Magic Kingdom

Today is Juli's 4th birthday and we celebrated in Magic Kingdom! Her birthday button got us a cool opportunity to open up Mickey's house in Toontown and then get our own private meet-n-greet with him. So awesome!!! Katie and I pooped out again by about 4 so we headed out early but we still got a chance to do and see a lot of great things. Unfortunately I didn't get to eat at my fav burger joint, Pecos Bill's, where I can get FIXINS for my burger, LOL!

"Spinderella's" House
Taking the train to ToonTown

Playing in the playground while we waited for ToonTown to open

Finally Mickey and Minnie came out to see us
The birthday girl got to open Mickey's house.

Katie clinging on to Poppy for dear life so Mickey wouldn't come near her.

Katie warmed up to Minnie and did sit with her and hug and talk to her. Mickey was another story. She told him she likes him on TV but not for real.

Sleeping Beauty and Katie

Katie with Cinderella

Daddy's "hottie" Belle and Katie
(Although this year's Belle was NOT a hottie like last year's Belle!)

Tea Cups
Katie's in there somewhere too!

Poppy and Katie on the carousel

I even took a ride too!
My horse ending in the 'up' position and I almost couldn't get off, LOL.

Happy 4th Birthday, Juli!

After everyone was back from Magic Kingdom, the birthday fun continued! We sang Happy Birthday to Juli and had some delicious birthday cake from Publix. If you have one near you, I highly recommend anything from their bakery! :-)

Swim Time

The girls patiently waiting for a trip to the pool...

Pretty girl

I have the remote and some fishies. I could just stay right here all day!

Can we go yet, Mom? Please!!!

We've Been Robbed!

Tonight we went to Houlihan's for dinner. Don't let the smiles in this picture fool you! We were robbed there!!! Talk about some serious tourist area price inflation, which wouldn't be too bad if the service had been good or the food worth the price! Oh well, we still had a good time though, :-)

Denise, Katie, Joseph
(Notice how I'm able to balance a tray on my head??? lol)

Karen and Chris

Poppy and crazy smiling Maddie

Rudy and Poppy

Denise and Joseph

MGM... Er, I mean "Hollywood Studios"

Today we went to Hollywood Studios (aka MGM to most of us!), mainly to reenact the "french fry scene" in the food court area. Unfortunately Katie and I pooped out before we got over to that area though and we headed back to our "Florida house". So Maddie was saved from the endless ribbing Uncle Joseph was sure to give her once we got to the scene of the crime! (Background: When we went to Disney in 2003 when Maddie was only 5, she picked a fry up off the ground and ate it. UJ hasn't let her live it down since!!!). We did get to see some cool stuff while we were there though!

Green army men from Toy Story

Scooter Girl
I was not at all thrilled about the scooter thing but I've been having a lot of soreness when walking (lovely pregnancy issues!) so Joseph insisted I had to use a scooter if I wanted to do the parks so that I didn't wind up hurting myself or the baby. Fair enough...
Poppy and his favorite girls

Poppy and Baby Doll

The new Toy Story ride

More decoration from the ride

Mr. Potato Head was able to interact with everyone in line in 'real time'. It was pretty cool!

Patiently waiting in line

Still waiting...
(It was over an hour wait because it's a new ride)

We stopped by Ariel's Grotto for a little concert.

Daddy and Katie outside of Playhouse Disney

Katie, Mommy, and Rudy watching the show

Not sure when this picture was taken but I just like it!

Disney Marketplace

After a day and a half in the car, we finally arrived in Disney! Since our room wasn't ready for check-in yet, we decided to head to the Disney Marketplace to get ourselves all Disney-fied right away, LOL.

The Princesses

And again... :-)

Gangsta Kate

That's better!

Katie and Mommy

Uncle Chris and Aunt Karen

Happy Birthday to Maddie!

Maddie's birthday was the day before we left so Poppy treated us all to a birthday dinner for her at the Macaroni Grill after we got settled into our room. Yummy!

The Family

Katie is really excited because she can write on the table with her crayons!

Singing Happy Birthday to Maddie.
Katie is seriously eyeing up that cake!!!

Disney Expressway

4 people, 3 roads, 2 days, 1 car... Our trip to Disney in a nutshell! Well, actually there was another car and 4 more people but the numbers worked out better this way for blog purposes, LOL. The ride was smooth and quick, and Katie and Maddie were really great in the car! Thank heaven for DVDs, MP3s, DS, etc. They kept the kids happy, and me and Joseph sane!

Not many pics from the ride down, but here's what we have...

What's a road trip to Florida without a stop at South of the Border???

Maddie, Poppy, and TiTi's new husband Pedro that she bought with a penny!

Maddie appalled at the 'public restrooms'!
We pulled up and she said (with all the 10 year old digust she could muster up!), "PUBLIC restrooms?" OMG!!! lol Joseph told her "No, they're private, we have a membership!"
Confused the heck out of her for a minute!

Get out of my way!!!
Don't you know I have to hit a top speed of 98.5 mph in the minivan!!!

Fall Festival

The primary school had their fall festival tonight and despite the rain, the 'show must go on'. I took Katie, Kelly, and Liam, and then Chrissy and John met us there. I have some pictures of the kids decorating their pumpkins but I can't get them off of the memory card they're on because it doesn't fit in my card reader. :-( So if I ever figure out how to get to them, I'll come back and add to the post.

I do have this picture though... LOL John was more excited than the kids to be getting his face painted!

Who let the dogs out???
(Yes, he's actually lapping up beer!)

Halloween Preview

Can you guess what Katie is going to be?