A Smile in my Heart–Magical Week of Friends,Fun & Freezing-10/28-COMPLETE!

[Stasieki]

Great update. I just love to say what break days bring. They are almost always very memorable days on our trip.

 

[lovebuzzandwoody]

Oooh we gotta have breakfast at Ohana next trip! I LOVE Ohana for dinner ~ and breakfast looks like my kids would be in mickey waffle heaven!

I love the pic where Lilo sits down with Michael! But what I love about it is Emily ~ her face is so precious!

 

[mom2mek]

Great update. I just love to say what break days bring. They are almost always very memorable days on our trip.

I like the "idea" of break days, but unfortunately, we have not "mastered" it yet. More to come later....

Oooh we gotta have breakfast at Ohana next trip! I LOVE Ohana for dinner ~ and breakfast looks like my kids would be in mickey waffle heaven!

I love the pic where Lilo sits down with Michael! But what I love about it is Emily ~ her face is so precious!

Yes, you gotta!!! It was all very good!!

I love that picture too! Emily might not have been very into characters in the parks, but she loved them when we were at a meal for some reason!!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Day 5 - February 11, 2010
Break Day
Chapter 2

We left ‘Ohana full and satisfied from a great and hearty breakfast and decided to hang out in the GCH for a while and do a little shopping. Pop Pop had recently had knee surgery and was going to pick up an ECV that he had rented and that was being delivered to the lobby that day, so we hung out in the giftshop and waited for him.

Soon enough, he came rolling along. Oh boy….I could see this was going to get VERY interesting!! Pop Pop, if you can't tell, is VERY playful!! Well, an ECV and a very playful grandfather = trouble!! He was doing doughnuts in the lobby practically!!

The kids were very excited about this little “car” as well, and were anxious to hitch a ride. Yep – we were one of “those” families – people just walked by and shook their heads in disgust, I’m sure! “They’ll let anyone drive one of those things!” I could hear them whispering….LOL!

We shopped for quite a while, purchased a few things including two disposable cameras for the girls to take on their afternoon adventure, and then I reminded Shawn that we had that free arcade time card that came with our package and maybe he and Pop Pop would want to take Michael over to spend some time in the arcade.

Woo-doggy…Michael was stoked. This boy and video games….sigh….

Some blurry cell phone pics for ya!

(Getting carried away back there….)

(Pop Pop’s turn with the hat)


Mom and I headed back to our room to change the girls into their special “tea party” shirts I had made for them and then hung out with Mom in the completely empty CL lounge for a few minutes before heading over to the Grand Floridian for the Wonderland Tea Party with Alice and the Mad Hatter!

(Sorry for the smudge on my camera lens...and yes, they are wearing lipgloss!)

(Siamese twins??)

(Heading out…armed with her camera…)


We were significantly early, so we just shopped around with the girls in the gift shops there and Katie found another toy she couldn’t live without – the toy carriage for Cinderella that comes with the little white horse. I managed to convince her to wait and look around and we could come back to get it if it’s what she REALLY wanted. Emily decided to spend her own money on another charm for her bracelet (Alice in honor of the Tea Party) and some Minnie Mouse ears in the form of a bobbly headband!

We looked around the resort a little bit and took some pictures of the girls being goofy.

After a little while longer we went ahead down to the bottom floor at the 1900 Park Fare check in desk and checked the girls in for the Wonderland Tea Party. There were only a few children there already so we waited around for a bit before they came out to start the fun. The cast members who do this had all the kids, I’m guessing about 12 – 15 (including a couple of boys even....) in a circle and they just chit-chatted. I’m not sure about what, but I did overhear them talking about pets! I’m sure Katie and Emily were filling them all in on our crazy dog, Jellybean!

At about 10 minutes to 2:00, they brought us all into the dining room where this wonderful and whimsical tea party table was set up.

After the kids had found their seats, they told them all to lift their arms up high in the air!

(Then they told them to wave BYE!!!! to all of us since this was a kids only tea party!! They all laughed and waved and we left the room!)

So…how did it go??? Did they like the tea party? What did Mom and I do with our hour of kid-free-ness??



Sara

 

[mermaid764]

I love the girl's shirts...they turned out great and it's cute they went in matching shirts.

The wonderland tea party looks super cute and i can't wait to hear what they thought about it.

