Disney Day 5-Magic Kingdom

Wednesday March 12, 2014

Food
Lunch: Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café (Tomorrowland) (QS)
It was ok for a QS, but again its your average place, nothing above that.
Snack: Aloha Isle (Adventureland)
You must go get Dole Whip. Its Pineapple, ice cream, and juice. Fabulous!
Dinner: Ohana (Polynesian Resort) (Table Service)
Hands down the BEST Table service meal (actually the best meal we had).  It is just fabulous, fabulous and more! This is one restaurant you can not skip!

Fast Pass
1. Enchanted Tales with Belle (Fantasyland)
2. Peter Pan’s Flight (Fantasyland)
3. Meet Rapunzel and a Visiting Princess (Princess Fairytale Hall)
Now Elsa and Anna are at Princess Fairytale Hall that would be well worth the FastPass!

Other Rides We Rode
1. Under the Sea -Journey of the Little Mermaid (20 min max wait)
2. Dumbo the Flying Elephant (10 min wait)
3. it’s a small world (5-10 min wait)
4. Mad Tea Party (5 min wait)
5. The Magic Carpets of Aladdin (10 min)
6. Carousel (5 min-if that)
7. Tomorrowland Speedway (15-20 min)
8. Railroad (no wait)-fun way to get all around Magic Kingdom and just give yourself a break.

leaving out for the day with her “baby Anna” she got as a souveneir

front of Magic Kingdom in case you have never seen it.

the best family photo we could get. Miss princess had to put on her glasses the sun was so bright.

her and daddy having a talk about something.

Tangled

looking for Pascal (frog) with Tangled

Snow White

Enchanted Tales with Belle-she got to play her part and meet Belle

Enchanted Tales with Belle-If you do not play a part, you do not get to meet Belle.

click on video to see short video of Enchanted Tales with Belle

Peter Pan’s flight. Very cool little ride

Meet Ariel at her Grotto-One of her favorites (behind Anna & Elsa of course) was Ariel.

riding in the clam shell

Under the Sea-Journey to the Little Mermaid-you get to ride in a clamshell and see all kinds of Ariel things.

Dumbo the Flying Elephant with daddy

Festival of Fantasy Parade (mid day). It started the week we went. Great parade to see all the princesses! Belle and the Beast

Anna and Elsa are in the parade. At that time, it was the only place you saw them at Magic Kingdom

Merida from Brave

Tinkerbell’s friend

Tinkerbell

it’s a small world. Neat little boat ride that is actually somewhat relaxing

Morgan and daddy riding the cars

riding the train around Magic Kingdom

tea cups

carousel with mommy

silly faces with mommy

worn out little girl at the end of the night

Ohana Chicken and Noodles. Amazing!

Disney Day 4-Animal Kingdom

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Meals
Lunch: Flame Tree Barbecue (Discovery Island) (QuickService)
The best hands down by FAR of Quick Service. I wish all the Quick Service options were this good.
Dinner: 1900 Park Fare (Grand Floridian Resort & Spa) (Table Service)
Food was ok. If you are wanting a cheaper option to a Table Service that still offers a princess then this might be a good option. Food is very different. It is the only place (except for at Christmastime) that you can meet Prince Charming (that’s what I was told at least).

Fast Pass
1. Finding Nemo-The Musical
2. Kali River Rapids (Asia)
3. Kilimanjaro Safaris (Africa)

Watching Nemo. Morgan was not much a fan of it. Make sure to get there in plenty of time early or you will not get a seat.

Morgan with her daddy waiting on line for the Rapids. If you do not want to get soaked, then bring a poncho. Someone was sweet enough to give us one for Morgan as they were leaving.

about to go on the ride with her poncho. She was absolutely dry. Mommy & daddy were far from it. Thank goodness for sweet people at Disney.

We had to take a small break because Morgan had to take her photo by this “cool fountain” as she called it.

During the safari trip, you see all kinds of animals. One of the best adventures.

our try at a family selfie with a weird guy in the background on the Safari ride.

its a good thing we had a nice big stroller that a friend let us borrow. She went to sleep pretty quickly after the rapid ride and safari. She never saw a minute of the parade.

