Girl's First Disney Trip!!!

Monday was Disney day. And since we took such a long and late nap Sunday, it was late to bed and early to rise again as you will see in the first few pictures haha! Since we wanted the trip to be a surprise, we didn't build Disney up very much. We threw bits and pieces out there every now and then, but not too much. Helen is very observant and hangs onto every word and the meaning so we didn't want to give too much away. A couple nights before we left, she, out of the blue, started talking about how she wanted to go back to Orlando and by the time we were done talking about it, she was pretty much convinced that was where we were going. So we had to throw some distractions out there - could be the beach, Atlanta, Gramma's.....then she wasn't so sure. Anyway, so when it was actually time to go to Disney, of course Helen and Aubree were excited, but Allisyn had no idea what was going on. I wish we had prepared her more for it.

Aubree's excited face! Love it!!Here we are!!In the parking lot, on the way in. Notice the three sets of ears.Here start the "grumpy" pictures. "The sun is bright!" "I'm cold!" Boohoo ;)On the ferryboat ride over to the park. Notice only 2 sets of ears. At this point we discovered we had ALREADY lost a set of ears, a hairbow(we found that later in the van, though), and a shoe. Yes, a SHOE!!! How does that happen without us noticing?!!? So, first stop, had to find Aubree a new pair of shoes. We had to pay $15 for a pair of flip flops and honestly, that is probably the most we have ever paid for a pair of shoes for any of the girls!! Anyway, of course, they loved the boat ride.........and finally seeing the castle for the first time!!Attempt at getting each of their pictures in front of the castle....they weren't having it and I forgot to get it later so this is what we have, lol!!Family pic in front of the castle.Aubree's awe face on the ride "It's a Small World". They loved it!!One of the girls set her ears on my belly and it was just getting big enough, they stayed!! If this turns out to be a boy though, I'm sure he won't appreciate it haha!This is why Aubree wasn't in the previous picture.This is the little girl Helen made in line. You know Helen has NEVER met a stranger and this was no different. She took a picture of her and her daddy too, haha! Then she had this little girl be our photographer for a little while!Another famliy pic, thanks to our new photographer!Watching the show, the witch from Snow White was on stage. I like how all three of them look scared! Aubree really was, she kept wanting to leave.All they wanted to see were the princesses so this is the most we saw of Mickey and Minnie. Maybe next trip we can focus more on those characters!Playing while waiting in line.On the ferryboat ride out. Amazingly, we didn't lose anything else during the day!!Not the best picture, but it was so pretty lit up!At the end of the trip, we asked the girls which they liked better, Sea World or Disney. Both said Sea World. I think it's because we mostly waited in line at Disney and at Sea World, they got to watch the shows and stuff. Plus, they are very into the sea creatures right now. Dolphin Tale and Free Willy are in constant demand at our house!

When I was pregnant with Helen, I worked at a daycare and I was the teacher for 11 2 and 3 year olds. I was very anti-disney princess for Helen when we found out she was a girl. The girls at the daycare had and wore EVERYTHING princess and I was sick of it. So I told everyone to get nothing princess. Well, one girl turned into two and turned into 3 girls. So we have a houseful of girls and of course, they love the princesses! And I'm okay with it now, it's not so sickening anymore, haha! So when we went to Disney, of course we had to see the princesses. And that is about all we did!

First up was Rapunzel, we waited about an hour to see her. They let groups go in this little area and each group took about 30 minutes. So when you got in there, they had a coloring station, which I thought was a great idea! The kids got to color while the parents stood in line and could keep an eye on them! Here is Aubree's picture.

About to meet Rapunzel!Here she is telling them that they MUST be best friends because they all had two favorite colors in common - pink and purple of course!I wasn't sure how much time we would have up there with each character, but I knew I wanted a group shot (Allisyn wouldn't go without me, so I was in them too!) and one of them individually. And I knew that would take alot of time. But they let us take as long as needed! Nobody was in a rush (except the people behind us, I'm sure), but I tried to go as quickly as possible.

