Casper the Sneaky Ghost

We stayed with Christopher's family this weekend in Montgomery (in town for my sister's engagement party - more on that later). Let's just say with 2 boys, Katie is one of the most laid back Mother-in-law's/Grandmothers you can have. She is always so gracious when we come stay with them to let the kids play all over the house and just be kids. So when we hadn't heard Rutland for a few minutes on Sunday morning, I was concerned, but wasn't too worried about where he was. Christopher went into the kitchen and said, "Mom, don't come in here." My heart sank - I knew it must be bad! When I rounded the corner, this is what we found...to which Katie only said "Oh, Rutland - silly boy." Bless her soul. She has a really, really clean kitchen floor and rugs now, free of charge!

Comet is the cleaner of choice today!

Look at little Casper's feet!

The entire bottle was empty!

What is so funny is that Katie has a picture of Christopher as a baby (probably Rutland's age) looking very similar with baby powder all over his room. Apple does NOT fall far from the tree!

And then later that afternoon, this is what I found...a tired little ghost :)

A rat in the house!

Both my kids love cheddar cheese (what's not to love, right). And they are well trained to get a little bowl from the cabinet to put the cheese in for a snack. SO, in an attempt to occupy my hungry hippos while I got dinner ready, I put Rutland in his chair and gave him some cheese in his bowl - about half full. Obviously I misjudged his arm length and did not even think twice about putting the bag of cheese on the table "near" him. Here's what happened...

He pulled the bag over to his tray and emptied it into his bowl! Guess he needed a little more. This face is saying "Uh oh, I think I'm in trouble"

This face is saying, "Nah, she's taking my picture and laughing hysterically. If I just smile and laugh too, I'll be too cute to spank!"

He now realizes I'm about to take it away, so he shoves as much as possible in his mouth before the clean up! Daddy is on diaper duty tomorrow!!

What a little RAT!

Hollywood Studios and Breakfast with the Characters

One evening we went to Hollywood Studios. By the time we got there we were all starving, so we shopped around for a restaurant inside the park. There were several that smelled delicious, but all had pretty long waits. So, Pops found us a "Sci-fi Drive-In" themed restaurant that could seat us in "flying saucers" immediately. Oh boy. We walk in and literally, everyone is sitting in old 50's style cars eating dinner facing a huge screen with very strange "oldie movies" playing. In the back, they had little picnic style tables that we soon learned were our "flying saucers". So, hungry and ready to move on to the rest of the park, we decided to try it out. The food was pretty good, and Caroline seemed confused but interested in whatever was playing on the movie screen. They did serve beer and margaritas, so things were looking up :) We finished dinner and tried to hit 2 shows for Caroline - Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid. Unfortunately, Beauty and the Beast stopped at 5:30 so we missed her, but Little Mermaid ran until 9:45. We decided to try to squeeze in the 2 adult roller coasters and then head back for the LM. As soon as we got out of the roller coaster I got Caroline in the stroller and my mom and we booked it back to the LM. I swear the wheels on the stroller had smoke coming off of them we were going so fast to make the last show. When we pulled up, the girl was just putting the chain back on the rail and said we had missed it. Could she not have let one more person in?? Poor Caroline was saying (loud enough for her to hear), "Mommy I just want to see Ariel. Please." To which I replied (also loud enough for the girl to hear), "Baby, they won't let us in. Mommy tried to get us here but they told us Ariel had already gone home." So we promised to try to come back another day - didn't happen - and we wearily strolled around the gift shop until the rest of the group got off the last ride. I definitely wish we could have done Hollywood studios again for Caroline. I know those 2 shows would have been great.

The following morning we had breakfast with all the characters at Chef Mickey's. This is inside the Contemporary Hotel, which the monorail rides through, and Caroline has begged us to stop in several times on our way to the Magic Kingdom. Well, after the disappointment the night before, I was certain we could make this one happen. She was very excited about just getting to inside the hotel, and when we got to our breakfast table and she started seeing Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Minnie, and Mickey walking around from table to table, she was ready to meet them all. Goofy was the last one to stop by, and in her defense, he was very tall. So she was a little uncertain about him, but it was pretty good food and a great place to see all the characters up close and personal. The only one we really missed out on was Daisy. She was VERY hard to find. A great excuse to go back, right!!

