A VERY MAGICAL BIRTHDAY

DisneyWorld is HUGE (4 theme parks, 2 waterparks, plus Downtown Disney), and the Magic Kingdom is the largest/busiest of the bunch, so we split our time in that park into 3 days. For Cora's birthday, we spent the majority of the day there, focusing on Tomorrowland and Fantasyland (the lands with the greatest number of "kid rides" and where our kids most wanted to go, based on YouTube video viewing and map reading while planning our vacation - they were pretty involved as I scheduled things out, and I loved that, since it made it easier for me to decide what we could safely skip without feeling like we were missing out - like the toddler appropriate Winnie the Pooh ride and the too scary Stitch's Great Escape - and what our "must sees" would be prior to reserving FastPasses - the tickets that you get to join the short line at the more popular rides -- more on those later). So for her birthday, we got up extra early (in order to be there for the rope drop and show, via train arrival, by Mickey and his friends), and spent about 8 hours in the Magic Kingdom.

Between the 3 of us, Jean, Jay, and I took about 1000 photos on this trip, so I've painstakingly narrowed them down and will post them by day and park, with as few captions as I can manage (there are some things the kids said or did that I just HAVE to record for posterity, but I'll try to keep it short). Anyway, on with day one at Disney!

Happy 5th Birthday to Cora Mae!

(And just for the record, Cora requested that we all match her Minnie Mouse outfit today, hence the mouse ears and red/black/white/gray clothes. She was very happy with our choices.)

They've got the whole world, in their hands...

 Their first roller coaster EVER!

Thumbs up and smiles in place!

We saw baby ducks every day at the Magic Kingdom (and Epcot) and Cora was convinced that it was the same duck family every time. Don't worry, we didn't let her touch them, she just followed them until they disappeared around the Teacups...

Catching bubbles in Tomorrowland (the bubble gun salespeople eventually won-out and the kids spent some of their piggy bank money getting their own bubble blowers...)

The Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor was hilarious!

Give it all you've got!

No luck...

Prince Charming's Carousel was a hit, of course.

Peter Pan's Flight was SO BEAUTIFUL and unique, it's no wonder the wait is always long (usually over an hour). Hooray for our FastPass (5 minutes and we were flying)!!

That's Beast's castle behind those handsome boys. We had a lunch reservation at "Be Our Guest", in his main dining room. It was pretty cool (and the food was fabulous - you can even order "the gray stuff", you know, from the song...) They gave us a rose (that red thing in Cora's hand - similar to the buzzers you get at busy chain restaurants) when we walked in and picked our seats (anywhere we liked that was open), so that the waiters could find us with our food (we pre-ordered a month ago, a major bonus feature of dining here, so we were eating within 10 minutes of sitting down, which was awesome).

That's the wilting rose, located in the "West Wing" dining room. Cora is so serious here because she was worried about the Beast running out of time. And mad that she couldn't cross the ropes to touch the rose...

Cora's highest priority goal for this trip was to eat cotton candy every single day. She was most excited on day one when we found it near the Gaston meet-and-greet in Belle's village, then quickly reminded me that we had to buy it EVERY day and she wasn't sharing with James - he had to get his own. The bonus was that we could use their snack credits to purchase it!

Walking through the Grotto near Ariel's Under the Sea ride. Lots of cool "human things" to see piled on rocks and some neat animated crabs hiding things away in portholes.

My most favorite PhotoPass picture from the entire trip! 

The big drop on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. 

I LOVED it, Jay agreed to ride only because both kids wanted to (they rode almost every single ride they were tall enough for, at least once, even if a previous ride scared them!) and because we had FastPasses, and the kids were just holding on for dear life. Ah, memories... 

When we exited the ride, James sighed big with relief, then smiled and said "That bursted my bubble!" When we asked if he liked it, he said "Yeah, it blew my mind!" (complete with mind-blown gesture). Then, when we asked if he wanted us to try and get another FastPass for it later in the day, he quickly replied "NO!" Maybe next time we visit...

Getting ready for the Festival of Fantasy Parade with more candy (sugar to keep them awake! and temporarily stationary...) and some dancing in the street!

"Oh mama! It's Elsa! It's ELSA!" She waved at them until they were out of sight...

Poor Rapunzel and her cast of characters... Her tower and the rest of the Tangled-themed decor are limited to a bathroom/rest area between Fantasyland and Liberty Square. I've gotta say it Magic Kingdom, you dropped the ball on this one - Jay and I would have loved to grab a brew at the Snuggly Duckling...

 Yes, Jean caught me on camera waving to Flynn Rider. So what.

 As Ariel was circling the far corner of the square, James (gently) grabbed the sides of Cora's head and turned her to face that direction. She was so excited to see Ariel, and it was super sweet to see James so concerned about making sure Cora didn't miss a second of her favorite princess.

 "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me!" The Lost Boys were pretty incredible dancers.

 Maleficent's dragon crew stole the show (in our opinion)

 Getting a birthday kiss from Jiminy Cricket!

 Minnie noticed her little mini me, and gave Cora a great big wave, made her hands into the shape of a heart, then blew her a kiss. Cora was beside herself with excitement!

 Next stop was the Barber Shop for sparkly/crazy hair to wear to our fancy dinner...

 ...after a quick nap on the monorail between parks!