Veni, Vidi, Mickey

6 princesses, 2 mice, 2 dogs, 2 ducks, 1 flying elephant, countless smiling dancers and one small world = 2 elated and exhausted little girls.

The day began sitting front row of Cinderella's Castle while Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy sang and danced and welcomed us all to Disney World. That was about enough to make C&R burst with excitement. Then, out came Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty dancing in full ball gowns with their respective princes. The reaction from the kids can most closely be compared to what you might experience while standing in the centre of a tornado with your eyes open. A silence overtook the twins, there eyes fixed forward and they didn't move a muscle. Awe, wonder and the dark side of delusion filled their faces. A great start to say the least...

From there we ventured into Fantasy land where we went on the flying Dumbo ride, saw It's A Small World (a huge hit for all generations in our boat) and had pictures taken with Ariel (a highlight for sure, but more silence and awe - very few questions for Ariel this time around...). The afternoon brought crowds and heat and the highlight was having story time with Belle (pictured above) followed by an amazing parade with all the A-List characters. Rachael was convinced that Mickey blew her a kiss and Charlotte claims that a fairy godmother blew her a kiss as well (none of this has been confirmed by anybody over the age 0f 4).

The girls were absolutely exhausted, but certainly had an amazing time. Nana and Grandpa Bob not only survived the full day, but seemed to have the most energy of the group as we boarded the monorail to wrap up our first day at Disney.

We got back home for swimming, dinner, stories and straight to bed. Heather and I wanted to squeeze everything possible out of our "full day ticket w/ parking" - so, we headed back to Disney hoping for smaller crowds and to see what the evening events held. The evening events were pretty amazing with another top notch parade and great fireworks - but the crowds were no different than we experienced at noon. We left at 10:30 and the place was as alive as ever and showed no signs of letting up. Amazing.

Tomorrow is a day off from parks and events. We'll have a morning of pancakes and then Nana and Grandpa Bob will watch the kids (swimming for 3 hours followed by McDonald's I imagine) while Heather and I hit the outlet malls.

Time for bed - hope everybody is doing well and we'll talk soon.

Lots of love.