Disney day 3... Epcot

Here are a few photos from Epcot.  I have made a collage of princess pictures to save space and I'll put that up separately since they were from meetings that occurred all week.

We got to Epcot early so that we could head to Norway for breakfast with princesses in the Akershus castle first thing in the morning.  Today was the first day my mother started to use the scooter we rented.  Well, Day 1 was very short and on Day 2 we figured since we were leaving to go meet Annette, she didn't need it.  We were wrong on that day.  Luckily, all of the walking on Sunday didn't finish her off for the whole week.  But, the scooter changed the dynamic for sure.  Instead of waiting for Grammie to catch up, we were now racing along... Lew with 2 kids in the stroller and Mom on the scooter and I was the one running to keep up!  Norway is pretty far from the gate and our breakfast reservation was early!  But, we made it.

Belle was waiting to greet us and pose for a couple pictures before we were taken in and seated at our table.  They took photos of the kids were Belle and while we were eating, they brought them to our table as a gift to us from Belle.  At other Disney breakfasts, they took group photos before entering, bu those were brought to the table and offered to us for sale.  We said "No thank you" to both of those $30 packages (Tusker House and 'Ohana). 

Akershus Castle's breakfast had a buffet with yogurt, fruit, meats and pastries.  They also brought a platter to our table with lots of protein.

This was easily Carl's favorite meal.  They had salami on the buffet and he ate a ton of it!  Both kids were also really into the fresh fruit we had at each breakfast.  During the meal we met Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Snow White and Cinderella.  They all signed pages for the kids autograph scrapbooks and then posed for pictures. 

Here is my princess before we left the castle to begin our day.

We rode a few rides throughout the day in Epcot.  Test Track was not a favorite with Gretchen, but Carl enjoyed it.  It was a sort of roller coaster, but honestly, his favorite part was that once the ride was over, you got dumped into a real car showroom.  He would have stayed in the GMC Sierra all day if we let him.  Later on in the day, we used our Fast Passes for the ride called Soarin'.  If you are unfamiliar with the ride, you are in seats that hang from above and in front of you is a huge movie screen.  The movie begins and you feel as if you are in a hang glider flying over all these beautiful scenes.  Once scene is a grove of orange trees and you can actually smell the blossoms!  You end the scenery by flying over Disney in California at night with fireworks over the castle.  As you snake through the line to get to the ride, you see several warnings for motion sickness.  Well, we kept telling my mother she could just close her eyes.  She continued through the line until we entered the actual ride room.  We were escorted right to the front row.  She took one look at the seats and said to the worker, "I'm not staying.  How do I get out of here?"  And she exited immediately.  Wow - that was definitely the right choice!!!!  I was not in love with the ride, but Lew and the kids LOVED it!   They wanted to go again, but even in November, the lines were just way too long to wait to go again. 

We also wandered around through some other countries looking for characters and meals.  We waited a short time to get to meet The Beast - Carl's favorite!

Another neat little find was Club Cool.  It's sponsored by Coca Cola and you can stop in for free soft drinks.  They have several machines that dispense sodas from all over the world.  Many taste like you would expect, some are more fruity and one was horribly bitter.  I knew from friends who had gone before that the soda from Italy called Beverly was the bitter one and was ready to snap a picture of Gretchen trying it when a worker came through and said, "Oh is that the bad tasting one?   Watch out." and spoiled the surprise for her... and the photo for me.  She did taste it.  We all pretty much agreed the apple flavored one from Mexico was the favorite.

We went to see the interactive show "Turtle Talk With Crush".  Crush is the surfer dude turtle from Finding Nemo.  His show involves kids sitting down in front while Crush teaches them a few things about turtles and the oceans.  He then takes 1 or 2 questions from kids in the audience and through he magic of Disney, he responds to their question.  Gretchen was chosen as one of the question askers!!  Here is Crush listening to Gretchen's question: "What is your shell for?"   He answered that it was for protection, but I will ask Gretchen after school to tell me exactly what he said and come back and update this.

Carl posing outside after the show.... 

We missed so much in Epcot!  Definitely a 2 dayer next time!!

3 generations

Mine 1974.  

Claire's early 2000s. 

Carl's (yes, Santa brought him a Ken doll and Gretchen a Barbie) 2011.

The newest Ken has real hair, but on this version, it is as if he used glue for mousse.  It is super stiff.  He is also hard plastic.  The older 2 have rubber legs.  Surprisingly, the plastic one was the easiest to get standing up.  That extra hair must balance him out. 

100th day of kindergarten!

They have been counting up to this day, well, all year!  In the beginning of the year, every so often one would say, "Today was the 18th day of school."  or 22nd.   or 34th.  And I thought they were freakishly able to keep track of this in their heads.  We did eventually learn that they were counting days at school and making groups of 10 as they passed those mini milestones.   OK, so, they are smart with amazing memories, but the freakish number counting and skipping days for weekends was a little stretch.

