Disney World Day 7

Our last day.  Time to check out.  It's raining and not just drizzling.  It's pouring.  We are both tempted to just get in the car and go home.  But we paid for tickets and we promised Hollywood Studios.  And we have rain boots!

So we brave the rain and head to Hollywood Studios.  Of course we ride Toy Story first thing.  The line wasn't bad so we dried off and waited for one last ride.

We didn't ride much just walked around and waited for the Frozen Sing A Long.  We had to do that one again!  Even in the rain we managed to have fun.  We grabbed lunch on the way out and Daddy surprised us with dessert (or maybe he used our last snack credit!).

We said goodbye to Disney and hit the road.  This is 15 minutes into our trip:

and 5 minutes later:

and 5 minutes...from home!

It was definitely a fun-filled and magical week.  Even though Brian and I were outnumbered we made it.  Kids had a great time.  Not too many meltdowns.  Lot of memories made.  My very favorite quote came from Julianna.

Julianna: Mommy, who built Disney World?
Me: Walt Disney
Julianna: I just love him.

Me too Julianna!  I may even have booked our next Disney adventure while we were there!  Disney is always a good idea right?

Disney World Day 6

Day 6.  I bet you are wondering if we are ever going to leave Disney!  Not today.  Today is another Magic Kingdom day!  Yeah!  We start off the day with another favorite, Chef Mickey!  Once again Grace wouldn't go near anyone except Minnie.  She stuck with the standard High 5.  

 

The characters came super quick and we were ready to hit the park in no time.  Magic Kingdom is the best.  I just love all the rides and atmosphere.  First on the list...Dumbo!

Since we were there so early and there was no line they actually let us keep riding.  Grace was in heaven!  Riding her very favorite ride over and over...in her Dumbo dress.   We hit the highlights (7D Mine Train, Tomorrowland Speedway, Small World, Winnie the Pooh, Little Mermaid) and a few we missed (Peter Pan).  Julianna loves 7D I got on with her and her hands go up in the air instantly.  I love how fearless she is!  That fearlessness took us to Space Mountain, and Jake telling her she is tall enough.  Well of course she had to ride it.  I tried to talk her out of it, but she was adamant.  So she did it.  

And promptly got off and said "Mommy, that is a VERY BAD ride!"  No tears just mad at the ride.

So it was almost time to go, just heading to Splash Mountain we run into the Morin's...again!  So we ride Splash Mountain together, twice and head out.  The rain is coming.

Jake and Brian headed to Epcot for some more crime solving while the girls took naps.  

That night it was raining.  But I didn't want to just sit in the room.  So Jake, Julianna and I decided to just go to Hollywood Studios and get wet.  Watch the Fantasmic show (yes we sat and waitied for 25 minutes only for it to get cancelled) and the Frozen fireworks.  They were really neat.  All the fireworks were set to music and changed colors.  It was so fun.  Glad we went!  Grace on the other hand was happy to spend time with Daddy.  I came back to her clutching a huge Minnie Mouse.  

The next day I was going to ride something with Jake and Julianna.  I said okay Grace you are with Daddy.  She said "Hmm, maybe Daddy buy me something."  Yep...she has his number!

Disney World Day 5

Thursday.  We have no plans for the day.  Just be lazy.  We slept in until maybe 8:30am. We decided to drive to Downtown Disney to pick up a few things.  Jake wanted to hit the Lego store.  He has really gotten into Legos and wanted to get a new set.

Once we got back to our resort we headed to the pool.  Water slide!!!  Our friends the Cristelli's were staying in our resort and so conveniently have kids the same age!  We met them at the pool and the kids had a blast.  Going down the water slide, playing in the pool, eating lunch.  It was so nice to relax and not be running around from ride to ride.  I think we all needed a day of rest.  The girls took naps and we got ready for dinner.

Months ago (6 actually) I booked all our reservations for dinner.  We coordinated with friends and ended up at a Luau at Ohana with two other families.  Talk about crazy!  Grace ate bread and I think that might be it.  I must have buttered that piece of bread 20 times.

The dinner was fantastic and the kids enjoyed all the different meats they brought around.  Jake LOVES pork so he chowed down.

