Family Vacation Part 3

On Wednesday, we celebrated Mike's 31st birthday!!!  As posted earlier, we also welcomed a new niece into the world that morning, too.  We are still anxiously awaiting our chance to meet this new adorable addition to the family (yeah for Facebook and great family for posting pictures!)

As for how we celebrated Mike's birthday, we went to Downtown Disney.  Mike really liked the sea dragon made of Legos.  Our sadness, however, was that the Lego store was being remodeled so there wasn't much else to see and that is generally the coolest store to check out-maybe next time!

Jadyn enjoyed the big Disney Store and the chance to get some pictures with princesses and other characters.

We found Mickey watering some plants

Graeme knew there was something not quite right about this pirate captain

We then headed over to T-Rex cafe to take Mike out for his birthday

The kids really got a kick out of the big dinosaur skeletons outside the restaurant

We were first seated right under this T-rex.  Graeme love it-that is, until he roared and freaked the kids out and so we asked if we could move tables.

They then seated us in the ice cave, which was fun (except for the noise and lights of the "meteor shower" every 20 minutes).  Graeme never really did get over the surprise of the first dinosaur roaring, so Mike took him and Jadyn for an exploration of the restaurant.

Liam thought it was all great and had a blast in his chair

Graeme wanted his daddy to hold him tight

We had a fun and very yummy dessert-a brownie/ice cream lava "cake"

It was a blast, but we would definitely recommend kids be at least 5 or 6 before you make reservations here.  

After lunch we continued exploring and found Buzz.

We did find the temporary location of the Lego Store and while it didn't have the little displays that can be so much fun, we did find Lego Woody.

Our next stop was to get Liam's name put on his ears-he was very excited!

Jadyn liked seeing all the broomsticks carrying buckets.

We also found a water adventure for Jadyn and Graeme.  Their laughter and play made Liam giggle and smile as he watched from the sidelines.

When we got back to the hotel that evening, Jadyn and Graeme engaged in an age old activity-PILLOW FIGHT!  They are both experts of the hit and run!

Mike's birthday was quite the adventure this year.  I know he will always remember this one.  He got really great presents-great memories and especially that he gets to share his birthday with Anna Joy!

Family Vacation Part 2

Tuesday was our trek into the Magic Kingdom.  After an adventure with a confused cashier just to get our tickets for the day, we made it across to Main Street.  We headed thru the castle and over toward Toon Town.

We passed signs along the way telling us about the Fantasyland expansion coming soon.  The kids liked the large paintings of the characters.  While Jadyn posed, Graeme came over to check out the Beast.

We found the White Rabbit outside the Tea Cups.  We then headed over to Toon Town (it will be closing February 12, so it was nice to see it one last time)

While this was Mike's least favorite part of the Disney experience, he played the sweet uncle role and we took Jadyn to see the fairies in Pixie Hollow.  Her favorite fairy was Rosetta.

Tinkerbell was excited to see her little mini pixie.

Vidia made faces and told Jadyn to keep asking us to pick her up a new costume.  We did see a lot more characters throughout the day, but for Mike's sanity we didn't meet any more.

After making it through the fairy experiences, we headed over to the play area for the kids to crawl, slide and get rid of a little bit of energy.  

One of our favorite rides was the Tea Cups.  Graeme and Jadyn had a blast spinning and twirling and waving to Mike.  It was a lot of fun.

Next we headed over to Jadyn's favorite ride, It's a Small World.  Graeme was excited and perhaps a bit nervous to be in the boat.

Liam enjoyed the ride with his daddy.

It was fun riding along with the commentary from the kids.

Liam enjoyed his first trip to Disney.

Jadyn picked out new big girl princess Minnie ears.

The Sword is still in the Stone . . .

Next we headed over to Adventureland and a kid/adult favorite-the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House

The kids liked climbing

I liked the view

After the tree house, we arrived just in time for some pirate lessons from Captain Jack Sparrow

As we made it to Frontierland, the kids were so cute that Donald came over to say "Hi" to them.

Liam's ears 

A brief moment with all 3 kids wearing their ears :-)

A classic photo shot

We got the kids a balloon and some popcorn for the parade (which was free thanks to the wait and craziness with getting our tickets straightened out in the morning)

Waiting for the parade

Graeme thought the balloon weights made a great harmonica

My boys

Parade Time

Jadyn was so excited and cute as she watched the parade, waving to all the characters as they passed us by

Liam played more than watched (especially as a lady stepped right in front of him and blocked him)

The parade finished up and so did our day.  Mike is ready to tackle Disney again…  in a few years.