Bibbidi-Bobbidi-BOO and a few Disney Dresses too!~ A Sept ’13 TR

[mousehappync]

Coming out of lurk-dom to say how precious your family is and how much I'm enjoying following your trips (and outfits! Coming from a Southerner who has never met a themed outfit she doesn't like, I have to say you KILLED it on the dresses!) Can't wait to hear what happens next!

 

[strmtroopr96]

I had other Nemo sets planned for that night and then pretty last minute, I completely changed my mind and I had those dresses made.... and I'm so glad that I did. I really love how they turned out. They are so simple but they were perfect. What size does Avery wear? -I have bunch of stuff but I'm thinking that she's older than my girls, right?

Thank you. I had that Squirt clay made for one of the girls but when it arrived it was HUGE!! So then I just decided to make it into a necklace for myself.

I will definitely post a pic of my Serendipi~D bag. I use it the next night, so you'll get to see it in the next update or two. I got lucky one day ...I was on Facebook and saw that she was opening up her customs list and just happened to get a spot... I couldn't believe it. Only thing was, it was for delivery in September so I wasn't sure if I would get it before our trip. Luckily she was able to finish it and ship to the resort just in time.

Avery is 7 but she is my tall and skinny child. If she didn't have to worry about the length, she can still fit into some 3t/4t shorts because of her little waist. LOL But she also has long legs so then some things need to be bigger as far as length but then they fall off her waist. So really she wears a range of sizes. Safety pins are our friend when skirts are too big in the waist and don't want to stay up although I may have poked her with a pin once or twice by accident so now I have to be quick and try not to let her know I am using one.

If only I had such problems! LOL

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Coming out of lurk-dom to say how precious your family is and how much I'm enjoying following your trips (and outfits! Coming from a Southerner who has never met a themed outfit she doesn't like, I have to say you KILLED it on the dresses!) Can't wait to hear what happens next!

Aww, yaaaaay!!! Your post made me so happy! LOVED it, thank you!!

And from one lurker to another....

Avery is 7 but she is my tall and skinny child. If she didn't have to worry about the length, she can still fit into some 3t/4t shorts because of her little waist. LOL But she also has long legs so then some things need to be bigger as far as length but then they fall off her waist. So really she wears a range of sizes. Safety pins are our friend when skirts are too big in the waist and don't want to stay up although I may have poked her with a pin once or twice by accident so now I have to be quick and try not to let her know I am using one.

If only I had such problems! LOL

Safety pins are our friends too, lol They were used quite a lot on our trip.

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Real Life Update

Happy 2014!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday!! We sure did! It's been a great week here. Joe took off work the whole week between Christmas and New Years, and I had the weekend off from work too, so it's been so nice getting to spend some time as a family.

And it's been quite a DISNEY week! Last Friday we finally were able to get to the movies to see FROZEN. Oh. My. Goodness!!!! It was SO fantastic!! For those of you who haven't seen it yet, you HAVE to go see it!! Really, I mean it, GO see it!!! I think it tops my list of favorite Disney movies. It was that good!

And let's see... Donovan got the Disney Infinity game from Santa, so we've been having a ton of fun playing that and all of the Disney figures and play sets that go along with it.

And then on Sunday we went to see Disney on Ice. Yay! Told ya we had a great week!!

Before I start on Day #4 of our trip, I want to share some pics of Disney on Ice "Let's Celebrate" where Mickey & Minnie celebrate their favorite days of the year!

That day it was pouring and we were stuck in traffic on the way to Philadelphia. So we ended up missing the beginning of the show. I believe it was the birthday (or maybe Un-birthday?) celebration with Alice & the Mad Hatter. Which stinks because that day was Joe's Birthday!
But it was fine, I don't think the kids even realized that we missed any of the show. We walked in during the start of the Halloween part... so that grabbed their attention right away!















































Continued...

