Mama's Bday & Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

For my bday (#25 of course : ) Bill arranged an entire weekend at Disney. We started with dinner at Biergarten at the Germany Pavilion, the food was awesome and the entertainment kept us busy dancing and singing. We lucked out with great seats right next to the stage

Doing the chicken dance

Joey just had to get out there and dance once the band was done and next thing you know ALL the kids are out there, my little rebel : )

I got out there with him too, dancing...its in the genes

Bill had a great cake delivered to the table, the icing was delicious!!!!!

Then we headed back to our room to get decked out for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. Joey was Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King from our favorite Halloween movie, The Nightmare before Christmas (which is NOT scary like everyone thinks, its a DISNEY KIDS movie)

and I was Sally

I loved this Mickey ghost

We arrived just in time for the first parade of the night, one of the best all year I think

The Haunted Mansion Float was GREAT

The whole gang

Then we went to see some characters and Joey landed a big ole kiss on bullseye's nose : )

We had to stop at every station and fill up our treat bags

They also had free face painting!!!! You can see Joey was getting tired in this pic, that droopy eye look

The next day we hung out at our hotel Disney's Boardwalk I think they have the BEST pool and slide of ANY we have seen on Disney Property so far, the slide is forever long and Joey must have gone down about 100 times!!!! Also, it is about a 2 minute walk to the back gate of EPCOT, great location. Then we walked the "boardwalk" and window shopped, Joey was all decked out in his Vols gear

he loved this miniature replica of a 1930's wooden rollercoaster

These are not really on topic but cute, while waiting for Bill in the lobby we were taking pics of each other, Joey's idea 'cause he likes to use the camera. This one turned out so cute, I HAVE to share it, my big green eyed boy

and his pic of me, not too bad for a 3 yr old

Longboat Key

Once again we vacationed on Longboat Key, Fl this year! Honestly, it is the BEST place for a stress free quiet vacation. Most of the time we were the ONLY people on the beach...awesome! This was the view from the front porch of our cottage, you can see just steps to a beautiful uncrowded Gulf. The great part is that LBK is considered a "winter" island which means going in the summer is off-season, low low rates!!!!

Our cottage was named the Snowy Egret after this bird that lives on the front porch : )

We had to dig right into the beautiful gulf sand and make a real piece of art...like Spongebob?!

and a Joey Castle

Bill and Joey enjoying a ride in their dingy : )

It is a tradition for us to find a monster shell, this years shell was the prettiest so far

We got lots of other shells and sand dollars too

Another tradition is to see lots of dolphins, these guys were swimming right up on the shoreline, we could have easily swam out to them at one point

We caught a bunch of cool creatures this year, including a big sea snail or "Gary" from Spongebob as Joey liked to call him

The coolest was this octopus we caught, he was so neat. Bill picked up a conch shell and he crawled right out onto his hand

We took Joey to the Ringling Museum and Mansion, both were great! Here is Joey and I in front of the mansion Cà d'Zan, newly restored it is beautiful. The doors and ceiling were plated in real gold!!! The last time Bill and I were here they were filming Great Expectations with Gwyneth Paltrow so it looked a little different.

Joey in front of the absolutely beautiful rainbow colored windows. You can tell Joey was not too pleased to sit still on the bench for me : ~

Send in the clowns, Joey is no exception

Then we walked over to see the mini model of the Ringling Museum were a huge surprise awaited us. The model shows the Ringling Bros circus stopped at the town of KNOXVILLE, TN!!! We had no idea. It was exact, Lays Packing, White Lilly, etc. and a Knoxville Train Station

One more wonderful surprise awaited for us during this trip. We've been vacationing here for years and little did we know that Bill had family who lived right down the street...literally!!! Bill's Great Aunt Mary (sister to Bill's Grandfather- Andrew Zanoni) called us when we moved to Florida and told us her daughter Gloria lived in Florida too and we should all get together. So Gloria invited us over for a WONDERFUL meal and GREAT company!!!! We learned a bunch about the family and I thought the family resemblance was obvious!!! Here is the whole crew Gloria, her sons Steve and Jeff, Steve's wife Nikki and their kids Nick and Ashley and Jeff with his girlfriend Oi along with their iguana Skittles and Bill and Joey of course. A couple of people are missing, Gloria's husband Paul and brother Ernie (I am sorry I know I misspelled names : )

Gloria and the kids

Bill, Joey and Gloria's brother Ernie, he is named after Bill's Great Uncle Ernesto who was killed storming Normandy for the US during WWII

Joey REALLY liked Ernie's bike : )

A good pic of all the young cousins

Then unfortunately we had to head home, on the drive we stopped at Steak and Shake for one last eating out hurrah, this is the cutest Soda Jerk in the world!

