Disney 12-11-12

Our first day in the parks we decided to hit up Magic Kingdom, of course. We had reservations at Crystal Palace on Main Street to eat breakfast with Winnie and Friends before the park opened. We went through a event entrance and got a sneak peek of the park early.

At breakfast, Elli loved seeing all the characters. She would reach out for them.

She was really intrigued by Winnie's red shirt!

Then Winnie gave her a kiss....

She wasn't sure what to think about it...

Then she decided how she really felt about it!

Eeyore understand the tears and made her fell better about it. 

Brady loved the parade around the restaurant. 

Reese got her first of many birthday cupcakes. But all she ever ate was the sprinkles.

 After breakfast we headed straight to the new fantasy land section, one because it was new but two, because Reese had requested to meet Ariel (because she had on Little Mermaid panties).

 Another part of the New Fantasyland was Belle's (and Beast) castle. Brady kept asking to go up into the castle. It was hard to answer this question because the castle is only like ten feet tall. They made it a mirage to seem huge when it is really tiny.

 Of course we had to hit up this iconic Dumbo ride. Brady will later say this was one of her favorite moments of the trip...shocking to me because look to the far right of the picture. She threw a giant tantrum that Reese got to be in pink and she had to be in yellow...

 The Mickey and Friends meet and greet in Fantasy Land was great because they were all wearing their circus outfit.

 And Minnie was wearing PINK!!!!

We grabbed lunch at Be Our Guest. The three ballrooms to eat in were decorated beautifully! We ate in the West Wing, where the magic rose is kept. 

 
 Next stop, Tomorrowland. Karl spent like 2 hours trying to get Brady to ride Space Mountain with him. He even tried bribing her...no go!

 One theme you may notice through out all the pictures is Brady's need to 'strike a pose' we often took a second picture where she was standing straight, because we didn't want every picture to look like this...

Off to Hollywood Studios tomorrow...

Disney World 12/10/12

I want to journal day by day of our recent trip to Disney World. We had such a magical trip that I want to try to document as many details as possible.

We started our trip as early as possible Monday morning. The girls missed the week of school for this. Brady kept asking me what time it was and wanted to know what the kids at school were doing. I purchased Usborne Book sticker books for the girls and it entertained them in the car for a huge chunk of time.

Our first stop we pulled into a rest area, and Reese asked "Is this Disney World?"

All three girls were troopers on the car ride, but we quickly realized Elli was coming down with a cold, maybe even an ear infection.

Brady made sure to have her camera in the back of the van with her so that upon entering Disney she could take pictures. We got there afterdark but the girls ohhhed and ahhhed at all the lights they saw. Reese exclaimed "I love Disney mommy, thank you" Shortly after that Brady states "this is way better than preschool!"

I bought fancy princess nightgowns for the girls for this trip. After Brady got hers on she called it her "royal evening gown" and pranced around the room.

We stayed at the Art of Animation Suite hotel. We were in the Cars Movie section. There was so many amazing details. I highly recommend this hotel to families with young kids. In the nightgown pictures above, the girls are in the murphy bed. When it is put away, it becomes a table for four.

 The shower curtain in one of the two bathrooms.

 All the lighting with Cozy Cone related.

There are lots of 'characters' to take pictures with as well. Pictures to come in a later post!

Mini Mani Party

We are celebrating Reese's 4th birthday at Disney. But I couldn't resist a little party with a couple friends as we say farewell to this city. Here are a few pictures of the 4 year old fun! Yes, Reese loves her colonial dress...she just thinks she is the bees knees when she wears it. 

Smilely Elli

So, in response to the Christmas card, my sister asked me the other day if Elli ever cries. She said every picture she sees of Elli she has a huge smile. Here is a sampling of that awesome smile. If you make eye contact with Elli and say something sweet to her, you will most likely get this huge smile from her. 

I thought to myself as my sister asked me this question at 8:00 at night, and I couldn't remember Elli crying on that particular day. She grunts or whines, but rarely cries.... I am a lucky momma!

So at dinner tonight when she looked at us and randomly gave us the fat lip and then pulled out full on tears, I, like every mom would,  grabbed (nope not the baby)... the camera. So here it is Andi, a unhappy Elli.

How is she so cute even in full on tears?

Did you spy her two new teeth?

Farewell MSP

The girls had their last day of school at Montessori School of Pensacola. I knew when I looked at the school just under 3 years ago this school was special and a perfect fit for my girls, but Friday as we said our good byes that decision was confirmed.

These are the faces of the three teachers as they had to give the girls a hug one last time.

 I am not sure if you can tell in the pictures, but all three teachers were boo-hooing as they gave out hugs. One teacher was even heaving/shaking from tears as she gave me a hug. I will be lucky if I ever find teachers this compassionate about my kids again.

I did get one huge reminder from Reese. I was asking her to give out hugs to her friends and teachers to say good-bye, but Reese just kept coming back and giving me hugs. I was thinking I needed to get her to give hugs, then it hit me...she was giving hugs...to me! I was overwhelmed by ease in knowing that with this move, I will say lots of good-byes to lots of amazing people but I will always have my family by my side. I will always be able to get the best hugs there are, those from my husband and girls. "Home is where the Navy sends us" is a common phrase among us military families. It is true, I may not be in NC but I am HOME with my family.

I had to chuckle to myself though, Reese finally gave one hug to a friend, and I was shocked by what I saw.

This is the same little boy she asked for help on the calendar when she was the leader of the day the previous week.... I think Reese has a crush!

On a side note: I think the girls are unphased by this move. They are looking forward to Disney World and may not quite understand the permanence of the move. Also it helps big time that their best friend from school last year now lives in Virginia Beach. They are super pumped to be back in the same city as her.

Daddy's Girl

Brady proudly labels herself as a daddy's girl. They have started working out on base weekly. There is a running trail with intermittent stations. She is very proud of her time with her daddy and she likes to show me the exercises that are at the stations. 

Next Children's Book Author?

Reese received a kit to write her own story book. This is her story... grammar is obviously her doing. 

Well, would you buy a copy?