Our last park day- Princess Time

Our last full day at Disney and last day in the parks.  We started out going to the Polynesian Hotel to go to Ohanas.  We had to travel to the MK and then catch a boat to the hotel.  The girls enjoyed the boat ride.

We are packed for the day -including 2 princess dresses and matching shoes in my backpack along with everything else.

The monorail on its way to the Magic Kingdom.

We are having a good time at Disney.  Too bad tomorrow is go home day.

Outside the restaurant, the girls got their leis and posed for the photo.

Very very cute girls.

Then it was off to breakfast/brunch and the characters.  They bring the food to you at this one so that was nice.  It was all served family style.  Mickey is ready for a luau

He had lots of help writing his name.

They both got big hugs from Mickey.

Then came Stitch.  Stitch is not a character we have seen before so this was fun.

I'm sure Stitch enjoys having his eye poked.

We like Stitch.

Stitch liked the girls too.  They had a lot of fun at this breakfast.

Pluto was next.

Lilo is another new character for us. 

I liked this breakfast.  Food was good and you didn't have to run to a buffet and spend a lot of time in a line.

They had the now standard parade around the restaurant.  This time the girls went off to join it.

Sasha however quickly changed her mind and decided she wasn't quite up to joining the parade and leaving mommy.

Then it was off to the MK.  The girls discovered their favorite ride in all Disney.  The  Alladin's Magic Carpet ride.  The camels spit and you can try to fly your carpet above it or below it(or in Sasha's case right at the water so it hits mommy in the face and causes much joy to my children)  This camel also spit at people walking by.  We played with the spitting camel for quite a while.  We also went on the Pirates of the Carribean.  Too dark for Leeza.

Then we were in time to catch another of the parades.  This one wasn't as crowded and the girls really liked it.

All the characters were on floats.  And they waved at the girls.  Right at them(as told by leeza)  We then went to the Castle forecourt where they had a little show.  It had Malificient(evil Sleeping Beauty queen) in it and Leeza was most impressed.  The crowd was thick and I had to hold both girls up so they could see.  I had one on my back and one on my hip and they kept sliding down and I kept having to pick them back up,  My arms were so sore and tired when the show was over, but this is one of the shows that the girls remember the most so it was worth it.

Next was our appointment at the Bippity Bobbity Boutique for hair, nails, and makeup.  This was why I was packing the dresses around all day.  We went and checked in.  Leeza checked out the salon.

When it is close to your time, they take you to the dressing room to change into your dress.  My beautiful princesses are about to have their first full salon treatment.  Sasha waited until we were back in the waiting area to tell me her dress was scratchy so we undressed and put a shirt on in the waiting area.  So much for needing the dressing room.

Waiting patiently for their turn to be called.

Each girl got to pick from 3 hair dos -each with a crown, stick on jewels and a pin for Sasha.

Sasha was a little unsure so mom broke out the suckers and that seemed to help alot.

Leeza had already got into her chair, ordered her hairdo and was underway with the hair before I even got Sasha settled.  She is a girl who knows what she wants with her hair.

Hair complete and now it is time for the nail polish.  They got to keep the extra(2 full bottles) nail polish and all the makeup.

A little eye shadow for a little princess

Leeza picked the Diva hairdo- how appropriate!

The final thing is the sprinkling of the magic pixie dust.

And then the princess gets to see her makeover in the mirror.  It meets her approval!

Now it is Sasha's turn for pixie dust.

The little princess approves.  She also got a special sash since it was her birthday last week.

Leeza had to come checkout Sasha's hairdo.

Then it is across the street for the photo session.  Lots of good photos of the beautiful princesses.

My beautiful princesses.  Very happy BBB session.  They ended up with a bag of extra makeup, nail polish and etc.

To end our final day and celebrate Sasha's 4th birthday(one week late) we then went to dinner in Cinderella's castle.

CInderella greets the girls in the lobby area.

The girls felt very special and were loving every minute of this.

Then it is up the stairs to the dining room to meet the princesses.

Snow White was first

Then Sleeping Beauty in a dress matching Leeza's.

Ariel stopped by- without her mermaid tail.

Belle in her regular dress(non ball gown) was there also.

We ate dinner and then they brought out the do it yourself cupcake dessert.

Leeza spent a lot of time building her cupcake, but ate very little of it.  After the castle, we took one last ride on Winnie the Pooh and then we said goodbye to the Magic Kingdom and our park experience.

Although it was late, we went swimming when we got back.  Eventually they shutdown the slides so the girls just swam around the pool.

This is the smaller slide.  The big one was about 3 stories tall and corkscrewed down inside a building/tower.

They had fun just jumping in the pool.  We could do this since the life guards were all gone.  Then it was off to bed and off to the airport in the morning for the plane ride home.

Epcot Day

Today was our day to finish Epcot. We got there and went on Spaceship Earth, and then headed to Test track.  I think Leeza actually liked it.  Sasha did not.  She said it was too fast.  She didn't say a word on the ride and we had sat next to it for a while so they could see the ride before we went on it.  If you look close in the picture, the girls had ahold of the back of my shirt and were pulling down so hard that I thought the shirt would be stretched out forever.  After the ride, they had a bunch of new cars you could sit in.  The girls loved that part.

