That chapter just kind of dumped you in the middle of lots of things going on. Sadly, I don't really have a lot of pictures of this hour of our Epcot time.
I have no idea what Suzy & Milo were doing so I'll just leave that blank.
Donald and Boo were in Italy and had run into a little musical troop. Boo got invited to do circle dances with some other children and Donald said it was just absolutely wonderful.
I was checking out Germany while loosely following Mulan and Ariel around on their mission.
Donald texted and asked where we were. He came on over and we did the Germany Kidcot together. They had a Lightening McQueen thing that we got for Boo. Her big sisters were also very generous and let her help them stick their Passport stickers:
Mulan messed around with the costumes:
Because Mulan and I were a little bored while coloring was happening and the like, I found myself in the caramel shop. How on earth did THAT happen? Despite Suzy going ON and ON about the caramel corn, I followed the advice of a TR'er on here to avoid the delicious looking cupcakes and instead buy an ugly caramel brownie.
We took our brownie and bottle of water and sat down in the square there in Germany and Ariel, Mulan, and I shared it all. It was good. But, and you should just know this because it comes up often in my vacations, I'm a baker. And I'm good. So baked goods have to be REALLY special for me to like them.
Sadly, I make a better caramel topped brownie. I know, I know, WHY on EARTH would I listen to a Disboarder instead of my very reliable sister? That is the question. It remains unanswered.
In that picture was HGTV F&G show scavenger hunt. I got all excited but we never did it.
I include the following picture to accompany a story, though the man in the story is not in this photo.
So I'm here in this area next to America walking about. Donald says, "Let's do the American Kidcot." This caused me to stop dead. As I was going to change direction.
Here is a big tip. No matter what happens, do NOT stop on a dime while walking at WDW. Because people, and there are a lot of people at WDW, are walking behind you. And they may or may not be paying attention.
So I stop and immediately upon stopping a fun loving group of adults who were walking behind me did NOT stop. This caused the guy directly behind me to bonk his completely full glass of German beer on my back. I got not a SINGLE drop of beer on myself. He had VERY quick reflexes and spilled barely an ounce. However, the ounce he DID spill went ALL over him.
Sigh. I felt TERRIBLE! He was really nice about it. But stay tuned. He comes up again.
Once I got this all sorted out and helped him mop up his shirt, I followed my family into America. Normally, we don't spend much time at the American pavilion. But this time we did find something to entertain ourselves:
This little American garden was transformed into something magical! The theme was something about recycling. Now, I live in Appalachia. I know EXACTLY what discarded tires, beds, and other trash looks like when thrown into yards. And you can barely walk a block in these parts and not see a barrel or old tire with petunias planted in it. Yet never have I had a desire to put an old tire in my yard and plant things in it. Because, no matter what you do it, it still looks like an old tire.
But, I was mesmerized by this garden. I walked around and around and around. They had an old tire pyramid with corn and other vegetables planted in it. And seriously, I almost had Donald talked into getting me 10 old tires and planting vegetables in them. Thank goodness I came to my senses. It for SURE would have looked like a bunch of discarded tires with same sad, straggling corn planted near it.
But check out this old iron bed:
After me drooling of prettified trash, we started to head over to Japan to kill some time before dinner. Donald had a picture he had taken years ago of our girls framed in the Japanese arch, back to back, looking angry. I think that time around they may have actually been mad. This time they were not at all mad. You can tell.
But Donald had to take this picture REALLY quickly as Boo, who wasn't around the first time, could NOT understand why she was not wanted in this photos. How dare Donald not want a picture of her, she is the queen, after all.
After some stress over getting this photo, we headed in to the Japanese Kidcot. We had broken from Suzy's clan as they were heading over the Morocco for their dinner.
Before we left the area I tried to get pictures of the bonsai trees because I don't actually have any pictures of these, despite admiring them greatly:
This was a nice Kidcot. Some Kidcot people are better with kids than others. And this girl was very personable.
We then followed the sound of the drums. I tried to get a picture of these women where their arms were above their head which they do frequently. Donald and I were both impressed with the size of their arm muscles! I've never drummed big giant drums but evidently it is an excellent upper body work out because Donald, who has fairly big biceps and pumps iron, was impressed.
But I never could capture the moment. So ya'll get what ya get:
Donald had a great idea for a photo and was lining the girls up on these steps and a very nice lady offered to take the photos of all of us. She was so thorough she was like a professional photographer, telling jokes to get us to laugh, trying to get Boo to smile, and taking multiple photos. LOVE this lady!
We then ran down the stairs and put our name in with the Teppan Edo lady at tucked behind the stairs/elevator and then went up the elevator with the stroller.
On our way in the hostess lady upstairs gave the girls these origami birds. They LOVED these.
Also, do you see the Duffy. Isn't it cool how the Kidcot person writes hello and teaches your kid to say hello in their language? Seriously, people, World Showcase is the coolest.
