Thursday, October 31, 2013

We interupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you... Halloween.

Last weekend one of the towns in our area had some Pre-Halloween Trick-or-Treating.  Since Halloween is so much fun and we all like wearing our costumes more than once we decided to go.


Rosie and I dressed up as Butterflies. Monarch Butterflies to be exact, and Obi was a caterpillar.

Nana was Minnie Mouse and William dressed up as a Jedi.


Isn't Obi the cutest little Caterpillar?! He was so proud of his little costume and kept the hood on all night.

Here he is playing with his glow stick William gave him.

Rosie was the sweetest little princess butterfly.

We started our evening at the local coffee shop for some hot Chocolate.



He's the tiredest little caterpillar.


With a hot chocolate mustache.
We ran into a Sith Lord and a Storm Trooper.
Obi was so cute carrying around the little suckers that people gave him. He ended up with quite a collection of them and held on to them so tightly. He was very proud of them.
SO many people had alot of really great costumes. There was one family who had a little baby in a wagon dressed up as little miss muffet and her brother was a spider. They were so cute.
This little boy we dressed up as Doctor Who. I told him he was adorable and he told me he was The Doctor. I had to take his picture. 
He's got a sonic screwdriver and everything.

Family Halloween Picture

The town closed the street on their historic Main street and the Tick or Treating was to each little shop. It was really fun.
Obi was adorable walking up and down the street with his Nana.
Seriously, Cutest kid ever!
Here are my little babies with candy in their mouths.
It was a fun Pre Halloween event and I loved seeing every one's costumes. It started at 5pm so it was still light out, which was good for kids. We ended the evening eating at a local Diner.

Today is actual Halloween but it's very blustery out and most of the local churches and communities have postponed trick or treating till tomorrow night.

Happy Halloween Everyone! 
I hope you have a fun filled day with lots of candy and smiles.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Walt Disney World -- Day 3 -- Pool Day

 On Wednesday we decided to take a Pool Day. One of the main reasons we chose the Hotel we stayed in was because we liked their pool so much last time we visited. It's big and has a fun fountain in the middle and there's lots of room to play.

(We stayed in All Star Music)



At first we went back and forth about weather we should go into the park or stay in the pool that day. Wednesday is the slowest day in the park and great if you really hate long lines.

But we were all a little tied and it just felt nice to sleep in and then play in the pool.

Plus, in true Disney fashion, a day in the pool is not just any day in the pool. Everyday they have a pool side activities and games, a pool wide dance party and in the evening they show a movie. You can sit in the pool to watch it or on beach chairs. 

You can also get snacks, food and drinks at the hotel cafeteria or at the pool side bar.

Both Rosie and Obi love being in the water and asked every day if they could get in the pool. So they were very happy to be able to spend the whole day in the water.

 I was so impressed with Rosie and how confident she got in the water. She went from wanted to be carried to whole time to being so excited that she could touch the bottom on her own. 
Here she is on her tippy toes out as far from the steps as she could get. She was so happy.

Obadiah was amazing in the pool too. Absolutely no fear. He even loved it when his Daddy swung him through the air and splashed him down in the water again.

Both the kids loved being on the steps on their own. They played there for hours.
I am so happy I decided to buy a disposable water camera. It's so fun to have these pictures of the fun times we had in the water together. I will always travel with a water camera from now on.
Behind us is the fun water fountain that shoots water into the pool. The kids loved trying to dodge the water.

Our pool area also had a little kiddy pool. It was just shallow enough to sit in and it was SUPER warm. When the big pool got too much or if we just wanted a jacuzzi like experience we hopped in the kids pool. This pool was especially nice at night after we got back from the parks because it was so warm.
The kids loved having their Papa around all week. They climbed on him and wrestled him and had him carry them every where. I think he was very warn out by the end of the week.
Disney also provides vests for the kids if they want them. A lot of the other kids in the pool used them so they could play in the pool without their parents. We tried to get our kids to wear them but they didn't  like them.  (There are also amazing life guards on duty from 7am to 11pm)

Papa is wearing one of the vests on his head in hopes to get Obi to like it. Silly Papa.
Those are some good looking boys there.
To end our "day off" we decided to make a dinner reservation at a nice restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Resort called Sanaa.  I'd read a lot about the different restaurants all over Disney World on the DisneyFoodBlog.com and this one had rave reviews as a little known gem. 


Besides the amazing food, the main draw to this place is the fact that it's right in the middle of an animal preserve with ceiling to floor windows so you can eat your meal with the zebras, giraffes and other African animals.

 Rosie loves animals and really enjoyed this place.


While we waited for our table we went out to an outside observation area. 

There was a really sweet man out there from Namibia, Africa, to answer all our questions and tell us about each animal. 

On a side note, one of my favorite things about being at Disney World are the funny things you see. Like this gruff looking man with his very cute Minnie Mouse purse. OK, so I'm sure it belonged to his daughter, who was also at his table, but I thought it was funny that he was keeping the purse with him.