They did a great job with the parade (middle of the day). Morgan of course slept through the entire thing.

You can see a cute little girl right in front of Ariel. This was at our hotel (Art of Animation). We went back early and actually enjoyed part of our hotel and the cool pools.

That night after the trip to Animal Kingdom and the pool, we went to 1900 Park Fare. Food wasn’t horrible, but wasn’t my first choice either. It was perfect for meeting the prince if you are into that.

Cinderella and the prince really do dance

she got to meet Cinderella (again!) Yes, she did have to wear her Cinderella dress to meet her. Wouldn’t every princess do that?!

she got to meet the evil stepsisters.

other evil stepsister.

evil stepmother

the prince asked her to dance and you know what, that might have been worth the price of the meal. She was on cloud 9 and could not believe that Prince Charming asked her to dance!

this little girl wanted to take about 500 selfies of her self and food. This just shows her excitement for sure.

this was a picture of what was left on her plate. Chicken nuggets, pizza, and Mac & Cheese. All typical kid food choices.

Day 5 is back to Magic Kingdom (the best park!)

Disney Day 3-Epcot

March 10 (Monday), we set out for what Morgan would soon be one of her favorites because we got to meet Anna and Elsa. Now, they are at Magic Kingdom which makes life so much easier.

Park Hours: 9 am to 9 pm

Food
If you are looking to get your snack credits, then this is the place to get them. Lots of really good snacks due to it being from different countries.
Breakfast: Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (highly recommend, Table Service Meal). If you are looking to meet the most princesses in one place, then this is the place for you. They have 4 princesses and then one additional that you got your photo taken with and actually printed out. If we were not into the princesses, $116 is a lot of money to spend for just that. One of the best meals though if you are looking for a table service. We got to meet Belle, Cinderella, Ariel, Aurora, & Snow White.
Snacks: Caramel Corn (3.99), Pretzel (4.99), Cotton Candy (3.99). You can get any snack item that is $4.99 or less.
Lunch: None (we skipped out on lunch since we had a huge breakfast at 9:30) and got our snack credits.
Dinner: La Cantina de San Angel (Quick Service) food was ok as long as you got the nachos.

Fast Pass Selections:

• The Seas with Nemo and Friends
• Soarin
  We had one more that we did not use. If you know anything about Epcot, they just do not have a ton to use for FastPass.

Our first order of business was to make it to breakfast by 9:30 (which we were a few minutes late due to transit from our hotel). Disney people are very accommodating and put us right in though.

When you first walk in to the Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, you get to take your photo with a princess. The day we went was Belle and Morgan was so excited!

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall with Belle.

Snow White was next for her to meet

Aurora

CInderella

Ariel

So yes, if you are counting, that is meeting 5 princesses at one place! She was on cloud 9 because they take the little girls around the restaurant on  a little trip and then bring them back to your table.

Then, it was off to meet Anna and Elsa. If anyone knows before they moved them to Magic Kingdom, there was no Fast Pass to meet the very popular sisters from Frozen. My dear sweet husband went and waited in line and me and Morgan went to go ride rides. They told Chad that it would be 4 hours long and we decided it would be worth it and we will just rotate out and him take 2 hours and Ill take 2 hours. While we were waiting though we would take Morgan to see stuff. Well after 1 hour and one ride we rode, Chad called us to tell us he was at the front of the line and to hurry!

Me and Morgan went to ride the Seas with Nemo and Friends while Chad was waiting.

Nemo Ride

When you get close enough, this is the sweet little Anna you get to see. This means, you are minutes away from meeting the sisters.

Anna window in the castle

It ended up being another hour (total of 2 hrs 10 min) before we got to meet them though. We did not know that once you got into the last part of the line (there were 4 parts to the line), it goes super, super slow. She got to meet her favorite (still her favorite) and well it was worth the wait!

I even got her a dress which the sisters kept saying “that is so cool we are on your dress”.

She was on cloud 9

Afterwards, we got a few snacks and then went and rode Maelstrom which was fun.

our best shot at a selfie-haha!

Morgan saw a duck and you would have thought she had never seen one in her life. She loved the Disney duck.

