Pumpkins, Parents and Princesses: Part V

Happy Halloween, America!

This year's Halloween season, as stated before, was bizarre and rushed, but we somehow pulled through and capped it off with this year's successful bout of Trick-or-Treating.  Once again, we decided to stay within our subdivision and hit up the neighbors for plunder, and - surprisingly enough - the kids held out for more than an hour (much longer than last year.)

What sucks is that, after all of this, I still have to pack for an early-morning flight tomorrow.  Yours Truly is flying back to Michigan in the morning for the nuptials of the Sausage Pad's Zack Smith.  More to come regarding this venture, so stay tuned.

Anyway, here's the last installment for the Hough's Halloween Saga, 2013.

Check it out:

The girls re-used their princess dresses and tiaras from the weekend's Bippity Boppity Boutique outing with Dad and Cindy, which only makes sense seeing how they cost so damn much.  Unfortunately, Alayna fought us tooth-and-nail with her hair for the evening - she wanted Kris to do it like the beautician at Disney had. . . which, obviously, wasn't happening.  What followed was a full-on, five-year-old mega-tantrum that's rivaled anything she's thrown in recent memory.  Good times.

Abby as Princess Merida, complete with Angus the Horse and broadsword (you can see Alayna, mid-tantrum, in the background.)

Once Alayna had resolved herself to the fact that she wasn't getting the same hour-long, hair style she had gotten a few days earlier, we prepared the kids for Trick-or-Treating. . .

Cindy bought the girls these light-up princess scepters, which they really got a kick out of  while running around the neighborhood after sunset. . .

Hitting up the first house for plunder. . . .

We have some neighbors that definitely get into holiday decorating, chiefly Christmas and Halloween. . .

Abby, usually spooked by anything remotely scary, was ready to brave the terrors of Hell if it meant getting her hands on candy. . .

Feeling up tombstones

Abby gets spooked by creepy Halloween sound effects. . .

Rollin' down Ginger Mill (once again, Kris' friend Maria and her family joined us as we went door-to-door throughout the subdivision.)

After an hour or so, the kids were wagon-bound, becoming exhausted from all the walking, and past their bed-time by about a half an hour. . . 

Back at home, Abby, as always, ran right to the 'fridge for a drink. . .

Posing with plunder

- Brian

Pumpkins, Parents and Princesses: Part IV

Ready for a crap load of Disney pictures?

You bet you are.

Behold: the Houghs lay siege to the Magic Kingdom. . .

Kris and I swung by Dad and Cindy's hotel early in the morning in order to round up the girls and load everyone up in our Tactical Family Transport Vehicle.  

In order to squeeze in as much as humanly possible before the girls'  11:30am appointment at the Bippity Boppity Boutique make-over, we wanted to get to the entrance of the Magic Kingdom by Rope Drop.

Highway to the Danger Zone.

Getting ready to board the ol' Monorail.

Pumped.

The monorails were running abnormally slow this morning - we stood around and waited for nearly fifteen minutes before we finally set off for the park.

We have to keep the monorail system in mind next time we want to entertain our children on the cheap - they were big fans of this.

Since we are so close to Halloween, Disney's already decked out their theme parks in full-on fall regalia. . .

The Rope Drop 'pre-game' show.  Basically a bunch of underpaid park employees dancing around a trolley in weird costumes. 

Strolling down Main Street (or, as I like to call it, Bottleneck Alley.)

The Houghs

With Papa and Nana

Cannonball and Castle

Pretty, yes.  Built to withstand a proper siege?  I have my doubts.

Strolling (get it?) into Disney's new Fantasyland expansion.

In line for Winnie the Pooh (formerly something way, way better.)  Abby freaked out throughout the duration of this ride, reaffirming her status as the Hough Family Coward.

Tea Cups (or, Barf Buckets.)

En route to Dumbo's Flying Circus. . .

I really, really wanted to get a picture of Cindy with the Evil Stepmother from Cinderella, but the lady wasn't having it. . .

. . .this is about as good as I got.

Half-naked sixteen-year-old.  'Nothing inappropriate going on here,' says Disney.

The Little Mermaid is straight-up crack for little girls.

Into the Circus. . .

Waiting in line. . . something we found ourselves doing more and more of ever since Disney changed their FastPass system to better accommodate their resort guests.  Basically it's a two-class system - the VIP preferred resort guests, and all us plebeians.  F*** you very much, Disney World.

Dumbo'd.

Next stop:  The Little Mermaid

Ariel's Castle

This ride was a lot like Nemo's Under the Sea Adventure at Epcot - you basically go along a track inside a large clamshell, and relive all the famous scenes from the movie.  Nothing groundbreaking, but if you're a little girl under the age of 7, this is about as cool as life gets.  Unless it started raining ponies.

(Don't worry - they kept their clothes on.)

Beast's Castle, in the distance - we'd be heading over that way later on for lunch. . .

Another new attraction we wanted to check out with the girls was Enchanted Tales with Belle - where a chick in a Belle costume interacts with smaller audiences in a close-setting.  Unfortunately, while we were waiting in line, Alayna began to get very, very sick. . .

While Dad, Cindy, Abby and I held our place in the slow-moving line (the size of the audience was very small, so accordingly the line moved at a snail's pace), Kris went to take Alayna to the restroom and get her hands on some Tylenol. . .

Fortunately, Kris and Alayna made it back to the front of the line just as we were about to go in.  We doped up the Cannonball and entered the attraction. . . where a talking dresser and some old guy assigned parts in a play to random kids in the gathered audience (fortunately our children were not selected.)

Some local Floridian Belle and a Candlestick (I forget his name) spin yarns with a bunch of kids. . .

The girls snatch a photo-op with Belle after the show. . . and you can tell just by looking at her that Alayna is having a BLAST!

