Is it really a mouse or a man in a costume?

I have always been scared of Disney Parks. This might sound crazy but maybe it stems from the fact that I’ve never been to one. My boyfriend took me to Universal when I was 23, does that count? But the thought of waiting on line for an hour with my two small children just didn’t seem like a good idea.

But all that being said, a week after Malcolm’s birthday when I still hadn’t planned anything for his party yet (partly because he had told me he wanted a Paw Patrol party and then after Adam’s party decided to switch and has been telling me he wants s Bumblebee party (the Yellow Transformer). I weighed all the pros and cons and decided that the best party for Malcolm this year would be a trip to Disney! Randy and I have wanted to take the kids to Hong Kong Disney before we leave Asia. We heard it was small and great for small kids. It’s in Hong Kong that we love and means we can see Kate and her cute babies. So we excitedly booked our flights and the Disney Hotel and bought our tickets for the park.

We took the boys out for pizza and chocolate cake to tell them we were going to Mickey’s House for Maloclm’s birthday and here is what we got. From Adam: Is it a real mouse or a person in a costume? From Malcolm: I no go, I stay home. Well, we spent the next two weeks building up Disney and overspending on Itunes to buy old Disney movies and off we went.

First ride up was the spinning teacups. Both boys later said this was the highlight of our day. Maybe because we got there early and there was no line yet? I was so excited and thought, wow how amazing. No lines at Disney.

But by the time we headed to the Merry-Go-Round, the masses had arrived and we had to amuse ourselves on line. Thankfully Kate had packed us some leftover cake that got us through the rough patches.

The Merry-Go-Round, always a hit!

Next up- Flying Dumbo! A looong line for this one, more cake was had by all. But it was a hit. The boys loved controlling the elephant and both stayed up as high as possible the entire time. The ride was definitely a little short or maybe it just felt short after the long wait.

And even in Hong Kong, people stop Vin Diesel for his photo. When we finally leave Asia I think Randy may miss the super stardom his slight resemblance to Vin Diesel brings him here.

We stopped for some lunch and after lunch is where things started to take a turn towards the – should we go back to the hotel for naps territory. Winnie the Pooh didn’t seem to have a long line but it went so slowly. We had a few tears and the kindle was brought out.

But we all rallied and made it. Adam loved the ride.

Malcolm, not so much. I only have this one fuzzy photos of his poor little teary eyes. The ride had some thunder and dramatic lighting and Malcolm was.not.a.fan.

But we stopped at the gift shop on the way out and spirits were uplifted.

Next stop after we regrouped was Toy Story Land. Thank goodness for shorter lines and slinky rides.

By this point we were all about Disneyed out and ready to go back to our warm hotel (we’re not used to temperatures below 75!). But I convinced Randy to stay for the parade and I’m so happy I did!

Emperor Zurg was ready for the show.

So were these boys.

If we weren’t’ flying the next day I would have bought the boys some balloons. It is really hard to find helium balloons in Manila . For all our birthday parties we have to string and tape the balloons up. I miss helium balloons. But the last time I bought one for the boys I didn’t think about how the airport (for very valid reasons) wouldn’t let us board with it and this resulted in some tears. And there is more than you need to know about helium balloons and Ali travels.