Animal Kingdom - First Time

We took the kids to Animal Kingdom for the first time. The biggest hit was the dinosaur play area. Lots of slides and things to climb on. Plus the area where you can "dig" for bones.

 



 

There are a handful of rides. We rode the flying dinosaur ride (basically the dinosaur version of Dumbo). Of course we had to play some games. Cameron beat Daddy and won a turtle.

 

 

According to Cameron, the worst part of the day would be riding on one of the dinsoaur rides. We thought it was just like riding back in time...see a few dinsosaurs...easy stuff. Well as soon as we got in line I had a feeling it was going to be far more intense. He wasn't so sure. It ended up being pretty rough and loud! I had been trying to prep him for it before we got on that it was all pretend and might be loud. We were on a safari type jeep going back in time to find a dinosaur and bring him back...and you had to find him before the comet hit the earth and the dinosaurs die. Trex tries to get us and you can feel his breath on your face...then you just barely get out on time. They take a photo of you on the ride. We saw ours at the end and all Cameron could say (with a completely straight face) was, "Mom, that is NOT my happy face". LOL. He will never go on that one again.

Other highlights of the day were the train ride, the petting zoo, and the safari ride.

New Years Eve Party!

This year Cameron and I had our own NYE party! David had a big project at work that he was trying to wrap up so he was working almost the entire night. I had the whole thing planned. One activity every hour to keep him interested...and awake.

6:00 PM - We kicked off the night after dinner. The first activity was a movie theater in the living room! The kids had tickets and money to buy snacks. Cameron was excited because he got candy and we had pop! The movie was The Smurfs.



8:00 PM - After the movie, Melia went to bed. Cameron and I made and decorated our own noise makers to use at midnight.



9:00 PM - We attacked Daddy and had a good (and messy) silly string fight. Poor Cameron still can't push the button down to make the can work so he ends up being the one with the most on him. He doesn't seem to mind though.



10:00 PM - We used his new cake pop maker! He did all the decorating on his own.



11:00 PM - Sparklers & Poppers! And it was such a nice night.



11:30 PM - Cameron was starting to get tired so we did our last activity. Our midnight toast...with sparkling grape juice. Cameron didn't want to participate because they were the glasses he wasn't allowed to drink out of!



After our toast, Cameron decided to sit on the couch and watch the last little bit of the NYE show. Of course at about 5 minutes to midnight he started to fall asleep. We forced him awake to count down the ball drop and use our noise makers! Luckily Melia slept right through it. Cameron was ready for bed at that point! The next morning he even told me he dreamed about the ball dropping...but it was a different color. Believe it or not, he still got up at 8 the next morning!!