Lifelines

We only stopped once for food the whole day there!

Disney won’t allow you to come in with a cooler but if you take a giant backpack and layer it with snacks and diapers, snacks and sunscreens, snacks and other crap, they don’t seem to bat an eye.
Regardless, we saved a ton of money on food.
(I think I read somewhere before to allocate $200 a day for meals for a family of four while at the parks. We would have spent way more than that, especially if we’d been buying waters all day long but managed to keep our costs under $60. Not bad for this family, considering that that’s what a trip to Panera costs us for lunch!)

We stopped at some little pizza place in Fantasy-Land (Jen, it’s Pinocchio’s something and it’s good!) and I kept the kids busy while Charlie took seven hours ordering the food.

Sweet moment with Greer and yep, you guessed it, that flower is another beautiful snatch by Rhyse.
I wasn’t joking before when I said I thought there’d be an angry landscaper after him with gardening shears!

That Flip of mine has more uses than one.
In moments of desperation, I video-tape Creux being a his monkey boy self (he’s usually mid-tantrum by the time I whip it out so he’s nice and loud and ornery–he makes for good, animated viewing!) and then play it back over and over again.
This worked wonders until I let Rhyse use it and then realized he filmed five minutes of some poor lady chewing her salad.
(What must she have thought?!? Rhyse is by no means stealth, you know what I’m saying? He was probably turned directly to her and cackling the whole time. Little troublemaker!)

THIS is how I didn’t know what Rhyse was doing.

Creux was busy pulling my face apart so I was a little preoccupied with keeping my eyes and nose intact while waiting for Charlie to finish MAKING the pizzas or whatever he was doing that was taking so long.

After this, we rode one more ride and we’d been waiting for it all day long.
It’s a good one–one of our favorites.

To Be Continued…
(Hopefully one last time.)

This is absolutely one of my favorites from the whole day.

I’m so tired tonight, I can’t even upload today’s batch of fun onto my computer.
I wasn’t even going to blog but then I sit down to check my email and my photo file starts calling my name.

I’ve just a few posts left from our day trip to Disney so I’m going to try and wrap that up quickly.
With so much going on and this baby looming (who will be coming to Blog Hog in a MAJOR way), it’s sort of now or never.

These photos are new to me because this was one ride that I couldn’t go on which STUNK because it was Creux’s first roller coaster experience!
And not surprisingly, HE LOVED IT!
He’s still talking about it today, actually.

Here’s my gang on the Woody Woodpecker’s Barnstormer or something goofy like that.
(Me, I was in the Princess line, holding the spots for my little barnstormers when they were done to come and meet those lovely ladies!)

Note to Jen Nalli: The Princess tent is right across from this ride and you would be wise, my darling friend, to send someone to wait for the Princesses while one of you rides this with Margot. It will cut down on the amount of time that Mason will drive you crazy. XO

Love this shot of Creux.
You can tell it’s an action one because his faces reads: Holy. CRAP!
He’s like frozen in place!

Not bad for a kid from Columbus, eh? :)

He was not hard to find at the beach–I just followed his fat little hoof-prints.
I LOVE these baby feet.
I do NOT love finding shoes for them.

Well, the last Greer laid eyes upon her beloved Princesses, she was a bit…tongue-tied.
Actually she was a bit ALL-tied.
She didn’t know what to do when those darlings focused their attention on her other than stand there licking the corner of her mouth.
I wanted to rescue her.
BADLY.

But this time around, there were a few differences.
First, she’s older and has really come out of her shell.
And second, for whatever reason, her siblings were more interested in “helping” her.
Rhyse really kind of took the lead, gently nudging her forward and filling in the quiet blanks if she didn’t answer fast enough.
(”And what is YOUR name, Princess?” Cinderella asked, her voice positively dripping in syrupy tones.
Greer stared at her open-mouthed while Rhyse gave her a knee to the back, then answered for her :) Brothers…)

Creux was right up there too, pretty darn fascinated by these lovely ladies.
He’d just met Buzz and Stitch and I think had resolved himself to this just being the most fantastic place on Earth so he just smiled and smiled.
I think he flirted a bit, too.
I was keeping an eye on him–those of you with daughters near his age should do the same.
(Fair warning, my friends. This one is unstoppable.)

