Disney Vacation Part 3-Magic Kingdom

Matthew, Derrick, Natalie, Lucas, and I at Magic Kingdom

We had five day park tickets, so we spent the first and last days at Magic Kingdom. It's totally our favorite park. Day one, we were there from about 10 am to 10 pm. We just went through the park, starting with the boys' favorite, Adventureland. This is where Aladdin's Carpets, the Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean are. They L.O.V.E the pirates ride. I admit, it is rather fun. Our first ride of our whole vacation was Aladdin's Carpets.

Natalie, Derrick, Matthew, and Lucas on Aladdin's Carpets.

I took the kiddos on since the wait was only about five minutes, while Derrick found a place to park our stroller and kind of make a plan for the morning. It was so fun. Natalie loved the rides. She didn't cry on anything or let anything scare her. She especially loved Pooh's Adventures and Peter Pan's Flight. She just pointed her fingers, "oohed" at everything and kept saying "this". She's a laid back kid when it comes to that kind of stuff. We grabbed a quick lunch, then did a fastpass for Splash Mountain and hit the Haunted Mansion and did a little bit in Fantasyland. It was so nice to be relaxed about our trip, and just hit the fun things we've loved in the past...and add in one or two new rides that the boys wouldn't do before like Splash Mountain and Haunted Mansion. Of course, they had their favorite treats-the Mickey ears ice cream bars.
Natalie, me, Lucas, and Matthew on the tea cups.

The first night we were undecided as to whether or not we'd stay for the Electrical Parade. It's Derrick's favorite of all the Disney trip, but staking out a spot and then waiting for like 45 minutes isn't our idea of fun. So, we went into a few shops on our way out of the park. As we were leaving a shop, Derrick told me to go out and if there was a spot to get one for the parade, and if not, he'd meet me at the gate.
Lucas and Matthew at the top of the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

Yep, there was a spot-a perfect one actually, behind a lady who was sitting on the curb with her daughter. I pulled the stroller in behind her and we were set. We only waited about 15 minutes for the parade, and I'm so glad we did. It's really magical to watch that, and see how excited the kids were to see it-even Derrick loves it.
Mason, Lucas, Matthew, and Nathan in jail with Zurg after riding Buzz Lightyear.
On our last day at Disney, we went back to Magic Kingdom with our friends, the Goldens. Jacque and her twin boys happened to be on vacation at Disney the same time we were, so we spent a few park days with them. We met up with them later in the morning, and the kids were able to ride together, or she'd stay with Natalie so we could take Matthew and Lucas and her boys on a ride.
Natalie playing with honey bees while waiting for the Pooh ride.
Natalie riding Dumbo with Matthew and I.

It worked out so great. We made our way around, doing some of our favorites again. The best part was when the boys rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad-a rollercoaster. They aren't the hugest coaster fans, and it took some talking and some peer pressure from the Golden twins to get them to go. They came back all smiles, claiming they'd had their hands up the whole time and wanted to ride again. Awesome. We started the boys on pin trading this year, and it was very cool. Apparently, this is a huge deal-like coin collecting, etc.-but they thought it was fun to trade with castmembers and see what pins they would get in return. They wore their lanyards everywhere, and by the end of the trip, I think only Lucas had an original pin that had come with his lanyard left. They can trade twice with castmembers, and the castmember has to let them pick which pin to trade. It was neat to see some of them interact with the castmembers and be excited about their trades.
Matthew and Lucas making their first pin trade.

Natalie was all about the Dumbo ride-and I was all about taking her on it :). She totally loved it, and the tea cups. I rode the tea cups again with the boys-without Natalie-and they had a high time of making mommy so dizzy. The things I do for the kiddos. We left Magic Kingdom fairly "early"-like around 5, to get back to the room and finish packing before meeting the Goldens at Downtown Disney for dinner. We met them at Wolfgang Puck, and had our last Disney dinner.