Right before nap time we pulled Kye to the side and told him that he’d get to skip his nap and that we had some special birthday things planned for him instead. He was PUMPED. He told Britt “we are both going to sleep Britt” and kept winking at us and whispering “I don’t want to hurt her feelings” 😉 Parking was pretty crazy once we got to Downtown Disney so the guys dropped me off to minimize my walking!
Zach and I had pre-decided a plan of action for our fun-filled afternoon. First stop: Guest Services! We had to get our Birthday Boy his Birthday Pin!!! Next up: Goofy’s Candy Company! Y’all know that we do not do a lot of sweets for our kids. So I knew Kye would really love getting to have his pick of candy! We told him as we were walking up to the store that we were going to get a special snack to walk around and eat.
Filling his treat bag!
Zach and I opted to get slushies! I’m glad we had already decided to do the treat bag bc there were TONS of crazy expensive candy options there and even the treat bag still ended up being $8. Most expensive candy purchase ever?!?!
Y’all can’t say I don’t let him eat sweets!
(confession: he did NOT finish the whole bag and I ended up throwing the rest away haha)
Kye was eager to get the show on the road and was so excited about getting to walk around and eat his candy that he didn’t want to sit for long. So we started walking and passed by a chorus singing “Let It Go” which was just an awesome moment. That song is A-MAZING and being at Disney and hearing a chorus sing it was just so neat. Def gave me chills and was one of those “I’m so thankful we are here right now” moments 🙂
Our next stop was to the Build-A-Dino Workshop which happens to be inside the T-Rex restaurant. We’ve never eaten at T-Rex before…it’s basically a Rainforest Cafe in a Dinosaur theme. I thought it was odd for the little shop to be inside the restaurant? Again, I was thankful we already had a game plan because just choosing which dinosaur he wanted to get was a little overwhelming for him! At first he was drawn to this tie-dye looking one and we steered him away from that the best we could haha!
The whole process was REALLY neat. I haven’t done a build-a-bear in years but I knew it was a great thing for this age to experience and thought it would be fun for Kye. He really did take it seriously and the guy who helped us was awesome too! He picked one of the cheaper dinosaur options so we didn’t limit him on what he added to the dinosaur 🙂 A little spoiling has to happen for your birthday, right? 🙂
Picking out a “roar” sound for his dino!
He had to do some crazy dance moves before putting the heart in 😉
Adding the stuffing!
When it came time to name him the guy who helped us asked Kye what name he wanted and Zach said “how about Jackmerius Tacktheritrix?” The response was priceless. The guys was literally cracking up! Kye, of course, has heard this joke many a times and simply brushed off the idea and came up with his own name: Dino Rocks. He was excited about it and couldn’t believe it when we told him he also got to pick out some clothes for him! It was like decision overload day haha!
Before leaving we used the bathrooms in the restaurant and it really does look super cool! This ice room was my favorite…so beautiful!
Taking Dino Rocks home with us 🙂
Our next stop was to the Lego Store. On other times when we’ve gone to Downtown Disney Kye has really enjoyed playing with the Legos at this store. When we arrived that day at the Marketplace it was actually the first thing he asked! So I’m glad we had already decided to go there 🙂
They had a deal where you can build three of your own Lego Men for $9.99. I mean it ain’t cheap but it’s an experience gift combo and they were really cool little pieces to choose from for the guys! And really the $10 was worth it to see how much ZACH enjoyed it. He was super into it. Much more than Kye was haha. Zach grew up as a lego kid himself so he was in his element 🙂
Pirate, Fireman, and Sheriff!
Kye enjoyed building his own guys, but he was MUCH more excited to play in the Lego room! He could have easily stayed there for hours if we let him. If you have a son (heck, girls probably would like it too!), be sure to visit the Lego Store at Downtown Disney for FREE fun!
He build a forestation for his new fireman lego man!
For our last stop we went into World of Disney. If you’ve ever been in there before then you know what a ZOO that store can be! I now know the whole layout pretty well and since I had come the day before I knew to enter in the princess entrance by the Lego Store and exactly where we needed to go to get his gift. Again, thankful we had plans made in advance! We took him to the Boys Toys section of the store and told him we had decided to get him this remote control Lightning McQueen car as his BIG birthday present from us. BUT that if he wanted to pick something else instead he could. All of the boys toys were in the same section and the particular area we were in had all the Lightning McQueen stuff. So he checked out his options but once we really showed him how awesome the remote control car was, he chose that 🙂
When I came the day before I talked to a lady a long time about my options for a super cool present for him and she is the one who suggested the car. We have owned a couple Lightning McQueen remote control cars in the past and they were, honestly, junk and didn’t work. So i was hesitant to go that route but she explained to me that they actually use it as a model toy in the stores and that even the adults love it and that it has held up super well for how much it gets used and beat up. So I felt okay getting it (but did keep both the box and receipt just in case!).
His BIG Birthday Gift!
