Strawberries & Fire Trucks 2015

Gallery posted on June 8, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

Oh, sentimental…that’s how starting this post makes me feel. Why? Because I write this post every year and every year I look back at the years prior. And because this year should be no different, I will comment that I can’t believe how much they’ve grown since our first visit to this festival (and just since last year!).

Strawberries & Fire Trucks 2014 – Strawberries & Fire Trucks: 2013 – Strawberries & Fire Trucks: 2012

I didn’t take tons of pictures this year because my hands were very busy holding a sweet little baby. We noticed a smaller crowd and fewer trucks this year, but we still had a fun time. I was disappointed that Theo and Dexter were not nearly as interested in the helicopter that landed and took off several times; they didn’t even care enough to walk through the heli and sit in the pilot’s seat. Well, poop.

They did enjoy {a little} climbing through the emergency responder vehicles.

More than anything, they wanted to play on the playground and eat junk food.

More than anything, I was just interested in staring at Kennedy Noelle, in awe of her cuteness and tiny-ness. Already thinking abut this festival next year and how big she will be.

Most kids are eating snow cones and this one asks for baked beans. To each his own! I really hope my boys aren’t already outgrowing the Fire Department’s annual strawberry festival. They were really excited that it was coming up and as it approached, talked about things they remembered from years past. I was so bummed that they weren’t impressed by the helicopter this year. Staying for the fireworks is a bit of a challenge since they start about 2 hours after the boys are normally in bed. They passed out in the car on the 10 minute car ride home. Sweet buddies.

xo,

~C~

Catch the Moment: Wk.22

Posted on June 4, 2015June 4, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

hello again.

It’s been a week full of Fs. Fun, friends, family, and festivities! Linking up with Mindi, Stephanie, and Carrie for week 22 of Catch the Moment.

148/365: Thursday, May 28th. Sweet little toes.

149/365: Friday, May 29th. The boys were out of school the week of Memorial Day and camp didn’t start til the next week so we had to piece together childcare for the whole week. Ryan stayed home a day, Ryan’s parents kept them 2 days for us, and I stayed home Friday. It worked well because Dexter had a dermatologist appointment that morning. Afterwards, we met up with friends, waited out a thunderstorm, then had some fun in the sun.

150/365: Saturday, May 30th. We finally celebrated Dexter’s birthday with family and friends at the lake. Again, we waited through a thunderstorm before the clouds parted for a few glorious sunny hours on the water. It was such a relaxing and fun-filled weekend.

151/365: Sunday, May 31st. After we got home from my in-laws’ and I ran a few errands, the weekend was winding down. Snuggles on the couch before getting ready for bed and the first day of summer camp.

152/365: Monday, June 1st. What else could I expect when I asked them to smile nicely? Eh, that’s alright…this is the real Theo & Dexter. Silly faces, fart noises, tongues out, and muddy shoes – they are my little boys through and through. Good news – they seem to love their new summer camp so far. Shew.

153/365: Tuesday, June 2nd. Lazy photo night. Yummy dinner night. Chili & grilled cheese!

154/365: Wednesday, June 3rd. Well, well. Look who we have here. Some of our closest friends welcomed sweet Kennedy Noelle in the wee hours of the morning. We were over the moon in love and through the roof excited to make her acquaintance. Perfect ending to this post, but just the beginning of getting to know this little lady. My favorite picture for this week by a million miles. (That’s Dexter’s gigantic-looking hand next to hers). xo,

~C~

#mcdanfamloveswdw: Day 4

Posted on June 2, 2015June 2, 2015 by mommyinthemidwest

ICYMI:

Click HERE to see the photos we shared on Instagram from our trip.

Click Here if you missed Day 1.

Click Here if you missed Day 2.

Click Here for Day 3.

Shew, I’d planned to lump these posts together, 2 days at a time but once I start rambling, I can’t stop and before I know it the post is already too long covering just one day. What is wrong with me? I just love Disney and I want to remember the details!

Saturday, May 9th. We were up and at ’em at 630am in order to make it to our 8am dining reservation at Tusker House, located in the Africa section of Animal Kingdom. We arrived at Animal Kingdom around 730am before being escorted through the completely empty, very cool looking park.

