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OMG! That was a late night for you guys!!!
Excuse, I need to join my party - there is cake and everything...out of my way!!! :dance3:
 
That sounds like a great night at the MK! Double rides on Pooh, Peoplemover, and Buzz, plus more! And a short wait for Dumbo! I love those late MK nights! Too bad about the rude Snow White CM, but at least there was a good CM to make up for it afterwards. Looks like the boys had a great time!

They had a great night! That short Dumbo wait was a nice surprise. We didn't really ride it all that much in this year because of the waits.

OMG! That was a late night for you guys!!!
Excuse, I need to join my party - there is cake and everything...out of my way!!! :dance3:

These parties must not be very exciting. I always look ahead, but never see any balloons or celebrating.
 
After a late night, we had no plans to get out of bed early the next morning. We recovered from our fun by sleeping as late as the boys would allow. Today only had one plan, a special lunch ADR for John. We might’ve been just a little too lazy about this day and were soon hurrying over to Epcot to be there in time.

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I found it odd that no trams were running. There usually aren’t so many people walking ahead of us!

After our walk to the front, we took in the first signs of the Flower & Garden Festival! The boys were crazy over Buzz and Woody, but I didn’t bother to take any pictures. We were short on time and it was so crowded up there! I added it to the “next time” list, but snapped a picture of the blocks when we passed.

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Despite our rushing status, I detoured over to the Land to grab a set of Soarin’ FPs. If we didn’t get them soon, I had a feeling we wouldn’t get them at all! Andrew went with me on a super fast journey down the stairs, back up the stairs, and to the waiting stroller outside. Is any other ride so difficult to get FPs for? I would completely support a central FP machine somewhere else when it comes to this one! Our return time was for just after six pm.

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Everyone rushed by Bambi’s Butterfly House without peeking in. We simply said we’d come back later and continued on our mission to World Showcase. This, or something like it, was completely skipped by us the year before, so I definitely wanted to check it out. I love the big butterfly outside!

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The boys liked the big cats, and said we’d try to make some at the beach. I wished them luck in that. :laughing:. It was tough to catch a picture with all the people crowding around here. That seems to be the theme of F&G sometimes. Everyone is trying for the same perfect pictures and it gets to be a bit of a mess.

After passing by the big kitties, we’d finally made it to WS. Hooray! No time for celebration though, we had to keep moving!

Walking into Canada, our pace slowed a bit. Something odd always happens here and it needed to be captured. Each time I’ve walked into WS this way, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is playing! If you simply went by our visits, one would really start to wonder if this is the only song played in Canada. I love Gordon Lightfoot, so it was fine with me. I decided to catch some video of Andrew while it was playing, but covered the wrong part of my camera. There’s no sound in the clip at all! :headache:

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Picking up the pace again, we spotted some more F&G fun hiding behind the endless line for fish. While adorable, I was sad that it was the same display as the year before. The boys still loved it!

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As we continued, more of the same was spotted. The dancing princesses were identical, too! I was feeling a little let down now. The Toy Story fun at the entrance had me expecting all new topiaries, but it wasn’t to be. I snapped a pic of Aurora, but skipped the others for later.

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Walking through France, I asked John for the time. He said we were just fine and would even be earlier than I’d wanted. Yay for that. We were really moving for a bit! Hearing about the extra time was perfect because waiting just ahead of us was Belle! She’d just walked across to her spot and there wasn’t a person in line at all. We hurried over to visit and collect another autograph for the boys’ books.

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She was really sweet, but I don’t recall anything they talked about. I was off in my own conversation with one of the best photopass photographers I’d ever met. She was so sweet and we had a nice conversation about the boys. We talked a bit about the parks and she shared when we should check for other characters, too. Besides Alice, I was a little clueless about WS character times, so it was appreciated. It wasn’t anything terribly noteworthy, but so nice to meet such a pleasant photopass person!

Here’s her pic!

