January 2015 brought on big house project. It started off with just the nursery and moved down the hallway and eventually down the stairs. We ended up refinishing the wood, tearing off the wallpaper, painting the room (trim, wall, and ceiling) and are putting the finishing touches on the space now.
Here is the before-except we had taken off the top layer of wallpaper.
We also finally got a snowfall-our first big snowstorm of the season. Somewhere around 8"-12" fell starting in the afternoon and tapered off overnight.
Elsie is obsessed with making snow angels. She will even try to make snow angels where there is now snow.
This girl loves to get her own breakfast in the morning and pour her own cereal. She is getting so big and so grown up!
In the mornings on our days home Elsie loves to play with Tally-however she gets pretty upset when Tally tears apart her stuff :)
Wee took some time to get out the itty bitty baby stuff this month to see what we needed. Everytime Elsie would pull something out she would say "ahhh"
Elsie could do crafts ALL DAY LONG! Or what she calls "projects". I think she made about 15 Valentine's day cards in preparation for the holiday.
John and I took a work trip to Puerto Rico for four days. It was a good time to get away before the craziness of a baby comes along. We had a good mix of work time and relaxation time and the weather was just perfect!! Elsie got to spend a few nights at Grandma Bev's and Grandpa Dales and just loved it!
When we returned from our trip we got back to work in the upstairs. John tore the carpet out and Elsie was very intent on helping us with whatever she could.
Elsie wanted to help paint so I found an old shirt of mine, tied it up so it would fit her and let her have a small roller :) She loved being a part of it all.
Before we left for our trip we encoutered some plumbing problems with our shower so when we got home, John tore apart the surround. Something we had planned to do anyways. Yuk!!! This is our next project for sure!
This little girl just loves to pose for pictures :). Oh and she LOVES to wear dresses. It is rare if you can get her out of the house in anything other than a dress and leggings.
Towards the end of January we finally had a nice day! We decided to head over to the park to burn off some energy. She was in heaven. And she is getting the hang of pumping her legs while swinging too! Back and Forth, Back and Forth
We started walking back home and look who came to meet up with us? Daddy! She was so excited. Also, she is definitely outgrowing her balance bike. :( Guess it is time to move up to the next size.
I have to include a picture of Tally-I think Elsie wore her out!
In January, Elsie started new activities on her own-gone are the days of parent/child classes. It is so much fun to watch her socialize with the other kids and do things with out me by her side. She started a dance class and will be in a recital in April, Tumbling class, and swim lessons.
The end of the month brought some challenges for us. Elsie got sick with pink eye one week, then dealt with some virus which caused her to spike a high fever, developed an ear infection, woke up in the middle of the night with her first bout of stomach flu, and dealt with a cold. We would up one night in the emergency room to get her tested for Influenza. With me being pregnant and how scary the flu is this year we didn't want to take any chances. Thank goodness it was negative. I did end up getting sick with a fever, aches, exhaustion, and the most worst sore throat I think I ever have had which brought me to the dr to make sure I didn't have strep-that was negative thank goodness. But by the end of the month we were all on the mend.
Overall, January was pretty low key for us. We didn't really travel at all during the month, well besides our trip to Puerto Rico and we spent a lot of time at home working on the upstairs.
Dining: 1900 Park Fare 5:00 PM at the Grand Floridian
Fastpass:
Enchanted Tales with Belle-10:30AM-11:30AM
Seven Dwarf's Mine Train-11:40-12:40 AM
Meet Anna and Elsa-12:50-1:50 PM
This particular morning we got up early so we could catch the opening ceremony at Magic Kingdom. This is one thing I had been looking forward to on the whole trip. I am not sure why-I had just watched videos of it before when went and it just seemed so magical. Even now, 1.5 months later as I post this I tear up a little when I watch it. I think it is because I see how excited Elsie gets watching it and much she remembers. It is kind of fun too because sometimes in the morning, even before the trip, I would sing Elsie Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah when I would go in to wake her up and it is featured in this video. Now, sometimes she will ask me to sing the "Good Morning" song from this clip. Then, the other day we were watching Dumbo and in the movie they play the song about the train coming down the track and she remembered it was from when the steam train came to Magic Kingdom with Mickey and Minnie so it is fun to see her remembering moments from the trip.
