Disney Day 3, Part 2!

 So, here's where we left off with Day 3, in case you forgot.  There is Reilly's prize she picked out, her new Ariel dress up set, aka, I-am-full-of-chocking-hazards-that-are-Ariel-themed.  She is OBSESSED with it, we have liked other toys better (that don't require constant Reagan intervention).  Ha.  But seriously, she insisted on carrying that toy around for the rest of the day like a purse, even though she wasn't allowed to open it until we got to the room.  She did ask us no less than 35 times to open it in the middle of the parks, just to see if we'd changed our minds. ;)

So we left the Magic Kingdom, fav toy in hand, ridiculously adorable 20's sunglasses on face, and BOOKED it to Epcot for our Princess Lunch at Akershus Castle.  Now, when  I say booked, I mean almost running the ENTIRE way.  Both girls were in the stroller, and we were hauling.  We had to be there by 12, and we only had about 45 minutes to get from the castle, to the Monorail, switch Monorails, and through Epcot.  Not easy, but we made it in time (relatively). We were afraid of another Chef Mickey's situation, where the characters started coming out instantly and we didn't get to get our food, or worse, missed a princess hitting our table.  We were relieved when we made it!

Upon getting there, we were greeted by Belle and got some adorable professional pictures of her and our family.  We told her that she and Reilly share a name. :)

The first princess to come to our table was Sleeping Beauty, aka Aurora.  How stunning is she?!

 

 She could have been a runway model!  She was so tall, and Reilly loved her blonde curls.

Next to visit us was Snow White.  Mommy's fav!  Reilly told her she was Mommy's favorite, and Snow thought we could be sisters. I mean, I'm just reporting the facts..she said it, not me. ;)

 Telling her stories..

 Blurry but I'm obsessed with that face.

 The girls with Snow!  Things I love about this picture: Reilly and she are holding hands, and Reagan can't even help herself and is grinning up at her with her apple-red  cheeks. She was smitten with the princesses!  She totally knew that this was an awesome experience.

 Just then, Snow White asked Reilly in her perfect Snow voice, "Would you like to come help me lead the parade?"  Well, I about died.  Both mine and Reilly's dreams were coming true at the same time.  Off they went!

 They had a parade with all the princesses, and all the little girls around the many rooms of the restaurant.  And Reilly got to LEAD the parade, holding Snow White's hand, and holding her flower basket.  LOOK AT THAT JOYFUL LITTLE FACE.  Naturally,  I did as any crazed princess-loving mother would, and ran around that restaurant like a pregnant lunatic snapping pictures from every angle.  All other parents (and I mean ALL), sat politely in their seats clapping as the parade went by.  Meanwhile, there I am, borderline IN the parade, zooming, squatting, clapping, smiling, and snapping away.  Worth every second. :)

 A back view, in case we needed a fresh angle.

 This is Snow at the end of the parade, silently waving and acknowledging my psychosis.

 All the girls waving to Snow.  Trip MADE.

When Reilly and I finished our parade, Ariel herself came to our table!  Look at these giddy faces!

 

 She was so sweet.  All the princesses spent such a long time at our table, that Hubby would say "Okay, Reilly let's get her go..".  I, on the other hand, would feed Reilly conversation starters so she could get some awesome quality time with each one. :)  I figured, these girls are pros, when they need to move on they will certainly just wrap it up and go to the next table.  But while they were with us, we will soak up every second! 

 Here is Reilly asking her if that is the necklace that Ursula captured her voice into.  She said no, this one was from her Daddy, King Triton, and he collected the shells himself and gave one to each of her sisters.

 Here she is falling in love with Reilly's love for her. :)

 Next was Cinderella, and Reagan was SCREAMING with joy when she came over.  It was amazing.

 We told Cinderella that we love Gus Gus, he is our favorite character.  And then we have on video Reilly telling her that Gus Gus is "chubby like our Rea Rea", and Cinderella laughing so hard she could barely contain herself. :) Haha.

 Then they danced, and sang "Cinderelly, Cinderelly" together. :)

After the lunch, we went on one ride in Epcot and then headed back to our room for naps.  It was HOT this day, and we all needed to be cooler, and to sleep a little!