Looking forward to hearing what you and your mom did during this time

 

[therussells08]

That tea party looks like so much fun! I would have LOVED that when I was a little girl! (Shoot, who am I kidding? I would love it now! )

 

[mom2mek]

I love the girl's shirts...they turned out great and it's cute they went in matching shirts.

The wonderland tea party looks super cute and i can't wait to hear what they thought about it.

Looking forward to hearing what you and your mom did during this time

Thanks! I thought the shirts turned out cute too. There were a couple of girls who were wearing princess dresses and one girl who was in an Alice costume, but I think my girls were just as happy in the Alice & Mad Hatter shirt and jeans (plus they were warmer)! They did really like that Alice costume in the UK that we had seen earlier in the trip though, but for $60 we just stuck with our iron-on transfer on a $6 Target shirt!

That tea party looks like so much fun! I would have LOVED that when I was a little girl! (Shoot, who am I kidding? I would love it now! )

I know...me too! The table was so cute!! My Mom and I actually did do the Garden View Tea Room when we went on our trip in May (other report...I'll get to that day eventually). While it was not nearly as whimsical, it was very nice if you were seriously looking for something!

Sara

 

[mkluvsmickey]

I'm interested to hear about how the ECV worked out for PopPop. My dad has finally decided to rent one during our October trip. He is planning to rent it at the park, and they are only doing Epcot. I'm trying to give him as many tips as possible. Did you just park it by the strollers when you were going into the rides?

The tea looks like so much fun! And I love the shirts you made, such a pretty color. Can't wait to hear more about the tea. I wonder if Samantha is too old for that now?

 

[lovebuzzandwoody]

Aw, Abby is definitely too old! Michelle, it wouldn't hurt to ask Sam if she wanted to do it. I'm jealous!

So Sara, I'm assuming you armed the girls with cameras just so you could include the photos in your trippie, right???

Love the shirts! I forgot to tell you I loved the Ohana shirts too!

 

[mom2mek]

I'm interested to hear about how the ECV worked out for PopPop. My dad has finally decided to rent one during our October trip. He is planning to rent it at the park, and they are only doing Epcot. I'm trying to give him as many tips as possible. Did you just park it by the strollers when you were going into the rides?

The tea looks like so much fun! And I love the shirts you made, such a pretty color. Can't wait to hear more about the tea. I wonder if Samantha is too old for that now?

Well, at Epcot, he rode it straight thru the line on Living with the Land (they have a special boat that accomodates people in ECVs); she asked him if he COULD transfer and he told her yes, but they still put us on a "special" boat if I remember correctly. For Soarin, he rode it straight over to the ride but parked it outside the entrance I believe (again, I'm not entirely too sure) but I know he rode it into the building...he didn't leave it out by the strollers. Epcot was an easy park to get through with the cart because it's so much more open than the other parks. He is just using it while he is in the park, right? I ask because Dana's only aggrivation with it was the time he had to get on and off a bus. It's not that it was awful, he is just not that patient and didn't like feeling like he was incapable of doing stuff, ya know?

Samantha would probably feel a little too old for it....the oldest kids looked about 10, so IDK.....there is always the afternoon tea that you and her could do together at the Garden View Tea Lounge - Mom and I really enjoyed that in May!

Aw, Abby is definitely too old! Michelle, it wouldn't hurt to ask Sam if she wanted to do it. I'm jealous!

So Sara, I'm assuming you armed the girls with cameras just so you could include the photos in your trippie, right???

Love the shirts! I forgot to tell you I loved the Ohana shirts too!

Yeah, about those cameras.....

Well, I haven't lost them, but they are still undeveloped. Oopsie!! I am bringing them somewhere this weekend though!

Sara

 

[BippityBoo]

Dying to hear more about the tea party!

 

[*dreamit*doit*]

I love the Wonderland Tea Party! I think it's just the cutest thing!! Miren did it last summer and loved it! Can't wait to hear what the girls thought about it.

Great idea with the disposable cameras. I gave Miren our camera to take with her and she forgot to do the flash (it's manual) so while she did take some pictures, they're mostly blurry, even though she got a couple of okay ones, enough to have an idea of what they did.

Cute shirts!!

 

[laashley]

So much to catch up on.

Love Spectromagic. Sad it is gone. You got some cool pics. We always seem to be on main street for the parade, maybe next time we will try liberty square.

