The "We have one whole year to wait" Now a Trip Report

[Laura.bora]

oh - and I made a mistake - it's Jiko I regret not going to - not Boma.

 

[Laura.bora]

So we left The Land and headed over to the Seas with Nemo and friends. It's changed a lot since the last time I was there!!

Then:

Now:

So, the extent to which I remember this part of Epcot is the picture above. I have no memory of this place. I thought being here would jog some memories - but no. No such luck! That's ok! Time for new memories to form! We entered the gift shop first and yet again, Nathaniel is greeted with fanfare for his birthday! They ask if we are busy, and we tell them we are trying to catch the first showing of Turtle Talk. They ask us to stop by after we are finished because they are pretty sure that there is a birthday call waiting for him! Keep spreading the pixie dust!! Ephraim is starting to get a little cranky so I figure Turtle Talk will be the perfect place to nurse Ephraim to sleep. We enter into the theater, I shoo the kids up front, and I take a seat with ken in the front row. The lights go dim and we start the show! Woo hoo! I get Ephraim all set and Crush starts to talk and suddenly he calls on the birthday boy!! He's talking to NAthaniel! He asks him his name, how old he's turning, and ask who he came here with. "With my Mama" Nathaniel says. "oooooo, so where is this parental unit of yours?" asks Crush. And Crush begins to scan the audience looking for a hand raise. So Nathaniel points and says "Over there" as I am thinking No no no no no!!! I do not like to be brought to the center of attention, and I really don't like to be brought to the center of attention with a son who likes to scan what's going on while nursing! Crush starts speaking and then says "ohhhh - so your otherwise occupied....That's ok. I'm a turtle. I've seen it all." He asked me a few questions and then moved onto another little boy in the audience. This little segment had us in tears we were laughing so hard - well the adults anyway. He the audience if they had any questions, and a little boy raised his hand. They picked him and the boy proceeds to rattle off about his xbox game and on and on and on - and Crush is swimming back and forth and looking at him in such a way that has us in stitches. The eye "brow" raises and the head starts nodding and Crush keeps saying uh huh uh huh - Dude, we are totally riding the same wave." Turtle Talk pretty much instantly became one of my favorites! It was GREAT, and I would put it on your must see - even if you have no little kids. It was hilarious!

After Turtle Talk, we looked for a little bit at the aquariums to appease the kids. We told them we'd be heading back after Nemo, but the wanted just a peak right now.

we walked out to the gift shop and lo and behold - there is a phone call for Nathaniel!!

And it turns out, that there is a phone call for Ainsley too - somehow Goofy knew that her birthday was days away.

And then it's finally time for The Seas with Nemo and friends!!!

When we went through the queue area, we encountered THE DREAM TEAM! And it is here that we started on our pin trading! Nathaniel's Auntie Lauren and Auntie Robbin had gotten him a pin lanyard and a few pins for his Christmas last year (because they knew he was headed for Disney in 9 more months!) and he thought it was cool, but didn't really grasp the whole concept. Well, now the dream team took the time to explain how it went, and traded with him for the first time. My children were hooked!

We finished going through the queue (which was EMPTY - we were the only ones in there besides the dream team) we rode Nemo. It was neat. Ken loved it, and so did the kids. They love all aquariums! I did take note of the song "Big Blue World" and we too proceeded to sing it all day long. After that, I left to grab a Test Track FP while Ken and the kids checked out the aquarium.

We were going to leave and go right to Journey into Imagination, but thankfully Nathaniel and Ainsley stopped me. They wanted pictures infront of the statues and the seas signs. I would have missed it!