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Back on the journey, we caught one more fun topiary in Morocco! Blake ran up and posed right away. :laughing: It was perfect!

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Finally, we made it to our destination!

Today’s new restaurant was Teppan Edo, and something John had really wanted to try. Stopping first at the bottom of the stairs, John and Andrew started talking to a couple of CMs. Andrew had learned a few phrases in Japanese and I assumed he would probably be showing them off.

Bored with this language game, Blake and I did some Pokemon window shopping instead. This stuff was nifty. The boys aren’t into that kind of thing and I know nothing about it, but the little characters are adorable. I only know the yellow one that seems to be all over everything, but I haven’t clue how to spell his name. ;) We had a nice time wandering back and forth anyway.

While we were looking around, Andrew came bouncing over to interrupt with what he’d been saying. He told the CM that she was pretty! She loved it, of course, and then gifted two little origami animals to him. This was the first he’d ever been given something like this and thought they were great.

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Being the nice brother that he is, Andy-Roo did give one to Blakers, too. They were both instant origami fans and we’ve since made many, many little paper creations!


Next Up! Lunch!
 
What a cute gift. My niece used to love doing oragami!
YAY for a new place! Can't wait to hear what the boys thought of it!
 

Every time I see Blake's pose I just smile. He is just so cute with that!

Oh, and I'm so with you on the fastpass machine at Soarin'. It is just not easy to get to and most of the time we just go in there to grab fastpasses. It feels like such effort! :lmao:
 
I completely agree about the Soarin' fastpasses! It would be better even if they just put the machines right outside The Land or something. It is always such an effort to get there!

Blake's pose was just perfect for that topiary! Adorable!

I love how fascinated the boys look in the pictures with the oragami! I remember learning to make those as a kid...its a fun activity!
 
What a cute gift. My niece used to love doing oragami!
YAY for a new place! Can't wait to hear what the boys thought of it!

That stuff frustrates me so much! I'm not the best at it and can only seem to make a decent bunny. The boys love doing it!

Every time I see Blake's pose I just smile. He is just so cute with that!

Oh, and I'm so with you on the fastpass machine at Soarin'. It is just not easy to get to and most of the time we just go in there to grab fastpasses. It feels like such effort! :lmao:

I'm betting most people probably feel the same way about getting those FPs! It's so much work! :laughing:

I completely agree about the Soarin' fastpasses! It would be better even if they just put the machines right outside The Land or something. It is always such an effort to get there!

Blake's pose was just perfect for that topiary! Adorable!

I love how fascinated the boys look in the pictures with the oragami! I remember learning to make those as a kid...its a fun activity!

I only wonder if more people would load up on them if they were easier to get. I know I might try to get a second set if we didn't have to go all the way down there for it. :confused3

I think Andrew was making the wings move on his in that pic. It was fascinating to him that day! They were really interested in it for a long while after. :thumbsup2
 
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Lunch was a hit with the boys even before we were seated. After announcing that our party of four had arrived, Andrew was given the coolest “waiting thing” ever! (Andy-Roo's words!) Both of the boys loved the blue light and had fun playing until it was time to sit down.

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We were taken in quickly and shown to our seats. We were dining with two couples, one older and one younger. It looked like a nice group, but I did see them all studying the boys for a minute. I doubt anyone gets terribly excited to see two little boys sitting down with them. :laughing:

Drinks and things were taken and soon the show began. Our chef was a very tall man that said he was from Pensacola, Japan. Everyone had a laugh out of that, but never really spoke during the meal. It was a bit uncomfortable. He was entertaining and the boys loved when he made a Mickey Mouse.

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For the meal, John went with some sort of steak and chicken combination, the boys had chicken, and I picked scallops. Blakers was wild over one of the sauces and had to have it on just about every bite. I don’t remember which, but it was the one he’d been told he probably wouldn’t care for. (Maybe the one in the middle?) I had a feeling Blake insisted on liking it simply due to that comment!