{side note}: See how I have my fit bit around my tank top strap? Yeah, that’s because it doesn’t work when pushing a stroller. This was a constant annoyance during our vacation! The main reason I bought the dang thing and it ended up being a hassle.

I was so excited to try Tusker House – they offer plenty of American breakfast fare with lots of additional African dishes we had fun sampling. The set up and the atmosphere in the restaurant was beautiful.

First ones in the restaurant!

Jungle Juice was a treat! Orange juice, Guava Juice, and Passionfruit juice – it’s delicious. I don’t know or care how much sugar we consumed during this meal.

The bad things about character breakfasts… the kids are so excited for the characters to come to the table that they have a hard time concentrating on eating. Understandable. Buffet style is awesome for value (hello, all you can eat!), convenience, variety, and all taste preferences…but if you are gone from your table to fill up your plate when Mickey comes around, you have to wait til he makes it back (or ask your server to have him make a special trip – they will). Also, the character interactions happen so fast and I am still slow and unsure when it comes to manual settings on my camera so I just turned it on Auto or no flash and there is a lot of blur in many of the pictures. One other note as far as pictures at character breakfasts are concerned – the table are close together and I had to spend a lot of time trying to crop other families out of our special moments. All in all, it’s still a super fun experience and just seeing how excited the kids were to have the characters come to us was worth any of the hassle involved. I made the mistake of saying “we’re going to eat breakfast with ___” (fill in any character’s name), which made Dexter think that those sweet, huge stuffed animals were actually going to sit down with us and cram donuts in their furry faces. He was a little disappointed but understood once I explained.

Something that is extra awesome about early character breakfasts waaay in the back of the park is when breakfast is over, you are already in the back of the park. Breakfast ended for us right around 9 (park opening) so we rushed right over to Expedition Everest. We hadn’t made FastPass+ reservations since the boys couldn’t ride it. But wait.

I went first and walked right onto the ride with no wait. As soon as I returned, Ryan did the same. I was standing outside near the Standby entrance when I noticed the measuring device. I looked at Theo then back at the measuring thingy. Then said “oh my God!!” Theo and Dexter asked “what!?” 20 times as I practically ran, dragging them over. I told Theo to get measured and guess what? He hit that 44″ mark, no problem. You guys, I had a major moment here. I was ecstatic on one hand because he was ecstatic and dying to ride Everest. With me. I was freaking out because I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that my sweet, tiny, innocent, little bitty baby boy was BIG ENOUGH to ride a BIG roller coaster. It doesn’t go upside down and there are far scarier rides at non-Disney parks. But for Disney, for me to have not expected it, for him to be so excited, for me to be riding a big roller coaster with my little (but apparently not so little anymore) son…I had a moment. Proud, sad, excited, and full of adrenaline, all at once. We quickly dragged the strollers into the gift shop so we could greet Ryan as he exited the ride. Theo and I both were blabbing about it before he was even within earshot and Ryan had the same reaction that I did. We rode it and HE LOVED it. He talked about it the entire trip and STILL talks about it every time we talk about our trip (he subsequently rode Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom and loved it as well). One of our favorite family moments on this trip, for sure. What a great start to our day!

As was the case in every park, the free play/exploration area was a hit. Ryan and I had fun too – I wish this was our backyard!

The Tree of Life. My little thrill seekers love adrenaline rushes that come from exciting rides but they did not like It’s Tough to Be a Bug inside of the Tree of Life. Too many unexpected interactive elements combined with darkness. We loved finding animals “carved” into the tree.

Ryan had a daily date with slushies. Obsessed.

Playing the drums. We loved the Kilimanjaro Safari, as usual.

The boys adored Animal Kingdom. Dinosaur was a favorite ride – we went on it twice. I think I enjoyed the Finding Nemo show and Ryan enjoyed Flights of Wonder more than the boys. We all got lucky on Kali River Rapids – we were refreshingly splashed but not soaked like the other half of our boat. We shared treats. We were hot and tired and decided to call it a day a couple of hours before the park closed. We missed the Lion King show (but saw it last time) and the Maharajah Jungle Trek (in all the times I’ve been to Animal Kingdom, I’ve never done this). More swimming at the hotel on Saturday night to ease into Mother’s Day on Sunday morning!