Attack of the Dancing Chipmunk

Once upon a time, a little girl named Caitlin visited Disneyworld with her mommy and daddy. This little girl loved Disneyworld. She especially loved the music and the dancing. One day, Caitlin decided to join in a dance party with those lovable chipmunks, Chip and Dale. Everything was going fine until they started to do the Electric Slide...

Chip (or was it Dale?) bumped into the little girl knocking her to the ground. The little girl got up quickly and ran away from the large dancing chipmunk.

Chip (or was it Dale?) was concerned but decided not to chase down the shaken little girl.

After a while Caitlin and her mommy went back to join the dance party. They stood close - but not too close - to Chip (or was it Dale?). They even joined the chipmunk in a do-si-do during the Cotton-Eyed-Joe.

After the dance party, Chip (or was it Dale?) came over the Caitlin and her daddy. He apologized in his very own chipmunk way - with a high five.

And though they became friends in the end, Caitlin learned a very important lesson....

Watch out for chipmunks doing the Electric Slide!

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Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Dancin' in the Streets

Caitlin loves music. She always has. When we were at Hollywood Studies, a Disney Channel Parade/Show came by and Little Miss Curious wanted to see what it was all about.

She may not have known the songs,

but she was dancin' all the same!

These random street shows are the kind of thing that the Irishman and I would have walked right past pre-Caitlin.

Now we are boogieing in the street with the Chipmunks.
(Though that's a story for another time!)

And they say parenthood changes you...

Epcot

While Epcot is a personal favorite for the grownups in our family, it was the park we spent the least amount of time in this trip. There were several things we didn't get to....but so much more we wanted to show Caitlin in the other parks.

Our first ride of the trip: Journey into Imagination with Figment

Then came the most important stop...lunch at my favorite French restaurant. I really love this place! Caitlin made an impression on our French waiter. They became friends and even took a photo together.

Oddly enough Caitlin seemed more impressed with our waiter than with Ratatouille himself. They went from table to table humming and singing and interacting with the diners. It was most impressive, but the waiter waved to Caitlin in the mirror. It is the little things!

Is that one happy toddler or what?

After lunch we looked around at the flower displays,

took a few pictures,

and headed back to the hotel

with one worn out little girl!

Photo Problems

Picassa seems to be having issues uploading to Blogger again today. I'll have to fix it when I get home from work today...sorry about that!

An Irish Meal

The Irishman and I ate at Raglan Road on our last trip to Disney. Before our trip this time we asked about celebrations for St. Patrick's Day, but all they could tell us was about the happenings at Raglan Road.

(Side note...NOTHING in the parks for St. Patrick's Day? That is seriously disappointing. It would be my biggest complaint about Disney this trip!)


Knowing anyplace with a $10 cover charge on St. Patrick's Day was likely not the best for a toddler, we made reservations for March 16th and decided to get our green on a little early. We had a table right by the stage...Caitlin was most interested!

She watched with fascination as the dancers came on stage.

She was laughing and clapping and taking it all in. It was only a matter of time before she asked to get out of the chair and dance herself. Caitlin was starting to steal the show. A random grandmotherly-type woman came up to me to ask if she could take a picture of Caitlin to show her daughter.

One of the Irish dancers noticed our own little dancer and came over to say hi. She and Caitlin became fast friends.

Oh, and we did eat as well. The Irishman had the mixed grill (complete with black pudding...yuck!), I had bangers and mash, and the little one had an impressive Young Shepherd's Pie.

I forgot to take a photo of the protective shield I dressed her in so that she would not get Shepherd's pie on that dress! It was rather funny, and better yet it worked!

We were pushing our luck with bedtime so we had to leave before I had a chance to request a song for our little Irish girl.

I'm pretty sure she had fun anyway!

Even the Pool was More Fun...

As soon as we checked into the hotel on our trip, we knew we would have to take our little water bug to the pool. We had an early dinner reservation on Wednesday night in Downtown Disney so after nap time we hit the pool.

There were multiple pools, but this little wading pool was perfect for Caitlin.

She walked around...

and threw herself down into the water.

This girl is FEARLESS!

I was disappointed that I forgot to pack my suit, so I had to stay on the side while Caitlin and the Irishman had all the fun.

Even the pool was more fun at Disney!

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While the pool WAS more fun at Disney, that hasn't stopped us from enjoying the warm weather this weekend. We started at our local pool yesterday morning and then hit the beach after nap time. I took lots of pictures...but it seems a certain Irishman had taken the memory card out of my camera last week to look at the Disney pictures and he never put it back. It would seem that I was only pretending to take lots of pictures yesterday. Oops!

The Force is Strong With This One

On our last day at the parks the Irishman was lamenting the fact that the Star Tours ride at Hollywood Studios was closed for renovations. We were on our way out of the park when we noticed a line for a character. It was past nap time and we needed to keep moving, but we decided to try it anyway.



Forget Pooh and Friends. Mickey and Minnie were okay.
Caitlin's favorite character at Disney?

A Stormtrooper.

They quickly became friends.
Her father was beaming.

 

Even Vader failed to intimidate our little girl.

"The Force is strong in this one!"

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Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Animal Kingdom

The Irishman and I wrote off Animal Kingdom after our first visit. We deemed it our least favorite of the four parks and that was that. I'd always heard it was great with kids though...and boy was it! We've taken back our harsh opinion. Besides getting two blog posts worth of character photos, we had other fun!



There was the safari...Caitlin was a little young to appreciate this one.



The Irishman LOVED the mist when you got off the ride though.

Caitlin's favorite activity was the slide. She has recently discovered that she can climb up and slide down all by herself. Such independence is enough to make any 16-month-old smile!

 

All that sliding meant it was time to go back to the hotel for a nap. We came back for a second day and visited the petting zoo affection station.

That afternoon we had just enough time to fit in the parade before the Lion King show. Caitlin loves music and dancing, so both were a big hit!

I have to say Animal Kingdom was one of our favorite stops...though with Disney we tend to have a lot of favorites!

WW: Camp Minnie-Mickey

After our success with Pooh and Friends we headed to Camp Minnie-Mickey to meet and greet more characters. The lines were not too long, Caitlin was happy...it was the right time!

Up first, Minnie Mouse.

We tried to see if she would walk up to Goofy on her own. As the photographer said, "Dad - it is a 7 foot dog. Seriously?" We stuck to family photos after that!

She was intrigued by Donald's bill.

 

Then there were the bunnies. These were like giant stuffed animals...I think Caitlin wanted to take them home!

The only long line was the line to see the mouse himself. We thought about bailing, but by then the line was twice as long as it was when we got it in ourselves, so we persevered. Thankfully we had a bead necklace, bubbles, and animal crackers to get us through. We also ended up with my favorite photo from the whole trip. There is nothing Disney about it, but oh, my! The eyes, the little hands, the beads, the shoes, those blue eyes...I love it!

When it was our turn to see Mickey the animal crackers came along. I guess that is only fitting at the Animal Kingdom, huh?

No trip to Disney is complete without a family photo with Mickey Mouse.

Or dozens of family photos in front of Cinderella's Castle, but that is another post!

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