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. :)

epcot: touring the world part I

i did not intend to spend all of may blogging about disney, but the month has definitely gotten away from me! epcot was by far our most visited park on this trip. we spent practically a whole day visiting the countries, which was truly enjoyable. the kids received paper charms for their masks in each country, as well as a stamp on their masks. we had fun taking our time around the lake, peeking into little shops, soaking up the international culture (disney-style), and even meeting a few princesses along the way! we were also at epcot during the flower and garden festival, which meant that the park was filled with beautiful flowers and creative topiaries! i could not stop taking pictures of these botanical creations! (which will be obvious if you end up reading this whole post...)

so this is a long one... but it's so fun. hope you've got some comfy shoes... we're going on a walk!

francewe started in france in hopes to see sleeping beauty and belle again... and we did! we didn't mind waiting on the princesses in such beautiful surroundings....


i got a kick out of these perfume topiaries!


more topiaries... aren't these beautiful!? here's princess aurora dancing with prince philip.


belle and the beast


the kids loved these topiaries from beauty and the beast... but i don't know why they put lips on chip! he does not look right. :(


we passed up marie at first because sleeping beauty was coming out behind her.. but we came back around to show marie a little love.


i love these of caroline with belle and aurora...



moroccothe market shops in morocco were full of colorful gifts...





ethan and caroline had fun with these moroccan spinning drums.


i hope you don't get tired of these topiaries! i loved aladdin's magic carpet of flowers. :)


our main goal in morocco was to meet princess jasmine. brian and ethan perused the shops while caroline and i stood in line... and when jasmine and aladdin came out, i was so glad my 4 year old son (and husband!) were not there to see jasmine!! let's just say that i think we know what jasmine asked the genie for.


japan

when we arrived in japan, we discovered that it was "children's day"! the kids were invited to color a japanese flag and fish kite.


ethan was so proud of his flag. :)


the japanese store was huge!



the children were intrigued by watching their names be written in japanese.


ethan and caroline look pretty miserable outside the japanese gate with their names... they were! the sun was right in their eyes! :)


americait was good to go "home" to america for a little while! we were privileged to hear an a cappella group sing patriotic songs in the rotunda of the american adventure building. beautiful. absolutely beautiful. and can you believe that the fife and drum corp played and sang "God bless america"?! we were pleasantly surprised. we also enjoyed the american adventure show-- ethan recognized several of the famous americans, and caroline caught a quick nap at the end of the show.


some all-american disney topiaries



italythis was another beautiful country to visit!



the lady and the tramp topiary was one of my favorites. don't you just love lady's hair!?


we were so glad to find our frozen drink stand in italy. caroline ventured out this day and ordered strawberry instead of lemonade. :)


germanywhat says germany like a bunch of beer steins?! :) haha.


the kids loved playing soccer in the courtyard in germany. this was a great chance for them to just relax and play for a little while.


brian and ethan found this man blowing glass, and they were totally entertained watching him for awhile. in this picture, i think the man was frustrated because he broke one...


aren't these glass ornaments neat!? there were several little kids playing way too closely to them, and i was getting pretty nervous that one was about to break.


while the boys watched the glass blower man, caroline and i waited to see snow white.


no, not the grass snow white, the real one! :) well, the real fake one, right!?


as soon as snow white came out, her handler found an unattended cooler, which was a major security issue. (i had to joke, "you can't trust those dwarves... there's probably a conspiracy against snow white...") he moved our line across the way, and it was hilarious to watch 40 sets of parents and little girls try to stay in line while crossing the road. the handler got our line juuuust right, only to realize that snow white was standing directly in the sun. he knew that the pictures would not turn out, so he moved us again. we went back across the road and down a ways in front of.... the brewhouse! i had to laugh. caroline was next in line when we were moved this last time, and her tired legs were having trouble keeping up with snow white on the way to the brewhouse... so there was a sizeable gap between us and snow white. once snow white made her appearance in the courtyard of germany, all these mothers and girls started shrieking and wanted to see snow white. nevermind the dozens and dozens of people behind us! i'm afraid i had to be a little frank with one english family that was about to cut in front of us. but i was nice enough to show them where the back of the line was. :) well, after all this hoopla, i am happy to say that snow white was a great snow white. she had the voice and facial expressions down perfectly! she was our favorite princess to meet on this trip!

