Everyone quickly got ready and the kids received this presents. Today they got new sunglasses: Cars for H and Belle for E. It was then out the door and off to Never-neverland, err, I mean the MK!
Pardon the fog, it's because the AC is so cold and Orlando in August is so hot!
One of my goals this trip was to see the opening ceremony for the MK. On our last trip, we caught the tail end of it as our monorail arrived at the station. To ensure seeing the ceremony, I scheduled C's tour for 9:30, knowing we'd have to arrive early so he could check in. I'm happy to report, we did, in fact, make it to see the opening festivities. They're nothing much, but it was still nice to see once. Now, my new goal is to, some how, be chosen as the family of the day at the MK. They get to ride in on the train and throw pixie dust on everyone with the characters. I may have to go it alone though, as I've heard you need to be at the front gates 2 hours before the park is scheduled to open to even have a chance!!!
After entering the park, the kids and I made a bee line to the barber shop while C went to check in for the Keys to the kingdom tour. C came over to show us his fancy new name badge and credentials. It was nice to see he was finally somebody!
He went off for his tour and the kids got their hair cut. I had put off getting the kids hair cut before coming to WDW, knowing what a fun experience the barber shop is, so they were both getting a bit shaggy. E decided not to have her bangs cut, instead opting to grow them out, ugh!!! When asked if she wanted color and pixie dust, she exclaimed, "yup, that's what I'm here for!" H was a great customer, didn't make one bit of fuss, but mentioned several times that he didn't want any color in his hair. He settled for a few pieces of Mickey confetti and was quite content.
After the haircuts, we made a quick stop on Main Street and E had the rare opportunity to hold Tinkerbell in her hands. TB was so quick and light, E didn't even know she had landed until we saw the picture!
Since it was our day without dad, I gave the kids *almost* free reign on what we were going to do. After vetoing going straight to Toontown again, we agreed to go to Fantasyland and ride Dumbo before it got too crowded. As we we walking toward the ride, I ran in to an old friend from B'ham. It's fun to see someone you know in a place you don't expect to see anyone you know, you know what I mean?! We caught up while she waited for her daughter and husband to finish riding and then said our good-byes so we could get in line.
This sign made me laugh:
The wait time for It's a Small World was non-existent, so we went for the longest, short boat ride in the world. I have to laugh, because this is the only ride in WDW where it takes longer to wait to get off the ride (it's always backed up) than it takes to wait to get on the ride!
A couple nights ago, we were taking about what we were excited to be going to see. H mentioned the "kid ride." E piped up and said, "you know, the one with kids, but not real kids, you know the robotic ones." Then she proceeded to break out her robot moves while humming the Small World song. It was bust out loud hilarious! Anyway, the kids loved the ride and I loved the big blue bull in China!
After hearing IASW several million times, I relented and allowed my kids to lead me to Toontown. On the way there we ran into a talking, walking trash can named Push. He sang "Happy Birthday" to E Elvis style. The kids were so intrigued by Push! E even went so far as to push open his "mouth" to look inside. She reported that there was just regular trash can stuff inside! Push said she's going to be a great dentist when she grows up!
We got a little sidetracked by the Mad Hatter's Tea Party, as the wait time was 0 minutes. C mention yesterday that he wasn't going to ride this ride, so we made sure we did it without him. After riding it with E controlling how much spin we had, I think C had he right idea! I was REALLY glad when the ride finally stopped.
Then we were off to Toontown and guess what we did first? Goofy's Barnstormer, go figure! E was excited that she was able to ride in the front car...all by herself:
Let me translate the hand for you: "crazy moms with cameras are not allowed to stand there! Go away already!":
We only had to ride the coaster twice, since the kids wanted to make sure they saw the rest of Toontown and have time to meet up with some old friends:
So while in Mickey's house, some genius parent decides that the obvious barriers put in place do not apply to his family. He lifted his very little child over the permanently closed half dutch door of the kitchen (E is leaning on it in the above pic) and places said child in the kitchen. Guess what? An alarm goes off! The guy looks around to see what could possible be making that ear-shattering racket. Really, could you be that stupid? No, don't answer. Anyway, he grabs his now screaming child and sneaks out the back door. So I guess he did realize he was the reason we all had to leave the pretend mouse house after all-thanks a lot!
After all our touring, the heat was beginning to get to us, so we stopped and shared a frozen lemonade.
We had ressies for lunch at the castle, so I herded my little crew back over to Fantasyland. The wait was short for Snow White Scary Adventures so we hopped in line. There was a saxophone quartet entertaining the queue and we enjoyed our little wait while listening to them play some Disney classics. They noticed E's birthday button and lead the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday to her. She was very sweet and made sure to say thank you to them. As the quartet was leaving, one of them hooked a line rope to another's belt, his reaction was quite funny:
I warned H that there might be some things that he would find frightening on the Snow White ride and told him he could put his hands over his eyes any time he felt the need. E has this odd habit of covering her ears when she encounters things that are worrisome to her. So here's them before the start of the ride:
And here's what I see during the ride:
Made me feel as if I should have been covering my mouth, as if to represent 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!" The ride ended quickly, and no permanent damage was suffered by my children!
Next we were off to ride the carousel:
While we were riding the carousel, E noticed a boy trying to pull THE sword out of the stone and asked if she could try it as well. It was getting close to our reservation time for lunch and we still needed to get E into her princess dress, so I told her if we had time after changing we would come back (the stone is located right across from the castle). We got everyone changed and went to the check-in podium to see if we were ready to be seated. I was told we were a bit early and we should return in about 10 minutes. Perfect, plenty of time to take some pics of the kids. E got up to the stone, grabbed the sword with two hands and began to pull, and pull, and pull. Then the most amazing thing happened, she pulled the sword up out of the stone!!!
