Maggie Celebrates Her First Birthday...At Disney!

What better place could there be to spend Maggie's first birthday than at Disney World! On July 11th (the day Maggie was born) we packed up the car and headed to our favorite vacation spot. We had a fabulous time and Maggie had plenty of new adventures awaiting her. Here is how our week went:



Day 1: We checked into our Grande Villa at the Old Key West Resort. It was a beautiful Villa and the best part, everyone had their own bathroom...so important! We then headed over to the Magic Kingdom for a Winnie the Pooh character dinner at the Crystal Palace. Maggie loved the characters and gave them all hugs. Everyone around us enjoyed watching Maggie squeal and hug the characters. For dessert, our waiter Rand, brought Maggie a cupcake with a candle and a card signed by all the characters. We sang "Happy Birthday" and giggled as Maggie eventually mashed and devoured the cupcake! After dinner, we of course, had to head to Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World. We finished the evening by riding Cinderella's Carousel.







Day 2: July in Florida is hot...really hot. So we mostly hung out by the pool on Monday and Maggie, being the little dolphin that she is, loves to swim! That evening we headed to Epcot to have dinner at the Japan complex at the Hibachi style restaurant. We had a great chef, who was super entertaining! Unfortunately, it was quite loud and scared Maggie a little bit. She also knocked her mouth on the edge of the table causing her to scream for a couple minutes. Thankfully, everyone in the restaurant was quite understanding (mainly b/c they all had small children with them too). After dinner, we watched a Billy Joel covervand which was very entertaining. Maggie, along with being a dolphin is quit the dancer and danced the night away during the concert!





Day 3: Aloha!! Have I mentioned that July in Florida is hot?? Because the mercury kept rising we hustled down to the pool to cool down. We had an early appointment to do a family photo shoot at the Polynesian Resort so we headed up early from the pool to get dolled up. Our family dressed very classy in khaki and white and had a good photo session with our photographer. After our shoot, we headed to the Luau!!! Here's the thing with the Luau, it's outside. So unfortunately, it had rained earlier in the day causing Orlando to turn into a steam basket. So it was extremely, extremely hot. Maggie was hot and tired because her afternoon nap had been cut short. So needless to say she was not a happy camper during the dinner but we seemed to turn a corner as the show began. It was a great show and let's just say...we probably won't go back to the Luau until Maggie is a little bit older.

On Wednesday we were on our own for dinner so everyone mostly hung around the pool then headed to the Magic Kingdom in the evening. Thursday morning we had a delicious buffet breakfast at the Tusker House in the Animal Kingdom park. It was another character breakfast and Maggie, of course, loved the characters. Her favorite is definitely Mickey! Doesn't she look like she's begging Mickey to take her with him?? We had a fantastic trip and it was all due to the generosity of Mimi and GrandPop. Our family has been truly blessed to be able to make several trips to Disney World...three to be exact...during Maggie's first year. I hope that Maggie and I will have the ability to return the generosity we have received over the past year...