A surprise is born... *Updated with DHS

[Laura.bora]

After Kris had regained control of his stomach, we headed over to the Barnstormer – our first roller coaster of the day!! The kids LOVED this one. They rode it 4 times in a row!

After that, we caught the train and went over to Frontierland and rode the second rollercoaster of the day – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I let the kids know that under no circumstances was there allowed to be dancing on BTMRR.

Video of the kids enjoying BTMRR:


Another Video of the kids enjoying BTMRR:

 

[Laura.bora]

After 3 rides on Big Thunder, it was time for our reservation over at Tony’s. We strolled down to Main St. enjoying the sights and sounds along the way.

Before we left, we got each of the kids their own pressed penny container. It was just an M&M container that had a custom label made by one of the many talented Dis’ers. It was a BIG hit, and a fairly inexpensive souvenier.

I had heard many bad things about Tony’s. I had heard the food was mediocre at best, don’t go expecting amazing Italian food etc. So I went in with fairly low expectations, but hoping that we’d at least enjoy our lunch. We LOVED our lunch! We had Chicken Parm, Tony’s Flatbread, Panini of the day – I think my lactose kids had pasta with olive oil and basil. Now, maybe I loved it so much because I was expecting a horrible lunch, but all the kids kept raving about how much they loved their lunch. We will come back here again for sure. It wasn’t as bad as people made it out to be!

 

[Laura.bora]

And once again – I LOVE TOUR GUIDE MIKE! How else, can you consistently get crowd levels like this! This was taken around 1.

So we finished our lunch and we headed over to take a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean and who is there but Pirate Goofy!

You can see the awesome autograph clipboards that we made. We love them!

When we went to Tommorowland, the kids discovered the cooling stations.

Video of the kids enjoying the cooling stations:


It was hot out and close to two, so we called it an afternoon and headed back to the hotel to rest and swim in the pool for a while.

After a swim, shower and rest, we were feeling refreshed and ready for the rest of the night!

 

[Laura.bora]

Maybe the extremely observant noticed that Felix had a wardrobe change in the middle of the day...

You see, as we took the train from toon town to Frontierland, Felix's insides exploded. Everywhere. Down his legs, up his neck - if you have kids, you know the drill. The 1000 wiper. Ok. No big deal. I'm a super Mom. I have four kids. I come prepared for times like these. We strip him down - right there on the train - cleaning as we go, tossing wipies and dirty outfits into the plastic bag as we go. Finally Mr. Felix is cute and sweet smelling again, and we are ready to get him dressed. I ask Ken to pull out the outfit from my bag. Ken looks in the bag and says, "I don't see it." I tell him look harder, it is in there. I know it is. I packed it the night before. It's the "Little Stinker" onesie that Ephraim wore the last time we were here and he blew out his diaper. With the word "Little Stinker", Ken's eyes get big, and he asks, "Didn't you pack another outfit?" No - I already packed one back up outfit...why would I pack two. And to that, Ken replies, "I was trying to be helpful...." At this point, I am not sure exactly what he did, but I know he did it, and that Felix will be naked for at least the remainder of this train ride. Ken then explains that he saw that my bag was a little overpacked, and being the master packer that he is, he rearranged my bag for me to make things fit better. He also took out things he didn't think I would need....like the back up outfit. At that point there was nothing to do but laugh!! When we got off the train in frontier land, I ran to the shop by Splash Mountain and found something for Felix to wear - and I even found it in blue to match the rest of us!

 

[Laura.bora]

It was time to head back to the Magic Kingdom and the kids passed the time waiting for everyone to get ready by watching the wildlife outside our balcony.

Finally we all ready and at the boatdock waiting for our ride to the Magic Kingdom!

We rode a few rides and once it was closer to Wishes, we bought a few Turkey Legs to enjoy while waiting for Wishes to start. We saw these on a Food Network Special on Disney World and since then, we have all wanted to try them. Let me tell you – these things did NOT disappoint! Felix was still too small for turkey legs, but he didn’t seem to mind!

 

[Laura.bora]

Before Wishes started, Ephraim was enjoying himself…

Ephraim’s scale of terror pre-wishes: Having a great time

Tinkerbell took flight, and he was fairly amazed at it all, but you can see the smile has left his face.