We went off to Journey into Imagination - and all I have to say is they should have kept it the way it was. It was so much better back in the day! We wandered around Image works and sent some picture emails to our family and friends. (which oddly enough, weren't received until nearly 2 weeks later...along with some other random persons pictures). We then went over to Test Track to ride there. We grabbed a parent swap. Nathaniel and I were up first. Ken said he'd be outside with Ainsley by the fountains. While on the FP line, we started talking to a lady who just **loved** this ride. It was the best ride ever, and weren't the Fast passes such a great idea, it cuts your ride time down so far. "The first time I went on Test Track" she tells me, "I waited over 2 hours to ride it - and it was so worth it!!" TWO HOURS?? Really - It was worth it? Ok, then this has got to be some lot of goodness to stand in a line for 2 hours. I was mostly thinking poor them. Pity them, don't be them. Sigh. This lady needs to find out about Tour Guide Mike. I waited 5 minutes for it. And I'd wait 5 minutes for it again. But 2 hours - no way. We liked Test Track a lot. Except both Nathaniel and I were unprepared for how bouncy it would be, so we both walked off with migraines. uggh. Not fun. But thankfully, it was 11:40 and time for lunch. We walk out of TT and find Ainsley having a BLAST and sopping wet.

I ask Ken what time is it and he tells me it's 11:35. We need to be at our reservation NOW!! Let's MOVE IT! Ken tells me to calm down we have plenty of time, we can take it nice and slow, we have until 12:20. That's what you told me. What? No we don't 11:40 LEt's go. Now. Right now. Stop arguing with me!!! WHO IS THE TOUR GUIDE MIKE TOUR GUIDE????? ME!!!! So after a little mini melt down in Epcot, Ken and I are not to happy with each other, but we are following Comando Laura all the way to the Garden Grill. I check us in, and the check in guy asks "Are you sure you have a reservation? Because I don't have you listed in the computer...." Oh so not good. This is Nathaniel's birthday lunch - what do you mean you don't have us in the computer. He asks if I happen to have my ADR# which I do, and they find my reservation. "Did you change your reservation?" Only like a bajillion times, why? "Ok, it must be computer error - we have you down for 12:20" oops. So after a little sheepish grin and a big old apology to my husband, we continued the day in a much better mood, and went off into the Garden Grill for an accidentally early lunch and to celebrate a birthday with some friends!

 

[Laura.bora]

So we entered the Garden Grill. This restaurant was pretty cool. It rotates oh so very slowly, and overlooks the ride "Living with the Land". Our waitress came and started us off with some drinks and bread and said the food would be out shortly. It's a sit down family styled dinner, not a buffet, so they just bring you a whole lot of food on one plate and you divvy up whats in front of you. While we were waiting, we figured we'd nibble on the bread, but ummmmm - it was too delicious. There was no nibbling. It was an all out argument who was getting that last piece of bread! When the waitress came by with our food, we asked that she bring more bread! There were three meats - steak, turkey and fried catfish. I'm not usually a big fish person, but the cat fish was good! Granted, if you bread anything and fry it in oil, it tends to taste good, but I really enjoyed the catfish. The turkey came with stuffing and cranberries. I of course loved it because who doesn't love thanksgiving dinner? The steak was ehhh. It certainly wasn't the highlight of our meal. The mashed potatoes they served were DELICIOUS! We had those served to our table 3 different times. Their Mac and Cheese on the other hand was GROSS!! GROSS GROSS GROSS! I don't know what variety of box they use, but maybe they should switch back to good old Kraft, because it was a salty disgusting mess. Oh you know, they could go the old fashioned way and MAKE it! Just sayin'. The vegetables were green beans, which Ainsley and I loved, but the rest of them were not too thrilled - but because they were green beans, not because they weren't prepared well.

While we were still eating our bread the characters came around. As you can see from the pictures, the bread won over Dale.

Farmer Mickey in his overalls! Too cute!!

"Happy Birthday!"

yeah - she's not happy to see him at all.

The characters were very interactive and spending lots of time at our table.

I love this picture.

Need to remember to move the cups!!

The autograph clipboards were huge hits!

Finally, after 5 days, Ainsley was able to work up the courage to pet Pluto. She wanted me beside her, and Pluto was great, bending down and letting her become comfortable enough to pet him and not be so scared.

