The Flower & Garden Festival

I just got caught up on all my country blogs, so now it's on to all the other stuff we've been up to! 

We haven't been to Disney in awhile, so we decided on Monday to go over check out the Flower and Garden Festival, visit the Animal Kingdom and maybe hit a water park. 

The Flower and Garden Festival is one of my favorite things at Epcot! The place always looks so pretty with all the flowers and the topiaries. We hit a really good weather day, somewhere in the mid 70s with a mix of clouds and sun. 

But sadly we didn't hit a low crowd day! We were a little shocked at how busy it was. It was the last not-super-busy day on the crowd calendar for like two months (ugh, Spring Break crowds-boooooo!). And maybe the crowd calendar is on point. Maybe this is the new '5', but it's sure not what it used to be. I mean when the wait for Spaceship Earth is 85 minutes, on a '5', I'm not sure what to do. I couldn't get any good Fastpasses (that should have been my first hint it was going to be busy), so I booked some for later that night at the Animal Kingdom. 

We decided to power through though, and we had a good time despite the crowds. 

Our first stop was Calib's request, the coke place to try the different drinks from around the world. 

And then we picked up our Flower and Garden Festival gift card. Since we missed the Food and Wine Festival this year we were more excited about the 'outdoor kitchens' than usual. The giftcard is just a good way to manage how much you spend, and when you wear it on your wrist, you don't have to fumble with your wallet to pay for your tasting portions. I thought Asa was funny with his Magic Band, Pokemon Go, and the gift card. 

Sometimes we have to convince the boys to try things, but I think with our project this year they're getting better about that. They all WANTED to try everything, even if they weren't too sure. 

At the Northern Bloom Kitchen in Canada, where we got the seared scallops with french green beans, butter potatoes, brown butter vinaigrette and applewood smoked bacon. This was a total hit. Even Peyton liked it, and he's usually weirded out by the texture of scallops. It was my favorite dish we had. 

Up next was the Fleur DeLys outdoor kitchen in France where we got the Poulet aux Ecrevisses Riz Pilaf. What is that exactly? It's baked chicken with crawfish and rice pilaf. It was cooked really well, and the chicken just sort of fell apart. Everyone else got crawfish, and I missed out on that, but this one was gone in an instant, so I'm lucky I got any at all. 

At the same kitchen, Peyton thought we should order the Raspberry Macaroon with chocolate fudge and raspberry jam. You'll see a trend on what Peyton wanted to order. He basically wanted to do a tour of desserts. This one is always good, but if I'm having a macaroon in France, the ice cream sandwich one at the ice cream shop is really where it's at. 

Moving on to the Florida Fresh Kitchen, Calib lobbied for the Carne Asada on top of a black bean cake with cilantro sour cream. The meat was melt in your mouth good, but the black bean cake was a little spicy for me. Calib, who doesn't tolerate spice all that well (but better than me) liked it though. 

At the same booth Asa got the Shrimp and stone ground grits with Andouille sausage, sweet corn tomatoes and cilantro. If you avoid the sausage in this one, you avoid the spice. I'm not a grits fan, but I'm alone in that. I think this was Asa's favorite dish of the day. 

On to the Taste of Marrakesh Kitchen, I'll give you one guess on who lobbied for the baklava. 

Asa meanwhile pouted when we skipped on the home-made falafel with pickled beet and turnip, tomato salad, and tahini sauce, so I sent him back to get it. He was happy he did. The boys all tried it, but Hayden was the only fan. Everyone tried the beet and turnip too, because they wanted to 'try it all'. They didn't like it, but they tried it! 

On to the Hanami outdoor kitchen in Japan, we knew we had to get Frushi, because it's Peyton's favorite. It's kind of weird, because it may be fruit, but it's still wrapped like sushi, and served with whipped cream. Peyton LOVES it though. Everytime one of the food festivals come up he says 'which one is the Frushi?'