And then the fireworks started…..
Ephraim’s scale of terror: terrifying

Then comes the part where the villains have overtaken Cinderella’s Castle
Ephraim’s scale of terror: slightly beyond terrifying

 

[Laura.bora]

We finished watching Wishes, wandered through the stores and streets buying time because we’d rather wait in the stores and street than on the line for a crowded boat ride!

Video:


All in all an amazing day in the Magic Kingdom!!!

 

[Laura.bora]

It was Day 3 of our vacation and we were headed to our first day in Epcot. We were planning on today being spent in only the World Showcase, so we slept in late, got up, got dressed and went outside and it was a BEAUTIFUL day! We were looking forward to a great day in Epcot.

We could have taken the bus, but as I said earlier, one of the reasons we love the Wilderness Lodge so much is that we love the boat rides in the morning. Something about it is just so refreshing and relaxing. So instead of taking the bus to Epcot, we opted to take the boat to the MK and catch the monorail to Epcot. I knew it was a “red day” at the MK according to TGM. I had never witnessed a red day – nor did I ever want to after we had done a yellow day in MK on our last trip. But I was curious to know what it looked like. Well, I had my curiosities satisfied, and I was once again, I was oh so thankful that I wasn’t going there today and that I had found Mike last trip!!!

It was noon and we were on our way to Epcot!

A quick monorail ride…

And we were in Epcot!

 

[Laura.bora]

Our first stop….Club cool!! We had taken the time to go on and on about how GREAT the Beverly was to Kris and Jade and they were eager to try it. *Insert evil laugh* And of course, once we saw everyone drinking the Beverly, we all wanted to try!

Trying to get the Beverly down

Video:


Once we were done with Beverly, we all took some of the Mozambique, hoping to wash away the taste!

Now that we were full from drinking all the sodas of the world, we were ready to start our tour of the world. We had decided ahead of time to only focus on a few countries. I knew that in order to have any sort of meaningful time in each country, we would have to choose which ones we wanted to visit, and which ones we wanted to skip. We figured we’d spend about an hour in each country, and I had each kid pick a country they wanted to pick – and of course, they had to study out the country ahead of time!! We headed over to our first stop, Norway, to try our hand at the new-to-us Kim Possible interactive game thingy…Lol – the actual name of this escapes me.

 

[Laura.bora]

This was pretty cool, but now that we’ve played it, I think next time we might split the kids into two groups, because trying to be able to hear the message with 8 people crowded around the phone is somewhat difficult.

Either way, we had a lot of fun searching for clues and making the things pop up all over Norway.

The game took longer than I thought it would and Felix was getting fussy before the game was over, so Felix and I wandered over to the eating area in Norway to nurse. Once he was done, I wandered over to the gift shop, where we had arranged to meet since it’s air conditioned! I was wandering around, admiring the stuff when I saw a sweater that I REALLY liked. I had been thinking about getting a practical souvenir for myself, and in chilly upstate New York, a sweater would be great! Well, it would be great, that is, until I noticed the price!

I know. I’m a cheapskate. But at that price I might as well fly to Norway myself and pick it up. It may be cheaper. So instead of a sweater, I walked out with my favorite Swedish candy bar, D’aim. It’s kind of like a heath bar, only better. My sister usually sends me some for my birthday every year (She lives in Sweden), so it’s wonderful to get an extra treat during the year! Not exactly practical, but it sure was delicious!

 

[Laura.bora]

Finally I met up with the rest of the Kimpossible team. They had finished their mission and were ready to move onto the ride in Norway and do their Epcot Passports. Everyone really enjoyed the Norway ride – but then again, who doesn’t!? We then went over to the Kidcot station and bugged the poor Norway lady with lots of questions about Norway and how to say this or that in Norwegian. She was very nice, but way too reserved for our crew. I don’t think she was ready for my homeschool crew to have a million questions! But she was a good sport and even let us take pictures with her!

Next up, Kris’ choice, America!

I was excited for this choice because we had never explored this land in Epcot. I was never a history fan in school, but once I became an official Charlotte Mason Styled Homeschool Mama (yes, that is my official title), I found it fascinating. We’ve been studying over the past few years American History, and while I am sure that some of this was covered while I was in school, I certainly never retained any of it. I was probably half asleep, trying not to drool into my text book.

