Day 5- Swans and Epcot

Today we decided to that we would do Epcot for dinner and fulfil the Chinese dinner request from earlier in the week!

After breakfast we decided to go and take a ride in the Swans that they have on the property. After signing up, Grandma and Papa got their Swan and we got ours. We took a little ride and paddled around and then Addie switched boats and road with them after being with us for alittle bit. She loved the ride, but as soon as she saw me, she wanted out and back with mama.

After the swans, we changed into our swimsuits and went for a dip in the pool and the waterfall pool. Addie wasn't too sure about the waterfall, but eventually daddy made it fun and she loved it.

After nap time, we went to Epcot for dinner and walked around the various countries. Addie enjoyed one of the smoothies he got in one of the countries too. Addie became quite the poser for pictures because she enjoyed just lounging around from country to country and also getting some lifts in between.

Day 6- Hollywood Studios- Thursday

Hollywood Studios was on the schedule today. I wanted to take Addie to see Live on Stage, which had the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! It was a 22 minute live show and interactive for the kids to dance and sing. It was on the floor seating so not the best for the adults, but the kids love it. This was a timed performance so we had to wait a little for the next showtime once we arrived. In the meantime, she finally met Minnie Mouse.... I couldn't believe we have gone the whole trip and didn't meet Minnie yet. Whoops! She was with Minnie for about 2 minutes (which is a huge amount of time). Addie couldn't wait to give Minnie her autograph book to sign. They then showed each other their shoes and the stars on Minnie's dress. Too cute!

We also met Winnie the Pooh, which Addie wasn't a fan of for some reason. After doing a few of the shows, we had ice cream at about 1o in the morning! just hilarious to me the rules that are bent on vacation. gotta love it and go with the flow. So after walking around Hollywood Studios, we were able to meet Mike and Sully from Monster's Inc. and also the truck from Cars.

After Hollywood Studios we went to Downtown Disney and shopped. Addie was allowed to pick out 3 things.... at least this was my rule going into the store. Well let's just say that quickly changed when she wanted to carry the basket herself and just started to put stuff in the basket. $400 later.... we left the store. she was a princess at that moment! We did manage to get a few shirts for us too, but mostly toys/clothes for Addie. It was time to head back to the villa and then pack because we would be heading home early in the morning.

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

We again woke up early for our breakfast reservations. We were up at 6:00 and reservations were at 7:30 at Ohana's at the Polynesian resort. We arrived and zero wait! my kinda thing. We had our picture taken and then we were seated. We were able to meet all 4 characters. Stitch, Lilo, Pluto and Mickey. First we met Stitch. She gave him her autograph book right away. She was so excited for it. Then Lilo came and Addie went right to her. I swear Lilo was at our table for like 10 minutes. Lilo was just holding Addie on her lap. it kinda freaked me out a little, but I knew that Addie was fine and that Lilo was probably doing it for kids to be comfortable with characters. Then Mickey stopped by (glitch with the camera...boo). Again, she was all about the autograph book and handing it to the characters! The her fav, Pluto stopped by! She loves Pluto too!!! Then it was time for the parade and we made our way around. We managed to take the musical instrument as a souvenir home with us. Oh well, we paid for it in my mind!

After breakfast, it was time to get on the monorail to head to Magic Kingdom!!! This was just truly magical as we were entering the park. Having just a little meltdown from going to bed later and waking up early, we finally made it to the castle and to the carousal ride. She loved the carousal ride and didn't want to get off her horse. the ride wait time was no longer then 15-20 minutes. We hit a great week for Disney!

Next was the Dumbo ride. Jeremy and Grandma took her on the ride. Addie loved to get her elephant up in the air! Next was It's a Small World... no wait! Addie loved this ride too! She is just the adventurer! She sat there and just listened to the music and watched everything.

After this, we were able to get her in the stroller and mommy and daddy went on Big thunder mountain. While on the ride, Grandma was able to push Addie around and she fell asleep. I enjoyed Big Thunder...however everyone was evacuated as soon as we got off the ride. Didn't know when they would be restarting....

