Cuteness Overload

Today was one of those days that makes you really feel that Disney Magic. We had an amazing day at Epcot that was, well, overloaded with cuteness. The day started out with reservations at the absolutely magical lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway with the Princess Storybook lunch. Though we had to make a couple stops along the way as we saw and met Braer Fox and none other than MAX FROM A GOOFY MOVIE (one of Claire's and our family's favorite)!!! After getting over the excitement of meeting Max, we continued onto the lunch where Claire (and the rest of us) were very excited to meet Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel (Aunt Katie's favorite princess), Snow White, and most of all Cinderella! We may be biased, but we think all the princesses gave our little princess some extra special attention since she was so cute. While we were eating lunch, Cinderella came and whisked Claire away from our table for the Princess Procession where all the little princesses got to walk elegantly around the restaurant practicing their princess waves. Claire, having been specially picked by Cinderella an extra couple minutes before the processional, got to hold Cinderella's hand the entire processional! Of course, the rest of is were all a little teared up from the sweetness and magic of it all watching Claire walk around holding hands with Cinderella in a blissful daze.

After the princess lunch, we continued on throughout our day. Ben got Claire a "Passport" that was stamped & signed with a special message just for Claire in the each of the countries' native languages throughout the day. Greg, Becky, Sean & Katie road the awesome hang-gliding simulation ride Soarin' while Claire, Ben, & Mandi looked for another autograph book since the first one seemed to be filling up so fast! We also went on another couple country rides (including a Three Caballeros ride in Mexico)! Along the way we met Daisy Duck, Donald in his Three Caballeros attire in Mexico (Daddy was EXTRA excited about that meeting), Marie from Aristocats in France, Alice (who Aunt Katie was also THRILLED to see) in the UK, and saw Mary Poppins there as well, but didn't get a chance to meet her. A big highlight was meeting Mandi's favorite Aladdin & Jasmine in Morocco. Claire met them and got a picture with them, as did Mandi (since they are her favorite - well, mostly Aladdin), and Uncle Sean (who insisted he should get a picture with them since he was born in Saudi Arabia).

After touring the countries, we moved to the seas, where we all enjoyed helping Nemo's dad find him. We also had an amazing interactive experience with the sea turtle Crush who was a comical hit!

Finally it was time for the biggest moment yet... MICKEY MOUSE! We ended our night by heading to Epcot Character Spot. Claire was energetic, jumping, and dancing through the wait and meeting the characters. We met none other than Mickey (who we got about a thousand pictures with), Minnie (another one of Mandi's favorites), Pluto, Donald (Ben was SO excited to finally meet the "classic" Donald), and Goofy (Sean's favorite). Goofy was extra special since he had such a great time playing with Claire, and he even wrote her an extra special note with his autograph; so, of course, we got a family photo with him too.

The night ended perfectly with a clean, bathed Princess Claire tucking into bed with Mickey and her new Princess Minnie while some of the adults hit the pool. It was truly an adorable, magical, happy, and, of course, overly cute day.

P.S. It was extra hard to choose which picture to post today!