Disney: The Kid Stuff

There's no concise way to summarize our Disney weekend, but I don't want to bore you to tears either, so I'll compromise: Lightning-round-style!

We rode some classic Magic Kingdom rides; Norah favored Dumbo and we went twice, back-to-back:

Mostly, Norah and Caleb met princesses.  For Norah, it was the most fabulous two days of her life.  Here they are with Merida (who, disappointingly, didn't have a Scottish accent, WTF?  if Tiana can have a Southern accent, why can't they hire a Merida who can do a Scottish one?); oh well, the kids didn't notice.  And, in the pic, below, Norah demonstrates a funny trait: She never seems to know what expression to make for these kinds of poses, and she especially seems confounded about what to do with her hands:

Ariel was, hands down, both kids' favorite.  She was so IN character (she told Caleb that he needed a "dinglehopper" for his hair), and while she paid Norah plenty of attention, as you can see, Caleb was captivated by her.  He only had eyes for Ariel!

She returned his charms by planting a big, red kiss on his forehead, and the dude couldn't have been happier:

One of our best family pics now involves Tiana...and Jerry's promotion of "Game of Thrones"...because nothing says "I love Disney like wearing a shirt that warns: 'Winter is Coming.'"  Interestingly, we saw another dad in the exact same shirt.  Hmmm, maybe the dads see Disney visits in a different light...

Don't be fooled by Norah's seemingly constipated expression, below, with Rapunzel; she luh-ved Rapunzel, and she was delighted that she got to be photographed with Rapunzel while she'd chosen The Wedding Rapunzel dress to wear that day.  It would've only been more perfect if she'd chosen her purple Rapunzel gown.  Oh well, mistakes were made.

Our biggest mistake, for example, was taking Norah on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  This was the exchange between Jerry and I:

Me: "I think this might be too scary."
Jerry: "Nah, it's a light-hearted boat ride where they sing 'Yo-Ho-Ho!'"
30 seconds into the dark and scary ride with skeletons and a waterfall in the dark; Jerry: "Ummm, I was wrong."

Moving along...Caleb also cast his charms on Snow White.  He got a hug, not a kiss, but she too fawned over him and told him he was "the handsomest prince" she'd ever seen!

The kids also got to meet-in-greet with the fairies.  Here's Norah with Periwinkle (don't worry, if you don't have a pre-school aged girl, you'll have NO clue who she is); again, I have no explanation for Norah's expression.

And, lastly, the classic Disney icon: Tinkerbell:

All in all, it was a fun time, but lordy, Disney was packed!  The weather was perfect for a theme park, so that was nice, but handling those crowds is taxing, and I have to confess: I don't have the stamina for all-day-Disney. 

By 1 pm, I'm out.  Thankfully, with FL resident packages, tickets average out to only be about $30/per person a day, so I don't feel bad pulling a cut and run; if I were paying more, I'd probably force us to "get our money's worth," but as is, I have no problem spending the afternoon poolside at the hotel rather than stand for an hour in line for a ride that will last 30 seconds.

Plus, I think we need more than 3 weeks between vacations!  The kids and I were all too happy to be back at home Monday night.  Jerry doesn't return until after his conference -- late tonight -- so I'm single-parenting it, but even so, it's always fantastic to go away, but even more so to go home!