Mouseketeers

Ben the Mouseketeer.

Mollie the Mouseketeer.

Two Mouseketeers and their perfect 50s TV mom.

Trick or treating down our street.

Mollie

This is Mollie's first Halloween to really trick or treat. Last year she just rode along in the jogging stroller.

Putting Mollie's Mouseketeer ears on. She was super-excited when she saw her ears. I was afraid that she wouldn't keep them on, but she did.

Nana made their shirts and Mollie's skirt.

Walking next door to show Mrs. Judy their costumes. They both love Mrs. Judy.

Getting her first Halloween candy from Mrs. Judy.

Eating it immediately. Mollie has mastered removing the paper from a sucker at 16 months.

Small World

Fran e-mailed me this picture of us on the It's a Small World ride at the Magic Kingdom. I think it's the only picture from our Disney World trip of all three of us looking at the camera.

Popcorn Balls

I pulled out my Fellowship cookbook and used MawMaw Ganey's popcorn ball recipe again this year. Last year I learned two lessons. 1 -- Use lots of butter on your hands. It worked and I didn't burn my fingertips this year.

2 -- Fix Ben his own bowl of popcorn first so he doesn't panic thinking I'm ruining the popcorn.

Magic Kingdom at Night

We finished our supper about 6 p.m. Since the parade didn't start until 8, we had time to ride one ride before we needed to find a spot to watch the parade. Both Ben and John had an opinion. John really wanted to read the Tomorrowland Speedway. Ben wanted to ride the Astro Orbiter. You can really see their different interests playing out in those choices. John wanted to drive a car. Ben wanted to ride a spaceship.

The wait for the Speedway was shorter so that's what we rode. However, we compromised and promised Ben that we could ride the Astro Orbiter after the parade. (All of my attempts to take pictures of the three of us myself were duds.)

I held Ben through the entire parade. I squatted down beside him as the parade started and realized the view at 38 inches is not very magical -- lots of metal and a few strands of lights. He really enjoyed the parade, waving to all the characters as they passed. (I confess that I cropped myself out of this picture that Fran took. The closeup of the side of my face was NOT cute.)

John held Ben during the fireworks. Being Ben, rather than being awed by the beautiful display, he had a lot of questions for John about how fireworks work. What makes the light? Why does it stay in the sky? Why was there smoke? Would it burn his hand?

Fran's beautiful firework picture that I stole from her Facebook page.

Rather than following the stampeding herd to the gates of the Magic Kingdom, we hung a left and returned to Tomorrowland. Although MV and Janey were really tired, MV didn't want to miss out on one last ride. Fran held her nearly asleep in the Astro Orbiter line while Jim and Janey waited nearby. Ben was really excited about this ride. It's very high up in the air on top of the People Mover and you have to ride an elevator up to the ride. Ben and I counted down from 10 to Blastoff before the ride took off. In the elevator on the way down he asked, "Why does 11 come after 10?"

Janey was sound asleep when we got off Astro Orbiter. It was after 10 and the parade was beginning to roll a second time when we finally made our way out of the Magic Kingdom.

Crystal Palace

On Saturday night we divided up again and John, Ben, and I dined at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. This time we were visited by Piglet, Tigger, Eyeore, and finally Pooh. In all our planning and talking about Disney World, this meal was what Ben was most excited about. Although he was concerned that Piglet would expect him to eat acorns. Jim, Fran, MV, and Janey had dinner at Park Fare at the Grand Floridian with Cinderella, Prince Charming, the wicked stepmother and the two stepsisters.

To keep things interesting (and to make it harder to eat a lot from the buffet according to John), periodically all the kids were invited to line up behind the characters and "Poohrade" around the restaurant. You can see mine and Ben's backs. He didn't want to do it alone.

A hug from Tigger.

Snack Time

A daily snack was part of our prepaid Disney Dining Plan. Jim and John used theirs for morning coffee (no coffemaker in the value rooms). In the Magic Kingdom, Ben wanted popcorn.

Fran and the girls chose mousehead shaped icecream. One night, Ben observed, "Tootles is everywhere!" Tootles is the mousehead shaped helper on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He wanted to know why Tootles was all over our hotel room (including in the carpet and the wallpaper). I told him it was so that we would remember the Mickey Mouse owned the entire place.

