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.
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!!
The Gaylord Resort here in Orlando does an ICE event every year. This year it was themed Merry Madagascar. Basically what they do is bring in huge blocks of ice that are sculpted into their theme. In the middle of the exhibit are big slides made out of ice that you can go down. We thought it sounded fun...so we went.
They have to keep the conference space super cold so the ice doesn't melt. This is at least a month long exhibit. To maintain a 9 degree temperature, they have freezing cold forced air constantly flowing. They give you these ugly blue coats to wear when you go in. We were freezing, even with our hats, mittens, etc. Cameron was so cold by the time we got to the slide, he refused to go.
The event sculptures basically follow the plot of the movie. Couldn't believe it was all made of ice...really cool.
This is the first big bike Cameron has been on. He really was never interested in his tricycle so had to basically learn from scratch how to pedal and steer. Keeps taking his foot off the pedal at the top then loses the ability to push down and not have it brake. Will take some time before he's ready to go around the neighborhood with us riding too. He's learning though.
Photos to round out their December fun. They weren't quite sure what to think of their blue squishy bath at first...then they thought it was fun. Cameron is finally ok with taking showers! Took long enough.
We got the house all decorated. Also got to stay up late a lot of nights to watch Christmas specials like Charlie Brown, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and the Grinch. We also rented Arthur Christmas. Cute movie! Of course Cameron was then terrified that Santa was going to come into his room.
Cameron decorated a ginger bread house.
Lots of dancing to our ghetto christmas horse.
We went to Downtown Disney to see Santa! Cameron didn't want to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. We had to help him decide what he wanted so he had something to tell Santa. He decided on the board game of Where's My Water.
David and the kids had a surprise birthday party for me. David was a little upset because they day they were planning it I decided to work from home. The only way he could keep it a surprise was to take Cameron out "Christmas shopping" so they could pick up cupcakes (since they couldn't bake a cake) and then he took me out for lunch so they could decorate while I was gone. They got a balloon that would never die! When you hit it the thing would play an Elvis birthday song. Lots of time spent dancing to that. Even Sonny got in on the decorating fun.
Just before Christmas, we got free tickets from work to go to Sea World. We stopped to see the Dolphin's swimming in their tank. Cameron got mad when he got a little splashed so he was quickly over it. We went to see Shamu. Neither of them cared much for the show. It's just not as exciting when no one gets in the water with the whales. They were really anxious to get out of there so the rest of the day was spent at Shamu's Happy Harbor for kids...riding all the rides. Cameron of course loves to climb on the nets. This was the first time he willingly got on a carousel and rode it!
They had their Polar Express experience. It really wasn't as good as we had hoped it would be. Cameron was all excited because he thought he was really at the North Pole in Santa's home. We did see his Christmas tree, he was there, and some animals...though it was a bit of a let down. Where you exit you walk into a souvenir store and Cameron said "Is this Santa's workshop"? He was disappointed because it wasn't and we just got dumped back into the park.
A friend from work had a bonfire the weekend before Christmas. Cameron was excited because he got to make reindeer food there! We mixed oats with sprinkles and glitter. Then on Christmas Eve, we sprinkled it all through our front yard. It helped the reindeer find our house and they got to eat it.
They also got to open 1 early present.
Of course Santa came! I was schooled that Santa likes chocolate milk like he does. Cameron also picked out peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. He helped make them. The kids got spoiled again this year.
Christmas morning they weren't up too early. Probably about 8. Cameron was so excited to see we all got bikes. Some of his favorite things - puzzles, games (Where's my Water & Headbandz), Mario Paper for Wii, Phinneus & Ferb Wii game, cake pop maker, and his ride toy from Aunt Lynn.