Then, it was off to Soarin which Morgan and I loved and Chad was not so excited due to the heights. You sit in a seat and you fly over all these sites. Yeah, its cool (or at least to me and Morgan).

from Disney’s website

Then, we went to go see Jasmine in Morocco. You have to be very strategic because she only appears at so many times during the day. We got in and only had to wait a few minutes.

They had a really cute little playground that we just had to play with (go all the way to Disney, and yes play on a good ole playground). She had a blast and played for a good hour or maybe a little more.

At dinner, we had to take a selfie while we were waiting on our food. Again, just a heads up if you eat here just make sure to get the nachos. Chad got some tacos which were not so grand. The fruit popsicles were really good as well. You get to eat outside and it really is nice (as long as the weather is good). They have ducks that will come right up to your table.

We went to look around while waiting on the Fireworks that night. They have prince and princesses cut into the lawn. Morgan had to take her photo.

Belle

 

she saw someone else taking their photo by the water and she had to as well.

Aurora and her prince

This was one of her little souvenirs that we got for her that she loved! A little Aurora that lighted up that she still plays with.

the beautiful fireworks show.

Video of the fireworks

To end the night, we had to take a family photo that by that time everyone was exhausted.

Hopefully I can get the rest of the days done soon! Day 4 is Animal Kingdom.

Disney World–Day 2–Magic Kingdom (PHOTO Overload)

Day 1 can be found here. It is short and sweet and did not really include much.

Day 2 of Walt Disney World was just as Disney always is imagined, just magical! The weather was beautiful, and we wore everyone out after Day 2. We spent the entire day at Magic Kingdom. We knew this day would be special to Morgan because she was going to meet a lot of princesses.

Where we ate: (QS=Quick Service)
Lunch (QS): Be Our Guest (It counts as a quick service if you go for lunch). We only had to wait about 30 minutes and it was worth the wait!
Dinner (QS): Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe (QS). Food was actually pretty good, one of the better QS dining choices.

This day the amount of photos that were taken were only 265 photos. Yes ONLY.

Fast Pass Choices: (You only get 3 FP choices per day). I would recommend all of them. We checked the wait times a while in advance and thats what we went off.
1. Meet Ariel at her Grotto (Fantasyland)
2. Meet Rapunzel and a Visiting Princess (Princess Fairytale Hall)
3. Enchanted Tales with Belle (Fantasyland)

So happy to be at Disney!

Meeting Ariel in her Grotto. This was the most near impossible place to get a good photo. Its underground. She LOVED meeting Ariel.

Ariel in her Grotto

We even rode the carousel (a few times). Nearly no wait (1-2 min max).

eating lunch at Be Our Guest. Worth the wait! We had to get a photo by Beauty and the Beast of course.

This was her face pretty much the entire day. Smiles, smiles and more smiles. She just could not believe you could really go meet the princesses. Rapunzel for anyone that did not know 🙂

Snow White was the visiting princess with Rapunzel.

waiting for Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid with daddy.

Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid. Fun ride and she loved it because we got to ride in little clam shells.

She did not like the typical “mouse ears” so for her souvenir she got a princess Tangled hat which was about the same price. She still wears this little hat.

Enchanted Tales with Belle. Morgan actually got a part and due to her getting a part, she got to meet Belle. This is one of the rare places at Magic Kingdom you can go to see her.

 

Enchanted Tales with Belle. Morgan actually got a part and due to her getting a part, she got to meet Belle. This is one of the rare places at Magic Kingdom you can go to see her.

Tea cups were lots of fun, but daddy just could not ride because it would make him sick.

She was so excited to get to twirl us around (and boy did she do a good job)

Teacups mean you have to make silly faces with your mom.

Merida only makes special appearances at certain times of the day and we caught her right on time.

After meeting Merida, in the same little area she got to shoot her arrow (just like Merida). I wish I would have taken a video.

Daddy and Morgan went to ride cars and daddy was sweet enough to let her drive.

