Day Two, Disney World

aka "Wow, my daughter needs a haircut."



Since today was the day the girls were going to have lunch at Cinderella's Castle, we started off the day with a toe and fingernail painting party. Since the pool was already crowded, we just setup in the hallway of the hotel. Thankfully there wasn't much traffic from the other guests.Lauren braided Hannah's hair in the cutest braid that with some luck and a lot of patience, I have hopes to replicate. So all of the girls had these cute bright pink finger and toenails - it was adorable. Hannah's toes are still in tact although the finger polish is now completely off.

Then we headed to Magic Kingdom. It was all decorated for Halloween - I don't remember seeing how Disney decorates for holidays. They also just started a trick or treat event at Magic Kingdom, but it was about $50 PER PERSON. No thanks.



I brought a tutu and crown with me to get Hannah in the royalty-meeting mood. Sorry Tiffany, I forgot to tell you that I was bringing some princess gear. Hannah did not have the dramatic reaction to seeing Cinderella's castle that I was hoping for. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but she was so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of EVERYTHING, Cinderella's castle did not make a dent. Before we got to the castle we met up with the Evil Stepmother and Stepsisters. They were rude as can be - even to the kids. Tiffany said that they must be from New Jersey and the Evil Stepmother says "New Jersey, I've never heard of it, it must a kingdom that no one wants to go to." Oh, no she didn't! Somebody hold my earrings while I tear this girl up... Oh wait I'm in Disney World. Never mind (It turns out that I had save my fighting energy for Day Three...Stay tuned).





Hannah was thrilled to meet Cinderella. The picutre we got at the end of the event was the one that made me think "Gosh, she needs a haircut." Cinderella was a really pretty Cinderella. I heard that sometimes the face characters are not as attractive - that's not nice to say about Princess Jasmine, oops was that out loud? See the Jersey coming out of me again. Hey, I'm no prize either, I couldn't walk around with my abs showing. First the girls got their pictures with Cinderella and then we had lunch in the castle with the rest of the princesses. Each of the princesses came around, signed autographs and took pictures. My favorite is Sleeping Beauty - did you know that Sleeping Beauty is Princess Aurora? The food was really good. I recommend the sweet potato fries. Once lunch was over, it was time to explore the rest of the park. We got really lucky in that there were really no lines for any of the rides. We walked right into "It's a Small World". Hannah just sat with her mouth open the whole ride. I don't think that she's ever seen such a production. I took pictures of her, but they are not very flattering. After "It's a Small World" we headed over to the Winnie the Pooh play area. And guess who shows up? And guess who gets shy around Tigger? Well, you can see from the pictures.










Then we headed over to the Mickey Mouse small kids area and Hannah was tall enough to go on her first roller coaster. Chris said she loved it. She was laughing the whole time. Great - now I will get to stand by myself again when Chris and Hannah want to ride the roller coasters - I've really got to get a hold of that fear. Anyway, later she got to ride the go-carts with Daddy too. Chris you just remember this when she wants to get her drivers license. She did not like "Pirates of the Caribbean" - I think the skeletons at the beginning were too much for her.

Before we left Magic Kingdom, we all visited our brick. Tiffany was kind enough to take some silly pictures of us in front of our brick. For our honeymoon, Chris and I went to Disney World. As a surprise, Chris purchased a brick and showed it to me when we got to Magic Kingdom. The brick was guaranteed for ten years, so we were happy to still see it. I'll have to scan in the old picture of the two of us laying down on the brick back in 1996 so you can laugh at us.

We had a wonderful day at Magic Kingdom.
:)

Day One, Disney World

aka "What do mean I can't take a direct bus to our hotel?"

We got to Walt Disney World safe and sound! Hannah slept almost the entire plane ride. We had some time to kill before we had our first group event. So we decided to go fishing since they offered it at our hotel. Chris has wanted to go fishing for quite sometime. Audrey and Tiffany were still asleep so we started out on our own. Hannah quickly lost interest in the fish so I entertained her with the worms. I think she liked the worms much better than the fish. Tiffany and Audrey soon joined us. It was wonderful to see them again. Audrey looks so grown up! Daddy caught a fish (and just under an hour too!). Since it was "catch and release" we didn't have to eat him. Lucky for him! Once we caught the fish, we headed back to our room to freshen up and figure out how to get to dinner. We went to the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Review located at Fort Wilderness. Before the show, Tiffany gave all of the girls hats that said "Jiangxi Princess" on them. They all looked so cute in their hats and I cannot believe how grown up they look. I guess Hannah looks the same to them, but it wonderful to see how they have changed! We tried to get a picture of all of the girls before we went into the show and wasn't that a challenge. Audrey wasn't feeling like taking a picture, it was cute to watch Hannah try and console her. The Disney people seemed to be really stressed out about photographing all of the kids and we told them to "cowboy up we are used to this chaos". You'd think that Disney people would be used to it too. Maybe they missed that day in training.















