Sunday, December 30, 2012

Cookie in the Milk

Christmas, 2012. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, packages kept arriving at the front door. Of course, Casey wanted to open each and every one the moment they arrived. But we kept telling him to wait until Christmas. The days passed, and the pile of presents under the Christmas tree grew. Finally, it was Christmas Eve. Before going to bed, Casey helped leave Santa Claus some cookies. He personally choose three frosted Animal Cookies, and three chocolate chip cookies. We poured a small mug of milk and wrote a note to Santa. "Help yourself to some milk and cookies- Merry Christmas" Fast forward to Christmas morning. Casey came down to the dining table, looked at the cookie bowl, and said, "He left a piece of cookie!". Then he looked inside the mug and said, "He dropped a piece of cookie in his milk. Let's save it for him".

Looks like Santa left a note... and a piece of cookie in the bowl!

A Thank You Note from Santa!

Santa dropped a piece of cookie in his milk!

Monday, December 24, 2012

Carsland!

For years, Casey's favorite movie has been Cars. He owns the two movies, books and a boatload of the toy cars. He knows all the names of the characters/cars. So, when Disney announced they were opening a theme park named Carsland, I knew it was only a matter of time before we HAD to take Casey there. We sure were not going to go on opening day, we managed to miss the summer crowds, we didn't go on a weekend, we planned the excursion for a weekday in early December. Consider it a stroke of luck, but the day finally came, and it was dark, drizzly and a little chilly... In other words- perfect weather. Apparently, the thread of rain kept the crowds away, because with the exception of one ride, there were NO lines longer than 5 minutes. Before leaving, I consulted with many friends with prior Disney experience, and asked for advice. The most succinct advice I received? 'Don't go'
We got to the park, and went straight for the Carsland Racers. Casey and Daddy waited in line for about 90 minutes. Surprisingly, Casey did pretty good in line. I thought he would be bored out of his skull and going crazy. We finally got on the ride, and Casey was a little scared, but had fun. Toward the end of the ride, he looked over at me, and said, "I'm a little scared". Too cute. When the ride ended, Casey had the option of immediately going again, with Mommy. He didn't hesitate, and wanted to go again. I guess fun won out over scared!
From there, we rode Mater's crazy tractors, and Luigi's flying tires. After exhausting Carsland, we proceeded to Bug's Life. We rode the flying something or anothers.. Dont remember exactly what it was called, 'cept I do know mounted what looked like a giant Chinese Food to-go container for a ride in the sky. Then Casey saw the bumper cars. As we approached the cars, Casey pushed me out of the way, and announced, "I'm driving"! Apparently, he likes driving and crashing, cause he insisted we do this ride multiple times!
Casey requested we ride the giant ferris wheel. After that, we got some ice cream before heading over the Monster's Inc. attraction. For a spell, Monster's Inc. was a close runner up to Cars for Casey's favorite movie. Sure enough, he requested we take multiple turns on this ride as well. Thankfully, there were minimal lines, which made all these multiple rides real quick and easy. Our day ended with a front row seat for the Disney character parade. It featured characters from movies such as Monsters Inc, Toy Story, Finding Nemo, etc... It was so cool watching Casey recognize the characters and movies.
All in all, a wonderful family day. It went better than anyone imagined. Minimal lines, NO meltdowns, both boys throughly enjoying themselves ALL DAY long.

Carsland- Radiator Springs Racers Ride
"I'm a little scared"
"I'm a little scared"
Lighting McQueen
Crazy Tractors
Merry-go-round
Mater's Crazy Tractors
Casey driving bumper cars
Casey driving bumper cars
The boys on the ferris wheel