Celebrating Ian's birthday!

Happy Birthday Ian! What better place to spend your day than at Walt Disney World!

For breakfast, the night before, Ian asked for chocolate chip pancakes. This used to be a regular occurrence when Grammy was making breakfast, but in the RV it doesn't happen as often.  

Alli really likes them too. 

Let's go to Disney World! I love the giant sign that greets you no matter which way you enter. Disneyland might be The Happiest Place On Earth, but Disney World is The Most Magical Place On Earth!

Well this wasn't exactly unexpected. We arrived about 15 minutes before park opening, so of course there's going to be a backup at the parking lot turnstiles. 

Happy Birthday!

Let's go ride something before the lines get too long. 

Journey to Imagination with Figment was a walk-on, so we headed straight there.

And the kids love running around the ImageWorks to see all the different exhibits to discover. Here they can make Figment play different notes, just by waving their hands. 

Or design their own Figment-like dragon character. 

Like Ian's Eeyore Figment and Alli's Pinky Figment. 

They love all the interactive elements here. 

You know what we need? Popcorn! This refillable popcorn bucket has been great! Only $2 per refill and the kids love chowing down on it. 

Cast Member Gladys saw his Birthday Button then said she's got a special present for him. She grabbed a cup, filled it with popcorn, and then sang Happy Birthday to him while she gave him some free popcorn. Aww, thank you Gladys for making his day special! 

You know what goes great with popcorn? Soda! A stop at Club Cool was in order, and it was right around the corner! 

The kids really love the orange Country Club soda with its vanilla tropical flavor. It's a pretty good one! 

Since it's his birthday, Ian's present is going all around Epcot and having tasty treats. Family members even sent a little bit of money so both he and Alli could get a few more special treats. 

I've always wondered why Club Cool would have a place to buy drinks. You've got free drinks right beside it! Well, one of the treats Ian wanted was an ice cream float. I guess they do occasionally make a sale here. Ian asked if they could use Country Club soda as the base, but the cast member said that was separate and not affiliated with the counter. 

Even still, it's delicious with Coke. 

We're exploring a little more today so we hopped on the Disney Skyliner to take us towards Hollywood Studios. 

We hopped off a stop early at the Caribbean Beach hub to take a look around and have some lunch. 

Alli - It's your birthday so I'll swing you as much as you want. 

Ian enjoyed swinging and eating popcorn in the hammock. 

And then building sandcastles in the fine sand. No water to add to it to give it some structure, but they enjoyed making piles. 

For our next stop, and Ian's next treat, we're hopping back on the Skyliner and going back towards Epcot. 

More precisely, the Boardwalk near Epcot. There they have a Bakery with a display case full of tasty treats. And they are decorated for the holidays!

Ian wanted this giant cookie! 

We saw that rain was a possibility today so we came prepared. 

During a break in the rain Ian's next treat took us to the Japan pavilion where they serve shaved ice. Aubrey would be proud! Ian went for a Melon/Strawberry while Alli got Melon/Strawberry/Cherry. This much frozen ice certainly takes a long time to eat. And they finished it all, drinking up the flavored water that was left at the end. 

For our next treat we're headed to Germany and the Karamell-Küche bakery. They go through so much caramel popcorn here. Every time we've stopped in they have been popping up a fresh batch. Those large bowls of caramel look tasty!

But instead of getting popcorn, we're getting a cake. Actually a Disney World 50th Anniversary Cupcake! This one looks tasty!

Before we go, the kids enjoyed one more refill of popcorn. 

Bye Minnie! We've had a fun day here! The forecast says it's about to start raining so we're headed home for a tasty dinner! 

Both kids love having cheese fondue for their birthday meal. I didn't think that sounded substantial enough though, so I cooked up a batch of chicken nuggets too. Ian was super excited to have both. 

Ian - Can I dip the nuggets in the cheese? 

Sure buddy! Enjoy!

And Alli decided to start dipping the vegetables in the cheese too. Tasty!

Theresa has combined a piece of fondue bread with a chicken nugget to make a mini chicken fondue sandwich. 

Ian loved getting the phone calls, FaceTimes, and messages from people wishing him a Happy Birthday. 

For his birthday cake, we used the caramel cupcake and loaded it with 8 candles. That works great!

Mmm. I hope this is good. 

Theresa cut it into fourths for us to enjoy. The caramel icing was delicious and the chocolate cake was tasty too. I really with there was more caramel filling on the inside of the cake though. The caramel is the best part!

Theresa bought some GOLD balloons so we could play the balloon game. It's a lot harder to score points inside the RV. There's not a lot of places for the balloon to hit the floor. 

To finish the night Ian and Alli had a fun time playing Just Dance. It's not the trampoline, but at least it gets them burning some energy. 

Before bed, we all read about The Story of Ian. Good memories. 

You're an awesome brother and fun kid. Happy birthday Ian!