Magic Kingdom

Tuesday started bright and early! We were waiting outside the gates before they even opened.

It was, indeed, magical!

We headed straight to Cinderella's castle for breakfast, where we were greeted by none other than Cinderella, herself!



After some quick hellos, signatures, and pictures, she sent us upstairs for breakfast, where a bunch of her other princess friends came wandering through to say, "hello!"

Sleeping Beauty

Jasmine

Snow White

Ariel

and we met Rapuzel

and Tiana downstairs right after breakfast!

Then it was time for rides! We hit "It's a Small World,"





the carousel,





and The Seven Dwarves Mine Train, among others.





(Despite Aspen's look, she actually loved it, and asked to go back on several times.)





We stopped for a snack at Gaston's Tavern,







met Peter Pan, who really liked daddy's t-shirt,



and participated in the "Enchanted Tales with Belle" performance. Sabine got to play the part of Belle's father,



And Aspen was a dish!



It was a beautiful day in the park,





but we had to leave to go get ready for dinner. At the gift shop, Sabine picked a really nice, Barbie-sized Belle doll as her souvenir for the trip, and Aspen picked a Moana costume, which she changed into for dinner.







"The Spirit of Aloha" dinner was delicious, and we all had a great time watching all the different dances from the various Polynesian islands.



The little girls crashed about halfway through the show, but not before getting up to try the hula, themselves. The big girls partied until the end of the night!

EPCOT

Day one of our Disney trip started off with a monorail ride to EPCOT. We joked several times that Aspen loved the monorail so much that we probably could have saved the price of the park ticket and just ridden back and forth to our hotel several times and she would have been more than happy.



First order of business, breakfast at the Garden Grill! It was a "character meal," which meant we got to meet several familiar characters on our slow rotation around the restaurant.














We got to ride a couple rides,





the big girls quickly shared their different hand-clapping games,



and we went to "Turtle Talk with Crush" from Finding Nemo. It was amazingly interactive, the kids got to sit up front, and while you can't see them, but Crush even let Sabine ask a question (she asked, "How long do turtles live?") and this is a picture of him answering her!







Daddy and Sabine took a break for the afternoon, while Aspen and mommy explored the World Pavillions with our friends. We visited Mexico,









Norway,





and France





where we picked up some dinner and brought it back to the hotel to share with daddy and Sabine.



All in all, it was a very fun day!

DISNEY WORLD!

We went to Disney World! We have been looking forward to this trip for over a year.

The girls were great on the plane,

and the Magic Express bus took us straight to the Polynesian Hotel, where we were staying, where we were greeted with leis and "alohas." It was so exciting!

We had a rainy walk to our room, where the girls settled in quickly. 

And then we had a rainy walk/monorail ride over to the Grand Floridian hotel, where we had dinner, and "mud pies" for dessert. (Brownies and ice cream with gummy worms.)

After dinner, we came back and quickly met up with our friends who had arrived and checked into the room next to ours, and then got everyone to bed for our big day the next day!

Friends

This month has been full of friends and play dates. Friends from school, 



Girl Scouts,







cousins,





and all sorts of random, fun places!













In other news, daddy is refining his baking skills. We aren't going to a bakery for our Yule Log cake next year!

Any Excuse for Apple Pie

Happy birthday, Grandpa! We love you so much.