We went back to our hotel to recuperate a bit (and change clothes) before heading back for the fireworks. Too tired to go out somewhere, I let Mandy take a nap in the hotel room and I took the kids out to dinner at some swanky fast food restaurant. I brought back Mandy’s and my own dinners to the hotel and set up the table for a “romantic” dinner while the kids watched some television quietly. Dad, I told you that it’s not tradition unless it happens at least twice in a row… Well, I guess you told me so. But at least I stepped it up a notch and had it at a nice hotel. Let’s ignore the fact that 4 children were with us.

After dinner, we got back on the bus & monorail for the park again so we could ride our favorites again and watch the 10pm fireworks. It was definitely one of the most spectacular displays I’ve ever seen. Afterward we got some cotton candy and one of the special birthday cake hats to use for future birthday parties. After watching the evening SpectroMagic parade, we set off for the monorail and bus back to the hotel… in bed by 12:30am.

We packed up and left our hotel at around 11am yesterday and we arrived back home this morning at 5am. It was a long and tiring drive but the trip back was mildly amusing. From the British guy who thought to give me the a-okay in lieu of the American bird to the guy in the pickup truck who drove with his foot out of the window with his dog walking about the bed of the truck. Georgia didn’t amuse us. We were counting down the miles to get out of that state. Tennessee & Kentucky were no problem, especially with a 20oz cappuccino. Anyway, we’re back in town now and the cats apparently missed me as I woke up covered in fur.

Part 4? This is becoming quite an epic! Yesterday was Ben’s 8th birthday. What a big guy he’s getting to be. He had a great time, well, because he got to spend it in the Magic Kingdom! The weather did us fairly well as it was overcast and a bit showery which was just dandy. The rain felt good in the midst of the 90 degree heat and crowds of people. We rode the ferryboat over and Abi just beamed excitement when she saw Cinderella’s castle across the lake. After getting onto Main Street USA, we tried on the various hats in the hat shoppe before going down the street for a photo op in front of the castle. We then pretty much went through the entire east side of the park which included Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Mickey’s Toontown Fair. We rode lots of rides like the Mad Tea Party (probably our favorite), Dumbo, Goofy’s Barnstormer (which was Nick’s first rollercoaster), and the Speedway.

Nicky got to meet his favorite morning idol, “Pal” (which he calls Mickey Mouse, i.e. “Hiya, pal!”). We watched the 3pm parade by the castle and it was quite the show to see with every one of the classic stars making an appearance. I took tons of pictures so check out the photo albums of the kids and my flickr account for them.

Today we had breakfast with a couple of characters, Disney characters that is! Our hotel has character breakfasts on certain days and we got to have ours with Pluto and Goofy. Abi and Nick played hard to get and the boys play high fives with Goofy. We went to Downtown Disney today to look for souvenirs. We saw some things we liked and noted them for later. We spent some of the afternoon at the hotel pool after lunch to cool off until a storm threatened. The kids enjoyed that while they could and then we went out to dinner followed by a return trip to Downtown Disney to purchase some things. I did manage to find another penguin. I got myself a Wheezy (from Toy Story) plush that squeaks. Haha. Okay, our legs are killing us now. Time to sleep.