A Boy and His Dog

When we did the photo shoot before Christmas, I brought Rocky along hidden in my bag. Ordinarily, Rocky is not allowed to leave the house unless we are going on vacation. Early on, we decided to make that a rule so that we wouldn't accidentally lose her (yes, Luke says Rocky is a girl) at school or at the grocery store or at church. We do have a duplicate Rocky that we rotate with the original Rocky (That's so the wear patterns are the same. Yes, it works. No, Luke still doesn't realize there are two identical Rockys. I highly recommend buying at least two if your child happens to gets attached to a particular lovey).

Back to the story.

Because Rocky is such a huge part of Luke's childhood, I wanted to make sure I had some pictures of them together so I could remember.   I've seen Toy Story 1, 2, and 3.  I know kids grow up and their loveys get shoved under a bed or in a closet (cue the soundtrack for "When She Loved Me"). 

These pictures are so very precious to me. In the one where his mouth is by her ear, I told him to tell Rocky what the photographer was doing. He was very seriously whispering to her. Not sure what he said, but Rocky looks a little nervous.

New Favorite

Luke was sitting on the potty last night singing this song at the top of his lungs.  The acoustics in the boys' bathroom are excellent.  He couldn't remember all the words so he just kept singing "All I know is I'm not home yet.  This is not where I belong"  over and over again. 

If you haven't heard this song yet, it is great.  It has quickly become one of our new favorites.  Every time it comes on the radio, Fletcher and Luke ask me to turn it up loud!

Carpe Kairos

If you are a mom or married to a woman who is a mom or had a mom or know a mom or saw a mom in the grocery store, this blogpost is absolutely, positively worth the 5 minutes it will take to read this. 

http://momastery.com/blog/2012/01/04/2011-lesson-2-dont-carpe-diem/

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Happy Monday!

Cultural Enrichment

Well, at least my children can say they've had a variety of cultural experiences.

Big Foot in action.

3 Million Legos

That's how many Legos are in this place.  Thankfully, the rollercoasters and other rides are not made out of Legos. LegoLand is about 40 minutes outside of Orlando.  It is where the old Cypress Gardens used to be.  If you ever remember seeing pictures of the water skiers in pyramid formation from way back in the day, that was probably at Cypress Gardens.  It was known for its water ski shows and beautiful gardens.

A very happy birthday boy.

Luke would not ride any of the rollercoasters.

He liked driving the boats and cars.  Side note:  see the tattoo on his arm?  I picked up Disney tattoos from Walgreens before our trip thinking the boys would enjoy them.  We all put one (or two) on our arms on the first day of our visit to the parks.  These things lasted for WEEKS! Seriously,  I think Luke still had his on New Year's Day. 

The watch on Luke's arm doubled as his ID bracelet.  I had written his name, our names and our cell phone numbers inside the watch band. He knew if he got lost he was to show it to a cast member with a nametag or a mommy with a stroller (because I know another mommy would help a lost child find his parents). 

Take a good look at Kevin's face.  These boats were on a course, but not on a track so you really could drive them anywhere and get them turned around in the wrong direction which Fletcher apparently did several or eight times before Kevin stepped in and got them back on course.

The jousting ride.  Fletcher and Luke got off this one and were both disappointed because they "really didn't get to knock anyone off a horse."  Boys....

Jungle safari cruise.

Lego character.  He has a name, but I forgot what it is.

This was called MiniLand.  Tons of well known landmarks had been recreated using Legos - famous hotels in Vegas, Florida landmarks like the Capital and the fort in St. Augustine, the White House, New York City, places in Hollywood and fantasy places too like pirate ships and islands.  It was fun to walk through and find all the neat details. 

This was part of the "gardens" part of the old Cypress Gardens.  That is one seriously old (and HUGE) tree.  Kevin and Fletcher missed this part because they were off riding rollercoasters.

Lego Christmas tree.

Darth Vader built out of Legos.

In keeping with the Cypress Garden tradition of a ski show, there's now a Lego Pirate ski show with "BrickBeard" and friends.  I was thoroughly impressed with the guys in the Lego costumes like the one pictured here.  It is hard enough to waterski in a swimsuit and these guys did it in these costumes.  And some of them even did stunts! 

I love to people watch and this ride was a great one to do that.  There were single short poles with a red button on each pole lining the perimeter of this ride (outside of the water).  If you pushed the red button, the water cannon would shoot water up in the air.  If you pressed it at just the right time, you could get a friend or family member wet who was riding the ride.  There were lots of field trip groups there the day we went.  It was funny watching kids trying to get their teachers wet or wives trying to get their husbands wet (which of course I did not do).  Here Kevin is trying to dodge the spray of water and keep Luke dry.

Waiting for the cool 3D show to start. 

Fletcher on the water ride.  I think he wanted to get wet.

Lego My (L)ego

Fletcher on the morning of his 8th birthday with his (ridiculously overpriced souvenir) Captain Jack Sparrow pirate hat.   

The plan was to surprise Fletcher on his birthday (while we were in Florida) with a trip to LegoLand.  We hadn't mentioned anything about LegoLand in the original surprise.  He kept asking what we were going to do on his birthday and all we would say was "we'll figure something out" or "maybe we will go underwear shopping."**  After the miserable failure of the first Disney surprise, a very big part of me wanted to just wake up on that Friday and tell him what we were doing. 

