A Lesson in Kindness

There is a little boy at church who is not very nice to Briggs.  Today Briggs and I had this conversation:

Briggs:  "When I go to church, I am going to tell [that boy] that I don't like him because he is mean to me."
Me:  "Telling someone that you don't like them isn't very nice.  Even if someone is mean to us, we still need to be kind to them."
Briggs:  "Okay.  I will make him a card that says 'I don't like your behavior' and then I will draw a frowny face."

Not exactly what I had in mind, but at least he's moving in the right direction.

Zipper Club

Briggs has officially joined the pre-school zipper club.  This is an exclusive club at preschool designed by the teachers that you can join when you can zip your coat all by yourself.  I think the only perk to this club is getting to tell everyone that you are in the zipper club, but that seemed to be enough motivation for Briggs.  He never wanted to even attempt zipping his own coat when I was trying to teach him.  But add in a little peer pressure and now??

Official zipper club member!

Here's hoping they also have a no more throwing fits club, a patiently waiting club, and a never complaining about dinner club.  Fingers crossed!

Valentines

Three days before Valentine's Day, Staley informed me that she was going to hand-make all her own valentines.  Although she grossly underestimated how long it would take for her to make valentines for all 21 kids in her class, with a little help, she got them done.  She had a clever idea and they turned out really cute...

...and I'm not kitty-en.

Our Disney Trip: The End

Our final day at the parks could only be spent at our favorite park:  Magic Kingdom.  We arrived before park opening and got in an early line to meet Mickey at the Town Square Theater.  This is the only Mickey in all the parks that talks and we'd never taken the opportunity to meet him as his line is generally long.  Since they were celebrating Mickey and Minnie's 90th birthday, Minnie was joining Mickey at the Town Square Theater.  I thought this would be such a fun opportunity:  we'd get to meet talking Mickey and get to see Minnie too.

We came to find out that talking Mickey doesn't talk when he's hanging out with Minnie.  Big bummer!!  But we still got fun pictures with Mickey and Minnie in their birthday outfits.

And while I was hanging out in line, the kids got to go and see the Walt Disney World train.  Although it is not currently running, it was still sitting in the station and available for photos.  A consolation prize for Briggs since this was one of his very favorite rides at Disney.

Once we were done with our meet and greet, we headed over to Adventureland where we rode some magic carpets (twice), met Jasmine and Aladdin, sailed with pirates, and had a Dole Whip as a mid-morning snack.

All 3 kids loved the Magic Carpets.  We did them a lot!

Jasmine and Aladdin were fun to meet.

And since Briggs skipped out on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, he got first dibs on the Dole Whip.

We filled our day with as many rides and shows as we could fit in.  There were too many to list.  We did most of our old favorites, like the tea cups, Dumbo, Little Mermaid, Buzz Lightyear, People Mover, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train again.   Papa rode with Staley, Adelie, and I for his first mine train experience.  Unfortunately, I never got a picture for that one.  We also fit in other rides and shows we hadn't done yet this trip like Jungle Cruise, Monster's Inc Laugh Floor, Mickey's PhilharMagic, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. 

We took a late morning break in the action to boat over to Wilderness Lodge for lunch at the Whispering Canyon Café.  I was a little disappointed in our meal there.  The food was good with exceptionally yummy cornbread.  However, the atmosphere was supposed to be raucous, loud, and fun.  There were a few moments of that, like when our waitress had us yell across the restaurant that we wanted ketchup and then they brought us all the bottles of ketchup in the whole restaurant.  But for the most part, it didn't have quite the fun atmosphere I anticipated.

I did enjoy the boats as a mode of transportation.  Definitely a nice change of pace from all the bus rides.

Our afternoon was filled with more rides and more shows.  The girls did Enchanted Tales with Belle once more, where Adelie was again chosen to be the Beast and Staley was Philippe.  With as many times as they've done it now, my girls know what the cast members are looking for when they choose kids for certain parts.  The kids all wanted to watch the Festival of Fantasy Parade again, so we made sure to fit that in as well.  

My girls are such big fans of Enchanted Tales with Belle.