Her first hug with Pluto

Dessert for the kids was a build your own cupcake.

The waitress felt bad, she missed the note saying it was Nathaniel's birthday, so he almost missed a Happy Birthday cupcake. But Ken pulled her aside and mentioned that it was his birthday today, and she quickly took care of it!

Make a wish!!

Pluto came back around to our table and remembered Ainsley's timid nature.

For dessert, the adults had some sort of berry cobler. But I don't like berries, or cobblers - so I didn't have dessert. Ken loved it though! I wished I could have had a build your own cupcake!

 

[Laura.bora]

After lunch, Ken and Nathaniel went on Soarin' while Ainsley Ephraim and I went back to the KidCot station.

When they had finished with Soarin (which they LOVED. Ken took the time to wait for the front row - I was too scared to ask. He said he kept lifting up his feet so that his feet wouldn't get wet. LOL.) Nathaniel finally noticed the very cool necklace Ainsley was sporting and asked if he could go to the kidcot station too. It was already 1:30, we were feeling pretty good....sure why not. Go ahead. Why oh Why did we not listen to Mike! By the time Nathaniel was finished, it was nearly 2:15! How did that happen? Not sure. We walked outside and were hit with the oppressiveness of the heat. It was so hot you could barely breath. And to top it off, the kids were crashing - fast. So we started to walk towards the enterance, but became turned around, so we wound up on the complete opposite side of the park. We finally spot the gigantic ball and start heading towards the exit. Ainsley and Ephraim are in the stroller and asleep, and poor Nathaniel is REALLY hot now. Hot and tired. As we pass under spaceship earth, he tells me "Mama, I'm trying really really hard not to cry, but I'm so hot and tired that I might start crying." His poor little feet were dragging. He was done. But unfortunately, so were Ken and I. We told him he just needed to make it to the monorail (which of course you need to walk up a HUGE ramp in order to get to) and then I would take Ephraim out and he could sit in the stroller. We dragged our bodies up the ramp. I thought I was going to pass out for a bit there. It was so oppressively hot that just the smallest amount of excersice made you want to lay down and take a nap. And finally, we were in the air conditioned car of the monorail. I picked up Ephraim and Nathaniel climbed into the stroller. Literally within seconds he was out. And he stayed out. We managed to go from the monorail, to the boat and back to our room in the Wilderness Lodge without him waking up. And there, we all crashed. Nathaniel woke up at some point and crawled into bed, but he doesn't remember it, and we never put him there. So after a few winks of sleep we finally awoke. To the sound of rain. Lots and lots of rain. Looks like we wouldn't be heading back to Epcot today after all - which I think was just fine with us. It was 5:30 and we had just woken up. We decided we'd eat dinner at the Wilderness Lodge and after dinner if it had stopped raining and we felt like it, we'd head over to Epcot again. In the meantime, it was Nathaniel's birthday and he had a present to open! We had wanted to buy him the Lincoln Log set of the Wilderness Lodge that I had heard so much about, but unfortunately, they discontinued it a few months before and that in turn jacked the price up to a few hundred dollars. So that plan was a no-go. But while checking out the gift shop, Ken discovered a little gem of a book called "Hidden Mickey's". Perfect!

Notice Ainsley has changed her mind about being awake.

Since it was still raining, and we now had a list of Hidden Mickey's throughout WDW, we got dressed, and headed downstairs to the front desk to grab the Hidden Mickey Scavenger Hunt sheet and then go look at some pins in the gift shop and do a little pin trading and hidden mickey hunt.

I took sometime to check out the lobby in pictures. It is HUGE!

Nathaniel found his favorite pin of all time - Tick Tock eating Captain Hook. He was so excited that Tick Tocks mouth opened and closed. We hunted the lobby for hidden Mickeys and were successful in finding a few - including the one on the fireplace. It was still pouring after a while, so we eventually grabbed dinner and brought it back to our room and went down for an early night sleep! All in all - a very good birthday!