It was lunch time and Addie was still sleeping and we got something to eat while she napped still. After all of us ate and she got up, next on the list was the jungle cruise. It's a nice little boat ride. Next was the Swiss family Robinson tree house. She climbed all of this herself and loved every minute of it. She is such a climber.

Next Grandma and Jeremy took Addie on the Aladdin Carpet rides. Again her smile explained it all! We then decided to do the Haunted Mansion which I was a little Leary of, but to my surprise, Addie did just fine. The ride even stopped in the middle of it (freaked me out with a ghost starting at me). We just kept laughing and saying "say hi to the ghost".

After the ride, daddy stopped to get a raspberry smoothie. guess who eyed it and wouldn't give it back... that is right, little miss Addison!

As we were making our way out, we picked up some Mickey Mouse ears. I just let her go to town on them. I didn't care where the chocolate/ice cream landed. As she ate, we watched the Mickey show at the castle. After her Mickey ears were gone, she had a meltdown and it was time to leave.

After nap time at the villa, we made our way to Happy hour at the cabana. Addie had her first PINA coloda "poolside at the bar". We let her play outside on the playground at the villa. She managed to climb up a 15 foot twisty slide in a matter of 2 seconds giving me a mini heart attack. My climber. Thank goodness her "birthday present" was going to be a good purchase!

Day 3- Peabody Hotel & Margaritaville

Today was a sleep in day.... 7:50am! After cooking some turkey bacon, eggs, and fresh fruit, we got ready and headed out to the Peabody hotel. This is a very swanky, huge and beautiful hotel. I would love just to spend 1 night in this hotel, but it's alittle out of the way to get to the parks. We arrived early to the hotel to get our seats to see the ducks. (It was only $7 to park at their hotel. ) So something really cheap for the kids to do in Florida that will bring tons of smiles to their faces! So sine we were early, we were able to see the duck master pull out the red carpet and also the signs for the ducks in order to get them ready for their march! Promptly at 11:00 on their speaker system is a nice introduction to the 5 ducks that march to the gorgeous fountain as they get fed by the duck master. This was Grandma's thing with Addie so Grandma held Addie and told her what was going on. As soon as Addie saw the ducks, she smiled and started clapping. She was so excited! She LOVED it!!! Thank you Grandma for recommending this. We stayed for a little bit after the ducks were eating, the duck master made his way over to Addie (first I might add) and gave her a sticker! It was so special for her.

We then walked around a bit and made our way back to the car. We decided to go to the City Walk next on the list of places to go. by the time we made our way over there, Addie took a mini nap. (At this point she hadn't gone #2 yet at all on our trip since the morning of our flight and she normally isn't like this at all... I was getting a bit worried as it had been about 54 hours.) We walked around and it was HOT. We decided to cool off at Margarita ville once Addie saw the parrots and after her having a meltdown. We also got our picture taken with the parrots...Jeremy got bit by one on the shoulder and it left a nice bruise on him. During our lunch, Addie finally went #2... I was so relieved. It didn't help the fruit snacks I gave her on the plane ride stopped her up. She wasn't cranky anymore after this point! Mental memory note.... avoid 4 packages of fruit snacks on the way home! So during lunch, Addie and Papa had a huge laugh with the ketchup bottle. Who knew it could be that entertaining by opening and closing a ketchup bottle, but it was! Addie also decided that once she saw daddy's dessert (strawberry shortcake) she made a bee line to his lap and enjoyed it too!

So after margarita ville, we did some shopping and went back to the villa. It was late afternoon and Addie and Grandma took a snooze on Grandma's bed. Another priceless moment.

After nap time, we were in the mood for Chinese, but didn't know of a good Chinese restaurant around the area that we could "trust". So Jeremy said we would go to Epcot for Chinese for dinner one night! So we needed to know what we were doing for dinner though tonight and decided on Giordano's. Yummy!

After dinner we went back to the villa and walked around their mini- golf course that they have. Addie learned how to say the word dinosaur because they were all over the course! She got to see a snake, a frog and lizard on the adventure. On our walk, we had to sit on every rock possible on the course... it was Addie's little thing to do!

When we got back, she was up for a little bit but went to bed at 9:30. It was another breakfast with the characters!!!!