December 31

Happy New Years Eve!

Today we are spending the day at Hollywood Studios. We are expecting to have LOTS of fun here!

Our first stop was to watch Disney Junior. It was a show with some of our favorite Disney characters. Unfortunately, it was a bit disappointing.

Next, we headed to the Backlot Tour. It was a small ride that explained how some of the props for the movies are made and kept. It was pretty interesting and there was fire! A plus for our little audience!

Then we were off to Monsters University to meet Mike and Sully!

One of the big highlights of the day was our character lunch at Hollywood and Vine! We got to meet June from the Little Einsteins, 

Handy Manny, 

Special Agent Oso, 

and Jake!

Lunch was so much fun and the food was amazing!

After lunch, we were able to get into the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show. They showed how some stunts are designed and executed for the movies. 

And then, Lightning McQueen showed up!!

Talk about another highlight to the day!!

Grayson's favorite part of the day was when the motorcycle rider caught on fire after he rode through it

This show got two thumbs up from Neylan

and 10 fingers up from Grayson. Definitely a hit with the boys

And then we got to meet McQueen and Mater

Another highlight of the afternoon was in Pixar Studios

The girls and little boys got in line to meet Buzz and Woody while the dads got in line for the Toy Story Mania ride. Disney has it so well organized that they provide lots of photo ops and fun interaction stops for the kids while you wait in the long line. 

After waiting for nearly an hour and taking 2 potty breaks during that time, we got to the very front of the line. It was our turn next and Neylan said he needed to go potty AGAIN!!! Seriously?! I asked him to wait, we could go as soon as we met Buzz and Woody and he started crying! We cannot have this when we meet his two favorite characters. What do we do? We asked the Disney worker what to do and she let us run as fast as I could to the bathroom. I thought they might let the others in line behind us go on, but they didn't. They let Grayson go have his own time with the characters while they waited on Neylan and I to return. It was so, so nice of them to do for us.  

After our little meet and greet session, we joined the dads in line for the ride. We didn't have to wait long at all and had a blast on the ride. 

Hollywood Studio's big Christmas event is their light spectacular. It was incredible to see all of the lights lining every inch of the buildings.  

It was a fun way to start spending the evening on New Years Eve. People were gathered in the streets and it even started to "snow" as we walked along.

We party animals ended the night in the park early and headed home. After 3 full park days, we were a bit tired. On our way out, we got to see some fireworks being shot off at Magic Kingdom. 

Once back at the condo, we let the boys open their gift for the day. 

Since we met Jake today, we gave them the Jolly Roger, Captain Hook's pirate ship

To end the celebration, we let the boys work off any leftover energy in the pool

December 30

Magic Kingdom, here we come! 

After sleeping in a bit after our long day yesterday, we finally arrived around 10:00 this morning and were able to get right in

Grayson saw a line to meet Pooh and Tigger and was determined to stand in it for more autographs! He is so into the characters!

Then we headed to the tea cups. Neylan requested that all the dads ride with him. They obliged and all squeezed in!

Neylan gave the ride two thumbs up. He wanted to go faster and faster!

Next to the tea cups were the cars. The line was an hour long, but we stood in it for the boys!

After lunch, Grayson headed over to dance with the Incredibles. He loved it and this became the highlight of his day!!

This afternoon, we headed towards the castle to get a good spot for the Christmas parade and happened to show up during a fun Christmas show. 

All ready for the parade. Right in the front row!

The evening parade was the electrical parade, which was also fun to watch. 

After this parade we headed back to the castle to get a good spot to watch the lighting ceremony and again, got to see the entire Christmas show. The castle is just beautiful at night when it's all lit up. 

There was a fun lighting show where the castle was lit with scenes from different Disney movies. It was so cool to watch each one. 

 Then the fireworks began!

Another fun day! It was very, very crowded today, which we later learned that the park had reached capacity, well over 100,000, and had to start turning people away. We were lucky to get in and got to see some fun Christmas shows and parades that were still happening. 

Before we came, we bought the boys little souvenir gifts to give to them each night, if they had a good day. This was much cheaper than buying them at the gift shops in the park! So, tonight, the boys got their first prize. They sat on the couch patiently, with their eyes closed. 

They got a Christmas Mickey Mouse with peppermint candy

New Years' Eve at Hollywood studios tomorrow!