 

[Laura.bora]

So today was the day I had been waiting for - I was getting to visit with my cousin Sean and his wife for the day! We woke up earlier than we had thought we would, and decided to go down to the lobby and see if they could get us in for an earlier breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe. We had a 10:40 reservation, but it was 9:00 and we were starving. Sure enough - they got us in!

We of course ordered the bottomless milkshakes. This place is famous for them - you think we would pass on that because it was breakfast?? I think not! They were delicious! We ordered the All you care to eat skillet. Scrambled eggs, Red Bliss potatoes with sauteed onions, bacon and sausage, buttermilk biscuits, sausage gravy and waffles. Yum. It was good. Not as great as I thought it would be though. But that actually didn't matter so much. We like Ketchup with our eggs. I knew the antics that this restaurant dished out - but the kids did not. So I asked Nathaniel to ask the waitress for some ketchup. He did not suspect a thing. (our waitress being the sweetie that she was did whisper to us - do you want all the fanfare, or do you just want ketchup?)

We were brought 17 ketchup bottles in all! (one is on the table - there just wasn't enough room for them all!)

and of course, it wasn't long before someone else asked for ketchup and we were off to deliver 16 bottles of ketchup (we kept a bottle for our table)

It wasn't long before we heard the famous cry "I have to go to the bathroom!" so Ken took Ainsley to the bathroom. They weren't gone but a minute when they called all the kids to participate in a horse race. Nathaniel left me high and dry faster than you can say high ho silver away.

It wasn't long before Ainsley was finished and in the race too.

All in all a very fun morning. We really enjoyed the Whispering Canyon Cafe for the atmosphere, but the breakfast was just ok. Next time, if we aren't worried about meeting someone - I want to go to Kona Cafe for breakfast.

 

[Laura.bora]

So now it was only 10 and Sean and Dana weren't planning on being here until 12. What do we do for the next two hours then? Ken was itching to bring me around a share with me what he learned on his tour of the history of the Wilderness Lodge. Since we were traveling around the lodge, I took the time to take some pictures! From the forth floor - I think it has one of the best views!

I love love love the detail they put into everything!

Well, after hearing some things about the history of the lodge from Ken and snapping a few pictures, it was time to head back to the room...and imagine our surprise when there was a letter or two waiting for Ainsley!!

I love her face when she finds out the letter was from Cinderella.


Translation: "Go to Lala's Castle because it's my birthday."

 

[Laura.bora]

It wasn't long before Sean and Dana gave our cell phone a call to let us know they were in the lobby! (in fact - you hear them call in the video) We came downstairs and found Sean staring towards the ceiling with his mouth agape just taking it all in. I'm pretty sure that's what I looked like when I first walked in too! We decided that our first plan of action was the pool! Now, anyone who knows Sean knows he might be a bigger kid than my three put together, so it didn't take much convincing on Nathaniel's part before his Uncle Sean followed him over to the kiddie pool and before I know it, he's playing blind man's bluff with every kid in there. Dana and I spent time relaxing in the pool and catching up. I was a very happy camper!

We had a lunch reservation over at Kona cafe at 2:00, so after a while, we had to leave the pool and catch the boat over to the Magic Kingdom and then the monorail to the Poly. We were looking foward to lunch at Kona. It has become our favorite place on property! The kids were ALL about Sean and Dana!

Nathaniel was just a little too happy to be sitting next to Dana - watch out Sean. Apparently, you have some competition.

This little section of the lake has a road going UNDER the lake....Not quite sure how they managed it...

We had a delicious lunch at Kona! As always! We got the sticky wings like we did last time, and we also ordered the pot stickers. The pot stickers were delicious! I could seriously make a meal of those! I just might have to next time! The waitress was great, bantering back and forth with us, and for some reason could not get Dana's name right at all! She referred to her as Donna through our entire meal. And that of course sent us into hysterics being the mature group of adults that we are.

