Disney World

For the past 50 days, Drake had been telling us every day, "You know what? We go see Mickey Mouse in ___ days!" He and Lincoln were pretty thrilled when it was finally down to the day we left. We woke them up really early, hoping they would sleep during the 8 hour car ride down. They were just too excited, because Lincoln never shut his eyes, and Drake maybe slept 45 minutes; however, they were fantastic travelers! They watched lots of Disney cartoons on the way down: old Mickey Mouse cartoons and Doc McStuffins (Drake calls it the "Blue Doggy show" because of the blue dragon.

I have to tell on myself that I was probably just as excited as them, and especially when we saw this:

 We went for a swim as soon as we checked into our hotel, the Polynesian. The weather was beautiful and the pool was great because it has a zero entry. After our dip, Grandma and Papa showed up! We had a great dinner at the Kona Cafe that night.

I was determined not to spend a lot of money on souvenirs, so I shopped before Disney.  "Tinkerbell" left the boys gifts every night, so we didn't have to be tempted to purchase anything in the stores. Drake got a huge Mickey Mouse the first night and Lincoln got a Pirates of the Carribean lego set.

We chose our hotel, because we could take both the monorail and ferry boat to the park. It really only took about 5 minutes to get to the park by monorail. The boys had been looking forward to this part, since they saw the monorails as soon as we drove on Disney property.

Drake's first ride was the People Mover's. I took him on it alone, since the others went on one he was too small for. He loved every single ride! As soon as we got done with one, he would call out another one to ride on. His favorite was the Barnstormer, a mini roller coaster. He would raise his arms up and just giggle (as I was told, not as I experienced...no pregnant ladies allowed on that one). 

The famous Teacup ride. Lincoln is staring at the mouse that pops his head out of the teacup.  His smile was so big when the ride started and we went spinning around!

We went on such a great day, because there were no lines. We literally just walked up to the Dumbo ride and only had to wait until the previous ride ended. This was a hit with Drake!

So hard to see, but Lincoln was brave enough to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster. He wouldn't be convinced to ride Splash Mountain, because he heard the people scream on their way down.

Lincoln loves pirates and especially Capt. Jack Sparrow (No, he has not watched the movie, only played lego pirates.). We were excited to take him on the Pirates ride. After, Capt Jack was doing a show, and Lincoln got to "join his crew" at the end. I think Papa has pictures of that, because I don't. Lincoln took everything in around him, and sometimes I thought his head was going to explode. There is so much to see and constant activity!

 

Lincoln's favorite ride was the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger ride. Each rider had their own laser gun to defeat Zorg. Lincoln's eyes are black, because he did the pirate league, where he got his face painted and took a pirate oath.

Lincoln requested that I make him a Stitch shirt, so Stitch was flattered. Dave and I made 8 shirts for the trip.

 We took the kids back to rest every afternoon and then would come back to the park. Because the hotel was so close to the park, we were able to see the fireworks from the beach area at our hotel. One night we even watched them while we swam in the pool! We also were able to watch the electric water parade from our little beach area.

The park was decorated beautifully for Fall!

The boys got so attached to Dave during this trip. Lincoln would only ride some rides with Dave, and Drake wanted Dave to carry him and play with him in the pool. Our last meal was at Ohana's, where we dined with Lilo, Stitch, Mickey and Pluto. It was a great ending to a wonderful vacation!

Lincoln turns 5

It really doesn't seem possible for me to have a 5 year old. I guess I will feel that way about every birthday my eldest child has. He was a lucky boy this year, because his preschool class went to the fire station on his birthday. Drake and I got to join him. The fire men were so friendly to the kids and even let them climb on their beds! They showed the class all the tools in the firetruck. One man was telling about this special tool that could make their mommies cars into convertables because it was so strong and can cut cars, and Lincoln said, "That's the jaws of life." What?? I asked him how he knew that and he replied, "Fireman Sam." Thank you Netflix!

After the field trip, he was able to open up the present he had been talking about the entire summer, Rayman Legends. This is a video game sequel to Rayman Origins. He just loves the cute characters and although I am not a fan of him playing video games, it is by far the best motivator for him to make good decisions during the day.

We knew a big party wouldn't happen this year, because of our Disney trip the next week. Instead we had some of his favorite people over for quesadillas, mushrooms, and blue cupcakes (Lincoln's menu planning). Tristan came over with his mom, my parents came down, and Rache was there too!

Lincoln loved the card Grandma and Papa sent him. It had talking pirates on it. Most of the pictures I have of Lincoln this night are of him looking at his card.

Tristan's mom had off work the next day, so we introduced them to Discovery Zone. All the boys had a blast. Drake would run away from me and go straight to the fire pole.  He loves sliding down poles at parks, so this was a favorite. Does he want help, absolutely not! He will tell me "No mamma, I do it all by myself."