In celebration of Britt’s 11th birthday and Spear’s 5th birthday we did a week-long trip to Disney World! It was the first time doing a combo birthday for them, and will be the gameplan moving forward.
I tried to make sure they EACH felt celebrated so I did my best to make dining reservations for the busiest week of the year.
I ended up only being able to secure one for our arrival day which resulted in the most adrenaline-pumping Disney drive ever! We were almost an hour late for our reservation but thankfully G-Mama beat us there and let the cast members know so they were able to work us in!
We have loved Hollywood & Vine in the past and this time I surprised Britt with their Minnie’s Holiday Dine – all the characters dressed in their Christmas best!
I was reallllly hoping Donald would be part of the crew (my research said he may be). Sadly he wasn’t but she still loved the entire experience!
At first Spear was a bit unsure about Pluto but Pluto did a great job of pulling Spear in and getting him having fun!
Spending the adult price for Britt is a little hard to swallow as she barely eats – BUT she LOVES the characters which makes it worth it! Whereas Kye is worth every penny in the food area (pretty sure he went through the line like 8 times)!
Britt and Spear agreed that they both were happy to share the bday love together – I planned special things for each of them and gave them the option to have one thing be “just theirs” but they opted to have everything we did be a combo of bday fun!
We’ve often have characters come by twice and Pluto remembered Spear from earlier and really made a special effort to give him a little more attention – which Spear wasn’t shy this time!
Goofy was by far the best – he stuck around a long time and really interacted and made it extra special!
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We came, we ate, we left! It was not the ideal situation to have a meal on arrival day but we made it work and then headed to the house to get settled in for the week!
Our next morning was Magic Kingdom which is always so pretty at the holidays!
Love my fam 🙂
Gotta kick it off with Buzz…and Daddy getting the high score of course!
Spear and Gmama rode Barnstormer together while Z and the bigs did Space Mountain and we all met up at Dumbo!
Jingle Cruise is another holiday favorite – it never disappoints!
We also did Tiki Room as a group – Zach hadn’t done Tiki Room in prob 5 years or so and he said he’s good for at least another 5 haha!
Haunted is a fun one and is my personal favorite ride to do with Tess. She talks the ENTIRE ride and points out every single detail and it never gets old to me!
Guys left and girls did some shopping and got stuck in pouring down rain!
Rather than buy an ornament to remember our trip by I bought a kit for the kids to make their own. So cute!
We love having chill time at our Disney House and every Thanksgiving we buy a Disney puzzle to work on.
We also had a big milestone moment for Kye…shaving for the first time!
Bless sweet Tess. She had a 6 week-long ear infection struggled with 3 rounds of antibiotics. She’d just started feeling better the week prior to our trip and she turned around in the dining room and ran smack into the corner of a squared column.
She was super tough about it until Zach she just busted a blood vessel to which she then freaked out b/c she was mentally picturing blood spewing everywhere.
Thankfully she was fine and it was just a goose egg. We kept her up for awhile and applied ice. She was laughing and walking and totally herself!
This picture of Britt is one that will always make us laugh. Britt had JUST made the comment to me that she’d wondered if Tess was faking her sickness bc she loved all the attention…then this happens and Britt was clearly not thrilled with the attention being on Tess again!
The next day it looked much better and we headed to Hollywood Studios!
It was so fun getting to meet Woody and Jesse again! Spear was so excited and it brought back memories of when Kye met them for the first time on his first visit!
G-Mama always gets the kids a little something on the trip and Spear was so excited carrying his toy through the park!
The girls and I waited in line to meet Buzz and Spear was so excited!
He couldn’t wait to show Buzz the toy version of himself 😉
The crowds were, as expected, INSANE. So we skipped Galaxy’s Edge entirely and focused on the must-do items for the bday kids. Rock N Rollercoaster for Britt and Mickey Choo Choo for Spear.
Kye wasn’t really feeling the Disney vibe – he’s at that age and with the crowds it’s just not as chill! I surprised him with a frozen hot chocolate and he said it was his fav Disney treat ever!
Tess really wanted to wear her shower shoes from Georgia Bible Camp to the parks – I told her she’d regret it but that she could wear them as long as she didn’t complain. She never said a WORD about them until we were on the way to the car when she said “you were right about these shoes, can I go barefoot to the car?”