The three of us had SO much fun! Kye’s favorite part might have been getting to carry that candy bag around with him and eating it as we walked. He legit carried it the whole time haha. So funny! He was very appreciative of our time together and I’m so thankful it all worked out so well. With it being Britt’s first trip to Disney we gave her majority of our attention during the week so I’m thankful that we both started and ended the trip with doing some special things JUST for Kye.
On the way back to the room we had to stop and buy batteries because that car took a TON of them! We got back to the condo and Britt was still sleeping which worked out great! Kye was able to show G-Mama alllll of his gifts and tell her all about our fun time! We even had time to get the car put together (have you ever noticed how horrible Disney makes it to get their toys out of the boxes?!?!) and play with it before she woke up!
Dino Rocks birth certificate!
The remote control car ended up being legit cool!!! And much, much cheaper than the Ridemakerz thing would have been!
It basically works where Lightning McQueen chases the laser beam in the handheld portion. Similar to how a cat chases those laser flashlight things 😉
Zach LOVED it too!
I think someone enjoyed his new gift 🙂
While Britt finished her nap we let Kye watch some more of the movie from earlier that day. Even though we didn’t visit an actual park on Saturday or Sunday…I think those two days wore me out the most because I didn’t get to rest during naps!!! Britt slept super hard and finally woke up at almost 5!!! Once she was up we headed to Banana Jacks. It is on the Regal Palms resort property but you do not have to be a guest at the resort to eat there. It is pretty good pizza and SUPER cheap. Plus the way it’s set up is really perfect for families with small kids. You can see everything very easily and the play area only has one entrance and one exit! We are actually going back there again this weekend with Zach’s entire family on our family trip to Orlando 🙂
The kids LOVE the play area and we really did pretty much have the place to ourselves!
Zach insisted on getting a bigger packaged deal when we placed our order because it was like double the tokens for only a couple more dollars. I didn’t understand why he thought we needed so many game tokens…but then I realized. Mr. Competitive wanted to see how many tickets he could earn 😉 And the total ended up being over 800! The kids played some games but mostly just wanted to play in the play area so Zach spent his time racking up the tickets haha. Such a kid at heart!
Playing old school Pac Man!
Kye has quite a bit of that competitive spirit in him too…he LOVED this basketball game!
The sweater you get, the higher your score. 57 is pretty awesome!
Once we got back to the room Mrs. Charlotte and I went back to Downtown Disney! I know…my pregnant self was pretty exhausted haha! But I never get to just browse and shop and have really being wanting to get to do that. I love the Disney Store online but they don’t offer everything that the shops do! We only stayed out for a couple of hours and got some good finds! I went ahead and bought our Christmas ornament for our trip, found some new placemats for the kids, got a Mickey Mouse cookie/sandwich cutter that I’ve been wanting for awhile, and got myself a little something too!
This is gonna sound SUPER LAME. I know it does and I’m totally okay with that haha. But back before my freshman year in high school (so about 16 years ago) I went to Hawaii with my dad over the summer and really fell in the love with all things Hawaiian and since I had just moved to Florida I also become pretty obsessed about the brand name Roxy. So naturally when it came time to buy a book bag for school I got a Roxy one that is covered in hawaiian print flowers. Don’t get me wrong, that book bag has been AMAZING. I use it at EVERY Disney trip and take it on many flights. Plus I used it through school way back then 🙂 It’s held up great and it really perfect for what I use it for. It’s weather proof, is lightweight, smaller than the big bulky book bags, and has simply one big pocket and one smaller one in the front. Simple. However, it’s also 16 years old. It’s time for a change! And since I DO use it mostly at Disney I told Zach waaaay back before my birthday this past November that I really, really wanted a new book bag. I picked out several I liked on my Pinterest wish list board to make it easy for him. I reminded him again at Christmas. And then again at Valentine’s Day. No book bag. So when Mrs. Charlotte and I were at the World of Disney and I saw this book bag I was PUMPED. It was EXACTLY like my Roxy one in every single way but instead of Hawaiian flowers it has Mickey all over it. Which I know I don’t really rock Disney themed attire but it’s not any more tacky than the Hawaiian flowers, right? And at least it makes sense when we are at DISNEY! On top of it being perfection…it was also only $30! I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited over a purchase haha. I texted Zach and he said I could get it!
My new love 🙂
I was mega worn out from all of our weekend fun and knew I needed my rest for our first day at the parks! I went straight to bed (before 10!) and planned to get up early to shower and get ready. I’ve never done that before…usually I shower at night and then load up everything the next morning. But this time I switched it up and did ALL the Disney Day Packing that night and got up to shower. It worked out SO much better b/c I didn’t lay in bed tossing and turning reminding myself of all the things I needed to get done the next morning. It was actually the first time EVER that I’ve gotten a good nights sleep the night before a Disney Park Day. Seriously! I am usually too excited and too worried about forgetting something to sleep. I’m so glad I got such good rest and that everyone else did too for our big day the next day!
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I'll have to show this to my husband! The east vs. west on Key and Peele. Let Zach know he's not alone 😉