Disney Day 7!!

The Sorcerer's hat at Disney Studios




Beauty and the Beast show




I think I'm going to shape all my bushes to look like this. LOL




Hannah and Larry during the fireworks


I apologize in the delay of my trip report.... school started which always throws me for a loop the first couple weeks.

So onto day 7....

Today is the 4th of July! This is one of my favorite holidays.... basically because it's one of the few holidays where it's actually warm in Ohio. lol Disney is expecting record crowds today so we're opting to do Hollywood Studios today ( formerly known as MGM studios).

After our long day yesterday we're having a bit of a hard time getting the kids moving this morning. Fortunately it won't take long to get them ready because we don't have to bother with hair... their hairstyles from the boutique and the barbershop lasts for a couple days. How Brooke ever slept with her hair pulled that tight is beyond me.. but she was insistent on being a princess again today. :) My bed is covered in blue paint from Drew.... spoiled monster is loving sharing a bed with us everynight. haha

Finally get moving and into Hollywood studios. They let you in the entrance and then hold you on the main walkway. There is NO shade at this park! So there we stand... with several thousand other people... sweating our asses off! My little notecard says that we must hit Toy Story Mania first. This is a brand new ride and has had wait times up to 4 hours!! No way in hell am I waiting 4 hours for that!! But everyone else thought it was a better idea to head to Tower of terror and Rock N Rollercoaster first. Okay... but it's not on the notecard that way. =P They drop the rope and Matt and Larry run to get fastpasses for them. Jess, the kids and I get a few pics taken along the way.... we're starting to look as if these kids don't have a father in our pics. haha We get to Tower of terror and I wait with the kids while the 3 of them ride. During this time Hannah's having a "teen attitude" moment, Brooke is complaining about how her princess dress is itchy and Drew... well he was just being god awful! Surely the 6 hours of sleep after 14 hours at the park the day before should've been enough. =P He was throwing fit after fit... you know the kind where people are looking at you saying my god I would NEVER let my kid act like that! Um yea....I've been that mom too. But now I'm the mom trying my best to deal with the out of control child without beating him to a pulp. =P he threw himself on the ground and when I tried to pick him up he bucked and I hit my back on a cement bench....ahh this is going well! haha As soon as the others get out of the ride they want to ride the coaster. Knowing I'm not going to last another wait in the hot sun with my 3 crabs.. I tell them we're going to go walk around the park a bit and we'll meet up as soon as they're done.

I head with the kids to find something to do for a few minutes and Drew is just not a happy boy this morning. One crying spell after another. :( A guy looks at me and says this is the happiest place on earth. Um yea... screw you. ;) Larry then calls me to let me know they won dream fastpasses... okay very cool! This will allow us to double up on fastpasses all day long! And then he tells me that they got more fastpasses for the tower and the coaster. And here comes the fit of ALL fits... given by me! haha What do you mean you got MORE fastpasses??!! That is sooo NOT on my notecards! We are supposed to be getting them for Toy Story.... which Drew can actually ride! Not more damn rides that we're going to be waiting with him while others ride! After the wait I've had so far this morning with him... no way in hell is he going to make it through much more of this! Do they not understand they need to follow MY plan! Damn fools. =P By the time we all meet up I am not a happy camper because we will have to wait another 2 hours before we can get our next set of fastpasses! Grrr! We stand out in the blazing sun ( remember no shade at this park) and Matt and I have a few "words". haha I've been watching couples argue all week in Disney and thinking to myself how could they possibly be standing in Disneyworld having an argument over something that's probably so stupid... and here we are. lol I realize that it's okay to deviate from the plan just a little bit... but it better not happen again. lol

We head to a show to get inside for a bit to cool off... I'm pretty sure it's 115 degrees by now! We see Playhouse Disney and Drew is in love! He loves this show and stands the whole time dancing and clapping away. Brooke even thought it was cute. Hannah... well she was just glad that she didn't know anyone there... she would just die if her friends knew she saw that. haha