As we came into The American Adventure, the Fife and Drum Corps was just coming out, so we hurried up to watch the show. They were AMAZING!

Video:


Ha - one of the cons to homeschooling - some of the things you did day in day out on a daily basis in public school you do not do in homeschool. It was brought to my attention on this day that I had failed to teach my kids the Pledge of Allegiance! Epic Fail for this homeschooling Mama!
Video:


video:


We then went into the food court to have lunch, because we were starving. We had some all-american food. Burgers and Chicken Nuggets with Fries. Not very adventurous, but it filled our hungry tummies.

 

[Laura.bora]

Then on we went to the American Adventure show, which shows the history of America with the use of those amazing audio-matronics like they have in Hall of Presidents. I never get tired of watching them move. Amazing. The show was great. The kids kept piping up because they recognized an event or person in history, and the whole show was just fascinating. We loved it! We then came downstairs and checked out the gift shop in order to kill some time before Voices of Liberty started.

Voices of Liberty were AMAZING. We were so glad we watched their show. Really, if you go the American Adventure Pavillion, this is a don’t miss.

Video:


After watching them, I decided that this will be a must do for our 2012 Christmas trip.

So after saying afew hundred times how much we all loved the show and were amazed by their voices, we went to the kidcot station!

Cast Member Chris was a HOOT! He had us in stitches trying to spell all the kids names, and when we finally got to Kris’ name, Chris was all like “Oh – I can spell this one!” and started to spell it like his own name, to which Kris said, “Actually, my name starts with a K.” I WISH I had grabbed a picture of Chris’ face. We were already in stitches with his jokes but that look sent us over the edge.

 

[Laura.bora]

We had taken much longer than one hour per country and it was getting pretty late, so I told Nathaniel and Ainsley that their countries were on the cutting block since they had been to Disney before and Kris and Jade never had and Jade was SO looking forward to seeing Canada. They were fine with it. They are such good kids!

We wandered around the Canadian gift shop, checking out the different Canadian stuff they had, and adding “eh?” to the end of everything we said. They also had a cute scavenger hunt in the store that the kids did. And of course, we took the mandatory totem pole picture!

I’m tall enough to ride the rides!

After that, we went over to watch the movie “O! Canada”. Well, everyone but Felix and I. When I was a kid, we watched the old “O! Canada” movie – you know the one with the song, “Canada Canada My Canada Canada” – go to 6:50 if you have no clue what I’m talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyUSgcUHTqI&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL87602017527EE761

This version of song was one of my favorites. I have fond memories of replaying that song over and over again on my cassette player in my room singing into my hairbrush in front of the mirror pretending that I knew flawless french and do not sound like a braying donkey when I sing. But alas, I get motion sickness easily, and I left that show so sick to my stomach! So I decided that I would skip O Canada this time around. So I took Felix in the stroller and went for a stroll around the countries by myself. I think it may have been one of my favorite parts on the vacation. I made my first stop to some drink shop (It was an espresso shop or something) and got myself the equivalent of a McDonald’s Mocha Frappe – Delicious! And with cool drink in hand I strolled through the park. I walked as far as France before turning around and eventually parked myself in front of Off Kilter.

Video:


They were great! I highly recommend stopping by to see them!

 

[Laura.bora]

Finally the kids and Ken were finished with the movie and we were more than ready to head home. We were thinking of staying for Illuminations since we were so close to them starting, but in the end, we decided we would skip it and beat the crowds home.

