I was at Walmart today (by the way- no public restroom experiences while there!) exchanging something for Jase and we did not have a receipt. We've always said "Walmart will take back anything!" so no problem, right?
I handed the lady my driver's license and she completed the transaction and gave me an in-store credit gift card. Then she told me this is my 2nd return without a receipt and I could only have 1 more within the next year!!! (Jase received a couple of duplicate gifts, so we have been to Walmart twice this month to exchange them for a different one.) So I can only have 1 more return without a receipt until next May!
Not that I plan on returning things to Walmart without a receipt, but I had no idea of this policy. I thought you could have 3-4 every 6 months or so. I know from experience that Target and Babies R Us have very strict return policies, but this is news to me with Walmart.
Tonight after dinner I gave the kids some oreos and milk for a snack . . . they were super excited! Ally was already stripped down from dinner time, so she was ready to go for dessert. She made a royal mess, but she LOVED every minute of it!! Oh and that's not a new mole on top of her lip! ;-)
I am ready for some fun in the SUN!! I have been keeping my eyes open for local summer activities to do with the kids, either free or cheap preferably! ;-) Here are some I found and thought I'd share:
FREE Vacation Bible School at Central Baptist Church - June 3rd - 6th from 6:00 - 8:30 pm for children who have completed Kindergarten - 5th grade. Sign up HERE!!
Summer Movie Clubhouse begins on June 12th - $1 G/PG rated films for the kids every Tuesday and Wednesday at your local Cinemark Movie Theater.
Deer Park City Pool opens up on June 2nd - I can't remember if the water slides are new this year or last year; we didn't visit this pool last summer . . . maybe we will have to check it out!
This morning we were back to our normal routine: Legos! Jase opened up his new set last night and built all the men. This morning after breakfast we started building the Hoth Echo Base. Jase does pretty good on his own, but he likes for you to be right there with him on new construction! Of course Ally had to join the Lego fun as well.
We ended up finishing 3 of the 5 Lego bags this afternoon and I'm sure Jase and Daddy will get close to wrapping it up tonight.
After Jase saved and donated a portion of his birthday money, he still had a pretty penny to spend. He brought half of it to Disney World, but with Mommy and Daddy (and Nanny) there, he didn't take out his wallet! :) He was really eyeing some Lego sets there, but we told him that we would go and look at them when we got back home.
So, today was the day! We went to Toys R Us and he was in heaven. He walked up and down the Lego aisle a few times and I explained how much money he had and what sets he could buy. After deliberating, he decided on the Hoth Echo Base set. This set has 8 figurines plus a Taun Taun for Han to ride on . . . the more figurines, the better!
I can't believe that we have already spent 6 days in the theme parks and will be headed home tomorrow.
Yesterday we had originally planned to return back to Magic Kingdom, but since Allyson did not care for the main show in front of the castle, I did not want to return and traumatize her even more. She kept telling me "the castle is popping." Poor baby girl. So we decided to go back to Animal Kingdom for the morning. Shawn had a golf tee time at 3:00, so we knew it was going to be a short morning at the park. We got to go on the the Kilimanjaro Safari Expedition again; we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We also got Baloo's signature, from Jungle Book. Kind of a big deal at my house since we are big Jungle Book fans! :)
I ended up getting reservations for lunch at the Tusker House, which is an African/American buffet character dining. Meeting the characters had to be high on Allyson's to do list; she absolutely loves it!! Here is a short clip of her meeting Safari Daisy!
And today was a long, but great day. We spent the day at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekend. We started the day off in the park at 8:20 am and didn't leave until 9:20 pm . . . 13 hours in the park and Jase still didn't want to leave!! Since we were just there on Wed, we were devoting most of our time to Star Wars today. Jase took his picture with a ton of characters today and got their autograph too. Here is a picture of Jase this morning in Darth's Mall.
I think I am still hearing the Star Wars theme song in my head!! I can't wait to download all my pictures and complete their autograph books! :)
Boy oh boy! We just finished up our 4th day at the parks and man have we had some full days!! Yesterday we spent the morning having breakfast with the Princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall and the rest of the day we walked around Epcot. Epcot was pretty neat, but absolutely ZERO shade!! Yesterday was probably the first day where I felt completely spent at the parks. We ended up leaving the park by 3:00, after being out there at 8:00 am (and we parked on the front row!!). Allyson enjoyed meeting all the princesses inside the park, but she is definitely more into the characters in costume. She was all business at Epcot and we rarely got a smile from her. One thing was for sure: she did NOT want to take off her princess dress. I brought her a change of clothes and we asked her several times, but she didn't want to take it off!
Oh and in one of the pictures above (bottom right) where she is holding her cheeks . . . Snow White kissed her and she was in complete awe. It was so sweet!!! Later on Mulan kissed her on the forehead and she was beside herself then as well!!
While yesterday was definitely geared more towards our little girl, today was Jase's day to shine!! We got to the park early with Extra Magic Hours and we made good use of the time. Jase and I headed straight to sign him up for the Jedi Training Academy. This was a definite goal of mine for Hollywood Studios . . . I've seen some of these on YouTube and I knew he would LOVE it!! When we got to the sign-in around 8:25, they were already signing up for the 12:40 show, and they started at 9:40 and were every 30 minutes or so. Success . . . we got signed up for the 2:20 show (we had lunch reservations at 12:05, so I had to choose a later show. No biggie, we stayed plenty busy with the Star Tours ride (Jase rode back to back this morning), Toy Story Mania ride, Little Mermaid show, and the Disney Junior Live on Stage show.
Here is a 5 minute clip, and it starts off with Jase fighting Darth Vader and ends with Jase receiving his award and running to us!! It was so awesome if I do say so myself. All I gotta say is if you ever want to do this, take your child with you to the sign-up first thing when the park opens! After we checked in for our show, we hung out until it was Jase's turn and I saw several parents come in and ask if they could sign up . . . poor people did not have a clue what was going on. Thank goodness for the Internet!! :-)
We stayed at the park until after 5:00 pm, which was plenty late for us. We have not made it see fireworks or a light show at night yet; maybe on Friday evening, we'll see.
Shawn and I are high school sweethearts. Married for 12 years with 4 beautiful children and reside in the great state of Texas. We are sinners who have been saved by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. In our home we enjoy: laughing, praising and learning about God, watching sports, and homeschooling.
