Disney World 2012--Day Five (Epcot)

***I feel like I have to preface these pictures by saying that Ava did not approve of the shoes that she had to wear with her new hot pink/zebra Minnie Mouse dress.  She was not happy at all that morning when she realized that the only ones I had packed for her were her tennis shoes.  She kept telling me that they looked horrible with her dress and just ruined her whole look.  I explained to her that I only packed her tennis shoes because I knew she would be doing a lot of walking but this did not appease her.  I know one day she will read this and this subject will come up again when she looks at the pictures.  I can just hear my little fashionista now, "MO-OM!  I cannot believe that you put those pictures of me on here for everyone to see when I was wearing those awful shoes with my very pretty dress!"  So Ava, I apologize again but I still think you looked adorable!***
Thursday morning, we arrived at Epcot early and had enough time to visit the Character Spot before our breakfast reservation.

Autographs, thumbs up, and hugs and kisses from Mickey Mouse himself!

Hugs and high fives from Minnie Mouse

More love from Pluto, Donald, and Goofy

The Epcot International Garden & Flower Festival started while we were there and it was beautiful.  We really enjoyed looking at all the displays.

We made our way over to Norway for the princess breakfast at Akershus.

We were greeted in the entry by Ava's favorite princess, Belle!!!

We were seated and had just enough time to visit the pastry buffet when they made the announcement that it was time for the Princess Processional!  Ava was in Cinderella's group

and she walked proudly around the banquet hall with the other little princesses.

After the processional, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast.  I had read Akershus was all about the princess experience and that the food was nothing to write home about, but our family has to disagree.  The food was yummy and we actually had them bring us a second platter to split amongst the four of us.  Soon after, the princesses started coming over to visit with Ava.  The first one to stop by was Sleeping Beauty herself, Princess Aurora!  She gave Ava her autograph,

posed for pictures,

and took time to have the sweetest talk with Ava.  Here she is telling her that she can be anything she wants to be and to always make wishes because they can come true.  Talk about an emotional scene for me to watch!  It was really sweet of Aurora to take the time to share those special words with Ava and she really spoke them with a lot of conviction.  

We were also visited by Cinderella 

Snow White

and Ariel.  Ariel did a great job of staying completely in character.

Ava also got another birthday cupcake (for breakfast!) and got to blow out her candle.  She also received a birthday card signed by all the princesses that she got to meet that morning!

After breakfast, we walked over to ride The Seas with Nemo and Friends and then we went to Turtle Talk with Crush.  Ava got to sit up front with all the other kids and interact with Crush.  It was really cute.  After the show ended, we went to check out the aquarium.  We had seen one side of the aquarium when we ate at Coral Reef on our first night in WDW so it was neat to see the rest.  We really loved watching the dolphins and they kept swimming right by the glass in front of us.  It was so cool to see one that closely.  Mom and I couldn't tear ourselves away from the dolphins and sea turtles but Kevin and Ava had walked off to explore.  I wish now that we had walked with them because the coolest thing happened to Ava when she and Kevin were on the other side of the aquarium.  They found a quiet spot to watch the sharks were no one else was and at that moment two scuba divers dove into the tank right in front of them.  They came over to the window to wave "hi" to Kevin and Ava and noticed Ava's birthday button.  They swam to the bottom of the tank and picked up handfuls of gravel and came back to the window and threw the gravel into the air like confetti.  They took their regulators and filled the water with bubbles and mouthed "happy birthday!" to Ava.  How cool is that!  I hate that I missed it and had to just hear Kevin and Ava describing it.  When we finally tore ourselves away from the aquarium, Ava discovered Bruce and had to take her picture with him.

After The Seas, we walked over to The Land so that Kevin, Ava, and mom could ride Soarin'.  They loved it and told me all about the ride.  We decided to tour the World Showcase and visit all the countries before going to ride Test Track.  We were strolling along and spotted Alice in Wonderland as we walked into England.  I leaned down to peek into the stroller to ask Ava if she would like to go meet Alice and realized that Ava was sound asleep.  So we ended up missing opportunities to meet Mary Poppins and Beast as well but Ava obviously needed her rest.  Mom, Kevin, and I just enjoyed strolling along and enjoying the sights in the different countries.  Ava woke up in time to ride Test Track and then we decided to go back to our room to relax and swim before going back to Epcot for dinner and Illuminations.  Later that evening, we hopped the bus back to Epcot and went back to The Land to eat dinner at Sunshine Seasons.  After we ate we scouted out a spot around the Lagoon for Illuminations.  We just sat right down on the concrete in front of the railing and made ourselves comfortable.  As we were waiting for the show to start, Ava and Kevin amused themselves by playing with these light saber things.  It was the first thing that Ava had asked us to buy her all week.  I can't believe we went 5 days without her asking for something!  

Illuminations was good but not my favorite show by a long shot.  It was not something that I will feel like I have to make a point to see each time we go to WDW.  Our day at Epcot ended up being our most relaxing day of the week so far and it was nice to kind of recharge.  We only had one more full day at the parks and it was nice to rest up for it!  Up next, spending our last day at WDW back where it all began--Magic Kingdom!!!!