The vacation is over....but another one begins.....

We just spent the last two weeks either vacationing in Florida, traveling to/from Florida or recovering from our trip (by far the most taxing part)! We're finally unpacked and caught up on our sleep, but tomorrow morning our next vacation begins -- Vacation Bible School that is! It's called "Shake It Up Cafe" and the theme is cooking. I'm teaching the preschool class (3s and 4s). Twenty of them actually! Lilly will be in the class with me and he rest of the Mini Muffins. Sophia's in the rising K class this year (I still can't believe she's going to be in Kindergarten!). Her class is the Banana Splits. She's going to have so much fun.

But...I have so much to write about Florida.

We had an uneventful drive to Kissimmee, Florida. It took us 14 hours, but we stopped quite a few times and let the girls get out an roam around a bit. We left at 5 AM on Saturday (July 2). We arrived that night around 8 PM. We spent our first full day (Sunday) at the rental house just relaxing by the pool. Sophia spent the entire day in the pool. In fact, she spent almost every waking moment in the pool if we weren't at one of the Disney World parks.

We went to Magic Kingdom three times and spent two days at Animal Kingdom. We definitely could have gone back to Magic Kingdom a few more times...if nothing else but to enjoy the fireworks another time. What a spectacular show! At one point, Tinkerbell flies out of the castle on a zipline rope and glides through the night sky...granting wishes I presume.

Another one of our favorite parts was the castle show and the parades. We times it perfect on our first day at Magic Kingdom. We arrived just five minutes before the castle show was about to begin. It was a fantastic way to be welcomed into the park. Some of the Princesses made an appearance and Sophia's eyes couldn't have gotten any bigger! During the afternoon parade on the first day there a super Giant Woody (from Toy Story) stuck his finger into Sophia's ear. She grinned so big.

We also met Rapunzel on the first day. The girls danced with her and then Sophia talked to her, hugged her and had her sign her autograph book. We forgot to ask her to sign Lilly's book. Lilly was too shy to give anyone a hug or to request an autograph, but I jumped right in and asked for her in every case except Rapunzel.

Lilly's favorite things about Magic Kingdom:
The rides (literally, all of them)!
The popsicles (they're GIANT sized)!

Sophia's favorite things:
Tinkerbell flying out of the castle AND the fireworks!
Driving her first car (I pressed the gas and she steered us back and forth slamming into the middle rail with every turn. I had to smile.)
The Carousel of Progress ride (she liked the mechanical dog)


My favorites:
It's a Small World ride
Watching Sophia's face light up over and over again.
Listening to Lilly experience an amazing fireworks show! She said WOW with amazement with every burst of light in the sky. It was adorable. You can kind of hear it in this movie. You have to listen for it, but you'll hear it really loud toward the end.



In addition to Rapunzel, Sophia also got to meet the following:

Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story)

Aurora, Sleeping Beauty

Belle, Beauty and the Beast

Cinderella

Pocahontas

Jiminy Cricket

Rafiki

Pooh

Eyeore

Tigger

And Pluto and Goofy, but I can't find that picture. I think it might have gotten deleted. Boo hoo.

Magic Kingdom was awesome. I already told the girls that we would go back every 5 years. I can't wait! Here are some images from the parade and the rides that we went on...