Disney - President's Day Weekend

With John traveling and William off school for an in service and President's Day, he and I snuck off to Orlando for a Mother-Son trip to Disney World.  Since we booked it last minute, we couldn't use our DVC points (or find a reasonably priced Disney hotel), so we stayed at The Swan, a Sheraton resort inside the resort.    It was a good room for just the two of us to share, and the location was fantastic for walking to Hollywood Studios, the Boardwalk and Epcot!   We were a little off our game since our Magic Bands weren't linked to our hotel bill, so I had to get out my credit card for every Mickey Bar and bottle of water.     But that's not much to complain about!

Since it was Valentine's Day, even the early morning at Midway was fun!  William, a savvy traveler, spotted the very short line at the first Dunkin in the food court and jumped in line for his heart shaped breakfast.  He looked brilliant as we entered the concourse, donut bag in hand, and saw the dozens of people queued at the second Dunkin!

Our afternoon stop was Epcot where the Festival of the Arts was on display.  We've never been in February so this was a real treat!    We loved seeing all of the displays - even in an under construction Epcot - and since we weren't in a rush at any point during this trip, we had time to enjoy and participate!

The aquarium, which we had visited at Christmas after a long hiatus, was a hit once again.   The dolphins weren't out, but we had so much fun watching the fish swim and interact.

 It's pretty hard to say no to William since he rarely asks for much.   When he wanted a cookie to "paint," I said yes, even though I assumed it would taste gross.   It was actually pretty decent and another fun activity!   Plus, once he had that in his system he could humor me on my search for nachos!  We had to walk across half the world to get there!

 When we'd had our fill of the treats and art at Epcot, we went to Hollywood Studios for the evening.   We chatted with some nice families in line while we waited for Smuggler's Run.  And William scoped out his souvenir game of Sabaac. 

 

We ended the night on Slinky Dog during the fireworks and then grabbed dessert from the Boardwalk Bakery for bedtime treats.  Or did we eat them for breakfast?  I don't remember, but they were definitely eaten in bed!

Saturday we were up early and in perfect position to score some early Rise of the Resistance boarding passes, but alas, even though I read all the blogs, I made a tactical error in relying on in park Wifi instead of my cell signal.  In the 30 seconds while my phone froze, all of the boarding passes were snatched up and our backup boarding group was never called.   A big bummer but we made the best of the day with our Plan B.

The day was fully redeemed after naps and a trip to mini golf!   We played both the Winter and Summer courses at the Blizzard Beach course.   We each won one and had a lot of fun!

Sunday we got up early to rope drop Flight of Passage.   John and I had done that one time, but I wasn't sure if William would feel motivated to do it.  Luckily even though the line looked really long, it wasn't a long wait.    We also had time for the pool that day.   The water was a little too cold for my liking, but we enjoyed a late lunch and some sun before the rain washed us out.   We had a late dinner planned for the new Topolino Terrace restaurant.  The meal was a bit of a bust - apparently a mom and kid don't look like the kind of diners that want a signature dining experience.   Or maybe our waiter just wasn't very good.  But I got the wrong drink and wasn't offered the right one.  The food was only ok.  And the seating was too close and too loud.   Interestingly though we "ran into" a family of travel bloggers that I follow:  The Bucket List Family.  They were checking into the hotel.  I learned their carefully curated content on Instagram is a few days delayed from actual.....because according to posts I had seen just hours before, they were in some other country still.   That's probably smart!

Monday was our Magic Kingdom day.   Crowds the entire weekend were busy, so we tried to slow down and enjoy some off the path stuff like this geyser!  We're big geyser fans after Yellowstone!  And William had one treat planned in advance of the trip:  a Mickey cake pop from the Main Street candy shop.  He had scoped that out on YouTube before we went!  Between that and our afternoon brunch at Chef Mickey's he had more than enough to eat!

But what I wanted was a Baby Yoda t-shirt!  I regretted not getting one in December, and thankfully the Space Mountain gift shop still had the "design your own" kiosk.   This is the only way I know to get the picture without "The Child" or "The Mandalorian" text on it.    William and I both got one and he wore his on the flight home!

Super Bowl

Chiefs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the Chiefs won the AFC Championship, we were in a real dilemma.   We had a newly finished basement and had volunteered to host the Super Bowl for our usual group of friends.  But we really wanted to *watch* the game as well.   So we ended up having the game on upstairs for casual watchers/snackers and downstairs for the serious watchers.   It was a really fun time, and I'm glad we were able to share it with friends!   

I apparently didn't save the photo of my cart at the liquor store, but in addition to making my famous margaritas, we served Kansas City's Boulevard Brewing Company beers.  I bought every variety they had at the store (and there were several, but strangely no Pale Ale....).   Whether it was the Chiefs shirts, or the KC beer or just the year, we were so excited about the Chiefs victory!  We also won squares on our pool, so really just a win-win of a night!

Pinewood Derby

William wanted to go out with a bang in his final Pinewood Derby - as a 3-peat Grand Champion. But the night was a bit of a bust.  The timing system broke down and the event got a very late start.   After a long wait, we decided to manually time and calculate the cars.  William's car was super fast but had a little wobble so finished 3rd among his den.  The big winner was a kindergarten boy who left before the awards because the night went on so long!  His mom posted really cute pictures of him wearing pajamas and breakfast with his trophy!  I entered a car in the Adult Open category and it won fastest car among the two entries.  I thought of the idea of it the year prior - the Wonder Wedge - combining Wonder Woman and the Shields special wedge only car construction.    I hope that the work put in on my car didn't detract from the work on William's car.   He said he had fun.

January

A few things we did in January:

William started the year by upping his Kid Chef game.  Now, not only does he make his own breakfasts and lunches, he makes and delivers them to me!   The plate below is his scrambled eggs, toast from leftover hotdog buns and fresh strawberries.  I think this one is his plate because I'm not always a ketchup on eggs eater.   Sometimes, but not often anymore.

William's school does a day of service for Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.   He and I volunteered with friends at Feed My Starving Children.  Yes, of course they had fun with the hairnets!

 

For Cub Scouts, January was a month to finish all the last requirements before the Arrow of Light and crossing over to Boy Scouts.   The winter weather cooperated for a snowy Klondike!  The boys were big winners which involved a prize of candy, so no complaints there!

At school, it was finally time for the Saint Speech - their version of the living history museum.  The kids spent most of the first semester researching and writing about the saint they selected and now got to deliver the highlights to the parents and visitors.   William chose St. Augustine of Hippo and we learned a lot!  It was also fun to hear the other kids' renditions of their saints and see who (the girls mostly!) went all out on costuming and props.