Vacation Day 3-Magic Kingdom Day! (pictures, pictures, pictures)

I can't believe it's taken me this long to get around to posting our Magic Kingdom adventure. It's been kinda crazy trying to get back into the swing of things around here. Our brains have switched over to summer but we still have just a couple weeks of school work left to do. And just when I'm about to get it all ironed back out, the girls are leaving for church camp on Friday. I'm kind of excited about it, though, because it will give me some time to plan out the rest of our summer.

Okay, back to our vacation.

We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning so we could be sure to get there before the park officially opened for the day. Everyone met in the lobby of the hotel so we could all go together. While we were waiting, the kids wanted their pictures taken with this Mickey statue. Can you tell they were a little excited?

We hiked over to the hotel across the street to catch the monorail. (Later we learned there was a bus from our hotel that would take us to the monorail. Saved us lots of walking the rest of the week). The monorail dropped us off at the gates to the MAGIC KINGDOM!

When we got there, we found out that the park opened a little later than we had thought. That was okay though because we have plenty of time to take group pictures.

Something I wasn't expecting was the heat. Florida in May is HOT! We were melting standing there waiting for the park to open. Just when I thought we were gonna loose a couple of the kids, they started the opening show. It was great! The kids loved seeing all the characters. It was a perfect way to begin our day.

Just as we came into the park, we met Daisy.

Then, we were off to Tomorrowland! We stopped by the Monsters Inc. show and then the Buzz Lightyear ride. On the way to the ride, there was a mechanical Buzz talking the the audience. Landon was so excited! He kept waving at it and saying "Hi Buzz!". I don't think he even noticed that it didn't wave back. During the ride, we managed to capture Zurg and put him behind bars, but there was one little problem...

When we came out of the Buzz ride, guess who was there to meet us?!

We went on more rides and met some more characters.

I think Peter Pan was my favorite character that we met (other than the princesses). He was awesome and spent a lot of time talking to the kids. They loved it!

Then, it was time for a nice, cool snack. We went to the ice cream shop on Main Street and got some very yummy sundaes. As we were sitting there enjoying our ice cream, the parade began. Daniel, Dakota, and Landon went up for a better view while Grandma Debbie, Sierra, Cheyenne, and I watched from afar and finished our snack. It was the first time Sierra got a good look at Tinkerbell and the princesses. She was pretty excited!

When the parade was over, it was finally time to meet Mickey and Minnie! We had to wait a few minutes for them to get back from the parade, but it didn't take long. We were really glad that they were greeting their guests in an air-conditioned building. Did I mention that it was HOT?

After we met Mickey and Minnie, our group split up. Daniel, Dakota, Landon, and Grandma Debbie went back to the hotel to rest up for the fireworks show and light parade. I kept the two girly-girls with me and we did some girly things, like meet the Princesses (who just happened to be in the same wonderfully air-conditioned building as Mickey and Minnie.

Meeting the princesses was amazing! They were in a private room and only about 5 families at a time were allowed in. We were the last family in our group. When we finished taking pictures with Aurora, we had to wait a minute or two before the group ahead of us finished with Belle. Aurora stood and talked to the girls and asked them to please invite Belle to a tea party with her in the afternoon. They were a little star-struck and almost forgot to ask her until I reminded them. Cheyenne finally spoke up and Belle said, "Oh, that would be so lovely! Would you please ask Cinderella if she would like to come too?" Of course Cinderella accepted the invitation and she said to Belle, who had walked over with us, "would it be okay if Jack and Gus-gus joined us as well?" Too cute!

After that, we shopped, rode rides, and just had fun together until it was time for the light parade and fireworks show. Of everything we did at Disney, this in the one thing I would really like to go back and do differently. I was disappointed with our experience for the parade and fireworks. It was crowded, which I expected, but people were incredibly rude-pushing and shoving to get closer. I ended up getting separated from my kids. They were just a little way in front of us, so no chance of them really getting lost, but it wasn't the way I had hoped things would happen. I was looking forward to sharing the experience with my kids but I couldn't even see them.

When the fireworks started, I quickly figured out why there hadn't been a lot of people in that spot when I first got there. We were a little too close to the castle. We could see the fireworks that went the highest, but didn't really get the full effect of the show. Oh well, we lived through it and went on to have a great time the rest of the trip.

Once the fireworks show was over, we were off to ride one last ride-Splash Mountain. When we went before (when Dakota was 5 and Cheyenne was 2) it had been Dakota's favorite ride so I waited until she was with us to ride it. Poor Sierra was so tired she could barely make it over there. But once we got on the ride, she perked right up. We all felt a little refreshed after Splash Mountain, so when we came to the Pirates of the Carribean ride, we couldn't pass it up. The park was open late that night-til 3am-for resort guests, so there was almost no waiting to get on. It was great!

Before we left for the night, we decided to stop by and let Dakota and Landon meet the princesses.

After visiting the princesses, you leave the building through the gift shop. We decided that it was the perfect time to get the kids' their Mickey Mouse ears. I love that they each picked a different kind. They fit the kids' personalities perfectly!

By the time we left, it was about 1am. We had a fun, exciting, exhausting day! We ate a little snack at the hotel and all crashed into bed to get ready for day 4-Epcot Center.