I agree with having "break" days. It just seems I cram as much in the break days as I do in the parks.

Waiting to hear more on the tea party. Sounds like fun!

 

[mom2mek]

Dying to hear more about the tea party!

Hope to have it up soon, Katie! Glad to see you around again!

I love the Wonderland Tea Party! I think it's just the cutest thing!! Miren did it last summer and loved it! Can't wait to hear what the girls thought about it.

Great idea with the disposable cameras. I gave Miren our camera to take with her and she forgot to do the flash (it's manual) so while she did take some pictures, they're mostly blurry, even though she got a couple of okay ones, enough to have an idea of what they did.

Cute shirts!!

Yeah, I was prepared to give Emily my camera, but then saw the disposable ones in the giftshop and thought that might be better. I'm not sure yet since I haven't actually brought the cameras in to be developed, but I have a suspicious feeling that I'm going to have a bunch of pictures of ceilings and feet! LOL!

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

So much to catch up on.

Love Spectromagic. Sad it is gone. You got some cool pics. We always seem to be on main street for the parade, maybe next time we will try liberty square.

I agree with having "break" days. It just seems I cram as much in the break days as I do in the parks.

Waiting to hear more on the tea party. Sounds like fun!

You did a ninja post while I was replying!!

Liberty Square was a great spot! I will try there every time from now on!

Yeah, I still have not perfected the "break" day....more to come!!!



Sara

 

[mommytothreeboys]

We loved our 'Ohana breakfast too! The girls shirts are really cute.

A tea party sounds like so much fun! Can't wait to hear about how Katie and Emily liked it!

 

[kaysmommie]

That tea party looks so cute! I would love to go to that myself . The shirt you made the girls is adorable too. The arcade card came in handy too. So how did the girls tea Party pics turn out? I'm betting you and your mom shopped at GF. Hopefully you went into Basin, my favorite.

 

[mom2mek]

We loved our 'Ohana breakfast too! The girls shirts are really cute.

A tea party sounds like so much fun! Can't wait to hear about how Katie and Emily liked it!

Thanks Missy! Update coming right up!

That tea party looks so cute! I would love to go to that myself . The shirt you made the girls is adorable too. The arcade card came in handy too. So how did the girls tea Party pics turn out? I'm betting you and your mom shopped at GF. Hopefully you went into Basin, my favorite.

I thought the same thing, Nichole!! I wanted to stay and hang out at the tea party!

Ahhh...Basin.....

Sara

 

[mom2mek]

Day 5 – February 11, 2010
Break Day
Chapter 3

Ok, so those two little disposable cameras I got for the girls were still sitting in their room, undeveloped, until I picked them up the other day to bring them somewhere. Now they are sitting in my purse, still undeveloped. Oopsie!! I have made a mental note to drop them off somewhere this week, and hopefully there will be some cute pictures on them. In the mean time, I will continue with what pictures I have.

We left the girls with the other party attendees and headed back out to the GF lobby. Sidenote...I felt very good about leaving them there - I wasn't sure how it would be - but they stayed inside the restaurant the whole time and you have to have your signed receipt (that they handwrite your child's name on) in order to pick them up when it is over. When we walked back out to the lobby of 1900 PF, we did linger around to see if we could hear anything – I thought maybe Alice and the Mad Hatter made a grand entrance right away - but we didn’t hear anything like that so after a couple of minutes we went ahead and left.

(the next few pics are courtesy of allearsnet)

Had I thought about it, now would have been the perfect opportunity for Mom and I to do the Afternoon Tea at the Garden View Lounge. We didn't have a reservation, but I thought we could try our luck and attempt to get in as walk-ups. We could have, IF we had been able to wait until 2:30, but we knew that wouldn't give us enough time to get back to pick up the girls, so we passed. We thought we would walk around to the CS location at the GF, Gasparilla Grill, and get some light lunch but on our way we saw the GF Cafe and it didn't look very busy. Woo-hoo! Well, that was only because they had their last seating at 2:00 and by the time we got over there it was about 5 minutes after 2:00. Drat. I don't think I made any reservations because I wasn't sure of how much time we would really have, but in hindsight, we would have had time for the tea if we had a 2:00 ADR. (Mom and I ended up doing it in May and had a blast).

So, back to Gasparilla Grill.

