Your are cordially invited... (from March 28, 2010)

(from March 28, 2010 - good thing i write the posts when things happen otherwise i would not remember - trying to catch up on downloading pictures) 

to a Jungle party to celebrate Dylan's First Birthday!! Today we had a party at Grandma and Papa's house and while it was chaotic and loud, I think that everyone had a great time.

The big hit of the party was the train table set up - Jay and I set up the most elaborate tracks possible on two different tables the night before to ensure that most of the kids would be able to play at the same time. We debated getting a bunch of party games and I am glad I didn't because all of the kids were perfectly content to play trains the whole party. A jungle party would not be complete though without a little Pin the Nose on the Lion.

Dylan wasn't too into eating his cake or singing Happy Birthday but that was one of my favorite parts of the party, especially after watching the video (of course, I can't get it to upload). I was so proud of Ryan - how loud he sang, how genuinely excited he seemed to be singing to his brother, how he seemed to be ok with the fact that it was not his birthday party too.

Jay and I are very fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends and are truly appreciative that so many people wanted to help us celebrate Dylan's birthday (All together, there were 12 kids there under the age of 6 and about 30 adults). Thanks to everyone for making the day a huge success!! A special thank you to Grandma and Papa for making all of the food and allowing us to wreck your house for yet another party - it was a great day!xoxoxoxo.

Day 7 - Our last Day at Disney

I am so behind on this blog considering this post is more than a year old - trying to get some new material up soon

(from April 30, 2010)

The last day at Disney was split between Magic Kingdom and Epcot again.   We started the day at MK because there was a lot of kiddie things there that we had not done yet. 

We spent almost the whole time at in Mickey's Toontown, where the kids got to see Minnie and Mickey's house, go on mini rides, meet some more characters and finish with a ride back to the entrance on Mickey's railway.

On the way out of the park, we spotted The Pirates League and decided to check it out.   Ryan decided he wanted to be a pirate so "Captain Jack" and his crew transformed him in to one of them.   He got a new pirate name (Thomas Damploader), swore a pirate oath, and then sat down for the transformation!

Dylan was so patient while Ryan got his face painted and was content sitting with an apple - I love this picture of though because you can see he only has two bottom teeth then.

Half way through, Ryan said he loved it.   By the end he said "My face is kind of scaring me"

When the makeup was all finished, Ryan was given his "Pirate Booty" - a bandanna, earring and eye patch,  gold doubloons, and fake teeth.   He donned his sword and sheath and stepped outside to fight off all enemies!  He was invited to join the pirate parade that afternoon but the kids were napping and we missed it - I know Ryan would have been the best pirate in the parade though!

We really had a great trip and while the kids napped, we sat on a bench at Epcot and just looked out on the lake and talked about all of the fun we had. 

 The kids woke up and played together in this open area by the lake and watching them was one of my favorite parts of the trips.  For some reason (maybe the pirate scared them off), we had this whole area to ourselves and the kids were having the best time just playing with each other.  It was also very exciting because Dylan started to walk!

Our final stop was a playground in the Flower and Garden Showcase and this picture cracks me up every time I see it - although you can't tell by the picture, Ryan loved it but in this picture doesn't it look like he is thinking "Why doesn't anyone want to play with me?"  - probably because you look so freaky Ryan, lol.

On a side note, it took almost three days to get all of the makeup off Pirate Boy.

We spent a few hours at the pool on Sat before we headed to the airport.  

 When we got on the plane, the pilot asked Ryan if he would like to see the cockpit and when we said yes, the pilot said "well come have a seat then" - I couldn't believe it!! The plane was about half-full at the time and Ryan even got to make an announcement "Welcome Aboard Everyone".  I am positive I was more excited than Ryan.    We all had a great but exhausting vacation - Ryan is already begging to go back.

Disney - Day 6 - The whole gang at Magic Kingdom

(from April 29th)

Bright and early, we all headed over to Magic Kingdom for our final character breakfast at Crystal Palace.

 

 Crystal Place is HUGE and it was pretty crowded but the kids were very excited to see the characters and even Dylan had warmed up to them.   First up was Piglet and Ryan could not wait to get more entries in his autograph book.  By this point in the trip, as soon as he saw a character, he would run over to me to get his book and would flip as quickly as possible to try and find an empty page for them to sign.  Because we were on the early side for the reservations, Piglet spent quite a bit of time with the boys as the restaurant was still kind of empty. 

The breakfast was pretty long as we waited for all of the characters to stop by and we definitely ate our moneys worth of food, especially when it came to the Mickey waffles.

While I most enjoyed Piglet, Ryan's clear favorite was Tigger.

Please just look at his excitement, lol

When we finished breakfast, we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain before it got too crowded.  We were thinking we would get a fast pass when we met a woman who worked at Disney who told us she was a trainee and that she could take the whole family on the ride through the fast pass lane - Yippee!!! Ryan was so happy to go on the ride, especially when he realized it was a train and almost the whole ride, he held his hands up in the air (at the end of vacation, he said this and Splash Mountain were his favorite rides).  

Of all of the days, I took the least amount of pictures this day.   It was pretty hot out, the lines were the longest they had been and I put the camera away for the most part to enjoy the day. I did take a few of the kids though enjoying some rides - Its a small world and the Dumbo ride were two favorites of the day

In the afternoon, everyone else went back to the hotel and the 4 of us headed back to Epcot - finally, the kids got to enjoy the World Showcase a little bit.   In each country, there is a station for kids to decorate a mask and on the back of the mask, a "local" writes their name and gives them a stamp on the back of the mask.  Ryan got very interested in it and even brought the mask back to ny (who knows where it is now, lol)

When Epcot closed, we went back to Magic Kingdom to see the Spectromagic Parade and even got to see a few fireworks.