Day 7, High Tea

June 6, 2012
Tea anyone?  Taylor's transformation into a princess lasted for almost a full 24 hours.  Tony got me and her reservations at The Grand Floridian to have a "Perfectly Princess tea party" in the Rose Garden.  We met Rose Petal who entertained the girls with stories and songs.

Each girl received a crown, friendship charm and her very own American Girl style Disney doll dressed as Aurora.  The girls got their own pot of "princess tea" (apple juice), finger sandwiches made from peanut butter and jelly and turkey and cheese with assorted fresh fruit.  Of course no tea party is complete without cake.  The "Queens" (me and the other moms) received our own pot of rose tea, finger sandwiches made of seafood salad, egg salad and curry chicken salad, assorted cheese and crackers, fresh fruit and of course cake.  Since Taylor has a strawberry allergy, the waitstaff was very accommodating to her and gave her grape jelly instead of strawberry and made her a separate dessert of vanilla sponge cake over chocolate sauce and whip cream instead of the white cream cake with strawberry sauce that I had.

The highlight of the tea was being able to meet and visit with Princess Aurora who presented each girl with her very own long stemmed tea rose.  Princess Aurora met individually with each girl and they all waltz around the room together.

At the end of the tea party, each princess was paraded through the hotel lobby, up the winding staircase to one of the Disney stores where they got to name their new best friend doll.  Taylor named hers "Ashley."  For the remainder of the trip Ashley had been sleeping next to Taylor keeping her company.  After the tea party, we met up with the boys and Emelia who enjoyed a character breakfast at 1900 Park Fare inside the Grand Floridian hotel at the same time we had our tea and rode the monorail back over to The Magic Kingdom and rode more rides until the park closed.

Day 6, Animal Kingdom and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique

June 5, 2012
We woke up and walked into Animal Kingdom about 30 minutes after it opened.  It was hot and humid and the sun was blazing down on us.  Very different than Tucson heat because it was humid whereas Tucson has "dry heat."  What we definitely commented on was that we always managed to choose the hottest/most humid day to visit Animal Kingdom and we get bored after about 3 hours and leave and do something else.  Today's trip was no different!  We walked in and I took the girls to Dinoland U.S.A. while Tony took the boys to ride Expedition Everest.  Then the boys rode on the Dinosaur ride.  Me and the girls rode on Triceratop Spin and then we went to dig in the bone yard.  Both girls had a blast!  The boys then met us in Dinoland U.S.A., picked up Taylor and went to ride Dinosaur again.  And then we all did Primeval Whirl utilizing the "rider switch" program because Emelia was too short to ride on that ride.  We also stopped off to get more character pictures taken with Tigger, Eeyore, and Pooh as we were on our way out of the park.  They had misters set up to try and help make the area cooler but it didn't help.  We just ended up getting more wet, sticky and sweaty.

A very sweaty cutie!

After being hot and sweaty we left and came back to the timeshare, washed up Taylor and were off to Downtown Disney to get her made over at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.  Oh boy, The World of Disney store was buzzing with little girls getting their "Princess on!"  We saw a bunch of little girls getting made over into Cinderellas, Belles, Auroras and Arials.  My little girl became transformed into Jasmine!  She got the complete Castle Package which included the outfit, shoes, crown, wand, make-up, hair, and nail polish.  And she LOVED every minute of it.  And to complete the package she got her pictures done in her very own photo shoot.  My kids are so friendly and while we were waiting for Taylor's turn to get her pictures done, she met a little girl named Abby who was transformed into Cinderella.  Abby kept following Taylor around and asked her a ton of questions.  The girls got along so well.  I just had to snap a picture of the two of them.

She is soooooo excited!

Taylor's personal invitation to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.

Ready to be transformed!

No Princess would be complete without some Pixie Dust!

Princess from head to toe!

Taylor and her Fairygodmother in Training

That evening for dinner, we went to see the Arabian Nights dinner show.  Lots of horses and Aladdin like complete with a Genie who granted a princess 3 wishes.  Everyone we saw commented on Taylor's outfit and look for the evening.  She definitely carried herself like a Princess!   Since the evening was still young we took full advantage of our Park Hopper Passes and went back into The Magic Kingdom and rode more rides until closing.  We did have rain while we were in Arabian Nights and a few light sprinkles while at the Magic Kingdom so we made Taylor wear a poncho the whole time so we didn't ruin her hair and make up.  She was a really good sport about and also understood how important it was to keep herself dry.

