Why didn’t I listen when every single person around me made the statement that time is a thief?
How are we already here at three year’s old and can we go back for a few minutes so that I can just sneak a few extra long glances at Baby Commodore. What a blur the first year was and it just seems to be on auto-pilot and with the gas all the way down ever since.
Don’t even let this cuteness fool you, she basically treated him like a really cute piece of furniture for a good couple years….soooo basically when the world shut down and she needed a partner in crime, she acknowledged him. Now…thick as theives!
The ‘oh look, you are still here’ look that EV perfected
My kids love of snacks will never go unquestioned.
The time Baby Commodore had blonde hair and blue eyes.
With our cruise coming up super fast now more than ever, I had to plan early (even for me) for Commodore’s birthday and in making sure we had everything. The great thing about using the same Vera Bradley weekender for decorations and gifts every time is that I can keep it hidden behind our dining room table and just begin to fill it periodically as we get everything and it keeps from prying nosey hands and eyes wanting to be involved. Normally, we go kind of crazy with decorations, but we just decided to do it simple (or at least simple for me) and not bring a ton of stuff. From what I saw weather wise, it looks like it is going to be 95 degrees when we are there, so there will be a lot of pool time rather than park time. The plan would be to do the park for a couple of hours, get some cute pictures in, couple of rides and characters, hit the pool for the afternoon, maybe some naps and a bunch of fun dinner reservations that we made with friends and family. Sean has never been more excited for a ‘plan’ in his entire life.
Luckily the Commodore hasn’t changed much in regards to what he is into so everything we have been scooping up along the way, still stands with his interests (basically anything transportation related).
We always bring THESE command hooks with us. I know that you could probably bring super strength masking tape (which we do for the balloons), but it never holds the banners up. These command hooks have been a game changer and since we wait for the kids to go to sleep to decorate, being able to decorate efficiently and quickly so that we can get some rest too has been the name of the game. Prior to command hooks, between the heavy-duty tape and the air conditioner in the room the banner would slowly fall down in the middle of the night and scare the living daylights out of us. Now we take the banner to Sign-O-Rama or something of the like and have them put grommets in. Considering the banners are only about $10-20, it is kind of pricey to pay $25 for the grommets, but in the grand scheme of things, we found it worth it. I suppose you could possibly hole punch and use twine or put the hooks through the hole, but I am not sure if the banner would hold up well. Sometimes Sign-O-Rama can do it day of and sometimes we have left it there for a week, so plan accordingly. We have had REALLLY good luck with the Amazon banners…case in point our Death Star one for EV’s birthday, so it always kind of a no-brainer (her we go again with my favorite phrase). I love that this banner does not have anything related to Happy Birthday on it as we have used it for May the Fourth and other Star Wars related activities, so we have gotten our money’s worth and EV loves it.
Commodore was close to getting up (he is basically a 730/8am alarm clock) so I was afraid to lay out the banner and I had to get these picture quickly.
Although I had made REALLY fun birthday shirts for the Commodore (see below) using Cat & Jack shirts from Target and putting a birthday spin on it thanks to my faithful Cricut, I couldn’t resist getting him THIS Paw Patrol shirt since he is a diehard for the show.
A fan favorite with the Commodore is Blaze and as you can imagine there is nothing sold in-store. So where does one go when everything is retired and your kids love shows that are no longer on air? If you said Amazon, winner winner. We found THIS banner which was quite cute in person. It is rather large so make sure you are familiar with the hotel you are staying at or call someone at the front desk and ask if there is room for it to be hung. It is a really durable banner and is fabric rather than the ones that are from somewhere like Party City, so it will definitely hold up. It also folds up easily and small, so it could be packed in a suitcase without it being destroyed. I also purchased THIS set of Blaze birthday ‘three’ balloons. I found the balloon set to be a little pricey, but one, they do not make Blaze stuff anymore and two since we weren’t going overboard with everything else, it didn’t seem that terrible, plus there are quite a few in there. I always buy THIS big mylar one from Target for pictures and since those straw things to blow them up can be a pain in the behind, we bring THIS travel balloon air pump (how did I become this person) which has been a life saver.
I learned that the big mylar number balloons can also be purchased at the Dollar Tree, but since I am not a 100% of the quality, I would rather spend the extra four dollars and have what we are used too. I did however get the two gift bags there, some really cute tissue paper, and the birthday candle with the number 3. He has quite a few tastes as you can see above between Paw Patrol, Blaze, Superheros and Dinos, so I just got a little bit of everything. I got THIS Jurassisc Park tablecover to put his presents on and it is super cute (as much as Jurassic Park can be cute). I have a couple of the chalkboard birthday/holiday boards in different designs (I get these from the Bullseye Section) and I am bringing this one with us. I normally bring THIS sharpened chalk that I get from Amazon, but it can be really frustrating with little hands smudging everything I write when trying to hold the sign. I was pretty stoked when I found THESE neon Mondo Llama chalk markers at Target. They were on sale so I grabbed two and I absolutely love the Mondo line. I am still bringing the chalk because…well….mama is not a fool. Last, but never least is of course my mini tripod that I put in my diaper bag because I am officially THAT parent. I automatically just walk over to the security area because between this and the tablets, I inevitably ALWAYS set everything off.
