Tea Party

On Thursday, Ryan had a tea party at school! The kids got to dress up and were reminded that they had to use their manners. (they were learning about manners this week) It was the cutest thing ever. Ryan had tea, cupcakes, cookies, and strawberries. I asked him if he tried his tea, he looked at me and said "No, I just smelled it"! He doesn't eat or drink anything that does not look familar to him. I was surprised he didn't try it though, because he drinks tea with my mom all the time. But that is iced tea and not warm tea, so there may be a difference. I couldn't tell you because I do not like either!This is what all the parties are about....the food! At least that is what Ryan comes for!

One last picture......I cannot only imagine what Ashley is telling her mom! I have to say, I learn something new from the two of them everyday! It's so great!!

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Thanks Jennie! This is just so beautiful! I would love to do a fun photo shoot with this!! I love all the "FLUFF"! How fun!!

Animal Kingdom

I know, I was doing so good after vaca with my blogs, and then I stopped. I still had one more park to share with everyone. But I got in a funk and just stopped blogging! So here I am, 2 weeks later, trying to remember everything. As I look back, it all seems like a blur! We were just so busy everyday! We have decided that we will not do that again. We will take a longer vaca next time we go. But in the meantime, I don't think we will go back for a couple of years, when Madison is older. Plus there are other places to see in the meantime!!

As for the Animal Kingdom, it's one of my favorite parks! We had a great time. It was cold that day. I do remember it being cold. We started the day at Donald's Safari Breakfast. It was a great buffet, however, we were so RUSHED. They rushed us out of there so fast. We just sat down to eat, and they brought out the characters, at that point the kids were done. Then once the characters got to our table they rushed through everything. Every other dinner with the characters was not like this! We managed and I guess we were in and out in no time. Mike loved the buffet of Krispy Creme Donuts, as did the kids. We started the day at the Lion King show which was amazing. It was absolutely wonderful! The kids loved it! It was a great way to start out the day. we met some characters on the way out. Ryan was excited to meet Chip and Dale. Madison, well we had to go see Goofy AGAIN!
We didn't do "It's tough to be a Bug" because of the kids being scared at the last 3-D show. So we didn't even attempt it! That is one of my favorite shows, but we didn't need 2 little boys freaking out again! Ryan and Madison had a great time on the Safari, which is also one of my favorites. Us big kids rode the Yeti ride (can't remember the real name). Which was fun, but I think I realized, I am getting too old for these kids of rides. (it was a roller coaster type of ride)

The parade was great! I loved everything about it! It was Austin's birthday while we were there, and it was amazing how everyone would come up to him and tell him Happy Birthday. Even people in the parade would come up to him and say "Happy Birthday Austin"! It was so great, and Austin loved it. What kid does not like being able to celebrate their birthday for a whole week?!

We hit the Finding Nemo musical on our way out, which was another great show! The kids loved it! Well, Madison did fall asleep, but it had been a long day!

These last 3 pictures are what happened every night after our long days! The kids basically just crashed. Daddy was even tired after the long days. What can I say, we had things to do and people to see! We had to keep going!!!

Magic Kingdom

We started the day out with breakfast at the castle with the Disney Princesses. As we first entered the castle we got our picture taken with Cinderella. Madison was in her glory. She loves the pretty girls. The other Princess' that were going to be there was Jasmine, Belle, Princess Aurora (sleeping beauty), and Snow White. (Sorry if I spelled any of the names wrong) The breakfast we had was delicious. The eggs were to die for. I am not a big egg eater, but those eggs were great! Ryan got a sword and Madison got a wand. Ryan thought it was really neat to eat in a castle and was looking for the dragons! It was so cute. Each one of the princesses came to our table to sign the kids books and get pictures! Snow White even kissed Austin and left some of her lipstick on his cheek! We teased him all day about having a new girlfriend! Madison and Belle!

Madison was in love. She even gave her a kiss! It was too sweet!


Ryan and Madison with Princess Aurora!

Madison and Snow White.

Ryan was not too sure of Snow White!