Then the hula dancing started.  The leader gave everyone a lei and taught them to hula.  It was so funny.  Julianna was into it!

We had such a fun time and we so glad the restaurant could put us all together.  There were a lot of us!  6 adults and 9 kids!  Pretty sure the entire restaurant breathed a sigh of relief when we left.  It was pretty crazy, and loud! But the kids had so much fun!  And its Disney...all about the kids!

On a side note, War Eagle!  Brian was a trooper and didn't complain about our dinner being during the Auburn game.  Have no fear the Tigers were in his ear the whole time.  I got this great shot...of Grace and Brian, can you see his ear piece?

Another magical day!  Especially since Auburn pulled out a win!

Disney World Day 4

Ok, so we have done Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Magic Kingdom.  That means its time for Hollywood Studios and...TOY STORY MANIA!

Yep, our favorite ride!  We got in and had to wait a little while but we ran into our neighbors and that kept us entertained and we went through the line.  If you didn't know the county we live in had a fall break.  I think half of Cobb County went to Disney World.  We kept running into people we knew or recognized from one thing or another.  So fun!

Anyway.  We did the Toy Story thing, Star Tours, Little Mermaid.  Left Daddy alone with Grace...

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch at Hollywood & Vine.  Another favorite.  They kids got to see Doc, Sofia, Jake and Handy Manny.  Then the girls joined the dance party (of course).

We saw lots of shows, Beauty & the Beast, Indiana Jones, Muppets. Rode Start Tours and Toy Story again.  But the best part was the Frozen Sing A Long.  I wish I would have made a video of Julianna.  It was awesome.  Anna comes out and introduces the historians who tell the Frozen story and you sing along when it comes to the song parts.  Let It Go came on and Julianna not only knows every word but every hand motion.  It brought tears to my eyes how much she loved it.  Amazing!

We stayed awhile longer.  Julianna, Jake and I rode Tower of Terror.  I remember Jake hating it and he didn't really want to do it again.  But he was not going to let Julianna ride it without him.  I think they both liked it this time.

We finished the day off eating at the Sci-Fi Diner...in cars.  It was neat.  When we were ordering the waiter asked if the girls wanted fries or goldfish.  They both freaked out....GOLDFISH!  Maybe I forgot to tell Brian to pack snacks, or any kind.  They hadn't seen a cheese-it, fruit snack or goldfish in days!  It made me laugh how they gobbled them up (the waiter brought more).  And we ran into the Morin's again!

Another great day.  Nothing to do tomorrow!  Pool Day!

Disney World Day 3

Tuesday started with a character breakfast in our hotel!  Yet another awesome thing about the Beach Club!  And they had coloring paper for tablecloths!  Could it be any more perfect?

Minnie came to greet us.  She is the only one Grace would even go near, she will give High 5's but no pictures.  Oh well it was a fun breakfast and had mickey waffles so who can complain?

Then we were off to Magic Kindgom, hopefully to get in line to see Anna and Elsa.  We missed them last trip (because there is nothing I am willing to wait 4 hours to see) and I promised we would see them.  Why do I do that?  We got there the line was pretty long so we decided to check back later.  We had to get to Grace's all time favorite ride!  Dumbo!

She was happy as a clam riding it!  Then we discovered she could ride another favorite...the Barnstormer.  One problem, only two seats and you had to be 7 to ride alone.  Yes, we spent 25 minutes riding the ride one kid at a time.  So funny.  Next was the new 7D Mine Train (which is 7 Drawf Mine Train).  Jake has been talking about this one for a while.  Brian took the big kids and Grace and I headed for old faithful, the Carousel.  I noticed the Anna/Elsa line was down to 40 minutes, then when I got Julianna and hopped in line it said 30!  Woo hoo!  I can do 30 minutes!  They were SO excited!

When it was their turn, Anna skips right over and chats them up.  It really is so sweet.  They don't rush, they talk to the girls and ask them questions, pose for pictures, give hugs and really make the visit special.  The girls were so happy when we left...thru the Frozen gift shop.  Ah!

Next we headed to Enchanted Tales with Belle (a favorite of mine).  In this little show the kids all get parts.  Julianna whispered in line that she wanted to be the Beast.  I thought it was a little strange but I mentioned it to a cast member.  Sure enough she was chosen to be the Beast.  And she ROARED like no other!  

