On Thursday morning, we had 7:45 reservations at Chef Mickey's in our hotel. Em was happy to just be able to roll out of bed, pull her hair back, and wear her Cinderella night gown to breakfast. I can't get over what a big girl she looks like in this picture.
It was particularly exciting for Em, because this was the view when we walked out of our room every morning--she got so excited to look over the rail and see what characters we could spot! All week, we talked about being able to eat at Chef Mickey's on Thursday, so she had really been looking forward to it.
One of the nice things about the character dining we did was that every time we arrived early, they were able to seat us early with almost no wait.
There's a huge buffet of food, including Mickey waffles and a dessert bar. Em could totally get used to a breakfast like this...then again, I guess we all could! Luckily, they also had a great fruit spread, which she loved too.
The characters made their way around the dining area and spent time with each child individually--it made it tough for Em to focus on eating for long. Mickey came first!
Followed by Goofy,
then Pluto. I'm disappointed that the pictures from Chef Mickey's were the only ones we had with Pluto--we met him at Epcot and had pictures taken by a Disney photographer, but they didn't show up with our pictures online for some reason. For next time, I'll remember to always let the photographer take pictures with my camera too! I did that almost everywhere else.
Minnie was a favorite because she loved Em's dress!
There's a part during each breakfast where they sing to all of the kids celebrating birthdays and bring them special desserts--during the song, they have everyone wave their napkins in the air.
Em loved that part!
Then Donald came around, and even though she'd been saying he was her favorite all morning, she told him they were ALL her favorite. She had a tough time choosing favorites of anything all week, which was totally understandable--the whole trip was a favorite :).
It was our last day in the Magic Kingdom, but we still had things to do and characters to meet! The weather took a cold turn, and luckily, I had packed jeans for Em and me, but we both bought long sleeved shirts. It was cloudy all day and didn't get above 60 degrees! Much, much different than the 80+ days we had the beginning of the week.
We stopped by Princess Fairytale Hall to spend a few minutes with Cinderella, where she told Em something very surprising about her mouse friends.
Em was so interested in talking to every princess, and they seemed happy to chat about their stories and answer all of her questions.
After her turn with Cinderella and before her turn with Princess Aurora, she checked out this Snow White book.
Again, they were all either genuinely interested in all of her conversation, or they did a great job acting--maybe a little of both. She does come up with some pretty interesting stuff sometimes.
I honestly don't remember what Sleeping Beauty asked Em to pinky swear to, but she spent most of the time with her still talking about Cinderella's mice.
We stopped for a snack and silly faces--Em kept her Jasmine gloves on most of the morning :).
We stood in a fairly short line to meet Buzz Lightyear, who was very cool.
He had a stamp for his autograph, and while we didn't get autographs from anyone else, Em decided she wanted one of his stamps. It didn't print great, but it didn't matter that much to us, and Em thanked him and waved as we walked away. We heard something running behind us, and turned around and Buzz had chased us down to give Em a perfect autograph stamp!
We left there and headed over to meet Merida from
Brave. Em has never even seen that movie, but knows who Merida (or Princess Brave, as Em calls her) is. There was a pretty long line for her, but there was a place for the kids to color and play while they waited.
Em's connection with Merida was kind of remarkable since she's the princess she doesn't know well, but they were just in love with each other!
They hugged and hugged, and Merida gave Em several kisses on the forehead. They talked about how they both had curly hair, and Em told her all about her bow and arrow.
It was really sweet to see them together--and once again, we were thoroughly impressed by the characters. Even her accent was spot on!
Last hugs before it was someone else's turn.
After pictures with Merida, each of the kids got to go down and try her bow and arrow.
Em did a great job!
She met Chip and Dale right before we went to see the Country Bear Jamboree. That was always one of the things I remembered from Disney, but it has been significantly downsized, and isn't quite what I remembered. Em still liked the show since there are singing bears, but in comparison to all of the new shows they have, this one doesn't quite measure up anymore.
It rained on us a little while we waited in line to meet Woody and Jessie from
Toy Story. Em met a friend dressed as Ariel, and later couldn't even remember her name--only that she was Ariel.
They had a great time in line together, and Ariel luckily had an umbrella she shared with Em.
Em wasn't quite as excited about Woody and Jessie after she saw them, but that's also not one of her favorite movies, so we weren't surprised.
Yes, every time we passed the carousel, she took a ride! LOVES IT!
We ate lunch and timed it just right to meet Princess Tiana. She and Em talked all about the movie characters.
We headed back to the castle for another "Dream Along with Mickey" show, but because of the impending rain, they came out and did an abbreviated version of the show.
Em still was just as impressed when she saw all the characters come out :).
She had wanted one of these balloons all week, so we finally broke down and bought one.
And we took a picture with Minnie and Walt Disney.
It rained a little, on and off, as it started to get darker and everything lit up.
We were waiting for the parade! We found a good spot under an awning and close to the park exit to watch.
Em met a friend beside us who gave her this light-up twirly, and Mick put her up on his shoulders for a great view.
The parade was really beautiful! Tinker Bell started it out.
Even in the light rain, it was packed with people watching.
Peter Pan and Captain Hook!
Pete's Dragon, and there were lots more! The parade was great, and it was a nice way to end our week. Just as it ended though, the sky opened up and it began to POUR down rain! We were heading for the exit as soon as the last parade float passed us, but we still got caught in it. Luckily, we put Em in the stroller and covered it with a plastic bag, so she stayed pretty dry and it allowed us to move faster. We made it back to the monorail, soaked, and were pretty happy to get back to our room and out of the weather.