the kids also loved the miniature city and train set at germany... i have no idea why i have no pictures of that! :( after leaving germany, we stopped at the outpost for the kids to do a little drumming...


and i think the outpost is a good place to stop for tonite--we're halfway around the lake now! we'll pick back up with china tomorrow... go rest your legs.

a short day at hollywood studios

i'm skipping our epcot day because it was our favorite, and i want to save it until last... so let's move on to thursday morning! we arrived at hollywood studios and rushed to the back of the park to get our fastpasses for toy story mania. we knew we only wanted to spend half a day at this park, so we hoped we'd get a fastpass time that was not too late. those toy story fastpasses go really quickly! our fastpass time was for 11:30, which was perfect. we also got right in to meet buzz and woody before a line began, which was a great way to start our morning!

they had different props for the kids to mess around in while you're standing in line, but there was no line! :)


we were surprised that buzz stamps his name instead of signing it! i guess those space rangers are pretty efficient guys!


i loved that the floor looked like we were standing on andy's bed with the toys. :) clever!


besides toy story mania, the other "must-do" for us at hollywood studios is the animation academy. in this class, a disney artist teaches you how to draw a disney character.


brian l-o-v-e-s this class. in february, brian went to the animation academy alone, but this time, i thought ethan would really love it too. at least to watch daddy draw if he wasn't interested in drawing anything... and i was right. he did love it! for this class, we drew pluto. ethan let daddy worry about pluto while he busied himself drawing miniature slingshots and other doodles at the bottom of the page. :) here are my boys after the class.


now the animation academy's classroom has swivel stools that are attached to the desks behind you, and they are kind of a hazard for small children... so caroline had to sit in my lap. "sit" isn't really an accurate word, but anyway... let's just say that i had a little trouble keeping my drawing neat and tidy. but in the end, i was pretty happy with my pluto! i was just going for recognizable, but i don't think he looks that bad! especially for having a wriggly 3 year old in my lap!


after the drawing class, we crossed the park to make the first beauty and the beast show, caroline's favorite part of hollywood studios. it really is a great show, even if you're not eating and sleeping princesses like my caroline. ethan was on the edge of his seat for the whole show, despite seeing it just 3 months ago. i put the camera away for this one and just enjoyed it!

after beauty and the beast, we retraced our steps and got in line for toy story mania. the queue for this ride is so interesting-- but we shouldn't be surprised, right!? there are giant toys everywhere, like tinkertoys, dominoes, and playing cards. the ceiling is covered with game boards, like checkers and chutes and ladders.


i am determined to eventually get some good pictures on this ride, but it's a challenge since you spin around from station to station! all the carnival games are so fun... and the kids enjoy it even if they aren't very good at it. ethan and brian rode separately from me and caroline, so i have no pictures of ethan on his favorite ride. but here is a not-so-thrilled caroline being spun around a little too much...


the last attraction we went to before leaving the park was the star wars jedi training. ethan didn't want to ride star tours on this trip, but he was so into watching all these kids fight darth vader and darth maul with their light sabers! and his daddy was maybe kind of into it a little bit too... :) caroline and i were not so much into it and were hot and tired, so we went shopping while the guys cheered on all the padawans. i am not exaggerating when i tell you that over half of our day's pictures were of stormtroopers, the darths, and the jedi! but at least we did not come home with a $25 light saber.


we saw what we came to see at hollywood studios, and we were ready to get back to the condo for lunch and a long afternoon nap! there's some other shows at hollywood studios that we enjoy, and we still haven't seen their parade.... but this time around, it was nice to take a mid-day break before heading back to the magic kingdom for the evening. this may very well be my shortest disney post ever! only 10 pictures!? hardly any characters!? well, i will make up for it in my next post. epcot was our most fun-filled park by far. lots and lots to tell about! be back soon from "the big ball", as my kids call it!