It was all really good and a lot more food than any one person needed on their plate. I found that interesting as the reviews I’d read said it wasn’t much food and the place was really loud. I didn’t experience either of those issues. :thumbsup2

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The best part of the meal was those chopsticks. Andrew quickly gave up on them, and I didn’t even bother trying. I already knew I’m not coordinated enough to eat with sticks. Blake, however, thinks himself a man and was going to do this. He managed his entire meal with the cheater sticks and was so proud after. He’s too cute.

The boys were great and impressed the older couple to John’s right. They even admitted to being nervous about it at the start and told a couple annoying kid stories from their vacation so far. I was super glad they left the meal in such great moods and mine weren’t a part of that complaint the next time it was told! I knew they looked concerned when we sat down. :laughing: Those looks had me nervous the entire time.

With such a big meal, we skipped trying anything for dessert. Everyone enjoyed Teppan Edo and we hoped to make it back here again soon. Unfortunately, I never did plan for it before the APs expired. :(

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After our lunch, we headed out for a nice walk around WS. Along the way, we ran into another new-to-us experience. Sergio, the juggler, was out doing his show in Italy! I knew the boys would love this one, so we paused to watch the rest.

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It was really fun and I’m glad our timing was right. I loved when he kept motioning for a little girl to move farther and farther away to catch. She didn’t trust him one bit! The look on her little face was priceless by the end of it.

Unfortunately, Blake wasn’t quite as amused by it all. He said he didn’t like this and wanted to move away. I found a bench nearby to sit with him while John and Andrew finished watching. When they returned after, he insisted that he did like and I was crazy. :confused: He’s nuts! I had a feeling we wouldn’t last too much longer before he needed a break, despite that late sleep this morning. We'd slowly make our way back to the front of the park for an easier escape. ;)

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These two would cause us some trouble during Pixar Weekend! ;)

Back to our WS walk, we spent a little more time checking out those dancing princesses now.

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Somebody forgot a space in there. It was never replaced with a corrected sign though!

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We eventually saw the lines waiting for Alice and Mary Poppins. Well, we guessed that was it anyway. They were running the wrong direction. John wanted to wait in the spot we knew was correct, but I didn’t see the waiting line supporting this idea. ;) We simply joined the crowd until a CM showed up and moved us to the other side.

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Alice was late this day, so we had a bit of a wait. Andrew and I read the signs for the tea cups and picked our favorites. We both agreed that these should be out all year long. They’re so cute!

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It’s our turn!

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Andrew was so excited to see his girl, but spent the entire chat talking about Wii! It was funny how she tried to direct him to something about the parks and he just kept going. Alice doesn’t seem to be a Wii fan. It was silly and I still have no idea why he was so Wii focused in that moment. I loved their pose at the end.

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More soon!
 
Oh, boo to people that get nervous when kids show up! We had a situation with that one time on a plane with Joaquin. When Jason and I got on the plane, everyone around us started looking paranoid.

I'm glad that lunch was a hit. I never heard before that people thought that the serving sizes at Teppan Edo were small. I've never thought that before. If anything, they're just the right size.

Yay to Blake for using his chopsticks the whole time! What an accomplishment. ;)
 
I love that Andrew told the Japanese CM that she was pretty...such a little charmer! :rotfl:

Cool to see the Flower & Garden decorations. That's one special event we didn't manage to see in our Year of Disney.

Yum, Teppan Edo. I'm impressed that Blake managed to eat with the chopsticks. I can't handle that; I need a fork. Glad the boys proved the worried tablemates wrong...they do seem like such well-behaved boys compared to many (especially at WDW).

I've never seen that juggler in Italy. Didn't even realize he existed, actually. Cool.
 
Ben really wants to try Teppan Edo...you may have just convinced me to go for it! Good for Blake with the chopsticks! I always try but give up after a few bites!!!

That picture of Alice and the boys doing the Mickey pose is great!!!
 
Oh, boo to people that get nervous when kids show up! We had a situation with that one time on a plane with Joaquin. When Jason and I got on the plane, everyone around us started looking paranoid.

