Mommy... Open... Wanna see Castle

This is the phrase that Summie squealed as she ran into our bedroom on Monday morning.  She was telling me to open the curtains so that she could look at Cinderella's Castle again.  Once everyone was up we quickly got ready to head to the Animal Kingdom for the extra magic morning hours that were beginning at 8am.  I need to add here that as Summer's present from Mommy (Jim & I each decided to pick one souvenir each for both of the kids) she got a pair of Cinderella dress-up shoes which she insisted on wearing all day Monday.  To onlookers in the park, I probably looked like a piece of work as a mother.  She had a pink t-shirt dress with Belle, Aurora & Cinderella on the top with a pink tulle skirt, a pink/purple Pooh jacket that she wore at times even though it was pretty chilly and these clear slingback Cinerella jelly heels, but she insisted!  She looked ridiculously cute as she click clacked all around the park as she wanted to walk on the animal exhibit paths.  And insisted that her feet did not hurt and she was not cold, although how either of those statements were true I do not know.

As soon as we arrived at the park, we headed right for the Safari.  Summie was very excited to ride the big car and Cole was very excited to see all of Mickey's animals.  It was a pretty chilly and cloudy morning so unfortunately we didn't see all of the animals wondering around (but usually morning is the best time to see the most animals).  After this we got some breakfast snacks and headed down the Pagani Forest Exploration Trail where we saw monkeys, okapi, fish (which we had a hard time dragging Summer away from), a hippo and gorillas.  It's really funny the things that we used to skip over when it was just Jim and myself on these Disney trips that now we are spending a great deal of time enjoying with the kids.  Cole especially loves animals as you can see him on Jim's shoulders so that he could get a better view (by the way, today Jim is wondering why his back is killing him... definitely couldn't have been the 35lb child he was hoisting that high in the air!)  Next we headed to the Maharajah Jungle Trek where we saw many more animals including a bunch of tigers.  Then we walked over to Dinoland and road on the Triceratop spin which Summie once again especially loved.  We now have turn taking system on who gets to ride with Mommy as that is apparently the most coveted seat.  After the ride we headed for lunch which quickly became meltdown city.  Luckily lunch came with a shovel & bucket which helped with the tantrum.  We finished up quickly and headed out of the park for a nap. 

After our naps we headed back to Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Crystal Palace which is a character dinner with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore & Piglet.  I learned my lesson from last night's dinner and brought crayons, coloring books and stickers since the kids really don't usually eat very much by the time dinner rolls around.  The kids were both really into this dinner which was awesome!  Summer was much better with these characters than Cole.  He didn't want to take a picture with Tigger!  He was very excited however to show Pooh that he had brought his Pooh with him.  He kept saying "2 Poohs".  Summer was especially enamered with Piglet who saw her crayons and knelt down on the ground and drew grass with a flower, a cloud and a sun in the sky.  Pretty impressive considering the size of his fingers.  She happily gave him a kiss when finished.  After dinner we decided to see if we could hang out until 7:25 which was the time for our Winnie the Pooh ride fastpasses.  We actually made it by going on Mickey's Philharmagic 3D show which Cole loved and Summie decided she did not like and "want to go home now" when it got dark so Jim took her out and wound up buying his present to her which is a baby Tinkerbelle with a little blanket.  She is in LOVE.  Still picks Pink bear first, but this is the first new thing that has made it into bed with her in a LONG time.  She is much more particular about what she sleeps with than Cole.  We rode the Carousel again... which was as much fun this time for the kids as the day before.  We went on the peoplemover in Tomorrowland and went in the Toy Story shop to try to find Lotso bear for Cole which apparently is one of the hardest things to find in Disney World right now!  As I was trying to shuttle him out of the store, he decided that he wanted a pack of Toy Story figurines which I tried to discourage but he said he really wanted them.  They were actually on the cheaper side so I gave in and he actually has been playing with them since we got them and is very happy with them.  It was about that time so we looped back around and road the Pooh ride and then we headed back to the hotel for the night.  A long day we had, but it was SO great!