 After naps, we played outside our room on the patio area, of course with our new obsession.

 Then we had a little family dinner at the quick-service restaurant at our hotel, Captain Cook's.  It was so much fun dining with our girls. :)

 Learning how to ham it up like her sissy. :)

 We went outside and saw some teeny baby ducks!

 That night, we headed to Downtown Disney with the girls to get some souvenirs.  We took a belly pic on the way. :)

 We had another late and very fun night.  IOn the way, the girls were being so silly and giggly on my lap, that they had the entire bus laughing.  Reilly was singing, "We are being silly girls on the bus!!"  I was cracking up the whole time.  Once downtown, we went to Goofy's Candy shop, and Reilly picked out a treat (rainbow unicorn lollipop, same favorite as Mommy!) and she finished the WHOLE thing!  It was hilarious.  We also went to the Christmas shop, and the World of Disney store, where Reilly picked out a special Rapunzel babydoll for her Sissy.  The bus ride home was long, and boy were we happy to  be in bed that night! We crashed.

 But of course, Reilly crashed ever so delicately in her giant princess-sized bed. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!!

[We interrupt these Disney updates to tell you how much we love our Daddy]

Our Daddy is the big 28 today!!  We love him so much.  He is referred to as "our prince" by the princess-loving 3 year old, and he most certainly is the prince to all his princesses. There are many things that we love about you, Daddy, and many things that make you irreplaceable to your girls.  But here are just a teensy few of the reasons we adore you:

(Some are specific to each girl...hopefully you can tell who wrote each one ;))

1.  You make the most kick-A flip flop flapjacks we ever had.  Every single weekend!  Not sure how that tradition started, but we LOVE it!  And we love those pancakes.

2. There is no one funner to dance with.

3.  You build us all of the things that we dream of.  Including, but not limited to, closets, bookshelves, bird houses, hutches, signs, gates, stairs, and drawers organizers.  We love that you are handy dandy.

 4.  You are manly.  And you are not afraid to be Daddy.  Like, full time, change diapers, no dirty baby jobs you won't do, Daddy.  To me, a true man is one who loves to be a true Daddy.
5. You love God, and are an example to our girls of how to follow Him.  You are everything that He says that a husband and father should be, and you should be proud knowing that.
6.  We love your bedtime songs and stories.  Especially your special songs that you sings to us, and the stories you tell about Daddio and Mommio and how they met at a special resort. :)
7.  You never complain about hard work.  Hard and constant work.  (The other night at bedtime, Reilly thanked God that Daddy works so hard.  She notices too, and loves you for it.)

 

 8. You are the funnest person ever to vacation with, or road-trip with.  And you always want to stop for fun coffees.

9.  You know how hard I work all day, and let me know that my work is important.  Never even once do you say, "Can you put them to bed, I worked all day." You are down the hall with little curls bouncing after you.

 10.  There is nowhere that we feel safer to sleep than right next to you.

11. We love how you come home with endless energy every day, and manage to pack so much quality time into our days.  Days like yesterday, "building" with Daddy after work, are the best kind of days.

12. We love how you look so handsome without even trying. 

13. We love how you can carry us all day long (Mama not so much these days...) and never tire of it.  You have such strong daddy arms!

 

14.  I love how I know that you were really hoping I wasn't going to end on an odd number. And an odd prime, of all things. ;)

Happy Birthday, Handsome.  This is the eleventh fourth of July that we have been celebrating your birthday together!  And they just keep getting better, don't they?  I love you more than you know. 

Disney Day 3! (Part 1)

So yes, Disney Day 3 needs to be a two parter.  We had a BIG day, went to the Bippidi Boppidi Boutique AND lunch with all the princesses!  Mommy's camera got a workout that day, so I thought I'd split it up to avoid picture overload. 

Plus, Bippidi Bobbidi deserves it's own post.  It was amazing.

