Rise and Shine

The kindergarten was in charge of December's Rise and Shine.  It was really cute and they did a great job!  Emily was in the front row with a red dress on.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving!  We spent the actual day with Roy's side of the family at his sister's house.

  On Saturday, we had Thanksgiving at my parent's house.  My brother Jeff and his fiancee Jessica w along with Mimi and Katie!  We had such a great time with them!!!  Emily and Ella enjoyed showing them their autograph/photograph books.

Last Day in Orlando: Pop Century Resort

The last day at Disney, so sad!  We only had until noon, so we slept late.  We packed our bags and played around at the resort until we had to head out to the airport.  Why we were almost late for our flight, I don't even know... I just know I didn't want the vacation to end because I knew we were going back home to the cold.  Pop Century was a wonderful resort.  We didn't know any different and a co-worker suggested it.  We were hardly in the room as well.  We stayed in the 50's section and you can see the big Lady and the Tramp statues.  It had 3 pools, so we went out to find all of them this morning.  We found lots of cool statues around.  They had a dj in the lobby playing 80's music and other eras.  As you can see, they had hoola hoops too!  I thought the food service was SO good and we hardly had to wait for the bus service.  It was kind of far to the Magic Kingdom (about 20 minutes or more), but we just judged that.  We had a wonderful vacation as you can see and hope to go back in about 5 years or so... :)

Downtown Disney

After leaving Magic Kingdom, Emily and Ella both fell asleep on the way back to the resort and had a very late nap.  I was wanting to do one more thing if we could since Epcot had Extended hours or do Downtown Disney.  Of course, Roy was against until we came back to the resort and both girls were bouncing off the walls at 7:30pm.  So, we decided to go see Downtown Disney even just for a couple of hours.  At 8 pm, we were in the bus to Downtown Disney. ha!  It was a really neat place and I'm glad we did stop in there.  I would love to go back when we had more time and we weren't exhausted.  They had the neatest toy stores and Mr. Potato Heads to play with, LegoLand was really cool.  We started to get a little hungry and have always wanted to eat at a Rainforest Cafe, so we put our name in for a reservation.  At 10 pm, we sat down to eat.  ha!  By this time, the kids were exhausted but Roy and I were actually enjoying it. They were a little afraid of the thunder in the restaurant, but I thought it was really neat.  We shared an appetizer platter and kid's meal.  The only meal we had to buy in Disney. :)  I will say that the restaurant was super crowded even that late with kids, so we didn't feel too guilty about having them out so late.  We took them to Goofy's candy shoppe, then we were back on the bus to the resort around 10:30pm.  It might be good that we didn't have long there or I would have gone crazy shopping.

Day 5: Last day in the parks (Magic Kingdom)

Above:  Inside Cinderella's castle

 Dumbo

 Grand Floridian resort

 Outside the Grand Floridian waiting for the ferry!  I would LOVE to stay here.

 Gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian

 The Green girls, Brooke and Caroline

Friday was our last day at the parks and we decided to go back to Magic Kingdom to finish seeing some characters Emily wanted autographs and ride some rides.  We had a 11:05 "breakfast" reservation at the Grand Floridian, which is near the Magic Kingdom but we were pressed for time of course.  We finally convinced Emily to ride Dumbo and she (and Ella) loved it!  Emily rode the Carousel again.  We got a Fast Pass for Pooh so we could go do that ride later.  We decided to try to see the Fairies before our breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian.  Well, that line hardly moved at all!  It was around 10:20 and I knew we would miss our breakfast if we stayed in this line, so we got out of it.  We were going to take the ferry to the Grand Floridian, but the boat was no where to be seen and it was about 10:45 at this point.  I decided that we better get on the monorail or we would never get there.  The Grand Floridian was the LAST stop of 4 on the monorail and it seemed to take forever, but it really didn't.  We finally arrived at the Grand Floridian right after 11.  Our reservation was in 5 minutes and we had no clue where the 1900 Park Fare was.  Roy and Emily used the stairs while Ella waited forever for the elevator.  We made the reservation maybe a couple minutes late!  This was the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast with Mary Poppins, Alice, and the Mad Hatter.  Pooh and Tigger were there too for some reason.  Emily loves the movie Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland, so this was something she was looking forward to all week!  The breakfast was amazing and the characters were very charming.

