happy 6th birthday from legoland

last night we were trying to get the kids in bed but mason was crying because we "promised that he wouldn't have to spend my birthday in the car" and were loading up the car. we tried to reassure him without giving away the surprise.

we woke them up bright and early to head out for donuts - which turned out to be more difficult a request to satisfy than we had thought. but we found one at last. the birthday boy was very pleased. the people behind us in line were not as pleased with our stopping there... i think that the lady helping us was going to lose it waiting for the kids to pick their donuts.

after we finished eating we gave mason his presents - a small lego set and a map of legoland! he was SO excited!

we made it!

grandma and big pop and my friends natalie and amanda met us there with their kids. (amanda is mom to ella and griffin, our friends who just moved to lakeland from ohio.) we were quite the party! our friends were a surprise for the kids too!

mason, ella and madelyn

best birthday ever!

maddux, griffin and peter planning on stops.

without knowing it, we had arrived on the grand opening day of the heartlake city section! this is based on the friends legos that madelyn loves. since it was mason's birthday we didn't do all of the heartlake city activities. 

mason loves china but wasn't interested in the 4d movie.

madelyn with "emma" from heartlake city.

we were waiting for the roller coaster riders and natalie treated her three boys, mason and manning to a carnival fishing game.

the big winners - mason and peter.

boys and their prizes.

it was another seriously hot day. i wasn't as hot as at disney but i was sweating a lot more - and really glad that i wore gym clothes.

the mini cities were super impressive, but there was no shade at all and we moved through fairly quickly.

the kids wanted to wait and watch the rocket 'launch' at the end of the countdown.

the kids waiting to race the drag cars.

big pop and grandma probably as close to nyc as they will get.

mason (and the other kids) were pretty excited about the star wars section!

and then we went on the legoland safari...

lovin' on big pop

more on-the-go birthday 'cake'

the longest line was for the race track. they divide the kids by age. manning was able to drive himself on the 3-5-year-old race track while the older kids went to wait in line for the larger track. the wait is longer because they learn how to drive first by getting some video instruction about road rules.

ella and maddux took the driving very seriously.

then we took a turn at driving boats. they were quite difficult to steer/manage and poor maddux and ella kept getting bumped by other boats and turned around. it took them three times as long to make it around the canal, but they were calm and collected the whole time.

there were so many cool lego displays!

the little kids had some fun while the bigger kids waited in line.

grandma had as much fun as the kids!

me and my college team/roommate - she was so good to bring her three boys to come and sweat with us!

the birthday boy just wanted to ride the carousel before we left - look how hot and tired they are!

madelyn and her bestie ella

big pop and grandma with our kids and few extra

a family picture too - it was awesome!

best. birthday. ever.

a lovey good-bye hug from ella! how sweet are they?

but the day was not done yet... while we were in orlando we went to have dinner with one of matt's childhood friends (and groomsmen) and his family. we ordered a pizza dinner on the drive over and they provided birthday treats for mason during our quick visit! they had just had a new baby so we couldn't ask them to try and meet us out or prepare anything for us.

such a full and happy birthday for our newest 6-year-old. love.