It was off to Bippity Boppity Boutique. For anyone wondering, you must book your appointment ASAP to get in at Magic Kingdom. Right before she went to sit down she got surprised by her Anna dress. She had been wanting and wanting and we FINALLY found it (I should say daddy found it).

what did these crazy ladies just do to me?!

sprinkling “fairy dust” in her hair. This was probably one of the hardest things to come out. Imagine glitter all in your hair.

this was her, Im Exhausted I neep a nap look.

nails all painted. She sure was not going to move for this part. She LOVES her nails to be painted. The cool part was we got to take the polish home and we still use it (they give you two colors)

the lady was putting on her princess makeup (its the only time she has gotten makeup on), and the silly girl feel asleep in the chair! Magic Kingdom wore her out and this was only at about 5 pm.

she did wake up quickly and was all smiles

seeing herself for the first time

she did pose just like a sweet princess.

she reached up to touch her hair and just started crying. She wanted everything out (right after we got done with it)

Tiana was about to leave and we caught her right before.

our only family selfie photo on the Aladdin Carpet Rides.

One of Tinkerbell’s friends who she just loved talking to. Also notice by this time, we took out part of her bun from Bippity Boppity Boutique.

Tinkerbell’s friend

Tinkerbell was pretty cool too. They were right next to each other (with NO LINE at the end of the night)

she had to give Tinkerbell a HUGE hug!

Cinderella’s castle at night. BEAUTIFUL!

Nighttime at Magic Kingdom is quite the treat. We brought Morgan some glow necklaces, and bracelets that we got before we went at Party City. MUCH CHEAPER! It is worth it to stay and watch both of them.

9 pm Electrical Water Pageant
10 pm Wishes Nighttime Spectacular

Mesmerized by everything.

Mickey

CInderella

Video of “Let it go” on Cinderella’s Castle

Up Soon, Day 3 of our trip to Epcot and to Meet Anna and Elsa.

Disney World-Day 1-March 8

Back in March 2014, we set out on a vacation of what we knew was an expensive but worthwhile vacation to Disney World. We honestly planned this trip in a matter of 3 months. We decided that over Christmas 2013 that Disney World sounded like a great Spring Break trip. Well, we talked about it and then it became a reality.

We drove to Tallahassee on that Friday after I got off which was an 8 hr trip. Then, we got woken up at the bright early morning hours of 4 am by a little princess that was ready to get to Disney. After trying to get that sweet girl back to sleep, we finally decided we were up so lets head to Disney. We arrived to Orlando by 8 am.  MS to Tallahassee: 8 hours, Tallahasse to Orlando: 3-3.5 hrs. So if you were wondering the round trip was about 11-11.5 hours for us that we broke into 2 days.

This post will be broken up into many days. I want to remember all these precious moments before I forget them, so here is to our trip to Disney World!

Where we stayed at: Art of Animation
Did we get the Dining Plan: Yes
Would we do it again: No
How long did we stay: 6 days / 5 nights

Morgan was in little girl heaven when we arrived at our hotel and there was a HUGE Ariel. We had to take a photo by it.

more Ariel

they even had a playground at our hotel, and of course she had a blast.

everywhere we went they had these small sinks just her size. She loved them and could never use the regular sinks.

 

Our first meal was at Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge. It was FABULOUS! Let me repeat, go eat there! It is on the Dining Plan and counts for one credit.

Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge

I did not take this photo, it came from thepixietrail.blogspot.com from the Whispering Canyon Cafe. They give you a ton, and ton of food. Its fabulous, dont skip out on this place if you are going.

Stay tuned for the rest of our Walt Disney World Trip Days 2-6.
Day 2 will be Magic Kingdom.

 

Summer Time Fun

Yes, I do realize it has only been ALMOST 7 months since I even made a blog post. I must admit that I do kind of miss it and realize that for the most part that anyone that was reading, probably does not anymore and that is quite alright. I sure would not blame you one bit after a 7 month hiatus for sure.

One of these days I am going to do a full recap from our Trip to Disney World in March and even Morgans birthday (my baby really is 4). Until then, a few summer photos.