Now, we finally took the ferry boat back to the Magic Kingdom and we stopped at the Polynesian as well.  We went back in line for the fairies and after an hour's wait, we saw 3 of the fairies (Tinkerbell, Iridessa, and Vidia).  I have NO idea what took them so long both times, but Emily was happy.  We went through Minnie's house again b/c that was a favorite.  We all rode the Pooh ride.  Another on our "must see" list was Princess Tiana from Princess and the Frog.  I heard from other people that she would be back shortly after the parade, so I stood in line while Roy took Emily to see the parade (which we had already seen with Cita and Poppy on Tues but it is always good).  Ella and I could see it a little and could dance along.  Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen both finally came and both girls loved them!  Most of the characters stop at around 4:30 and we were nearing this time.  Emily wanted a picture with Jasmine, but she had already left.  I wanted to see Rapunzel in the new movie Tangled, but we never saw her either.  My friend Maria and her family were there for their first day, so we met briefly and got a picture.  I wish we could have spent more time, but they had a reservation and we were about done at the park!  We met them at Frontierland.  We didn't do many rides here like Splash Mountain or the roller coaster, but I'm sure we'll be doing that the next time.  We went to Adventureland and rode Aladdin's carpet ride and went up the Swiss Family Tree house. 

We stayed for the block party again and Emily and I danced in the street.  We saw Cinderella's castle lit up one last time.  It was kind of sad leaving the castle knowing we won't see it all lit up beautifully again for a few years, unless I win the lottery or something. ha!  I had been promising Emily a shirt, so she picked one out and a couple of small items for her cousin and friend.

Day 4: Pool, Jingle Jungle Parade, and Chef Mickey's

 Emily was dying to go swimming in the pool all week.  So, we decided to have a low-key morning and let her swim until it was time to take my parents to the airport.  We had thought about going to the beach before or after we had to take them to the airport, but we decided to do something at one of the parks instead so we wouldn't be rushed for our Chef Mickey's reservation.

 We stopped at Animal Kingdom after we got back from taking my parents to the airport, which was a lot further than we thought.  We made it just in time for the Jingle Jungle parade.  Very cute!

 We also got to see Dinoland, which we missed at the Animal Kingdom b/c we only did a few hours there that day.  Emily actually rode the ride there similar to Dumbo, so she was actually liking the rides now!  Yay!  This helped us a lot the next day at the Magic Kingdom.  She wanted one the Mickey Mouse ice cream as a snack.  By the way, we LOVED the free dining plan.  This was considered a snack and it was f-r-e-e.  I will be going back when they have that promotion again (well, in a few years).We also saw Nemo the Musical.  We made it to the final performance of the day and it was truly worth it!  It was very cute and I love musicals!!!  By they time it was over, the park had closed so we made our way (slowly) out. ;)

We had a reservation at Chef Mickey's that evening.  We rode the monorail into the Contemporary Resort, very cool!  This character meal did not disappoint.  The food was excellent and the characters were so much fun!  We saw Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto.  The picture with Donald did not turn out.  They had the cutest desserts too.

We actually got the resort relatively early that evening compared to the other nights, so Roy and Emily played at the arcade there and I shopped at the resort.  We also walked around the resort some that night.

Electric Street Parade

We got to the Magic Kingdom Wed. night just in time for the Electric Street Parade.  This is something that I remember vividly from when I went as a child.  They turn off all the lights in Magic Kingdom and the floats and costumes are all lit up.  It was very good, but we didn't have a good view b/c we arrived right in time.  Some nice lady let Emily up in front with her kids.  We also were able to see the Wishes Fireworks, which was truly spectacular and we were glad we saw it.  Tinkerbell flew from the castle.  I thought I got it on camera, but I didn't.  :(  I didn't get a good shot of the fireworks, but they have a moderator going as the fireworks went off talking about wishes coming true.  I had some tears in my eyes and truly felt the magic that night!  It was my parent's last night here (hard to believe we did all of this in 3 days).  We stayed another 2 1/2 days, so more to come...