the bibbidi bobbidi boutique!!! 2.22

when we entered the bbb, all of the princess gowns, crowns, and shoes were displayed for the girls to chose from...sarah immediately chose the pink dress (HUGE SURPRISE!!!) and the purple flip flops (again, a shocker!). she wanted to put the teeny tiny flip flops on NOW!!! we were given a pager to let us know when it was our turn...the pager was so cute! the fairy godmother talked to sarah when it was our time! the place was also so precious because everyone referred to sarah as "princess sarah" the whole time we were there!!!
the "fairy godmother in training" led us to sarah's dressing room where sarah had to say the magic words to make her clothes appear behind the curtain...BIBBIDI BOBBIDI BOO!!!


i have NEVER seen such pampering in my whole life!!! sarah had TWO attendants the whole time. the girl who did sarah's hair worked on it for 45 minutes...seriously!!! i felt like sarah was getting ready for the oscars or something :)
sarah got to pick all of her makeup colors and her fingernail polish color...again, surprising that she picked all pinks and purples...she also got to choose her tiara and disney barrette for the back of her bun. the girl LOVES to make the decisions!!!
you need to click on the below pic so you can really see her facial expression...it was priceless! they had her close her eyes for the "big reveal" and when she opened her eyes she looked so mad!!!

sarah and her "fairy godmothers in training"...

after the bbb, we headed over to the exhibition hall for sarah's "photo shoot". it was hilarious! she really thought she was somethin' else!!!

start of day two...magic kingdom...2.22

sarah and i headed out early on our 2nd morning at disneyworld to get to our appointment at the bibbidi bobbidi boutique. it was SO fun! our appointment time was PRIOR to the opening of the magic kingdom, so we got to go in the park before everyone else! there were only a handful of people in the park, so we had an easy time capturing some great pics!!!

good news and bad news...

i'll start with the bad news...i have jury duty this week for the state courts. i sat in a room with 350 possible jurors from 8:30-3 today. it was SUPER BORING!!! i wasn't chosen for a case today, so tomorrow looks like more of the same :(

the good news...the juror holding room has WIRELESS INTERNET and lots of little desks with electrical outlets! so i WILL be taking my laptop with me tomorrow!!! so, i should be able to post most of our disney pics tomorrow as long as i don't get picked for a case :) also, i am getting paid a WHOPPING $11 per day for my service...that's a BIG raise from my salary as a stay-at-home mom!?! plus, once i pay for parking and lunch...i'm back in the hole again :)

p.s. i apparently have a VERY TOUGH AUDIENCE on this blog!!! i'll try to get crackin' on the disney photos...ship shape :)

our first night at disney...magic kingdom...2.21

after our naps, we went to the magic kingdom to play!!! first we had dinner in tomorrowland at a counter service restaurant. then, we went to the mad hatter's tea party. the kids thought it was really fun! and you should have seen mimi, daddy, mommy, sarah, and drew ALL squeezed into one teacup! yikes!!!

then we went to see minnie and mickey's country houses. wouldn't it have been nice if BOTH kids would have sat down TOGETHER on the hearth?!?



next, sarah changed BACK into her princess dress so we could go SEE THE PRINCESSES!!!
the kids with princess aurora, aka sleeping beauty...notice sarah is holding her dress like a princess!

the kids with cinderella...notice sarah is playing with her hair like ariel...
the kids with belle...
drew getting some special attention from belle. belle also gave drew a big ole lipstick leavin' kiss on his cheek!!!
we rode the train around the magic kingdom. mimi and sarah say, "CHOO CHOO! ALL ABOARD!"
the kids enjoying fruit smoothies WITHOUT LIDS!?! who ever thought lid-less cups were a good idea at a kiddie park?!?

yipee for disney world!!!