A cast member appoached her and congratulated her on being so magical today and rewarded her with a magic moment certificate proclaiming her as "princess of the day"!
E then was instructed to say the magic words of "bibbity, bobbity, boo!" while waving her hands and the sword magically returned to it's original position in the stone. No matter how hard she tried, E wasn' t able to move the sword again.
By this time, I was certain our reservation time was up, so were crossed over to the castle entrance. The royal Lizar family was announced and we entered the lobby to find Cinderella waiting for us! (I don't have any pictures-only where she was-they took a picture and gave us some copies as part of the cost of the meal. I didn't think to use my own camera!). E was given a princess wand and H received a prince sword. I then spent the next 10 minutes trying to keep them from hitting each other with them!
Next we were called again and this time we were led up a winding staircase to Cinderella's dining room. It's a beautiful room overlooking Fantasyland.
We ordered and the kids were given little plastic wishing stars for a wishing ceremony that would be happening soon. H held his close to his mouth closed and eyes and whispered to me, "I'm gonna wish for an ice cream sundae!" ha, if only all our wishes were so easy to grant. E declared, "I'm wishing for the most magical day ever!" Good grief, these kids are too sweet to be mine!
When the wishing star ceremony began, there was an announcement for everyone to make a wish, wave their wand/sword around. There was a burst of music and little lights danced around the room (their wishes). The kids LOVED this all!
Before our food arrived, we had a chance to visit with some of the other guests who were at the castle:
E announced that Jasmine looked like her cousin Kristen-you know, she's right!
Anyway, the food was really, really good, so of course I ate too much. C called letting us know his tour was over, it was before our dessert arrived, so I told him we'd meet him in about 45 minutes. We had to have dessert since this was H's wish of the day, ice cream sundaes! E even got another special treat of a cupcake for her birthday celebration. We were too full from everything else, so we asked for something to put it in so we could take it with us. The waiter returned with a cup. It fit perfectly, so now we had an actual CUPcake!
We met back up with C outside the castle and indulged E by letting her see if H was magical today as well at the Sword in the Stone. He wasn't successful, but the kids had a great time telling dad all about what had happened earlier and their exciting lunch.
C was exhausted after his tour. It was fun, he said, but they walked for almost 5 hours straight! He tried telling me bits of fun information he had learned, but I already knew most of it, so that just irritated him! He told me I needed to spend less time reading about stuff on the computer!
It was only 3 pm, but had already been a very long day for everyone. We decided it would be best to go back to the hotel for a little while so everyone could rest. We would play the rest of the evening by ear. See-I told you I could do a more relaxed trip!
At the hotel, C rested while he tried to settle H down. E decided she didn't want to deal with the color and confetti in her hair anymore, so I got ready to throw her in the tub. By this time, C was sound asleep and H was wide awake, so he got to take a bath too! After their baths, the kids claimed they were hungry, but I think knowing a cupcake was trapped in a cup was too much of a temptation for them. They were victorious in freeing said cupcake and relished in its demise-they shared, and I concur that it was very tasty!
After a while, C finally got up, and we headed out the door for Epcot and the World Showcase for dinner. Unfortunately, on our drive over, the heavens opened up and unleashed a torrential flood of rain. Figuring it might soon stop, we continued on our way. It was raining so hard, when we arrived at the gates of the Epcot parking lot, there weren't any attendants collecting parking fees or directing traffic. This was most unusual, so we just decided to direct ourselves to the closest parking spot to the gate! Then we sat in the car. Yup, fun, fun, fun at WDW. It was pouring so hard that even with umbrellas, we would have been soaked to the bones in seconds.
At this point, most people would have turned around and gone back to their hotel, nope, not us. I got a bit of my commando traveling bug back and we decided to wait it out. I got the bright idea to take the time and make everyone clean C's car. I once read an article about a woman who is an "automobile archiologist." She'd look in people's cars (with their permission, of course) to see what they kept in them. Oh, my! the conclusions one might come to upon examining our findings in C's car. Let's just say we all had some good laughs over what treasures we found buried deep under his seats.
An hour passed and there was a bit of a break in the weather. We outfitted everyone in their ponchos, grabbed our umbrellas and braved the elements. Fortunately, everyone was wearing their sandels, as the puddles were the size of the parking lot! H had some difficulties walking while wearing his poncho, so we grabbed a chip clip we found in the car (see-told you!) and used it to pull the material out of his way. We played a little game, calling ourselves a family of ducks as we followed one another through Future World. E and H sang, "follow the daddy duck, quack, quack!"
It was going to be entirely too much work to make it all the way over to the World Showcase for dinner, so we stopped at The Land. We just grabbed dinner at Sunshine Seasons, along with everyone else stranded by the weather, but it did have amazing desserts!
After dinner, the rain had stopped, so we continued on over to Canada. Some how, in all our visits, we had never stepped foot in this country. The O Canada movie was about to begin, so we took a break and waited in the theater lobby. Here we are after our crazy evening:
When the movie ended, it was almost time for Illuminations to begin. Since the weather had been so terrible, the crowds were very small and we had no difficulties finding a place for the fireworks. It was a great way to end our evening.
I was carrying H as we made our way out of the park and out to the car. He was commenting on all the magic things he saw, "Magic fireworks, magic sidewalk, magic trees, magic golf ball, magic sinks (he's facinated by the automatic ones in WDW)." He then asked what made everything so magic. I told him that it's all magic becasue someone thought up all these wonderful things in their head and then they were able to create them so we could see them. His response was a simple, "Oh." As we got closer to the car, I whispered to him something along the lines of, "H, you're such a good, sweet boy." He whispered back to me, "that's MY magic." Yup, that is his magic, for sure!!!
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