After lunch, we headed back to the room to get into our bathing suits again. But not before we opened presents! Sean and Dana brought birthday presents for the kids, and since we all know how well I do with waiting with presents - well - they come by it honestly!

Now, how did they know that cars are a huge hit?

Can you see how excited Nathaniel is over his chalk??

They also got bubbles - which was great since my kids did the science of bubbles at the library over the summer - we spent the summer making HUGE bubbles!

Now it was Ainsley's turn with Uncle Sean, and they went down the water slide together a few times, until the lifegaurd yelled at them for going down together, so brave little Ainsley started going by herself! Under the water and all, and she doesn't even flinch!

We had a great day with Sean and Dana, but unfortunately, it was getting late and they needed to go. Next time, hopefully we'll have a villa and they can stay the weekend with us!!

And since we were at the pool - I did need to grab a few pictures of the area!

I love how the snack bar looks a bit like an Indian Log house

Ephraim was sound asleep, so we told the kids they could have a few more minutes in the pool.

What are siblings for but drowning each other....

The bubbling hot springs that bubbles up from the lobby and meanders towards the pool leaves the pool and goes under a covered bridge.

Tonight we had planned on going to the Campfire with Chip and Dale, but alas, that was not to be. We took the boat over, asked someone for directions, and she told us to give up, we'd never make it on time, we'd best try for another night. It would be over by the time we made it over. Wish I hadn't listened to her. We would have made it over, but I didn't know that at the time, so we turned around and headed home.

 

[cjackearl]

Ainsley's reaction is PERFECT! So sweet. I can't wait to see her in all her princess finery with La la.

 

[Laura.bora]

yeah - Ainsley was so excited. Her reaction melted my heart. I spent a lot of that vacation in happy tears!

 

[cjackearl]

Hi Laura. Hope all is well at your place. I can't wait to hear more of your familie's Disney Adventures. We just sent our first package payment to AAA. We've been tightening our belts at the Earl house and I need to get some information from you. I think I'll send a PM. Anyway, as we get closer to our trip, I've been rereading the beginning of your report again. Thanks for all the great tips!

 

[cjackearl]

Hey lady! Do you have any more updates? Pretty please?

 

[Laura.bora]

Hey Christine! I do have more of an update, I m jjst waiting on Ken to develop. The pictures from day 6. We didn't charge the digi camera that day, so we did it the old fashioned way. Ken won't let me plan our December 2010 trip until I finish if. Of course that hasn't stopped me! Sorry for all these typos. I'm typing ok my friends iPhone and the keys are so tiny.

 

[Laura.bora]

Ok - I'm going to start!

Day 7 - Ainsley's Birthday in Magic Kingdom

To start, we knewthis was going to be a long day because we weren't doing it the TGM way. I had booked CRT long before I signed up for TGM. I was headed to the Magic Kingdom on a day that Mike predicted tobe yellow (crowded). And to top it off, I made CRT reservations for 2 in the afternoon! So today we decided would be a very relaxing day inthe park. We'd be there before the park opened totake Ainsley to her BBB appointment, tour Tom Sawyer Island, hit a few favorite rides. Make sure to take AC breaks. I did not want a repeat preformance of Nathaniels birthday!

While waiting for our turn into the park, a CM starts handing out "Pixie Dust" to all the kids so that they can throw it in the air when they get through the turnstyles. The kids were very excited about that!

So it's 12 minutes to 8 and we are in the park! It's a beautiful sunny day!

I of course grab the castle shot!

What a wonderful way to start the day!!

Ainsley is very ready to be "Bippidy Boppidy Booed" intoa princess.

The Park was empty. It reminded me of the family who won the contest to have Magic Kingdom alone to themseslves for a few hours and how you could see the carousel through the tunnel in Cinderella's Castle.

Finally it was time to go into the BBB! Ainsley's eyes just LIT UP!! All the dresses and shoes, beautiful mirrors - it was almost too much for her to handle!!

And now it was time for decisions - what dress and what shoes do you want? Can you guess what Ainsley picked??
Cinderella of course!

