Magic kingdom

Our last two days were with Mickey! I made reservations for breakfast in the park at Belle's castle an hour before the park opens, so we got to stroll around with only a few other people. 

Belle's castle had two big bright dining rooms and one dark creepy dining room that was supposed to be the forbidden west wing (with the rose in the glass case) of the castle. I chose that room. Met. Big Chicken (aka Gage) was terrified because it had fake thinder and lightening, and when the lightening lit up, it change the paintings on the wall from the prince to the beast. I should have known! He is such a scaredy cat. But, breakfast was delish!

Once breakfast was over, we lined up for the dwarf train ride, which is new. We were on the first ride of yet day, 10 minutes before the park even opened!  Amazingly...Gage actually loved it, even though it was a roller coaster and had some dark tunnels. He said it's his new favorite ride!

Next up....Belle's Enchanted Tales. The audience gets parts to act out a story with Belle. So fun- and truly magical. 

Savannah was Mrs. Potts (the teapot), so her job was to bounce :-)

Crazy drivers on the speedway!

Goofy spent lots of time trying to make Savannah's hair staticky!

Next, we took a break from the park and went back to the hotel to surprise the kids with a tea party with the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland. No grow ups allowed, so Adam and I had to go get a cocktail or two at the pool bar ;-).  When it was time to pick them up, they swept to doors open and all the kids joes up from hiding and yelled surprise!

While they were tea partying it up, Adam and I found a hidden art Poppins garden!

Animal kingdom

Our next stop was Animal Kingdom! 

Savannah and Adam always ride the Everest coaster as many times as they can (6 this year, last year it was 12!), so Gage and I wander around and make our own fun...like meeting Baloo and Louie from the Jungle Book!

And finding a shady spot in a rickshaw :-)

We always see the Bugs Life show while we are there. Every year, Gage cries and hides his eyes because he's scared of it. Every year I wonder if he will stop being afraid of this show. Well, it wasn't this year. He sat in my lap, his his eyes, and whined for most of the show. He is a chicken - there is nothing scary in the show!!!! 

This dinosaur horn cracks me up every year ;-)

Universal

Universal was a hit! Savannah was in her glory at the Harry Potter area!

I found out you can buy a wand that lets you do "magic", so...I gave in and bought them each a wand. They had a map of spots and would have to recite a spell and wave the wand a certain way to make magic (things in shop windows opened/moved/etc). Loved picking out their wants in the wand shop. Felt like we were in the HP movie!!

Savannah and Adam were off riding roller coasters, so Gage and I cooled off with a frozen butter beer. OMG - yum.

Dr Seuss was awesome!!

And yes..they have a super hero park!

Disney!

This is how we settle into every hotel room - jumping on the bed!

They loved this play area where the mad hatters hat dumped water on them. Conveniently, it was right next to the pool bar. Disney does things right ;-)

Gage loved this old swimming scene - he "swam" past it every time we walked by!

We actually took an entire day to stay at the hotel and enjoy the pool, etc. such a great start to our trip!

I live that we can take the resort boat when we stay at the Grand Floridian. This was an afternoon boat ride just for the fun of it! All we did was do "the loop" for a ride :-)

This may be the last time we see Gage is swimmies - he decided it was time to swim, and so he did. He took his armbands off and started swimming like a pro. Yeah!!!! 

We spoiled ourselves rotten and stayed at the Grand Floridian. They still do turndown service in the evening - turn down the bed, pose the stuffed animals, turn on music and low lighting, and leave chocolates on the bed. Gage was living the dream!!!

Field Day!

Such a fun (and hot) field day this year!!

Super Skate!

We have been talking about trying out roller skating for ages, and we finally gave it a go on Sunday.  

These skate "walkers" are the best! Where were these when I learned to roller skate? 

Gage was feeling pretty confident when we were on the carpet. He was even doing some breakdancer moves. But...once we got on the wood floor, his attitude changed. He got scared. We made it 1/3 of the way around the rink and he decided to sit down and watch us. And then, he fell. That was it. He sat down and would not get back on the rink again. But...he did skate all over the carpeted floor, so at least he got back "in it".

And then there was savannah. They are like night and day, these two. Savannah was determined to get it. I skated with her for a bit, and then she decided to go around the rink by herself while I say with Gage for a few minutes. First, she went around with the walker and then she said "screw this walker" (okay, she didn't really say that) and went off on her own. Check her out...

Pep and Gage

Gage may not have been a big fan of Pepper at first (probably because she was always jumping on him), but he loves  her now. I think the feeling is mutual ;-)

Shark tooth creek

The kids had Friday off school, so we planned a filt field trip to Shark Tooth Creek. The story behind the creek is that millions of years ago, it was either the edge of the ocean, or an island where shark teeth washes up on shore. The teeth are all trapped in limestone and the water wears it away over time to release the teeth. So, we took the shark tooth express (a hayride without the hay) down to the creek. 

We spent about an hour hunting for sharks teeth. And we found them...a lot of them!

M. Ken keeps an eye who for who finds big teeth and marks the kids' hands to put them in "the x club" if they are in the running for the biggest tooth contest. 

After we finished at the creek, Mr Ken weighed all the kids' bags to see who found tug most. Gage was in first place for a while with 4.8 oz, but some other kid won with 7.5 oz.