Real quick, I'm going to try and get my blog in here. Yesterday was Calvin Coolidge's birthday, but with the Waterstraut Olympics and all, I knew we would have to celebrate a day late. Since he gets his own blog (which I'll post tonight), I wanted to fill you in on the last two days. Plus, George W. Bush's birthday is tomorrow and he needs his own blog, so if I get behind, I'm going to get REALLY behind. You know, OCD and all that.
Anyway, the third of July is historically one of my favorite days. Disney does there fireworks on the third of July (as well as the fourth), and it's become a tradition of sorts to do a whole Disney day then. If you want to check out year's past we have last year, 2013, and 2012. (In 2011 we spent the 4th on the cruise ship in Alaska!), and of course the years before that I didn't have a blog. Asa had the day off Friday thanks to the 3rd being the official work holiday, so we headed out after we finally drug Calib out of bed. We had some nachos at the House of Blues (they are my favorite ones in the whole wide world),
Then we headed over to Disney Quest. We heard this week they are going to be closing this in 2016 to make way for the NBA Experience, so that stinks, but maybe the NBA thing will be cool.
Also, no more selfie sticks at Disney, though I've never used one. I'm a pro at them without a stick OR a screen that flips so I can see the picture.
We played some games, but it was seriously crowded.
Our plan was to go over to Fort Wilderness to canoe and fish and swim. But, the parking lot was FULL and they weren't letting anyone else in. I'm not thrilled with how crowded Disney has been getting and how hard it is to do any of the work-arounds we used to do. We decided we would park at the Polynesian (which was only allowed since we had reservations later that night), and then decided what to do from there. We sat around for awhile trying to decide. Swimming at the Polynesian is out now because they gated in their pool and you can't get in unless you're a resort guest now. The quiet non-gated, less fun pool is under refurbishment, so we couldn't even swim there.
The Grand Floridian is still pretty easy to get into though, so we took the monorail over and swam for a couple hours. I know, I know, we're rule breakers.
We were going to get out of the pool just before six to give us time to change, and take the monorail back for dinner, and just as we were getting out it was starting to thunder, so they were clearing the pool anyway.
We killed a little time in the gift shop..
And then got our buzzer to wait for dinner.
Asa and I have eaten at Ohana before, but the boys have never gotten to go before. (It's really expensive) It was actually on their list of things they wanted to do before they grew up, I think mostly because Asa and I rave about it.
They serve it all family style, and they'll bring you more of anything you want. You start out with some SUPER good pineapple bread.
The boys really liked the open flames where they cook the chicken, steak, and shrimp skewers.
We got an awesome table by the windows, and you could really see the storm coming in. It got cloudy and windy really fast.
They brought out the salad, which is awesome (the dressing is amazing!)
They also bring out the appetizers (I forgot to take pictures of nearly everything until it was almost gone). The dumplings are probably my favorite thing there, but the honey coriander chicken wings are also petty great.
Finally they bring you out the "accompaniments" for the skewers: vegetables and noodles. I don't generally like noodles, but something about there are just delicious.
Peyton LOVED them.
It became pretty obvious Hayden would try any of the food, but he wasn't going to make a meal out of it. You have to pay the price of the meal for anyone under 10, but if you want something else- say mac and cheese or hot dogs, they are happy to bring it to you. We asked for a hot dog, and Hayden got this plate with TWO hot dogs and a MASSIVE amount of fries. (surprisingly, he ate it ALL).
They bring around these HUGE skewers and take off a few pieces of each for you. They also have some dipping sauces for them. I like the skewers, but they are not the highlight of the meal for me. I think everything else is much better.
By now a full blown storm had broken out. We figured no big deal, it's Florida, it'll pass in time for fireworks. I mean there was only a 20% chance of scattered thunderstorms.
Hayden took part in the broom/coconut races.
And he got a couple of lei's for his participation.
He even gave one to Peyton.
By dessert time the rain had slowed, but the lightning (which was some of the most impressive I have ever seen) was still going strong. They brought three brownies for the kids, and the banana foster bread pudding. It is one of my favorite desserts on Disney property. So good.
It is a very expensive meal though, the most we've EVER spent for the 5 of us. But, it was on the boy's bucket list and we all had a nice time. (plus we do have Tables in Wonderland for the discount!)
We headed out past the fire and downstairs, but it was still storming. We waited till the rain slowed..
..and we headed out to the beach for the fireworks.