Now it was time to go with her Fairy God Mother in Training, Simonette, and change her into a princess!

 

[Laura.bora]

First, they sprayed crazy amounts of gel into her hair.

She pulled it into a "Pebbles" ponytail.

And then they sprayed even more gel into her hair!

And then they sprayed more.... I was begining to see why this hairstyle held for a few days!

Her hair is officially plastered to the side of her head!

And then they added even more gel to her ponytail so that she could be a unicorn.

Ainsley then was shown a draw FILLED with crowns of all different colors and was allowed to pick the tiny rhinestone filled crown that she wanted.

Simonette then teased a section of her gel filled hair to make the center of the bun.

She wrapped little pieces of ponytail hair around the gel filled rat's nest.

Then they put a Hidden Mickey barrette in her hair.

Then came Ainsley's favorite part - the make-up!! She was allowed to pick which color eye shadow and lip gloss she wanted- there was only one choice for blush.

What princess leaves her castle without having her nails done?? Ainsley had a choice between pink or blue (very sleeping beauty like) - she picked blue to match her dress.

When her nails were drying, Simonette told her to say the magic words to make her nails dry "Bippidy Boppidy BOUTIQUE!" and then together they would blow on her nails. She still does this when I do her nails.

Then, for good measure - Simonette sprayed her with more gel.

Simonette asked if she was ready to see the princess she had become

turned the chair around and.....

She just stared. I don't think she realized it was her in the mirror at first. You can see it in her face. "Who is that?" she's thinking.

Nathaniel made mention that he wished he was a girl so he could have his hair done. Before we knew it, Simonette told him they had a special hair do just for boys! Nathaniel was up in the chair before we could say anything.

 

[Laura.bora]

Nathaniel got to pick what color hair gel he wanted in his hair. He chose red and green. So of course, she gelled his hair and then painted the spikes red and green

Then to top it all off - they sprinkled confetti in his hair.

They she painted a red and green hidden Mickey on the back of Nathaniel's head. Ainsley didn't pay attention to any of this - she was too busy checking herself out in the mirror!

Simonette finished, turned him around to look and you can see what he thought of it with his initial reaction, or at least I can.

He hated it. He thought it was UGLY - but being the good and polite boy that he is, he didn't let on because he was afraid he would hurt Simonette's feelings.

The moral of the story he says? "Don't be envious." Lol - gotta love my son.

 

[cjackearl]

Oh my, Laura! You've got one beautiful little princess there! How sweet. The picture of her looking in the corner of the mirror while Nathaniel is in the chair is absolutely precious. I wish I still had a princess to dress up, but my girls are "over that". Although my 9 year old, who's by far the girlier of the two, looked like maybe your pictures were swaying her a bit.

LOL, about Nathaniel's "do". Did he leave it in all day?

I love your empty park pics! I'm going to try to get an 8:05 breakfast at CP just for the empty park pictures.

Hey, I just saved some pressed penny labels from the Dis-signs forum and saw your name. Did you use the larger or smaller tubes? Did your kids like doing the pressed penny thing?

On a side note, I payed off our package two weeks ago. I'm considering doing a PTR, but I better get off my butt if I do.
ADRs on the 17th. Wish me luck!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Laura.bora]

Oh my, Laura! You've got one beautiful little princess there! How sweet. The picture of her looking in the corner of the mirror while Nathaniel is in the chair is absolutely precious. I wish I still had a princess to dress up, but my girls are "over that". Although my 9 year old, who's by far the girlier of the two, looked like maybe your pictures were swaying her a bit.

LOL, about Nathaniel's "do". Did he leave it in all day?

I love your empty park pics! I'm going to try to get an 8:05 breakfast at CP just for the empty park pictures.

Hey, I just saved some pressed penny labels from the Dis-signs forum and saw your name. Did you use the larger or smaller tubes? Did your kids like doing the pressed penny thing?