Oh and Mindy… (Hi Mindy, hi!)
Thank you so much for the sweet comment. I’ve decided that on days where I feel like strapping myself to a rocket and launching both it and me to outer space that I’m going to call you for a quick little pick-me-up because you always say the nicest things.
And strangely…NO Sleeping Beauty!
She was there last time but it appears she’s been replaced by a newer model.
Who knew the whole Princess business was so cut-throat?

Before we went in, I whipped out my make-up bag (yes, I had a make-up bag at Disney–sue me) and combed her hair (she looked like she’d been camping in the wild for days, maybe even attacked by an army of wicked trees or something) and glossed her lips (this I had no choice in).
THEN we were ready.

Walking into the room, with maybe just about 15 others, these Princesses are all holding court in their own swanky tents.
I NEED a tent like that.
I think my whole life would just be better if I could retreat to my swank tent every day.
(Providing, of course, that swank tent is not actually OUTSIDE. I don’t camp, not even vampy camp.)

And I’m like TOTALLY embarrassed to say, we have no clue who this Princess is!
We missed the movie when it came to the theaters, which I know is like a crime or something, to be the parent of a four-year-old girl and NOT go see a Princess movie, but we were all like, “Oh look! It’s…. hmmm…who the hell IS that? Well, it’s the new girl! How fun!”
But really we were thinking, WHAT HAPPENED TO SLEEPING BEAUTY?
(She was off’ed. Clearly, it’s out with the old and in with the new at the Disney compound. Harumph!)
Regardless, she was lovely.
Whoever she was.

And right here is where Greer REALLY starts floundering.
She adores Cinderella.
Cinderella is Her Girl.
Personally, I prefer Ariel, she’s My Girl, but I was still even a bit gushy, like…”OOOOOOH, it’s CINDYRELLA!”
I did practice some self-restraint and did not push my way in front of Greer, ripping the autograph book from her hands and declaring, “Write: To Princess Angi. With Love, Cinderella. P.S. You should’ve had my job.”
Not that I even thought about it, what would give you THAT impression? :)

Last but not least was Princess Belle who managed to stun Greer even further into her celeb coma by leaning down and saying, “Hmmm, have we met before, Princess?”
We had.
I nodded excitedly (seriously, Charlie should have sat me in the corner or something) while Greer’s eyes popped out of her head in disbelief.
“I thought so,” she said, winking at me.
(Winking at me! Belle! Oh, glory day!)

And the story behind this next photo! Listen to this…
So there’s a photography dude standing there snapping pics while the kids are fawning all over the Princesses and Belle spies Chas standing with us.
“I think there’s a little bit of room back here for yooooou,” she calls to him, rather flirtatiously.
(And this is where my spine straightens, I stop smiling and think, “Watch it, sister. Princess or not, I’ve got about 30 pounds on you and a real quick temper so I wouldn’t go messing right now.)

Anyway.

So this photographer leans over to Chas and says, “If you don’t go, they’ll stick you in “It’s a Small World After All” for HOURS. I don’t know if it’s true or not but that’s what they told us when we started working here.”

Chas wasted no time.
The boy took his spot behind Belle and smiled happily for the camera.
He wasn’t about to call Photo Man’s bluff on that one.
“It’s a Small World” is cool and all…for me.
Chas would die an agonizing death in under 45 minutes on that ride :)

And this was my last shot–I just love Greer’s unposed happiness here.
She’s…tickled.

Love, love, love those Princesses.
(Except when they flirt with my son ;))

P.S. (Lori, I’ll have you know I pushed this post through for you when I finished laughing at your comment! I’d been working on it all day, adding bits here and there and thought I’d just leave it till morning. But then I read what you wrote and realized that my cliffhanger WAS a bit hanger-y. So there you are, my friend! Heaping gobs of Princess for you, the mama of two sweet young boys :))

We don’t need these in October or November, our “usual” time for Disney parking.
I still prefer it.
But with us slating our “spring breaks” in May after everyone else, I would go back at this time of year.
May wasn’t necessarily worse, it was just hotter.

You can’t see him but Creux tucked in there with me, smashing the baby the whole time :)

And a great one by Charlie: