she said

spencer making her silly face in january

so, we are sitting at the table eating dinner and spencer is talking about the snapdragons in the bouquet my dad brought me. miller begins to touch them repeatedly. spencer says, "those are snap dragons. they're mean and if you touch them, they'll snap you into the face!"

moments later, she finishes her milk and slams it on the table inferring she wants more. josh looks at her disapprovingly and requests that she ask politely? spencer replies in a very sweet voice, "may I have some more?" "more what?" asks josh, expecting her to say please. "milk." states spencer.

what a mess!

heigh ho, heigh ho

once upon a time, there was a little girl who had an intense love for all things snow white . . .

and, said girl also had an insane way of getting what she wanted with just a single look.

so, as this little girl's third birthday approached, she let known her desire to celebrate as only the fair princess could.

she selected a small group of friends (similar to the seven dwarfs) to join in her celebration. her older brother selected the role of happy and came dressed accordingly.

her mother and father made sure all the story's details were present . . .

the magic mirror hanging on the wall . . .

forest eyes greeting guests upon their arrival . . .

and, of course, poisonous apples to eat.

most guests made a beard . . .

a dwarf . . .

 and excavated jewels from the mine . . .

it's hard to believe our little princess is already three! her spunky little personality makes us laugh every day! 

happy birthday, sweet girl!

christmas at disney day 7

our last day at disney is almost becoming a tradition. as we did on our last trip, we spent our last day as a repeat day at the magic kingdom. we squeeze in all our favorite things one last time while not feeling rushed or worried we haven't gotten to do something. it always seems like the perfect end to a perfect trip.

disney day 7: saturday, the magic kingdom

 we headed out early and took the ferry to the park again. we planned to take the monorail, but it was not working. hmmm . . . .

our first stop was the town square theater to visit mickey & minnie. last year, we visited them in the toon town part of fantasyland, so it was nice to see their new digs.

we even decided to take a family picture. i thought we needed photographic evidence that josh was indeed at disney with us. 

when we arrived at the park, my mom headed straight to wait in line for rapunzel while we visited with mickey. we wanted to finish up these last few must see characters and after a full week in disney, we were old pros at how to get things done. so, we let the kids take a minute or two in the store as we exited the character spot and spencer found this cinderella hat.

while we waited in fairy tale garden for our time with rapunzel, josh took miller to tomorrowland speedway. one good thing about being the only boy is that people make special arrangements for you when you have to wait on your sisters all the time.

soon, it was our turn with rapunzel. and, once again, she did not disappoint. we were the first ones in the next group and she made it feel so personal.

she danced and danced with the girls.

they were really mesmerized, especially carter as she is carter's favorite princess. a few minutes later, the boys were back and ready to go, so we headed over to fantasyland. we went on peter pan's flight and mad tea party, again.

then, we headed to prince charming regal carousel, again.

 and, somehow spencer convinced her siblings for one last ride on snow white's scary adventure. then, we decided to head to cosmic ray's starlight cafe for lunch. we had fast passes at buzz lightyear's space ranger spin. in route, we decided to stop and take another chance at a christmas card picture. success!

after lunch and another run at zurg, we headed back to the many adventures of winnie the pooh and dumbo the flying elephant.

spencer loved this ride every time and squealed with delight. in fact, all the adults loved to ride with her, so we had to make sure everyone got a turn.

we still had a few character requests from carter. she wanted to see ariel and tinkerbell so we headed to adventureland veranda where both characters were located. josh sweetly waited with the girls in the long line behind some very interesting people and through a very generous character break.

meanwhile, our experience and exhaustion told us to take advantage of all the adults we had hanging around so my mom and miller waited in line for tinkerbell. miller was unaware of how helpful he was being as my mom bought him a drink and gave him a snack and since there was a movie to watch while you waited, miller thought he got the best deal. the girls arrived just in time to go back. miller agreed to have his picture taken with this guy at the time, but didn't want evidence to remain in his autograph book once we arrived home! haha!

poor guy . . . i don't think this is the favored character request at disney. but, tinkerbell was just like you imagined. she was spunky and chatty and the girls loved her.

of course, miller was able to choose a ride of his liking to make up for his extreme patience during the photo ops. so, we headed back to the pirates of the caribbean for one last ride with jack. then, we wandered through a few stores until miller found the perfect gift for his teacher. and, josh ran back to pick up carter's last souvenir while the rest of us rode walt disney world railroad. we had a full day and walked out knowing we had done everything on our trip we could have ever imagined. we were exhausted and ready to head back to reality . . .  and christmas!

favorites for the day:
carter: meeting rapunzel
miller: driving the race car
spencer: flying in the purple elephant

christmas at disney day 6

by day 6, we were ready to hit the parks again. we chose our two favorite parks to repeat as the finale to our trip.

disney day 6: friday, hollywood studios

we began at toy story mania. this is our family's favorite ride at hollywood studios and since we didn't get to ride it our first day, we wanted to ride it twice this day. our secret to riding a ride with an hour + long wait even in slow season is this: get there early to get fast passes and then try to get in line at a shorter time. that way, you are guaranteed one quick ride and one that will take a little more of your time. also, we downloaded an iphone app that kept pretty accurate accounts of the times on the rides so we would know if it was worth heading to something in advance.

next, we went to visit mike & sully at the monster's inc. character spot. it is so secluded that we missed it last time.

carter decided she was too old for the monsters, but not miller and spencer. this is one of our favorite family movies.

after taking the required picture, sully tried to put spencer in boo's door. he thought she looked like boo and kept trying to open the door for her. it was too funny!

since we were so close (not really) and the line was short, josh and miller decided to go ride star tours again. they said it was completely different which made them want to ride it again and again. then, we went on the great movie ride. it was very entertaining for the entire family. our next stop was disney jr. live on stage. spencer loved it! the other two liked it, too, but this was more for her.

we promised miller we would eat at pizza planet. so, after our toy story themed lunch, we headed over to character spot before our fast pass time.

while carter did not want her picture taken with buzz and woody, she didn't mind entertaining us at all the prop sets in line. by then, it was our turn to ride toy story mania again!

when we were finish with toy story, we grabbed a quick spot for the pixar pals count down to fun parade. it seemed super short this time, but it may have been the season. we decided to split up boys and girls after the parade. the boys went to see the indiana jones epic stunt spectacular, and the girls went to
another performance of beauty & the beast-live on stage and the voyage of the little mermaid, and spencer even stayed awake this time!

while we waited to meet the guys, spencer wanted to meet jake at the disney, jr. character spot. while carter didn't seem interested in the beginning, she decided to join in by picture time!

since we had a little bit of time to kill, we decided to do muppet vision 3d one more time. why are 3d glasses so fun??

of course, we couldn't leave before the osborne family spectacle of lights began. it was just so amazing the first time, that we decided to wait until after it started so we could walk through it one more time. we left knowing we had a full day and had seen everything we wanted and more!

favorites for the day:
carter: beauty &the beast-live on stage
miller: indiana jones epic stunt spectacular
spencer: meeting woody & buzz