Disney Day 4

Disney Day 4
We slept in after being out so late for the Halloween Party. Around noon we headed to Downtown Disney for lunch and shopping. K loves the BLTs at Earl of Sandwich so we had lunch there and went to the World of Disney for shopping.
We had reservations at Chef Mickey’s for Andrew’s Birthday Dinner. K had lost her mouse ears the previous morning at EPCOT so we had to stop by Lost and Found as well. We took the bus to Magic Kingdom and hopped the monorail to lost and found, got K’s hat and took the next monorail to Chef Mickey’s.
The food was great; especially the mozzarella mashed potatoes. The characters came by and Leah and Leila hid behind their hands. They brought Andrew’s cake out (that I had previously ordered) and Andrew was so excited. He blew out his candles and then noticed something! His cake only had seven candles instead of eight. Oops!  He was a good sport about it, but the look on his face when he noticed was funny. He told Minnie Mouse she was his favorite and she asked for a kiss on her nose. Andrew really wanted to ride Spaceship Earth but we weren’t able to do it when we were at EPCOT the previous day. We decided to just run in EPCOT, ride Space Mountain and head home.
We got to EPCOT, went through the turnstiles and entered. I was wearing my mouse ears, shorts and a t-shirt and pushing a double stroller. This woman walks up to me and asks me some question as if I worked there. Apparently she was really enjoying the Food and WINE festival at EPCOT.
We got to Spaceship Earth and it was closed temporarily. We decided to wait and see if it would open soon. We found our tile that Josh and I had made for the Leave a Legacy project in 2000. I took pictures last April. I still can’t get over how young we looked!
Spaceship Earth finally reopened and Andrew was THRILLED when I told him he could ride in his own car. We headed back to the hotel after that. We had a busy day scheduled the next day starting with Breakfast in Cinderella’s castle!

Disney Day 3

Jen met up with us bright and early at our resort and we headed to EPCOT. Andrew wanted to try Mission Space and Test Track and he wanted to do Soarin’. We did Soarin’ over California in Disney’s California Adventure in September of 2007 and it was fun but the line in EPCOT last time was so long. The girls can’t ride it so we passed on it last Spring. Between the Fastpass system and our plan we managed to tackle it all.
We headed over to Mission Space and K wanted to ride the orange and Andrew wanted to ride the green. Orange is a rougher ride so we did the baby swap and I rode with K and Jen and Andrew would wait with the girls. It was an intense ride, but fun. I went to relieve Jen from stroller duty and Andrew decided he wanted me to ride the green with him and Jen. K was a good sport so I rode Mission Space twice in a row; once on orange and once on green. We headed over to Test Track and did baby swap. K and Andrew went first and Jen and I visited. Then we switched but Andrew rode again!  During the Mission Space exchange, Jen ran over to Soarin’ and got fastpasses for later. Our return time was 11:40am. We had lunch reservations at the Coral Reef at 11:20am.
We went to the Journey into Imagination ride and then headed over to the Living Seas exhibit and rode the Nemo ride and went to lunch at the Coral Reef. They have the dining room set up where one wall is the aquarium. We had a HUGE sea turtle come by as well as a shark and other large fish. I’m allergic to seafood so I had the steak. It was ok but the dessert, butterscotch crème’ brule’ was DIVINE!!!
After lunch we headed over to Soarin’ and even with fastpasses it took a VERY long time. We had planned to leave EPCOT around 12:30pm. We left around 2:30pm. We had to get back to the resort to rest before Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party that night. We all crashed for a good afternoon nap and when we woke up we changed into our “costumes.” Some people go in full blown costumes but between the heat and the need for practical shoes, I decided we could go as M&Ms. This became a logistical nightmare trying to get ALL of our shirts in different colors and sizes but we managed to make it happen. We arrived around 5:30pm and the party was to start at 7pm. We rode a few rides and my plan was to be a Cinderella’s coach right at 7pm for a picture. This is a rare opportunity. We got in line at 6:30pm and they opened the coach pictures early. Right when we got to the coach for our pictures, it started raining. We got out our ponchos and headed to see Snow White and the 7 dwarves. This is another rare opportunity to get a picture with Snow White and ALL 7 dwarves. We got in line and waited. Finally a cast member came out and said they can’t some out in the rain. *SIGH*
The rain started coming down harder so we sought shelter. We ended up at the tea cups and rode and rode and rode. Sometimes we would see how fast we could spin them, other times we just left it alone. Sometimes we rode together, other times we rode separately.
Finally the rain let up and we headed to trick or treat. Jen decided to go ahead and stake out a spot for the fireworks and the parade with the girls while K, Andrew and I explored the party more. We saw Goofy dancing to Black Eyed Peas “I’ve got a feeling” and got our bags filled with candy. We also got to walk on to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Andrew got over 200,000 points! I took a picture of the score because he was so proud.
We met Jen and watched the fireworks show. Leah slept through it (with her leg on Jen’s camera) but woke up in time for the parade. Before the parade the Headless Horseman rides through. It was fun to see. We picked up more candy along the way and decided to call it a night. The kids were exhausted and I think the best approach would have been to have rested the entire day before the party. Regardless, it was fun and we planned to rest the following day.

Disney Day 2

We got up bright and early for our breakfast with Pooh and Friends. We were able to enter the Magic Kingdom early to get to our reservation at the Crystal Palace. It was nice to get a few pictures of the castle, etc without so many people.
Breakfast was good and our waitress was Moroccan. I told her about the girls and she went nuts (in a good way)! She got her friend who was also a waitress from Morocco and we took a picture with them. They were very sweet. It made me miss Morocco a little.
Pooh and friends came by to take pictures, etc. The girls only like them from a distance. It was kind of funny watching them give the characters the evil eye or hiding behind their hands. I just got in the habit of telling the characters to take a picture with Andrew and move on because the girls didn’t like them close up!
Then we were off to ride the rides. We rode everything we wanted to in Fantasyland and Toontown and Splash Mountain before lunch. Andrew liked Goofy’s Barnstormer the best. It’s a kid rollercoaster and I think by the end of the trip he rode it around 5 times. Everyday we went back to the hotel room around noon for nap until the evening. Andrew didn’t really care for Splash Mountain (even though he rode it when he was 3 at Tokyo Disney) but he was still up for trying Mission Space and Test Track at EPCOT as well as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on another day.
After nap we went back to the Magic Kingdom and rode a few more rides including Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. We picked up our customized Mickey Mouse ears (yes, we are dorks but we had fun!) to wear the rest of the trip. We also got to meet our friend Jen. Jen went to college with Josh and I and we spent many meals together in the school cafeteria. Jen and I had the same major and the three of us worked the same job. She is a teacher in Orlando and works nights, weekends and holidays at Disney. She was able to visit us for a week when we were in Japan (WAY FUN!) and she joined us for a day in Disney last April. We met for dinner and agreed to meet up the next day.