 

[TruLovesKiss]

I always love taking the kids to see Disney on Ice... I think I enjoy the show as much as them! And then after the show since we were in Philly we had to stop for some Philly Cheesesteaks, yum!! What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Much better than the 12 hour shift at the hospital that I normally would be working!

Back to our regularly scheduled Trip Report....

 

[littlenellbell]

Great pictures from Disney on Ice! We are going next weekend, your pictures got me excited!!!! Carson also got Disney Infinity. So much fun. Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Happy New Year to you Rachel!

Goodness, I think I need to see Disney on Ice. Hopefully it will make it's way here sometime. You know, I haven't really been paying attention... maybe it IS!! Thank you for sharing those photos.

 

[khertz]

UGH, getting stuck in big city traffic is the worst. A few weeks ago we were heading to New Orleans to go see the Christmas lights at City Park and a drive that would have taken us 2 hours in no traffic turned into a 4 hour and 15 minute drive! Bummer you missed the very beginning of the show, but at least you were able to salvage the experience and still see the rest!

It looks like a very fun show. Paxton would LOVE that one! I am really wishing it was coming here now. We just went to see the Disney Jr. stage show with Jake & Sofia that he loved, but we didn't have as good of an experience with our first Disney on Ice show last year. I don't remember which one it was but he only enjoyed the Cars and Little Mermaid scenes at the beginning. His interested waned during Tinkerbell, and then the entire second half of the show was Toy Story 3 which I thought he'd love, but even I started to find it a bit boring. We just bought tickets for Princesses & Heroes in March, so hopefully that one is better.


Hope you & your family had a wonderful Christmas & a Happy New Year!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[PrncessA]

Signing up! I love the photo of Bronwyn dancing at Soarin' we have an almost identical photo of DD doing that when she was 2.

 

[katt789]

Awwwe man do I ever miss Disney on Ice! When I was little they did reenactments of the movies, I know we saw Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and one other one, and then they stopped coming to Western Canada! Boo!

Looks like a fun night you guys had though, I really like the princess dresses in figure skating form! Also props to the performers of the fur characters, I can't imagine that'd be easy!

 

[familyabgar]

Fun! We are going to the Heroes and Villains show this month!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Great pictures from Disney on Ice! We are going next weekend, your pictures got me excited!!!! Carson also got Disney Infinity. So much fun. Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday

Oh good, have fun!! Are you seeing "Let's Celebrate" or one of the other shows?

Happy New Year to you Rachel!

Goodness, I think I need to see Disney on Ice. Hopefully it will make it's way here sometime. You know, I haven't really been paying attention... maybe it IS!! Thank you for sharing those photos.

I remember seeing Canada as a option on the Disney on Ice website, so maybe it is near you! You'll have to check it out. It's definitely a nice little "dose" of Disney when you can't get to the parks

UGH, getting stuck in big city traffic is the worst. A few weeks ago we were heading to New Orleans to go see the Christmas lights at City Park and a drive that would have taken us 2 hours in no traffic turned into a 4 hour and 15 minute drive! Bummer you missed the very beginning of the show, but at least you were able to salvage the experience and still see the rest!

It looks like a very fun show. Paxton would LOVE that one! I am really wishing it was coming here now. We just went to see the Disney Jr. stage show with Jake & Sofia that he loved, but we didn't have as good of an experience with our first Disney on Ice show last year. I don't remember which one it was but he only enjoyed the Cars and Little Mermaid scenes at the beginning. His interested waned during Tinkerbell, and then the entire second half of the show was Toy Story 3 which I thought he'd love, but even I started to find it a bit boring. We just bought tickets for Princesses & Heroes in March, so hopefully that one is better.


Hope you & your family had a wonderful Christmas & a Happy New Year!

We've never been to any of the Disney Jr. shows, I'll have to see if that one is coming near us. My girls are big on Sofia right now and I'm sure they would love it. I remember the first couple of Disney on Ice shows that I took Donovan to, mainly the ones that were basically just retelling the movie, seemed to get very boring by the second half. The last two or three that we've seen have been MUCH better though! I hope that you enjoy the Princesses & Heroes show in March. I don't think we've seen that one.

