Disney October 2015

We just returned from our 8th trip to Disney!  We spent the week in the parks and ended our trip with Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party on Halloween night.  

We decided to fly this time, but to get good fares, we went a day early.  We stayed in Orlando and caught Pan at a theater across the street.  Scarlett enjoyed it and Elle enjoyed her hour long nap through the middle of the movie!

Sunday we made our way to our Disney resort, then to Epcot.  We rode all our favorite rides, then headed to the countries for lunch in Germany.

We left the park after lunch to check into our hotel in Caribbean Beach.  The girls loved the pirate ship beds!

Monday we spent the day in Magic Kingdom.  We met Ariel and rode plenty of rides.  The girls' favorites are still the roller coasters!  

They have added turrets to the sides of the castle and re-done the hub and it looks great!  

We had dinner at 1900 Park Faire in the Grand Floridian.  We met Cinderella, the prince, the stepsisters and the stepmother.

Tuesday we went to Animal Kingdom.  It rained off and on for the day, but luckily we didn't get too wet!  Everest is still the girl's favorite ride!  We enjoyed the Lion King show as well.  The girls got picked from the crowd to walk around the performance at the end!

We also met Russell and Doug from Up.

That night we went to the luau dinner show at the Polynesian.  The dancers were really impressive...especially the fire dance!  Elle was cracking us up asking if they were robots!  She really started to put together that the rides have animatronic robots and that the characters are people in suits (which she announced LOUDLY in line to see Donald).

Wednesday we went back to Epcot.  We rode more of our favorite rides, toured the countries and had 2 great meals!  We had lunch in the Coral Reef which has an entire wall of the restaurant backing up to the aquarium.  The food was probably the best meal I had our whole time.  

We met Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.

The girls got trading pins and lanyards this trip.  They had the best time walking up to cast members and asking to trade pins.  Scarlett was very methodical, planning what she was willing to trade and which pins she was looking for.  Elle on the other hand would trade anything to anyone just for the sake of trading!

We had dinner at Akershus with the princesses.  We saw Belle, Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White and Aurora.

Thursday we went to Hollywood Studios.  Elle and I rode Tower of Terror first while Scarlett and Cameron did Rockin Roller Coaster (Elle is just a hair too short still).  Tower of Terror is Elle's favorite ride!  They also LOVED the Frozen Sing Along show.  It "snows" at the end of the show.  When I asked the girls about it, Scarlett said "ugh, mom, it's JUST soap!"  She's more enthralled with the Star Wars attractions!

We met Sorcerer Mickey for the first time!

Friday was a very busy day!  We returned to Magic Kingdom in the morning and did a few rides including the favorites, Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Space Mountain.  We met Minnie, Daisy, Goofy and Donald in their circus tent.

We enjoyed lunch in Belle's castle, then we were off on our afternoon adventure!

We trekked down to Downtown Disney where the girls got the royal treatment at Bippity Boppity Boutique.

And then we were off again heading back to the Magic Kingdom for dinner at Cinderella's castle.

This one was a bit excited!

The highlight was getting to see Rapunzel!  She rarely appears at dinner, so the girls were super excited when she came out!

Saturday was Halloween and we had no park plans until the evening, so we went to the pool and had lunch at the resort.

We got all dressed up and headed to Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

We had to meet up with Elsa before the Halloween fun started!

The party was really fun!  We hit Haunted Mansion first where the cast members were dressed up with extra spooky makeup for the occasion.  There were plenty of rare characters, but the girls were most interested in trick or treating!  There were several stations set up around Magic Kingdom.  Each station gave out handfuls of candy!

After our bags were full we watched the parade which was really cool.  We then headed over for the Villians stage show and the fireworks.  It was the first time seeing the fireworks at Disney and they were amazing!

We headed home EARLY the next morning.  The girls are already talking about what we are going to do on our next trip!!

Fall fun!

We've been having so much fun this fall that I almost forgot about the blog!  Here's a little update to catch you up on the past couple months.  

Elle made it to her 50th day of Kindergarten!  She dressed like the 1950's to celebrate and even had a coke float at school.

Kindergarten just got more exciting from there...they went on their first field trip to the pumpkin patch!

I had a cute group of girls to watch and luckily for me they were well behaved!

Corn corn and oh so much corn.  I found corn on my floor for days after this!

Scarlett also got to celebrate Halloween with a crafts and snacks party at school.  I was busy doing the room mom thing so I didn't get any pictures!

We've had an insanely rainy fall, but we got lucky a few weeks before Halloween to hit the corn maze and pumpkin patch while Gigi and Donk were in town.