We stayed until the welcome show was over and by that time, people were already inside the gates. What people would rush to at this point was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (the wait was over an hour by the time we made it back towards the ride) but we didn't need to go there because we have a fastpass for that ride later in the day. The other attraction that everyone rushes to is Princess Fairy Tale Hall to meet Anna and Elsa because later in the day the line can get to be over two hours! But we had a dsfastpass for that too. So we made our way back towards new Fantasyland. The plan was to ride some of Elsie's favorite rides again first thing in the morning when the lines wouldn't be long since it was so early so we beelined it for Under the Sea: Voyage of the Little Mermaid.
And this was what the park looked like when we went back there-Completely empty!!! I was amazed! There was no one back there. We walked right onto the ride. I think we saw one other family, It was perfect. As soon as we got off the ride the cast member asked if we wanted to just get right back on and ride again. But we wanted to make the most of the time at the park where there wasn't too many people so we passed.
After Little Mermaid, we made our way over to Barnstormer because Elsie wanted to ride a roller coaster. Then we immediately walked over to Dumbo-for the third or maybe fourth time on this trip :). There are two Dumbo rides but one of them was closed because they were shooting a commercial so we had to wait a few minutes for this ride.
After Dumbo we went over to Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh. Both of these rides get longer lines (45-60 minutes or more) later in the day and Elsie really wanted to ride these again so we did. We had to wait like 20-30 minutes for each of these rides but that was shorter than it would be later.
Peter Pan Ride Selfie-Sorry Elsie! :)
After that we made another stop at Prince Charming's Regal Carousel. I think Elsie could ride this over and over and over. She would pet her horse, name it, and had to pick out one that had pink or purple on it. Within two hours of the park opening we had been on six rides with hardly any wait at all and the lines were not bad-however, that was about to change. It got SO crowded that they had cast members telling people which side of the walkways to walk on.
The next place we went was Tomorrowland so John and Elsie could ride Astro Orbiter. Elsie loved it! I walked around, got a coffee, and just relaxed a bit while they waited for the ride. Then we hopped on the Tomorrowland Peoplemover-which there was no line for at all so that was nice. By the time we were done with that, it was time to head to Enchanted Tales with Belle to utilize our fastpass. This attraction is a participant involved attraction. Any child who wants to participate can be a character and help tell the story of Beauty and the Beast. It was fun to watch. And then all the kids get a picture taken with Belle at the end so it was a great place to meet Belle.
Elsie was the pepper shaker :) and John was lucky enough to get chose to be a knight.
After we were done here, John and Elsie made their way to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train-the newest attraction at Walt Disney World. The standby line was over 90 minutes but they had a fastpass.
Elsie absolutely LOVED it! It was fun to watch her ride a "Real" rollercoaster vs one that is geared more for younger kids. John said she was squealing with delight the entire time! I waited on the bridge right across from the Beast's castle which provided me a great view of them on the ride.
After the Mine Train we headed to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. This restaurant is located in Liberty Square and features seafood on their menu. I had the fish and chips and John had the lobster roll and both meals were REALLY good. I would definitely recommend this place. After lunch it was time to go to Princess Fairytale Hall to meet Anna and Elsa. We used a fastpass for this and it went VERY quickly.
After meeting the Frozen characters Elsie took a little snooze in her stroller while John and I walked around. We headed to Frontierland because John was going to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad but when we got there the wait for the line was over an hour so he decided to skip it. So we walked towards Main Street to do a little souvenir shopping. One thing we wanted to get for sure was coffee/hot cocoa mugs for all three of us. We found mugs for John and I but decided to let Elsie pick out the mug that she wanted. I also picked up this blue sparkly plastic mug that Elsie had wanted all week but I wouldn't let her get because she can't use it for hot beverages. (Santa ended up bringing this to her and she was ecstatic ;). After shopping we decided ice cream sounded good and we found a little table and just relaxed. Elsie woke up just in time to finish off the ice cream.
