A Grand Send Off

Unfortunately, our time at Disney World had come to an end.  It was a busy trip with lots of firsts, some great park time, good food, and even better snacks.  Not that its a competition, but this trip will be hard to beat! Thanks to Shades of Green and a company called Raytheon, there was one more cool thing for this trip.  

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2017

The event was described as a Character Breakfast, but it wasn't a character breakfast in the true sense of one.  The event was sponsored by Raytheon (a DoD contractor) and was open to all guests at Shades of Green.  It took place in all the ballrooms in the hotel lobby.  Breakfast was a line outside, where everyone was given a small Raytheon cooler and a bevy of breakfast snacks.  Clementines, cheese sticks, packaged muffins, yogurt, juice, cereal bars.  It was kind of odd, but free, and there was coffee.

The main event, however, were the characters.  There were two rooms, each room having the set up for four characters.  But some of the characters rotated in and out, so you could meet more than just 8 characters.  Anna and Elsa, for example, shared a backdrop.  So we met one, got back in line and met the other.  Since the event was limited to SoG guests, the lines were very short.  

I have to take my hats of to Raytheon, SoG and Disney.  These were the official Disney characters, including their handlers.  All of the guests at SoG are associated with the military.  The kids in these families sacrifice A LOT because of their parent's service.  Moms and Dads miss birthdays, holidays, ball games, swim lessons, bruised knees, wiggly teeth, and plain old Saturdays with cartoons and snuggles.  I told my kids that the Disney characters heard about how brave the kids are when their parents are gone and they just wanted to say "Thank You" and that was truly the feeling in the air that day. Plus the food and check in table were all staffed with volunteers from Raytheon.  And almost every one of them thanked us and made sure we had everything we needed.

So, enjoy these photos of my kids with a smorgasbord of characters!

Notice how Ryan isn't in a single photo with a Princess? He's 5 and already too cool for them.  Where does the time go?