This is Caroline and I posing for a picture in front of the Mrs. Piggy fountain at Hollywood Studios.

Here's a picture of us waiting for our "flying saucer" tables at the Sci-fi restaurant. My mom french braided Caroline's hair that afternoon b/c we didn't have time to dry it before we left. She loved it and thought she was so big girl.

These next few are all at the character breakfast at Chef Mickey's restaurant inside the Contemporary Hotel. It was great!

Waiting for Mickey to come to our table...

Not very sure about Goofy...Had to get the lovey out.

Definitely not letting go of Daddy. Might be pulling a layer of skin off his chin!

In front of the restaurant before we left.

Magic Kingdom Day 2

Day 2 of the Magic Kingdom began bright and early with just enough drizzle to be annoying, but it did make it cool. We finally got to see the main attraction - Mickey and Minnie. The first thing you should know is that Caroline is NOT a morning person. She probably would have slept until 10 that morning had we not drug her out of the bed . Therefore, trying to get her revved up to stand in line to see Mickey & Minnie was not pretty. She moaned and groaned the whole time we waited (about 20 minutes) in line. But, once she saw them up close, those eyes got big and she couldn't hide the smiles anymore. It was off to the races after that. We saw Donald, Goofy, and Woody/Jesse from Toy Story, rode some more rides, and finally saw the afternoon parade with ALL the Disney characters you can imagine. She was blown away. We got to do and see most everything we wanted in the Magic Kingdom, but I could have used one more day to do our favorites again. Here are some of our Day 2 pictures....

We got to go inside Minnie's house and see all of her things. This happened before Caroline's required 2 hr. warm up, so she was not as thrilled as I had hoped she would be.

Ah, but then we saw Minnie herself and boy she changed on a dime! All smiles and hugs after that!

There was a little playground for the kids to play on and she LOVED this.

Meeting Donald Duck in Frontierland. Little boys would LOVE this part.

Riding Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride - one of her favorites!

Meeting Goofy outside the Pirate of the Carribian ride. She sat this ride out and got to see Goofy while Pops, Ash, Daddy, and Mommy rode the ride. Smart choice - she would have been terrified!

Waving to all the characters in the afternoon parade. This is a great thing to do at least one time because you get to see so many of the characters you don't see around the park. She loved it!

Cinderella's Royal Table Dinner

Hands down the best thing we did or saw was the dinner with the princesses at Cinderella's castle inside the Magic Kingdom. You have to make reservations for this FAR in advance and it is not cheap, BUT so worth the money and I will do it again next time we go! Dressed in full Cinderella gear - dress, new light up shoes, wand, and crown - we had a 7:00 reservation, and with some questionable weather I was a little afraid they might cancel it. After the sweet Disney rep. reassured me that "Cinderella is always home", we headed out with our little princess and our ponchos. Just getting to look inside the castle was so exciting to Caroline. When we walked in the first thing we did was meet Cinderella and get our picture taken with her(2 professional pictures were "included" in our dinner). Caroline was star-struck and let us take as many pictures as we wanted. Then when we were seated for our dinner (which was delicious!), one by one, each princess was introduced and then came into the room to greet her guests. She came by each table, made some small-talk, asked questions, and took pictures and signed autographs. At the very end, they had a "wishing ceremony" where you got to make a special wish with you wishing star. I think Caroline's wish was to spend every night in the castle with her "new friends".

Warming up our wand before we went inside the castle for dinner

Meeting Cinderella for the 1st time. Caroline showed her the new glass slippers she got in the hotel room and thanked her. She told her they were a little too big. Cinderella didn't miss a beat and responded, "I have a hard time keeping my glass slippers on too."

More wand waving before we were seated for our dinner.

The first princess was announced and it was...

SNOW WHITE!

Second princess coming in the room, and it is...

Sleeping Beauty!

Then Ariel!

And Belle!

Finally getting to wave her new wand for this wishing ceremony. She is definitely a professional wand waver after our trip. Maybe she can get that wand to help her pick up her room at home!