Ellie's Trip to Disney

This trip was especially magical for Ellie, who has never been to Disney and had no idea what to expect. Upon our arrival, she had a present waiting for her on the bed at the hotel from Tinkerbell ! Every day after that, she would receive a present from Minnie Mouse or a princess left at our room. She was so happy with all of her gifts ! Minnie left her the dress to wear to the Magic Kingdom that you see in the photos. Ellie was so excited every day to meet the characters and see new rides and attractions. She really liked all the 3-D shows a lot. She didn't get scared of anything, either, except when a performer in the High School Musical show picked her out of the crowd to dance with her and Ellie was too shy to go up.It was priceless to see her face light up at each new thing she experienced. On the sceond day of our vacation, she actually grabbed my arm and turned to me and said ,"Mommy, this is magical !"

Carribean Beach Pool

Nothing beats being able to go swimming in November and , of course, this was a highlight of the trip for the kids. We stayed at the Carribean Beach Resort in Disney and their pool was a lot of fun with slides etc. and the hot tub too. They swam nearly every day and a few times at night, which was a big thrill as well.On the way back from the pool one night, we could see the fireworks show from Epcot across Barefeoot Bay.

It's a Small World After All

This past week while we were in Disney World, we had a few people sightings that just made us say, "It's a small world ". First, on our day at The Magic Kingdom, we decided to go on the Dumbo ride and somehow, Ellie and Bethany ,Felicia and Poppy got in line and my om and I lagged behind, so we ended up several spaces behind the others in line. A nice woman saw that we were talking with our family members across the rope and she offered to let us catch up to them, going in front of her. We were grateful and started talking with her only to find that she was the daughter of a couple that my parents knew who lived right down the street from them !!!! That was neat, but then only a little while later, we were in line at Goofy's Barnstormer ride (the kiddie roller coaster). When we came off the ride and were moving down the exit ramp, Steve said "I think I just saw The Cake Boss!" If you ever watch TLC, there is a show called Cake Boss and this man and his family own a bakery in NJ or NY. Since Steve had been pointing out different people since we'd arrived that "looked like celebrities", I didn't pay much attention, so I proceeded to take Ellie over to see Mickey and Minnie who were signing autographs.

Steve and the older kids said they were going to stay and wait until the guy came off the ride to see if it was him. Sure enough, Felicia races up to us in line about 5 minutes later yelling "I got his autograph!" It WAS the Cake Boss and his family and a personal escort getting them to the front of all the ride lines. That was pretty neat because the kids watch that show sometimes so they knew who he was.

Our last interesting encounter happened in Animal Kingdom. While walking through the park, I overheard a woman talking to her child and I turned around recognizing the voice. It was a family we've know for about the last 10 years that live here in Richmond about 10 minutes from us ! That was fun to see someone we knew while we were down in Florida!
So, it really is a small world after all!

Halloween in Disneyworld

How fun to celebrate Halloween in Disney ! We didn't intentially plan it that way, but we ended up being in Disney for Halloween this year. The kids had the opportunity to trick or treat at Downtown Disney ! It was exciting and fun to do something a little different for the holiday. We were a little disappointed to find out we weren't getting any chocolate candy in our bags because it was 90 degrees in Florida and that would have all been melted !
Trick or Treat !
photo op at Downtown Disney
Ellie's Cinderella spinning light is so much fun !

Walking out with her Poppy, hand in hand.

Happy Halloween !

the ghosts are finished ! We each made a face on a ghost and then I hung some of them from the second story foyer. A fun and easy activity !
We can't wait for Trick or Treat on Saturday !

One evening, the three older kids were up in Bethany's room hanging out together, After a while of not hearing or seeing anyone, I went to see what they were up to. Bethany had three quotes displayed in her room on her shelves that she had made. The one shown above was the quote she said that Sam told to her because he sees it in one of his classrooms at school. I loved that they A. remembered it and B. liked it well enough to put up on Their Walls!

Career Building

You know how most kids have a few ideas of things they might like to be when they grow up? Well, if you ask that questions to my daughters, that is true, but if you ask Sam, he always says "I don't know". I thought it would be fun to have them take a quiz to find out where their interests lie. I got this book from the library, obviously geared to adults, but it had a 4 page quiz that was easy to take--the only way they had to answer each one was to say LIKE, DISLIKE or UNSURE. At the end of the quiz, it told you what type of career category you would probably most interested in. In the end, Bethany (not surprisingly) ended up in the artistic category and so did (surprisingly !!) Sam ! felicia was in the Enterprising category. We'll see....