epcot: touring the world part II

hope you got some rest after our whirlwind tour of half of epcot's countries.... let's finish up this tour, shall we!?

chinaas soon as we got to china, i was fascinated by the intricate details on the rat and bull topiaries (i guess you can call them topiaries??? they looked like they were made of seeds)... i moved in to take this picture of the rat, and woah! i realized there was a huge dragon behind the rat! haha!


how did i not see this dragon right away!?


we watched the chinese acrobat show for a few minutes (amazing!) before heading into the shops. caroline and i couldn't resist trying on these hats....


and this chinese guy could not resist coming to talk to caroline. he kind of freaked me out after a few minutes because he kept pulling her close to him and saying how cute she was... so we finally "had to go"...


i mean, we had some very important business to take care of-- experimenting with a chinese yo-yo! this picture makes me laugh because it looks like my husband is having some sharing issues with ethan. :) "dadddddyyyyyyyy, plllleaaaase let me have a turn!"


ethan eventually got his chance with the yo-yo.


norwaythis picture of my silly family in norway may just be one of my favorites from our trip!


if you know me at all, you know i could not resist a picture of this wall of red and white christmas ornaments!


so everytime i took a picture of one of the topiaries, i asked the kids if they wanted to get in the picture. occasionally, they'd want to jump in... but as you have already seen, most of the topiaries are all by their-lonesome-selves in my pictures! well, i had to get a picture of this hideous troll outside norway, and when caroline saw me getting out the camera, she jumped out of her stroller and exclaimed, "get my picture with him!" ok...... forget adorable lady and the tramp... forget her very favorite princesses all decked out in bushes and flowers.... caroline chose the troll! go figure...


mexicoas soon as we got to mexico, we spotted mexican donald outside. ethan didn't care about meeting him (until later after he'd thought about it, of course!) so he went inside mexico with daddy, and caroline and i waited a minute to meet donald. when it was caroline's turn, donald picked her up and went 'round and 'round with my caroline!



after her dance with donald, we went inside to find ethan and brian. i love the inside of mexico! it feels like you are walking right into a mexican evening. i have never taken pictures of the inside because i'm always just soaking it in... and trying to keep my kids from breaking something- there are crafty breakables everywhere! since we were on a roll with the international hats, the kids and i stopped and tried on these sombreros. i think caroline's is a little small! haha!


while we were in mexico, we also rode the three caballeros ride with donald and his mexican buddies. this was a favorite of the kids... and we loved it because it was air-conditioned! :)

after mexico, we headed back to the other side of the lake to finish off our last several countries!

canadathere was not much for us to do in canada (besides wishing we were eating at le cellier! we've heard it's amazing!) we did stop to adore bambi and thumper...


and we saw a real live bunny in the canadian meadow. so fitting after posing with thumper! :) the kids went bizerk over seeing this little rabbit... i just had to laugh and say that i'm so glad we brought them to disney to see a bunny in a field. :) but i am thankful that my children find joy in the simple things.

united kingdomwe came to the united kingdom just in time for dinner. before we ate, though, i took a few minutes to snap some pictures around the "country". it seems like we've always gotten to the uk after dark, so i was glad to have some daylight to work with this time!


the kids asked to take this picture in front of the castle. i smiled. :) after posing alllll day at mommy's request, they still had some smiles left!



this tea house had the greatest tea garden all set up for the flower and garden festival! these giant tea cups were filled with the herbs used to make each tea. i loved the way they labeled the plants with big tea bags. here's my favorite tea (minus the spoonfuls of sugar....)


are you tired of these topiaries yet? get 'em, peter!


we always seem to find our way to the fish 'n chips stand while we're at epcot!


we stopped by the british toy store, which is one of my favorite shoppes! it was also home to the united kingdom's kidcot stop, where the kids received the charms for their masks. they picked what color charm they wanted and had a moment to interact with someone from the country we were in! a neat experience for the kids! (i learned halfway through the countries that you can buy an epcot passport there, and the representatives of each country will stamp it and write a message to your child in their language!)


the kids were happy to see pooh and tigger in the toy store as well!


france... again!we returned to france because we started the kids' masks after we'd already visited france that morning... i was so excited to capture this shot of france at dusk.


this picture cracks me up!!


can't you just hear kevin klein saying, "the pout is one of the french woman's greatest weapons"?! c'mon... surely someone other than jen and kristie can name this movie! "i'm supposed to be this pouty little girl who says yes when she means no and no when she means yes and i cannot do it, ok?! ! happy-smile, sad-frown! use the corresponding face for the corresponding emotion!" daisha, i know you know this one! :)

so who knows if caroline means no or yes in this picture, but at least i got the picture i wanted.


and can i just ask... who let their child color on this prop with a bright pink marker!? really...


morocco....again!our last stop on the international disney circuit was back to morocco to complete the kids' masks. this picture of morocco is supposed to be blurry, by the way. :)


the kids were happy to have all their charms on their disney masks! (just fyi, they could have decorated them at each stop, but they decided we'd do that at home. which we have not done...)



to celebrate the completion of all the countries, we snacked on some mickey mouse cookies! :) it made me so happy to see the kids get so excited about these every single day!


we found a great spot to watch illuminations, the great (but too-loud-for-my-kids) fireworks and laser show...and while we waited for it to start, our kids put on their own little light show.


this picture of the fireworks does not do them justice. it's a pretty amazing show, and maybe one day my children will enjoy it without their hands over their ears!


so that is how you tour the world very quickly. :) we did have some other fun epcot experiences that i should probably just skip and get on to blogging about our daily life.... but i just can't. i must tell about it all!! so i will be back with one more epcot post. i know you can't wait. :)