The story ended and then the Beast gets to dance with Belle.  It hit me.  She remembered the Beast dances with Belle at the end and she wanted to dance with her.   Her little face just lit up as she got to dance with Belle.  So cute!  

Next we ate lunch at Be Our Guest inside the Beast's castle.  It's so good.  Julianna even gave the tomato soup a thumbs up!  We kept going all afternoon.  We rode lots of rides and saw the parade.  I knew the girls were getting tired and thought we would go ride It's A Small World and relax, then we happened upon some bubbles.  Sometimes you just need to stop and pop bubbles for 10 minutes.  Which is just what we did and the girls had a ball.  

We finished off the day driving the cars and headed to Buzz Lightyear. Who should we see but our friends the Morin's!  Forgot to get a picture of that but they were so excited to ride with their friends instead of their boring parents!  Even Grace rode with her BFF Cadence!  Perfect end to the day.

Disney World Day 2

Rise and Shine!  We have a princess breakfast to attend!  Julianna wore her purple princess dress so she could show each princess they were on her dress.  And she wanted her beautiful curly hair up.  Another fantastic tidbit about our hotel is that it is a 5 minute walk to Epcot!  Yeah!

Even though he had to eat with princesses, Jake was pretty excited to get to Epcot!  Before we left I was busy making the girls Disney dresses.  Jake said "mommy you make the girls all these clothes how about making me some shirts?"  Of course buddy!  So he picked out some designs.  I think this was his favorite.  Which he had to wear to Epcot the first day!  Yeah, he spilled red powerade down the front by noon.  Oh well!

We had a wonderful breakfast and met all kinds of princesses.  In the middle they do sort of a parade.  The princesses take the kids around the room.  When the time came Grace bolted for Ariel, I don't think she pushed anyone down but she definitely elbowed her way to the front to hold Ariel's hand!  She was not going to miss her chance to walk with royalty!

After breakfast we headed to our favorite Test Track!  The big kids love to design their own car and then ride 80 miles an hour around the track.  Super fun!

It was time for me to ride something with Julianna, so Jake and Brian went off in search of his mouse ears.  Every trip Jake buys mouse ears.  Every year they are different and always kind of out there.  People are always commenting about his ears.  This year was no different!  I think he picked the craziest ears ever!

I took the girls back to the hotel (again thankful for the 5 minute walk!) for naps.  Jake and Brian stayed behind to do some Agent P case solving.  He goes from country to country solving mysteries (and Brian gets to drink fun drinks and eat yummy food while he does it!)  It's win-win!

We met back up for dinner at the Biergarten.  They have a band that plays a show once every hour.  There is a dance floor so you know that is where the girls headed!  Grace kept coming back to check in but there were dancing fools.  They ever learned the chicken dance.  So fun to watch them!

After dinner we watched the fireworks and headed back to sleep.  Magic Kingdom tomorrow!!!

Disney World Day 1

We are back!  Ok, we were back on 5 days ago, but I have been doing laundry and recovering (yes it takes that long!).  As usual I am going to write about each day to make sure I document everything I remember.  This trip fell the week after Kindermart.  For those of you who don't know I co-chair a children's consignment sale at Julianna's preschool.  This year we had record breaking sales and made about $22,000 for the school!  I pretty proud of all those involved, it's an amazing (not to mention completely exhausting) week.  So when Brian mentioned leaving Saturday night after I was done I laughed.  No way!  Not this uber-organized, meticulous packer.  I can't leave it up to Brian to pack the car, kids, clean up the house, in order to leave as soon as I walked in the door.  But the more I thought about it the more I wanted to get to Disney World!

So Saturday morning I left it all in Brian's control.  He packed everything up, got the kids ready, cleaned up the house, and was ready to go.  We left as soon as I got home, booked a hotel on the way, added a day of tickets for Sunday, stopped once for dinner and before we knew it we were in Orlando!  Ready to start our 7 day adventure at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Sunday morning we were up bright and early to head to our "real" hotel for the week.  The Beach Club.  Since we were there so early our room wasn't ready and we decided to head off to Animal Kingdom. We rode a few rides and found out that Julianna is 44 inches tall.  Which means she can ride BIG roller coasters.  Being a thrill seeker (and never wanting to be left out) she braved Mt Everest.