Then we headed over to the dinosaur ride-The Universe of Energy.  This was another ride we had talked about alot to make sure they would be fine on it.  They got through the first part where you stand and watch the movie.  Then we went to get in the ride vehicles.  As we were sitting there, they kept repeating over and over again-  "This ride lasts 37 minutes.  Once the vehicle gates close, you will not be able to leave for 37 minutes.  Please make sure you do not need a rest room or have any other reason to leave this ride for the next 37 minutes"  So everyone is fine.  The gates close. IMMEDIATELY, Leeza jumps in my lap and proceeds to repeat for the next 37 MINUTES- I want to get out of here!  Yes, I know exactly how long she sat there saying that.  Over and over and over again.  Nothing would distract her.  I'm sure the people next to us hated us as she wasn't very quiet.  So 37 minutes later, the ride ends, the tears ended about 37 seconds later and she was ready for ice cream.



Mom was now exhausted.  I saw this water play area and told the girls to go have fun while I sat to regroup after the Energy ride.

 They quickly got soaked from head to toe.  I had one set of clothes in my bag, but we went and bought new clothes at the nearby store.(Good Disney planning).  Leeza got into a competition with a little boy to see who could sit on the fountain in the center the most.  Here she is giving him the stare.

 Now it is his turn to stare at her while she sits on the fountain.  They went back and forth for quite a while.  Finally I decided it was time to go.  The little boy came running over to convince Leeza not to leave.  He didn't speak english, but you could tell he thought they were playing a game, while she was in a serious game of "That's my fountain go away"  We went and bought the expensive clothes.  I picked out Leeza some really cute shorts and somehow got them about 2 sizes too small.  She wore them back to the hotel anyway.

 We went and ate and swam again.  And settled in for a good nights sleep.

Mickey clip in her hair, she is ready for bed.  We ended our days pretty early, but we also got an early start most days. 

Park Day 4-Animal Kingdom and the Squirrel

Today we had early morning breakfast reservations at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom.  We got up really early and drove the car to the park instead of taking the bus.  We parked the car and got out just as the parking lot tram was pulling up.  As we got on the tram, a squirrel jumped out of the garbage can and ran across the parking lot right in front of us.  Remember this squirrel.  His story will come later.

We headed into the mostly empty park, went past the empty turnstills and into the park.  It was quiet and nice and was a good chance to really look around as we walked to the restaurant.

We stopped to take some pictures and enjoy some of the little things you rush by during regular park hours.

It was strange walking across the bridge alone, but gave this great photo op.  Little Sasha pushing Leeza all alone in the Animal Kingdom park.

Come on Mom, the whole park awaits us.  Hurry up!  And off they go.

The tree of life is in the background.  The park photographers are nice to have when you want the whole family in the picture.

Almost time to see the Disney gang.  This is a stock photo, they never posed like this for us.

Here we are showing our ferrocious side.  Growl!

Hey Look, Stitch popped up through the asphalt!

When we finally got to the restaurant, there was a line waiting to check in so the girls took advantage and explored the area.

Donald Duck was there to greet us.  How many pictures of Donald does this make now??

The person who seats you at your table is called your adventure guide.  This guy was ours.  He was really nice so we asked if he would take a photo with us.  He said no one ever asks and it would make his day. 

The first one to come to our table was Mickey in his safari gear.

One of the few times we saw Daisey Duck.  Love her eye lashes.

Pluto was very tall.

The breakfast buffet was good and the characters were fun.  Then it was off to the park which was now open.

The first ride was the safari ride.  The girls had a good time although it was a little bumpy at times

Lots of smiles and all had a good time.

We were really close to these guys, but they didn't care.  It was breakfast time.

After the safari tour, we went on the walking path to see the gorillas.  As we left that area, we came across this gorillas from Tarzan(I can't remember her name).  No one was there so the girls got to hug and play around a bit.

I never knew Leeza could lean that far!  After this, we went and saw the bird show.  I liked it.  The girls liked some of it, but it was a lot of talking about birds for them.

On our way inside the tree of life to see, It's tough to be a bug.

All of these animals are carved into the tree.  We finally got into the theater and got our glasses and the show started.  I had explained it to the girls, but as soon as it started, Leeza started saying- I want to get out of here!  She ended up on my lap for the whole show.  I don't think she saw much.  When the spiders dropped from the ceiling and the bug can sprayed out at the audience, I thought she was going to claw her through me.  She was not having fun.  "I do not want to do that again" was heard many many times after the show was finished.

We went over to the last ride we would do.   They were much happier back at the kiddie type rides.

It was hot and we were getting tired, but not too tired to have a little fun still.

They liked this ride since they could ride up front and mom had to sit in back.  We then played a couple of the carnival games there.  Sasha was amazing.  It was throwing the ball and they had to land in the special colored cups.  She got 2 balls in 2 prize cups so the girls won flying bats(one blue and one red) and 2 dragons.  Pretty good considering normally you never win anything at these games.

Now for the squirrel finale.  As we were leaving the park, having had our special breakfast, lots of fun rides, a BBQ lunch and seeing lots of unique animals, I asked the girls what was their favorite part of the day.  They both immediately answered without any hesitation-  THE SQUIRREL.  It took me a minute to remember the squirrel running past us in the parking lot.  I asked them if that was what they were talking about and they said yes Mommy, the squirrel we saw this morning.   So all the special things we had done that day did not quite measure up to the squirrel.  Kids- you never know what they are going to remember, but I will always remember the squirrel as one of my favorite WDW memories.

Later that night, we went to the marshmallow roast at the hotel.  The girls got to roast their own marshmallows.  They had a great time.  And it was free.  Something free at WDW-amazing.

We ate quite a few marshmallows on the beach that night and then went swimming in the main pool.  By now, they were swimming all over by themselves(with life jackets on).  They went on the big slide so many times I lost count.   No squirrel was seen at the pool.