I'll be really sad when they outgrow their excitement about it.

Now the parades are something I hope they never outgrow.  I surely haven't.

After our dinner of flatbreads, sandwiches, and salads at Pinocchio Village Haus, Uma and Papa decided that they'd had enough fun for the day, but the kids were still ready for more.  We toured the Swiss Family Robinson tree house and did Jungle Cruise, Magic Carpets, and Pirates again.  We also happened upon a dance party with the Country Bears, and Staley and Adelie were excited to join in the dancing.  Briggs was happy to just sit in the stroller and watch.  The kids decided that they didn't want to watch the night time show and fireworks, so we took advantage of the fact that everyone else was watching them to do Winnie the Pooh, tea cups, the carousel, and It's a Small World with no lines.  A few minutes before park closing as we were getting off the carousel, we noticed that there was no wait to meet Cinderella and Elena, so we waltzed right in to see them.

The carousel at night is lots of fun.

Adelie was able to give her cards for Anastasia and Drizella to Cinderella.  Cinderella was very amused and said she would definitely pass them along, and I truly think she meant it.  I'm guessing Anastasia and Drizella don't get too much fan mail.

Briggs had only made about 8 cards for characters, but Elena was one of them.

There is just something extra-magical about the Disney parks at night.  I love that my kids are now old enough to stay up for all the night time Disney fun.

By the time we were done meeting the princesses and started wandering towards the exit, we got the unexpected surprise of seeing "The Kiss Goodnight."  This is a short musical light show on Cinderella's Castle that plays every 15-30 minutes or so after the park closes.  It was a fun way to end our day...and our vacation.  We could chalk that up as one more thing to add to our list of Disney experiences.

Good-bye, castle.

Good-bye, Disney.

That was our last park day, although our last planned day of vacation was the following day.  We slept in, checked out of our hotel, and then went to Disney Springs for lunch and shopping.  It was tainted for me a bit as we found out about our flight cancellation at the beginning of our meal, so I spent the majority of our Disney Springs time on the phone trying to sort out our flight, hotel, and luggage situations.  But we still enjoyed a fun lunch at the T-Rex restaurant and the kids got to pick out their souvenirs from Uma and Papa.  Briggs got a set of cars from the movie 'Cars' and the girls both got charm bracelets with a few Disney charms.

The T-Rex restaurant was a lot of fun.  There were animatronic dinosaurs throughout the restaurant and lots of prehistoric themed areas.

Unfortunately, there was also a meteor shower that occurred every 20 minutes or so where the lights flashed and there were rumbling sounds.  This really dampened Briggs' enjoyment of the restaurant.

We didn't have a lot of time to explore Disney Springs, but the kids shopped for their souvenirs at the World of Disney store and then enjoyed some time at the Lego store.

Each of our Disney trips is a vacation all its own.  Although there are similarities, the experience is new and different every time we go.  Yes, we ride some of the same rides and meet some of the same characters and eat at some of the same restaurants.  Yes, some of the parades and shows and night time entertainment remain the same.  Yes, the kids all have favorites from the previous trip that are a priority to do again.  But each time the magic changes.  Each time we try new things.  Each time we meet different people.  Each time we tweak what we do or how we schedule our time, and we always learn something new.  Each time we stumble across something fun that we hadn't planned.  And adding Zach's parents to the equation this time made it all the more fun as we all got to share our love of Disney with them.

When we return from our Disney trips, I love to pore over the pictures and think (and write and talk) about our trip.  But I also love to start planning ahead.  Because we didn't really say good-bye to Disney.  We just said...

...see you next time!

Our Disney Trip: Hollywood Studios Day

After our 2 days at Magic Kingdom, it was time to head off again to another park.  On our previous 2 trips, Hollywood Studios was the park that appealed the least to my kids.  However with the addition of Toy Story Land and Staley's increased interest in roller coasters, we found plenty to do to keep us busy for an entire day at Hollywood Studios.

Toy Story Land was a big hit!