Madison and Ryan with Jasmine. Jason was not impressed with her because of the excessive amounts of hair on her stomach! What a weirdo...I thought we were bringing the kids to meet the princesses, not for him to be checking them out!

The kids LOVED the Magic Kingdom, as did I. We meet a lot of characters and got lots of pictures! We were able to ride everything without a wait, I think they longest we waited was 20 minutes for the Jungle Cruise! It was so nice.

Waiting for Mickey and Minnie Mouse! They were very excited!


Ryan and Madison with the Mice.

My big thing was getting a good spot so the kids could watch the parade. Well, when we were walking away from Splash Mountain a cast member came up to me and started talking to me about everything. Then I asked him the best place to watch the parade and he told me. He also told me to be there 30 minutes before the parade starts. That is what we did. We got our spot 30 minutes before the parade started. I got up to go get the kids some snacks. I got back to our spot and some people who were not from the United States (I think that is the nicest way I can put it) pushed their kids right in our spots, took them right over. My mom and Mike were there with the kids, and tried to tell them, but they pretended to not understand. We waited 30 minutes to get a good spot and they come 2 minutes before the parade starts and took our kids spot. I was furious! But we Just pushed them back and moved right back in...we still got to enjoy the parade. Which was fantastic! The kids loved it. Jason was little disappointed because the day before the Pittsburgh Steelers were in the parade. He was bummed he missed it!


Ryan was little unsure of Captain Hook and Mr. Smee!

We were lucky enough to meet up with Peter Pan and Wendy!

I just love this picture and had to throw it in!

I think I enjoyed the Magic Kingdom the most. We spent 2 days at this park and it was well worth it. The kids basically got to ride everything twice. I think Ryan's favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear ride, and Madison loved It's a Small World! She loved all the "babies". It was soo cute! Austin loved the Monster's Inc. show. They put him and Jason on the big screen and asked him some questions. It was way cute! Austin thought he was the man of the show! It was great!

Ryan LOVED the Buzz Lightyear ride. We had to ride it 3 times!

We only kept them in here long enough so we could get a beer!

We didn't stay for the fireworks because we didn't want to have to deal with mass amounts of people waiting to get on the bus. After being there all day we were exhausted! We just wanted to get back to the room.

EPCOT

On Monday we decided we would go to EPCOT for the day! Before going to the park we had breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey's. The kids were so excited. Madison just fell in love with Goofy, so whenever she would see Goofy we had to meet him. I think she got his autograph 5 times! Ryan was excited about meeting Pluto! He became one of Ryan's favorites. At Chef Mickey's we were eating breakfast with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald. The breakfast was delicious! We really enjoyed it! The kids really enjoyed the Mickey Mouse shaped waffles! MMMMMM...






Grammie and Austin at Chef Mickey's!


After breakfast we took the monorail to Epcot. We heard rain was in store for the day, so we got everything outside out of the way before the rain! Lucky we did because we got lots of rain. I think we left around 1:30 and went back to the hotel for naps. We all needed naps. I think everyone slept for at least 2 hours! After our naps we headed down to Downtown Disney to do some more shopping and to eat dinner at the T-Rex Cafe. This was Ryan and Austin's choice. Very cool restaurant. I think we had to wait about 30 minutes for a table. While we waited the boys built a dinosaur. It was just like Build a Bear, but with Dinosaurs instead! Madison and I shopped some more and read books to pass the time! After a great meal we hit the stores again at Downtown Disney. Jason even had to stop at an ice cream shop to get some ice cream. It was 8 scoops of ice cream, every topping, whipped cream, and cherries! It cost him 30 bucks and he ate it all! WOW!

Jason's ice cream....Yes he did eat it all!



He was in heaven!!

Grammie and Ryan at T-Rex Cafe. I think everywhere we went he had to sit by his Grammie!!

Madison posing with Sleeping Beauty!