Until next year...

Disney Trip #14

Yep, you read that right folks, #14. We have had such an awesome year going to Disney, a wonderful distraction when we are feeling homesick! This trip Bill had to go to a week long conference in Orlando so we tagged along. We stayed at Pop Century and had a blast. The Mgmt and Staff there are AWESOME!!! Believe me, we have spent 4 times what Pop Century cost per night at another Deluxe Disney Resort (think Nat'l Parks) and we didn't get even 1/2 the service we got here! I would highly and without any reservation recommend that anyone stay a Pop Century. It is our favorite of the Value Resorts, the best staff, best rooms, best pools and DIRECT bus service!!!!!

Here is Joey in Goofy's splash pad...he LOVED the real Corvette and even tried to open the doors


Later that evening we returned to our room and found ANOTHER year of a million dreams prize from Pop Century Hotel with an Autograph pic from Mickey and Minnie and a bucket FULL of goodies...did I mention we LOVE Pop Century!!

Next day we headed to Hollywood Studios... and since it was so close to Bill's bday I booked a table at the 50's Prime Time Cafe, where "Mom" is your Waitress : ) We had a great time and "Mom" had Bill stand up for his Bday cupcake and the whole group sang to him. Boy, was he mad at me, tee heee! I must say next to Whispering Canyon this may be one of our faves as far as sit-down meals. The smores for dessert are to die for and "Mom" even fed me my green beans when I didn't eat them. The TV's playing old cartoons, commercials and I Love Lucy reruns kept Joey quiet and content

We finished just in time to get a premier spot for the Block Party Bash, in fact we totally "lucked" out and the dancers stopped in front of us. (Its called manners people, be NICE to the Cast Members, smile and ask polite questions. They are hot too and a smile from you goes a long way when you want some hints and tips. We went to see the Nemo Musical and a lady screamed at a Cast Member right after I had asked if there were any up-front seats...guess who sat up front? We did and BTW Joey LOVED that show) Anyway, off my soapbox. The Buzz float was way cool!

This dancer and Mr Potato Head grabbed Joey out of the crowd to dance with them

So cute doing the wave

He was doing great copying the moves. A good dancer.....maybe that's genetic "Dancing Man"?? (Sorry inside joke)

Then we headed to Animal Kingdom - Rafiki's Planet Watch, a wonderful learning trail for kids. We saw Jimminy Cricket there...we had never seen him : )

Touching an Ostrich Egg, everyday they have some new hands-on exhibit for the kids

Of course he had to be a Tiger once we left : )

At Magic Kingdom we found this great hideaway on Main Street in the back of the Kodak Store/Tony's Town Square. I guess it used to be an old auditorium, but they had all these great cutouts for pictures and a big screen showing Mickey Cartoons with Movie theatre seating and it is INSIDE and AIR CONDITIONED. No one else was in there so we had some fun. From now on this will be our rest area



The next day was just Joey and I. He wanted to go to LegoLand at Downtown Disney and while there he spotted a boy with spiked hair and Mickey confetti in it. So we stopped by the Bippity Boppity Boutique and made a walk in appt. At first I was taken aback looking at the price list and seeing prices from $50 to $300's...I started to back out until she told me boys were a flat rate of.....$7. Can you believe that! Girls = $100's of dollars and Boys $7. Anyway, it was great fun. Well worth the $7 : ) Can you tell I am a little tickled by the price difference?

So cute!!!!!

Then he wanted his face painted too! Well since I had only spent $7, I was willing to spend $10 more. An awesome Capt Jack!!!!


Well on to Longboat Key and Disney Trip #15!