Monkey see....

We had the pleasure of hanging out with Maddox for a quick bit this morning while Michele had to run out.

I had Monsters, Inc. on for the boys and of course Aidan has to copy what Maddox does, so however Maddox was sitting, Aidan had to sit too!

Disney Trip 2012 Conclusion

Well, it finally arrived.

Our last day at the parks. Aidan and I were on our own for the morning until Ryan was finished and so we did our usual and headed to Magic Kingdom.

We walked past the line to meet Mickey and since the wait time was only 10 minutes, and we hand't been to meet him yet, we hopped right in line!

Aidan got the honor of holding onto the card that allows the "ride" workers to determine how long the wait is, so he got to wear it all the way up to the end of our wait and then he handed it over to a cast member. It's a pretty big deal when you're 2.

When we finally got to meet Mickey and Minnie, Aidan was of course thrilled and it made me so excited to realize how happy it made him!

Then as we were leaving we managed to catch a parade going down main street, which if course Aidan really didn't want much to do with even though we saw all his favorite characters in it.

Since we knew it was a chilly day we had worn 2 layers out to the park but it turned out to actually be a bit colder than we thought and since Aidan kept asking for his sweatshirt I ended up stopping at a shop on Main Street and buying him a WDW hoodie to warm him up. 

We went on a few quick rides before heading back to the hotel to meet up with Ryan and then we headed over to Hollywood Studios, skipping Aidan's nap time (which proved to be a bad idea)....

See? Tired boy.

He was pretty crabby and whiny so we got in line to see Mater and McQueen which kept him chipper for a bit but when he started to fade I decided to stop at the candy shoppe and get him a treat in the hopes it would help cheer him up.

OK, well I know the giant pieces of fudge that I got for Ryan and I helped cheer us up anyway :)

After our treats we headed over to a gallery where you can walk through some of the animators offices and see what they look like, which is very fun.

Then as our grand Hollywood Studios finale we decided to catch the Disney Jr. Live on Stage show, which Aidan was way too grumpy to appreciate. Boo.

Well, Ryan and I sang along to all the songs like 2 idiots anyway..... ;)

On our way out we saw Jake was signing autographs outside so we hopped in line and got a pic with him, which totally cheered Aidan up for a few more minutes.

We had no reservations for dinner that night and since we hadn't been to Downtown Disney yet on our trip we decided to head over there and decide what to do about dinner later.

We spent a large amount of time at World of Disney, which is the largest Disney store in the world. So basically for me? Heaven.

Ryan and I each got a sweatshirt as a souvenir (oh and to keep warm because once the sun went down we were fuh-reezing!), and then we headed over to Once Upon a Toy which has a giant Mr Potato Head accessory  display.

All the accessories are disney-themed, such as goofy's shoes, mickey's ears, buzz lightyear's space suit, etc. SO COOL.

We didn't buy one since we had just bought Aidan a Potato Head for Christmas, but we had lots of fun playing on the sample table.

After we had some fun we decided on a whim to actually wait for a table at Raglan Road, the authentic irish pub. Since the wait was a little over 30 mins we bellied up to an outdoor bar to wait for our table inside. We had some great convo with a nice bartender and Aidan ate granola bars while Ryan and I had a drink.

Once we got inside we were seated directly in front of a stage where every so often they had genuine Irish step dancers come and perform, and even though that was very cool we had a terrible viewpoint seeing as we were right below them. The food was amazing, service was good too, and my only complaint was that it was so ridiculously loud inside there that Ryan and I couldn't even hear each other across the table. And that was without the step dancers or band playing. There must be something about the acoustics in there....

When we were done with that we had to stop at a favorite place of mine and Ryan's. Goofy's Candy Co.

Yay for after dinner treats!

We all had cookies (Aidan had the mickey mouse man in the upper left corner), and then headed back to the hotel for our final night's sleep at the Contemporary.

The next morning we had some time to kill before leaving for the airport, so Daddy and Aidan made a hotel pillow fort...

Then we headed to the arcade for a bit as well. Aidan loved sitting on the racing games, even if he was too little to actually play them. He even tried Skeeball with Daddy but he wasn't so good at that one.

And finally...Aidan passed out on the Magical Express ride to the airport...guess it was a long week!!

We can't wait to go back in 3 more years when the conference is held there again!

The box

When Nani and Poppy came to visit for Ryan's birthday last month they came home with a box full of groceries from Aldi's one day. 

AKA- Mason and Aidan's new favorite toy.

 vroom vroom

Aidan heard me mention he needed to do something he didn't want to do and when I got downstairs I found him "hiding" under the box. Sheesh.

There really is truth behind the jokes when people say "I don't even know why I buy my kids toys"...

I mean, seriously Mason is content to sit on the kitchen floor while I wash dishes and play with a tupperware bowl and lid.

Disney Day 4-part 2

Soooo.....after lunch we hung out with Ryan for a while but he had to head back to the hotel for some more conference stuff so Aidan and I stayed at the park, rode the teacups, carousel and it's a small world again before I decided I couldn't take much more of it, haha.

