Amanda has always been pretty obsessed with her birthday, so about a week after her fourth birthday she started planning her fifth. I was throwing out ideas of what she could do when Sarah said, "You know, for my 5th birthday Mommy took me to Disney World. You should do that instead of a party." That's all it took, and the idea was born. So basically we planned her 5th birthday party (a party of two) for about a year.
Since she finally turned five in August I scheduled her trip to Disney World the first week of September so it was still close to her birthday but after almost everybody was back to school. Best idea ever. The parks were empty, or at least empty for Disney standards. Originally we were going to fly in on Thursday night and go to the Magic Kingdom on Friday and Saturday and fly home Sunday. Then my wonderful friend, April from Winter Springs, called to see if we wanted to go to Frozen Disney on Ice that Sunday. Um, yeah, you don't have to ask me twice. So I changed our reservations to come home later on Sunday.
I had everything planned and ready to go when we came upon another schedule change. We had decided to go visit Charlie's mom in Miami for Labor Day weekend, and would be flying home on Labor Day. But then Amanda and I were going to fly right back to Florida (and it is a long flight), a few days later for her birthday trip. So Charlie and I decided it would be better if Amanda and I just stayed in Florida. So all of a sudden a four day trip turned into a 10 day trip. It sounds wonderful, and it was, but it was exhausting.
We had a very nice, calm, laid back visit with Charlie's mom over the weekend and then Amanda and I headed to the Orlando area on Monday to hang out with April and her family while Charlie flew home with Andy and Sarah. We just saw them a few weeks ago in Destin but I really can't see them enough so we stayed and had a really nice visit for a couple of days. I adjusted our Disney hotel and park passes by a day (or two) and Wednesday morning we headed in. We went to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping, checked into the hotel, returned our car and then were off to the Magic Kingdom. We got there around 5p. That was actually my plan on the first day. Just go hang out for a few hours, see the fireworks and then head back to the hotel. I would have skipped that day completely but there was a big Night of Joy (Christian Rock Concert) planned for Thursday and Friday nights, the other two days we were going to be at the Magic Kingdom, and they were kicking everybody out at 7p except those that had bought Night of Joy event tickets. Which meant no fireworks. So, if we wanted to see Disney fireworks it was Wednesday or not at all. I don't know if you've ever seen Disney's fireworks, but they are amazing so of course we had to see them.
Thursday we went to MGM, which they now call Hollywood Studios. I thought it was pretty fun but Amanda was a little miffed that they didn't have any rides. There were a few, but she either was too scared to ride them or not tall enough. Shows are nice and all, but not when you want to ride roller coasters.
Friday we got up and had breakfast with the princesses at Cinderella's castle and then she got to get all made up at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. They did her hair and nails and even put make up on her. She was in heaven. Saturday we had breakfast with Mickey Mouse and his friends and then went back to the Magic Kingdom. She still had her princess hair because they put about half a bottle of gel on her hair and it felt like cement. I washed it out when we got home on Sunday and I'm not sure that there still isn't some in there. Wow!
It was really a fabulous trip. It was great for her because she got to do whatever she wanted to do and eat (almost) whatever she wanted to eat and the focus was all on her. It was great for me because I only had one person to hang out with and because she was getting pretty much everything she wanted she was in a very agreeable mood. We had very little arguments or crying or issues. Unfortunately we did have rain, but she was even a good sport about that. The one thing that surprised Charlie and me was how much Amanda and Sarah missed each other. They fight, but they are still best friends, and we really want to nurture that so they stay that way for years and years to come. We Face Timed every night, which maybe made Sarah a little sad, but it was mostly so the girls could talk. Unfortunately they are both at the age where they really don't know how to talk on the phone (or over the iPad/iPhone screen), but it still made them very happy to see each other. While we were watching the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom Amanda told me she wished that we could Face Time Sarah so she could see the fireworks so I called her and she watched them from home. That was pretty cool!
I will say by the time we got to the airport on Sunday I was definitely ready to go. I was tired and ready to be home after 10 days away. But we made memories that she will always cherish and had an amazing time.
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