Disney - Day 2

Here we are wearing our Toy Story clothes.  All the men wore Buzz Lightyear shirts and the ladies wore Woody shirt.  Jillian and Hadleigh had Jesse shirts. 

Disney - Day 2 was our first full day at Disney.  I had read in a book that you should do Disney's Hollywood Studios first if you were taking little bittie children.  After having followed this book's plan to a tee, I would have to agree with the strategy.  This was us bright and early at 8:00 in the morning.  We wanted to be at the park opening at 9:00, 

Every morning and evening we rode the Disney shuttle busses to the parks.  It worked fairly well and most of the time we waited around 10 minutes for a bus. 

We made it. 

Here is the whole gang!!!

Evidently, Hollywood Studios was hosting a Star Wars Weekend.  We saw a lot of Star Wars characters and Mickey and Minnie were dressed up as Luke and Leia. 

Bryan liked seeing Bo Bo Phet.

The famous sorcerer's hat!!!

Our first ride - Toy Story Mania!!!!!

Mr. Potato Head giving us some instructions!

Jillian rode with Daddy and Rocco and Hadleigh rode with Mommy!!!

Next off to Little Mermaid theatre....

We had lunch reservations at Hollywood & Vine for a character lunch with the characters from Disney Jr.

Handy Manny!!!

Jake from Jake and Neverland Pirates was a BIG hit!!!!

Hadleigh could care less and was more interested in eating her green beans.

June from Little Einsteins!!!!

Agent Oso!!!!

Handy Manny again!!!!

Have I mentioned yet about the Florida heat and humidity?  Goodness gracious!!!  Florida was supposed to break a record today for the heat.  Can you tell in this picture how hot we are???  It was brutal.  Can I also mention that Hadleigh has still not adjusted to Florida and is refusing to nap in the stroller or anywhere else?   Can I be honest and say I was not adjusting well either and may or may not have had a breakdown and said something to the effect of "Let's go back to the hotel" with tears streaming down my face.

But everybody rallied around me and we pressed on.  We next went to the stage version of Beauty and the Beast!!  Very well done!!!!

Belle

Codsworth and Lumiere

Belle has broken the spell

Next we rode the Star Wars ride.  As an adult, this ride was very cute and fun!!!  I have not allowed my kids to watch any Star Wars movies yet so this had no meaning for them.  But they still rode the ride and liked it.   

R2D2 givng us some instructions.

Our 3d glasses!!!

Jillian got the requisite ear hat!!!!

 That night we decided to eat at our hotel and let everybody get a good night sleep for the next day.  When we got back to the hotel, the Disney Fairy had been hard at work and let treats since the kids were so good.  I think the Disney Fairy was being pretty generous to Hadleigh considering her behavior today but considering she was only 15 months, she got something too!!!

Minnie and Daisy!!!



Mickey doll - SCORE!!!!

After my breakdown, I totally had a turn around.  I really had to release my control (or realize I had no control really!!) of the situation and enjoy the day for what it was!!!  Of the 3 parks we went to, Hollywood Studios was my least favorite park  BUT the Toy Story Mania ride was in my top 5 things on the DisneyWorld trip. 

We Interrupt our Disney Programming...

On Sunday night, Jillian had her first dance recital.  Her dance studio had a theme for the recital of "Dancing Around the World" so each class was assigned a place.  Jillian's class was Louisiana.  Of course, (as I am sure you had no doubt) Jillian was clearly the best in her class.  There were about 12 little girls on stage shaking it to the "Riverboat Shuffle."  At one point, Jillian was to patty-cake with the girl on the left and then patty-cake with the girl on the right.  Well, the girl on the right forgot her part and Jillian grabbed her by the shoulders and twirled her around so that she could patty-cake with Jillian.  Soooo funny!!!!  All photography and videos were strictly banned during the performance (so you can spend lots of money buying the professional pics and the DVD) so you get her before and after.   

Ready on stage

Lining up with her classmates....

Her audience

More family cheerleaders!!!

She earned her flowers after that great performance!!!

Here are some of Jillian's practice sessions...

Disney - Day 1

Here we are - P Party of 5 ready to set off on our adventure!!!

We're baaaaack!!!!!  After 6 days, 5 nights jam-packed full of Disney excitement, we have been in recovery mode ever since!!!!  We throughly enjoyed our "vacation" and can see how it can be addictive.  We definitely want to go back.  And seeing how we have three little bitties that is saying A LOT!!!!  Since we did so much in such a little amount of time, I am going to post our adventure day by day!!

Jillian (dressed in her Disney princess smocked dress) and her Poppy in the airport!!  Needed a story before we got on the plane!!



Gavin and KK ready for take-off!!!

This was one excited little boy!!  He was ready for his first flight!!  Rocco got a new haircut for his trip to meet Buzz Lightyear!! 

Jillian and Daddy were so excited too!!!

Don't let her fool you!!  She looks excited but Hadleigh was our one hiccup in our "perfect" vacation.  She is usually our easy-going baby but we threw her for a loop with this airplane ride.  She was into EVERYTHING!  And did NOT sleep a wink on either plane ride. 

We arrived in Orlando and caught the Magic Express Shuttle to the Port Orleans Riverside Resort.  On the night of our arrival we made reservations at Mickey's Backyard Bar-b-q at the Fort Wilderness Resort.  Even though it was 6:00, it was really hot and humid but everybody was ready to go including Hadleigh who still had not slept a wink.  Everybody had a "costume change" and slipped into something Mickey and Minnie inspired and we were off to Fort Wilderness!!!  

She was practicing her pose for when she met Mickey and Minnie!!  The girls' outfits were so cute with the blinged-out Minnie and polka-dots.  They were from T@rget.  I love that store!!!



Told ya, she was ready for action and wanting to move!!!

And cool dude had to have his sunglasses too!!!

First we took a shuttle bus to the Magic Kingdom and then we took a boat across the lagoon to Fort Wilderness.  We would not have made it had it not been for the kindness of strangers to get us to our destination.  It was not as easy as we had thought.  Plus we were caravaning a party of 12 that included 5 age 6 and under!

BUT IT WAS ALL WORTH IT WHEN THIS IS WAITING FOR YOU AT YOUR DESTINATION!!!  MICKEY AND MINNIE!!!!

JILLIAN AND ROCCO RAN UP AND GAVE HUGS AND WERE SCREAMING!!!  EVEN HADLEIGH SHOWED NO FEAR OF ANY OF THE CHARACTERS WE MET!!! 

The food was delicious bar-b-q buffet and there was a country band singing and dancing. 

 At one point in our evening, I was holding Hadleigh and felt something wet running down my leg.  You guessed it!!!  Hadleigh's diaper had leaked everywhere and so I took her to the bathroom for a change of clothes.  As I come back to the stage area, I hear on the intercom, "What's your name little lady?  Jillian"  I could NOT believe it!!!!  Jillian and her cousin Gavin were chosen to go on stage and missed most of it!!!!  Here are pics from my Mom's camera!!!

Up on stage!!!!

Dancing with Chip and Dale!!!!

 Every night, we told the kids that if they were good and well-behaved, then the Disney Fairy would leave presents for them on their bed.  It worked like a charm and they did not ask for presents during the day (well, too much). 

New Jammies and water bottles because did I mention that it was HOT AND HUMID!!!

Day 1 was almost a complete perfect success except for our Hadleigh-boo.  She was out of her element and did not want to miss one single thing which meant chasing a hyper, sleep-deprived toddler for most of the day!!!  But since that is our only complaint of the day, then that is a pretty good day!!!