But it started to lighting and thunder and rain again. (Hayden didn't mind, he played in the sand.)
We waited until 9, but no fireworks came, and the lightning was getting worse.
Apparently, it was trending on social media, here's a picture I stole from that night. It was CRAZY lightning. With the storm virtually parked over us (It had been raining, thundering, and lightning for over 3 hours at this point), we decided we didn't want to wait.
Apparently around 10:30, Disney set them off. I am so bummed we missed it, but we were home by 11, and I had some really tired kids in the backseat, so we probably made the right decision to head home.
Yesterday our neighbors had a pool party for the fourth. They invited us and another family over and fed us lunch.
Natasha even had some games for the kids to play.
And she is very food crafty!
I think the boys swam until they were completely pruned.
Asa was able to run back and forth between our house and theirs and provided afternoon coffee and drinks.
He even got to play in the pool some, which entertained the kids to no end.
We had dinner over there too, but I realized about six I had to get over to set up the Waterstraut Olympics. If you don't know, every year for the last four on the Fourth of July I've made the WATERstraut Olympics. It's always water related activities. Three events change every year, but the last one always remains the same: the frozen t-shirt contest!
The first event the boys had to use their paint rollers to clean off their sidewalk square of chalk.
Peyton came in first, Calib in second and Hayden in third. I had asked the boys if they wanted candy medals like we had during Greek week, or regular ones like always. It was a mixed bag, so I did some of each.
Apparently, I took no pictures of the second event. The boys each had a cup full of water, and had to "jump rope" 5 times. Whoever had the most water left in their cups after those jumps was the winner. Again Peyton came in first, Calib was in second, and Hayden was in third. (The girls from earlier in the day joined in on that one too, Madison killed it, she had pretty much everything left in the cup.)
The next one was a water obstacle course. First you got the ping pong balls off the water bottles with the water blasters...
Then you had to break the water pinata...
before taking the slip n slide down and getting the basketball through the hoop. Calib did it in just over 35 seconds.
Peyton did the same course (We had an audience this year, had I thought everyone would want to watch I would have set it up for all the kids! I felt a little bad that I hadn't planned for it.)
But he had some trouble with the basketball and it took him nearly a minute.
Hayden went crazy..
..and finished in about 30 seconds.
So, Hayden won the gold Ghirardelli square, Calib got the silver 3 Musketeers, and Peyton won the bronze Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
Then it was time for the frozen t-shirt contest. Their shirts had all been picked out and frozen in a block of ice a couple of days earlier.
On my go they set in to be the first one to put on their t-shirt. They are allowed to use anything in the backyard, but they can't go inside. Asa wanted to play not for a medal, but just for fun.
They all take different approaches..
Hayden liked smacking his with a bat...
Peyton took the hose.
Asa and Calib stayed mostly to the baby pool water and just pulled on their shirts.
This went on for at least ten minutes..
At about 12 minutes, Asa got his shirt on.
His face says it all, the shirt is slightly cold.
It didn't take much longer for our first place finisher...
Peyton got his on about 2 minutes after Asa.
Our gold medal winner!
Calib and Hayden kept at it..
...and it was VERY close.
But Hayden managed to get his on before Calib.
For the fourth year in a row, Calib didn't even put his shirt on.
He wasn't particularly pleased. I really thought it was going to be his year.
Hayden got his silver medal for the Frozen T-shirt Contest.
And Peyton was our gold medal winner!
We had some pretty decorated Olympians...
(Don't let Calib's three silvers fool you, he REALLY wanted the Three Musketeers)
Once it was dark we went out to do some sparklers, the neighbors were out too, so we did some with them. (Excuse my camera, I should have set it to a different mode).
I think Madison and Hayden had the most fun with the sparklers.
Plus the neighborhood I live in sets off tons of fireworks.
Shawn had some bottle rockets, so we went to the backyard to set some of those off.
All the kids had a good time lighting those.
We sat out and watched the fireworks around the pond, Peyton decided he was hungry and had chips and cheese, and then brought out a bowl of cereal. I don't know what happened. He turned 13 and suddenly he's sleeping till noon and eating EVERYTHING. I don't remember it being this immediate with Calib. Good thing I coupon. There's no way I could keep up with all the boys and their eating habits otherwise.
So, we had a nice 3rd and 4th of July. It's been a busy week around here, for sure.
Next Up: I'll be back (probably) later tonight with Calvin Coolidge's birthday. I am off to do his toy time line.
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