day 3 back to Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was probably my favorite park to visit as far as attractions and I think it was more fun on day 2.  We did all of the autograph thing on Day 1, so we got to spend more time on rides and shows day 2.  We were at the park at rope drop, so we went straight to Toy Story Mania, rode it and then got a FP for later.  We ate lunch at Sci-Fi cafe.  Setting is a drive-in movie theater, we sat in cars and watched old time Sci-Fi flicks, so fun and great food.  When you are on the meal plan, your key to the world is your hotel key, meal plan, tickets to the parks all in one.  Since it was dark, Ben gave the waitress Bella's key, so the waitress asked Bella to sign the "credit card" slip.  She was so excited to be so big.  The girls and I were in a flash mob while waiting for my favorite parade of the week - Pixar Pals.

Best Food - Sci-Fi Cafe

Best Ride- Rockin Roller Coaster

Best Show - Illuminations

Best Moments - Girls partricipating in Jedi Training Academy and Art lessons (seperate posts coming soon)

one years old

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Boy! I cannot believe it has already been a year since you came into our lives. We are so blessed you are our boy and cannot wait to see all you become. We love you Reader.

Accomplishments this month: finally drinks from a cup, no more bottles.  Prefers whole milk, but drinks juice and water.

Still prefers to eat from a spoon, but will feed himself puffs and nilla wafers.

Throws right handed.

Speed Crawls.

Says Go, Doug (dog), Mama, Dadda and Didta (sister).

Loves books, balls, blocks (knocking them over), watching the dogs out the back door, and pulling things out of the cabinets and off shelves.  He is all boy. 

Still has no interest in standing or walking, maybe next month?

He did so great at spoiling his grandparents while we were on our vacation, first time away from home without Mommy and Daddy.

day 2 Epcot

Epcot is divided into 2 sections, Future World and the World Showcase.  We spent most of the morning in Future World.  We rode Soarin' (which was a little over hyped), Fast Track, Finding Nemo, Turtle Talk with Crush and Mission to Mars.  We traveled through most of the World Showcase and decided to try some Japanese food.  The girls tried and liked Chicken Teriyaki with CHOPSTICKS. 

We decided to break during the day and take a nap at the hotel before our dinner reservations.  I surprised the girls by packing their princess dresses and accessories and dressed them before we entered into the Princess Storybook Dinner.  The girls had their pictures taken with Belle and all princes and princesses were paraded around the castle.  Dinner was pretty good, probably a one-timer.  The girls did not want to change out of their dresses (we saw kids dressed up all day long), but I insisted they put on their tennis shoes.  We visited a few more countries and the girls asked Daddy to dance in the Italian Piazza and watched the Chinese Acrobats before the nightly fireworks display.  Once again closed the park down, but at least most of us had a nap that day.  11pm bedtime, 7 am wake up call.
Best Ride - Fast Track
Best Show - Turtle Time with Crush
Best Moment - Princess Parade at Dinner
Best character - Mary Poppins and Belle

a girl and her bear

If you know anything about my Bella, it is that she loves Pooh Bear.  My favorite part of the entire trip was this first day when Bella got to meet Pooh for the first time. She was so excited. Pooh's assistant could hear the girls chatting about how excited she was and overheard Bella say she slept with 4 pooh bears. She told Pooh as Bella was walking up to meet him and Bella almost tackled poor Pooh.  He hugged her and cuddled her, and I of course got teary-eyed.  After pics galore, autographs and hugs, Bella was all smiles.  It was the highlight of her trip too.

Hollywood Studios

We checked into our hotel at 9 a.m. and hopped on a DW bus to Hollywood Studios.  Our DW travel expert (BTW if you are planning a DW trip, I HIGHLY recommend her for MANY reasons) had planned out an itinerary for us for every day we were in the park;  complete with dining reservations info, recommended rides for each section of the park, info on what rides had restrictions or were appropriate or inappropriate (ie too scary) based on the info she had for the girls.  She told us what rides could be skipped if the wait times were too long, which ones were worth the wait.  It was so helpful.  The only ride we waited in line for was Toy Story Mania.  It was so fun, we got a fast pass to ride it again.  (FP gives you a scheduled time to return and you can return and most times walk right up to the ride w/out any wait).  