Here is where the Dinosaur theme reared its head and said “how many birthday dinosaur shirts are too many….asking for a friend…or a sissy?”
This one was crazy since I actually had yellow HTV that matched this perfectly. It came with the Fearless Kiddo statement and then I added all the rest.
THIS gray shirt was in the boys section and I got an XS for EV and the Medium for myself. THIS mustard one was in the toddler boys section of Target. As you can tell, we are making sure that all of the Commodore’s favorite things are being represented in one way or another. I created an SVG and then cricuted (is that even a word) the back of these. I loved the font and area of the mustard one, so that is an actual SVG that I purchased off of Etsy, but the MAMA and SISSY is mine.
I went with a different color for mine, but the orange matched perfectly with the orange on front!
In the decoration bag I will put the presents below the decorations just to keep out of sight from prying hands.
Funny story about the Alberto doll from Luca. When McDonalds came out with the toys, they came out with a bunch of bath ones. Recently, the Commodore has become OBSESSED with the Alberto one. He insists on taking it out of the bath with him every time. Lo and behold ShopDisney still have the plus available for $10 recently (the Alberto one has since sold out), so I grabbed one for the Commodore. I can only hope he loves plus “Sea Monster” as much as he loves the bath version. Literally paid $15 and shipping and the next day it went on sale for $10. I saw what appeared to be exact ones on Amazon, but if you read the reviews and scroll far enough down, you will learn that they are not the Disney licensed ones.
Second funny story or not really lol. The Commodore and EV love settling down at night with a couple episodes of Bluey. However, he cannot handle any of the episodes that involve separation. Like…at all. When he wants to cuddle in my lap or be loved on, he refers to himself as my “ooh ooh” (IYKYK). There is one episode where Bluey takes his bunny Floppy in his dreams and has to leave him with his other Floppy friends in the rings of Saturn and the Commodore EVERY TIME loses his darn mind. It is adorable,but so sad. He just cries and cries and cries. He just hates any kind of separation, especially one that involves a lovie. Ever since I have been looking for a Floppy for him but NO ONE makes one.
The ones that were similar on Amazon have reviews that are all over the darn place and I was not willing to risk it with his emotional attachment to this particular episode. I finally found THIS one on Amazon which also happens to be a Gund, so you know its good warm and fuzzy quality. I also found it most closely resembled Floppy as it was just as important for the color as it was the look. I think we did a pretty good job.
Just for fun extras we got him THIS Blaze Golden Book (he loves being read too) and THESE socks which I thought would also be cute to keep his tootsies warm on the ship and I did also get him THIS level 1 book as well for the plane. I don’t have the foggiest about the Freight Nate car as Sean scooped him up on one of his Target runs, but he swears up and down that the Commodore loves it (whatever, it is transportation).
I got THIS Jay Franco (same artist who did EV’s Rebel Girls bedset) towel because one, it is the cutest thing ever and two, sadly the Commodore is growing out of his infant ones, which I guess at three years old I should be happy for lol. The towel is super nice quality, really soft and the image online makes it look like it might be blurred, but as you can see, it is perfect in person.
Although they pick out fun gifts in the park, We always bring something for the other one to open too on the day of! EV loves herself a villain, so obviously I scored a set of these, but have been saving giving her one at a time for special occassions and she has loved it.
Fully aware, I might have gone overboard but Target came out with THIS Bluey bedding set and THIS pair of Bluey summer jammies. He truly loves the show and I thought it would be fun to get him bedding that weren’t always our interests, but are his first real Toddler interests (I love learning his likes and dislikes). My mom ages ago had gotten him the Bluey scooter (it has not been on Target for awhile or I’d link it) and a Paw Patrol helmet.
We will keep the bigger stuff to open before we leave or for when we come back. I always like having fun stuff for them to open the day of and try to include things that they can open in the room and enjoy at night playing with or can bring with them. I have found (and this might be just us) that bringing gifts with a lot of pieces or something a bit more involved is going to make it difficult to get them to want to leave the hotel room to go to the parks (which then becomes counterintuitive). I can put the train in my purse or bring the lovie with us, but puzzles, legos, etc. are gifts that can wait until we get home. The towel is even super cute to even bring to the pool.
Are you the pick out presents in the park kind of people, bring things with you, could you careless about spending the day indoors working on a 10000 piece lego Yoda? Tell me all of it, I am dying to know how you celebrate in the parks.