Here are the girls in the morning, with it's-85-degrees-already-at-7am-lens-fog going on.  But I don't care, I needed a shot of these beauties with their matching Tink shirts and crown headbands. I just love dressing up these little princesses! :)

 We went to Magic Kingdom early, since that is where our Bippidi appointment was.  We had a little time to kill in the morning, so we went to the Peter Pan ride.  Confession:  I still have NO idea why this ride had such a long wait the entire trip!  From 9:00am to 11:00pm, you couldn't get on this ride without wait or a Fast Pass.  It just struck me as so odd.  The really crowded rides are always the newer ones (Ariel) or the big ones (Splash Mountain)...and this one?!  I thought maybe it could be because Peter Pan just came out of the Disney vault onto DVD, so this whole generation just starting loving it.  Either way, it's a cute ride, just not worth a huge wait to me.  But Reilly sure was excited!  She got Peter Pan as a prize just before we left, so was very into all things Peter and Wendy and Tink!

 While we were online, we caught sight of these guys around the corner posing for pictures.  I knew she would be way excited to meet them, and she was!  She just loved meeting all the characters, even more than the rides.  She had seen a teenage boy dressed as Peter Pan the day before running through the park, and she was convinced it was the real Peter, and is still asking me to this day why Peter was running that day.  Haha!

 Wendy was one of our favs.  She was so sweet and just REALLY seemed like little Wendy had come to life!  Her English accent adorable, and she was just so precious with Reilly.  They talked about bows, and how her mother makes hers for her.  Reilly just loves accents since our trip, hearing so many different people speak - she tells me that "Wendy doesn't say "Peter" she says "PetAH".  It's adorable.

 I mean, can't you just tell how much they love each other!  She is smitten with Wendy.  We heard a radio commercial for Wendy's the other day, and she totally freaked out and thought they were talking about her Wendy. :)  So happy we got to meet her.

 She loved Peter as well, and said he was "so soft!"

 Here's Wendy showing Reagan some love too!

Next, we headed over to the Castle Couture gift shop so Reilly could pick out a prize.  (More on that prize later). She got sprinkled with Pixie Dust (aka glitter aka her new favorite substance in life), by the sweet man working there.  Then we headed over to the Bippidi Boppidy Boutique which was actually inside Cinderella's Castle!

 We checked in, and got to go right back to the Royal Dressing Rooms to change into our fancy attire.  Rather than drop almost $300 on this ordeal, I opted to bring our own beautiful dresses for the girls, as well as our own shoes and wands.  This way, Reagan could be matching and feel just as special, they looked adorable, AND we saved some money!  (There is a package that includes a dress, shoes, wand, crown, etc...but I actually didn't like the way it looked when we got there!  The girl's were sweltering in these huge thick polyester gowns, and just looked too gaudy and overdone.  I was so happy that we brought our own cooler dresses, and Reilly was too!)

 I love how excited Reagan was too!  Could you just melt.

While we waited to get done, Reilly had to go to the bathroom.  I asked the woman at the front where the closest bathroom was, and she directed us around the Carousel.  As I headed out the door, the sweet sweet older "Fairy God Mother" as they call themselves, stopped us and said, "Wait! Follow me!  Tell Barbara I'll be right back!"  So Hubby took Reilly and followed her mysteriously, and I said, "Um..Barbara? She'll be right back."  A few minutes later, Reilly came skipping back into the waiting area.  The Fairy Godmother said, "Tell Mommy who you saw!".  To which Reilly replied, "WE SAW THE REAL CINDERELLA!!!"  That sweet woman took Reilly to the "real castle bathroom" (inside the Cinderella's Royal Table restaurant), and brought her past Cinderella, who waved and blew a kiss RIGHT to Reilly.  Reilly thought it was just about the most magical thing ever that she saw Cinderella in her actual castle, and that she really blew a kiss to her.  I was so grateful to that sweet woman, and wondered how many other little girls to does this for every day - absolutely making their day.  Such a sweet woman.

 Here is Reilly picking out her makeup colors from her very own Fairy Godmother.  I just loved every minute of this experience, and would do it again in a second.  It was worth every penny.

 Just look at that face!  As she holds her little wand.  I mean seriously. She was so excited.

 Sweet girl in her "glass slippers". :)

 Super excited to get started!!

 As soon as she started doing her hair, she got her very serious face.  This is when she does Big Girl things, and knows it is a big deal.  She had the same expression for her very first manicure, and I am just in love with it.

 There's her smile!

 Cutie serious face again. :)

 Then she got another Fairy Godmother, Daisy, who came to do her nails and makeup a the same time!! It was so sweet and magical for her.

