Day 3, Magic Kingdom, Cinderella's Royal Table, Raymonds, O'Hannah's

Elli in line for the limbo. She was so sleepy and grouchy during this late dinner that she would start one of the kids activites and run back to our table crying. She did however make it through the limbo and parade. Poor girl was asleep after being in the car for about 1 minute:)

We ended our day with dinner at O'Hannah's at the Polynesian resort. Absolutely delicious and very fun. We all got out to hula:) After chowing down on dessert of pineapple unside down cake, ice cream and bananas foster, of which I ate the most, we decided to try to walk to our car which was supposedly closer than taking the monrail. We found it and took a sleepy girl back!

Finally we get on Dumbo. Heather and Gary rode with her so Brent and I would not have to ride anything else that went in circles:) Special time for them too.

The move it shake it party was fun for us, but not so much for Elli. She was scared of Mr. Incredible who was shakin his tail feathers right near us. We tried to get her out there to dance, but she was terrified:)

I cried all through the parade as well. Elli was waving to the princesses and calling their names. Finally Ariel rode by and Elli was waving like crazy and calling to her. Ariel looked at her and blew her a kiss. Elli was on cloud nine and I was bawling:) She totally believes they are real and that they are her friends.

Another coaster. We all rode the Big Thunder Mountain. Great fun.

Elli and Lily rode the Barnstormer together. Later we rode it together and she giggled and said it was more fun to ride with Lily.

Elli chose a purple page for the fairies to sign. Videa was happy about that:)

How could we not get a picture with Tinker Belle? This is the only place to meet her. Elli was shy in here. Didn't quite know what to think:)

We waited for about 45 min to see the fairies. We didn't wait that long for anything else:) We walked through the shrinking process and spent time with three fairies.

Then, the third surprise, we met up with the Raymonds!!!!! Look at the pure joy:) What absolute fun to surprise them this way.

The step sisters and step mother were hilarious!!! They asked Elli if she was a dancer to which she replied yes. Then they started singing and asked her to dance. She ran away crying:) So, Heather and I convinced her to come back up and get her picture. She would only do it with us.

After riding the carousel we saw Mary Poppins. Elli just couldn't believe that so many people came here:)

Seeing Belle again was fun for Elli. She loves all the princesses.

Ariel asked Elli to be her special helper. She walked around with Ariel to help her teach the girls how to make a wish. Watching Elli be in total awe of this experience made me cry!! Then, she made a wish, closed her eyes really tightly and looked in wonder as the lights went down and twinkled across the ceiling. So sweet. Later, we saw Elli trying to make a wish. She was looking up at the ceiling and nothing was happening. Wouldn't you know though that right after that, they did another wishing song:) (Now we did spend time reminding Elli that we do not wish on stars, but ask Jesus for what we need and want. Disney will try to make an atheist out of you so remember to speak truth often:)

Elli LOVES Ariel. She was so excited to see her. She followed her all around the room with her eyes until it was our time to visit with her.

This is a sweet picture.

Snow White is asking Elli about her little friends again. I love how they play their parts so well.

We couldn't resist a picture like this. Look how sweet Elli is. She loved meeting Cinderella and being in the castle.

So this may seem cheesy, but there really is something magical about the Magic Kingdom. I know it is more so because I was seeing it through Elli's eyes and excitement, but we loved it! Her little smile says it all.

Day 2, Epcot and Chef Mickey

She kissed Donald on the nose and then he covered his eyes like he was embarrassed. Then, Elli covered her eyes because she was embarrassed:)

Elli called Mickey Mouse, Chef Mickey all week. So cute!

Minnie was a favorite of Elli's the whole week. We waited in several lines to see her.

Poor Gary was getting the brunt of this excitement during the celebration song:) Heather and Gary joined us at the Chef Mickey dinner as Elli's next surprise. She was excited to se them. We had great fun with them over the next two days. Elli loved the songs and would run and dance with Mickey when the song started. I will say the food was not great but the atmosphere was very fun. The desserts were also delicious:)

Goofy was fun to watch. He acted just like you would expect:)

Okay, we were laughing so hard we were crying. She loves Pluto!!!!

Thank you Jeni for the adorable shirt. It reads, "Minnie sweet things come in mini packages." She got many compliments on her adorable outfits:)

We enjoyed our day at Epcot. We rode all we could ride and saw all we wanted to see. We would like to go back here some time to see the rest but had a great day with Elli at this age. The "Talk with Crush" was hilarious.

