Disney On Ice!

At the beginning of March we took the kids to see Disney On Ice, our first real outing with just our little family of four.  It was a special day, one the kids were both excited and nervous for; neither kiddo is overly comfortable with people in costumes and the thought of seeing them on ice wasn't initially appealing.  (We almost had to scratch our plans and have one adult stay back with Baylor ... he was that opposed to it.)

But, after much coaxing, we finally got him to agree to go, and on a chilly, sunny Saturday we drove downtown for the event.  The kids dressed in their finest/Disney-est outfits and seemed cool with it all.

Bryson had gotten the tickets from work, so we were actually really close to the ice.  Here's our view!

Unfortunately, our seats were kind of split up a bit; the kids and I were grouped together closely, but Bryson's seat was about ten inches or so away from Baylor's.  They were still great seats, though, and we got lucky and didn't have anyone tall in front of us to contend with.

Getting a normal smile from Baylor that day proved to be difficult.

Seriously.  But aren't they cute?!

Baylor and Bryson went to the concession stand to get Mollie some popcorn.  She was thrilled.

It was all smiles before the show started!

It began with the classic Disney characters, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and the like, and Donald even came in on a Zamboni.

And still things were good!

And then all of a sudden they weren't.  I don't remember exactly what triggered it, but Baylor freaked out and asked, actually begged, to leave.  We finally got him to stay by letting him sit on Bryson's lap and constantly reassuring him that it was going to be okay.

Mollie did really well for the most part, but there were a few spots where I could feel her trembling with fright.  (Namely a little vignette with Monstro, from Pinocchio ... seriously, Disney On Ice people?!)

Actually, most of the scenes they chose were pretty scary (the Beast and Gaston fighting to the death, the aforementioned Monstro, the sharks from Finding Nemo, etc.) and I would definitely want to see the lineup before we took the kids to see one of these shows again.

And, of course, the merchandising was everywhere.  Bryson and I had talked ahead of time and agreed to let the kids choose something, whatever they'd like, for up to $20 each.  Our kids are awesome, and also didn't know about the $20 limit, and chose two things that totaled up to less than $20.  Score!

Mollie got a Jessie hat, complete with braided yarn ponytail!

And Baylor, who was overwhelmed by the experience, chose Lenny from Toy Story.

Neither kid would cooperate for a good photo, though, so when Bryson tried out their new toys, I had to snap a picture.  Thanks, honey!

We had planned on having lunch at one of Baylor's favorite downtown restaurants, Bobarino's, but while calling to get a reservation we found out they weren't open until 2:00 that day.  Having already planned on this and prepped Baylor for it, we made the reservation and hoped that the show would last long enough so we wouldn't have to kill a ton of time.  Of course, it didn't, and we ended up with a decent amount of time in between.  Thinking as quickly as I could, I suggested we make our way over to our favorite cupcake shop Rita Girl's and get a few treats for later on.  As I suspected, no one objected, so we made what turned out to be a decently long walk over and bought some amazing cupcakes.  On the way back to the BOB, Bryson and Mollie dropped the dessert back at the car and Baylor, who I had to carry/piggy-back-ride all the way back, and I went to see if Bobarino's was open yet.

Thank goodness it was!  Just look at how tired the little man was.

Mollie, on the other hand, was absolutely full of energy.

Baylor got so tired at one point as we waited for our food that he laid his head down in my lap.

Bryson and "Jessie" worked on coloring a bit.

And Baylor propped himself up and looked rather miserable.

He perked up a smidge once we got some food in him, but he was still very tired.  He even napped once we got home!

By dinner time he was much more like his normal self.

All in all, it was a pretty good experience.  It's important to try new things, and I was glad the kids got to go. Hopefully next time they'll enjoy it a little more.