 

Ariel Goggles are a must when you are learning to use the goggles

 

we spend many moments with her bestie!

learning how to ride her bike.

she loves to sing as long as we are outside and it must be to some Frozen or Sofia song.

most of our time is spent in the water. Lets face it, MS is HOT!

my sweet precious little girl

 

I’ll try to make sure that its not another 7 months before I post again 🙂

Christmas 2013 {picture overload}

This Christmas we first started out in the great state of Alabama since that is where all of Chad’s family lives.  I always love our nice little Christmas break because it gives us a chance to spend with both of our families.

sweet cousin love

her sweet cousin got her Jasmine dress and matching shoes (which is the only thing she asked Santa for)

she also got a princess castle from her other cousins (which she loved it and to play in it with her cousins)

she even got Collin in the tent to play with her.

When we got back from Alabama, it was almost time for Christmas. We had to say goodbye to Snowflake (which she loved this year!). Mommy was kind of glad to see Snowflake head home with Santa so she did not get to be moved-haha!

her sweet cousins helped her to build her gingerbread house, but it turned in a big mess (with lots of laughs of course)

it was not pretty, but again fun times had by all.

Snowflake headed back home with Santa on Christmas Eve and Morgan had a nice long talk with Snowflake before she left. She told her she was going to miss her. Mommy on the other hand was kind of glad to see her head home so she did not get forgotten about each night.

Christmas morning

Merida was one of her favorite gifts

I remember playing this Fish game as a child, and it was now her time to enjoy the fun with grandma!

she loves her Uncle BJ. We don’t get to see him much since he lives in Nashville.

Me and my two brothers (Austin-left-16) and (BJ-right-26). Amazing that I am now the shortest.

me and my very tired little girl!

my favorite pictures of my princess!

It was definitely a princess Christmas, but such a fun one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013 Christmas card roundup

I am linking up to walk with me by faith annual Christmas Card Carousel.

It’s always amazing to me to look back at the Christmas cards each year to see how much we have changed over the years. This year our card I must admit was very basic. I always try to do something a little extra, but with the holidays and everything else going on with my family, it became just “take a picture and lets roll”.

2013

Back

Just for a little comparison

2012

2011

FRONT

BACK

2010

 

FRONT

LEFT INSIDE

RIGHT INSIDE

 

 

 

 

Miscellaneous Monday

Its been a beautiful, rainy  (hint of sarcasm) frigid day in the lovely MS today. I thought well since my sweet little girl was taking a nap, Ill actually post a totally random post.

1. I may regret this, but this little girl has been rocking naps lately. She went through a phase of not wanting to take a nap and was an absolute grouch, but lately she has been catching up on sleep and so has mommy and daddy. Her all time record yesterday was 4 hours and 20 minutes and mommy and daddy joined her for 2 of those hours. Bliss, heavenly! I am not sure how long it will last but Ill take advantage of it while it last!

2. She has now mastered her alphabet and everywhere we go, she wants to tell us what the letters are. These flash cards have been awesome and she loves to go over them.
3.  She has become VERY independent. Some things of that are good (like putting together puzzles, etc) and some have been challenging (when she does not want you to help do a single thing). We are learning through trials. Overall though, I am loving her independence and seeing her personality just blossom!

she mastered putting together this 48 piece all by herself

4. We went to Disney on Ice this year with her BFF and they had so much fun. All she keeps asking me though is when we are going back.
5. We have some pretty big news coming soon (yes I am just mean like that). I really can not wait to announce. No I am not pregnant for all the curious people.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Trick or Treating 2013

Well its only been a little over 2 months since I posted so I thought, I should go ahead and do a little blog post before it gets even further along-haha!

This year was a little different in the aspect of it was supposed to rain on October 31 for Halloween, so it seemed like no one knew which day to have it on if it happened. Our neighborhood had it on Wednesday night (we had church), and then some still did Thursday and then other nearby cities did it on Friday. Well we chose to do trick or treating Friday night with Morgans best friend and many others. Here are just a few photos from their fun night. If you can not tell, Morgan is the silly Cinderella. Her best bud is Scooby Doo.

these girls had fun running and running a little more

the fun hayride

getting their dose of too much candy!

my sweet Cinderella

run, run Cinderella

what piece is the best?!