Disney day 3

The plans for the next morning were to have breakfast bright and early at Chef Mickey's, which would give us time to hope on the monorail in time for the opening of Magic Kingdom. We did this same character meal last time, but it was so great wanted to do it again. 

We then hopped on the monorail just in time for park opening, although sadly we missed the characters coming in on the train. I had been keeping up with the wait times on the app, so I knew which ones we needed to hit quickly. We walked straight back to Peter Pan's Flight and the wait time was already 35 minutes or something, although I hadn't seen it less than 60. We stood in line and only waited about 15 minutes. We sent everyone else off to It's a Small World while we worked on fast passes. Of course, not much was left but we did get them for the Barnstormer, Dumbo, and Rapunzel meet and greet. My best advice for Disney (with young children especially) is get there early, nap, and come back late at night.

The carousel was a huge hit, just like last time.

We did several rides and decided that everyone was tired and we would come back that night. 

On the way out of the park, we happened upon the Sing it, Shake it! parade which is just the transitional characters in a very short parade. 

Unfortunately, Harper and Anderson were asleep and didn't get to see it, but Payton and the rest of us enjoyed it! We headed back to the hotel and everyone got great naps! We were exhausted from getting up and going so early that morning, plus we had stayed out late the previous night at Epcot until they closed. We ended up not making it back until later than we had planned (around dinner time), but it ended up perfect! Everyone was rested and full of energy. We were able to ride so many rides including the Goofy Barnstormer and Dumbo, which might have been the two favorites of the trip. Dumbo has an awesome playground inside while you wait, and that was as much excitement as the ride itself. Both of the girls LOVED the "collerroaster" as Harper said. I seriously should have counted how many times we rode it. Anytime I saw it 15 minutes or under I sent them that way.

Daddy took Harper (the only willing one) on a spin in the teacups. I believe this was also the night we did the cars and Buzz Light Year ride, as well as Tomorrow land. When people ask how it was taking children as young as ours, I typically say awesome. However, just as we had cashed in our fast passes about to step foot on the Buzz Light Year ride, Harper tells me she needs to potty. Those are the moments that are a little hairy. She ended up saying she could hold it, because she almost had a slight meltdown when I told her we weren't going to be able to ride. Thankfully, we made it through and straight to the nearest restroom.

Everyone told me we had to do Enchanted Tales with Belle, but I hadn't seen the line less than an hour and no fast passes had been available. It was getting pretty late, and the wait was down to 20 minutes so we went for it. Harper volunteered to be in the story, but Payton a little apprehensive. 

Belle even came over to give Anderson some love when she was finished.

Notice how there are no people walking around? We may, or may not have shut down the park at 1am. It was well worth it to get so much in without wait lines.

Disney day 1 and 2

Disney=fun. An eight hour drive with three children=not what we were looking forward to. I have to say, they all did fabulous! We left Auburn around 4:30 Sunday morning in hopes that we could squeeze a few hours of sleep in first thing. Harper had a slight meltdown as we tried to put her in the car and she proclaimed that you can't go to Disney World in pajamas. A quick clothing change and we were ready to go. Since we left early we didn't hit a lot of traffic and we were there shortly after lunch. Seriously, the kids did awesome. About an hour and a half outside of Orlando, we surprised them with the movie Frozen. That definitely helped the last bit go by quickly. We got checked into the hotel and Payton was dying to swim since the temps were in the 80's. She settled for the splash pad and she and Harper had a ball. We made a quick trip to Downtown Disney Sunday night mainly to make them feel like we were at Disney. A quick purchase of autograph books and we were on our way.