After we relaxed for a bit we walked over to Liberty Square to ride the Riverboat. It was a nice relaxing ride however, there really are no seats to sit down on and you have to stand the entire time. I was kind of hoping to just sit and ride so I ended up just sitting on the ground-ha! One thing we hadn't done yet was ride the train so we walked through Fantasyland to try to catch the train there to ride to the entrance to the park. We had 5:00 dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian and knew we had to either take the ferry or the monorail and wasn't sure how long that would take. We got to the train and there was a HUGE line! We asked the cast member if he thought it would be faster to wait for the train or try to walk back to the front of the park. We were kind of feeling rushed at the time. He told us that we may or may not make it on the next train so we would be waiting for the next one but he still though it would be faster than trying to walk through Main Street which was packed! We took a minute to assess the situation and decided to high tail it out of there and walk. We took a back route through tomorrowland and in the end, it only took us 11 minutes and we beat the first train. As we were walking out of the park the first train was pulling up to the station.
We ended up taking the monorail to the Grand Floridian and decided to take the ferry back. We arrived a few minutes early so we had a little time to walk around. The lobby here was just beautiful!!!
1900 Park Fare is a character meal that features Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the evil stepsisters and Lady Tremaine (the stepmother). The food was really good here but like other character meals that featured a buffet we felt rushed to get up to the buffet to get our food and back without missing any characters. I also have to note Elsie was a bit squirley for this meal.
This was the gingerbread house in the lobby of the Grand Floridian-it was huge!
After dinner we had planned to go back to Magic Kingdom. Elsie REALLY wanted to ride the tea cups again and we kept telling her we would do it later because the line for it is always so short that it is one of those rides you can do whenever you have a few minutes. We took the ferry from the Grand Floridian back to Magic Kingdom and then planned to take the train from Main STreet to Fantasyland to ride the tea cups. We got up to the train stop. We had waited about 10-15 minutes for the train and then Elsie said she had to go to the bathroom-Really??? so we had to try to get out line and down off the platform. It ended up working out because as we were trying to walk against the crowds they made an announcement that there was an issue with train so it all ended up working out. We walked to Liberty Square, bought a Christmas ornament and then headed to the Tea Cups. Elsie had waited so long and I would have to say this was one of her favorite rides for sure.
After tea cups, Elsie wanted to go on the roller coaster one more time so John and Elsie got in line for Barnstormer. After about 15-20 minutes they got out of line and Elsie complained her tummy hurt. Oh no! I was terrified she was getting the stomach flu. We walked over to Fantasyland train station and took the train to the park entrance and left. It was a sad way to end our Disney World trip and was bumming that we didn't leave on a high note but we definitely didn't want to push it and she said she just wanted to go back and lay down and got really whiny. We got back to the hotel, laid Elsie down and packed up our suitcases for our early morning departure.
Some point in the middle of the night Elsie woke up SO upset! Like never before. We had a really hard time getting her to calm down and go back to sleep. It was about this time that I starting to worry about her being too sick to fly. I fell back to sleep for a little while-we had to be up really early for our flight. Our flight left Orlando at 8:05 and we wanted to plan at least an hour to drive there since it is a bit farther than Orlando International. I think we were up by 4:00 AM.
When we woke up Elsie for the morning the first thing she said was "My tummy feels ALL better! I can go on the roller coaster now!" That just broke my heart! I wish she could have done the roller coaster one more time. So we packed up and left around 5:00. When we got to the airport, Elsie acted like she was a frequent flyer. She remembered exactly what she needed to do through security and she even just had to take off her shoes like Daddy even though she really didn't have to. Once again, I opted for the pat down so I would avoid the scanners. We grabbed a quick breakfast and waited for our flight. The flight was uneventful and Elsie did pretty good considering our early morning wake up and we arrived back in Des Moines safe and sound and ready to unpack and pack back up for all of our Christmas Celebrations!
I plan to write a post reflecting back on the trip, what I would recommend, and what I would do differently but all in all, it was a trip I will remember forever!!
