Happy Halloween!

Our 2015 Halloween Card

Happy Halloween, Everyone!! :)

Disney World 2015, Part 4: Pool Day + Cinderella's Royal Table!!! + Epcot

Each time we've taken the girls to Disney World, we've always gotten 4-day park hopper passes but we stay at Disney for a week..so we have a day or two of wiggle room in our schedule in case it rains or if we need a rest day. Each year, we have been SO thankful to have a rest day built into our trip..it has been greatly appreciated by the kids & grownups alike! And we still manage to have a lot of fun on our rest days, either at the hotel's pool or going to Downtown Disney or the Boardwalk.

We used our third day as a rest day and spent it at the pool, and it was especially fun b/c the Griffins were able to join us! But first, we had to make a pit stop at the breakfast buffet at our hotel which the girls LOVED b/c they got unlimited Mickey Mouse shaped chocolate chip pancakes! ;)

A little poolside lunch for Shelby & Leland :)

Hadley & Leland giving goodbye hugs :)

Naptime stories with Grampy

After naps, we had a low-key evening around the hotel--dinner, laundry, and some playground time! Our next day was a full day starting off at Magic Kingdom with breakfast reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table!! This was our first time ever eating here, and it was such a fun experience!! I'm so glad we were able to do it!

They give the all the kids princess wands and coloring pages at the tables, and Shelby was hard at work on her activity page. We kept having to tell her to stop coloring to look up when a princess was entering the dining room! ;)

The girls had so much fun telling Jasmine that they were going to be her & Rajah for Halloween! :)

After breakfast, we did a few rides at Magic Kingdom. We somehow convinced Hadley to ride the Barnstormers rollercoaster, and this was how she looked afterwards. ;)

Move It Shake It Dance & Play It Street Party

And of course, a visit to Edy's Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street!

We loved all of the amazing fall decor at Magic Kingdom!

After naps, we went to Epcot for the evening. It was waaaaay more crowded than we anticipated due to the Food & Wine Festival that was going on, and the other bummer was that Mulan was already gone for the day by the time we got there & we really wanted the girls to get to meet her. :(  We still had fun eating a quick dinner in Mexico & then doing a couple rides/shows, but we don't have any pictures to show for it! ;)

Rainy Days + A Little Fall Fun!

The end of last week was SUPER wet here, but we still managed to have some fun! There were a bunch of sale ads in the mail one day that I was getting ready to recycle when Shelby asked if she could "do a little snipping first." ;)  I'm so glad I said yes b/c these two were perfectly quiet & still for a good 30 minutes snipping away!! Bliss! :)

A break in the rain on Friday night = trip to the playground in your rainboots!

Love, love, love this picture! Derek had to go into the hospital on Saturday morning, and the girls were reading in Shelby's windowsill waiting for him to come home. :)

Making candy corn bark with Daddy!

The skies had cleared after church on Sunday, so we stopped by a little pumpkin patch on our way home to pick up a couple of small pumpkins for the girls to paint.

Both of the girls had so much fun painting their pumpkins this year! Shelby was very precise & specific about her designs, and Hadley was just having fun mixing all of the paint together on her pumpkin. I'm pretty sure her paint philosophy was the more, the better! ;)

And apparently rainy weekends at home are exhuasting b/c I had to drag both girls out of bed on Monday morning to get ready for school! ;)

I'll finish up the rest of our Disney World posts later this week! :)

Disney World 2015, Part 3: Hollywood Studios + Electrical Parade

We started off our second day at Disney World at Hollywood Studios! It was a really a run morning!

After meeting Daisy & Donald Duck, we headed over to see the Disney Jr Live On Stage show where we met up with the Griffins! We hadn't told Shelby about them being at Disney World, so it was a really fun surprise!

After the show, we were able to meet Doc McStuffins & Sofia the First before heading over to the Frozen Singalong Show!

This picture cracks us up b/c it looks like Shelby is giving Doc all the sass in the world
as she waits for her to sign her book ;)

I'm so glad my dad snapped this picture b/c Shelby did this to every single character we saw--she was feeling their "skin" to see how they felt!

Hadley always hung back & watched Shelby meet the characters first.
It took Hadley a bit to warm up to each of the characters. :)

Sweet cousins waiting in line for the Frozen Singalong show

More snuggles from Hadley while we waited for the show

I love this picture of Shelby on her feet singing her heart out at the show, she loved it!

These two were giggle monsters together after the show, they were just having the BEST time together!
Such a sweet memory!

After a quick lunch, we headed over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area, and the kids had so much fun playing & running around together! We were trying to tire them out for good naps before the Electrical Parade that night! ;)

After naps, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for dinner & rides with the Griffins before watching the Electrical Parade & fireworks. Side note--this was our first experience doing Disney World in the fall. Growing up, my family always went in the summer and the past two times we've gone with the girls in April. We were really excited to experience Disney at a supposedly "off peak" time with cooler temps & less crowds! However, the downfall of that was Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. For those who aren't familiar, the Halloween party is a ticketed event that you have to pay for separately from a regular park ticket. The Halloween party is almost every evening at Magic Kingdom, which was a huge disappointment for us b/c that meant we couldn't spend our evenings at our favorite park...and when we did attempt to go to Magic Kingdom on one of the select few nights without the Halloween party (which was the evening I'm talking about in this post), everybody else was there too...aka huge crowds. But despite the crowds, we still managed to have a great time!

Sweet girls holding hands as they waited to ride the teacups together. This picture was taken about two seconds before I asked them who they wanted to ride in their teacup with them, and they started chanting "NO GROWNUPS!" over & over again at the top of their lungs. ;)

Another trip on The Ariel Ride :)

Unfortunately, I have zero pictures of the Electrical Parade b/c it was dark and we weren't really in an ideal viewing location for pictures..it was just sooo crowded! But Shelby & Elly had a blast watching the parade from the best seats in the house--their daddies' shoulders! :)  We also stayed for the fireworks, which were great! Hadley enjoyed them for a minute before looking at me & requesting in the sweetest voice: "Do something else please, Mama."  When I told her we couldn't do anything else b/c it was too crowded to go anywhere, she started to whine a bit. Thankfully, my mom, dad, and I were able to finally sneak away to eat some funnel cake while Shelby & Derek enjoyed the rest of the fireworks. ;)