We arrived to the park early, hoping to take advantage of some low wait times in the new Toy Story Land.  It worked!!  We rode Toy Story Mania followed by Alien Swirling Saucers with minimal wait times.  Toy Story Mania was Briggs' favorite ride of the entire trip, and I think it was Zach's favorite and Papa's favorite too.  Big win!  Luckily I had gotten Fast Passes for Zach, Papa, Briggs, and Adelie to do it again later in the day, and then they waited in line for an hour to do it one last time because Briggs was adamant that he wanted to do it again.

Toy Story Mania is a whole family favorite.

Hollywood Studios houses Rock 'n' Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror, two of the bigger thrill rides in all of Disney.  Staley was convinced that she wanted to do both, so I had gotten Fast Passes for us to do both rides.  Although initially nervous, she loved Rock 'n' Roller Coaster so much that we waited in line later in the day for 45 minutes so she could ride it a second time.

Even though her face may not convey it...

...Staley deemed Rock 'n' Roller Coaster her favorite ride in all of Disney.

My rockin' little gal!

Tower of Terror, on the other hand, was not Staley's favorite ride.  The creepy intro and set-up to the ride had Staley in tears, convinced that she didn't want to do it.  However, having learned from our Expedition Everest situation, I insisted that Staley go through with the ride.  We met some very supportive young adults in line who helped distract Staley.  And although Staley cried her way through most of the ride, as soon as it was over, she announced "I liked it!"  That drew a laugh from the rest of our plummeting elevator full of people who were probably judging me for dragging my crying child onto the ride in the first place.  Contrary to Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, however, Staley did not seek out an opportunity to do Tower of Terror again.

So scary!!

The other headlining ride for our day at Hollywood Studios was the new roller coaster in Toy Story Land called Slinky Dog Dash.  Staley and I had a Fast Pass to do that one together, and we were able to use Uma's Fast Pass and rider swap to do it together a second time without a wait.  It was a fun little coaster that Staley put into her top 5 rides at Disney.  (She ranked her top 10 rides/attractions, but I've lost track of exactly what number between 2 and 5 Slinky Dog Dash ranked.)  Staley, Uma, Papa, Adelie, and I also squeezed in a ride on Star Tours which is a motion simulated ride through Star Wars scenes.  Staley and I enjoyed it, while Adelie didn't care for it and it made Uma and Papa a little motion sick.  Lesson learned.

There's always time for photos on Star Wars props, even if my kids have never seen the movies.

Although there are not a ton of rides at Hollywood Studios, there are plenty of characters and shows to fill the rest of the day.  We met lots of characters throughout the day.  Some of the character interactions occurred while part of the family was off doing something else, but each kid got to meet at least some fun characters.

Pluto always cracks the kids up when he signs their autograph books by putting them on his nose.

A visit to Toy Story Land wouldn't be complete without meeting Buzz.

Staley and I had gotten in line to meet Woody and Jessie while waiting for the rest of the group to get done with Toy Story Mania.  We were close to the front of the line when everyone joined us, but then the girls chose to go see the Frozen show that was starting soon rather than stay to meet Woody and Jessie.  Briggs, however, passed on the show and loved all his attention from Woody and Jessie.  They might have been his most favorite characters we met.

Because there were no lines to speak of, Adelie and Briggs met Sofia...

and Doc McStuffins.

Chewbacca was Briggs' favorite character when he was only 10 months old.  I'm not sure if he still ranks among the tops for Briggs, but we meet him every time if for no other reason than to have comparison pictures from each trip.  And because he's one of Zach's favorite characters.

Apparently Briggs and Adelie weren't so sure about Kylo Ren.  You can probably tell by the serious side-eye Briggs is flashing.

The shows at Hollywood Studios are also entertaining.  Briggs chose not to do most of them (and cried through the ones we took him to), but the rest of us enjoyed them.  We saw the Little Mermaid show, the Frozen show, March of the Third Order, and Muppet Vision 3D.  The girls always cracked me up at the 3D shows, reaching out to try to grab things that appeared to be floating towards them.  Uma and Papa stayed with me and the girls for the night time show, Fantasmic, while Zach took Briggs back to the resort for an earlier bedtime.  We had never stayed for the Fantasmic show before and we all really enjoyed it.  Water displays and projections and fireworks and fire and boats and music and lots of special effects and Mickey and princesses and characters...I mean, they couldn't have fit much more into the show if they had tried.  Briggs would have hated it!

