Epcot

Epcot was our next stop.  My plan was to get there early, do some of the Future World activities, have lunch with the princesses at Akershus, and then head home to rest before we had our dinner at Park Fare.  Obviously that is not what happened because nothing on this trip went according to plan.

We started off in a bit of a bad way because Killian had a horrible night's sleep.  When baby brother doesn't sleep well, neither do Mom and Dad.  As I heard the girls stirring, I got up with them and my plan was to get them all ready to head out the door with Kelly as soon as he and Killian woke up.  All was going well.  The girls were friendly and happy after the early night the previous night, they were eating breakfast which allowed me to shower and start to get ready.  The girls are so helpful at home, Kayden especially, when it comes to cleaning up their plates from the table.  As I was putting my make-up on I heard the girls start to have some problems.  When I walked into the kitchen I discovered that Kayden had tried to take her cereal bowl to the sink while holding it on her head.  That didn't work out so well and she had milk and cereal in her hair.  I carried her to the shower just as Killian and Kelly woke up.  Showered and dressed, the shoe battle began with Kayden.  I finally convinced her she had to wear tennis shoes until we had lunch and she could then wear her flip flops.  Dad left with the girls and arrived at the park before it opened (hooray!).  Killian and I ended up at the bus stop about 15 minutes after they left but we waited for 40 minutes until another bus came.  By the time we finally arrived at the park, the girls had just finished Soarin' with Kelly (they both liked it).  Kelly had gotten fast passes so I took the girls to Nemo while we waited for the fast pass time and sent Kelly to try to get passes to the Test Track.  Apparently you can't get them when you have an active pass so Kelly came back to meet us at Nemo and then he took the girls on Soarin' again while I went to nurse Killian and get those Test Track fast passes.

In the shark after the Nemo ride.

Playing in the little play area while we waited for Dad.

 We met up in Norway and got ready to meet the princesses (again).  Kendall and Angie had a crazy night the night before with a bat in their room (!) so they were running late and literally ran all the way through Epcot to meet us for lunch.  It was so fun to have them there for the lunch.  Akershus is Belle's lunch so she does not greet you at the tables. I have my photopass picture of her that I will have to add later. We were seated way in the back but it ended up being perfect because we were the very first table all the princesses came to as they entered the dining hall.

Entertaining himself at the waterfall by Akershus

My little "Auroras" are so excited!

Kayden's face is great in this picture.

And look how excited Angie is!

Cinderella trying to get the girls to clasp their hands.  Kayden was all over it, Keeley not so much.

She wanted to pose just with Brother Bear.  He was not so sure about that idea...

Girls are all smiles.  Killian trying to assess just how close she was to him.  She called him a fish and pirate and the girls found that very funny.

After we ate it was time for our Test Track fast pass.  The girls went with me and we did the rider swap.  Rider swap is awesome because your kids get to ride two times in a row.  We just walked up and showed them that Killian was too little to go and they let Kelly have a pass to come back with the girls as soon as I finished the ride.  The girls were all over the rides this year!!  While Kelly went with the girls, I took Killian to the baby area to nurse.  As I nursed him I started to do the math in my head about how long it would take us to get to our hotel and then when we'd have to leave to get to dinner.  It wasn't going to work.  I decided that it would be more stressful to hurry everyone than it was worth the "rest" time we'd get at the hotel.  I met up with Kelly and shared my thoughts.  We then decided to go back to the baby area to let the kids all rest a bit in the quiet and because I needed to buy some baby food for Killian to have at dinner (I had planned on going back to the hotel....fortunately those baby care centers are stocked with all the basics!).

We all cooled off and relaxed.  The girls were able to color some pictures to hang up and Killian was allowed to crawl around and play.  A family entered with a very sick little girl coughing everywhere so we decided to head out again.  Killian, quite tired and no nap in sight, was just about over being strapped on me so we stuck him in the double stroller and I picked up another kid instead. 

This is perhaps another reason I did not gain any weight in Disney World...

We made our way out of the park, stopping to do the ride in the big Epcot ball.  Again, I was stuck in a ride that broke while I held a baby!  We finally got out and continued our way out of the park.

Photo with Daisy Duck.  Keeley will tell you we had to do it because Daisy was "the only character you can't eat with".  Epcot is a great place to see her because the line isn't too bad.

Stitch was right next to Daisy and the girls insisted on a picture.  Totally weird because they don't even know who Stitch is.  Also weird because he pretends to lick the autograph books after he signs them.

 As we made our way out of Epcot, I told everyone that we could just ride the monorail to our dinner and we would get there early.  The wait would be some good rest time for the kids and I remembered that they had a little couch with tv in the lobby.  We approached the monorail and were told that the monorail to the hotels was not going to be open until 6 (after our dinner).  We were instructed to take the monorail to the transportation center and then take a bus to the hotel.  After getting off the monorail we hurried over to the bus stop to wait for our bus.  Of course when our bus arrived it was time to switch drivers so they had to do this entire routine to make the change.  By this point you'd think I would learn to be calm but the transportation threatening to make us late again totally stressed me out.

Again, however, we made our reservation in time.  We checked in, had our picture taken and then got in line to wait for them to open the dining hall.  We were the first dinner seating so it is a big deal to wait.  Because we had gotten there with so little time to spare, we weren't first in line, but we were first in the second line which was right next to the first line.  The hostess came out and asked the first girl in line if she'd like to open dinner and she said no.  Instead of working her way all the way down that file of kids, she then asked our girls if they would open dinner by saying the magic words (bibbidi bobbidi boo).  The girls said no and you could tell that she was a little beat down.  She said, "Will you whisper it to me? They have to be said before we can eat.  Your family can go in first"  The consented to whisper the words and opened the dining.  When the doors opened, all the wait staff was lined up and applauded for us as we walked in.  So fun!

Whispering the magic words to open the dining hall.

After we were seated it was the mad dash to the buffet and prep for the characters again.  This time it was even more challenging though because Killian was SO tired!

First we met Prince Charming.  Look how huge Kayden's smile is!

Then Cinderella.  She may have worn an Aurora dress this year, but Kayden is in love with Cinderella.

   

Anastasia

 She cracked us up because the girls accidentally bumped into each other and then she told us she would do the same to her sister when she came out.  Sure enough, as soon as her Drizella came out, Anastasia ran straight over and bumped into her.

Lady Tremaine.

Killian entertaining himself before we had to take him out of the dining area.

Peek a boo behind my chair.

Drizzela.  Kayden had such a huge smile the entire time.  This is my favorite character dining.

We left the hotel and decided to take a boat back to our hotel.  Is anyone shocked that there were no boats going to our hotel?  Instead of one boat we had to take a boat to Magic Kingdom and then another one to our hotel.  So much transportation for one day!!!!

My big girls were worn out!