 I'm kind of awful at remembering to take pictures of food, but I did manage to remember to take this picture of our appetizers.  The food and over all experience at Sanaa was by far the most amazing dinning experience of our whole trip.  Disney is famous for accommodating any food allergy at any of their eating establishments, but the Chef and our Waitress at Sanaa went above and beyond.
After our fabulous dinner we sat out on a lobby balcony, sat in rocking chairs and watched the animals graze.
As we headed back to our car we decided to check out the pool area. I loved our pool at our hotel but the pool at the Animal Kingdom Lodge definitely gave me pool envy. 
There was no one else there so we stayed an hour or so and let the kids play in the kid area. I don't know why I didn't think to take pictures.
It was really fun watching the kids play in the foot pools and climb on the giant foam snakes and the rope bridges.

By then we were all very tired and headed back to our hotel to sleep off our amazing day.

 Before I went to bed I scheduled a wake up call for the morning from a Disney Character. It's the little things that make everything about Disney so Magical.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Walt Disney World -- Day 2-- Epcot


On Tuesday we got ourselves up as early as we possibly could and made our way to Epcot. 

I managed to forget Rosie's sun glasses (but I did remember the sun screen!) So we had to stop and buy her some new ones.  Doesn't she look so cute and cool in her new glasses?

Epcot is a very different place than the Magic Kingdom. It's not quite as fun for the younger kids but for slightly older kids I think it could be really fun.

Rosie did like riding on the space ship right though and pretending she was an astronaut. We also spent A LOT of time in the Nemo area. I hadn't realized it the last time we came, bu they actually have a huge aquarium right there in Epcot!
It's so big that they have both Dolphins AND Manatees (my favorite!)  They also have a climbing space and a fun show about sea turtles and pretty much very fish and jelly fish and sting ray that you can imagine.

One thing  that I found especially magical was the brand new Starbucks! Did you know Starbucks was in Disney World now?!  There was a lovely and large Starbucks right across from the big water fountain.




 And they even have special Disney Starbucks cups!
After a long time in the aquarium it was time to find lunch. 

Rosie wanted ice cream for lunch. Which seemed like a good vacation idea to me.

We were also lucky enough to be visiting during Food and Wine Festival.

The Food and Wine Festival consists of hundreds of booths set up around Epcot from different countries of the world. Each booth has about three things on the menu and for a small price you can get a sampling of food from each country.  It was fantastic food.


My favorite thing about Epcot the pavilions from countries around the world. Each pavilion is set up to closely resemble how an average street would look. The staff for each pavilion also comes directly from that country. So you get a real feel for how it would be to actually be visiting that country.

 It's fun to talk to the staff in each place and learn a little bit about their country.  The restaurants in each pavilion serve food from that country and the shops sell things that often times can only be found in that country.

Each country has a coloring area for little kids. We spent a long time in England coloring.





England is also the place where you can meet Winnie the Pooh!
Obadiah was so excited to meet Pooh Bear and ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug.




After a long time in England we moved on to France for more eating and shopping.  France is my favorite of all the pavilions and I enjoy eating there more than any other.

I really enjoyed the cheese plate I got in France but Obi was more in love with the chocolate muse.

We spent a long time just hanging out in France. It has such a nice peaceful atmosphere and it's a fun place to relax.

Both the kids love playing on and in the water fountain.

Obi especially loves water and was so excited when Papa took his shoes off and let him put his little feet in the water.

Then it started to rain a little bit. Luckily we had our rain Ponchos with us from the day before.
Everyone else went in doors to hide from the rain. But we stayed outside and ran around in it. Obi thought that was great fun to run around barefoot in the rain.  He looks like a little ghost here.
You know what else is fun a magical about Epcot? Alcohol. Especially Champagne from France. You can get a sampling of local liquor from each country but especially during Food and Wine festival there are a lot more options.
We aren't usually drinkers in the middle of the day, but this was vacation. And when else can you get French Brandy poured over French homemade ice cream?  That one made William really happy.
I do love French Champagne.  Plus I thought my mom was really cute in this picture.
Here's a picture of the Epcot ball (at the entrance of the park) from across the lake in France.
And here are my lovely tired people waiting in line to meet Belle in France.
 Belle was so sweet. When Rosie said, "I'm wearing something different today." Belle went right along with it and exclaimed that she had noticed that she'd changed her clothes and then she looked very lovely (we'd seen Belle in the Magic Kingdom just the day before). It was wonderful.

We had dinner in Morocco. I was trying to find something that we hadn't tired before and when I was planning our reservations. This place reminded me a lot of a place William and I ate in Urumqi, China. They even had a traditional Moroccan band and a belly dancer.
After dinner we wandered over to Germany. Rosie loves cuckoo clocks and the German shops have some amazing ones. The shop girl even made them all CooCoo for us!

 The kids also found some crowns and swords they liked.
"Look Mommy. I'm a Pirate Princess!"
We weren't going to stay for the fireworks show because my kids don't like the loud noise of them. But we kind of got caught in it on our way out. It was actually quite a nice show and both kids seemed to enjoy it. We made it through the whole show without any one asking to leave.
And that completed our day at Epcot. We were all very tired and a little sore (from all the walking and carrying of babies) and we all very much looked forward to sleeping in the next day.