So, while we were waiting for our little square thing to have a circle of red lights go off, Suzy and fam were also waiting for their light up thing to go off.
But they were in the courtyard in Morocco. Charming had stayed up the night before until 3 am. And he's 13 and needs a lot of sleep since he grows one inch every month (this is NOT an exaggeration.) And he was recovering from bronchitis. Which total side note: he did not recover fully and did end up with a mild case of pneumonia.
We waited under 10 minutes. I had gone to the restroom so it felt like instant to me.
Which let me say, I generally try to use the restroom so I don't have to be bothered while I'm relaxing at dinner. I asked Boo if she had to go but she was so enamored with her bird that she said no. This proved to be a lie.
When I came back it was time to go to our table.
At Teppan Edo a nice lady comes in with a lot of bowing and hands out menus, warm, wet towels, gets drinks, and hands out chopsticks with a little lesson. We also got multiple speeches on the grill being REALLY hot.
Suzy and her group were also being seated. They were at Marrakesh. Donald and I, Suzy and Milo, and some of the rest of us had eaten here numerous years ago. Donald and I had shared the Chicken Bastilla as an appetizer. It sound different, chicken in phyllo sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Sweet and savory. I love that combo. But with the very first bite I swear to you the flavors were cilantro and lavender. It tasted exactly, and I mean exactly, like soap. You know how you put hand lotion on and then eat something and lick your fingers forgetting about the hand lotion until the yucky hand lotion taste is in your mouth. Just like that.
With that and the very dry shish kabob and so-so belly dancer, Donald and I have never been back. I normally am willing to give restaurants two tries before I cross them off the list. But truth be told, Donald has been to numerous Mediterranean restaurants and even the ones that I think are great, he's not a big fan. And neither of us loves tabbouleh, cucumbers and yogurt, nor pureed eggplant.
As for hummus, falafel, warm homemade pita, rosemary-lemon chicken with olives, and baklava: I make GREAT versions of these. So it was an easy call for us to cross this off our list. If you do love this style food and aren't crazy about making it yourself, the CS place here is better. IMHO.
So I was not at all surprised to hear that this will be Suzy and Milo's last time as well. They both LOVE this style food and were not impressed. Sorry for the bad review. I'm just trying to be honest about my opinions. Take it with a grain of salt, since I listened to a Disboard review and got saddled with a sub par German brownie.
On the plus side, they do serve alcoholic drinks:
Let's all take a moment to drool over Suzy's iphone cover. Hello? How cute is that???
Japan ALSO has alcohol, much to Donald's delight.
The above are the photos Suzy & I texted to each other. When not with each other, we pretty much text constantly while at WDW. So we got the blow by blow of these dinners.
Donald tried to get the lovely girl to tell him which sake was which and which he should drink. Normally when you get a flight this is what happens. But the concept was foreign to her and she finally convinced Donald to just try them any way he wanted. I tried them and only liked one. Sorry, Donald will have to tell you himself what they tasted like.
Let's go back to Morocco for a minute.
Isn't that totally gorgeous? This place is so amazing inside. Which, to me, makes it even sadder that the food isn't that great. OK, back to my tangent, I just want to say it's pretty easy to make this kind of food well. My dad, my mom, Suzy, and I all can make lots of things on this menu really well. I mean couscous? Seriously. You just warm up some water, throw in the couscous, 5 minutes later it turns itself into a side dish. Just throw in some fresh lemon juice, kalamata olives, and parsley and you're done. Any one reading this could make it. Just sayin'.
Meanwhile, we our chef had arrived. Our chef last year was a great cook, but didn't have a lot of antics. I actually thought he held back so as to not scare Boo. This year's chef arrived in grand style and didn't hold back at ALL!
Hold on. Picture count!
. What happened to good ole fashioned Mickey ears in a welcome present? 
I'm glad they enjoyed the experience, it makes the $ worthwhile. Jean had the same hair style as Boo and though I've gone back to our pictures over and over I still can't figure out how to do it exactly 
, so many FPs...you really do have that process down to an artform!
) June 1-9. We are taking my niece and nephew for their first trip.
You are gorgeous! We are the same age. I just turned 37 in April. Weight Watchers actually really helped me. When I joined at 27 it was the first time in my life I felt in control of food and my body instead of food and my body controlling me. I still struggle with feeling ugly from time to time (wrinkles, stretch marks, cellulite, etc.) but for the most part I'm at peace and view my body in a good light. The final piece of the puzzle for me was running. I started viewing my body as a machine and food as fuel since I could physically feel my body using energy.
World Showcase. And this was not to be our only trip around the world on this trip so our agenda was pretty loose. We needed to do Germany KimPossible. Suzy and I had been fighting all day about which treat was most important: School Bread, German Caramel Corn, or French pastry. I was in the school bread/french pastry camp. She was solidly in the Caramel Corn camp. I'll tell you how that battle came out later. 
