Happy Halloween 2017!

It's been a great October leading up to Halloween! Dance class is going well, the weather has been beautiful and I'm continuing my love of reading. I actually just finished reading my first chapter book ever!! Ready Freddy, Tooth Trouble was a great book and every time I had the opportunity I will sit down and read!

This past weekend we took advantage of the spectacular fall weather and drove to a place called Pilot Mountain State Park! It was this big rocky mountain that just pops up in the middle of nowhere! I was scared as we drove to the top, but it was pretty cool once I got used to it. We had a picnic lunch and after that we took a hike around the rocky top of the mountain. The view from the top was really cool and I thought it was fun hiking through the rocky steps.

The day after our excursion looking for fall color, we got to carve our pumpkins in preparation for Halloween. I was a little more adventuresome this year and at least scooped the pumpkin goop out with a spoon, but I was still not touching it with my bare hands! I designed a pretty cool face and Mommy cut it out for me. On Halloween, I had to go to school, but it wasn't too bad because we had a party on my class. We played bingo (I won once!), decorated a pumpkin, made a spider, and ate some treats. Then, after an early dinner it was time for trick or treating!!!

One Tooth Less

Picture taken literally as my tooth was falling out!

Speaking of one tooth less, we saw this really fun movie (actually two) recently called "How To Train Your Dragon." In the movie, the main character is a dragon named Toothless. How fitting that my first time seeing that movie is when I have a huge window in my smile! While Mommy thought I would lose my tooth at Disney World, it finally came out a few days after we got home. It happened in the middle of my dance class. We had just changed into our tap shoes and I was messing with my tooth using my tongue and I heard a pop. With my tooth barely hanging on, I rose my hand and told the teacher that I was losing my tooth. She excused me and Mommy hastily took me to the bathroom where she grabbed my tooth before it fell into my mouth. That was that! Fortunately it didn't bleed so I was back to tap dancing in no time!

The next day, with a new smile, I visited Adam's preschool class to read them a story. Mrs. Burns had asked me when I tracked out from school if I wanted to read the class a book. I thought about it and was hesitant at first, but finally I decided that I would enjoy it. Mommy took me to the library where we picked out a book about colors to read. I practiced reading the book at home in preparation and while I was nervous at first about being in front of all the kids, I nailed it! Adam stood next to me as I read and after I finished the book, I impressed my old teachers by continuing my "reading time" by asking Adam's classmates to go around the circle and tell me their names. I felt so big and grown up - everybody was so proud of me!

I had a wonderful track out and I wasn't really ready to go back to school. Being home with Mommy was really nice because we could do fun things together. One day she took me to the park and another day we went swimming at the indoor pool. Only a short week after going back to school, we had a surprise day off from school! Hurricane Matthew dumped so much rain on North Carolina that school had to be cancelled so I got an unexpected day with Adam. Mommy took us to the library and the park next to the library had these crazy swings that were crazy fun! They felt like a roller coaster! Mommy met with my teacher Mrs. Schlosser for my first grade beginning of year conference. My teacher said that I am an excellent, inquisitive student, one of the best readers in her class (though the youngest) and it's been a great first grade year so far. Not a bad report; yet another reason I like to make Mommy and Daddy proud parents!

A Magical Ending!

It’s good that we had a day of relaxation at the resort because we were up and at it early on Thursday morning at Epcot again. I was really tired, but luckily I got to go on Test Track first thing so that woke me right up! Then we met Daddy and Adam and went on Soarin' again before heading over to the World Showcase, another section of the park where we walked through different countries. We had to take a break on a bench before starting our World Tour, I may have taken a short catnap on a bench. My favorite country was Mexico because we went inside a big Mayan ruin to get to a boat ride. In Morocco we met Aladdin and Jasmine. When we got to Norway we got to see Anna and Elsa! I was so excited to meet Elsa finally! She was awesome in person! In Norway we also saw a Stave Church, which Mommy says maybe we can see a real one sometime if we go visit her family in Norway. We walked back to the Future World to visit Joy and Sadness in headquarters. We returned to Norway and we dashed into the Stave church during a short rain shower before going on another ride, which I had no idea was the FROZEN EVER AFTER ride! It was really cool especially because the boat went backwards at one point. I was singing along the entire time! 

After riding Frozen Ever After we had a little bit of time before dinner so we took a walk back to Germany so to see some model trains again. When we went back to dinner, we were surprised to see that we would be eating in a castle filled with princesses! Before we got to our table we met Belle in her beautiful dress and after we finished dinner some more princesses came out to see us including Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella and Mulan. Mommy was so proud that I at my salmon so grown up. I cut it all by myself as I ate. After dinner as we walked out of Epcot we enjoyed one last fountain performance then boarded the monorail back to our hotel for a somewhat earlier (still 9PM) bedtime so we could get up early for one last day at Magic Kingdom.

