Karalee's 7th birthday!

Thursday was Kara's actual birthday. (though I think all the girls got a little confused, as she was the "birthday girl" everyday. Evie even said, "it Kara's birthday forever") Ben downloaded a new game onto her 3DS the night before to surprise her with. Then when they thought we were about to leave to go home, we surprised them with the Disney cruise. They were all excited, of course, Evie was most of all. 

We couldn't take our balloon on the cruise, so we gave it away to a little girl after breakfast. 

We had a while to wait between checking out and leaving for the cruise, so we hung out in the arcade for a bit. I got the flu that morning, and felt horrible. I completely lost my voice, and couldn't do anything more than whisper. It was hard to get the girls' attention, or talk to Ben.

We decided to explore the cars area of our hotel. It was pretty fun. There is also a lion king area, but I guess only Kara took pictures there, since I don't seem to have any. 

You would never have guessed she was sick and running a fever. She was still smiling the whole time. 

We didn't have to worry about any of our bags. The cruise line picked them up from our room, and all we had to do was board the bus to take us to the ship. 

There were disney cartoons playing on tv's so the ride didn't seem too long at all. It was just under an hour. 

I think I'll wait til tomorrow to finish updating with all our fun pictures from our disney cruise. So check back!

Dinseyworld days 4 and 5

Evie kept asking to see Clarabell cow, and we honestly didn't think we would. So when she showed up during the long lost characters show, we made sure to get in her line. We spent the morning in magic kingdom. 

Kiesrsten and Kara were eventually able to also talk daddy into getting them princess dresses. They hade to promise to wear them for halloween this year. Kara's is a little big, but I didn't want to go a size down, in fear she'd outgrow it by halloween. So we had to go back to the hotel so Evie could put on her Cinderella dress too. 

Thankyou hugs for daddy!

We had a early dinner in epcot, at Sleeping Beauty's castle. Belle was there to greet us, and we got a complimentary park photo with her, so we didn't take a very good one with our camera. 

all the princesses were so nice, but Kiersten was most happy to see Ariel. They all got to go on a princess parade through the diningroom, and Ariel was the leader of our group. 

After dinner, we went back over to magic kingdom, since epcot doesn't have a lot of things Evie can do. 

Kiersten and Evie fell asleep every night in the stroller, and then we had to haul them back to the hotel on the bus. This night I was mad at Ben because he talked me into taking the bus for a different hotel that's right next to ours, because we missed our bus. Another one pulled up right after we got on the other hotel's bus, but we were already pulling away. I was so mad we had to do all that extra walking! I had a painful blood blister on one of my feet. 

On wednesday morning, Ben took Kiersten to a walk in clinic, where they were both diagnosed with the flu. Since we had to get her Rx from a pharmacy not covered by our insurance, we had to pay full price for tamiflu. It was really expensive. and when it was delivered to our hotel, they didn't refrigerate it, so Ben made them replace the prescription, even though the pharmacist said it was okay. It turned out to be good to have 2 bottles though, because Evie ended up getting sick too. It's amazing how different they act being sick somewhere fun, than if they were at home. They were troopers, and still wanted to do everything, and were perfectly happy and cheerful. While they were at the doctor, I took Kara and Evie to magic kingdom. There were hardly any lines, so we went on several rides before Ben showed up with Kiersten. 

We decided to ride the riverboat, since we've always skipped it at Disneyland. I don't think we'll be in any big hurry to go on it again. 

Evie wore the dress I made her for the last day. 

Evie was the happiest and best behaved girl. She didn't whine or complain, and she just kept saying thankyou, and " I so happy!" It made Ben and I really happy to see her enjoying it so much. 

This is a cinnamon roll Ben bought for Evie, and I didn't think to take a picture until it was half gone. It was super huge!

We were early for dinner at the Beast's castle, so we got to hang out on the bridge for a bit. 

Kiersten was really impressed that her napkin looked like a rose. 

It was the prettiest place we ate. It was even snowing(fake) in the courtyard, which the girls thought was cool. We were told there wouldn't be any characters, but the beast walked through the dining room a few times, and the girls got to meet him after dinner. 

Ben danced with Kiersten in the ballroom. 

She picked the triple chocolate cupcake for dessert, and didn't eat more than 2 bites. 

Kara got some "gray stuff" for her birthday treat. 

Evie threw a tantrum, so I took her out, but Ben said the beast was really nice.

We had so much fun at Disneyworld, though, it was a pain to have it all so spread out. In the end, I think we prefer Disneyland, simply because of how much easier it is to get around. The girls went on so many rides, and I only had to change one diaper. Evie did great at telling us when she needed to go potty, other than the night she peed on my lap. 

Day 2 and 3

When we were deciding on a hotel, we chose the art of animation because it had a little mermaid themed room. We turned down a free upgrade to a suite, because we didn't think the girls would like being in a lion king room as much. When I first walked into our room, I was disappointed at how small and cheap it seemed. But my mind was soon changed, as soon as the girls saw it, and were completely enchanted. Kiersten swooned over the painting of her hero, Prince Eric. Evie honestly believed Ariel was lending us her own bedroom, and kept saying how nice she was, and wondering when she would come home. 

Posing princesses. Evie talked Daddy into getting her a Cinderella dress, and was so excited to wear it, so we saved her pink one I made for another day. 

The entire courtyard was filled with larger than life statues of all the characters. Outside our room, we had a nice view of Ursula's rear end. 

Kiersten posing with her prince. 

We spent the first part of Sunday at Hollywood studios. There weren't very many rides the kids could go on, but they loved the Ariel musical. We also ran into lots of their favorite characters. 

Kara took lots of pictures. In fact, there are several things I thought I had a picture of, but turns out, it was only on her camera. I think she video'd the whole parade. 

I wasn't that excited about the green army men, but they really put on a funny show for each kid. 

We ate dinner at Cinderella's restaurant that night. Evie peed on me on the way there, and we were so late, so I ended up sitting through the whole meal with pee on my jeans. 

Evie was particularly excited to meet Prince Charming. 

The step sisters were pretty nice. Ben's favorite part of dinner was when a little girl dropped and broke her plate. Both step sisters stopped, and screamed for Cinderella to come clean it up. 

On Monday we went to the Animal Kingdom. We had breakfast at Donald Duck's restaurant.

Kara wore her birthday pin each day, so she could get special desserts. Here, she got a card signed by all the characters from breakfast. 

Kiersten was really nervous about these crocodiles. 

fun safari family!

waiting to go on the dinosaur ride. I think it may have been my favorite ride. 

We had to try out my new waterproof camera in the pool at our hotel. We took some video of Kara swimming, and figured out what she is doing wrong under water. so that was helpful. 

We should have taken more pictures of the pool when it was light. It was a really neat Nemo themed pool. 

Ben and Kiersten started getting sick that night, so we didn't go back out after swimming, we got to bed early so we could all get enough rest.