Day 5, Water Park Day

June 4, 2012
We woke up early and ate another character breakfast called Ohana at The Polynesian Resort.  Lilo and Stitch, Mickey Mouse, and Pluto were there.  Anthony, Taylor and Emelia participated in the parade around the restaurant.  Anthony begrudgingly participated because we needed him to watch over Taylor while Tony took Emelia around.  Breakfast was very good with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, fresh fruit and Mickey waffles and sweet bread.  They served a tropical juice blend for the drink which the kids downed and kept getting refills on.  We figured out after eating breakfast at The Sizzler on Sunday with Taylor and Jackson that if we wanted them to eat a hearty breakfast to last them until lunchtime and not to fill up too quickly, they needed to eat their carbs/grains first.  So that meant they had to start with their Mickey waffle and afterward Taylor could move onto eating eggs and her breakfast meat; Jackson could then move onto eating his breakfast meat and then finish his milk since he doesn't eat eggs.  If we didn't make them eat in this order, they would get full on the protein (eggs, milk and breakfast meat), their stomachs would hurt and then they wouldn't eat anything else and be starving about 2 hours later.  By the time lunch would come around maybe 4 hours after breakfast, they'd be cranky and starving.  Anthony and Emelia eat everything and can eat their food in whatever order they wanted.

After breakfast we drove up I-4 towards Sea World and spent the remainder of the day at Aquatica.  That water park was awesome!  It also helped that we prepaid for an all day cabana that had towel service, water bottles, was shaded all day long and had a ceiling fan.  It made our day long stay very relaxing and enjoyable.  So enjoyable that Emelia, Anthony and I napped in the cabana while Tony took Jackson and Taylor around on the rest of the water rides/pools/slides.  Aquatica provided life vests for whomever needed them.  We immediately put one onto Emelia which took a little bit of time for her to get used too.  We also put one onto Taylor.  Even though she can swim, this helped her quite a bit and it helped her not tire out so quickly while she was in the water.  After settling in, Tony took the boys on some slides while I took the girls to the little kid's splash area.  Both girls got to slide and swim around in the wading pool.  Emelia still had issues with the water from the play structures pouring onto her head but she got used to it as the day wore on.

We then reconvened and I took the older 3 on a raft slide while Tony kept Emelia entertained in the larger kid area.  This location had a LOT more water features, a little larger slides for Taylor and Jackson's size/age and much more kids running around.  It definitely took some getting used too.  Then we did another kid switch and Tony took the boys back onto the larger slides while the girls and I stayed in the larger kid area.  Then the meltdown occurred...poor Emelia was so tired and so hungry that she didn't know if she wanted in the water or to be out of the water.  She didn't know if she wanted to be held or wanted to walk.  But we pressed on and did one more ride with her before going back to the cabana to get our food tickets.  She was such a trooper!  On our way to our lunch spot from the cabana she immediately fell asleep in the stroller.  Fortunately, I packed a bunch of snacks and she was able to nosh on pretzel sticks before her nap.

After lunch we all went back to the cabana to rest for about 30 minutes and reapply sunscreen.  Then Tony took Taylor and Jackson back out for more slides and water fun while Anthony, Emelia and I napped.  And then Taylor got into trouble.  She started getting so tired that she stopped listening while in the wave pool and freaked out because she swam away too far and lost sight of Tony.  So he brought her back to rest and chill out for a bit.  And then he took both Jackson and Anthony back out again but returned again so Taylor could come out and play too.  After Emelia woke up, she and I met up with them in the wave pool area.  Every 12 minutes the motors turn on creating waves in the pool so the kids got to ride several sets of waves before we had to pack up and leave.  Even Emelia was happy to return to the water and the waves didn't seem to bother her too much when they splashed her face.  But as all good things have to come to an end, Emelia hit her water park stride and almost refused to get out of the water.  She had a blast floating on her back allowing us to pull her back up towards the shore by the handle of her life vest.  Then she would get onto her stomach and try to swim back towards the shallow end of the pool.  We then ate an early dinner at the waterpark and changed into dry clothes in the cabana and headed towards the exit.  We had so much fun that we ended up staying until almost closing time and then headed back to our timeshare.

When we got back, Jackson still had a ton of energy so Tony took him and Taylor back out to attempt the miniature golf course that we have here on property.  He loved it...especially his 2, almost 3 hole in ones.  Emelia and I slept some more and Anthony stayed behind playing and watching TV in their side of the timeshare.  It's currently 1:05 A.M. the next day as I type this and Emelia is still asleep, I think we wore her out!