An online friend was making her kids tee shirts for their upcoming 100th day and it inspired us to do the same!  They picked their colors and items and yesterday, they decorated their own shirts.  I did maybe 5 of Carl's stars and none of Gretchen's hearts.  All I did was keep tracking counting and keep the paint flowing!

They also had homework on a weekend.  That is odd - although, they had been assigned it during the week, so it could have been done sooner if you wanted.  They really do not get much homework for now.  I dont' know if that is an NC thing or a kindergarten thing.  I have friend in NY and MA with kids in 2nd grade and both complain of an insane amount of homework daily.  It will be interesting to see if NC brings that in a couple years.  Or, maybe by then we'll live somewhere else.  Who knows.  I told you Carl's fortune cookie said "You will move to a wonderful new home within the year."   Still cracking me up.  And, it seems to be sparking some home projects as well.  We've lived here 5 years now... and now he is ready to put cabinets in the laundry room.  (In time to move out per Carl's fortune?)  We are close to needing a new stove, too.  We have one of those slide in kinds... you know, the wicked expensive ones.  It's definitely going to need to be replaced before we sell the house.  The face of the stove has dropped and is not straight.  Plus, it has fallen into the bottom drawer, so we cannot open that.  Neat.  I can't remember exactly what is in that drawer, but it would be nice to be able to use it if I wanted.  (No, you cannot open it by sticking a spatula in the drawer and lifting upward.)  So, we're starting to think if we need to replace it to sell, why not look into doing it for ourselves and then it will be acceptable to sell later on. 

Back to the 100th day.

Here they are last night with completed homework assignments.

and here they are this morning in their creations

I brought the camera for dropping off at school today because I hoped the school's changing letter sign out front would say "Happy 100th Day".  It didn't.  It is still advertising Doughnuts for Dad and the upcoming PTA meeting.  Get this... someone nominated me for PTA VP.  One lady told me she saw my name on the list.  I said I never agreed to that and do NOT want to be on the board.  I am a member, but have never even been to a meeting because they meet on the same night each month as my camera club's competitions.   

So, I had the camera with me and snapped a couple shots as they headed into school.  We met up with a classmate on his way in, too and got some cute pics with all 3 kids, too.  But, I didn't ask his mom if I could post him here.

Gretchen is carrying a collage I made for the teachers.  100 pictures of class events.  I think it is small enough to not worry about permission to post the other kids on here.

I can't wait to pick them up and hear all about their celebration today.  Parents sent in small snack items to be divided up and given out so each child will have 100 little snacks.  We sent mini marshmallows, of course. 

They were so excited to have this 100th day.  Last night, as I was putting them to bed quickly so I could get back to the Superbowl, Carl just kept saying, "I just can't wait for the 100 th day of school!!"  They love school!! 

Disney report... Day 2... Magic Kingdom

Sunday morning we had breakfast reservations to eat with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore in The Crystal Palace.  Already, the familiarity was wrapping us in comfort.  I knew it would be a good meal with stuff my kids would eat, fun character interaction and lots of nice light streaming in from all those windows... hence then name Crystal Palace. 

We also were allowed to enter the Magic Kingdom before the park truly opened to go to our restaurant so I knew we could get some shots in front of the castle with few or no people in them. 

We posed and then headed over to wait to be called in.  I already shared the pictures from that meal back in November.  Click here to reread that post and enjoy seeing photos of us with Pooh et al. 

Lew said his favorite Disney ride from the times he went as a kid was the Tomorrowland Speedway.  Last year it was a hit with the kids... and this year was no different.  It was also cool that the first ride we rode on, we got my mom to ride on, too!  We all knew she wasn't going to be going on many rides with us.  Kind of thought the only thing we might drag her on was It's A Small World.

The worker let Carl and Lew drive a yellow car.  It was very important for that first ride. 

 Ahhhnnnnddddd.... they're off!

Of course, with low crowds, you can ride it a second time.  This time, my mom took the camera and I got to ride with Gretchen.  It was also cool to get a yellow car again. 

 The boys decided they just had to go one more time, but Gretchen opted to go meet Alice in Wonderland and the White rabbit instead. 

And we still got back in time to see the boys pulling into the finish area.

Last year, Gretchen met Chip & Dale by herself so this year, it happened that Carl was alone with us to wait to hug and meet them this year.  Both kids really love these big characters even though they cannot talk to you.  They do a great job of communicating just by gestures.  It is cool to see how silly they can be without words.  While Carl was doing this with Mom and me, Gretchen was riding Space Mountain with Lew!  Carl rode last year and would not go this year.  And, after riding this once, Gretchen won't do that again, either.  She hated it! 