We had been in the park for about 8 hours, and we were wiped, and because of that my feet and some of the kids feet were dragging. Felix had also had it with the stroller by then and wanted to be held. So Ephraim and Ainsley went into the stroller for Ken to push and I held Felix, which just made me drag even more. My feet were done. So were Nathaniel’s, who kept wishing he were small enough to fit in the stroller still. Kris and Ken were just slightly up ahead of us when Nathaniel had to stop to tie his shoes. We stopped, he tied his shoes …. And Ken and Kris were gone. Well, I know what direction they went so no big deal. Until we get to the exit and they aren’t there. Did we somehow beat them to the exit? Maybe they turned back to find us and we missed them? By now the fireworks were just about over and people were pouring out of the exits. We waited by the exit for a little bit before a cast member came to us and said “It looks like you lost somebody.” In fact, we did! She suggested we go to Member Services because that’s where you go when you loose someone. We wait and we wait and we wait….no Ken…. One of the members asks if it’s possible that he left and went home to the Wilderness Lodge. No way, I say. He would never leave us like that. He must be here in the park somewhere. I ask if I can use the phone to call his cell to find out where she is. She says no dice, I’ll need to use the pay phone. So outside into the dark corner I go, rummaging through my purse, hopping to find enough quarters to use the payphone when a hero comes. His name was Benjamin. He was by far my favorite cast member of all time. He could tell I was frazzled and he wanted to know what was wrong. I tell him, and he says “Never fear – help is here!! I shall help you reunite with your family!!” (No joke – he actually said that, with hands on his hips and everything). So inside we went, and I used the special Mickey Mouse phone to call Ken. While I talked with Ken – who HAD left the park, but was waiting just outside the exit for us – Benjamin entertained the children, giving them all sorts of goodies and pins. Once we had located Ken, I asked Benjamin for one more favor. We must have a picture with him to remember the day he rescued us. He came up with the brilliant idea of rearranging the greenery to pose for the picture, so it would look like we were escaping the “Jungles of Epcot in which we were lost!”

We shall always be thankful to him!

We met up with Ken outside the exit – long after all the crowds had gone. So we still missed the crowds – we just didn’t beat them the way we thought we would! It didn’t take long for the kids to be out cold.

It had been a long day in Epcot!

 

[Laura.bora]

It was a long day in Epcot the night before, but we were super excited about our day in DHS so we were up, out the door and on the bus by 8:14! I wish I could bring some of this pixie dust home with me in order to help me drag my bottom out of bed in the mornings. I am not a morning person – unless I’m in Disney!

So onto the bus we go – and we are the ONLY ones on the bus!

I’m hoping the empty bus means that it will be an amazingly empty day in DHS. I know that it is a green day according to TGM, but I’ve noticed there are varying shades of green!

We got there before the park opened. See all the people? I think it’s safe to say that all but maybe 10 of them went to Toy Story Mania first. It was insane.

By the time we reached Toy Story Mania – which was right away following ropedrop – and we weren’t incredibly far back

Anyway – by the time we reached Toy Story Mania, the wait time was all ready 45 minutes!!!

And the Fast Passes were already up to 10:25 not even 15 minutes into the day! Crazy!

Our original plan was to grab FP’s and then ride – but we skipped the ride. We are TGM’ers and we do not do lines. At all. Ever. We had our Fast Pass for TSM in hand so we decided we’d go on Toy Story Mania a bit later and we went onto our next stop on our to do list – Rockin’ Rollercoaster!

Once we hit the other side of the park – the non TSM side – it was like a ghost town.

It wasn’t even 9:15, and wooo hoo! No line at Rockin’ Rollercoaster because EVERYONE is over at TSM. (On a side note – really!? TSM beats Rockin’ Rollercoaster? Or Tower of Terror? I mean, yes, very cool 3-d interactive game ride, but really? I don’t get the hype.)

So this is our very first ride on Rockin’ Rollercoaster

 

[Laura.bora]

Just wanted to wish everyone a very wonderful Thanksgiving!! I'll update more when the festivities are over!!! And don't be afraid to say hello all you lurkers!

Psalm 100
A psalm of thanksgiving.

Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!
Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him, singing with joy.
Acknowledge that the Lord is God!
He made us, and we are his.
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good.
His unfailing love continues forever,
and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

 

[kate_wdw]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too! I just discovered your TR today and I'm really enjoying it. It's very sweet that you took Kris & Jade with you on their first trip to Disney!

 

[Laura.bora]

Yuri was one of the cast members here, and she immediately became an honorary family member! She was feeling hurt because we hadn’t gotten the memo to her in time to wear orange, when we had obviously told Leo in time

so she searched high and low until she found an orange silly band. And our Christmas Photo for the year was born

Even Felix had a great time interacting with the characters

And I love the interactive dance party that goes on here….even if one doesn’t dance, it doesn’t seem to stop any of the other kids from having a great time!! Check out the video below... and no, we have no clue who the boy in blue is. He just REALLY wanted Ephraim to dance!



Yuri gave us tips on where it was best to see the parade, so we parked over by Pa (Aka Michael Landon).