We found our way over and stared at the menu for what seemed like forever before deciding to split the Chicken Sandwich. It had like a spicy bbq sauce or something on it and it came with this really awesome slaw. We grabbed what we thought was a chocolate chip muffin for dessert, a diet coke, and used 1 CS credit off my dining plan for our shared meal. Mom also grabbed a small bottle of White Zinfandel for us to split! We found a seat back in the corner and enjoyed our meal. I wasn't entirely too thrilled with the setup of the arcade inside the place though. It got to be quite noisy in there and the place wasn't even crowded.

There were also birds in there. Ick.

I expect it when I’m sitting outside, but inside?? This isn’t Lowes, people!!

The CM said they find their way inside and then can’t figure out how to get back out even if you hold the door open for them. I felt kind of bad for them, but I really didn’t care for them flying above my food – that’s why I’m sitting INside…to avoid birds and other wildlife while I’m eating! LOL!

We very much enjoyed the sandwich and then we started in on the muffin, which unfortunately was NOT chocolate chip, but some kind of bran muffin. How did I let THAT happen? Oh well. The wine was delicious! We grabbed coffee and then went back outside and around to the main lobby to do some shopping.

First we hit the Sandy Cove Gift and Sundry Shop and browsed through the standard kitchen type items and souvenirs. Then we made our way across the lobby to Summer Lace – which had some very pretty ladies clothing and adorable “dressy” Disney stuff!

We then meandered across to the elevator and made our way upstairs and into the most heavenly of stores….BASIN!!! Ahhh….love this place! I think we whiffed every soap in there and started to gather a whole bunch of stuff when we realized we probably should get back downstairs for the girls – didn’t want to rush our purchases, but wanted to get down there early to pick them up, just in case. We would be back though!

(not my pictures)

So back downstairs we went, flashed the receipt with the girls names on it, and went to wait with the other parents for about 5 more minutes. Then, they opened the doors to this dimly lit, really quiet, totally calm room with children with their heads down, seemingly napping.

Then as we got closer, they all raised their head and yelled “surprise!” And they had flowers for all of us!! It was so cute!

You may have noticed from the position where the girls are sitting, that they changed seats after we left. They were originally sitting at the far end of the table, but they told us that after we left they moved the two boys down to that end, and moved my girls to the other end so that they could sit right next to Alice and the boys were right next to the Mad Hatter! How nice! I’m sure my shy girls preferred sitting next to the sweet and soft-spoken Alice rather than the loud, unmannerly Mad Hatter (although I’m sure they enjoyed him too – just from a distance)! I’m sure the boys had more fun sitting next to MH too!!

So, the girls were giddy with excitement from their fun tea party. They told us that they played hide and seek, follow the leader, and decorated a cupcake and had “tea” which they said was juice. They got their picture taken with the duo (the girls wanted to stick together for their picture, so now we have two of the same photo), got autographs, and decorated a “tea” cup – (ahem…mug). They really enjoyed this and were very pumped up when we left.

Here is a picture of their picture:

I really wish Emily would have taken her jacket off so that we could have seen her shirt (plus the colors would have coordinated so well).


So we went back up to Basin and finished our shopping…this time with the girls! They each got a bar of Mickey soap and I got some special soaps for my sis-in-law (romance/wedding/love soaps because she was getting married the week after we got back from this trip), as well as some for my mother-in-law who was watching our crazy puppy while we were gone! My mom broke the bank buying up a gazillion bath bombs, bath salts, soaps, etc, etc….and Emily fell in love with the Sugar Scrub that they have out for sampling!! That stuff is amazing!! A bit pricey for me, but Mom bought some and of course, Emily uses it every time we are at her house! Next time I’m getting’ some!!

We also went back to the first store for that carriage that Katie so desperately wanted. What can I say….I’m a sucker!!

Then we hit the monorail for more of our monorail shopping trip! This time we were off to the Contemporary!!

I hope to have the disposable cameras developed soon and I really hope that there are at least a few pictures worthy of posting!!!

Up next, Contemporary shopping, what the boys did, and ALOHA man (after days of freezing cold temps, we finally get warmed up!!!)

Sara

 

[*dreamit*doit*]

So glad the girls liked the Wonderland Tea Party! I felt totally comfortable leaving Miren there, too. Hope there are some cute pictures in those disposable cameras. I hear the Mad Hatter gets pretty crazy in there, so probably a good idea for your girls to have been over with Alice.