Character meet and greet breakfast

A few weeks ago, Rich and I learned of a character meet and greet breakfast hosted by a charitable organization. The character list included Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Rich and I had never heard of such a thing. "Are these the real Disney characters?" we asked each other.

We placed the event on our calendar as a let's see what is going on that day and said absolutely nothing to the girls. Another advertisement for the breakfast made its way into our home. This one included black and white Disney clip art. Real characters. "Maybe Disney teams up with them because they are a charitable organization?" I thought. I questioned.

You see, I didn't really care if the characters were real or not. I just didn't want my kids to start asking questions. I was also kind of curious but I guess you can simply walk into any costume shop and rent Mickey and Minnie costumes.

The girls were up early on Saturday morning and we needed to run some errands so we decided to drive over and check out this character thing. The organization was set up to benefit a good cause so I didn't mind giving them a donation even if we walked in and turned around and walked out.

I suggested that the girls bring their Minnies with them. Only Emily did. They still had no idea what we were doing. As we were paying our donation at the entrance, the woman collecting the money spotted Em's Minnie and said, "Oh, Minnie should be out soon. I think she is just finishing up her breakfast." Em's face said, "Um....what did you say?"

So yeah, the characters were F-A-K-E. Rich and I spend a lot of time communicating by spelling these days. The girls wanted absolutely nothing to do with the non-Disney characters. Clifford the Big Red Dog get away from me. Bugs Bunny don't even think about it. They happily hugged Minnie, tolerated Mickey (he's a boy) and hugged Winnie the Pooh (apparently, they didn't get the memo stating that Winnie is in fact a boy in this case.)

Allie was afraid to stand over with Mickey so she is completely blocking Em out of this picture, which made me laugh.

I just love how Em is holding her honey bear in this picture with Winnie.

When Em is nervous or unsure of her surroundings, she refuses to take her jacket off. Maybe she thinks it will make for a faster getaway if she keeps it on. I really have no other explanation.

Oh, I almost forgot about Cinderella. I think the girls were a bit suspicious.

Did you catch the super cuteness in that one? Allie and Em are holding hands.

I would have to say that 80% of the kids there were the girls' age or younger. I heard one kid yell out, "Hey, where's Goofy?" (Apparently, he didn't get the memo stating that we weren't at Disney.) The girls had fun. Anna kept asking to meet Minnie so they did the whole meet and greet thing with her three times. And then Anna cried at the end because I didn't take any pictures of their last meeting and greeting.

In addition to the meeting and greeting and donuts, there were pictures to color and face painting. The girls did both. Now they keep calling it "the place" as if it is someplace we can go to whenever we want. Like Disney. "When go back to the place, I'm going to get my face painted again."