Spectacle of Dancing Lights

On Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios. This is the only park that we visited only once during the week. Chris' parents did go back a second time.
Lydia was happy to get to ride Tower of Terror for the first time.
She liked the elevator going up and down "after the scary part." The "story" scared her a little bit.
We saw the Beauty and the Beast musical for the first time with the kids. Lydia wanted to know why all the things didn't turn into people at the end like like in the movie. She also commented on how the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show wasn't exactly like the movie. I think she might be ready for a full length musical!

We tried the Toy Story Mania glasses on Josiah.

We let Lydia hold Josiah for a quick photo.
I think the Army Men have very cool costumes.
Grandpa and Mike
My mom saved all of my Disney books from the 1970s. Wesley and Lydia love those books and The Sorcerer's Apprentice is one of their favorites.
Hollywood Studio did a great job theming the wait line for Lotso. The area is decorated like The Sunnyside Daycare Center with pictures from Toy Story 3.
Lotso
The third character area in The Magic of Disney Animation features Mr. Incredible and his best friend Frozone.
Sully
Lydia and Josiah napped through meeting Mater.
Wesley liked this snowman.
He also liked playing with the bubbles.
Lydia continued napping through the best part of Hollywood Studios.
The best part of the day was seeing The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
Jennings Osborne started with a modest display of lights on his home in Arkansas but over the years the display grew and grew.
He purchased the two houses beside of his to increase his light display.
Of course, the lights and the crowds that came to see the lights disturbed his neighbors.
The neighbors took legal action.
And Mr. Osborne gave the lights to Disney.
This same man is the Mr. Osborne seen on Man Versus Food. Every year he has a big dinner where he feeds local firefighters and police officers huge amounts of barbeque.
I loved seeing this Nativity scene at Disney World!
So how did we end such a wonderful day? We let the kids have milk shakes at the start of dinner! Wesley chose bubble gum. It reminded me of getting fluoride treatments and impressions of my teeth made as a kid, but he liked it.
I liked Lydia's cotton candy milk shake much better. Dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe was delicious.

Food and Wine Festival

On Sunday we went to Epcot. Lydia got to ride Soarin' and Test Track for the first time. It was great to see her enjoying the bigger kid rides. She and Wesley also liked playing in the cars after riding Test Track.
Lydia fell asleep before lunch. She even found a new way to sleep in the stroller.
Josiah seemed mildly interested in the characters.
Here he is in Bruce.
After watching this scuba diver, Wesley wanted to have his picture taken with him.
We really enjoyed the dolphin demonstration.
I think this is a great picture of Grandpa and Wesley.
I also like this one.
Before dinner, we saw Mexican Donald.
We went back to Epcot on Monday. This is the first time I have seen Daisy Duck out for pictures. She was also out at Magic Kingdom.
Wesley and Lydia wanted to see Stitch. He is an old favorite of Wesley's even though he has never seen the show.
When you take a three-month-old to Disney, you are going to get some photos like this one. Josiah was in desperate need of a nap. He is a great napper at home in his crib, but has more trouble falling asleep if he is not in bed.
In this picture it is not as obvious that he is having a total meltdown.
We got Wesley and Lydia new sunglasses.
Wesley rode Mission Space for the first time. Of course, he loved it! And, of course, we rode the more intense version of the ride. I loved it too and it is one my favorite rides at Disney World.
Wesley and Lydia loved posing with this cat even though they don't know who she is.
For lunch both days, we used our snack credits for snacks at the Food and Wine Festival. We all loved the lobster roll from America. It is a good use of a snack credit because it is over $7! We also enjoyed some of the international food like beef tenderloin with sweet potato puree from South Africa and braised short rib from South Korea. We had some wine from South Africa and a sparkling pomegranate kir from France.
Wesley took this picture of Josiah and me while we waited on Chris to pick up some more food and drinks.
Snow White was so sweet.
She really earns her money. She made every child feel very special. I also felt convicted that I need to talk sweetly to my children more often.
On Monday night we had dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe. It was very good.
The lobby of the hotel is beautiful and we saw this band performing.

At Least Our Vacation Didn't Turn Out Flat

Friday before last, we went to Disney World. We started our vacation at Magic Kingdom and rode one of favorite rides first, The Haunted Mansion.
Lydia got to ride Splash Mountain for the first time and loved it.

We noticed that there were more characters out for photo ops. For instance Pirate Goofy was new to us. We also saw Pinocchio, a Fairy Godmother, and the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Some of the characters we have seen in the past were standing in front of new backdrops where no backdrop had existed before (Mexican Donald, Frontier Donald, and Buzz). We got to walk through the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I think it was closed for refurbishment every time we were there in September. We also took a ride on the River Boat which is also usually closed in September.
We had a wonderful dinner on Friday night at the Liberty Tree Tavern. Afterwards we saw the fireworks. Josiah watched them too! It was cute to see his little face intently watching the sky.

When we got out to our rental car Chris discovered one of the tires was flat. I was surprised how fast he had the tire changed; I missed getting a picture! It was a rough end to a very long day and the next morning he got up early and took the car to the Auto Care Center at 7:00 AM to have the tire fixed.

On Saturday we went to Animal Kingdom and saw a cute baby gorilla.
We did a family shot with Flick.
We were pleasantly surprised to see an airplane write out "Jesus Loves You."
I love this picture of Wesley and Lydia.
They had fun playing on the climbing structure at Animal Kingdom. Lydia also rode DINOSAUR for the first time.
Notice Wesley's jacket. The first several days we were at Disney World, it was cold. Well, not as cold as it was at home but cold for Florida in early November. I actually prefer the heat of September over highs in the 60s.
That night we went to dinner at Sanaa and loved it!
It worked out really well that we had a large booth because Josiah was able to take a great nap.
After dinner we went outside and looked at the animals and briefly sat by the fire. We couldn't get close enough to the fire to really feel any warmth from it.

Children's Choir

This was Wesley's first time singing with the children's choir at our church.

The Chicken, Robot, and Mermaid

This year we decided to actually carve one of our pumpkins. Wesley was very interested in process.
Chris let the kids pick out the design from several online templates.
Look at Chris' concentration as he uses his Dremel tool.
I think it turned out well. We lit it with glow sticks and roasted the seeds in the oven.
Here are all three kids in their costumes. People kept commenting on Lydia being a princess but she told them, "I am a mermaid without the tail." Wesley got a lot of compliments on his robot costume but it was a little hard to walk in.
Lydia wanted to wear her jacket and her mittens trick-or-treating which is interesting because on most days she won't wear her jacket. Her teacher doesn't like the fact that she won't wear her jacket at recess but my theory is that I have to pick my battles and she will wear it if she is cold enough.
This is the "scary house" that the kids talked about all year.
The neighbor across the street from the "scary house" has increased her scary decorations.
But she really does give the best treats. This year she gave Lydia this glow wand.
Now, if I can just stop eating all their chocolate candy!