Oh and congrats on the Saints win! I had one very sad hubby here last Sat night.

Great pics!

Thank you!

Signing up! I love the photo of Bronwyn dancing at Soarin' we have an almost identical photo of DD doing that when she was 2.

Glad you're here!

lol, aww that's too funny. I guess when you're two, you figure since you can't go on Soarin', why not do some dancing, right?

Awwwe man do I ever miss Disney on Ice! When I was little they did reenactments of the movies, I know we saw Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and one other one, and then they stopped coming to Western Canada! Boo!

Looks like a fun night you guys had though, I really like the princess dresses in figure skating form! Also props to the performers of the fur characters, I can't imagine that'd be easy!

I know, I remember going to Disney on Ice when I was little too! Aww man, that stinks that they don't come up to Western Canada anymore!!

I love looking at the costumes too, especially the sparkly princess dresses!
I can't ice skate at all, so to me it's REALLY impressive that they can stay upright in those big furry costumes and heads while wearing ice skates!!

Fun! We are going to the Heroes and Villains show this month!

Oooh, that sounds like a good one to see! Have fun!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Hope everyone is staying warm! It's been bitter cold here, single digits is just WRONG, and definitely not what we are used to here in Pennsylvania!! On the plus side, Joe has been home (since he works outside and it's been way too cold for his equipment to work) so we've been working on transforming our old guest room/nursery into a brand new "Little Mermaid" inspired room for Bronwyn. Yay! I'll post some pics when it's all finished.

Saturday, September 28th
Day #4

This morning we had another pre-park-opening ADR, so we were all up bright and early. We headed to the Poly bus stop, which is actually REALLY close to Tokelau, only a couple minute walk which is so handy!


Can you guess where we were going?

We did not wait long and before we knew it, we were on our bus heading to ANIMAL KINGDOM, yay!!! We are a family of animal & nature lovers, so we couldn't wait to get there!





Looking back in my phone, I found a text that I had sent my mom at 7:32 saying we were on our way. Whoo hoo for being on time!!





We found my mom and Isla, who had spent the night with my mom at AoA, right inside the gate. Isla had picked a cute baby Minnie Mouse plush as her souvenir from my mom.



While we waited for Joe's parents, Bronwyn found a fun little puddle to splash in. Of course, right?


After a few minutes, Joe's parents arrived and we took off inside. And I instantly fell in love with Animal Kingdom. The lushness of it was so calming. It seemed like such a nice change of pace from the other parks.

Since we still had a few minutes before our 8:05 reservation, we stopped for a few PP pics in front of the Tree of Life.




Before our trip, I had seen a picture of a whole family with coordinating Safari tees and I fell in love with the idea. So I had asked my mom and Joe's parents to each pick up a brown shirt for this day. Well....I got a ton a grief from them about us all "matching" so I didn't push it for any of our other days. I know, I know... it's pretty corny. But I'm so glad that I got them to agree, I just love how all of these pics turned out!

No one was around, so I asked the photographer if she could do a magic shot. She was happy to do a few for us. It took a few minutes for her to switch the settings around on her camera. (She had had her camera set up on a tripod. I read after our trip that photographers with cameras on tripods could not do magic shots. Whoops! Had I known that, I wouldn't have asked and put her through the trouble of changing everything.)


Stitch!!

Isla was having no parts of it. FYI: Isla is NOT a morning person, she would easily sleep in until after 9:00 if she could. So this was pretty early for her.... and she was having an "I'd rather be sleeping" morning and was NOT joining in on any pics that she did not have too.

After our private photo shoot (really, there was no one around!! it was awesome!) we then made our way over to Africa.










we were heading to...


Tusker House!

We checked in for our ADR right on time. We had a few minute wait and then they had us line up for a few pics with Donald.