 Here they were telling her about the gel they were using in her hair, and how it came from the jellyfish under the sea.  Then they had her guess who brought them the gel every morning, and it was of course Ariel.  They told her how Ariel gets her hair done there every morning, and sits in that very chair.  I just LOVED all the magical stories that each person told Reilly the whole time - it made me want to cry.

 So captivated.

 Reagan, naturally, was laughing and smiling the whole time.  She was having a ball.  And the professional photographer there, who was supposed to be photographing the Princesses, just fell in love with Reagan and spent a good amount of his film on her. :)

 Really feeling special now. :)

 Look at her nails drying!  Everything about this was cracking me up. She is so tiny getting so pampered. :)

 Seriously.  Can I eat your arms rolls, please. I'm obsessed with you. The photographer, at this point, was playing peek-a-boo and using his weirdly amazing -are-you-actually-Mickey-Mouse Mickey voice to make her laugh.

 MY FAVORITE PART.  I loved when they put the eye makeup on her, and she closed her eyes, and still had her hands out drying.  I mean, it was too much to take!

 Blotting.  Obviously.

 As soon as Mommy came close, her excited "Can you believe this Mama!" face came out. :)

 Check out Reagan pointing at her sister like, "Guys, can you get a load of this?!"

 Her hilarious shield as they sprayed her and showered her with Pixie Dust.

 Once again, the eyes closed killed me.  With the hand still out.  I this point I was holding back laughter/tears.

 As they sprinkled her with Fairy Dust, they said, "May all of your dreams and fairy tale wishes come true, Bippidi....Boppidi...Boo!"  (Cue tears from Mama. I mean, really. How could you not.)  Look at that precious precious little face, that was once in my womb, sitting in that chair as all of her little tiny 3-year-old dreams become real.  I swear, I'm not hormonal.

 Our gorgeous girl!!  Check out Mama and Daddy in the mirror, such proud parents. :)

 Her sweet smile when they spun her around to see herself. :)

In her fancy little sash, trying to take in all the magic around her. (Sidenote: I wonder if I always tilt like that when I photograph?! People who see me take pictures all the time - is this my stance? Haha) 

This is when the giggles started. :)

I love that she is always willing and ready to have her little sister climb right up into the limelight with her.  She wasn't all "No, this is my chair. She's too little." She said, "Come here Rea Rea!"  Lately she's been telling me daily how happy it makes God when she shares.  Then she'll point to the ceiling and say, "SEE?? LOOK HOW HAPPY GOD IS!"

Angels getting Daddy tickles.

Her favorite part, which she kept talking about and showing to everyone (strangers alike) was the little "Minnie without the bow behind her bun" (in case you were confused, Minnie without the bow is sometimes referred to as "Mickey". But not to her.  She insisted this was Minnie, but she just wasn't wearing her bow.)  She loves that little clip!

Holding her new Ariel prize, which she wasn't allowed to open ALL day long (we are so mean) until we got back to the hotel.  Even thought she asked no less than 53 times, each time as if she had never heard the answer before.  OH hey, when we got on the monorail, can I play with my toy?  No honey, no until we get back to our room. Ha.  But she insisted on carrying it like a purse all day.  She still loves every little teeny tiny choking hazard of a piece of that toy, and has not stopped playing with it!  Point for Mommy and Daddy. :)

All day, strangers and Disney staff would ask her about her time at the boutique, she showed them her Minnie, and told them all about her time.  It was so sweet for her to be princess for a day.  (Sidenote, ALL Disney personell, every single day, called her "Princess" everywhere she went.  They do it for every little girl, and it's just precious.)

We were so happy to be able to do this for our girl.  And I can't wait till Reagan is old enough, and to see what they do with her curls. ;) (Even though, she's be totally content watching again, I think!)  Reilly brings us so much joy every day, and is such a good girl most every day.  We were so happy to bring her the biggest smiles we knew how at he tender little age.  And some people will say (about the whole trip), that they won't remember it.  And she might not.  But that doesn't actually matter to me at all.  She will have these pictures.  She will have my words.  And Hubby and I will have the memory of watching her sweet face in such utter joy and wonder.  Which is a gift in itself.