We were surprised Aubree went up to her, usually she doesn't like strangers! She went right up there with Helen and even took her own picture!We caught Princess Tiana right after the parade so we didn't wait but 10 minutes for her!She whispered in Helen's ear to say "Roll Tide!" (Chris had an Alabama hat on, of course) and I can't believe she did!! Helen is usually my Gator girl!Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Cinderella were all in one room together which I thought was cool - knock 3 out with one line!! We waited about 45 minutes for them. All of the princesses were SO nice and patient. They all acted like my kids were the only ones they saw and talked to that day! You would never know they see thousands of little girls all day!!Belle is my favorite, I wish I would have thought to get a picture by MYself, haha!!Aubree was the most excited to see Cinderella. You can tell in her face in this pic! She was so excited, she kept squealing the closer we got!!Terrance (Tinkerbell's friend)

Allisyn finally sat in a picture without me!

Tinkerbell

I can't believe how old Helen looks in this picture! She stole my lip gloss in line. We waited about 45 minutes for Terrance and Tinkerbell, but they had a movie playing so it wasn't so bad!

Another picture without me!Both Helen and Aubree told us Tinkerbell was their favorite of all the princesses after meeting them. Her and Rapunzel. Tink was definetly the most animated and she got down on the floor with them and everything. I think she was my favorite too, as far as interaction goes. And Rapunzel, of course because they are best friends!!

The next post will be the non-princess parts of Disney. This was the most of it so I put it in it's own post!

Rainy Day...Not!!

Sunday, the chance for rain in Orlando was 80%. And we would only have half a day by the time we got done with church, lunch and nap. So we decided that would be our "off" day. We got up, went to church and were very surprised to see some friends from home there! Whenever you visit a church, you never expect to see someone you know! It was fun to see friendly faces. T.G.I.Friday's was for lunch. YUM!! We love it, wish we had one in Valdosta. We just got Olive Garden, maybe Friday's is next on the list? As we headed into the restaurant, it started to thunder and when we left, it was sprinkling. We weren't far from the hotel, so we hurried back to get naps, glad that is was going to rain like we had planned. I think we all took about a 3 hour nap! We had been up so late the 2 nights before and then up early both mornings also. We got up in search of Wal-Mart ( I needed new shoes, the ones I wore to Sea World killed my back!) and supper. We found Wal-Mart pretty easily, then Chris decided he wanted to get the girls ice cream. We searched everywhere for somewhere different. We like to go places we don't have at home. We FINALLY found a Ben & Jerry's (who knew they had an ice cream shop? Not me!). Not as good as Marble Slab, but just as expensive! We picked up a pizza and headed back to the hotel room. Besides the sprinkle after lunch, not a drop of rain! Oh well, it gave us a nice break and a chance to rest up. Had it not been supposed to rain, we would have tried to cram one more thing in there!

Sea World!!

We had been telling the girls for awhile that we were going on a trip but we wouldn't tell them where. Finally we told them we were going to a hotel. That was good enough for them - they were excited!! We went President's Day weekend, left Friday after Chris got off work. We got to our hotel pretty late. We tried to get them in without waking them up but it didn't work! They were wide awake so we went ahead and told them we were in Orlando. Helen and Aubree started screaming they were so excited and of course Allisyn didn't have a clue!

Since Saturday was supposed to be the warmest and had the least chance of rain of the days we were going to be there, we decided to go to Sea World first.

Arriving at Sea World

This is where they got to pet the sting rays. I totally thought I got more pictures of this, but apparently I didn't :( Anyways, this was Helen's absolute favorite thing to do! We stayed there awhile. By the time we were done, they were soaking wet! We came back later and she was still not happy when we left. Needless to say, her souvinier from the whole trip was a stuffed stingray! Aubree MIGHT have touched one and every time Allisyn touched one, she squealed! It was too cute!