Then we rode Kali River Rapids and few more rides.  It was soooo hot!  We were ready to go and got a text our room was ready.  Perfect timing!  We headed back.  Now I picked this resort because they boasted a 3-acre water wonderland, complete with a huge water slide.  I figured it would be perfect for our little fishes (well Julianna is a mermaid, or a dolphin, or a shark depending on her mood) and it was!

We decided to check out the pool in the late afternoon.  Brian took Jake and Julianna down the water slide, then we all went down (no height limit...so you know Grace had to do it too).  Brian went down first and then Grace.  She came out backwards, and didn't really like it.  Then we just let Jake and Julianna do the water slide over, and over, and over.  I heard the lifeguard radio down to the one at the bottom.  Tell the little girl that just went down she can't dive head first into the slide.  Yep, that would be Julianna.  Of course!

After we pried them from the water slide we headed to bed for a good nights rest.  We had a Princess breakfast to look forward to!

Grace's turn!

Grace is starting her first year of "real" preschool.  She has been doing Mommy's morning out for 2 years and now its finally time for preschool!  It was a very tough decision but I decided to put Grace in a new school closer to our house.  It makes me so sad to leave the sweet and loving preschool Jake and Julianna went to but I know this was the best decision.  Its a great school and so far has been just as loving and fun as our other preschool.  

She was SO excited for her first day.  She picked out her dress and got her bag and stood on the steps and had HUGE smiles for the camera.  This girl is ready to go to school!

The best part of our new school is old friends!  Grace's very best friend Cadence is in her class.  She was super excited to see Cadence and ran over to give her a big hug.  

We all walked in together and I thought Grace was going to be sad.  She cried during the class visit so I figured this was going to be rough.  What was I thinking?  She didn't even look back.  Just walked right in the room like she owned it.  

Have tons of fun this year Gracie Grace!  We love you!

Julianna is a Panda!

Julianna our big 4 year old had her last first day of preschool!  She is in the Panda class this year, just like her big brother Jake.  She goes to school 5 days a week and is VERY excited about it!

Her first day of school she finally got to wear her new gym shoes (pink and purple AND they light up!).  She got a new school bag and picked out her ribbon.  She picked out her beautiful dress and asked me to do her hair like Anna.  She looked so pretty and excited.  She did NOT want to get her picture taken however.  For some reason I feel like she does that to me every year!  But we got a couple good ones.

She is getting to be such a big girl.  I can't believe next year she will go to Kindergarten.  Ah!  Have a great year out sweet Julianna!  We love you.

1st broken bone goes to...

Grace!

No surprise Grace is the first McNeely child to break a bone.  Let's see it was a Tuesday night and she was climbing up the slide in our playroom.  She decided it was a good idea to go over the top rather than through the whole.  I heard her jump into the middle and instantly start crying.  Jake was kind enough to replay the entire event.  But she was limping a little and not bothered by it after a while, so I figured I will worry about it tomorrow if she is still limping.

Of course, Wednesday morning rolls around and she is still limping...running, but limping.  So I take her in to see the doctor.  Doctor isn't convinced its broken so she thinks we should make an appointment with the orthopedist for Thursday morning.  If she is still limping take her, if not cancel.  Fantastic.

Thursday morning she is doing visibly better but her foot is turning in.  Not wanting to risk future damage Brian and I think we should go just in case.  Now, I had to make a stop at a friends house and while there Grace found the trampoline!  Grace is bouncing up and down and I think there is no way that leg is broken.

Well I was right, her leg was not broken.  The first bone in her little foot was.  I was definitely shocked when the doctor said it was broken.  Then she quickly said "no cast! Just a boot for 2 weeks."  Crisis averted!  But still that sweet little girl had to hobble around with that boot.

But she made it through.  We all did!  Because she learned quickly how to use that boot as a weapon!  2 weeks later she got a clean bill of health and we chanted "No more boot! No more boot!"

(Well she did have to wear it home because Mommy forgot her other shoe!)