had a countdown going, and could talk about what all we wanted to do when we got down there, but hopefully we’ll have other trips that we can save that for.  I will say, for all the friends that know to keep this hush hush, our cover was almost blown by non other than the UPS guy!  Of course, I had been expecting our magic bands in the mail and had been very careful about watching for the UPS guy in the late afternoon/early evenings when he normally shows up, but when a different guy showed up one morning as I was loading kids in the car and exclaimed for all to hear, “Are you going to Walt Disney World?” I think the look on my face pretty much said it all.    I gently shushed him and he got the idea.  Sorry to be rude Mr. UPS guy, but you threw me off my game a little.  Luckily, the kids didn’t hear him (which I was sure they did) and the situation was quickly diverted.  We’ve been working on a way to surprise the kids and I think we finally have that planned out, so now we wait…

On our last trip to Disney World, Tanner was a few months shy of being 5. Sam was almost 1.  Although, Tanner knew who all the characters were, when we popped the surprise on him the morning we were leaving, he was in a little bit of shock.  And while he was excited, he couldn’t really wrap his mind around “where” he was actually going.  This time is going to be so different I think.  I’m going to go out on a limb and make a pretty confident prediction, that the kids are going to be out of their minds excited.  Tanner has been there, he remembers some stuff, but understands what it is.  Our little Sami knows that all the princesses live where our girl, Cindys’ castle is, and although she doesn’t remember her last trip, I think she will be equally excited as Tanner! Although, it is a pretty overwhelming thing to tell kids, and I have seen surprise videos of kids that cry, but I don’t think that is what they’re going to do.  We’ll find out soon!  While we wait, I was looking through photos from our last trip and wanted to post some up.

First Day at Magic Kingdom!
Sam was Keeping a very close eye on these 2 characters…
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