This is where you can watch the dolphins underwater. We spent quite a bit of time down here too.After one of the shows. We sat in the splash zone at every show because Helen wanted to get wet. We didn't get wet at this one. We brought our food in so we wouldn't have to spend a fortune on food. It worked out really good. To get a decent seat at a show, you need to get there about 30 minutes early, so that is when we ate lunch and snacks!

In the very right bottom corner of this pic, this girl had one of those little fish that you wind up and it moves it's tail and makes a really annoying sound. The dolphins could not get enough of it!! They would swim by, it would catch their eye and they would turn around and just stare at it! I reaped the benefits and got some pretty awesome pictures with Allisyn and the dolphins! This is my favorite.On I think the only ride they rode all day! Allisyn was asleep in the stroller so I stayed with her.

The Shamu Rocks show. This is the only thing I remember from the past times I have been to Sea World and I really wanted them to see it. Otherwise, we wouldn't have stayed. They were ready to go.Now, remember I told you Helen wanted to get wet at a show all day? We sat in the splash zone at every show (we went to 4 or 5) except for one and we never got wet. Well, it was getting late and there would be no sun to help them dry off and they were already getting cranky so Chris decided to sit at the top. Helen wasn't hearing it. She still wanted to get wet! So we went down front and center, 4th row. Then she got scared. Someone told her she would definetly get soaking wet and it would be cold. The more she thought about it, the more she changed her mind. But, the place was already filling up and, being the evil parents we are, we decided to stay where we were. The show went on and they kind of enjoyed it - Helen and Aubree were still not wanting to get wet so they were anticipating it. We thought had escaped it - the 2 shamus were showing off on the raised part of the pool for the end and I heard Chris say "Watch out!!" I turned my head to the right and saw two tails stickig out of the water and then we all felt ice cold HARD pelts of water. Of course, immediately all three girls started screaming just in time to get a mouthful of water . They got us again!! As mean as we are, Chris and I were laughing, the girls were screaming and we wanted a picture :) I know, we're mean, right? Haha! Here you go!I had thought ahead while we were waiting for the show to start and took the towel we bought and all their sweaters (except for Helen's, she insisted on wearing hers) and hid them to keep them as dry as possible. Aubree stayed the driest because she was sitting on the bench between Chris and I. Helen was on my lap, Allisyn was on Chris's. After the show (and after the picture), we stripped Helen and Allisyn down to their skimpies. Helen wore my sweater and got in the stroller, Alllisyn wore Aubree's sweater and we wrapped the towel around Aubree and that is how we got to the car. They were not happy campers!

I know, this sounds mean, but we did it for the memories. ALL. DAY. Helen had wanted to get wet and each time we didn't she was disappointed. Besides, how can you go to Sea World and not get splashed by a whale?!!?

And, for the record, when we talk about Sea World now, that is the first thing Aubree mentions. And they love it! It was a fun night for Chris and I - not so much for them, but they like it now. It's a story to tell!

Father/Daughter Banquet

I know I have kinda negelected the blog and now I have alot of catching up to do! Back in Febraury, our church hosted a father/daughter banquet. And since Chris is such a great (and brave!) daddy, he took all three girls!
One of the couples from our church offered to buy the girls new dresses for the banquet, so dress shopping we went. They had an absolute blast! Within a few minutes of being in the store, our hands were FULL of dresses for them to try on! They each got to pick out their own and they finally decided on one. Aubree, believe it or not, took the longest to decide. Helen didn't like any of the dresses until the very last one and that is the one she fell in love with.
I went with them to get a few pictures before it started then I went to dinner with a friend. Chris said they all had fun, but it was a little hard for Allisyn to sit quiet through all the door prizes. But they were all 3 excited to show off what they won!

This is her excited face :)Love this pic! This is the first time she saw herself all ready!

This is the best I could get of the three of them.