We then go to see Lights, Motor, Action. It's a car stunt show that Larry's been talking about for 2 years! It's getting close to lunch time and we're all starving so I buy $30 worth of snacks to get us through the show....nothing like soggy pretzels, chips and popcorn for lunch. haha The show is awesome and Drew is just mesmerized with the cool cars. Larry has decided he's found his calling in life... a stunt car driver. Not so sure about that though Lar... I think they have to know how to parallel park. hehe There's fire in this show... so the temp in the arena is approx. 140 degrees! Pretty sure the rubber on the bottoms of our shoes in melting to the stands. =P

We walk around for a bit afterwards... and once again can't find an ounce of shade! OMG.... it's unbearably hot today! We're dousing ourselves with $2 a piece water bottles just trying to stay cool! We finally get to ride Toy Story Mania... very cool ride! Wait time was several hours long... but with the fastpasses... we're only in line about 10 minutes!!

We then head to watch Beauty and the Beast. They have a quartet called 4 for a dollar that sings beforehand.... very neat! Larry misses most of it because he's out getting McDonalds fries... the soggy pretzels just aren't holding us over til dinner. =P The beauty and the beast show was awesome and I could see Brooke eyeing Belle's costume. Look girlie... you're NOT getting another $70 dress today. lol This show is also outside though... so once again we're nearing 140 degrees!

Jess talks Hannah and I into riding the Tower of Terror so we head back over that way. I will ride anything.... but I HATE free falls! Especially this one... because the ride is different each time! Larry rides with us as well. THe queue for this is very neat and I'm glad that I rode it. but once was enough. haha Also rode Rock N Rollecoaster using the fastpasses Matt got earlier without my permission. lol This coaster runs to Aerosmith music which I love so pretty cool ride! Matt wants to ride them again so Larry, Brooke, Drew and I head to see the afternoon parade. This parade isn't your typical parade. It stops and does a whole show in front of you. So depending on where you're standing everyone gets to see something different. We had characters from It's a Bugs Life in front of us as well as the army men from Toy Story. These guys were going nuts over Drew and his blue mohawk! They kept pulling him out in the street to be a part of the parade! He was adorable playing along with them.

It's now time for our first sit down dinner of the week.... Hollywood and Vine. It's a dinner buffet. We've really been looking forward to this. On the menu is Prime Rib which is one of Matt's favorites!! We're all starving by this point since we relaly never ate lunch. We anxiously fill our plates and start eating away. I immediately don't like the food... but since I'm the world's pickiest eater this comes as no surprise. Matt's not much caring for his either.... he also can be a bit picky at times. But Larry... who is the human garbage disposal... is hardly eating anything. That's when I knew it sucked! Drew by this point is sound asleep on my lap. Since it's air conditioned in there and we've now paid $150 for a meal we don't like... we decide to atleast get our moneys worth in air conditioning. =P They did have a decent dessert bar... so once again... we're surviving on pure sugar. lol

After dinner we ride a few more rides and see the Indiana Jones show. I really had no desire to see this show but everyone else did. Glad they talked me into it as it was a really neat show!! Very loud with lots of fire, etc. Once again Drew amazed me with how well he deals with all of this!! Not scared at all!

We decide not to spend 2 hours staking out our spot for the fireworks tonight. Since we got to see such an awesome display last night we'll just stop wherever we are and watch them. The kids were all pretty tired by this point... hell so were the adults!! We ended up having to kind of watch them through some trees... but still got to see them.