It was cornpletely cornfusing and cornmazing all at the same time!  

After we found our way out of the maze, we found some pumpkins!  So cool that pumpkins are actually grown here, so you can pick them from the vine!  

After Gigi and Donk headed home, the girls and I headed up to another fall fun day with Scarlett's girl scout troop.  So far she's loving being a girl scout!

There were some fall and Halloween themed treats this year, of course.  Scarlett's enjoying her "pumpkin patch"

We didn't have too much time for pumpkin decorating this year since we spent the week before Halloween in Disney, but we did manage to carve one before we left!

We had a great time in Disney for the week and the Mickey's Not So Scary Party was really cool!  More on that in my next post.

Once we returned from Disney, Scarlett went to her very first sleepover!  Her 2 besties from school / girl scouts got together and giggled and freeze danced and didn't go to sleep until the wee hours.  

Track Out Part 2

So I covered the first half of track out and the second half was just as busy!  I had to keep the girls moving all day every day so they didn't start fighting.  Oh, the tattling.  It's their favorite hobby now.  Anyway...back to fun stuff...

I left off on Thursday...We did the pool in the morning, then went to the Museum of Life and Science for the afternoon.

Elle loves the farmyard (Scarlett HATES it).  Elle said she wanted this pig.  I replied, "uh, NO".  So she said "Well, DADDY will get it for me".  

They both love the mist!

On Friday, Cameron and I flew to NYC for the weekend.  We left the girls at home to terrorize Grammie and Nomie for the weekend!  We enjoyed lots of walks through the park, the Met and Guggenheim, a walk on the Highline and shopping in SoHo and lots and lots (maybe too much) good food!  At least we walked it off!

We returned home Monday to find everyone in one piece, well, less one tooth!

Wednesday we went bowling with friends.  Thursday was the dentist (no cavities!) followed by PlayNation for a friend's birthday.  

Saturday we went back to the Life and Science Museum for the morning and caught all the stuff we didn't have time for the week before.  

"Take our picture on this dinosaur!"

Sunday we went to see Minions at the new dine and recline theater.  It's very fancy!

Monday the girls were back to school!  

I'm here catching up on all that stuff that went by the wayside as I kept the girls running for 3 weeks and finding a little time to practice my embroidery!  I got a machine for my birthday and I'm super excited about it!  So far I'm just practicing on scraps and old towels and pillowcases, but the girls and I have been thrilled with the results!  

Yesterday, Scarlett told me "if you feel like sewing someone's name on something today, Puppy needs his name on his blanket and he likes GREEN!"  

Track Out - Part 1

So school only lasted 3 weeks (really 1 for Elle after the staggered entry) and now the girls are halfway through their first track out of the year.  We've kept it jam packed with activities.  Here's what we've done so far:

The first weekend we took the girls bowling for the first time.  They thought it was so fun!  Scarlett was the big winner the first game.  Elle couldn't quite do the correct form, so it was more of dropping the ball on the lane (usually with a penalty for stepping over the line) and watching it slowly roll down towards the pins.

Monday we had a playdate at the pool with several neighborhood friends.  Tuesday was ice cream and the library followed by an hour of torture as I took them to Michaels and Target to pick out picture frames.

Wednesday we went to the North Carolina Museum of History for a kids program.  The girls learned lots of facts about the state, a little about the geography and the different industries that developed in each part.  They toured the museum (the highlight was where they saw a mock up of an old mill house and a lady demonstrating weaving on a spinning wheel).  They also really liked the hands on mining.  They panned through sand and dirt for "jewels" (which were really beads cut to look like jewels)

Thursday was more swimming and Friday we went to the bounce house with some friends.  

Scarlett has been working on her piano skills in our downtime (which we haven't had much of!).  

This past Saturday we took the girls to their first Durham Bulls game against the Gwinnett Braves. 

Elle was really only there for the cotton candy!

Scarlett could have stayed longer, but Elle's patience ran out when the food did, so we took the long way around when we left halfway through the game.  

Monday we met Cameron for lunch, then went by the SnoBall stand on the way home.  That's one thing we all miss from New Orleans (snocones are not the same!).  Luckily we found this stand that specializes in New Orleans style SnoBalls!

The girls are still enjoying gymnastics!  Elle is in beginner and Scarlett is in intermediate.  They are both doing great!

Tuesday we went to the $1 movie to see Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day.  It was cute and I was surprised that even Elle sat through it.

Before our playdate yesterday, Scarlett made her first Perler bead project.  She loved it and her minion turned out super cute!

Heading to the pool again this morning!