Today we started with a car ride! Okay, okay, with breakfast but after that we jumped in the car to stop at the nearest Starbucks with drive-thru! 

Danielle got her NFFW and I got my CDL with both a Chocolate Chunk Cookie! And the coffee was a necessity as we were about to drive 3:13 hours as we got an invitation to meet both “Sinterklaas & Zwarte Piet” Celebrating Sinterklaas is a Dutch tradition and in short it is about the birthday of Sinterklaas, on the 6th of December he celebrates his birthday and on the 5th he gives presents to the people. After that he leaves to Spain to return a year after. For the none familiar readers: Wikipedia is your friend! 🙂

Emily did better as expected in the car, we drove to Davie, Florida (close to Miami) without stopping! Lucky for us we had some time left for a quick lunch at the McDonald’s! Emily got her first ever Happy Meal and she finished it…the McNuggets were gone really quick! 

Soon it was time to the local Scandinavian Church to welcome Sinterklaas himself. The organization, the N.A.S.F (Netherlands Association of South Florida), out did themselves. There was Dutch food (Poffertjes), Sinterklaas candy (Taaitaai, Kruidnoten, etc.) and games kids. 

At 16:15 Sinterklaas invite Emily over to get her gift! By now she is a professional unwrapper and she helped the other kids before she got her present. Not afraid at all she walked over smiled at Zwarte Piet, waved to Sinterklaas and sat down unwrapping her box with miniature Care-bears! Mama and Papa needed to help with opening the box but as soon as she could hold one of them she was happy! After a group picture we left as Emily was really tired. 

The first 1,5 hour Emily slept like Aurora and the last 2 she was awake looking at the lights around us. And I know I wrote no Disney yesterday but I made an executive decision and drove straight to EPCOT, the idea was to watch Illuminations! 

But it turned out a bit different! The line up for a picture with Joy & Sadness from the movie Inside Out was really short and thus Emily and Mama waited in line while Papa got something to eat and drink. Finally back it took just 10 more minutes before it was Emily’s turn to meet them…

She loved it, she walked through the whole meeting area with them touching the memories, pushing buttons and pulling handles at the control panel, chasing each other and more! There was not a single moment she was shy.  

At the very end of the meet Joy decided that Emily earned stickers…they were all over her head, skirt and legging. But Emily didn’t care she was sitting there with two new best friends watching the memories Riley was making! 

After this meet and greet we met with Baymax!

 Looking at the time (21:05) Illuminations would not be possible anymore…until we found out that it doesn’t start until 21:30 while we drove back to the villa…there I had my sadness kicking in. 

But for Emily it was better to get home, she was too tired to stay longer and as soon as we came home she went to bed! Probably dreaming of Bing Bong singing: 

Who’s your friend who likes to play?

Bing Bong, Bing Bong

His rocket makes you yell “Hooray!”

Bing Bong, Bing Bong

Who’s the best in every way, and wants to sing this song to say

Bing Bong, Bing Bong!

Goodnight! 

Day three was packed with fun again! We started Emily was either tired from the day or already used to the her temporary bed and bedroom  since she slept from 8:30-7:30. Ideal I would say and soon after the little princess woke up Danielle fired up the engine from our Ford Escape. 

At 8:55 we arrived at Animal Kingdom, first stop Chip & Dale in front of the gated! Emily loved them she even gave both of them real kisses… And yes i have to admit I was a bit jealous! 

After the hugs, kisses and squeezing we walked into the kingdom. First person to meet was Tarzan! 

After Tarzan Emily and I waited in line to meet with Flik, in February this was the only character which made her cry. Mama got us coffee and cookies in the meantime and as soon as Mama came it was our turn! She even took a picture with Flik by herself, what a change since last time. And not only this but the fact that Emily is not overly shy around the characters amazes both of us. 

Finally time for some adult entertainment: Dinosaur! First Danielle went and afterwards I got to go through rider switch! 

When we were both done with Dinosaur! we were just in time to meet with Santa Goofy and Pluto! Emily is most interested in Pluto, probably because she has a smaller version of him at home! I got a big hug from my all time favorite: Goofy! 

After we had these pictures taken we did a ride we had never ever done before: Triceratop Spin! Emily smiled from ear to ear! 

Almost time to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse we walked over to their location and Emily fell a sleep… Time for Plan B, we could ride Expedition Everest which we did! 

While Danielle was riding I sneaked away with a sleeping little one getting Danielle a Dumbo Magicband! After we got together Emily woke up just in time for the meet and greet with the mice! 

Then we headed towards Disney Springs for a lunch together with our friends at the Boarhouse. 

After the lunch we went shopping, ok my shopping was building A Lego race-car with Julius! Soon it was time to say goodbye as they drove back home after. 

We went back to our temporary home, the villa. Here we played a little but and had BBQ sausage dinner! Emily loved it.. 

It is a bit fresh outside and thus we decided to watch some Netflix before we call it a day! 

Tomorrow no Disney but we are meeting someone very special!