drew watching the fireworks at magic kingdom...
sarah pretending to sleep in the stroller! she was a riot! she kept asking why the kids were asleep in their strollers so she tried it out to see what all the fuss was about?!?
a little sibling lovin'
drew telling sarah, "LOOK!!!"
we got back to our room at about 11:30...crazy and completely unheard of for our family!!! the kids had a really great day with no tantrums or meltdowns...in this mom's eyes, that makes for a perfect time :)

another blog-related question?!?

is the white on pink any easier to read? i'm not a good judge...i thought the brown on pink was fine :)

our first morning at disney...animal kingdom...2.21

okay, so it is going to take A LONG TIME to get all the pics of disneyworld posted! apparently, i took a lot of pictures. and amazingly, many of them turned out and captured the many special moments of our trip!!!

our first morning, we headed out to the animal kingdom. here we are standing in line waiting for our bus. notice the backpack in the picture. it DID NOT make it onto the bus with us...daddy made a quick cab ride back to our villa to pick it up and re-joined the gang as we were getting into the animal kingdom!!!

when we arrived at the animal kingdom and got settled in with our stroller and such, we headed straight to the tusker house for breakfast with mickey, donald, and goofy. it was SO MUCH FUN!!! the kids enjoyed meeting the characters and dancing in a conga line around the restaurant! and the buffet was super yummy!





do ya think sarah enjoyed the conga line?!? she's got some MAJOR hip action going on :)

after our breakfast, we rode the safari around to see all the animals.

i think we were in the lion king show for this fuzzy pic!!!
we were in a huge theater waiting to watch the little nemo show and drew was being so sweet putting his arms around mimi and poppy from behind and loving on them!!!
sarah modelling her new PRINCESS minnie ears. too cute!
i think the kids enjoyed swinging on the rails waiting on our bus as much as they enjoyed the animal kingdom!!!

we headed back to our room for a nap break before the rest of the day's festivities...the animal kingdom was lots of fun. we were very lucky in hitting most of the attractions/shows one after the other. it involved lots of criss crossing the park which was hard on the adults' feet but easy on the kids :) we saw all of the animal kingdom that was age appropriate for our kids in about 5 hours.

our travel day to disneyworld...2.20

the day started out peacefully enough...the kids were in good moods on the way to the airport, we made it through security with no problems, and ate a leisurely lunch at lenny's...drew sat in the airport watching movies on the ipod. how cute is that?!?

THEN we boarded the plane...oh no! drew started screaming like he was having his fingernails pulled off! it was horrible! towards the end of him screaming and writhing around to the point where i couldn't contain/hold him, i started thinking maybe he was having an allergic reaction to something...or his first psychotic break :) seriously though, he was breathing so heavy, and his face was beet red. he FINALLY calmed down in my arms AND FELL ASLEEP! i don't think in his entire 2 years of life drew has EVER fallen asleep in my arms! i followed dr. weissbluth's book to a "t" and always put my kids to bed drowsy but awake so they could self soothe...plus i always had them home and in their cribs for naptime. sorry for the subject jump there. sometimes i just need to give a shout out to the man who made my kids such great sleepers!!!

regardless, drew slept in my arms for about 30 minutes...much shorter than his normal nap, but i was hoping enough to tide him over til bedtime. well, he didn't wake up too much happier than he went to sleep. but, found quick entertainment in walking in the aisles between us and mimi and poppy. guess we blew mimi and poppy's cover of acting like they didn't know that horrible screaming kid :) meanwhile, sarah was a perfect angel on the flight...she's an ole pro after all!!!

neither kid seemed too sure of the borrowed carseats that awaited us in our transportation to disney. of course, they were much better once mimi gave them each a bag of m&m's!!!

when we arrived at the wilderness lodge, the kids were thrilled to see that everything was suddenly kid sized and kid friendly!!! the kids watched disney movies while the adults checked in!!!

the kids each got a "welcome bag" that had stickers in it. drew thought stickers on his face sounded like a marvelous idea :)
drew ready to go into our villa.
the magic of disney!!!
we ate a quick dinner and got the kids to bed early! the real fun was to begin bright and early in the morning!!!

p.s. i put a bunch of links throughout this post for my friends planning disney trips with their families! be sure to click on the "white" words for links to helpful websites about disney and orlando!!!

