Entering the Most Magical Place on Earth

We made it into the Most Magical Place on Earth with minimal to no issues.  We sort of had a plan.  Planning Disney made me more than a little stressed out. I wanted to have a plan but I didn't have any idea how to go about planning it. I used a friend of a friend to organize things and in the end it was not a disaster but I wouldn't do it again. The real benefit came from a friend and former roommate :) She went out of her way to plan an entire day for me.  We didn't follow it to the minute but pretty close! There were so many people telling me I needed to "go with the flow". I like to think I am good at going with the flow but in reality I am not good at it at all.  I really worked my "go with the flow" mentality at Disney and it went rather well.  

As with most vacations Andrew and I take together I do majority, if not all, of the planning and he shows up.  It's a good thing he shows up b/c eventually I get too stressed or can't make a decision or both and he comes in and saves the day.  I don't know why I was reading the map most of the time b/c I am a terrible map reader.  The below picture is an accurate representation of majority of our time at Disney.  

As we walked in and approached the castle there was a performance in the midst so we stopped and watched it. It ended up probably being Miss M's favorite thing.  Every time we walked by it she wanted to watch it. I agreed until about the 4th time.

Our first ride was It's a Small World.  

Cater was the least impressed. 

Well...maybe not the least.

Next up...the carousal.  Miss M loves a carousal. She wants to ride every carousal she finds.

We met Belle. It was a production and Miss M was selected to play the Wardrobe. Thankfully, she didn't have to do much of anything except stand there b/c she was a little (a lot) nervous and freaked out.

Miss M and Belle in the castle library before Belle's ball. 

We made the Tea Cups a family adventure.  We split up between two cups. Andrew, Grammy, Willie and Cater in one cup. 

Poppy, Miss M and I in another cup.

We spun and spun and chased and had fun.

It was probably the happiest Willie was all day.

Genuine happiness and joy.

The kids waited for rides pretty well.  They didn't complain much all things considered. No one tried to run away and no one got lost.

There were some rides with interactive/activities for the kids to stay entertained

We were fortunate enough to have an advantage in the adult court with 4 adults to 3 kids.  Big Papa was really good at finding a place to sit and keep the stroller with or without kids.  He's a go with the flow kinda person whose go with the flow trait was not inherited by me.  Although being with him makes me calmer (most of the time). 

Meeting the characters from The Hundred Acre Woods. Grammy and Miss M waited in line to meet Pooh, Tigger and Rabbit.

Big Willie didn't have the patience to wait in line to meet the characters so he went and hung out with Poppy and Andrew.  The characters take a break every so often and when they left they walked by Big Willie and he "bopped" Tigger in the nose. I wasn't there to witness such events and I can only assume it was good natured and not abusive.

It looks like Tigger didn't take it to personally.  I suspect it's minor compared to somethings he experiences daily.

Grammy and I waited in line with Cater and Miss M to see Elsa and Anna.  It was estimated to take approximately 60 minutes but thankfully the line went faster and we only waited 45ish minutes.  45 minutes with Cater is a long time.  Willie hung out with Poppy while Andrew tried to track down his phone. He left it in a theater we'd just left.  Thankfully we realized it quickly.  

Miss M LLLOOOOVVVVEEESSSS Elsa. She just loves Anna.  We met Anna first and she was so excited. She was nervous and overwhelmed and excited. The princesses are so good at what they do.  

This is when Elsa first started talking to Miss M.  She was so star struck she didn't know what to do.

 I love Cate's side eye.

Please note that the sun is going down in the below pictures which means it's probably around 6:00pm. Cate at this point had slept for zero minutes.  Willie had slept for 3 hours.  Everyone's still going strong.  We decided to wander to Main Street USA and find a place to watch the night parade which started around 8pm.  

We walked around and found a place to set up shop while we waited for the night parade.  We sat across from the US Presidents Exhibit and decided to go in and see it.  The show might have been 20 minutes long.  Cater fell asleep in my lap for approx. 7 minutes.  Once the show was over and I tried to get up and walk outside she was up.  She wasn't about to miss a minute of the action.  

We watched the night parade.  We didn't take any pictures but rather just enjoyed being there. The light show started about 10-15 minutes after the parade.  Then after the light show was the fireworks show.  It was incredible. It was by far the best fireworks show I have ever seen.  I left Magic Kingdom thinking "dreams really do come true". Seriously. It was amazing.  

Nandy's parade seat.  

It was 10:30pm before we caught the bus and landed back at our resort. Everyone was still in good spirits but everyone was absolutely wiped out. We were supposed to get up and leave the resort early the next morning to go to Hollywood Studios but I made an executive decision to sleep the next morning.  We all crashed as soon as we got back but unfortunately the kids didn't get the memo to sleep in.