I'm glad that lunch was a hit. I never heard before that people thought that the serving sizes at Teppan Edo were small. I've never thought that before. If anything, they're just the right size.

Yay to Blake for using his chopsticks the whole time! What an accomplishment. ;)

I was one of those people before we had kids, so I'm not judging too much. It just makes me super nervous that one of them will cause trouble!

I forget where I read the portion size reviews. :confused3 I was never sure if we needed to order for Blake or just share back then, so it was on my mind. We did order for him here, but would've been just fine sharing off everyone else's plate. There was a lot left!


I love that Andrew told the Japanese CM that she was pretty...such a little charmer! :rotfl:

Cool to see the Flower & Garden decorations. That's one special event we didn't manage to see in our Year of Disney.

Yum, Teppan Edo. I'm impressed that Blake managed to eat with the chopsticks. I can't handle that; I need a fork. Glad the boys proved the worried tablemates wrong...they do seem like such well-behaved boys compared to many (especially at WDW).

I've never seen that juggler in Italy. Didn't even realize he existed, actually. Cool.

I found it interesting that this is one of the few things my husband knows in Japanese actually! She did really love hearing it from Andrew, I guess. They were crazy over the origami. :)

Blake was super proud of the chopsticks. I think John used them so I'm guessing that is probably why Blake insisted. I gave him his little fork, but it was never touched.

The juggler is pretty neat. That pic is missing one of the balls that was higher up. I wish I could do that! :goodvibes


Ben really wants to try Teppan Edo...you may have just convinced me to go for it! Good for Blake with the chopsticks! I always try but give up after a few bites!!!

That picture of Alice and the boys doing the Mickey pose is great!!!

Check it out! I wasn't sure about it, but it was such a nice experience. Good luck with the chopsticks!

It was so cute that Alice copied their pose. They both jumped right into it when I asked for a group pic, so she smiled and followed along. It was adorable. :thumbsup2
 
Since it was just around the corner, we decided to spend a little more time in the UK and pop in to see a couple of our favorite friends. I was hoping that we still might stumble into seeing Pooh’s Rabbit in one of the parks. Inside the store, I soon saw I’d be holding onto that hope for a little longer. Only Pooh and Tigger were here this day. We got in line to see them anyway.

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Blake looks so thrilled by this, huh? :laughing: I don't think he liked brother's thumbs up idea.

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Back to on our journey closer to the front of the park, music was filling the air as we neared Canada. This time, it wasn’t Gordon Lightfoot! We were in for another new-to-us experience and got to see Off Kilter for the first time!

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While they were really good and quite entertaining, someone else totally stole the show! A little squirrel scurried onto the stage and had everyone’s attention. Even the band couldn’t help themselves from laughing and watching him! (We all agreed that Squirrel must be a boy, although no one ever confirmed this ;) )

Squirrel seemed to be a huge fan. He found a nice spot and stretched out to listen to the show! It was so cute!

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How cute is that? The little thing stayed in this spot until the song ended. Then he ran across the stage and disappeared. We loved it!

The next song was really upbeat and the band invited everyone to dance. No one really got into this idea except one woman up front. She moved as close as she could to the stage and began to go wild. Facing the band, then back to show off for her man, she was quite a sight. I soon decided she wasn’t the type of show I was interested in. The boys were bored anyway, so we got back to our trip towards the exit.

We paused for a bit to check out some F&G merchandise a little farther away. We had recently had a scary incident involving a duck and my wind chime at home. We were having a quiet evening when just outside was suddenly full of noise. I really worried someone was trying to get in, but it was only a confused duck. Something really had it scared and the silly thing tried to fly through my chimes! The duck was fine, but my wind chimes didn’t exactly make it. :( I absolutely loved finding this..

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It wasn’t quite as impressive as what I had before, but it was Mickey! And he was a gnome! You can’t pass something like this up.