Day 2 was set for Hollywood Studios. We got going early and were there when the park opened. We headed straight for the Fast Pass + kiosk only to find that all fast passes for Buzz Lightyear were already out....and such would be the saga for the remainder of the trip. I hear that some changes have been made to the system since we went to make it better. The system was helpful, don't get me wrong, but you could only get 3 passes per day and they couldn't transfer to another park if you were park hopping. Obviously the availability was limited also. Anyways, we got passes for Disney Junior Live, Little Mermaid, and the Beauty and the Beast live on stage. We had about 30 minutes to kill so we headed to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground before it got crowded and the girls LOVED it. Then it was time for all of our shows. Of course they loved the Disney Junior show and we saw Sofia and Jake from a distance. Payton said she didn't want to wait in line to get their autograph so we didn't argue. Next was the Little Mermaid and then Beauty and the Beast, which was a great show I might add.

Having fun on the playground.

Disney Junior Live on Stage

Just like before, Payton and Harper loved the gold deb looms (sp???) from Jake and the confetti from the party.

We were checking into a different hotel Monday so we headed there to get settled and rest a bit. We decided that night we would try and hit Epcot and the fireworks. The garden festival was going on while we were there and it was beautiful, complete with colorful flowers and character topiaries. 

I decided to check the character spot and see if there was a line even though we had breakfast at Chef Mickey's scheduled the following morning. I'm sure glad we did because we literally walked right up! (Definitely a plus of visiting Epcot at night) The girls didn't skip a beat and went straight to he characters without hesitation.

Those smiles are what it's all about. They make every bit so worth it.

After visiting the characters we went up in the ball (don't remember the name), walked the countries, found beverages in Mexico and Germany, ate dinner, and hit a few rides before closing. Nana, Bamama and the girls hit Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush while Pop and Jonathan scored short lines on test track and Soarin' right before closing. Anderson and I hung out and drank a bottle. We watched the fireworks from afar and headed home to rest up for a big day on Tuesday.

Anderson ta 7 months

This sweet, happy, smiley boy is 7 months! In the past month he officially has two bottom teeth, sits up very well, has mastered army crawling, and right around his 7 month mark begin to get up on all fours and crawl.

His sweet little legs have gotten squishy. He is wearing mostly 6 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

 We're still eating solids twice per day and he hasn't shown to be too picky. He does have a pretty strong gag reflex when we've tried to give him puffs. I hate drool, but it sure is cute coming out of that sweet mouth. :)

He battled that nasty cold for almost a month, but hopefully he's completely on the mend now.

He is seriously the happiest baby most of the time!

Checking out the grass... we can't wait for it to warm up completely!

Time, PLEASE slow down! We're trying our best to soak up this sweet boy while he's still our little baby. He's just growing way too fast.

Payton's Art Party

Our sweet girl turned FIVE on February 21st. She's been excited about it for months. Mommy and daddy on the other hand...very sentimental. How is our tiny baby almost big enough to start school? With that being said, she is so excited about the big milestone, so I guess it's just God's way of helping me deal with it. We debated for a while what we would do for her party. She didn't want it at my school again, and Auburn is very limited on selections in February. We decided for an art party at the house and prayed for good weather. Thankfully, it turned out to be absolutely gorgeous and everything went off without a hitch. 

When everyone arrived they decorated a paint smock with markers before painting.

Then it was time for painting!

There were other tables set up with stickers, coloring, glue, pipe cleaners, any art supply we could think of. Payton LOVES art right now so it was perfect.

Masterpieces!

Eating time!

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday girl!

A rare picture of all five of us. 

We had an absolute blast and hope all of our guests did as well! 

Funny Harper

Harper is hilarious. She keeps us laughing and frustrated all at the same time. She has really been giving us some trouble with bedtime lately. After getting her settled the other night, she quietly came into our room to use the restroom. She didn't say anything when she came in, probably because she really didn't need to go since she had been right before we put her down. Anyways, it was about 15 minutes after putting her down and were already in bed. I asked Jonathan if it was Payton or Harper and we were just talking. She then comes out of the restroom and says, "Hey, you two supposed to be asleep. It's night night time." We lost it! Afterwards she quickly went back to her room, shut the door, and got back in bed.