Mickey Cutness Overload

Recently, I was getting in the morning and Olivia followed me into my closet.  She caught a glimpse of something: Will's old Mickey costume.  She immediately wanted to put it on.  Ok.  Sounds fun.  

She loved seeing herself in the mirror.

Suddenly, Will wanted to wear a costume too.  Happily, they had a Halloween sale at Toys R Us this past year and I bought the next size up for Will, so we have 2.  Be prepared for cuteness.

 Well, then Olivia decided she wanted to be Minnie Mouse.  Wait for it....

I love my little mice.  How cute is that???

A Special Night with Mommy (the Fuzzy Bear Journey)

I was feeling tad sad from Ellen's most recent medical news: (warning: sad content) her cancer has spread to be all encompassing in her bones and lymph nodes.  Her lymph nodes are not able to dispel fluid, so there is fluid (cancery fluid) build-up in her lungs and abdomen.  Life is short and it is precious.

It was almost bedtime for the kiddos and I was just holding onto Will.  And I proposed the craziest idea ever: I wanted to take him to the Magic Kingdom...right then and there, just the two of us.  Steve told me to go for it.  So I whispered in Will's ear, "Will, do you want to go to bed right now?  Or do you want to go to the Magic Kingdom with Mommy?"  What do you think his answer was?

Side Note: Fuzzy Bear was Will's classroom bear from school.  This week was his week to take care of Fuzzy and take photos of his journeys and write about it.  We decided this was a great opportunity to take Fuzzy on an adventure.

On the tram.  Will looks scared because he knows the tram gets loud when it starts and he was anticipating it

However, loud it is, he loves the tram and we do not typically take it with Olivia

By 8:30 (30 min past bedtime) we were in the park.  People were lining up for the parade that was starting at 9 and Will said he wanted to watch it.  That boy sure does love a parade.

We went back to Main Street and found the perfect spot right where the parade starts.  Front row seats!

He loves the parade so much

Fuzzy liked to go super fast on the Teacups

Will buckled Fuzzy in as we rode the cars at Tomorrowland Speedway

The fireworks started as soon as we were off the ride

Will likes the fireworks ok, but he likes to stay a safe distance from them

Which is fine by me, because I do not like crowds

A favorite place to watch the fireworks is right next to Dumbo.  It is never crowded and there is a nice open space where you can watch

Can't stand by Dumbo without riding him.  We walked right on to the ride.

Loves the carousel

We opted to take the Ferryboat back to the parking lot.  Will likes to see the Contemporary Resort and potentially see the water parade (we did not see that this time)

Will liked watching the laser show on the castle.  I guess he had never seen it before.

As I said, life is short and sweet.  How many opportunities will I get to take my sweet little boy to Disney, just the two of us?  When he is young enough and innocent enough to hold my hand, to sit in my lap, to love me effortlessly, to truly enjoy each and every second for what it is worth?  Even this time next year, he may be too cool for some of those things.  

I cannot express adequately in words how precious this time in our lives is.  I wish I could just hold on tight to it, to freeze time.  I love my little man.  My Booga Bear.

A Girl and her Bunny

Steve was rather annoyed with me, but there was this HUGE bunny on sale at Pottery Barn Kids that I just had to have for Olivia.  You see, when I was little, my uncle bought me a stuffed bunny that was as big as I was.  I slept with that bunny until I moved out of the house.  The bunny is still at my parents' house to this day.

This was the softest, cutest bunny ("Bunny Hop" as Olivia calls it) ever.  How could I pass it up?  I will have to find a photo of little Lauren holding her bunny and update this post.

Not relevant, but a cute photo Steve took of me and Olivia taking a little snooze.

Flower and Garden Festival

We took the grandparents to the Flower and Garden Festival with the intent that they would get the Food and Wine experience that they missed out on in the fall.  However, instead of hitting up multiple food booths, we took them to the Garden Grille instead.  It was their first character dining experience.  As always, Olivia was afraid of the characters.  The food, though, was amazing as always.

My stinkerdoodle

We love this playground that they set up for the festival.  We wish it could be there year-round

Will really enjoyed going to the butterfly garden exhibit.  They have been studying the life cycle of the butterfly at school.  We even saw some butterflies emerging from their cocoons.  

We love the Garden Grille!