Disney World 2- Princess Dinner

The first night at DW we had a Storybook Princess Dinner at Epcot in the Norway restaurant Akershus Banquet Hall. It was billed as a meal with several princesses with traditional Norwegian food.

The girls brought their long princess dresses and got dressed in the bathroom in the park. Here we are in the line before dinner. Our reservation was for 5:05pm which was good because we were all tired.

Belle was the special princess that night and we got to have her sign our books and then have pictures made. Two picture packages were included in our meal.

Bennett was happy to sit and eat while we waited for our food.

Mommy and Bennett

Right after we sat down there was a Princess procession and they ask all the kids to join in. It was impossible to catch the girls as they walked by with my shutter speed, but I did catch Cinderella.

At the character meals now, they have it down to an art. The Princesses all start at the same location at different times and quickly move to each table. They are incredibly efficient at signing the books, talking sweetly to the girls and then taking a picture. They all were just with us a moment, but I don't think the girls felt rushed at all.

Here is Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) signing our book

Cinderella was there as well and here she is signing our book.

Smiling with Cinderella

Joiner was especially excited to see Ariel.

A special picture. Notice Carly is holding her dress the way she saw all the princesses doing it.

Mulan was a princess we didn't know, but they have asked a lot about her since. We will have to Netflix the movie.

A group shot after dinner. The meal for the adults was really wonderful. The kids have to order off a kids meal and that was a little lacking, but the girls didn't mind.

More to come...

Disney World-Part 1

So Disney World. It was the most wonderful trip. Mom and dad joined us and they came up Sunday night so we were all together before the trip. We were so excited and I worked for a week to get us ready. Our flight was at 9:26 am in Charlotte. So we had to leave the house at 5:30/ 5:45am to get there by 7:30. We were completely packed up so I woke up the girls and Andy helped them get ready while I fed a very confused Bennett. Mom and Dad got dressed and in their truck. We piled in the cars and drove to Charlotte while it was still dark.

Here is Joiner as the sun came up. We left on Valentine's Day so they each got a soft Ariel doll for the trip. I mean, don't you need a present to go to Disney World? Carly

Here is sweet Bennett as he spent the entire trip. Remember he is not usually awake until 7:30, so he quickly fell asleep and stayed that way until we got him out smiling!

Mom and Dad in the truck behind us

We each had a carry-on, but we had to check a bag for all Bennett's things and food. Here is Carly at the kiosk.

I tried several times to get a picture of everyone toting their bags to the terminal but I never got us all and most of them are blurry

We made it to the terminal and headed out to find some breakfast

As always, just happy to go with the flow!

Unfortunately we hit a snag with seat assignments at the gate. I had requested two full rows when I made the reservations. However, at the gate, we didn't even have two seats together. This wouldn't have been a big deal, except we needed both Carly and Joiner to be with an adult. So, I went to the attendants and they very rudely didn't care. I knew if we got on the plane that people would switch seats so our girls could be with us, but I was trying to do it the right way. After a long time and most of the plane had boarded, we finally got two sets of seats together. As it turned out, people did switch when we got on the plane and Andy sat with both girls. Dad sat alone, and mom and I sat together with Bennett. I hated that I missed the girls' first time flying, but Andy said they weren't really that interested. Bennett did fabulous and I am very thankful for nursing. He started eating as soon as we started moving, fell asleep, and stayed that way for the whole flight. It was his normal morning nap time and he fell right into the routine.

Here we are as our plane came into the gate in Orlando. Full belly and ready to party.

Disney is a cliche, but they make it easy to travel with them. As soon as we got our bags, we went to the Magical Express terminal and got our ticket for the bus to our resort. It took all of 2 minutes and we went straight to an empty bus and had a great ride. One of the points of going in February is that it was supposed to be a good time to go with crowds and weather. It was beautiful weather and the crowds were very low.

Here are the VERY happy girls on the Magical Express

Gigi, Grumpa, and Bennett. Look at him watching them. So funny.

Andy just can't take a normal picture, so here it is!

We stayed at Coronado Springs on the Disney World property and it was very nice. It was huge and we actually got lost walking to our rooms. Here are Carly and Joiner at the fountain in the lobby.

Here is the best attempt at a family shot!

We got to our rooms and the crib rental place brought Bennett's bed. I fed Bennett and we changed clothes and headed to our first stop, Epcot. We had reservations for dinner with the princesses at 5:05pm and our princesses were very excited.

Here are Daddy and Bennett waiting for the bus to Epcot
So sweet! Here he is in his fancy new sun hat! He spent a lot of time in the carrier and hat this week!

Gigi and Carly

Grumpa and Joiner

Here is the crew outside the big ball at Epcot. The girls have on their trading pin lanyards. On the advice from a friend, I bought a bunch of Disney pins on Ebay so the girls could trade them and have some fun. They really got into it.

As soon as we got a chance we grabbed some food. Here is Joiner on the deck of the restaurant in "Mexico."

This is not Joiner:)

Something new at Disney since I was little is the idea of character autographs. People stand in these lines to meet the character and get their autograph. Some of the lines take an hour! I bought the girls these Tinkerbell books and they were happy to collect their names. We didn't stand in many lines, but we did stand in a line at Epcot to see Chip and Dale. They don't really know who they are, but it was our first day and they were excited.

Getting some hugs and passing our books.

Say Cheese!

We moved onto dinner with the princesses and that will come tomorrow...

6 Months Old

The Disney World posts are coming, but first I had to celebrate Mr B's 6 month birthday! I am a little late this month, but preparing for DW and then the actual trip caused the delay.

If it is possible, Bennett is even more of a joy at 6 months than he has been the other 5. He is the sweetest, happiest, funniest baby! He seems to love being part of our family and just smiles and talks through all the chaos.

He is doing a great job sitting on his own for as long as we leave him. He HATES being on his tummy unless he is naked, so we are still working on the crawling. He will roll both ways and when he is on his tummy, he will scoot his bottom and legs until he moves.

At his 6 month appointment, he was 15.4 Lbs (12%), 24.5 inches (20%) and his head was 20%. Still cuddly and perfect! He eats ANYTHING and loves it! He is such a social eater and wants to sit and eat his puffs and banana while we eat.

Carly drew our "6" this time. Great job. Here is the little ham. Big stretch!

With his new favorite toy, his feet! He wants them bare and available all the time!

Now onto the paper

So cute!

I still keep the Boppy behind him, but it just makes his focus on the tag. I think we will start keeping him free so he will leave the tag alone.

Gone is the little man who gets shy in front of the camera!

"How many toys can I fit in my hand at one time?"

"What is the quadratic equation? Hmm, let me think about that!"

"Yummy jungle pal!"

We got home from DW to discover that the warm weather had followed us home. I cleaned up one of the swings out front and Bennett went for his first ride. You can say he loved it, but that would be an understatement!

"Wheeee!"

We love you sweet boy! You are such a gift to our family!