Our Week In Disney World – Part 10 – JSL’s Pooh-rific Birthday

After our late night out the previous day, we decided to take Thursday, May 14^th as a day off. After the boys woke up, we gave JSL some of his B-Day presents. These included a set of Sesame Street toys and a Pluto hat from one of the Disney World shops. (He called it his “Pup Pup hat.”) Then, we ate breakfast at Pop Century. Yes, we had tie dye cheesecake for breakfast. We were on vacation! JSL also received his gift from B’s parents, a Stitch backpack.

After eating, we hopped on the bus to go to Downtown Disney. We figured that a little light shopping would be just the antidote to the go-go-go of the previous few days. We wandered around looking at giant toys and legos. During our shopping, we let the kids each pick out one plush toy. JSL chose a Pluto (“Pup Pup”) and NHL chose Dumbo. NHL also got a Dale hat to go along with his brother’s Pluto hat. Later, the kids played on a slide. JSL and NHL even got to see a giant Dalmation puppy.

Eventually, we made our way back to our hotel for lunch. After a lunch that included more tie dye cheesecake (one can never have too much tye dye cheesecake), we headed to the pools.

At the pool area, the boys enjoyed running around on a giant keyboard. Then, we wandered around to see the giant Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Mickey telephone, foosball table and big wheel bike.

NHL knew exactly where to go. He led JSL right over to his favorite spot from our previous outing: The Goofy Sprayers. (Yes, he called them “squirters” before, but he renamed them and I like this name better.) We had intended to go on to the Hippy Dippy pool, but the boys took to the Goofy Sprayers too much. I’m going to let the photos tell the story here.

Something you don’t see in the photos is JSL wetting his hand and then trying to wet the bathing suits of everyone around. I mean everyone. I had to tell him not to touch grown men’s bathing suits with his wet hands. He was so completely innocent that he didn’t see anything wrong with this!

Finally, we realized it was getting late. We had dinner reservations at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. We still had time to play, but we needed to go to a pool now if we were to have any chance of playing in one. We opted not to go to the Hippy Dippy pool and instead headed back towards our room and the 90’s laptop pool. Here, we had some fun swimming and playing in the water. Then it was time to go back to our room and get changed.

On we headed to the Magic Kingdom. We were a family with a plan. I would take our tickets and Fast Pass the Winnie the Pooh ride while B checked us in. This way, we’d be able to ride it later. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had plans of our own. A torrential downpour began. Buckets of rain emptied out on Main Street soaking everyone in its path. We worked our way from shop to shop, trying our best to stay covered and dry as we made our way through the crowds and over to the Crystal Palace. There, we met up with B’s parents clad in recently purchased rain ponchos. We waited outside for our name to be called and then ventured in.

At dinner, NHL showed how much he had progressed. Rather than cowering in fear of the characters, he was excited to see all of them. He had each of them sign his autograph book and posed in photos. He even marched in the parade. JSL was not as eager. He, with a *LOT* of coaxing, reached over to honk Winnie the Pooh’s nose. His real breakthrough, however, came with Tigger. After his big brother hugged Tigger, JSL walked of his own accord over to Tigger and touched his paws. Then he honked Tigger’s nose.

We ate our meal and anticipated JSL’s birthday cupcake. After all, we had told them in advance that it was his birthday, he had his birthday button on, and confetti was on the table to signify a special event. The cupcake, however, never came. As we were leaving, B asked the manager what we had done wrong. The manager apologized and stated that we did nothing wrong. They messed up. She asked what character JSL liked best. B thought back to JSL’s breakthrough not too long ago and said Tigger. Then the manager asked “shirt or plush.” B wasn’t expecting anything free, but answered plush.

B figured we’d get a small plush Tigger. Instead, we were given an unlimited gift coupon. We could get any Tigger plush no matter the size. Wait, I think I need to bold that. No matter the size. Seriously. We could use it for a tiny Tigger beanie, a giant how-the-heck-are-we-getting-this-home monster Tigger, or anything in between.

While this was going on, I was photographing some Winnie the Pooh topiaries. A waitress jokingly complained that I wasn’t taking photos of her… So I took a photo of her. Who was I to object to a willing photo subject?

After B explained to me the nature of our unlimited Tigger gift card, we braved the rain (which was less intense) and headed over to the Pooh Corner Shop near the Winnie the Pooh ride. They have the best selection of Winnie the Pooh merchandise there. We quickly ruled out the monster Tigger. It was just too big and would have required its own airplane seat. However, the one size smaller, no-so-monster Tigger was perfect. It was about JSL’s size, could still be packed away for our return trip, and was something that we’d normally have passed on. Since we got this Tigger due to JSL’s missed birthday cupcake, we’ve affectionately named him Cupcake.

After making our way back to the buses, we headed back to the hotel and back to our room to wind down the night.