 Here's Carl heading up a moving ramp to the People Mover.  It is a slow moving ride where you are sitting in open seats.  You go through some of the attractions like Space Mountain while a recorded voice tells you a little bit about the things.  It was a nice easy way to relax a bit.  We ended up riding several times throughout the week.

 Carl is looking out over the Speedway on the People Mover.

Here are the kids with Push The Trashcan, a radio controlled robot trashcan.  After seeing him rolling around - every time we saw a trashcan, Carl had to shove his arm in it expecting it to start moving and talking.  

Here is Wikipedia's description of Push:  The robot is puppeteered by a single operator in plain clothes. The transmitter is hidden inside a shoulder strapped gym bag, while the microphone is held at the mouth of the puppeteer, concealed in the hand. The robot contains a voice processor which changes the operator's voice to a high-pitched, nasal register. Since the operator is so close to the robot, Push can interact directly with guests.

Honestly, I do not know if he spoke to the kids.  I didn't see who was operating him.  At that time, I had read a little about it, but wasn't aware of who might be operating him. 

We only stayed until early afternoon because we were heading back over to Downtown Disney to meet a friend of mine who lives about an hour out of Orlando.  Here's a good reason to go to Disney on an off season time.  Here we are heading to the monorail leaving Magic Kingdom... all alone.

Annette, her husband Shawn and their 2 youngest kids, Sammi & Jake came out to meet us and hang out for the rest of the day.  We had so much fun just talking and watching the kids play!!  Mom had not started using her scooter and we almost killed her with the amount of walking we did during the day. 

Jake is the same age as the twins and Sammi had just turned 8.

You do not need to know how old Annette and I are.  We've been friends since we were both pregnant together! 

The girls hit it off immediately! I do wish we lived closer so we could visit a lot more often.  I really enjoyed the afternoon.

We all enjoyed dinner out together before they headed home.  It was a Sunday night, but they still had homework to do!  We called it a night, too.  We needed a good night's sleep because first thing Monday morning we had a reservation to have breakfast with princesses in a castle in Norway!!!

Happy Groundhog Day!!

These were all taken at home before we left for school.  Cloudy.  No shadows.

Then, as we drove the 4 miles to school, the skies started to clear.  See the shadows of the cars ahead of us?  We are stopped and the guy in front of us was just starting to roll.  I was not shooting at 50mph. 

By the time we rolled into the school parking lot, it was sunny.  So, rather than just drive up and have the kids unloaded by the volunteers, we parked and quickly snapped a shot with shadows. 

 It was already 60 this morning at 7:45. I just keep over dressing them because we have so many fun winter clothes and not enough time to wear all the outfits. They report they are comfortable in school and not too hot. So, I will continue to dress them in sweaters for now. Aren't they cute?

Off to learn!  See you guys at 2:30!

Here's my shadow before getting back in the van.  Hopefully the other parents dropping off their kids had not had enough coffee yet and didn't think I was nuts.

So, conflicting reports from our "groundhogs" here.

We predict that Spring will begin on March 20th and that until then, it will be 70 and sunny like it always is in late winter in NC.

Disney reports... Day 1... Downtown Disney

I was going to try and be more brief with the 2011 reports, but I am certain that won't happen.  So, right from the start, I'll break the trip down into days again.

We drove to Orlando on Saturday, November 5th.  We arrived just in time to check into the condo at the allowed time.  We still had a few hours before we had to pick my mother up at the Orlando airport, so we took the kids to the pool for some fun after having been strapped in the car for 9 hours.  They love swimming. Always have and hopefully, always will.

We picked up my mother and headed to Downtown Disney for dinner and some shopping to kick off the vacation week!!

Dinner at The Earl of Sandwich was delicious!  This is the Holiday sandwich... turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy... all toasty and warm.  mmmmmmm

After dinner we were ready to shop a little before everyone dropped from exhaustion.  The Disney Store there is huge.  Huge!  We got separated for a while, but found everyone eventually.  That night, we let Gretchen buy a plastic princess snow globe and she is still thanking me for letting her buy something so beautiful on her first night in Disney!!  Later in the week, Carl found a Mickey one that he liked as well. 

We spent a lot more time playing outside the Lego Store this year and I still feel like we weren't there long enough.  The kids got to build and race cars down the ramp.  Wheels were hard to come by - you had to have good timing and ask the worker if he had any you could use.

Isn't this Lego dragon cool?  Also huge.  That's kind of a theme for Disney... larger than life!  All part of the magic, I guess. 

We found a candy store and they had the cookies that Gretchen had been waiting a whole year to get again.  She chose a frosted football! 

Goofy's Candy Co. was also the store where Carl first discovered Gummy Cheeseburgers.  Oh my goodness.  It was love at first bite!  He got to buy one every time he saw them for the rest of the trip.  He even asked Santa for one!  And, Santa gave him one!! 

We didn't stay out too late even though we had an extra hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings time.