Let's see. After the FABO dinner at Kona, we went back to the Villa and hit the hay. The next day was, well, going to be both bad and good. And we knew that.
Grammy and NeatKid were leaving. Heading to the Heartland for Harvest. (I come from a family of farmers. Seriously. The family used to own farmland on Manhatten Island. Way back when. They sold out in the early 1800s for the more fertile farmland of the midwest. We won't even talk about what COULD have been in terms of my financial security. I really would like to make money the old fashioned way by inheriting, but I don't see that in my future.)
I decided that it made the most sense for me to take them to the airport instead of paying a shuttle. Because this was also our "relax" day before Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night. Unfortunately, they needed to be at the airport EARLY. And by early I mean E-A-R-L-Y. 0 DARK HUNDRED. I think we left the Villa at something like 5:30 a.m. After I had stayed out late the night before. Ooops.
Anyway. I had never been to the airport. But it was super-duper easy to get to. I have heard that there is some way to get there to avoid the tolls. I gotta say, for the two or three dollars it cost me, I really don't care. It was EASY. That was more important at way-too-early a.m.
I dropped them off. After we ALL realized that my Mom had left her paperwork sitting on the kitchen table back at the Villa. Good thing you don't really need any of it anymore. She did have to figure out when her departing flight from Indiana was going to be the next week, though. But I knew I would speak with her before then, so no worries.
I drove back to the Villa, arriving around 7 (I think). We relaxed a bit that morning, then headed for DTD. Because I wanted some pics taken of the Princess in her Princess dresses. And one of my DIS friends (Hi Nab!) had alerted me to the fact that the official photographers for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique will take pictures of others if they are not too busy. SCORE.
So, we loaded up the kids, and all the Princess dresses, and FINALLY figured out where the photography studio is. I really should have fixed NoFear's hair better. Hindsight. Fabulous pics, though! (And this is just a sampling!) We made sure to have shots taken in ALL of her dresses. Because I am like that.
We wandered through DTD. And I took more pics (which I won't torture you with). (You know, the obligatory
lego figures, and pictures with the Princess figures, and Buzz, and Potato Head.) And then we had lunch at Wolfgang Puck (the sit-down restaurant, not the take-out window). Let me just say. . . . YUMMO. On everything. It was sooooo verrrrry goooood.
Okay. Wiping the drool off my face and moving on.
We had
MNSSHP that night. I was STOKED. We rested a bit before the party (I think), but wanted to get there early-ish, since I knew we could get in starting at four.
And I had made costumes for everyone. NoFear had her choice of Princess dresses (obviously) and I had made the rest of us Three Musketeer smocks, and hats, and B and I had swords. We were DASHING:
Let me just say, the Halloween party was oodles and loads of fun. We caught the tail end of the Stage show, headed to Tomorrowland, saw Buzz, rode his ride, tried to get on the Astro-Orbiter (STILL too long), I know we rode the Indy cars at some point (then, later???). But we trick-or-treated like mad and met lots of cool characters (Walrus, etc.) It was also great to see the characters in Costume. The kids got their faces painted (for FREE! And the Shrimp even consented) and we caught the fireworks in front of the Crystal Palace (great view!):
And then we caught the second parade (and there were many other meet-n-greets and trick or treating and some ride riding, too.) One of note was a GREAT CM who was with Woody in the Saloon. There was NO ONE inside talking to Woody. Everyone was finding a spot outside for the parade. B was saving our spot, along with the Stroller) and Woody spent a lot of time with NoFear and Shrimp. The Shrimp still wouldn't go anywhere close to him, but the CM tried soooo hard. And we took a picture with him. Just because.
WOW. What a GREAT parade! And everyone is correct that the gravediggers are completely, totally, awesomely cool.
At this point B really wanted to go. But I REALLY wanted to see Snow White and all seven dwarves, which I know is very rare. Especially since NoFear had dressed like SW that night. So I convinced him to do this ONE LAST THING before we left.
He thanked me later.
We walked to Fantasyland and found where people were lining up to meet. SW and the dwarves were set to come out in about four minutes and we were only about 8th in line. Then one of the CM's started talking about them coming out, picking kids to ride, etc. I didn't pay very close attention, I'll admit. I should have.
Because we got sprinkled with MAJOR pixie dust. My little Snow White was picked by Grumpy. He walked right up to her, exclaimed (as much as you can without speaking) about her dress, and took her by the hand. And walked off. And then I didn't know what I was supposed to do, until I heard the CM saying (to all the clueless parents) "YES. FOLLOW YOUR CHILDREN." So we did. Except that I did not adequately explain to B that only ONE of us should follow. The other should save our place in LINE. We both ended up over at the ride watching our girl get on. And wouldn't you know that our camera died during the parade? Yup, we only had video. I have attempted to salvage some still shots from that.
NoFear still talks about riding Snow White with Grumpy.
And, good news about the line, when we both ended up back there. (Me, panicked b/c I was SURE we had lost our place and would have to stand in the now 100 people deep line). I found the two people that we were between, explained what happened to the person who had been behind me, they agreed that we should have our place back. It helped when I told them that we didn't even have a camera, only video.
In hindsight, I really should have given that super-special pin that NoFear got for her birthday to that person. They really DID make our night by letting us back in line. THANK YOU. I promise to pay it forward!
So, this is what we got from the Video (REALLY sorry about the quality):
Grumpy coming out:
If you look past Happy, you'll see my daughter walking away with a strange man:
And, finally, TWO Snow White's with the Dwarves.
And then we really did leave the Magic Kingdom. Which, at that point, felt VERY magical indeed.
