Ahh, Hollywood Studios.  The park we where we CAN’T skip out on Extra Magic Hours because those Fast Passes?  Are, like Phillip Phillips sings, “gone, gone, gone,” unless you get there right when the gates open.

No problem, though, because Emma was healed, Ana was rested, and we were READY!

Once we got to the parks, we hit the plans hard.  We went to Toy Story Midway Mania and managed to ride it twice before things got crazy.  It’s always such a hit with our girls, and Emma in particular loved it this go round…

… while Ana loved the Monsters University posters of the PNK sorority (I know of a pink sorority she can pledge one day)…

… while I loved this guy here.

He’s so cute!

Because we hit it early, we got the big rides out of the way before lunch.  Toy Story, Muppets, Star Tours, the playground — yes, those are the big ones when you have children who are still too short for the thrill rides.  We got a big enough thrill, though, when we went to Pizza Planet for lunch, and Ana’s tooth fell out as she was eating.  For the rest of the day, she shared that information with anyone who was listening… and with people who weren’t listening.  Love that girl!

After lunch, we saw the Disney Junior show, where the girls were officially the “big kids.”  Sad day, since I remember when they were among the smallest at that show.  Afterwards, we asked them what they wanted to do next, and Ana said, “Drink water.”  Well, we made that happen, and as they sipped, we asked if there were any other shows or rides they wanted to do at Hollywood Studios.  We got a resounding “NO,” so we hopped on a boat to Epcot.  The plan was to stop at the Beach Club so I could finally enjoy some Beaches and Cream along the way, after years of wanting to do so, but the wait for a table was forty-five minutes.  The girls weren’t about to wait in the sun for that long for ice cream, so we reluctantly got back on the boat and finished the journey to the World Showcase.

Oh, Beaches and Cream.  I will have you one day!  Just wait!

We made plans this trip to include two date nights — one for Wes and  Ana and one for Wes and Emma.  (Yeah, I got left out of that, but what can you do, right?)  While one girl would go out with Wes, the other girl would go out for a girls’ night with me.  The first date was Emma’s, and Wes had plans to take her to Chefs de France.  He told her he was taking her to Paris for their date, and she, having no idea why she should feel this way or be so excited, practically swooned and kissed him before the date could even begin.  Oh, the drama.

I wasn’t there, but I’m told it was quite the elegant event…

Yeah, that’s apple juice in there.  Don’t go all Baptistic on me, y’all.

And I’m told that she met Remy…

How cute is that? 

I’m also told that she had ten young French men come and serenade her during the meal.  Mommy would have really loved a picture of that (and how!), but alas, Wes didn’t take one.  He and Emma went around the World Showcase together and through Future World before joining us at the Magic Kingdom later that night.  When I asked Emma if she gave Wes a good night kiss, she told me that she asked him at the beginning of the Three Caballeros ride, “Is this a kissing ride?”  He told her, “Oh, yeah,”  and, so, as she told me, “I kissed him then, Mommy.”

Ten years from now, I will remind Wes that he told her it’s okay to smooch on dark theme park rides.  Because what’s cute at six on a date with Papi can only be cuter at sixteen on a date with a pimply teenage boy, right?

Yeah.

Meanwhile, girls’ night did NOT involve smooching but instead was all about this…

Girls’ night was AWESOME, in other words.

We had been to Hollywood Studios and Epcot, and we ended up at Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Plaza, where Ana said we should go over to Animal Kingdom so we could officially say we’d done all four parks in one day.  Oh, yeah, I’ve totally created a monster in my Disney enthusiasm.  I convinced her that we’d have a better time if we just stuck to the Magic Kingdom and rode rides there.  She agreed.  Thankfully.

After dinner, we watched the Dream Along with Mickey show for the first time ever.

I can’t believe we’ve never just stopped and watched this show before!  Ana was game for doing all the things we hadn’t done before, including a stop at Casey’s Corner, where we enjoyed drinks outside on the patio and watched the castle begin to change colors as the sun set.  For as high strung and Type A as Ana is, she can really enjoy kicking back if the setting is right, and she and I sat there and laughed and laughed as she told one corny joke after another.  (Okay, so most of them weren’t even jokes.  They were just that corny and pointless.  But she thought she was hilarious, so I laughed it up right along with her!)  I’m so proud of who she’s becoming and was so glad to get to spend the evening with her.  I love you SO much, Ana-bear!

We ended the night by meeting up, all four of us, in New Fantasyland, and taking another spin on Ariel’s ride.  I think it’s a new favorite for both girls, and I’m so thankful that the line for it is all air-conditioned and shaded.  Hallelujah.

Up next…more Magic Kingdom.  Because we love us some MK!