The girls also had their first encounter with a character at Hollywood Studios and it was Piglet.  Who could be afraid of Piglet?  I promised to hold their hands and we would ask Piglet for his autograph.  I could feel the resistance in LE's hands, but Bella walked right up to him and hugged him.  By the end of our time with Piglet, we had autographs, hugs and pictures, SUCCESS!  And that was the beginning of a whole new adventure, to try and collect every character's autograph (and the only other thing we waited in line for the rest of the week).  We had lunch at Pizza Planet, it was a quick service meal, meatball sandwiches and salads for Daddy and I, snack packs for the girls.  It was OK, decent for quick service.  It was fun for the girls to eat in the Pizza Planet from Toy Story.
We got a text mid afternoon that our room was ready, but ended up closing the park down.  We went to Target and bought bagels, juice and fruit for our breakfasts, another recommendation by travel expert.  Bed time 11:00 pm. with a 7 am wake up call the next morning.
Best Ride- Toy Story Mania
Best Moment - Bella meeting Pooh Bear
Best Show - Beauty and the Beast
Best Downtime - Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playscape

travel days

The girls did awesome on the drive to and from Disneyworld.  I did a lot of prep work to keep our sanity.  It paid off greatly.  I packed snacks for all of us and had them tucked into the pockets of the car doors.  The girls did not get drinks and we only had to make one potty stop that was not a lunch or gas stop.  Our first stop was outside Houston for lunch and then onto Louisiana where we stayed with my Uncle Chuck and Aunt Martha (arrived at 4:30).  I surprised Ben and made arrangements for us to eat at Ben's favorite seafood restaurant Middendorf''s, which kicked off our 2 weeks of gluttony behavior. 

The next morning we were on the road at 7:30 and stopped near the Louisiana border for breakfast.  We drove all day and arrived around 8:00 and decided to go ahead and hit Disney Downtown.  We had dinner at the Earl of Sandwich (best quick service meal we had- awesome hot sandwiches).  We decided to arrive the night before and stay at a non-Disney World  hotel.  I found an app called hotel tonight  (last minute hotel deals) and with my initial registration I received a $25 credit.  Our hotel bill was $20.  We had breakfast at IHOP and checked into our resort and spend the day at Hollywood Studios for our first adventure.

the big reveal

Originally we decided to not tell the girls we were going to Disneyworld until we arrived at the parks.  But changed our minds b/c we wanted to capture the moment on video. 

We decided to tell the girls the morning we were leaving and would announce we were late for a very important date.  The girls earned all of their tokens and so we were going to celebrate with a tea party.  I was able to get an Alice and white rabbit costume to seal the deal and the girls dressed up in silly costumes too.  At first, they were excited, but then it got a little too silly for them at 7 a.m. and Bella ended up in tears wanting to go back to bed.  We were able to coherse the girls back to the breakfast table, but they were not getting into the tea party vive.  Ben told them we were late for a very important date, and I asked where he was late too.  He said Disneyworld.  I asked who was going to Disneyworld, his reply was; me, you and these 2 princesses.  They did not believe us.  We finally had to show them the car packed with suitcases before they believed us.   They were still a little aprehensive, but as it sunk in, they got more excited.

Delirium

Things I have heard today:
Ahhh, my juice got smaller. - Bella
Its Nornia, not Narnia. - Bella
I rode the roller coaster called child swap. - Landry
We aren't in Texas b/c the roads are too bumpy. - Bella
Chicken, chicken, chicken, what combo you picken? -lunch stop in Baton Rouge
Are we there yet? - Mama

Movie time

Games - $10, books -$20, map pencils-$2, ipods loaded with movies - priceless

on the road again

I have been scouring pinterest and the Internet for road trip ideas.  Here are a few of my faves:

• atlas for each girl with a highlighter to mark our progress
• clipboards with a ream of paper, map pencils, sharpener, pencil attached with a string
• gifts to unwrap as we cross each state
• clip for each girl, if they disobey their clip is removed = discipline next pit stop
• roll of quarters for each girl, each time they ask how far or if we are there, I get a quarter; leftover quarters for arcade in hotel.
• tons of healthy snacks in snack bag servings
• rubbermaid container between their seats for all of their goodies
• a rubbermaid cereal box for trash