But I had already made his little birthday card so we gave it to him and had him read it.  At this point, some might say I'm a glutton for punishment.

The title of his card said "DID YOU KNOW?"

Each of these lines was a different page of the card.  I think when he got to the second to the last line (about there being a Legoland near Orlando) he figured it out and was very excited!

Did you know that a Danish carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen invented LEGOs? 

Did you know that the word “LEGO” is from the Danish word “leg godt” which means “play well”?

Did you know that approximately 19 billion LEGO elements are produced each year?

 Did you know Germany buys the most LEGO sets per person?

Did you know LEGO opened its first LEGO themed amusement park in 1968?

Did you know there is a Lego Land amusement park near Orlando?

Did you know we are going there today to celebrate your 8th birthday? 

Happy Birthday, Fletcher!

We love you so much!

Mom, Dad & Luke

Pictures of our fun day will be posted tomorrow. 

**I'm not sure how this started, but anytime we are going to do something fun but don't want to tell the boys what it is, we suggest that we go "underwear shopping".  Both boys (and Kevin) really do not like to shop.  I would say they hate to shop, but my mom said I wasn't supposed to say the word "hate".  So the thought of shopping is awful to them.  The thought of shopping for underwear(!!!!) is the ultimate worst, boring, waste of time in their world.  I suppose if we set their expectations really low, then anything we do will be much more fun. Right?

Magic Kingdom (Take 2)

Instead of going to Animal Kingdom, we decided to spend a second day at Magic Kingdom and let the boys go back and ride or do anything that they really liked the first day we went.  Fletcher really loved riding Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Luke loved the cars, Winnie the Pooh ride, Dumbo, It's A Small World and that People Mover in Tomorrow Land that is the slowest most boring ride on the planet.  But we rode it 3 or 4 times.  Fletcher and Luke both wanted to go back to Tom Sawyer's Island.  On the first day I thought we would skip it all together, but I remember reading that someone said it was a great place for kids to run around and blow off steam.  Plus, it usually wasn't very crowded.  So glad we did it.  Lots of dirt paths in wooded forest type area.  Cave with secret passageway.  Fort with rifle hideouts and an escape hatch that took you to the other side of the island.  Bouncy bridges and a small playset too.  We had to bribe them with food to leave. 

There was a parade in the middle of the day.  Several characters were there that we hadn't seen.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get their autographs because they were too busy dancing and performing, but it was fun to see them. 

Mr. Incredible

Frozone (from The Incredibles)

Donald Duck getting his groove on.

Those guys in stilts were amazing! 

Funny story.  I was headed to get Fast Passes for a ride and I saw Peter Pan, but the boys weren't with me.  I thought I would take his picture and show it to them later.  I wasn't really paying attention to the guy and girl in the picture with Peter Pan. 

When I was coming back from getting Fast Passes, I see a girl walk up to this really tall guy and ask if she can get her picture made with him. I thought I would discretely take a picture of him to see if Kevin knew who he was (he didn't).  Obviously, he is someone famous or at least semi-famous enough for someone to recognize him at Disney.  I thought about posting the pic on Facebook but then I thought that might be a little stalkerish.  Little did I know that I had already taken a picture of him with Peter Pan.  Great....I'm expecting a restraining order any day. So help me out.  Do you know who he is?  Athlete maybe? Rock star? I wish I knew.  

Our plan was to stay at Magic Kingdom and watch the Electric Light Parade at 7 pm and then the Wishes fireworks at 8 pm. 

That was the plan until both of the boys were crying at 5:30 pm.

Both of them.

At The Happiest Place On Earth. 

*sigh*

We commited a parenting error.  We told them they could pick out a souvenir now so we wouldn't be doing it with thousands of other people after the fireworks show.  We knew this was our last Disney day.  Luke picked out a GIANT pirate set that was going to be somewhat cumbersome to lug around for both the parade and the fireworks.  Fletcher couldn't find anything he really liked after numerous suggestions from mom and dad.  We told Luke the cashier would hold his set for him until after the shows.  He wanted it NOW, thank you very much and burst into tears.  Then Fletcher burst into tears because he was going to have to go home without a souvenir.  He said what he really wanted was a Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean) hat that he had seen at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. 

All the way in the back of the park. 

Completely opposite of where we were. 

Of course that's where it would be.

At that point Kevin and I looked at each other and agreed there was no way we would survive a parade and fireworks with these two and their waterworks.  So we schlepped off to ride the Pirates ride one more time and purchase a ridiculously overpriced Captn Jack hat for Fletcher and a pirate set for Luke.  Sometimes you just have to change your plans and cut your losses.  There will be other years for fireworks and parades. 

Arrgh!

 Wednesday was our day to explore the hotel.  We were staying at the Marriott Harbor Lakes.  The entire resort has a pirate theme.  Our condo overlooked the pirate splash pad and pool with a water slide.  The other side of the resort had this cool pirate ship pool pictured below.  The pool was heated so the kids got to swim in December.  Even though it was heated, mom and dad thought it was still too cold to get in.  Because we went in the off season, you can see that there were very few people there.  If you are thinking about going to Disney, I would highly recommend going one of the first two weeks of December.  The highs were in the mid 70s all week.  Definitely shorts and tshirt weather. 

I know some people go to Disney and go to a park every single day, but I knew that would wear us all out.  I'm glad we built in a few rest/no park days in our schedule.

Magic Kingdom