STOP!!! you ARE in the right place! (updated)

i've done a little tweaking to the ole blog...i was bored with the old layout!!! hope you enjoy the new look!!!

p.s. "someone" commented that the brown on pink was difficult to read! any other "old eyes" out there having trouble?!? i thought it was a good contrast and quite easy to read :)

disney highlights!!!

well, i am still working on the 800 photos (literally!) that we took at disneyworld...so i don't have any pics ready to post. but, i thought i would write out a few of our favorite moments to tide you over!

• i fully expected sarah to be mesmerized by the princesses...what i WAS NOT expecting was drew's reaction! he was a smitten kitten! he just stared at them--his first crush! and it wasn't just one princess...it was every single one! that boy had so much lipstick on his cheeks from kisses from the princesses! he was in heaven!!!
• sarah was truly upset when we arrived at our villa (which was AWESOME, btw!)...she thought we were literally sleeping in the castle with the princesses every night!
• both kids were so confused about the concept of disneyworld...when we were at disney, they kept saying they wanted to go to disney. i finally realized that they thought the magic kingdom, and more specifically the castle, were the REAL disney!!!
• our resort, the villas at wilderness lodge, was across the lagoon from magic kingdom, so most times we went there, we took the boat. the kids LOVED the boat...but every time the whistle blew, drew thought it was a train and started saying, "CHOO CHOO!"
• drew was a NIGHTMARE on the plane...that kid HATES planes. he screamed the first 20 minutes we were on the plane leaving memphis. we weren't even airborne. he was just so mad to be contained! guess its a good thing that he turned TWO yesterday and will always have to have his own seat from now on!!!
• sarah wanted to wear her princess gowns EVERY SINGLE SECOND we were at disney! forget comfort, she's a true diva :) she was also very into her princess flip flops that she got at the bibbidi bobbidi boutique...poor thing got huge blisters from them, but STILL wanted to wear them!!!
• our kids woke up every morning about 7:00am-ish and went strong til about 3:00pm-ish...at that point, we would go back to the hotel for nap time. the kids slept anywhere from 3-4 hours, then they went strong til 10:00pm or 11:00pm each night!!! it was SO the way to go for our family. the kids were in a good mood 99% of the time! now, the grandparents, well, they were worn out :)
• on that note, we saw SO many pitiful kids at the parks whose parents just drug them around from sun up til way past sundown! we saw zoned out kids, sleeping kids, cranky kids, etc. the way we saw it, it wasn't worth it to kill our kids being at the parks every single second! they really enjoyed disney on our schedule!!! the only downside...one night tim overheard a caricature artist say, "that is what happens when kids have too much caffeine and too much sugar" referring to our kids...NOW had i heard him say that, he would no longer be employed by disney. and he would have received an earful about how my kids just happened to be well-rested and happy...guess he doesn't see well rested kids very often. as you can tell, it really ruffled my feathers. and i AM going to mention this in the online survey that i am filling out later tonight!!!
• drew said, "LOOK!" a lot on the trip! it was so funny! i guess he picked up on us telling him and sarah to look at the different things we were seeing and thought he needed to tell us the same!!!
• sarah adopted a new (really annoying to me) habit on our trip! she constantly plays with her hair! JUST LIKE ARIEL!!! every time we saw ariel she was either touching her hair with her hands or running a fork through her hair...and now miss priss does the same thing! in half of our pics she is touching her hair! hope that fades away soon :)
• our trip was as MAGICAL and AMAZING as we had hoped! it really was great to see the kids' reactions to everything!
• i promise i will get pics from the trip up as soon as i can!!!