Since we ate at Hollywood & Vine ( if you can call it eating =P) we get reserved seats for the Fantasmic show. Turns out this was a very good thing! We get to the show 1 1/2 hours before it starts and it's already at standing room only!! People have been waiting up to 4 hours to get into this!! It's a 25 minute show morons!! We walk right in with our little pass and get our seats. Everyone is starving again... the $150 dessert just isn't holding us over. lol So I head off to stand in the hour long line for popcorn!! Who knew you could spend 2 weeks living off rice krispy treats and popcorn!! And do you see a pattern here...I tend to be the one volunteering to stand in these long ass lines for snacks....why you ask?... because it gives me a break from the kids. haha Of course while they're all sitting my feet feel like they're going to fall off!! Anyways... when I return with the snacks I see that the kids are wearing yet another new souvenier.... Jess "the sucker" has bought them more stuff! Red,white and blue star necklaces that light up. Very cool but good lord these kids are spoiled!! We realize that we're now packed in like sardines and if we don't figure out an exit strategy we're going to be stuck like last night.... shuffling like little old ladies trying to get out of there! Matt decides that he will go get Hugo about 5 minutes before the show ends and meet us at the exit of the park. The show has a lot of the villians from the Disney movies in it. Brooke was a little scared at one point... but Drew once again was just fine. Since I ruined it for myself and watched it on youtube beforehand... I knew exactly when it was going to end. With about 2 minutes to go we all bolted out of there. Larry has Brooke on his shoulders, Jess was carrying Drew.... ahh I love this idea of others lugging my kids around. haha We were actually able to get right out of there and out to the car... thank god! We were all sooo tired by this point!

We head back to the condo and I being the mean mommy that I am... make my kids take a bath. Oh the horror! lol Drew turns the whole tub blue with all the paint that was in his hair. Hannah has a ton of hair and could hardly get hers undone! And Brooke... well she was enjoying being a princess so much that she didn't want to dare wash her hair. Um yea... she was starting to look ( and act) like one of the wicked stepsisters at this point! haha She was so exhausted that she just didn't know what to do with herself. She just kept falling apart and even all the bribes in the world couldn't making her happy. I think Jess and Larry were contemplating never having kids by this point. =P She finally dozed off after I promised to get her all done up the following day. :)

Tomorrow we return to the Magic Kingdom for another full day of fun!!

Disney Day 6!!

The first of Jess's overindulging!!




My little princess




My divine diva




My cool little dude!!




In front of the castle.. all done up :)




Fireworks... obviously =P


Even though Jess, Larry and Matt got just a few hours of sleep last night... they're all ready to go by 7:45am! The kids were really excited to see them. Matt and I were excited because we had some extra hands. LOL Plan today is rode drop at Magic Kingdom. Since we've taken Disney transportation all the previous days... this is the first time we will be driving to the park. Very easy to navigate... and when you drive to Magic Kingdom you get to ride either the monorail or the ferry to get to the actual entrance. Drew thought the monorail was the coolest thing ever!!

Now Jess has a habit of over indulging the kids too much.... and I knew Disney would be no exception!! We weren't even into the park yet and she was already buying them stuff. lol She bought them their Mickey ears. They got a big kick out of the rope drop ceremony but couldn't believe how crowded it was! It's July 3rd... and they are expecting record breaking crowds today! I give Jess and Larry the low down on how we will casually make our way around the park... yea right! haha They vacation with us frequently so they're well aware that we will push them to the limits...of all the people we've vacationed with... they're the only ones who have actually been willing to go on another trip. lol Anyways... Matt and Larry are going to get started with the fastpasses and Jess, the kids and I will start towards fantasyland. Rope drops and the guys are gone and we run from the entrance all the way to Dumbo. Jess looks at me and says please tell me we aren't moving this fast ALL day... nah... just for the next few hours. haha We pretty much follow the same tour we did our first day there and since this is Jess's first ever trip to Disney she's in awe over everything... too bad we're moving so damn fast she isn't getting a chance to take it all in. lol

Guys make it back to join us and they were given "No Stampeding" cards....something the employees give you if they see you pushing your way through... meant to be funny... but serious at the same time. Of course the guys think these things are cool... and now they'll be trying to get them again all week. haha We make our way around Fantasyland and end with the teacups.... Matt and Jess both get major motion sickness as does Hannah. So they all ride together along with Drew so they can have a mellow ride. Larry makes it his mission to see just how fast we can make that damn cup turn! Now typically spinning doesn't bother me... but he would spin it really fast one way then stop it... and spin it really fast the other way. Um yea... I was a bit green getting off that ride!

