Disney Day 2: Magic Kingdom!

Monday we were up early to get ready for our breakfast at Cinderella's Castle!  We chose to do a lot of character dining on this trip and our first breakfast was with all the princesses at Cinderella's castle.   I was pretty excited about this one too.  Anyone who loves Disney World loves that castle!  Cohen had packed several different princess dresses to wear during our trip and she decided on Snow White for this day.  This was our earliest breakfast so I was glad to have came in at a decent time so the girls would be in a good mood.  We got up, got on the bus to Magic Kingdom, and got to the castle just in time for our breakfast.  As you went in you first had a picture with Cinderella herself.  We did a family picture because you can guess that Kate would not have stood there without us.  Your picture was included with your meal so that was nice.  They brought them to your table not long after sitting down.  We walked up a winding staircase to the dining room and when we walked in Cohen was so excited to see all the princesses around the room.  The great part is that they come to you so there are no lines to wait in!  The breakfast was great!  Cohen and Kate both loved the Mickey Mouse muffins.  Throughout breakfast we had Snow White, Ariel, Aurora, and Jasmine come to our table.  Kate slowly warmed up but she was much more concerned with eating than with talking to a princess.  Cohen could barely eat for watching who was coming over next and finding their autograph page in her book.  The girls were given wands (aka weapon...for Kate), and wishing stars.  It was really neat and I really loved seeing Cohen's face!  She always gets a little shy when they get to her but she was full of hugs and her face just showed awe and wonder as they would talk to her.  She was definitely soaking it all in.

Kate just looks pitiful but all I do is laugh when I see this!  She was not into smiling!

Kate was smiling by the time Jasmine came by

My very own princess!

Showing off her Mickey Mouse muffin

After our breakfast we headed out to start riding rides.  We rode Peter Pan, Pooh Bear, Under the Sea, Its a Small World, and then headed to Enchanted Tales with Belle.  This was a favorite from last year.  The girls loved all the rides and Kate even did well meeting Belle.  All the kids are introduced to her so she walked up with Cohen and did ok with it.  

We also met Daisy Duck and Minnie Mouse that morning.  The line was really short and we had to kill a few minutes before heading to one of our fast pass.  Cohen was excited to fill more pages in her autograph book and Kate was still only willing to pose if Kelly or I went with her.  It was fine though!

We decided we would take the girls back to our hotel for the afternoon for some naps!  I was ready for one myself!  We had learned that the shortest lines are definitely in the evenings/nights and Monday night the park would be open until 1:00.  Cohen was dying to get in the swimming pool and we told her if she had a nap she could try it out.  We ate lunch in our room and then all crashed!  I think I crashed before I could eat!  After a good nap Kelly took Cohen down to the pool.  I honestly think this was her favorite part of the whole trip...the pool!  She picked right up where she left off last summer.  Kelly said she was swimming away, cutting flips, and jumping in.  I am so ready for summer and I know she is too.  Kate continued to sleep so I took this picture from our room...that is Cohen going in at the steps.

After their swim it was bath time for both girls.  We got ourselves ready and back to Magic Kingdom we went.  We rode all the other rides we were wanting to.  We also met up with Elizabeth, Donna, and Nathan.  We all rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad...except Kate and Donna...they had their own fun while we rode :)  We all watched the Electrical Parade, which I love, and then went to ride more.   Donna, Elizabeth, and Nathan were so sweet to watch both girls while Kelly & I rode Space Mountain.  I think the girls really enjoyed the People Mover while we did that!  Kate was starting to get tired at this point but we headed to ride Peter Pan again (Cohen's pick) and It's a Small World.  Kate also really wanted a ride on the carousel so we did that too.  We made our final stop to see Snow White (again) and Rapunzel.  Since Rapunzel wasn't at our princess breakfast Cohen wanted to see her.  Of course at midnight there is no line so we walked right in.  They were so sweet and both princesses just loved on tired little Kate.   She was so tired that she let them.  Snow White took her under her cape.  Cohen had decided to dress in her Jasmine costume this time around!  We have to thank Tina for all the costumes she sent us :)  

Magic Carpets

another smile to laugh at!

Love for Rapunzel

More love for Snow White

A Magical Day Indeed!!

