2nd Birthday Magic
For Bronte’s first birthday, we selfishly took her across the Pacific ocean to Japan, and knew that this year, Grandma Jane would be much happier if it were celebrated a little closer to her. Disney World naturally came to mind, as Bronte is at the age where all the characters are familiar and fun. For the months to follow, she still talks about “Mickey’s home,” seeing “Elsa at the parade,” eating chocolate “cake with Pooh and Tiger,” “riding horsey and then fireworks,” and seeing “more Coco dancing.” It was a perfect time for her to enjoy the day with characters that she reads in her books, and that play on her musical Tonie Box. And what’s more, we had family coming together and joining in on the fun.
After arriving into Disney, we spent a day with Manatees, then our days were filled with theme parks. We took one day break, enjoying pool time and Disney Springs. That day was particularly special, as Jamie got to see her Uncle Dan and Aunt Leta for the first time in 15yrs, and they got to meet Bronte for the first time. They brought her pajamas with dinosaurs on them, which she wears during her day dates with her friends even to this day. It was also where Dan, April, and Athena joined the crowd, and Grandpa Matt and Grandma Julie drove up from Cocoa Beach. We all met at the T-Rex Cafe, and ate dinner within a room of ice, mammoths, and sounds of meteor’s coming. Grandpa Matt took Bronte to discover the fish tanks as we waited for food, and got to catch up with each other.
On February 28th, her formal birthday, we went to Magic Kingdom. Together with the two sets of grandparents, April, Dan, and Athena, we went on rides, watched shows, and ate dinner at the Crystal Palace with Pooh Bear and friends! During Bronte’s nap, we got to go on the Tron ride and the Seven Dwarf ride, and in the evening, we watched the parade. She rode the carousel multiple times with her grandparents Perin, and the Dumbo ride with the grandparents McCarty. Bronte was getting sleepy as she laid her head on my shoulder as the firework show started, and we returned to our room at the Art of Animation hotel with an official two year old.
Our first park day was at Animal Kingdom. The greatest highlight of this day for Bronte was the Festival of the Lion King, where she was star struck seeing Pumba and Simba. The whole day she just wanted to go back to it, and she was easily distracted with the Finding Nemo show, and the Bug’s Life theater. We spent a lot of our time in Pandora, the land of the Avatars. Bronte ran amuck. listening to the secret sounds within the foliage and the trees. This day we only had Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jane, and took turns hoping on the Avatar ride while Bronte slept. At this park, we went to our favorite coffee cart next to the Nepal section, and Bronte and I went through Maharajah Jungle Trek while the Perin adults rode roller coasters. During this jungle trek, Bronte got to see the bats flying and crawling on ropes, and tigers roaming around in the dusk of the day. We had started the day with the safari, and she was begging to see “more crocodiles.”
Harry Potter World was always going to be more for us adults, however the Dr. Seuss land was a very exciting for her. While the fire breathing dragon was scary for her, she loved seeing the land of the dinosaurs. For lunch we got burgers, which made Grandpa Jim very happy, and during Bronte’s nap, April and I took to the arcade. As we battled each other, Bronte stirred, and we had to ditch the gun games for the ultimate battle: air hockey. Back at Harry Potter world, Bronte enjoyed the train ride the most, and we sat and watched the puppet show of the Three Brothers. We had dinner at the Leaky Cauldron, and ended the day as we always do there: drinking butterbeer in Hogsmeade and dancing on the cobblestone road.
We had two half days of being relatively chill. One, we played at the pool, and the other we went to see the Epic Universe theme park. We love staying at Art of Animation because of the pool there. Lucky for us, we did have some warm mornings, and Bronte got to swim in the water. It was on the colder side, but that did not stop her from running between sea creatures and little jets spouting out water. When she was too cold we dried her off and put underwear on her, only for her to run into the water with her undies on. Nothing could stop her.
Epic Universe was really nice to see. It was small, and easy to do a half day there before our flight. The land of How to Train Your Dragon was the best - the show was so fun, and Bronte loved seeing the dragon flying above her. We could do more rides there with her. She napped as we went into Dark Universe, which was small but so fun. Lastly, the Harry Potter world was amazing in how they did the Ministry of Magic.
