Magic Kingdom!!

We've been back in Florida for almost 2 years now and this is our 1st trip to Disney, it was LONG overdue!!  Thanks to an early Christmas present we scored annual passes :)  Ryan and Jaina are at such great ages for it too.  They were in Heaven!!  We picked Ryan up from school and headed out for our surprise trip.  They were so excited when they saw the entrance to Magic Kingdom.  We ended up spending the whole 5 hours we were there in Fantasy Land...it was really nice...very low stress!!

Seeing the disney castle never gets old!!  We also rode Its a small world, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, and Dumbo.  And we made time to see the show Mickeys Philharmagic, Jaina kept saying 

"ooohhh, I LOVE _________"

 Merlins adventure....a new interactive card game/scavenger hunt.  Ryan said this was his favorite thing of the day....this and Peter Pan.

Our first ride was Winnie the Pooh...Jaina was just as suspcious of Pooh as she is of the ChikfilA cow...she didnt take her eyes off of him!

The Fantasy Land expansion phase I is open now, The new and much improved Dumbo ride is a part of this section.  They have two identical rides, right next two eachother, air conditioned queue lines, complete with a play area and beepers, so you dont actually have to wait in line for your turn!!  Genius!

We are going to try to make another trip back before Katherine decides to make her appearance!!

Character Pumpkins

I am really impressed with Ryan's school so far.  His teacher is constantly coming up with great ideas to keep the kids excited about learning.  This was the activity this week, character pumpkins.  They had to decorate a pumpkin to look like a character from their favorite book.  Can you guess which one Ryans is?

Hard at work, I actually made HIM to his assignment....crazy I know ;)

This is Gerald from the elephant and piggie books.  There are many, many books.  But this is his favorite of the series at the moment.  

Fall Ball

 Ryan loves, loves, loves tball.  And I know that I am biased, but I think that he has a natural talent for it.  It's great to see him out there having fun with his friends.  His 1st game he was standing on the pitcher's mound yelling, "Mom, Mom....I'm trying to tell you something."  So I yelled back from the stands, asking what he wanted to tell me, his response..."Can I go to the playground after the game?"  Everyone in the stands got a good chuckle out of it! :)

Fire Station Field Trip

Ryans first school field trip was to the fire station, it's right down the street from Manatee so we were able to walk.  I was so happy that my volunteer clearance came through in time, not sure if I will be able to chaperone future field trips with baby Katherine on the way!!

Here he is with his buddy Tyler, he's also on his tball team.  When the teacher told them to find a partner these to collided like magnets!!

I am so blessed to be able to share these happy moments with our son!!

The fireman asked Ryan if he wanted to pick up the jaws of life....notice his face :)

Roughing it--Disney Style!

Another thing checked off of the bucket list :)  Camping at Disney's Ft. Wilderness resort, who knew such a thing even existed, and it's been around since Disney World opened in the 70's!!  Getting there was a little adventurous though, since the directions once we exited the highway were "follow the signs"  We got a little nervous when we were pulling up to the magic kingdom parking booths, but that was exactly where we needed to be!

 

As you can see from the picture, it rained a little while we were there.  But no worries we just piled up in the van...put on a movie and passed around snacks until it let up enough to get a fire going.  I really wish I had a picture of Angel starting the fire in the rain, it was miraculous!!  Here we are making our way to the bus to make it to the other side of the resort, it was quite humorous to see how much the kids loved riding the bus, I think it was the highlight of the trip for them!!

 

Caterpillars everywhere!!  We even managed to unintentionally bring some home with us!

 

the kids supervising the setting up of the tents!

 

The waterpark there was pretty awesome!!  It was a little while before we figured out the bus system, so Angel dropped us all off, went back to the campsite to park the van, and then headed over.  Yes next time we will get a golf cart!  There was the kid water splash play area that Jaina loved!  She even got comfortable enough to start going down head first, crazy girl!!

 

Jaina even went down that twisty slide a couple of times, however the last time she went she ended up backwards and upside down, needless to say...that was the end of the sliding for the day :)  Ryan has been really making a lot of progress with the water...he and Noah were taking turns timing themselves to see who could stay under the water the longest!  We were quite impressed!!

 

 

And you know...it's not real camping unless there is an arcade....actually this place has two!!

 

 

Chip and Dales Campfire Sing along!!  The boys were anxiously awaiting the fire to get going so they could roast there marshmallows!

 

 

Pure Joy....Ryan's very 1st smore!! 

Jaina just wanted the graham cracker!

 

Jaina was so excited to see the chipmunks, until they got up close :) 

 

Dancing with their new furry friends!

 

We were all pretty beat by this point, but we made it to the beach area to watch the magic kingdom fireworks and the electrical boat parade.  It was really cool, the music for both was piped in to speakers at the fort so we got the whole experience!!  I am so glad that we went, the kids loved it!

 

 

Day two, breakfast and then out to the ferry and monorail!!

 

 

The boat ride from the fort takes you to a couple of the resorts, where you can then hop on the monorail.  Can you see Angel's birthday pin?!  All of the cast members we saw wished him a happy birthday :)

 

 Here we are outside of the Contemporary Resort just before boarding the monorail.

 

 

One of the really cool things that you see from the monorail is the entrance to Magic Kingdom, Space Mountain, and the castle.  Ryan and Jaina were so excited when they spotted the castle, guess we will be making a trip there soon, I think they are ready!!  We will definitely be back to the campsites, there was so much more to do that we didn't get the chance...fishing, renting the little two seater boats, the petting farm, the wagon rides....next time!!



Ryan's Swim Lessons

Ryan has always been a very cautious person....I think this will serve him well as he grows up and throughout his life.  It will certainly help me out, because I dont think I will have to worry about him doing CRAZY things!!  But on the flip side it sometimes makes him hesitant to try new things....especially things that seem scary to him, like going under the water.  He's never liked to have water in his face, and to top that off, about a year ago he fell into a friends pool.  So we thought we would try out private swim lessons.  Here he is before his first lesson, all smiles!

Getting a pep talk from his coach, she is awesome!

He started out putting his mouth in the water, then nose, then eyes.....doesn't he look so proud of himself!?  I know we are!

Lesson #3, we discovered the miracle of goggles...it made a huge difference.  Ryan could actually focus on the swimming techniques instead of wiping the water our of his eyes!

He was so excited to tell Daddy when he got home that he floated all by himself!!

We are so amazed at the progress he has made in 4 short lessons...he wants to do more, so we are starting back up in October :)