Although some days Papa accused me of withholding food in order to fit in more fun, we did find time to eat at Hollywood Studios.  We had a fun lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe.  It is fashioned after a 50's home and is made to seem like you are eating in a family kitchen being served by a family member. The food was all very good comfort food.  Zach and I shared a sampler of fried chicken and pot roast and meatloaf.  Yum!!  However, I think the highlight might have been the peanut butter and jelly milkshake.  For dinner, we used mobile ordering at Woody's Lunch Box in Toy Story Land.  The food was nothing special and they only had outdoor seating at tables with umbrellas.  Briggs was none too pleased.

Reality of waiting for our table at the Prime Time Café

Amazing the change when there is the promise of milk shakes if everyone just behaves.

Hollywood Studios was typically our least favorite park as a family, but the addition of Toy Story Land and the fact that my kids are growing into some of the bigger rides has really given it a boost.  We had another full, fun, park-opening-to-park-closing day.  For as much as we had packed into the week, it was still hard to believe we only had one park day left.

An incredible vacation with this incredible family

Our Disney Trip: Magic Kingdom Days

We had a long day and a late night at Epcot, so as much as it pained me, I let my family sleep in the next day.  By 9:00, I couldn't take it anymore and roused everybody out of bed so that we could head for our first day at Magic Kingdom.  It felt odd to wait until our third day at the parks to head to Magic Kingdom, but once there, we all remembered why it's our favorite.

The day was beautiful, warm, and sunny.  It was the perfect day to get reacquainted with our favorite park.  Since we got a late start, we arrived just in time to take advantage of our first Fast Passes:  Seven Dwarves Mine Train for Staley, Uma, and I while the rest of the clan went under the sea with the Little Mermaid ride.

Loving us some mine train!

We then fit in a visit with Ariel, a spin on the tea cups, a meet and greet with Alice, and a relaxing ride on the People Mover before lunch.  We also tried out the new mobile ordering feature to order our lunch at Columbia Harbor House while waiting in line for the People Mover and immediately added that to our list of time saving tips for Disney.  Loved it!!

Meeting mermaid Ariel is always a must for our family, especially for one specific family member.

Alice was lots of fun and the kids enjoyed spending time with her.

The People Mover is a favorite for Briggs.  It's like a slow, relaxing train ride.  What's not to like?

After lunch we did Enchanted Tales with Belle where Adelie was the Beast, Staley was Maurice, and Briggs was scared.  It made it even more fun that Papa and Zach were chosen to be the soldiers.

Zach and Papa had a starring role.

Staley shivered in the dungeon as a very convincing Maurice.

Adelie enjoyed her time in the spotlight.

And although Briggs refused to take part in the activity, he did agree to a picture with Belle.

We took a relaxing boat ride on the Liberty Square Riverboat before the Festival of Fantasy parade.  While Zach and Papa went to stake out a good spot for the parade, Uma and I took the kids for a spin on Dumbo before rushing back to catch the parade.

Dumbo is always a family favorite.

As is the parade.

We then enjoyed doing as many other rides as we could squeeze in for the rest of the afternoon and evening, including more Little Mermaid, Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin, It's a Small World, more tea cups, Haunted Mansion (for Zach and Papa), the carousel, and the Magic Carpets of Aladdin.  We took a small break in the fun for dinner at Ohana.  Riding the monorail to the restaurant was a highlight for Briggs.  Zach and I both LOVE the food at Ohana.  Unfortunately, our kids don't share the same sentiment.  They ate a lot of bread, nibbled on the meat, and then polished off their dessert.  

Uma and Adelie enjoying the Little Mermaid ride

We made it back to Magic Kingdom in time to fit in a few more rides (and a Dole Whip) before the night time show.  The Happily Ever After show is my favorite Disney night time show with projections on the castle, fireworks, music, and Tinkerbell flying down from the top of the castle.  Although it was insanely crowded and Briggs refused to watch it, I still thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle.

