Night at the Magic Kingdom

Yes, I am bypassing Christmas for now and still trudging through these Disney posts!! :) It's actually been great fun to look back at our pictures. For Christmas I made the kids each their own Disney photo book with their own memories and pictures. I think they still look at them every day!

On this particular day, it was our "late day" at Magic Kingdom. We slept in, swam all morning, gave the kids naps, and headed to Disney about 2:00. We wanted to do stuff during the day, but get to see the light parade and fireworks. So we were all rested and ready for the evening!

The kids each brought a costume and chose to wear them this day. We made Sissy all fancy for her "date" with Rapunzel later that afternoon.






Oh, how Sissy loved that castle!



Daddy took Studs off to do rides while Sis and I made our way to the line to meet Rapunzel, who has her own special location. This was by far the LONGEST we waited at Disney. I should have kept track, but I didn't. But it was a long time!


When you get towards the front of the line they let you into a little area with some activities to do while you wait. The parents stay in line and the kids went and colored special Rapunzel coloring pages.


It was worth the wait. Sis loved every bit of it.




Studs had great fun picking what rides he wanted to do, like the Winnie the Pooh ride. He loved playing with the "honey" walls!




It was starting to get dark so I took Sis to grab dinner for everyone. While I waited in line, they had an area set up for kids to hula hoop in. This is what I love about Disney. They have little stations like this where they need to be, hula hoops, bubbles, coloring, etc... Love it.

And look at Sis rock that hula hoop!!!



After dinner we headed to SPACE MOUNTAIN, but sadly, Studs was denied because he wasn't tall enough. So Aunt Nicole and I took Studs and his cousin off to go do a few other rides. Sissy did a great job on Space Mountain! We bought the picture of her on it because it is hilarious. She was calm, but her pupils were dilated all the way and her eyes were open WIDE. She enjoyed it,though.


We were so excited to see the castle start changing colors!










We got our spots and sat down in the front row for the 'Disney Electrical Parade'. It was stunning, the lights were amazing, and the kids loved every second of it.








After the parade they do a cool presentation on the castle. They take pictures of people all day enjoying the park and then put them up on the castle to music. I can't even put it into words, it was magical. They turned that castle into so many different things, it was breathtaking.


And then came the fireworks!














On the way back to the resort...

COCOA BEACH

After 2 long days at the park we decided to drive up to the beach the next day. Cocoa Beach is only a 40 minute drive from Orlando so we packed up and headed out first thing. We all wore shorts and tees, and I took our swimsuits "just in case". Ha!

When we got to the town of Cocoa Beach we hit our favorite place that we had been when we had come 10 years earlier- Ron Jon Surf Shop. Sissy and I bought some new Reef sandals, we picked up some beach toys, and a couple t-shirts. They moved into a new building, the picture I took below, since we last came and it was pretty cool!


When we got over to the beach I soon realized we needed our suits on asap! It was 80 some degrees out w/beautiful blue sunny skies.


The kids have been to the ocean before, Sissy a few times while we lived in New York and Studs while we were visiting up there when he was a baby. We used to go to a beach in Rhode Island. But obviously the kids couldn't remember that so they were super excited for their first time really swimming in the ocean.












Studs wasn't quite as brave as Sis and didn't spend as much time in the water. The waves were crashing pretty hard and he got knocked over several times, even right near the shore. There were several surfers out, though, so he thought it was fun to watch them.
















I don't have a whole lot of pictures of us actually swimming in the ocean, but trust me- we spent hours in it! I had my camera out when we first got there and put it away to enjoy the water. The kids had a great time swimming in the ocean and they took turns coming out far with us. All 4 of us walked up and down the beach for quite awhile collecting neat shells and lots of snails.








We miss the ocean a lot! We had so much fun that day. Disney was wonderful and so fun but there is nothing like the beauty and awesomeness of the water.

A Magical Kingdom

We were ready for Day 2 at the parks. We ended up spending 3 of our 5 Disney park days at Magic Kingdom. It was, of course, our favorite so we ended up changing our Animal Kingdom day to an extra MK. Sissy is so well-versed in Magic Kingdom she could be a tour guide there. She memorized the map!

This first day at Magic Kingdom was our "go early day/parade day". We arrived early at the park, went on rides all morning, ate a late lunch, and got great spots to watch the Main St Parade, and left when it got dark to go eat a good dinner and swim.

Here are the kids at the condo ready to go!


There is nothing like the anticipation of arriving at a Disney Park!!



It was a beautiful morning and it was, surprisingly, not crowded at all!


Here are the 4 cousins, wearing fashions designed and handmade by DULU DESIGNS. The kids looked adorable in them! (and the yellow made it easy to spot them)



After taking our pictures in front of the castle, we went to the building that housed the princesses for Sissy. She was over the moon excited. Her brother, not so much. He did not care to look at or go near a princess. It was too "girly". Sissy, on the other hand, could barely walk she was so in awe.






















It was difficult for everyone to pick a favorite ride at MK, except for me. I love It's A Small World. Adore it. Rode it 4 times.

The kids had a blast on everything. We looooved Pirates, Peter Pan, and the teacups. Fantasyland is getting a new makeover set to open in 2012 and we could see the construction taking place and it looked AMAZING!!

It was then time for the parade. We had a nice bench for the adults to sit on w/the kids right in front of us so it was perfect. I videotaped the entire parade and the kids love watching it. And it was pretty fun, we saw a ton of characters.



















The kids loved The Jungle Cruise, which consists of riding on a boat w/an incredibly cheesy tour guide looking at fake animals. They thought it was awesome.



It was starting to get dark and we were ready to leave and eat. It was hard to go with the castle lights starting to shine, but we knew we had another day set aside for coming back and watching the fireworks. We said goodbye and headed back to the condo- next day was COCOA BEACH!