Hanging out at the Resort

We stayed at Disney's Art of Animation Family Suites.  There are lots of cool things to see there.  Several of the Cars characters are there, but we didn't get many good pictures of them since we forgot to take our camera to Disney, and we had to take pictures with our phones.  When we walked by Mater, Luke crawled into his mouth and started yelling, "Ahhhhh!  He's eating me!  Help!"  It was the funniest thing!  I'm so glad we were able ot get a picture of it.








Our suite was in the Lion King section of the resort.

We took this picture in the hallway:



This huge statue thing is located in the courtyard:





They have a really big staute of Rafiki, too:



Luke wanted to pretend to be Jesse's walking stick, so he turned around for the picture and told Jesse to put his hand on his head.  He giggled the entire time.

They also have a playground area called The Boneyard, where the kids can run through tunnels and climb on the bones.



Luke is sitting on the tusk of a mammoth.

















Monkeying around in a cave...



They have another playground, too, which is responsible for Luke wearing bandaids on his face all week...  It quickly became our least favorite spot at the resort, so I will not post any pictures of it.  Most of Disney's play areas are made of rubber.  However, that particular playground was made of concrete, even though it looked like rubber.  Luke got to meet a paramedic, two firemen, and the manger of the resort.  He was given a free activity book and a stuffed animal for his pain.

Breakfast with Friends!

We had breakfast with Mickey and some of his friends at the Polynesian Resort. While we were waiting for them to make their appearance, Eli and Jesse shared a glass of polynesian juice.



Then Stitch showed up!

 

Eli was quite pleased.

Then Pluto came by.



I think Eli must've been coughing in this picture... or either Pluto had doggy breath and he was gagging.

Then the Big Cheese came by to say hi.



After we got pictures with everyone, the characters formed a congo line with all the kids and danced through the restaurant.  Eli followed Mickey around and sang and danced the entire way.  I think we have it on video somewhere, but I can't find it.  It was really cute!

Splash Mountain!

Luke has always wanted to go on Splash Mountain, but he never would because he didn't want to get wet.  Before we left for our trip, I had the brilliant idea of introducing him to the poncho and managed to convince him that he would stay dry if he wore it.  He became very excited that he could now tackle Splash Mountain, so we put it at the top of our list of things to do.  I took him and Seth on the ride while Jesse took Eli to play at the Laughing Place.




Luke was excited at first, but then he began to fear that his poncho would leak.




I convinced him he would be dry, and told him I needed him to hold my phone under the poncho when we got to the drop so that it wouldn't get wet.  Then I took the following pictures:




"Are you sure this is going to keep me dry?"



"My eye got wet, Mommy.  This thing isn't working."



"I really hope I don't get wet!"



"Hey!  I'm dry!  That was fun!"



He decided that the poncho was a wonderful invention, and then he got back in line with Jesse and went again!

First Night at Disney

We went to Disney in late October, and since it's almost Christmas, I figured it's about time to post some of the pictures!


 The night we arrived, we went to Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner.

 

 The food was really good, but Eli was restless, so Jesse and I took turns walking him around.


 

I took him into the giftshop where he happily played the bongos and danced around.


After dinner, we walked around our resort. We ran into Mater, who apparently was hungry and tried to eat Luke.

 

 Don't worry! We were able to rescue him.

Captain Skidmark

Crawdad!

Seth fished this thing out of the creek behind our house.

 

He wanted to keep it as a pet.  I told him I'd take his picture with it, and then it had to go back into creek!

Luke Lost His First Tooth!

Luke tried to seperate two legos with a loose tooth. I don't think he'll ever do that again!

20 months

Eli's favorite hobbies include: reading, stealing legos from his brothers' room, playing at the playground, chasing and running from his brothers, wrestling with Daddy, riding bikes, playing with cars and trains on the train table, singing and dancing, and eating crayons.

We all think he's pretty awesome.  And cute.

Milkshake!

An unfortunate brother left his milkshake on the table where Eli could reach it.



 Perhaps next time, he'll remember to put it in the fridge.



Eli  likes having forgetful brothers.

China vs. Mongolia

The boys built the Great Wall of China with their legos and then decided to use their army men to battle the Chinese against the Mongolians.



 To be fair, they built a Great Wall of Mongolia, too.



The Chinese were the green guys. The Mongolians were tan. (Note the pile of army men laying off to the side near the grapes. Sadly, they were casualties of war.) The grapes were merely used as a snack to power the young minds of the boys pitting soldiers against each other. If I would've suggested that they looked like grenades, I'm sure there would've been a food fight!

Reading a Magazine

Jesse and Seth were reading a magazine, when Luke decided to jump over Jesse's shoulder and join them.  I thought it was pretty funny, so I ran to grab the camera.



Then, he decided he needed to get closer.



Seth's expression in this picture cracks me up!



Somehow, Jesse was still able to see.

18 months

17 Months!

Eli kept trying to put this bandana put on his head.



Then he would take it off and try to put it on again.   He spent about 30 minutes putting it on and taking it off.  It was really funny!

Raising Butterflies

The boys were quite excited to find cateripllars in the mail!  We decided to put them on the mantle, so Eli couldn't get them...



After a few days, they each formed a chrysallis.  A week later, the butterflies came out!




We had a total of five.  We gave them a snack, so they would have energy to fly away (the red liquid is waste produced by the butterfly, and isn't blood, even though it looks like it!)



Some of them were more eager to take flight than others,  so we had to make several attempts to get them out of their enclosure.  Evenatully they all left.  We spent about 2 weeks looking for them every time we went outside,  but we haven't seen them.  The boys were hoping they would live on our butterfly bush and never go away!

Happy 9th Birthday, Seth!

Seth celebrated his birthday at Adventure Landing this year (almost two months ago--I'm behind on my blogging, as always).  Here's his cake:



Seth directed his "Happy Birthday" song.  He decided that his friends did a pretty good job!



I think he had some help blowing out his candles!



After they ate pizza and cake, they played laser tag!  I didn't get any pictures, though.  I have found that I often forget to take pictures when I'm chasing a toddler...

Happy Birthday, Seth!

Luke in a Tree

"Mommy!  Take my picture!"



"Take one like this!"



"And one like this!"



"Now take this one!"