Writing in my new journal with the castle glowing behind me!

My early morning at Magic Kingdom began with Mommy and me riding a super cool roller coaster in the dark called Space Mountain. (I got to do it again later with Daddy too!) We met up with Daddy and Adam and rode the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. I had a really good time riding it! I would have liked to do it again; too bad the wait was like 100 minutes! That’s a long time! We had fun riding some other rides such as Peter Pan’s Flight and its’ a small world, and Mickey’s Philharmonic before it was time for lunch. After lunch we went on the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Under the Sea, and we did this fun thing called Enchanted Tales of Belle. We went into a sequence of rooms and in one of the rooms they assigned people to take part in telling a story to Belle when we would meet her at Beast's castle. I was selected to be Philipe, Belle's horse because I gave such a good "Neeeiiigh" when the lady asked who could do it. At the end of our story, Belle took photos with us and gave us a bookmark. It was cool! After that we took a relaxing ride on the train all the way around the park before I got to go on Splash Mountain again with Daddy! We met up with Mommy and Adam after that and saw the Festival of Fantasy parade again. This time we had a great seat to watch the parade and a couple of the characters waved or winked right at me! After the parade we rode the rockets and saw the Carousel of Progress before it was time for an early dinner. We had dinner at Be Our Guest, inside the castle of the Beast! We ate in the grande ballroom where Belle and Beast had their first dance! 

Mommy took me around to see the other rooms in the castle including the Enchanted Rose Room in the West Wing. It was really cool and I enjoyed eating dinner there. After dinner we got to meet Beast, the host of our wonderful dinner. I went with Daddy to do the People Mover and The Space Ranger Spin one more time before it was time to leave the park and go back to our hotel. Our fun day wasn’t over yet though. We put on our bathing suits and enjoyed a night swim at the pool before it was time for bed. We got showers and pjs and right before we went to bed we enjoyed a fireworks display from our room over the Magic Kingdom. It was amazing and a perfect ending to an amazing Disney Adventure!

Epcot Time

 

I had no problem sleeping in the following morning. We woke up late and got ready for brunch with some more characters. We rode the monorail over to the Grand Floridian where we met Winnie the Pooh and Tigger in addition to Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. Mary Poppins was fun to meet, even though I don't care for the movie. She was so nice, she brought pins for us to wear that said we were celebrating our 1st Visit to Disney. I filled up on Mikey waffles with fruit and all sorts of yummy brunch food. Now we were ready for a day at Epcot!

When we got to Epcot, we started off with a fantastic ride called Test Track! My need for speed was satiated when at the end of the ride, the car went REALLY fast! Then, Daddy and I went on a ride called Mission: Space which was fun too when we got blasted off on a mission to space. Daddy and I enjoyed that ride together. We then headed over to The Seas where we saw sea life of all kinds. While we were touring the different exhibits in the aquarium, we saw a SCUBA demonstration and I was selected to be Mike the Diver's dive buddy! After that we saw Turtle Talk with Crush followed by some attractions at The Land exhibit. A short rainstorm passed by and on our way to get dinner, a magical rainbow appeared over Epcot! It was so cool, the first rainbow I've ever seen! We had some dinner, then found a spot where we could watch the IllumiNations show! It was a great show of fireworks, lights, fountains and music. We were going to leave the park right after the fireworks but we decided to stay and do one more ride. It was a great way to end the day. The ride, called Soarin' was so awesome! We were hanging up in the air like we were in a hang glider flying through all sorts of places around the world. A guy sitting near us said that the reaction I had to the ride was the best he had ever seen. I was screaming with excitement as we flew over some beautiful "aromatic" landscapes. We were pooped by the end of the day and I'm glad our next day was a day of rest at the resort.

Our resort day was good. We had breakfast at the hotel, then headed over to the swimming pool where I went down the big slide a bunch of times, played some games and did some crafts poolside. We ate some snacks while enjoying the Lion King in our hotel room to relax a bit in the afternoon before we went to Disney Springs. Disney Springs is like a big outdoor mall but one of the best parts was the Lego Store and the massive Disney store where we got to pick out some souvenirs for our trip. I'm very excited for the journal and Minnie pen I picked out so I can write in it about my trip and other stories when I get home. After shopping, we had dinner at this really cool restaurant with dinosaurs everywhere! My favorite dinosaur was the triceratops and the best part was dessert when it came out on a plate with fog cascading off of it! Even though this was a day for relaxation it was still a fun time!!