That reminds me, DISNEY LEARNING #1: we encountered several rude Disney workers on this trip. Maybe 'rude' is too strong - but cynical is definitely accurate. What happened to the "Happiest Place on Earth"? We paid good money for this trip - leave the cynical at your one bedroom apartment. If I wanted sarcasm, I would have stayed in New Jersey, thank you very much.

But I digress. Hannah was totally captivated by the show. She just sat there staring almost the whole time. Then she started clapping, dancing and singing. She had a great time. We learned that Alexis is very sensitive to loud noises, so she wore her headphones for the show. None of the other girls seem to be as sensitive. After the show we headed to the campfire and a movie showing. Unfortunately, the movie was "Apple Dumpling Gang"... uhhh, no thanks. Of course they were showing 'Mulan' the day before - oh well. We stayed long enough to meet Chip and Dayle and get a couple bug bites and we were outta there.



That brings me to, DISNEY LEARNING #2: It is a total pain in the you-know-what to get from hotel to hotel. You have to go from your fanny to elbow to get there. And it takes FOREVER. I guess Disney wants the guests to go to the parks and then to the hotel, do pass 'GO', do not collect $200. Thankfully we made it back before morning. Just kidding.
:)

Guess...

Who Hannah is going to see soon?




Now guess where is she going to see them?





Stay tuned, lots of pictures coming soon!
:)

I really like this quote.

Ditto.
:)

Happy Birthday Sierra!

Sierra is Hannah's best friend at daycare. Hannah talks about her all the time. Since Sierra is a month younger than Hannah, Hannah had to go to the 3-year-old room all by herself and had a really tough time. Now that Sierra is with her, things have gotten much better. Even the potty training has improved (Sierra is completely potty trained and has been for quite awhile... sheesh).

Sierra's family had her birthday party at wonderful local park that we had not known about. It is such a great place - I think we will be back often. It has a water park, playground, picnic areas and a cute train that runs around the park.

The water park was perfect. It had rained that morning, so the humidity let up and the sun wasn't out of the clouds yet. Since we were early to the park - we had the water park to ourselves. Monkey-see, monkey-do was in full effect. Hannah followed Sierra, Sierra followed Hannah. They would still be there now, if we didn't lure them away with presents and cake. I love this picture of Sierra in front of her cake. It was taken while we were all singing "Happy Birthday" to her. I was so proud of Hannah - she sat there in the front row and sang to her friend - but she did not pounce on the cake, like I'm sure she wanted to do. After the party, we all got on the little train for a ride around the park. Hannah had a wonderful time wishing her friend a happy birthday. What a good way to spend a Sunday.
:)

Multi-Media Sculpture

I haven't had a chance to post about Hannah's "sculptures". A big part of the hold-up is that she takes them down before I can take a photo of them. But it is something that I have been meaning to post on for a while now, so when I saw this installation in her room - I could not resist. Her work consists of various toys that she has found around the house and she combines them in a new way. More recently, her work has been taller in height, as if she is getting better at balancing things. This latest work is called "Cake". Take note of the pieces of cake stuffed into the microwave in the background. I like how she arranged the french fries. She says its not done yet and she has gone back to it several times to tweak it. I'm waiting for her to knock it down and start over. I can't wait to see what she will come up with next.
:)

Memo to Mickey Mouse

Dear Mickey Mouse,
You have officially infiltrated every aspect of my daughter's life. Not only does she have all of your wonderful merchandise (thank you to everyone who has purchased said wonderful merchandise) but now Hannah sees your likeness in EVERYTHING. Last night she put two slices of ham next to each other and said "Look, Mickey Mouse"!

Since my daughter is now a member of your "Happy Army", I have one request. Please do not scare the tar out of my child when she sees you at Disney World - pretty please?
Sincerely,
:)