It's the Magic Kingdom, baby!

The quintessential park to visit when you're staying at Disney World is The Magic Kingdom.  This much hyped, much anticipated, and much longed for event really lived up to our expectations.  We were there just before the gates opened so we were able to see all of the opening festivities (shown in the next few pictures).  A whole cast of characters are at the entrance ready to welcome you into the park.

Here we make valiant attempts to get good pictures of the girls in front of Cinderella's castle.

As soon as we walked through Cinderella's castle, we happened upon the Fairy Godmother.  Why not take the photo opportunity?

Just beyond the castle is a carousel (always a favorite of the girls when we go to the Children's Museum), and the Sword in the Stone.  Kayla tried and tried, but for some reason it wouldn't budge!

This was the Philharmonic, and it was wonderful!  Not only was it a cool temperature in the theater, but the show was awesome!  Maren was a little less willing to wear the glasses today after being "attacked" by the pie at the Muppet's show at Hollywood Studios.

Kayla scratching her head, "how the heck is this character anyway??"  Stitch, from Lilo and Stitch (for those of you who are also scratching your heads).  We were waiting for Dad to ride Space Mountain, so why not get his autograph?!

Of course I have no idea what might have been paining Maren right here, but something was giving her a headache...maybe the heat!

And now she's just tuning it all out!

Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!  The girls love Toy Story!

On the other side of the park, we found our way to Woody and Jessie.  Now they were really excited to see these two characters, but what you can't tell from this picture is that we waiting for nearly an hour, in the blazing sun, extremely hungry for lunch, just to see them.  The things we do for our children (though the wait wasn't so peachy for the girls either!)

Funny side story on this picture, Woody was looking off into space for most of the pictures we were snapping, so Aaron finally yelled, "hey Woody; over here!"  Good end result!

As we raced out of the park to actually go back to our hotel for a nap (I think this is the only day we actually did that since Maren was such a trooper!), we found that a show was in progress on the stage in front of Cinderella's castle.  It was a great chance to see the princesses, and Kayla was equally excited when Captain Hook made his way onto the stage.

Before we left the park, we also made one of the most important purchases of the trip, Mickey ears!  Kayla chose the princess version (so appropriate) and we picked the Minnie Mouse ears for Maren, which have her red and white polka-dot bow on top.  Super cute!

After naps, we came back for dinner with Winnie the Pooh and crew at the Crystal Palace (it deserves it's own blog - hopefully I get to it some day).  Even though we were all exhausted, I convinced Aaron to let us stick around for the fireworks.  We closed the park, baby!  Overall, it was a magical (though sweaty) day that I'm so thankful we were able to enjoy as a family.