On a side note, I payed off our package two weeks ago. I'm considering doing a PTR, but I better get off my butt if I do.
ADRs on the 17th. Wish me luck!

Can't wait to read more.

I think the pictureof her checking herself out is one of my favorites! If she is a girly girl, she may really enjoy it. Even if she doesn't go the princess route, she could get dressed up in her favorite outfit and go and have her hair nails and make up done.

Nathaniel left his "do" in all day and then some - because it dyed his hair red and green. The hidden Mickey actually dyed his scalp. He had a hidden Mickey on the backof his head for 2- 3 weeks after we were HOME! When we came home from the parks that day, the first thing hedid was have me wash it out of his hair. It also took FOREVER to dry, so he kept getting red and green all over everything - my shirt, the characters, the walls - anythinghe brushed upagainst. Never again will we do that. Should have listened tothe advice onthe DIS and said "no!"

The empty park was very cool and was a nice start to a very crowded day. Make sure you makeit to opening one morning at MK. It was by far the best opening ceremony.

I think we used smaller tubes - whateverkind they had at the checkout line. We had tofiddle with it in photoshop toget it tofit correctly, but we finallypulled it off.The pressed pennies were a HUGE HIT. They have a nice little collectionof pressed pennies now.

Yeah! Isn'titso nice to know the vacationis PAID IN FULL? We just paid off our van a few weeks ago too- so we are officially DEBT FREE! It is such a great feeling. we are takingthis year to save for a house and hope to bebuying next year. Our heart is to have enough saved to put downon the house that we can pay offour loan within 7 years. (deut. 15:1)

Let me know if you start a pre trip!! I'll live vicariously through you while waitingfor December 2010! People think I'm crazy for being so excited about a trip 1 1/2 years away - sigh- they just don't get it!

 

[Laura.bora]

The very first place we headed was over to the princesses in toontown. They were in the middle of changing it around for the new Tinkerbell meet and greet, so there was no longer the 3 different lines to choose from - only princesses. We missed Toontown opening, but not by much, so we had only a small line to wait on. We waited 5 minutes tops.

I wish I had been thinking on my feet and had the camera ready and aimed at Ainsley when we walked through the door to see the princesses. She was silent, just observing, and suddenly "LA LA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" It was much like seeing the castle for the first time. Her whole face just lit up!

Our very first princess to meet? Princess Aurora. Ainsley was just thrilled!

Aurora made a big deal over the fact that it was her birthday. Ainsley was all smiles.

Next up was Cinderella. We had to wait our turn while a family finished up. You would have thought Ainsley needed to go to the bathroom she was bouncing around in anticipation so much.

Ainsley was quick to show off her shoes! I think that may have been her favorite part of the whole outfit.

So of course, Cinderella showed off her shoes and showed her how hers were now silver just like Ainsleys, because the glass slippers made her feet swell in the Florida heat! Lol

Ainsley just snuggled up to Cinderella for a few seconds while Cinderella talked to Ephraim.

Then Cinderella took some time to share the affection with Nathaniel. They talked about how his birthday just passed, how he didn't believe that he was really going to Disney, how much fun he was having. Nathaniel couldn't stop beaming!

After a few hugs goodbye, we were off to visit the next princess.

As if Cinderella wasn't good enough - now we were seeing Belle, another one of her favorites!

I love Ainsley's face in this photo, she can't take her eyes off Belle.

Before we knew it, our time with the princesses was over!

 

[Laura.bora]

After the princesses, we took our time checking out Toontown. I took pictures, but now I can't find them!! We went through Mickey's house which the kids liked. We found a few hidden Mickey's but we didn't really spend too much time in this house. We did spend a lot of time in Minnie's house. They loved Minnie's house. They were checking Minnie's answering machine, playing in her kitchen - this place was a lot more hands on than Mickey's house was. I took a cute picture of the kids on Minnie's patio and by her "palm" tree. I'm hoping these pictures are on my other computer. I'll post them if they are! We looked at the garden oohed and ahhed over the Mickey shaped tomatoes and pumpkins and found hidden mickey's in Mickey's garage. We thought we might go and pay Mickey a visit, but then we looked at the line and decided no way. We played in Donald's Boat for a few minutes. It was more of a someone is in timeout, so we need to stop and wait - oh look a boat, go play. After the time out was over, we headed to the Toontown Train Station to catch the train to the Expo Center. Time for our pictures!! I'm missing the pictures of train ride over too. Hoping I find them.