We were the last in line to see Mulan. Elli was excited to see her.

Snow White was my favorite. She played the part extremely well. She asked Elli if she had seen her 7 little friends. Elli was looking for them the rest of the day:)

Jasmine and Aladdin. Aladdin like Elli's hair and she asked me to make it look like Jasmine's later in the week:)

Belle without the beast, which Elli was okay with.

Our first Princess visit was Sleeping Beauty. No one else was in line to see her. We happened upon her almost by accident:)

We entered the park and Elli ran right up to Daisy. Look at that smile:) What a way to start the park visits!

I was so excited. We walked in at the gate opening, met Daisy and then rode Soarin. Elli kept asking, "Mommy are we really flying? Are we really here?" She had no concept of Disney before we got here, so there are many comments from Elli that brought tears to my eyes as she was expereincing this for the first time. We loved it!!!!

Disney World Vacation, October 9, 2010 Day 1

Elli and Abby at Wendy's after the trip to Downtown Disney didn't work out due to extreme amount of traffic.

Elli was not sure what to do when we got to the restaraunt and saw Abby and her family. It only took a bit for them to get acquainted again. We had a great visit with the Meltons:)

The airplane ride to Disney. Elli got an invitation from Cinderella to eat breakfast at her castle on Friday evening. We then told her we would need to take a trip to Disney. She didn't know what to think at first, so we showed her a DVD about disney world. She was very excited then. We had the trip planned for 6 months and planned lots of surprises in there as well. The first surprise was dinner with the Meltons.

Pumpkin Patch Oct 3rd, 2010

Matt giving Elli a wagon ride.

The three sisters:)

Family picture at Adventure Acres.

The annual picture with Heather and Elli, where Elli is crying and trying to get free. Seriously 5 years in a row:)

The whole gang headed out to get our pumpkins. We went to a new place this year, Adventure Acres. It was fun to go to the field and choose our own pumpkins instead of choosing from what had already been picked. It was a little chilly, but we all had a great time.

Caroline's Birthday Party

Elli and Caroline the birthday girl.

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday.

Working hard on her Ariel. It was painted in as many colors as were out on the table. She has mostly red hair and a bit of blue on the water part, but other than that, it is a true work of art:)

All the girls painting their pottery creations. The decorations were adorable and the cupcakes were both delicious and cute. Fun time for sure:)

Such a great idea for a four year old birthday party. We went to a place called Paintbrush Pottery. It was so fun. The girls picked a piece of pottery and then painted it however they wanted. Elli chose Ariel as did many other little girls. We will get it back all glazed and shiny in a week or two. Caroline was a sweet birthday girl with many thanks for all who came. What a great day!

Cedarville Homecoming and Young's October 2, 2010

Love this pose on this huge real pumpkin.

What is a trip to Young's without feeding and petting the goats:) To hear her talk to them you would think they were her pets or children. She says things like, "Hey baby. You okay? Are you hungry little one?" Adorable.

How sweet is this baby cow? Elli wanted in the cage with her but settled for petting through the fence.

Someone watching Elli pet this cow told me she was so gentle with animals and asked if Elli liked all animals. I told her that Elli really is an animal lover and has such a gentle way with all of them. I love this picture!!! She of course was talking to this cow the whole time she was petting her.

We have not been to Young's on the weekend when the barrel ride is running. So today, we went for that purpose. She loves it!

Such fun in the jump house.

She could not wait to get in line for this huge slide:) She is such a big girl. She saw a friend from preschool, a boy, and run up to him with a huge hug. She asked him to get in line with her and they slid down this slide several times. She is really a social bug who loves others.

Look at that. The president of the University, Dr. Brown, asked Elli if she wanted a balloon. Next to getting a bag full of candy, she loved getting those balloons. What a special day for this little girl.

Cincinnatti Reds Oct 2, 2010

All three of us at the game. Elli had a blast. The people around us seemed to enjoy her for the most part as well. If you give this girl a smile, chances are you are going to be asked to play:) She especially enjoyed having Meg and Kyle's friend Nate around to play. He was a good sport and even shared his pretzel with her:)

Brent got a slice of pizza and this chilli dog for the three of us to share. Elli ate the whole chilli dog and Brent ate all but three bites of pizza. Thankfully, Brent was still hungry and we shared, for real this time, a basket of chicken fingers and fries. Yummy.

We went to the reds game Friday night. They have had a great season and have won their division. They will start play offs next week, but we got tickets to their second to last regular season game. Sadly, they lost in extra innings, but what fun to be there.