mouse ears, souvenirs and a few tears--installement one.

Last Tuesday, bright and early in the morning--well, actually dark and early in the morning--3:30 ugh--we (TO, LE, CD, the husband and I--Omega was with my mother) were picked up by a limo and driven to the airport.  We caught a quick flight to the cities (so quick they didn't even serve drinks) and then caught a flight to Orlando.  We were introduced to the Give Kids the World Village--and were amazed.  We had looked at their website (gktw.org) before going and were impressed.  But the employees and volunteers made the village unforgettable.

On Wednesday, after breakfast we headed to the Magic Kingdom.  This part of the trip we hadn't planned for and I think the husband and I were overwhelmed.  The kids were amazed.  They loved meeting the characters and riding the rides.  We headed back to toonland to try and find Ariel--we found Goofy's Barnstormer (a smaller roller coaster that was fast and twisty) instead.  We also rode the Dumbo ride, the carousel, Peter Pan's Flying ride, Snow White's ride, Aladdin's Magic Carpets, Jungle Safari Cruise (filled with really bad jokes), Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain.  We had a blast with the exception of CD's hour long tantrum between the Dumbo ride and the carousel.  She had wanted to ride the Dumbo ride, but it was temporarily closed--but she wanted to ride it now.  So I sent the husband off with TO and LE and sat on the bench and listened to CD's fit.  After a while, the husband and I decided that we should just head home, if she wasn't going to behave.  So I carried her kicking and screaming from the back of the park to the front--and then she finally started calming down, actually taking deep breaths to calm herself.  So we stayed and just the threat of leaving if she threw another tantrum was enough to keep her in check.

We decided to do some souvenir shopping on the way out and let each of the kids pick something out.  LE picked out a Zurg space shooter toy (that of course needed batteries that required a stop at WalMart).  TO picked out an art set in a princess case and CD picked out a Snow White figurine set with Snow White, the Prince and all 7 dwarfs.