Next stop is Splash Mountain. On the way over Larry sees that there's no line for Haunted Mansion and doesn't understand why we're not stopping to go in. Look boy... do NOT question what the index cards say. lol Just follow my plan and no one will get hurt! We ride the mountains, Pirates of the Carribean and then by this time we're all getting a bit hungry. Jess is just about as picky as I am when it comes to food so I know she's not going to much care for it either... but atleast we have those Rice Krispy treats and funnel cakes to fall back on. lol

Our original plan was to eat lunch and then go back to the resort for a while. But we see the crowds and realize that if we leave... we may not be able to get in. And we have something VERY special planned for the girls in a few hours that we have to be back for. So we decide to stay.... even though everyone is already wiped out. We'll take it a little slower for the rest of the day though!!

We ride Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and a few others... and then it's time! Time to tell Brooke about her big surprise!! We told Hannah about it months ago.. but decided we would surprise Brooke. The girls are going to get their hair done at Bippity Boppity Boutique!! She's been admiring these girls all week walking around with their fancy hair do's. And some of them have these fancy princess dresses on too. The Boutique was a gift from Jess... see what I said about over indulging. lol Matt was a big sucker too and told me to go ahead and get her the Cinderella dress. Seriously... that little dress is $70 freakin bucks!.... the jewish in me was definitely coming out. haha But Matt made a very good point... we've spent thousands on this trip.... what's a mere $70 bucks! lol So Brooke is about to be completely transformed into a princess! The ladies that do their hair are called Fairy Godmothers. The girls pick their hairstyles... Brooke a princess ( of course) and Hannah a Diva. They do their hair and then they also get make up and their nails painted. They looked adorable afterwards!! Matt was pretty floored by how grown up they looked when they came out... I can see future issues when them on prom nights.... daddy is NOT going to be happy with his little girls looking like grown women! ;)

While we were in BBB... Matt and Larry took Drew to the barbershop for a hairdo all of his own. He got a blue mohawk with a mickey head in the back. Definitely the cool dude look! Matt contemplated getting him an actual mohawk while he was in there... but was afraid I would freak. lol Unfortuantely.. they were typical guys... and didn't take one damn picture of him getting it done despite the fact that we sent them with a freakin camera! Grrr!

We took TONS of pictures of the 3 of them all done up... and people were oohing and ahhing over them :) And the attention Brooke got being all dressed up like a princess... let's just say it was unbelieveable! I think the employees are trained to really indulge these little girls... so you'll turn around the next day and spend all this money to do it all over again. haha Everywhere we turned we would hear them say "Hi princess". On Space Mountain the employees asked her if she wanted to start the ride. An employee on the tomorrowland bridge came up to her and gave her a royal bow and then kissed her on the hand... of course she promptly said yuck. lol She's such a 9 year old... boys are still yucky to her. ;) Typically Brooke is pretty shy... but she quickly warmed up to all this attention and was loving EVERY. SINGLE. MINUTE!! I have to say we really felt that Disney magic that night!!

Disney does amazing fireworks for the 4th of July... and at Magic Kingdom they do the show on the 3rd as well. Because it's ungodly crowded I know that we need to get our viewing spot about 2 hours before hand! I was prepared and had beach towels for us to sit on. We took turns with 2 adults sitting with Drew while 2 others would take the girls to go ride things using fastpasses. Once again those fastpasses are like gold! Waits for rides were running 2 hours or more... and we were just walking right on with our fastpass! Why people don't learn how to use these damn things is beyond me! But hey... that just leaves more for me to use! haha I had brought stickers and markers for Drew to play with while we sat... and he was so content being in the middle of Disney World coloring away. :) About an hour beforehand it was getting unbelieveably packed so we had everyone take a seat at our perfect viewing spot. I got in line to get us popcorn... not knowing I would stand there for 45 minutes... for freakin popcorn!