The next day was our "free day", meaning we did not have definite plans about which park to visit or what to do.  After our Epcot day, the kids had determined that they wanted to go back to Epcot for part of the day followed by swimming at our resort.  However, the day at Magic Kingdom changed their minds and they instead decided that we should head back to Magic Kingdom the next day for the morning followed by swimming at our resort.  So that's what we did.

We got to Magic Kingdom nice and early as Adelie had decided that she wanted to ride Seven Dwarves Mine Train and I hoped to do that before park opening.  Unfortunately, we soon learned that unlike the other parks that let you enter before the official opening time, Magic Kingdom holds everyone in the Main Street area until the posted opening time.  So we waited in a growing mass of people until the park opened, walked as quickly as we could to mine train when it opened, and still waited in a 20-30 minute line to ride.  In that time, Zach and Papa took Briggs on both the Buzz Lightyear ride and the Astro Orbiter (which made Zach feel a little ill).

I'm not sure why Adelie has her tongue out, but she enjoyed her first roller coaster experience and quickly deemed it her new favorite at Disney.

Once off the mine train, we were still able to fit in a few more rides, like the Barnstormer and Dumbo, before meeting a few princesses.

Tiana was Briggs's favorite princess...

while Rapunzel is a whole family favorite.

Because the day was cool and in the 50's, there was no line for Splash Mountain.  We had learned from a park employee that they actually change the splash levels on the ride based on the temperature.  Knowing that we wouldn't get too wet, Zach, Papa, Staley, and I took the plunge on Splash Mountain while Uma and the littles watched.  It ended up being one of Zach's favorite rides at Disney.

We then mobile ordered our tacos and nachos at Pecos Bills Tall Tale Inn for a quick bite of lunch.  We met Tinkerbell on our way out of the park before heading back to our resort for an afternoon of swimming.

Who doesn't love this little pixie?

We may have picked one of the coldest days of our trip for our swimming day, but that didn't stop the kids from loving it.  The pool was heated, so as long as we stayed in the water, it wasn't too bad.  We swam for over an hour before it was time to get ready for dinner.  We bused back to Magic Kingdom, boated over to Wilderness Lodge, and enjoyed an excellent meal at the Artist's Point restaurant.  This was my favorite meal of the trip.  The food was amazing (and plentiful), and we got to meet Snow White, Dopey, Grumpy, and the Wicked Queen.

The characters not only came to each table, but they also danced and entertained throughout the meal as well.

The kids didn't all nail the Grumpy pose...

but acting goofy with Dopey was something they had no problem with.

The evil queen was very entertaining.  She really embraced her character and was as vain as you'd expect.  I really enjoyed her.  She might have been one of my favorite characters this trip.

If the appetizers and dinner weren't good enough (they were!!), the meal was finished off with a sampling of desserts.  The poison apple, gooseberry pie, and miner's treasure were all scrumptious...and cute! 

The meal ended with the presentation of the hunter's gift.  Our waiter opened the fancy box and dry ice came steaming out.  Briggs was worried that the chocolate hearts and caramel popcorn would be too hot from all the smoke, but it was a fun end to the meal.

After dinner, Uma and Papa decided to head back to the resort while the kids wanted to go back to Magic Kingdom to fit in a few more rides before the park closed. So we did.  We skipped the fireworks and night time show in order to float our way through It's a Small World, ride in a honey pot for Winnie the Pooh, and take a quick spin on the tea cups.  As we were then heading out of the park towards the end of the night time show, hoping to beat the post fireworks rush, I realized that I did not have my camera.  My good, expensive, fancy camera that I had taken to our Snow White meal.  While Zach waited with the kids, I sprinted through the crowd back to the teacups.  Thankfully it had been found and turned in to the workers for the ride.  With great relief, I held tight to my camera as I found my way back to my family and we headed back to the resort.

We had filled two more days with theme park, resort, and restaurant fun, and we still had 2 more days at the parks to enjoy.  You'd think that the kids would be getting tired or grumpy or ready for a break, but they were still riding high and enjoying it all.  Thus is the magic of Disney!!