Bookmarks.  'Cause Belle likes to read.  AND 'cause Disney's cheap and they figured 'screw it - it's paper, but it has a princess on it, ergo kids will love the shit out of it.'  Well played, Disney - well played.

We scoped out a little of the new Fantasyland expansion while the kids went to the restroom - as with other sections of the parks, there's a lot of attention to detail.

Sadly, I didn't get to hang out at this tavern. . . though, being the Magic Kingdom and everything, I doubt they served beer there regardless.

Alayna was pretty much comatose following Belle's thing, but Abby was still revved up, so I volunteered to push Alayna - who had by now fallen asleep in the stroller - around for awhile so that Dad, Cindy, and Kris could take Abby on It's a Small World - arguably the worst ride in human existence.

Welcome to Hell, folks!

In real life, this thing would eat the shit out of you.

When you're 3, everything is frickin' AMAZING. . . including horribly racist animatronics.

Dad and Abby outside Rapunzel's tower, a la Tangled.

Still passed out.

The Tangled addition to the Magic Kingdom is more or less a couple restrooms and a gift shop.  Nice job, guys.

With Alayna still out, but the day wearing on, we decided to hit up the Carousel outside Sleeping Beauty's castle. . .

Kris!

Abby would ride these things all day if you let her.

Following the carousel, we headed into the castle, where the Bippity Boppity Boutique is located. . .

Kris primes the kids, including the Cannonball, who had recently risen from the Dead. . .

There's always time for Fruit Snacks. 

Time for pamperin'.

The Boutique was running a lit behind of schedule, so they had us take the girls in the back to get suited up in their aforementioned princess dresses (courtesy of Papa and Nana.)

This wait was excruciatingly boring, but the girls did pretty good, considering it was standing-room only and people were constantly bustling back and forth between the waiting room and the make-over room. . .

When it was finally the girls' turn to get done up, we fortunately were able to snag two seats next to each other. . .

Alayna chose the most difficult hairstyle available, while we talked Abby into a simpler one.

First time wearing make-up.  Alayna was a big fan of this whole process. . .

Hopefully this is a unicorn horn.

Alayna's beautician truly deserved a Medal of Honor after combatting her way through our kid's hair.  The whole process was painful to watch.

Thank God they had benches - this process took a long, long time.

Alayna as Aurora, the princess from Sleeping Beauty.

Time for glitter Pixie Dust!

Abby was thrilled with her make-over - her beautician was very good with her.

Abby as Merida, the princess from Brave.

A really cute picture of my kid. . . PHOTOBOMBED by some random lady who is falling to pieces over her.  Who the hell is this lady, and why is she so excited to see my daughter dressed up like a princess?

Gang signs.

This picture would've been a lot cooler had it been taken from the opposite angle, so that the castle was in the background instead of the carousel. . . but whatever.

Another round on the carousel?  Why not.

Taking the pathway away from the castle and Fantasyland towards Merida's grove.

Abby's explaining something that I'm sure is really, really important.

While waiting in line for a chance to meet Merida from Brave, the girls were able to do several kid-friendly activities.  Such as coloring. . .

. . . and shooting a bow and arrow at homeless people.

In all actuality, though, the arrows were tipped in sandbags or something, so the hobos never, ever felt pain.  Only shame.  Deep, deep shame.

Getting Merida to autograph some bitchin' coloring book pages.

This chick was actually Scottish.  Nice work, Disney.

(I think they're supposed to be shooting bows here. . .)

Back in Fantasyland, we headed over to Beast's Castle for a French lunch. . .

As always, the decor was awesome.

The rooms inside the restaurant were designed to mirror the rooms in the Beast's castle from Beauty and the Beast. 

Believe it or not, this impressive room was nothing more than an upscale cafeteria.  The windows in the background simulated snow falling, which was cool. . .

Once again, however, Alayna was too sick to enjoy herself.  She had been running a fever throughout the day, and now that the Tylenol we had given her earlier was beginning to wear off, she was beginning to feel sick again.  Sure enough, as we waited in line to order our food, Kris was forced to rush her into a bathroom so she could projectile vomit into a trash bin.  'Cause we're classy like that.

Afterwards, we attempted to shove French food down her, but she was pretty wishy-washy about the whole thing.  Surprise surprise.  My sandwich was pretty good, at any rate.

Leaving Beast's castle, we decided to meet some of the other Disney Princesses, seeing how we had already met Merida and Belle. . .

Hey kids, it's Cinderella. . . nobody's favorite princess.

Alayna was really excited to meet Aurora. . . more or less 'cause they both are apparently big fans of the color pink.

Aurora's face says it all.

Our kids were pretty much spent after meeting the princesses.  As we waited in line to pick up their Bippity Boppity Boutique pictures (which took longer than we expected, seeing how the assholes ahead of us were taking their precious time), we coincidently met the only other two Detroit Lions fans in the state of Florida.  Oddly enough, while we were standing in line complaining about their inevitable loss to Dallas,  another Lions fan walked up to us in line, and as we all pulled out our smart phones to follow the Detroit-Dallas game, Detroit came back in the last minute of the game to score a winning touchdown.  Booya!

One last shot of Dad and Cindy in front of the castle.

Leaving the Magic Kingdom after a long, magical, expensive day. . .

Checking out pictures and frames

Cheese cracker teeth.  Always classy.

Out again.

Waiting for the monorail to take us back to the Tactical Family Transport Vehicle.

We drove back to Dad and Cindy's resort, where we began the long, nerdy process of offloading pictures, swapping pictures, and organizing pictures into appropriate file folders.  Once that was done, we packed up all of our kids' crap and said farewell to Dad and Cindy, as we had to work early in the morning the next day. . .

- Brian