At the Smokehouse in the American Adventure pavilion, we got the beef brisket burnt ends hash with white cheddar fondue and pickled jalapenos. It's one of Asa's festival faves, the rest of us pick around the jalapenos, but it is still pretty spicy. 

The rest of us split two pulled pig sliders with coleslaw and crispy onions, along with a frozen lemonade. I usually really like the pig sliders, but honestly I was a little disappointed in them this year. The meat was kind of dry, the sandwich was smaller (the reason we got two) AND it was more expensive than it has been in years past. (I actually noticed that at a few different kitchens, boo!) 

We did swing by the Norway pavilion for a berry cream puff and some school bread. That shop is always there, and it's still a good value. 

After lunch and our walk around the world, we decided the rides weren't worth waiting for (not with crazy long wait times), so we headed over to the water park. 

Now it wasn't the warmest day we've had, but it wasn't freezing either. We were mid 70s and by this point, pretty sunny. I was shocked when we got to Blizzard Beach because there was nobody there. I'm talking like three rows of cars, max. Not a soul in sight at the entrance. 

We basically had the run of the place. There wasn't a wait for anything, a pools were empty. After navigating through some seriously slow walkers at Epcot, it was heaven. 

The line for Summit Plummet is always ridiculous, but Asa and Calib walked right on (twice!), and by 'walked right on', I mean climbed like 200 stairs to get there. Asa also said he was really feeling it the next day after having gone on it twice. We're getting old. 

After an awesome afternoon, with an empty lazy river and no lines for the slides, we went over to the Animal Kingdom, and got to use the brand new 'passholder line'. Fancy! 

I did grab some Fastpasses for the Animal Kingdom, so Hayden and I waited while Asa, Calib, and Peyton went on Expedition Everest. Hayden asked if he could have my phone while we waited, and I obliged. But to my surprise, instead of playing Pokemon Go he loaded up Duolingo so we wouldn't lose our streak (we're on a 39 day one!)

After the other boys came back we went to Flame Tree BBQ for dinner. It's known as one of the best counter service places at Disney and they take Tables in Wonderland, so we get our 20% off. We don't go to the Animal Kingdom a whole lot, so we hadn't eaten there before, but we were excited to try it, and it did not disappoint. 

Plus the eating area is lovely, especially on a nice night like we had. We even had a little duck friend come join us. He was convinced we were going to feed him, but I assure you, we did not. (I didn't zoom in to take the picture of him, I literally had the camera in his face and he didn't care.) 

The Animal Kingdom wasn't as crowded as Epcot, and with our fastpasses, it was much more managable. We visited the boneyard, and rode some family rides. 

We did hit Kilimanjaro Safari at the end, and it was the first time we had gone on it in the dark. We went once at dusk and it was awesome, but honestly, at night it's pretty underwhelming. It's hard to see anything, and there isn't a whole lot out anyway. 

Other than that, we've been working on our usual home school stuff, enjoying the lovely weather, and going to the lodge. 

Asa and I had one of those errand running dates, we went to Crispers for lunch and then over to the new Sprouts Farmers Market. That place is awesome. The coffee aisle is overwhelming, though not priced as well as Trader Joes. BUT the produce section is AMAZING. I haven't gotten grapes that cheap since I lived in Ohio! 69 cents a pound! Also, 69 cents a pound was the chicken I needed for Belize dinner, so I was pretty excited about that find. Overall, it's going to have to be added as a weekly stop if only for produce alone. 

Asa was in the office last week, so Ellie mostly sat around and pouted (especially by Asa's chair), but he's back and working from home this week, so everyone's having a nice laid back week. (As the boys like to say 'things get a bit chaotic when dad isn't around' Hey, running this ship on my own isn't easy!) 

That is it from here, and I am all caught up with the blog until tomorrow's country! Even with the little break to check out the raccoon clinging to the back tree like a sloth with the neighbors. (Yup, that happened). 

Next Up: More countries, and Spring Break, so we likely won't be out and about too much (did you see how well we did with the crowds? That's just not for us!)