I am glad we decided to do EPCOT on a rainy day because there is so much to do inside. We did a lot of rides that were inside. We took the kids to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. It was a 3-D movie. Ryan and I were the first ones out. It was too scary for him. Next came My mom and Austin, I guess a snake came out and scared Austin, so he was done. Next came Jason and Mike with Madison. They just came out because everyone else was out.

I think this was one of the only pictures I got of all three kids looking at the camera and smiling!

I don't know if I would go to EPCOT again, but then again, we really did give it a chance because we left early because of the rain. Maybe next time the weather will be better so we can enjoy it more!

Disney's Hollywood Studios

We started our vacation at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We had certain things that were high on our list that we had to do.

Ryan:

-Meet Buzz Lightyear and Woody

-Ride The Toy Story Ride

-Meet Lightening McQueen and Mater

-Meet Mike and Sully

and most importantly

-EAT AT PIZZA PLANET!

We were able to accomplish all of this and it made Ryan very happy.

We started the day off a little later than we wanted too, but it was no biggie. Ryan was complaining of the sun being too bright, so we stopped to get some sunglasses for him. Well this girl was the slowest person in the world to ring people up and take their money. It was awful. The lady in front of me, finally told her to hurry up and get moving. She was asking everyone what they were going to do that day, what they were going to eat, etc. It was pretty annoying. Actually this was a problem in every park, very slow workers. Took their time with everything!

Ryan and Austin loved meeting Lightening McQueen and Mater. We had to go through the line twice, I think we would still be there if we didn't tell them we had to go! I must admit, they were really cool! We watched the Block Party Bash Parade and unfortunately they were having problems so the parade sat in the same place for about 30 minutes! We finally got up and left after seeing the same thing over and over and over.

We ate lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. This was Austin's favorite restaurant. He loved that his dad and his Grammie kept getting in trouble. Ryan was a little more bashful here. It was a great place to eat! We had a blast! I think my brother Jason and My mom kept getting in trouble for putting their elbows on the table. It was great. Then Mike didn't eat his vegetables, so the waiter tried to get him to eat by doing "the airplane". NO GO! Mike as NOT going to eat his veggies. Same thing happened to my mom, she did end up taking a bite though. Sucker! That stuff looked gross!!

We really enjoyed this park, and it wasn't crowded at all. I think because it was Super Bowl Sunday and everyone was somewhere watching the game. No waits for us!!

Home From Disney World!

Well, we finally made it home. Everything went pretty uneventful and we had a great time! The kids LOVED everything. Ryan did excellent with all the characters. Madison had no problems what so ever! She pretty much ran the show the whole time we were there. We had to keep buying her popcorn to keep her happy! Although, I don't think I will ever be able to get her in a stroller again, EVER! The parks were not crowded..I think the longest we waited for a ride was 20 minutes! Not bad at all! I just cannot believe how rude people were there! I know there are rude people all over but at Disney World it was overpopulated with rude people! I just loved how people tried to act like they didn't understand English either! Amazing! I thought they would understand Excuse Me, but when that failed "MOVE" was the word they understood better! Oh well, they did not ruin our vacation!
This trip we decided not to rent a car and use the transportation provided by Disney. I think the next time we go we will go back to renting a car. The transportation was not bad, but after a long day, you just want to get back. One example of it being extremely frustrating was when we were going to the Magic Kingdom for a second day. We waited outside for the bus forever. As we waited, 4 buses for Hollywood Studios came in (no one was waiting to get on), 2 for Epcot, 3 for Downtown Disney, 2 for Animal Kingdom and none for Magic Kingdom. There were about 100 people waiting for the Magic Kingdom bus, but no bus came. I think we waited about 30 minutes for a bus! This was the last day of our vacation, so we were spent and very frustrated and I think everyone was ready to go home!
The weather started out warm. We had one day of rain, but luckily that was the day we went to EPCOT. The weather did get colder as the week went on. I think by Thursday the kids were wearing hats and mittens. It didn't stop us, we kept going, and the kids did not complain one bit!
I think instead of blogging in one big post, I will post each park we went to as a new post and include pictures from each. That way it will be easier for me remember everything I need to remember.