Fireworks were the most amazing I have EVER seen! Now I've really only seen them here in Englewood and Vandalia... so I don't have much to compare them to. lol But people were in tears with how unbelieveable they were... of course I wasn't one of those people. As you know... I am sooo not a crier... let alone crying over explosives. =P They're lit off right behind the castle... and the castle was constantly changing colors... so cool! And the music they played along with it was perfect! The only music I've ever really heard with fireworks was someone blaring Motley Crue out of their trunks speakers once. lol Never realized how cool that could be to have it all syncronized like that... okay I obviously live in a hole. ;)

Now getting out of there is going to be a bit of a challenge. It is wall to wall people! I have never in my life been in a crowd like that! Jess made this little sling type wrap thing to carry Drew in... so she put him in that. He loved it... probably because he was smashed up against her boobs... and well... he loves boobs! ;) Brooke really wanted to just sit in the stroller but she was getting hit in the face by other kids that were being carried so we had to put her on Larry's shoulders. Matt shoved the stroller through which was no easy feat...once again he was cussing me out for bringing Hugo. lol And Hannah and I just shuffled along behind everyone holding on for dear life. And I seriously mean we shuffled. There was NO walking! And this went on ALL the way out of the park! Jess... who is claustrophobic at times... did unbelieveably well getting out of there... I'm sure Drew massing her boobs the whole time helped relax her. haha

We hop on the monorail... once again Drew's loving it! And then head to the parking lot trams! OMG... the crowds are ungodly here too! And since there's 7 of us... it's a bit hard to get 2 whole rows in order for all of us to ride at the same time. Well actually I should count us as 8... because Hugo takes up a TON of room! We finally get on a tram and realize there's just enough room for all of us... except me! I was at the end of the line. Matt was holding Hugo so I couldn't hop on his lap. Jess has Drew on hers and of course I can't sit on the girls. No way in hell was I waiting for the next tram... so I jumped on Larry's lap and off we went. Poor Larry... he had to suffer the consequences of me eating all those Rice Kripsy treats all week. haha

We head back to the condo and we are all just beyond exhausted! The kids go right to sleep but the 4 of us sat up for a bit and chatted for a while. We all agree that the BBB and the Cinderella dress was worth every single penny! Every little girl needs to be a princess at some point in their life :) The kids all went to sleep with their hairdo's still in.... hoping to get to walk around the parks getting all the attention again tomorrow. ;)

Next up....Disney Studios.... 4th of July!!

Disney.... Day 5!

The kids with Buzz Lightyear.... Drew thought he was pretty cool :)




The kids with a dragon made entirely of Legos... somebosy has a damn cool job there!!


Today we have to switch resorts and aren't going to go to any parks. So we are letting everyone sleep in. Of course I woke up bright and early anyways. I walked around the resort and took some awesome pictures. And then just sat outside our room... ate my breakfast ( not going to even tell you what that was lol) and then added up all the receipts from everything we had eaten and bought so far. Holy shit! Why did I do that? =P And here I thought we had been pretty conserative in our spending so far. haha

Once the fam FINALLY decided to get up I suggested the kids go swimming so Matt and I could take turns packing up the room. Fortunately the pool was pretty much right outside our room. I thought this shouldn't be too hard. I hadn't really unpacked the suitcases since there wasn't any room to put all of it anyways. What I had forgotten was that somehow we now had to fit that HUGE box of crap I mailed down there! We rented a van but no way was that box going to fit in there along with everything else! And we also had a good 6 loads of dirty laundry by this point. Now y Type A personality would've typically taken forever to pack everything up and amde sure it was doe just right... but I finally said screw it and let Matt take over. Those of you that know me well.... you know that I don't give up control easily. lol So this was a HUGE step for me. haha But I had shopping to look forward to and I knew Matt was going to get it done a hell of a lot faster than I was. So I watched the kids at the pool while Matt dumped stuff in bag after bag and shoved it all in the van. =P

