Disney World Favorite Memories (Beware, Long Post)

I pulled my kids out of School from September 16-22 to go to Disney World. We wanted to take advantage of the fewer crowds and the free meal plan. I was worried about them missing so much school, but the teachers were understanding, and besides Meg having to attend one day of Saturday school to make up three tests, everyone was able to finish the missed work quickly.

Cinderella's castle just moments before entering and eating breakfast with the princesses.

Sam showing me an alternative way to wear his Mickey visor with a french fry hanging out of his mouth.

I had this shirt made for Molly, and had TONS of people ask me where I bought it.

In Animal Kingdom they had a Lion King show which is totally awesome. Each section of the audience is lead by one of the performers to be a certain animal. We were the lion section and Sam was chosen to teach us how to roar like lions.

Our red-heads.

One thing we really got into this year was pin trading. I ordered a whole bunch off of e-bay (CHEAP), and when we arrived in Disney we bought each of the kids a lanyard. A lot of the pins we got weren't very cute or what the kids wanted, but it didn't matter because most cast members (employees) have lanyards with the Disney pins to trade (and have to do so). Here we found the jack pot. A cast member with an entire board of pins.

Posing in front of the "Tree of Life"

Going on a Safari in Animal Kingdom, Sam's "third favorite ride" (Sam was really into ranking the rides as well as having us name our favorites).

As they say in Kentucky. . ."Sissies"

Ben's looking a little timid and turning a little red.

My favorite moment of Disney World (Sam asked me what it was during our plane ride home). During the princess breakfast the waiter gave all the kids a "wishing star." About halfway through the breakfast everyone stopped and were told to close our eyes to make a wish. The room got dark except for stars "glowing" around the room and everyone made a wish. Here is Molly making her wish. Later, I asked her what she wished for and she told me that she wished that she could come back to Disney World. She knows how to work me.

The reason I loved it so much is because she REALLY believed. It was too cute.

Look at that smile. She LOVED meeting the princesses (see next post with her posing with all the princesses).

Look at the sheer brute strength.

Although Molly loved meeting the princess and characters, she did not love going to the 3D shows or going on the rides (the only exception was the Aladdin ride). This was the first 3D show we attempted to take her to; she didn't know what to expect and, therefore, she was still happy.

Meg was actually sick this day, but I was glad because otherwise she would have gone on "big kid" rides with the boys and dad, and wouldn't have hung out with me, gramma Kathy and Molly at Mickey and Minnie's houses.

Molly and me hanging with Mickey and Minnie.

Molly took this picture. While waiting for the kids to come out of the Raiders of the Lost Ark show (she freaked) she figured out that she could use the camera.

In Hollywood waiting for the parade to begin (sitting on the American Idol Theater stairs.

We went to every park at least twice, (Epcot three times), but "Hollywood" was probably Meg, Ben and Sam's favorite all because of one ride. . ."Rockin' Rollercoaster." The one disappointing thing occurred when Meg and Ben asked me who Arrowsmith was. . .seriously? Am I old? One afternoon when we were there it began to rain, and "Hollywood" was a ghost town. We rode Rocking Roller coaster again and again. Here we are posing in front of a New York set used in movies.

This is Rusty's least favorite ride in the park. The infamous must-do, "It's A Small World." Consequently, it was one of the ONLY ride Molly didn't cry/freak out in (and yes, I'm also counting a major melt down in Peter Pan. . .we didn't even walk by, let alone go on the Snow White ride).

Epcot is Rusty and Ben's favorite park (my favorite ride is in Epcot too. . .Soarin'). We love to ride Test Track and discovered the beauty going "single rider" this year. At first, Ben and Sam were nervous to go with a complete stranger, but 1) they realized that we could skip the "movie," 2) most of the time, most of us got to ride together anyway, and 3) we got to ride it a ton of times right in a row. Rusty loves Epcot because, as he says, "I love to eat my way through Epcot." Especially with the dinner plan (which was free during the month of September), we ate and ate and ate.