After spending the morning and afternoon at Animal Kingdom we headed back to the resort, took at nap, and then headed to Magic Kingdom for the Christmas party around 6:00 PM. It was a little later than I had wanted to but it worked out okay. The Christmas Party is a hard ticket event and you can enter the park at 4:00 PM-even if you don't have a park ticket for the day. The actual party activities don't start until 7:00 PM and that is also the time that the park closed for the day and those without a ticket has to leave the park. If you have a party ticket you get a special wristband and cast members are pretty diligent about checking for a wristband.
One of the things that Elsie said she wanted to do was to meet Clarabelle the Cow from Mickey's Mouse Clubhouse. The only place to meet her in all of Walt Disney World while we were there was at one of the dance parties during the Christmas Party. So we walked around a bit...
Got our picture taken in front of the lit up castle...
And then headed to the Diamond Horseshoe where the Holiday Hootenanny Dance Party was going to take place-which is where Clarabelle would be. At 7:00 they opened the doors and we headed in. I think Elsie could have stayed here all night. They had a DJ and she just loved dancing around. The first characters to arrive were the bears from Country Bear Jamboree and Elsie was just not into them at all. In fact, she was a little scared of them. She wouldn't even let me dance with them-ha!
After awhile when Clarabelle hadn't made an appearance yet I asked one of the character handlers what time she might show up and she told us 7:30. I guess they rotate times. So we decided to head out, grab some hot cocoa and cookies. They have various treat stations around the park and you just walk up and grab what you would like (its included in the cost of the party).
Not only did they have hot cocoa and cookies but also apple juice and apple slices. By the time we were finished and headed back to the dance party, Clarabelle had arrived!
After dancing for a little bit longer we left to go line up for the Christmas Parade. We were actually pretty close to the beginning of the parade route so we picked a spot and I went to find some popcorn, hot cocoa, and more cookies to keep up busy until the start of the parade.
This float was absolutely beautiful! It carried many of the princesses and their princes.
Dancing Reindeer
And Santa Claus himself!
After the parade we jumped over to Adventureland for one more ride on Magic Carpets of Alladin and then made our way to Fantasyland. Because we had already spent some time in Magic kingdom on previous days we didn't have to try to make it to all the nighttime entertainment because we had seen it. The line to It's a Small World was pretty short so we went on that ride before heading down towards the castle for Christmas Holiday Wish fireworks show.
Elsie slept through the first time we saw the fireworks show the first night so it was fun to watch again with her. This show was also a little different because it was themed for the Holidays where the first show was just thier general fireworks show. Elsie thought it was pretty neat although she covered her ears for part of the time because she thought it was loud :)
After the fireworks we made our way up towards the front of the castle where they stage was for the Celebrate the Seasons show. We actually got right up towards the front. This show happens three times a night and this was the last show at 10:00 so I am guessing that is why it wasn't so busy. While I held our spot, Elsie and John took off to find a few snacks (we still had a lot of snack credits from our dining plan to use up). They got back just in time for the show to start. Elsie loved watching her Disney friends up on stage singing and dancing to holiday music.
After the show we decided it was time to head back to our hotel. It was 10:30 after all and we knew we would have an early morning the next day as it was our last day in the parks and we wanted to see Rope Drop and the Welcome Show which took place bright and early at 7:50AM.
So my final thoughts on the Christmas Party is that I am glad we went. It is a hard ticket event which means we had to buy a separate ticket ($67 ea for John and I). In years past, the parties did not sell out except a few of the Saturday parties but this year most of them sold out in advance. We bought our tickets the Friday before the party, thank goodness we didn't wait because ours did end up selling out. There was so much more we could have done or didn't get to but we chose to focus on things that only happened during the party vs going on rides or meeting characters since we spent an additional 2.5 days at Magic Kingdom doing those things. Would we do it again? Probably not, at least not until the girls were older, could stay until midnight and we could have gotten there at 4:00 PM vs 6:30 like we did. We would have had more time to do other things. But who know if or when we will ever get back to Disney during the holiday season so I am so glad that we did it. That is kind of our thought for the whole trip-make sure to hit all the Christmas/Holiday things in case we don't go back in December. All in all it was great night!
