Meeting Cole's Heroes

Tuesday (10/16)
Let's face it... what characters do most people want to see when they go to Disney World?  Mickey & the princesses?  Well, not today my friends.  This morning Jim & I had the morning off of kid duty (thanks to my in-laws) and everyone else on the trip headed into Hollywood Studios for breakfast with Jake from the Neverland Pirates, June from Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Special Agent Oso. 

I think that you can tell by the photos that a blast was had by all and luckily... Cole decided that he liked the characters today.  And Summer was super excited to dance with ballerina June! 

We met up with everyone after breakfast and attempted the Disney Junior show, but partway through Summer got scared of Captain Hook (and really this show is not scary at all).  I left with her and Cole followed me and we left all the adults inside to finish the show! When we exited the show, who did Cole spot again but Jake! And even though he had just seen him at breakfast he wanted to stand in line to see him again, so that is exactly what we did.  I have tried to take the approach of letting the kids' interests guide our trip as much as possible as it leads to less meltdowns and creates a better trip in my opinion.  We've been there many times before kids, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything by doing this.  After Jake, we saw Handy Manny, Buzz Lightyear & Woody from Toy Story.

Jake comparing boots with Cole

Holding hands while waiting in line

Posing with Buzz & Woody

Being out a little too late Monday night soon wrecked havoc on Cole's mood and he began to lose it a bit.  We headed back to the hotel for a nap and wound up changing our dinner plans.  Instead of heading into EPCOT for dinner in Mexico, we opted for dinner at Raglan Road in Downtown Disney.  This would enable us to park close to the restaurant to get in and out more easily and could do a little shopping if the kids decided to cooperate (which they did).  This is one of my favorite restaurants.  All pieces of the restaurant are from Ireland and they have AMAZING food and often have live entertainment.  On the night we were there they had Irish dancers.  Summer was fascinated to watch and even got to join in and try some steps herself.  It was so cute and she got a little certificate for participating.

Returning to the Happiest Place on Earth...

After about a 15 hour drive and an overnight stay in Florence, SC.... we made it to the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney World last Sunday.  Check out the view from our room....


Giraffe & Ankole Cattle from our balcony

We thought about heading into one of the parks for a bit, but when we asked the kids what they wanted to do first the resounding answer was THE POOL!  We had a quick dinner at our hotel and then went swimming. 

MONDAY (10/15)
Monday morning we headed out to Animal Kingdom for Donald's Safari buffet breakfast.  Cole decided that he did not like the characters and did not want autographs or pictures with any of them.  Summer on the other hand was a major ham with all of the characters and was super excited that the chef made her special non-dairy waffles and brought them out complete with a scoop of non-dairy butter and a little pitcher of her own syrup.  (I really can't say enough about the food allergy program here at Disney, but will probably make a separate post about that later). 

After breakfast we all went on the Safari and then split up in a couple directions afterwards.  Everyone wanted to go on the rapids except for Princess Summer who doesn't like to get her face wet!  (Cole had an absolute blast on the Rapids and then at Festival of the Lion King)  She decided on her own that she wanted to go shopping and reminded me that she had her own money to spend.  They have been saving money in the banks for our trip and received some additional money from family for the trip.  I loaded this money on gift cards with their names on them and the deal is that they can buy what they want, but when the money is gone they get nothing else.  We went through a store with loads of little girl toys and she like a lot of things.  I kept reminding her that we should look at all of the choices before making her final decision.  We did find a Princess Castle that she loved but was more money than she had on her card so we decided to put that on her Christmas list for Santa.  Here are her final picks for the day:

After shopping we decided to hit up some characters while everyone else was doing rides & shows. 

 



 

 

Summer & I really had some great Mommy/Daughter time and it was really fun for me to watch her do exactly what she wanted to do.  She also got so excited for me when we saw Eeyore... she squealed, "Look Mommy.... It's Eeyore your favorite!". 

 

Cole had an equally fun time with everyone else! 

 

After some rest at the hotel we headed into the Magic Kingdom for the evening.  Jim and I were super excited because we learned that they were having a dress-rehearsal for portions of the new fantasyland!  We got to go on the new Ariel ride (which Summer & Cole were scared of because they thought it was going to get dark) and look at the new castle and sampled a LeFou's Brew which was a delicious frozen treat.  After dinner they finally got to take Mom-mom on the teacups and rode some other rides before heading back to the hotel for the night. 

 



 

I'll try to get caught up on the rest of our adventures this week. 

 

PS - I know that it appears from these pictures that I only have 1 child, but Cole DID NOT want his picture taken on the first day or two of the trip.  Don't worry he overcame this and is in many more pictures later in the week.