We saw a few other items that I knew I couldn’t live without, but I did exercise control and not purchase it all. I absolutely loved this pig. How cute!

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Nearly out of WS, we ran into some new topiaries that we’d not noticed earlier. We rarely walked into WS on this path.

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Guarding the water? She was so serious about it! Hahaha..

We saw Lightning McQueen, but the boys weren’t interested in a picture. A short walk more, I spotted the Winnie the Pooh topiaries! It was instant love and I wanted pictures of everything. Forget the pics really. I needed one of these Tiggers! It was all so cute!

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^not fans of the sun^

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We loved Rabbit's garden! Blake even tried to reach the carrot in his hand. He didn't believe that it wasn't real and needed to be sure.

Another plant was my favorite. Years and years ago, I was in a garden shop with my father when I first spotted purple kale. I thought it was beautiful and insisted on getting one to grow as decoration. I can’t eat it, but I love looking at the stuff. As I took this picture, I was inspired and “The Purple Kale Project” was born. Starting this day, I vowed to take a picture of these plants throughout the F&G festival. I knew we’d be back a few times and thought it would be neat to see how they change, or if Disney simply replaced them!

Here’s pic one!

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It was about then that things got rough for this family. Like someone flipped a switch, Andrew was suddenly the whiniest kid at WDW. He didn’t care about anything, didn’t want to do anything, and was definitely ready for a nap! It had been Blake inspired, but now our plan to get to the front of the park was paying off. It was time to go!

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I caught a few more topiary pics as we left..

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While we walked, John and I did our best to scan the crowd for parties of three that might look like Soarin’ fans. I knew we wouldn’t make it back over here tonight to use them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t turning up much. I hesitate to give our FPs to a group that would have someone sitting out, and most passing us had too-short kids anyway.

I gave up when we saw a CM standing alone. She looked completely bored so I thought this might make guest watching a little more fun. It was so funny when I handed her the FPs and asked if she could find them a good home. She was excited to be able to give some pixie dust to someone! She thanked us so many times and I could see her looking around already. I think she had fun!

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Coming soon.. More CBR fun and our silly off-property adventure..
 
I just started your report..you cracked me up talking about looking behind the shower curtain and not seeing a mangled body...too funny...whenever I use the bathroom at someone's house I always look behind the curtain to make sure no one is hiding. great report so far :)
 
sorry to hear about your meal...you'd think everyone who works there would act happy...since it's the happiest place on earth.... we dined at one of the restaurants there and my daughter was served raw chicken...thankfully we had a waitress who was very apologetic and she brought us a free fast pass for the family to use anywhere we wanted...
 
I love how you tell the story through your boys words...you never know what they will say....very sweet
 
I may have said this in the past, but I am SO with you on finding Rabbit! He is at the top of my list!

I love those Pooh topiaries...they look like the perfect lawn decorations to me!!!

Andrew must have been really tired, we rarely hear of him being cranky!!
 
Love the squirrel fan of Off Kilter! :rotfl: Maybe Disney is trying out a new, tiny audio-animatronic?

The Pooh topiaries are very cute! And the others too.

Glad you could make someone's day with your Fast Passes (the CM and the recipients).
 
Hey! I just caught up on your TR again.....not like I have a reason for not reading lately. I've just been busy with this new little boy that decided he wanted to live at our house! ;)

I am glad you all enjoyed eating at Teppan Edo. I remember you asking me about it and me telling you that we all liked it both times we ate there. I am always hesitant to tell anyone to try restaurants that we like because I am afraid they won't like it as much as we do! The girls were obsessed with the origami swans they got there the last time we went. It kept them entertained the whole time we were there!

I love all of your Flower & Garden topiary pictures! Quentin just saw them while I was reading and he thought they were cool too. Maybe that will convince him we need to make a trip during that one year (hopefully soon). I think the girls (and the little guy once he gets bigger) would enjoy looking at all the of the characters!