Ugly Faces

While waiting to get snacks before leaving the Magic Kingdom, the kids were playing around making ugly faces for the camera.

Magic Kingdom

We spent Saturday at the Magic Kingdom. This is the view of Cinderella's castle from the top of the Dumbo ride. John, Ben, and I rode Dumbo while the girls met the princesses. That was very important to the girls so they did that first.

Ben looks grumpy in this picture because he was very grumpy each morning. He can go all night, but he isn't a morning person. He likes to lay in bed, drink chocolate milk and watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse before starting his day.

My attempt at a picture of the three of us riding Dumbo.

MV and Janey with Cinderella. MV insisted that they wear their Cinderella dresses to the park Saturday. Janey wasn't as scared of the princesses although the only one she really liked was one of Cinderella's wicked step sisters.

After the Dumbo ride, we rode Prince Charming's Regal Carousel (formerly known as Cinderella's Golden Carousel). The girls were still with the princesses.

A smile from Ben.

Waiting in line for the Winnie-the-Pooh ride. This was the first ride at Magic Kingdom that we had to wait more than five minutes on. It was about a 20 minute wait, but it went quickly because there are lots of things for little hands to do while waiting. You can make designs in the dripping honey by touching the wall. The girls finally made it to Fantasyland and rode the carousel while we were riding Pooh.

We all met up to ride Dumbo again. There is a favorite family story from Jim and John's childhood. The Elders are standing in line when a man taps Mr. Elder on the shoulder and says, "Excuse me, sir, but I think your son has his head stuck." Jim had in fact stuck his head between the bars, panicked, and couldn't get it back out. His head definitely wouldn't fit now.

Jim, MV, Fran, and Janey ready to ride Dumbo.

Another picture I took while riding Dumbo. The construction you see over my shoulder is the expansion of Fantasyland that is in progress. Mickey's ToonTown and Goofy's Barnstormer Roller Coaster (the only one small enough for Ben to ride) were closed due to the construction.

Jim and John refused to ride the teacups so just Fran, MV, Ben, and I rode them. MV insisted that we spin even though both she and Fran get motion sickness. Thankfully no one threw up.

Fran cut the top of my head off in this pic but at least Ben is looking at the camera. Before lunch we also saw the 3D movie Mickey's Philharmagic (one of my favorite things at Magic Kingdom), rode Peter Pan, and Dumbo. We had lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland. We had planned to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway after lunch but the wait for 40 minutes and we still needed naps. It was super important to MV to ride Big Thunder Mountain so Jim, John, and MV headed to Frontierland while Fran, Janey, Ben, and I bought souvenier ornaments at Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in nearby Liberty Square. The guys used MV's wheelchair to bypass the 50 minute line and were on and off in 15 minutes. They forgot to take a picture.

The Magic Kingdom wore Ben out. He was the one carried off the bus asleep Saturday afternoon. He took a great nap and had lots of energy for the evening.

Chef Mickey

We had our first character meal Friday night at Chef Mickey's.

Chef Mickey's is located in the Contemporary Resort near the Magic Kingdom. We rode a bus from our hotel to the Magic Kingdom and then rode the monorail directly into the Contemporary Resort.

We had a great table by a window. You can see Cinderella's castle in the distance (to the left of Janey).

A kiss for Ben from Minnie Mouse. Character dining lets you meet the characters without waiting in line. The meal was buffet. You got your food, sat back down and ate while you waited for each character to come to your table. John found character meals stressful because he wanted to eat more food, but also didn't want to miss Ben seeing a character while he was in the buffet line.

A hug from Minnie for MV.

Ben and Mickey.

A kiss for Mickey from MV. She claims that she was smelling Mickey not giving him a kiss.

Jim and John with Goofy. I have pictures of Ben and MV with all the characters but I didn't want to be monotonous.

Who knew Donald is so short?

Periodically the entire restaurant "celebrated" by twirling our napkins in the air along with the characters.

Still celebrating. It lasted an entire song.

Ben was so excited.

Janey was not excited. She started crying anytime she saw a character getting near us. She screamed through tears at Goofy, "I don't like you Goofy!"

She did enjoy her dessert, though.

We stayed for a second visit from Minnie. After Minnie had turned her back and walked away, Janey was brave enough to wave and say, "Bye Minnie."