A 5th birthday at Disney

There were four main reasons that we decided to go ahead and go to Disney now:

1.  We got our Disney Visa as we began Caleb's adoption process.  That meant that the first few months we had our card were BIG expense months and that when Disney Dollars started expiring in December we'd be losing several hundred in the first few months (which adds up to one child's weekly admission).

2.  Going before the high season this spring meant pulling only one child out of school vs. three kids after high season this fall.

3.  The girls are in the height of their princess/fairy stage and we didn't want to miss those magical moments.

4.  By going the first full week of March, we could hit some birthdays.

On Friday, March 9th, it became apparent that reason #4 was a pretty popular one.

By the time her birthday rolled around, we had visited all four parks and so we let DQ direct where we would begin the day.  I wasn't surprised in the least when she requested to head to the Magic Kingdom.  After all, isn't that a fairy and princess lover's dream come true?

For all her dancing and twirly skirts, my my Darcy Q has got a lot of adventure in her and the first place she wanted to visit was the Swiss Family Treehouse.

and there are my three five year olds (on march 9th all the bigs are the same age) plus their 3 1/2 year old sidekick

they were quite curious about the water system so we spent some time observing how it worked.
i was quite honest to ky's school that our trip was to disney, but figured we'd squeeze in some fun educational aspects when we could  

It was pretty hot at that point, so Splash Mountain was calling our names.  The boys saw the big hill and couldn't get in line fast enough, the girls needed a little convincing.  Unfortunately this ride was our one "Disney Downer" as I'm going to call it.  We let Daniel wear his new ($7 Wal-mart) Lightning McQueen crocs that day instead of putting him in tennis shoes and socks.  Not a good choice when height checks are part of the deal.  Strangely enough, he passed the first two checks on the ride, but at the final one he wasn't having any part of standing still ~ in his defense we had waited for nearly 40 minutes AND he had already been checked twice ~ and the attendant wouldn't let him on.  We very calmly tried to explain that attendants at the first two height stations had found him tall enough, but she wasn't going to budge.  Without making ourselves look like jerks trying to put fun over our child's safety, I took Caleb and DQ on the ride and Ian took a relieved Ky and a wailing Daniel to the "baby swap" area.  Word to the wise, the signs that say "You may get wet on this ride" are pretty accurate...

Then Ian took Caleb back on the ride so he could enjoy it himself.  Poor Daniel, he is probably going to be more of an adrenaline junkie than the other three together ~ I'll have to take him to Carowinds to ride the Borg when he's tall enough to make up for his disappointment of missing of Splash Mountain.

Of course when Ian went on the ride Daniel fell apart again, but thankfully the line is very near a stop on the Walt Disney World Railroad and the whistle of the train distracted him from his letdown.  We took a round trip to circle the park and by the time we were done, he was all smiles again.  At that point we hopped a raft over to Tom Sawyer island, did a little exploring and found a picnic table to enjoy our pb & j's, apples and carrots.  The entire island was fun ~ a cave and a mine to navigate, the barrel bridge, a windmill ~ but the highlight was the fort.

Still don't quite understand the draw of the large oak barrel, but three out of four M kiddos seemed to agree that it made a pretty awesome drum.

After spending well over an hour exploring, we rafted back to 'the mainland' of Frontierland and caught the Country Bear Jamboree.  I have one word for that show on the adult side of the spectrum.  Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious.  What made it even funnier were the comments on how beautiful the female bears were by our girls.  And while the girls LOVED the show and Caleb wiggled on to the beat of the music, one M kid found it a little dull.  Could have been that 5 1/2 days of parkin' caught up with him.  Or maybe it was a combo of both...

So it was time to slow down a bit.  Daddy and the girls caught a show in front of the castle

while the boys and I procured fast passes to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  And by saying "the boys and I," what I really mean is that I got the passes while they perfected "operation stroller nap."

You know you've got some serious sleepers when they manage to sleep through a parade...

i can still hear the girls excited voices as they told each other, "did you see, belle waved right to me!"

It was perfect though because the girls got to do two very girly things while the boys got some much needed rest and we were able to make the most of our pre dinner hours.  Just after the parade, we noticed that the line to meet the princesses in Town Square Hall was only 15 minutes long.  The girls, Daniel and I headed in while Ian rested his feet on a bench with Caleb still snoozing in the stroller.

aurora, belle and then cinderella entertained my crew ~ the girls are convinced they really are princesses

While Daniel may have met and hugged a princess, his highlight of the day came when he got to drive A RED CAR (I'll never forget his squeal of 'Nook Mommy, I drive Yight-nin Mah Quee!') at the Tomorrowland Speedway!

The best part?  His big sister saw how much he enjoyed driving and when we rode the second time she passed up her time to drive so he could again take the wheel.  Makes my heart smile when my kids are so sweet to one another.  

While the girls aren't much on fast roller coasters, they do enjoy their "spinny" rides and since the Astro Orbiter had a short wait, we blasted off for another view over the Magic Kingdom.

We caught the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor and then decided it was time to head out for dinner.  As we got off the ferry boat back to the parking lot, Daniel noticed that there was 'pow pow' in the sky, so we took in the fireworks show from a different vantage point.

they even pipe in the music over at the parking area.  less crowds, better view of the fireworks ~ catching the show from the parking lot may just be the way to go...

After a fast and cheap dinner at CiCi's pizza there was just one item of business left for the new five year old ~ opening her birthday gift.  

a fairy house with a mini tinkerbell and terence was right up her ally

Happy 5th birthday to my littlest fairy.  It was such a fun day of celebrating!