Beauty and the Beast

After lunch on Sunday, we headed back to Hollywood Studios. We went to see the Beauty and the Beast stage show. It was really good show, and again I got a lot of pictures. I picked out my favorites:

Belle in the Town Square

A Beautiful Belle

Lumiere and Mrs. Potts

Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, and Chip

Mrs. Potts, the Beast, Chip, and Lumiere

Mrs. Potts, Chip, the Beast, Cogsworth, and Lumiere

The Whole Cast of Characters

Awwww...How Sweet!

Beauty and the Beast

The Beast Out from Under the Spell

Beauty and the Beast

The End

Happily Ever After

Sunday's Lunch at Epcot

We decided to go to Epcot for lunch on Sunday, so everyone could pick out what they wanted. We boarded one of the Friendship boats and headed that way. It was a nice, relaxing ride. 

He wanted to go, too!

I knew exactly what I wanted...Fish and chips! Adam and Chris wanted the same thing, so the three of us went to England. Marc and Suzie went to Morocco, and Jana went to Mexico.

Adam, Chris, and I walked around England while we were waiting on the Yorkshire County Fish Shop to open. I took quite of few pictures, but these were my favorites:

And Chris took this picture:

Once the Fish Shop opened, we got our fish and chips. Yummy!

Marc ordered some time of wrap in Morocco. It came with hummus and couscous. Ooohhh...and baklava!

After lunch, I decided to walk ahead of the group and take some more pictures. These were taken from across the lake.

This was my first time ever to visit Epcot, and I really enjoyed it. Fortunately, we would have other days to explore further in the park!

Sidebar: A Field Trip to the Botanical Gardens

Today we took our 2nd grade classes on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens. We do this trip every year, but I always manage to find something new, so it's never boring. The weather was perfect! It started off a little cool, but warmed up to a nice comfortable temperature. Don't you just love fall?

My group started our tour in the Butterfly House. The kids love to explore and find all the animals. The good thing is that the Butterfly House only has one entrance/exit, so an adult mans the door, and the kids are free to roam around. Of course, I just had to take some pictures!

We got to see lots of butterflies.

We also saw a cute box turtle, and the kids got to pet him.

After the Butterfly House, we headed over to the Water Garden. The kids got to "fish" using nets and buckets. They usually only catch little minnows, but this year several kids caught frogs. Big frogs! They were so excited!

The Water Garden is such a beautiful place! The pictures always seem to come out perfectly.

On the way to and from the Water Garden, we spotted several interesting scarecrows on the Scarecrow Trail. This year's entries were very creative! These were some of my favorites:

Wonder Woman

Academy for Arts and Academics

A Mixed-Up Scarecrow

(I don't really understand the confusion...

you can never go wrong with orange and blue!)

Flushed Crow

Sally and Jack Skellington

All in all, it was a very good day! We really enjoyed the weather, the animals, and the scenery.

Sunday Morning at Disney's Hollywood Studios

On Sunday morning, we ate breakfast at our resort, then headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios, the park previously known as MGM. It wasn't busy at all, as you can tell from this picture:

We headed straight for Toy Story's Midway Mania, which is a new ride. We expected it to be really busy, so we got our Fast Passes and then got in line to ride. In typical Disney fashion, the theming was awesome! It was liking going back to our childhood and seeing toys and games that we grew up with. Such memories!

The ride was really fun! We used the first ride as a practice for the Golden Mickey tie breaker, then counted the next ride as the real thing. Adam beat me by quite a few points and became the Golden Mickey Champion! Congratulations, Adam!

After Midway Mania, we started walking back toward the front of the park. Marc decided that he wanted to buy a lanyard, so I went with him to look for one. Jana also decided to use the restroom, so Adam, Suzie, and Chris went to check out One Man's Dream. Well, lo and behold, the Dream Team was inside handing out Magical Moments Fast Passes. So, we missed out on getting a Magical Moment...the first of many missed opportunities!

After our letdown, we decided to head over to Epcot to get lunch. On our way out of the park, we saw Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and Marc and Adam posed with them for a picture.

And one last picture of Jana, Joseph, and me:

In the next post, I'll pick up on our boat ride to Epcot and our wonderful lunch. Lots more pictures to come!