Happy Birthday, Caden!

Oh my sweet baby boy turned 8!

From before he was even born this kid has always been my sweet angel. He just has a little something special. We are so blessed to have him in our family.

Happy Birthday, Beans!

We had his birthday party at our pool. We have such a great big pool area - it's perfect for entertaining large groups.

Dub and Caden

Most of the party gang

Amanda and Bri

Henry and Caden

After some pool time, we had pizza and drinks.

Then, onto games! I had 4 different sports themed games that the kids played for tickets. This was a big hit! The kids loved earning tickets and then picking our their own prizes.

Amanda and Crew

Bodie and Shane

A few of the prizes

Epcot

One of the biggest surprises of the whole trip was how much we all LOVED ...

EPCOT!

It was awesome! Gorgeous park with fun rides, interactive exhibits, entertaining shows and movies, educational, cultural, ..... SO much fun! I think that it was just about everyones favorite park.

Finding Nemo was darling. Fun ride in a clam mobile and ends in a large aquarium. We did this 3 or 4 times. Crew is still singing the song from the ride. He is so cute! He keeps telling me that he needs to go back to Disney World. :)

My boys and I attempting to be "cool" next to the futuristic car outside of Test Track.

Mission Space was INTENSE! Chase and I were sick for about an hour after - no joke! The G Force is amazing and I was really clausterphobic. Only ride I've ever been on with freezing cold fans blowing right in your face and barf bags on every seat. Maybe we should have requested the less intense side (there are 2 options).

Crew had a blast playing in the water features while Ali and I took the big boys on a couple of rides.

Crew and Grandma also found a "Fairy Rescue Center" - which was a butterfly house.

I'm afraid Crew may have done a little more squishing and not so much rescuing. He tried to be easy!

There are character topiaries all over Epcot. Probably like 100 - no joke!

The World Showcase was awesome - 11 different countries!

We played a Kim Possible detective game. It was actually pretty fun - even though it took about an hour to find all the clues and solve the mystery.

Chase got chosen to be this guys assistant in the Italy show. My boys are not shy at all - he loved all the attention he got for being in the show. They did some pretty cool things. He gave Chase a net and threw a ball about 100 feet into the net which Chase caught! He was a good assistant.

Caden was showing off his mad hula hooping skills as we were waiting for dinner. All the ladies in the kitchen were watching him and on eof them came out and gave him a chocolate dipped Mickey rice krispie treat for being the best hula hooper of the day. He was so excited! I just LOVE Disney World!

Crew was really into taking his picture with the characters.

This was the coolest character spot. One line - indoors and air conditioned - to meet 5 different characters! All the parks should have this!

Magic Kingdom

Oh Magic Kingdom - there's something about it that just makes me smile! The Magic Kingdom in Disney World is smaller than the one in Disneyland but still tons of fun.

We love Tom Sawyers Island. My boys found things to climb on that I'm SURE they weren't supposed to, but this was not a trip of saying no! :)

Chase and his Goofy hat. He wore this for DAYS! He has always wanted one of these.

One of the best things about no crowds (aside from no lines) was that the kids could play in all the cool little stage areas throughout the parks. My sweet Caden bought swords for all of them with his own money and they ran around adventure land playing pirates. I'm sure they annoyed some people with swords flying through the air but we didn't want to stop their fun!

Magic Carpet Ride

Crew has talked for MONTHS about eating with Tigger and Pooh. Since the parks weren't crowded at all, I didn't think we needed reservations. OOPS! We were turned away and the tears started to well up in Crews eyes. Well no one tells Grandmas babies they can't do something, so Grandma Gayle of course got us a table!

Crew loved all the characters and marching around with Tigger in the parade.

My mom will kill me for posting this, but I thought it was so cute! This happened while Ali and I took the big boys on Space Mountain. We really pushed these 2 to their limits the whole trip.

SpectroMagic is an awesome night time parade. It only runs on select nights of the week so if you go to Disney World, check for times. It's a must see!