january 19

we had tons of fun at hollywood studios today!  brooke and gavin danced on stage during the Disney Rocks! performance, and it will for sure be one of the highlights of our trip.  i was so proud of them for getting up there.  gavin only lasted about 2 minutes, but brooke danced her heart out until the very end.  it was adorable.  it's so important to me that our kids seize the moment and not shy away from opportunities that come their way.  today they did just that, even if in a very small way.

we also spent a lot of time in toy story land today :)  we met woody and buzz and toured through some special toy story exhibits.  we also rode the toy story ride, which did not live up to all the hype.  we also visited with lightning mcqueen and mater.  it was super exciting for all of us to have some of our favorite characters of all time brought to life right in front of our eyes.  kevin and i laughed at how easy it is, even for us, to get caught up in the excitement of disney.  i guess that's what it's all about.

this afternoon while gavin was napping, i took brooke to the floridian hotel for an afternoon tea party with alice in wonderland.  it was a kids only event, so i dropped brooke off and headed outside to the pool area where i had a chance to relax for an hour and get a taste of a true disney operated resort.  brooke was as happy as could be when i picked her up.  she had a wonderful time at the tea party decorating cupcakes, playing hide-and-seek with alice in wonderland and the mad hatter and doing some special crafts.  it was exactly her kind of event.  and there were only 5 kids there, so they each got very special time with some great disney characters.

tonight we went to downtown disney to eat at the t-rex restaurant that was recommended to us.  as brooke said, "this is the best restaurant we have ever been in!"  best in terms of entertainment value that is :)  it was a huge restaurant with different dinosaur-themed dining areas and huge animal displays everywhere you looked.  it really was something.

one thing is for sure about disney - it's really tough to be in bed before 10:00pm!