How funny about the squirrel! We have a ton of squirrels out here...like millions of them living in housing here, so we arent quite so fond of them! At any given time, driving down the main road by our house you can look out the window and see over a hundred of them in the field!

I absolutely LOVE your new wind chime!!! The girls are loving gnomes right now....ever since they saw Gnomeo & Juliet in the theater. Aryanna actually wants to be Juliet from that movie for halloween this year and McKenna wants to be the flamingo from it.
 
I just started your report..you cracked me up talking about looking behind the shower curtain and not seeing a mangled body...too funny...whenever I use the bathroom at someone's house I always look behind the curtain to make sure no one is hiding. great report so far :)

Welcome to the TR! Closed shower curtains are just scary, huh? :rotfl: We were lucky that time!

sorry to hear about your meal...you'd think everyone who works there would act happy...since it's the happiest place on earth.... we dined at one of the restaurants there and my daughter was served raw chicken...thankfully we had a waitress who was very apologetic and she brought us a free fast pass for the family to use anywhere we wanted...

That is really scary! I'm super glad she didn't get sick and it was handled well for you. You'd kinda expect everyone at WDW to be wonderful and happy all the time, but they are just people, too! If you're speaking of our Plaza adventure.. Well, that was a bit much though. (I think I decided to edit out the worst of it.) :sad2:

I may have said this in the past, but I am SO with you on finding Rabbit! He is at the top of my list!

I love those Pooh topiaries...they look like the perfect lawn decorations to me!!!

Andrew must have been really tired, we rarely hear of him being cranky!!

I hope one of us finds Rabbit someday! He is definitely a favorite and it's too sad that he's not out anywhere. I'd even pose for a pic with that one! :rotfl:

Love the squirrel fan of Off Kilter! :rotfl: Maybe Disney is trying out a new, tiny audio-animatronic?

The Pooh topiaries are very cute! And the others too.

Glad you could make someone's day with your Fast Passes (the CM and the recipients).

The squirrel was my favorite part! :laughing:

The CM seemed so excited to give those away. She'd looked soo bored before. I was guessing she'd have better luck handing them to someone and not getting a crazy look in return, too. ;)


Hey! I just caught up on your TR again.....not like I have a reason for not reading lately. I've just been busy with this new little boy that decided he wanted to live at our house! ;)

I am glad you all enjoyed eating at Teppan Edo. I remember you asking me about it and me telling you that we all liked it both times we ate there. I am always hesitant to tell anyone to try restaurants that we like because I am afraid they won't like it as much as we do! The girls were obsessed with the origami swans they got there the last time we went. It kept them entertained the whole time we were there!

I love all of your Flower & Garden topiary pictures! Quentin just saw them while I was reading and he thought they were cool too. Maybe that will convince him we need to make a trip during that one year (hopefully soon). I think the girls (and the little guy once he gets bigger) would enjoy looking at all the of the characters!

How funny about the squirrel! We have a ton of squirrels out here...like millions of them living in housing here, so we arent quite so fond of them! At any given time, driving down the main road by our house you can look out the window and see over a hundred of them in the field!

I absolutely LOVE your new wind chime!!! The girls are loving gnomes right now....ever since they saw Gnomeo & Juliet in the theater. Aryanna actually wants to be Juliet from that movie for halloween this year and McKenna wants to be the flamingo from it.

Hey stranger! We need to catch up soon! I can imagine life is pretty busy for you all right now. ;) It's been nuts here just dealing with Andrew and school stuff. I feel like I haven't had a break in weeks!

I hope you can talk Quentin into a WDW trip soon. I want to meet Jaxton! ;) Epcot was adorable during the F&G Festival, but your usual time is so perfect, too. I wanted to go to MK sooo bad today! I'm currently trying to convince John (and myself!) into doing an overnight visit for next weekend since Andrew has an extra day off. :rolleyes1

LOVE the halloween costume idea, btw. That movie was so cute! I definitely wanna see pics if you go with it. We're still clueless here. :confused3
 













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