On our way out of the park we stopped to watch some of a live show they had going on in front of the castle. Aidan wasn't overly interested so we kept moving up Main street (of course towards the Confectionary, my favorite!!)

On our way up main street use I had the urge to stop and get some pictures of the old-timey balloon guys. I don't know what it was, but my camera was drawn to them. I couldn't help it.

One balloon guy even caught me taking pics and seemed a little caught off guard haha.

Then I brought Aidan into one of my favorite places at WDW. The main street confectionary. Sweets galore. Ahhh the place where you can get mickey shaped rice krispies treats, homemade fudge, and mickey swirl lollipops.

Basically, it's Heaven.

Before we left for the day I made sure we took a train ride around the park because I wasn't sure if we would make it back to Magic Kingdom before we left. Aidan waited in line patiently eating his new swirled lollipop, and seemed to enjoy the ride around the park. We even got a great view of our hotel as we rode back in to the station!

After our train ride we headed back to the hotel so Aidan could take a nap before we headed out to a nice dinner at Epcot. Ryan and I have wanted to eat at Le Cellier, a canadian steak house since 2008. We couldn't get a reservation then, or the last time we went, and in fact when I tried to get us a reservation in August for this trip, there weren't any.

Well, we decided not to make any reservations this time around since we couldn't get a meal plan since we were there for a conference. Although 2 nights before we were set to leave I decided to check the reservations again online and basically found anything we wanted! It was great! I guess the key is to wait until the last minute and grab all of the cancellation spots!!

So anyway we headed over to Epcot early so Aidan could meet Belle before dinner, and it was a success. He was so smitten by her, and it was SO CUTE. She stayed perfectly in character, and she loved Aidan's faux-hawk, haha.

We still had some time before our reservation so we decided to kill some time while we were in France. I got Aidan to pose on this beautiful fountain that they have, and in fact the very first picture Ryan and I had taken on our honeymoon there was in front of the same fountain. The 2 pics are now framed together in my kitchen :)

On our walk over to the restaurant we stopped at a meet n greet for Tigger and Pooh as well:

We finally made it to Le Cellier, and even though we had reservations we still had to wait for quite some time. Ryan found an epcot kid-spot nearby and took Aidan to create some fun crafts while I called and checked on Mason. We finally got inside and Aidan was on his best behavior, we had a fun waitress, and we had the best filet mignon and creamy mushroom risotto that you could ask for. 

Totally worth the 4 year wait.

And then the spoons came out. Oy leave it to my Lawless boys to act classy in a fancy restaurant....

Unfortunately since our dinner reservation ended up being so late we got out of the restaurant just as the fireworks show was ending, thus resulting in massive herds of people trying to exit the park with us. We made our way back to the monorail and headed back to the hotel to rest up for our last day at the parks tomorrow!!

...to be continued......

Disney Day 4- part 1

On day 4 the weather had cleared up so nicely!!!

Aidan "geared up" in all his park wear and we headed out the door to hit Magic Kingdom again (this was always our best bet since it was so close we could walk right over). Ryan had some morning conference stuff but was planning on meeting up with us at the park for lunch.

When we got to the park I convinced Aidan to climb up on a bench with the castle behind him to get some pics (I've learned never to ask to take his pic, then he won't cooperate. I have to trick him into the poses I want). He cooperated nicely so I figured it would be safe to ask him to pose in front of the castle for me.

WRONG.

He cried his eyes out saying he didn't want his picture taken. Then it got worse.

he saw a double-decker old school bus kind of thing driving around and asked to go on it. When I said we couldn't go on it he cried even harder. You bet your ass that while he was crying I was laughing so hard that I was crying too. Oh I love my silly kid.

I finally got him to calm down and we headed to the teacups for my first ride as well as Aidan's. When we went on our honeymoon Ryan wouldn't go with me (they make him sick) and when we took Aidan last year they were closed for renovations, so even though I've wanted to ride them forever it was a first experience I got to share with Aidan!

After the fun at the teacups we headed over to the Pooh ride where they have lots of fun stuff you can play with while waiting in line to get on......

We of course then followed Pooh with the carousel at Aidan's request. Boring. But he enjoyed it, and the line was always relatively short, so we went on it a ton of times.

We then met up with Pioneer Donald AGAIN because I had my camera with me this time. Sadly the sun was so bright and harsh that the pictures that Disney took for me the first actually came out way better....but I'm still not paying $14.99 for a digital file.

Ryan met up with us and we had lunch at one of our favorites in Frontierland (Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn) because they have great pulled BBQ pork, which Aidan has scarfed down both times we've taken him.

Then we headed over to ride the magic carpets again, and there is a giant camel statue on front the ride that "spits" water out and Ryan got under it so Aidan would get wet and instead of enjoying the squirt, Aidan was pissed. All while me and the workers were laughing at him, I know I win Mom of The Year.

more post lunch adventures to be continued.........