Hollywood studios afternoon edition

After we finished up with meeting Buzz and Woody, Jacob and Matthew were excited to go off and hit the big roller coaster rides at Hollywood Studios and David was ready for some time out of the sun.  Because David wasn't riding all of the big rides that the other boys were riding, he and my mom had been spending a lot of time together.  I was really wanting some time with David, so I was thrilled to take him shopping while my mom walked with the other boys to go tackle The Tower of Terror and The Rocking Rollercoaster.

David is a shopper....he loves to look around and simply enjoy all of the looking and exploring within a store.  He and I had a great time checking out all of the shopping options that are at Hollywood Studios.  We checked out Mickey Mouse socks, they didn't have his size.   We checked out hats, he didn't like how they fit.  We looked at t-shirts, and toys, and stuffed animals.  So many awesome stuffed animals.....and then he fell in love!  As a true Mickey Mouse lover, he fell in love with the largest Mickey Mouse stuffed animal you can imagine.  I hoped that it was so large that it would be out of his price range, but it only cost $40.  I tried hard as I could to talk him out of it, as I was becoming afraid that we didn't have luggage big enough to fit all of the things we would be taking home....but there was no talking David out of this stuffed animal.  He was officially in love.

After lots of slick maneuvers on my part, I finally convinced David that we needed to leave Mickey Mouse at the store and we needed to go to the Fantasmic show and then we would come and buy Mickey at the end of the night just before we left.  This Mickey was so big I just could not see myself lugging Mickey around for the rest of the day while we saw shows.

Finally we met back up with Jacob, Matthew and my mom and the boys were on a high from riding The Tower of Terror!  They both loved it, although Matthew said it made his "tummy feel funny".
After reuniting it was time to see Fantasmic.  This is an awesome show!  David thought that seeing all of the characters in one place was a riot.  He kept asking "what are they thinking?  So many Mickey's, what will the manager say?  What is Mickey doing?"  He was truly alive and engaged and loving the show.  This is my favorite version of David- he sees the humor in life.  He chats up a storm and notices the slightest details in everything.  He truly giggles as he talks.  It is the best!

After we finished watching Fantasmic it was time to see the Hollywood Studios fireworks and GO GET MICKEY!!!  As soon as Fantasmic was over David was ready to go buy Mickey Mouse, so waiting until after the fireworks were over was again a bit of a challenge.  Thankfully, once the fireworks started he was enthralled and just loved them.

As we left the park we stopped to show Bubbe the new Mickey, and David made his purchase.  Talk about a happy kiddo!  David thinks having ANOTHER oversized Mickey Mouse is the best thing ever and had a great time snuggling with him on the car ride home.

Jacob was very excited as we returned to Give Kids the World because it was time to make his dream come true and order pizza at 9:00 at night!  We ended the evening with a pizza party in our villa, and then we hurried the boys to bed because we knew we had to get up and out in the morning....our goal was to tackle Animal Kingdom and Epcot....this was going to be a tall order......our heart and souls were prepared, but Bubbe and I had some aching feet at this point.

As the boys went to sleep, Bubbe and I had some time just hanging out together, talking about the trip, the boys, and simply being together.  For me this was a special night, because for as many hours as we were together on this trip, there was always a distraction.  For me, this was a few hours with my mom, who had now lived a few days inside my world, and was able to give me an outsiders perspective about the good, the bad and the ugly that makes up life for me and the boys.

We talked about our worries for the boys, and their strengths.  We talked about how amazed we were to see Jacob loving the roller coasters so much, and at how proud we were to see Matthew trying the roller coasters.  We talked about how adorable David is, how much he loves each of his Mickey Mouse stuffed animals, and how special this week was so far.  And finally, it was time for us to head to bed, as we knew we would be getting up again in the AM and starting another day full of adventures!