Spear and Britt both really wanted to see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom during their bday trip so we headed there that night – we got there 2 hours early and Britt and Tess rode Carousel of Progress and Phillar while Spear, GMama and I held down our spot!
Enchantment isn’t my fav but they added a portion with Walt and Mickey and it helped a lot and it was the kids first time seeing that!
We had a super chill day in honor of Thanksgiving (a few days early). We spent the day relaxing and making our turkey cookies! The kids all participated!
Kye lead the way, Tess drew all the legs, Britt did the eyes and Spear made sure they had gobbles!
They also had fun swimming (and building obstacle courses) while Zach and his mom enjoy cooking in the kitchen together. Tess wore MY shirt from high school for our Thanksgiving feast!
The next day was our Animal Kingdom day! Zach, Kye and Tess went straight to Everest and rode it twice and checked out the gorilla area.
While the birthday kids and Mommy and G-Mama headed to the Caring for Giants behind the scenes experience! We got to go “back stage” and see the elephants up close!
Tess and I did this experience when she was around Spear’s age and loved getting to “meet” baby elephant, Stella. This time we got to watch Stella interact with her older sister, Luna. They were ADORABLE together and it reminded us so much of Britt and Tess!
It was an hour long and an awesome experience – the elephants were so active and we had a BLAST!
Next up for another surprise – Lion King show is BACK to full show! It’s Britt’s FAV!!!
The bigs rode Flight of Passage and met us for some lunch! Tess is such a great combo of sweet and funny and she is really able to get a “yes” from us with stuff bc she knows how to ask!
Spear was so excited for Safari. He was really so much more grown up this trip – much calmer, listening better. More FUN WITH us instead of so much parenting from us!
Kye was also adorable taking pics of the animals with his phone 🙂
We learned on the behind the scenes tour that the elephant area includes this bridge where you can sometimes see the elephants cross during the safari!
We had an awesome safari driver who pointed out that the flamingo island is actually a hidden mickey – something I’ve never noticed before!
Everyone went to ride Dinosaur and then met back up with me for fam pics in front of the tree!
Annnnnnd got to see my FAVORITE: the Merry Menagerie! They are SO ADORABLE!
Girls always the last to leave!
Whenever we talked about celebrating Spear’s birthday THE thing he was most excited for was the Dino restaurant again – not for the food, or the dinos, but for the dig area 😉
Kye was above and beyond awesome on this trip with his siblings. It was so fun to hear them all laughing and playing together. He was intentional in creating fun games and moments with them! Kye even had the idea for a sibling sleepover and planned out all kinds of activities for their party. Such a great big brother!
Britt’s fav day – real Thanksgiving when our elves arrive!
Zach and I maaaay have bribed the kids with a movie instead of going to Epcot 😉 We saw Lyle Lyle Crocodile and had the theater totally to ourselves!
That night we had our annual ice cream for dinner!
Had to have another character bday surprise – Stitch has always been Spear’s fav since it was itty bitty and Ohana is BACK!
POG juice and pineapple bread – sign us up!
Plus hot chocolate too 🙂 The breakfast is sooooo yummy!
While Kye may not be as into the characters – he and Z have a fun time still cracking jokes 😉
It was a bit of an off morning – the characters all came at the very end and they were back to back and going super fast. It felt really rushed but Pluto was the best at taking TIME and even getting the big guys involved too!
After breakfast we took Kye back to the house. He wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to sleep. I felt so bad b/c this was THE DAY I was most excited for him – the awesome breakfast (his fav) and a NEW water park experience!
We added the water park pass onto our annual passes and were all going to Blizzard Beach for the first time! Santa meeting at the gate? I knew this was gonna be my kinda place and it didn’t disappoint!
This was a really sad experience – this poor man ended up being found in the woods after a week long search. So sad for the fam!
We stayed at the water park for a couple of hours and then things faded fast. Tess had been GREAT and suddenly she started feeling sick. By that night both she and Kye had 101 temps.
Tess and Kye were asleep by 6:15 and Britt was the only one to cheer on the Noles with Zach – she loved the quality time though!
I was so glad this trip worked out the way it did timing wise. We’d planned for me to take the kids home on Saturday and for Zach to stay to work on repairing some damage to the roof. With the kids being sick we opted to just stay and have more time for them to rest!
Even though it ended with sickness it was still a wonderful week celebrating our December babies at our happy place!
