Samuel's first school program!

Samuel did so great in his first school program!  His class, along with two other classes performed several songs for us, some with accompanying music, and some without.  They got to dress up as farmers too!

He was very excited about it and a little bit nervous, but he did awesome!  We were so proud!

I didn't get a video of them singing Samuel's favorite song, so he sang it for me again when we came home.  Such sweetness!

Trick-or-Treat!

We had a blast trick-or-treating with our decked out kiddos!  First stop, Grandma's house!

 Our beloved Raggedy Andy

 When we got home and took off his costume he said, "I want to be Andy every day!"

Beautiful Cinderella

She is holding a wand from Disney, however we got it at Goodwill!  She recognized it when we saw it the other day and was so thrilled to find it!

Buzz Lightyear was full of poses!

Jack Sparrow (from Pirates of the Caribbean) was quite pleased with his facial hair!

A couple of other favorite photos from the day:

Trick-or-treating Disney

Our next (and final) Disney experience was Mickey's Not-so-Scary Halloween party.  It was such a hot day that we arrived with costumes and a picnic dinner in tow.  We rode a few rides and had some fun before getting ready for the festivities to begin! 

 All ready-- Belle, Buzz, Mickey, and Jack Sparrow

 Izzy & Jake (from the Neverland Pirates)

 Let the Trick-or-treating begin!

 We got tons of candy!!!

Emma said, "They would never give junk candy at like your dream come true place!"
Samuel, "Isn't this the most candy ever!"

We saw some characters we hadn't seen yet:

 The fireworks show was really cool!

The Villains Show was neat and the kids all liked it (once Emma knew they were just people dressed up like the villains).

The Boo-To-You Parade was awesome!

It was the perfect end to a great Disney vacation!  

At the end of the day (they all made it until Midnight), the big kids were tired and dragging but the little boys were awake and doing fine (of course they had been riding in strollers)!

Favorites from this day were:

Lucas:  The Parade and Winnie-the-Pooh

Emma- the candy, the villains, and the parade

Nathan- trick or treating

Samuel- "all of it!"

Beauty and the Beast

On the day we were at Hollywood Studios, Emma and I had reservations for a special dinner at the Beast's castle back at Magic Kingdom.  

She wore her Belle dress of course.

We really didn't know what to expect and found ourselves quite unhappy initially.  We were seated in a very dark room... so dark I could barely read the menu... complete with the constant sound of a thunderstorm.  They had done a great job recreating the dark, stormy, West Wing, but this was not going over well at all with Emma.

  I asked to speak to a manager who informed me that there were no available seats in other rooms.  I told her we would be willing to move at any point in our dinner... this was not going to be an experience that Emma enjoyed in the least as long as we were in such a frightening place.  Let me just say that at this point the memories-Emma-would-never-forget would be more along the lines of a nightmare.

A few minutes later the manager came back to escort us to Belle's Memory Room.  This is a room they normally didn't open for dinner (it is used for lunch), but they had a table prepared for us.  It was beautiful, with pictures of Belle and the Beast covering the walls, and a life sized statue of them dancing on an elevated music box in the center.  The mood of the evening changed dramatically once we were seated.

  A man came to our table to let us know that the Beast himself asked that we be moved to this room and table.  He said it was "Belle's table."  You should have seen the look on Emma's (Belle's) face!  When he walked away Emma said maybe the Beast didn't want us to think he was mad that we had been in the West Wing (that was a definite no-no in the movie).

The food was delicious... Emma had Mahi, rice, and broccoli.  

The dessert tray was quite impressive.  We even tried the "grey stuff" (from one of the songs in the movie).

 The ultimate experience, and what Emma could hardly wait for, was meeting the Beast!  Emma ran right up and hugged him!  This was a definite highlight of our trip!

At bedtime Emma said, If I had to choose who to sleep with I would choose the Beast, NOT any princesses, because the Beast is so soft and cuddly!"

Hollywood Studios

The day after we went to the Magic Kingdom, we returned to Disney for a day at Hollywood Studios.  We chose HS as the other park for our visit on this trip because it seemed to have something for everyone.  That was important for our little crew of kids, ranging in age from 2-12!

Our first show was The Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Then lool who we saw -- Darth Vader!!  We all got a kick out of watching him but

I don't think I will ever get used to Star Wars as part of "Disney"...

We saw Muppet Vision 3D

 What 3D looks like without 3D glasses

 Darth Mickey Nathan

 It was so fun to see an army guy from Toy Story!

The Beauty and the Beast show was a delight for sure!

Everyone was excited to meet Jake!

 Disney Jr, Live on Stage was tons of fun!  We saw snow falling, bubbles floating, and paper thin gold coins in the air!

Nathan in line at the Star Tours Ride... 

Emma and I had special dinner plans that evening so we left the guys to fend for themselves.  They did pretty well-- had a yummy dinner and met a few cool characters!

We had a great day.  There were a few fun rides for Nathan, Brian, and I (Star Tours and Rock n Roller Coaster were great!), but not much for the younger kids besides the shows.  

At the end of the day Samuel said, "I'm am all Disney'd up!"  He was ready for a good night of sleep!  We all were!  We had spent two entire days at Disney from opening to close and we were beat!  It had been wonderful though- each of ours kids did super! 

We left that night full of Disney magic, ready to dream lots of magical dreams and sleep late into the next morning.  But, we weren't done with Disney yet!