The kids were a bit bummed about having to leave Pop Century with all it's huge icons, hippy dippy pool.... and all the other fun things they had there. And I'll admit I was sad to have to leave the free refills at the Coke machine and the ease of getting a Rice Krispy treat whenever I wanted. lol But I was ready to get out of the 1 room we had been sharing for nearly a week...that's enough togetherness to last me a while. lol

We head to Downtown Disney and this place is Matt's worst nightmare. haha Not only does this man hate to shop... he also can't stand having to chase after Drew while I shop. =P We pick up McDonalds there for lunch.... FINALLY a decent meal. Normally I don't much care for McD's... but after some of the crap I've eaten the last week this stuff tastes like Gourmet! lol There wasn't a table inside big enough for all of us to sit at so we had to eat outside. Not big deal... it's in the shade. WRONG! They have these birds who are a little human friendly and have no problem swiping food right out of your hands. Seriously! Drew was sitting there with his cheeseburger in his hand and a bird came right up and took it. Which he found hilarious. So he then proceeds to feed them all his fries. by this point I feel like we're in that Alfred Hitchcock movie " The Birds". We are being swarmed by these damn birds!! And when you have birds... with them comes lots of bird shit! Fabulous! I can't tell what's mayonaisse and what's not. =P There goes my gourmet meal. lol

We hit the shops and Drew... who has been a really good kid all week decides that today is the day he will grow his little devil horns! He wants nothing to do with sitting in the stroller or holding onto the stroller. All he wants to do is destroy these stores as fast as possible. ....and he's doing a pretty damn good job. lol The girls and I are finding quite a few things but Matt is beyond done by this point and is heading to the car with or without us... can't say that I blame him. haha

So shopping didn't go quite as planned but we'll be coming back later in the week. :) We head to the new resort.... Windsor Hills. This resort is considered offsite since it's not Disney owned... but technically it's closer than Pop Century is. The condo is really nice with 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a kitchen ( which I am NOT cooking in!!) and a washer and dryer.... desperately needed at this point! It's so nice to be able to finally unpack our suitcases all the way! And what a mess they are! Matt did a fabulous job of getting everything in them.... but we had to completely dump all of them to find anything. Yep.... in 5 seconds we have completely destroyed this condo.... a new record for my family. lol We get everything organized and get the laundry going and we head to Walmart.

The Walmart trip deserves it's very own paragraph! Drew is sound asleep in the car at this point so Matt drops the girls and I off at the door. Never did I imagine I would need a freakin bodyguard in this place! We walk in and I immediately have culture shock! I'm definitely one of the few English speaking people in this place. Which is no big deal... except there are numerous people screaming at each other at the top of their lungs, pushing and shoving their way through, etc. and I have NO idea what they're yelling at me. Yea... me taking German in high school isn't doing me much good at this point! lol I tell the girls to hold on tight and do not make eye contact with anyone and we'll go through as fast as we can! We grab the few things we need and then head to the check out... at which point I realize I forgot milk... no way in hell am I going back through that mess! We'll find someplace else to stop on the way back! As we head out of the store there's 2 guys ready to have it out right by us... and 4 girls that looked like they could've easily kicked all of their asses. lol I didn't think it was possible for my girls to learn any new cuss words at this point but guess I was wrong. =P My god... now I realize why Disney wants you to stay on Disney. LOL

We grab a quick dinner and head back to the condo. Matt has talked Larry and Jess into taking an earlier flight which was supposed to get them in by 11pm. Turns out it ends up being delayed and they don't get in until 2 am! They are going to be a bit wiped out tomorrow when they realize we'll be at the park from open to close!

Next up.... Magic Kingdom with Larry and Jess on their first day!!