Disney World: Animal Kingdom

On the second day of our trip to Disney World,

 we went to Animal Kingdom.

We ended up staying only half a day, but it was a fun time anyway.

Our first stop was the safari where we saw lots of animals. 

Here are just some of the ones we saw.

Giraffes...

Elephants...

Rhino's...

Wildabeasts...

and the kids were so excited to see Watussi cattle,

 just like Pap-paw used to have!

We took a train to go to the petting zoo in another part of Animal Kingdom.  Then the rain came and we waited under this covered train stop.  The kids enjoyed playing on these metal elephant sculptures.

As it turned out, the petting zoo was closed due to the weather.

We ended up stopping in at a museum type place where we

were pleasantly surprised to meet this bug.

Right outside this museum, the kids were able to watch a tortoise move around and even got to touch it's shell.

The last thing we were able to do before leaving Animal Kingdom was watch the Bug's Life 3-D show.  That proved to be a little scary for Asher and Karis, but Malachi loved it.

The rain had passed by the time we got back to our hotel and we were able to spend the afternoon at the hotel pool.

The kiddy pool was shaped like a wrecked pirate ship and the kids had a blast in it!

There was a barrel at the top that filled with water and emptied

 out over the pool every few minutes.

Malachi and Karis loved coming down this slide and...

...running right back around to do it over and over again.

The slide on the other side was more up to Asher's speed.

He loved he bottom of the slide where

he had his own personal little pool.

Malachi and Karis got to go in the big pool with

daddy and go down two different big slides.

We ended the day by eating at the hotel restaurant and

we just had to throw some money in the fountain.

Sweet dreams with our new friends from Animal Kingdom!

Disney World: Magic Kingdom

We were so blessed to be able to spend 2 days in Disney World last week.  What fun it was, and though I took lots of pictures, I didn't get pictures of everything we did and I am not posting every picture I took (though by the time you are done looking through them, it may seem that I have).

We spent the first day in Disney World at Magic Kingdom.  Here we are as we approach the entrance. 

We made sure we got to see Mickey and were surprised to meet Minnie too!

"It's a Small World" was one of our first stops.

Asher loved riding on Cinderella's Carousel.

We all enjoyed rides like The Pirate's of the Carribbean, Peter Pan's Flight, the Flying Dumbo ride, and Alladin's Magic Carpet Ride:

Malachi's special treat was getting to ride a kiddy roller coaster with Daddy and then he got to ride Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad.  All of which enormously thrilled him.  Cory said he was never scared and smiled and aughed through them all.

And this was Karis and Mommy's special treat... lunch at Cinderella's castle.
We walked in right off the blistering hot street and were brisked to the front of the line to get our picture taken with Cinderella since our table was ready. This all was a little much for Karis to handle so she was a little shy to get her picture taken with Cinderella, which is why I am in the picture with her. Needless to say, this picture is not going to be hung on any walls. I actually can't believe I am posting it, but I knew Mam-maw and Aunt Mel would want to see it.


As we walked away from Cinderella and up some winding stairs to our table, Karis asked me why Cinderella wasn't coming to eat with us.  I was worried that she would be dissipointed that cinderella wasn't actually going to be sitting with us, but all that changed when she got some food in her belly, began to cool off, and then saw an unexpected visitor enter the dining room.  There were actually 4 unexpected visitors and karis had the biggest smiles and clapped her hands in excitement each time one entered.  She kept saying, "Mommy!  I didn't know ALL the princesses were going to be here!"

 Now that our little princess has met the princessess, we need to work on her princess manners!

After our meal we met up with the boys and had an hour and a half downpour that kept us under a breezway in Cinderella's Castle.  When the rain slowed down significantly, Malachi and Karis wanted to play in the rain.

At some point in the day, we just happened to run right into a cowboy, or "bull-ride" as Asher says.

Malachi and Karis helped Mommy put this mean old robot in jail at Buzz Lightyear's laser ride.

We ended the day with a few pictures by the castle.

Night may have fallen on the Magic Kingdom, and we may have left it, but our fun wasn't over yet!

We had a pirate room to sleep in!

Here is Asher trying out his souvenir.  He knows nothing about Peter Pan (except that the ride was a little scary since it was dark in there), but he knows that red guy is the mean guy and growls everytime he plays with him.

More fun with Souvenir's...

Karis chose a "writing book" and pen, along with the ugliest thing in the store: the heart-shaped Arial pillow. At least it matches the blue in her bedspread here at home and really doen't look that bad.

It was a long and  tiring day, but well worth it! We had so much fun!

Birthday X2

We celebrated two birthdays this past week.  Asher turned 2 and Cory turned 32.  It made for a busy week, but we tried to have a special day for each of them.  Asher got Chuck-E-Cheese games and pancakes for lunch.  Cory got to sleep in and a big omelet breakfast.  

Apart from their actual birth-day celebrations, they shared a cake-day.  

Horse cupcakes for our horse-lover.  Here he is mesmerized by the people singing happy birthday to him.  Yes, that is a finger up his nose... a favorite resting place for the pointer finger when he is sucking his fingers.

Daddy got one of his favorites... 

chocolate cake layered with cheesecake bites...

Yummy, Yummy!