(at some point during the day, I grabbed pictures of us near the Rose Gardens, but I can't remember where this fell in our day. Somewhere after princesses, but before Expo hall!)

It was REALLY bright out and hard too look at the camera.

We made our way to the Expo center and waited our turn. We killed time by taking photo's of the kids.

I knew from the Dis and TGM that the Expo Center photo shoot is FREE! So since we had bought the photopass, we thought it was a perfect opportunity to get our family pictures done along with Ainsley's Bippidy Boppidy Boutique photo's!

Ok - so all my family photos seem to be missing too - but I have those on disk, so I'll download them again. I forgot to take my sunglasses off my head, and Nathaniel has his spikey hair which he hates, so they weren't any good really, but next time, I think we'll take pictures everytime we are in the Magic Kingdom since it is free. With my matching outfits, we should have some nice pictures.

After the photo shoot, the kids discovered the photo cutouts. You know we needed to grab a few pictures!

No movies were playing today, so on we went! Back to the train to head to Frontier Land.

 

[Laura.bora]

Train ride - always a better idea than walking - especially if it's going to be a LONG and HOT and CROWDED day!

We stopped for a FP for Splash Mountain and I grabbed a pic of how crazy the crowds were on a yellow day!

After seeing this, we decided we didn't want to see a red day!

We headed over to Tom Sawyer Island after this. We had waiting for this! IT seemed like such a neat place. And indeed it was!

the left half of the Island was closed due to backed up sewage pipes (eeewwwww!) but that's ok - it saves a piece of something new for next time!

Almost immediately, the kids started exploring the island.

Do you see the crazy crowds?? Going to Tom Sawyer's Island was a good choice. It was fairly empty, so we had the island mostly to ourselves. But it didn't take long for Ainsley to find a bosom buddy on the island.

So suddenly it was us and the other family traveling around the island together, because our little girls didn't want to go their separate ways! Ken then left to grab a FP for Big Thunder Mountain. I think this was around 12:30, but I don't remeber. I told Ken to just look for us when we came back, we;d be on the island somewhere. If it got to be too late, we'd meet him by Aunt Polly's.

We went exploring the caves together, and if they weren't so narrow, I would have just hung out there! It was beastly hot outside, but the caves were Air Conditioned!

That was when I started to notice my battery light was flashing!! I forgot to charge the battery the night before! I wasn't going to have pictures of Ainsley's birthday! Thankfully we had brought our big Nikon.

The kids took me across the barrel bridge. As you step down on one barrel and it sinks into the water, the barel in front of you pops up, and if someone steps on it your barrel comes up a bit. It makes for a very unstable bridge. I have EPhraim in one hand, I'm trying to make it across the bridge, and suddenly someone comes up from behind me popping up the barrel I'm on and I nearly go down. I manage to catch myself with the rope, and as I do, my camera slips off my wrist and as it's falling, I notice for the first time VERY big gaps in the bridge as the barrels move. Big enough for my camera to fall through! It clings on one barrel, over the gap and bounces off that barrel and back over the hole and then I step on it! I never thought I would be so happy to step on my camera, but as long as I had it under my foot, it couldn't fall in the water below me! I then proceeded to yell in my nastiest, scariest voice to every kid on that bridge NOT TO MOVE!!! I must have struck the fear of death in those kids, because not a single one moved, I think they were too scared to breath. I bent down and grabbed my camera and put it around my wrist again and prayed I could make it across without it falling off. I did. phew.

Before we knew it, we found Ken and it was time for lunch at the castle.