This part felt rushed and there was little interaction from Donald. He basically stood for the picture and then signed our autograph books.

Then it was time for breakfast! Once seated, we could see that we had some time before the characters made it over to our table ...so we decided to check out the buffet and load up our plates.

There was a great selection of pastries, plus all of your normal breakfast foods: fruits, cereals, eggs, potatoes, meats, French toast, etc. Definitely something for everyone. No one left hungry... well except maybe me, since I seem to have a hard time actually sitting down and eating at buffets.


Oh my, LOVED that juice! Even Jorie just commented on it when she was looking back at these pics.... "oooh Mommy, that juice was soooo good!" ..."and why does Isla look so grumpy?" haha


continued

 

[TruLovesKiss]

First up to our table… the big cheese himself!



Isla’s mood quickly changed after a hug from Mickey.



Bronwyn had been in a highchair down at the other end of the table. Well she was having a fit when no one was getting her out and over to Mickey fast enough! Nana to the rescue!

Next up… the lovely Daisy.

You can see behind her that there is quite a bit of space in this restaurant… major bonus points in my book!

There is actually a whole separate room dedicated to the buffet area and it is HUGE!






Goofy!



He was called away to start the parade before I could snap a good picture… urg, I was a little annoyed at that.

Jorie decided to join the other kids and play some music while they walked around the restaurant. Cute!


Overall, “Donald’s Safari Breakfast” was a great start to our day. Great themed décor, good service & character interaction (well except for Donald) and some yummy food. And we loved having the early ADR time. We were leaving the restaurant, just before the park was even open! So basically we had a head start to wherever we wanted to go!

NEXT

 

[TruLovesKiss]

So where were we headed?

On Safari, On Safari, On SA- FAR- EE!!



My kids love the Disney parks SingAlong Songs dvds and they watch them all the time! Well that “On Safari” song from Flik’s Musical Adventure in Animal Kingdom always gets in my head!

“Send a smile to a crocodile,
Wink at a giraffe
Sing a tune to a big baboon and
See if he or she will laugh.”

Anyway we (our family and my mom) had a 9-10am FP+ set up for Kilimanjaro Safari ...buuuuut ....Wilderness Lodge was not yet participating in the Magic Band testing, which meant that Joe’s parents did not have any FP+. So we ended up all getting into the standby line which was fine since there was NO wait! Yay!



It’s nice that they allow strollers in line. Close to the end, a CM will take it and park it off to the side for you. Finding it after the ride can be a challenge though!



We all boarded the Safari vehicle. So cool!









Back in July, Joe had surprised me with a new telephoto zoom lens for my birthday. So I was really excited to get a chance to use it!

Warning: VERY pic heavy!!




























continued

 

[TruLovesKiss]

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SO awesome!!! Definitely lived up to all of the hype! -But wow, that was a bumpy ride. I can’t believe that any of those pics turned out clear, haha!

Now, I may have mentioned after the ride that some of those animals were animatronics. (I was only partly serious because I thought that I had read it somewhere but wasn’t quite sure.) Well I got quite the reaction from my mom and mother-in-law…. So then it was an on-going joke during the trip. Thoughts? Opinions? Are all of those animals on the safari real?

Our Must-Do’s for the day were the
1. Safari (check!)
2. The Festival of the Lion King
3. Finding Nemo the musical.



Continued...

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

OOOH I can't wait to see the photos of the Ariel room when you're done.

Hehe, kids do like puddles.

I'm one who loves the matching attire idea. I don't find it corny at all. I love that the kids even have themed shorts. Super cute.

Haha, yeah Isla does not look happy in those eearly morning photos. Oops looks like Mickey changed that in a hurry. He is magic!

Nice Safari. And you are kinda right. There used to be an Animatronic Elephant (back when they had an actual story line), but that's gone now.

 

[JessM]

The matching shirts are super cute!

It's hard to believe but yes all the animals on the safari are real! Great pictures!

 

[wiigirl]

Great update! Love the pics!