DISNEY!! A Long Trip Down & Day 1: Hollywood Studios

Last week we thoroughly enjoyed our winter break in sunny Orlando, Florida!  We spent our break in Disney World!  We have been so excited about this trip for the last few months.  I was very excited to get to some warm weather.  This beach girl is ready for winter to leave!  We decided we would leave on Saturday and drive at least half way down so we could enjoy most of our day on Sunday.  What sounded like a great plan turned into an almost disaster!  Our ride down was fine, the girls did great, Kelly was fine driving and we made great time.  We had decided we would try to stop in Gainesville, FL.  After calling a few hotels and they were booked we thought we would just go further because the girls were good and we were fine to drive on.  Soooo....I started calling hotels in the next town of Ocala.  On the 3rd call, the receptionist informed me that she thought all the hotels in the area were completely booked.  Not good!  When you drive by and see lots of hotels absolutely full it is not a good feeling.  BY this time Kate was starting to get ill and sleepy.  We had to stop at a McDonalds for a snack and to get her some milk.  Kelly was calling more hotels only to find there was a dog show, horse show, drag race, and go-kart race in the area and all hotels were full.  At this point I felt like Mary & Joseph with no room at the inn and wishing for a barn!  Kelly finally found a room but it was in Orlando so we would be driving the entire way.  The girls fell asleep so that helped.  When we got to our hotel it was 12:45 and when Kelly went in to check in he was told that the room was booked by mistake and they were full!  What are the odds!?  On top of that he thought most of the rooms in the area were full!  We were livid at this point.  He got on the phone with the company who had booked the room and they did find us a room at a hotel close by.  We ended up at the Hilton at around 1:00 am!  We were so tired!  So, we ended up in Orlando but dog tired and knowing that we would never leave again thinking we could find a room...we would have a firm reservation.  Thankfully it all worked out.  We were definitely saying our prayers and I had texted my mama so she was saying one as well!
We did sleep in a little late on Sunday, but we were all soon up and ready to begin our fun vacation!  We stayed at the POP Century resort and got checked in easily.  We unpacked and then decided we would spend our day at Hollywood Studios.  It was nice being able to FastPass rides on our phone!  We had not been to Hollywood Studios last year so it was fun to go there.  We could do everything we wanted to do in this one day.  We saw some great shows!  The girls loved Disney Junior Live, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast.  We all also LOVED the Toy Story ride.  Cohen met several characters that she wanted to see, Sofia the First, Belle, Mulan,  Mike & Sully from Monsters, Inc., and Pluto and Minnie Mouse.  Kate liked the characters from a distance but when it would be our turn to go up to them she would shy away.  The 2 characters she ran right up to was Lightening McQueen and Mater!  My little tomboy girl loves cars!  We happen to be walking by a small street when a lot of the characters walked out and no one was really around.  This is where we saw Minnie, Pluto, Mulan, Belle, and several others.  Kate would stay in the stroller eating her snacks but a lot of the characters would come up to her, like Chip & Dale, Tweedleedee and Tweedledeedum (?).  She would give some high fives.  I think both girls really enjoyed their first day!  We headed back around 9:00 because we knew we had a busy day on Monday, and we were still pretty tired!

Finally Made it!!

Our view in the 80s wing!

Kate wanted her picture made like her sissy!

Cohen was most excited about the pool...she did a water check first thing

The Little Mermaid show

Not so sure about this

Cohen loved talking to Belle about how they both love books

High five for Chip...or Dale??

Kate's favorite characters!

Beauty & the Beast show

The Light Switch Ghost

This is a quick story about Kate, but one that I definitely want to remember.  We go through spells here at our house where the girls might come to our bed in the middle of the night.  Cohen has learned and will usually wake me up wanting one of us to come lay with her in her bed.  She used to grab a blanket and would just lay in the floor beside our bed without even waking us up.  Kate on the other hand comes to my side of the bed and starts trying to climb in.  Normally I am half out of it, and really just wanting to go back to sleep so I grab her up and put her in the middle of us and back to sleep we both go.  I'm sure plenty of you parents out there can so relate to this!  Well she has done this the last few nights and we tell her each night to be sure she stays in her bed.  Well last night was a first on Kate's middle of the night tricks!  Sometime in the middle of the night the light in her room comes on...the overhead BRIGHT light.  There was no sight or sound of Kate so it really freaked me out.  I went to the bathroom and then went to investigate.  Well Kate was fast asleep in her bed and so was Cohen.  I turned the light off and went back to bed.  I woke Kelly up though because it bothered me. He was half asleep and couldn't comprehend that I wanted to know who turned the light on.  He kept saying, "the light isn't on."  Of course then it wasn't, I had turned it off!  I told him that the girls were asleep and Kate couldn't even reach the switch anyway.  I mean in the middle of the night I'm wondering if God is trying to send me a sign of some kind!  Well I go back to sleep and I don't know how much time goes by but we are woken up again to a light coming on and shining in our face.  (our bedrooms are all on the same end of the house).  This time I thought I heard Kate but Kelly got up this time to turn it off and sure enough she was in her bed sleeping.  Since we went right back to sleep you can guess we were too tired to be real concerned but Kelly did say he thought about walking through the house to make sure no one was in it...the light switch ghost.  Well to sum it up I asked Kate this morning if she was turning her light on in the night and she nods her head yes.  So I ask her to show me how she could reach the light and this is how she did it....who knew a 2 year old would be asleep (maybe?), climb on her trash can to turn on her light.  The reason, I have no idea.  Culprit found!  Lets pray for sleep tonight...uninterrupted sleep!