Friday, Feb 9th – Chroma with the Pickles
Queen Emily’s BirthdayFest officially began a week prior to her actual birthday, kicking off with a dinner with Emily and Evan Pickle. Colonel and Kee were gracious enough to have the boys over for their weekly sleepover, allowing Emily and I a relaxing evening out. The destination for the evening was Chroma in the Laureate Park section of Lake Nona. We arrived just as the sun was working its way down the western skyline. We parked in the parking garage adjacent to the restaurant, grabbing a quick photo for Hunter of the two Teslas parked next to us (he insisted that I add this to the blog post).
The evening was a perfect one as the weather was just right, allowing us to enjoy dining on the outside patio of Chroma. The food was delicious and the company was perfect. We enjoyed a few plates sharing some of our favorites like the French Fries with peanut sauce (which Emily claims should be named after her on the menu), as well as the goat cheese flatbread and a few others. After our meal the two Emilys worked their way around the outside of the restaurant for their end of evening photo shoot. The image above was by far their favorite of the evening!
We retired to the house to watch a little of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies before calling it a night. A solid night’s rest was required for our weekend birthday activities the following day.
Macadamia Nut Pancakes, Epcot Margaritas and Trader Sams – Saturday, February 10th
Saturday had a full day of activities planned with our first stop for breakfast at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. Since the boys had stayed the previous night with Kee and Colonel, we swung by to pick them up on our way. We arrived at the Polynesian just in time for our mid morning reservation, ready to get our grub on. The boys had waffles at Grandma’s house but managed to make room for a second breakfast.
Emily decided to let loose on Birthday Fest day two, ordering a mimosa flight to go along with her pineapple macadamia nut pancakes. She got to choose between multiple mimosa flavors, settling on orange, pineapple and Polynesian’s own, liliko’i. Sawyer ordered the Mickey pancakes and Hunter got French toast. I ordered my typical Disney breakfast order, the platter of assorted goodness. Hunter entertained us throughout breakfast with his movie quote trivia. Most of the quotes were from movies he had never seen, which was pretty funny!
We finished up our meal and Emily and the boys wanted to check out the merchandise shop downstairs. I took the opportunity to head outside to capture a time lapse video of the Polynesian Resort. It was such an amazing day full of sunshine and beautiful clouds moving across the sky. When they finished up their tour of the latest Disney merchandise we met out back of the resort. Our plan was to spend the afternoon at Epcot, so we strolled over to the Ticket and Transportation Center to catch the monorail! Although we have been to Disney a ton, we don’t often take this monorail route. Hunter and Sawyer were blown away that the Monorail circles Future World at Epcot.
Epcot – Festival of the Arts Afternoon
We entered the park, got our park maps and Festival of the Arts guide, and made our way into the park. Emily, being the planner that she is, booked a couple of FastPasses for the day. Our first FastPass was the boys’ favorite, Test Track. We grabbed a stroller and a couple of scavenger hunt maps to search for artwork throughout the World Showcase.
Arriving at Test Track, the boys said they both wanted to sit with Mom on her birthday. We built our two virtual cars and loaded into our ride vehicle, Dad in the back, and the rest of the family in front. They never ended up loading anyone else in the car so we had it to ourselves. The ride was super fun and Emily and Sawyer’s car outperformed Hunter’s and my car by one point!
After our spin on Test Track it was time for the main portion of our Emily-day, a slow tour around the World Showcase. The quest for the day was to find all of the paintings on our scavenger hunt map for the Festival of the Arts. As we approached the Towers shops at the entrance of World Showcase we realized it was sunnier than anticipated for this February day. One of the items we had forgotten to bring was sunscreen (we shouldn’t be such rookie Floridians at this point in life). I admitted defeat and decided it would be better to be without a few bucks but save the family sunburn. We tapped into Hunter’s college fund and bought a bottle, lathering up before we continued on.
Epcot – World Showcase Scavenger Hunt
Our normal route around the World Showcase is to start in Mexico and work our way around ending in Canada. Today however we decided to mix things up a bit and we took the reverse path, starting in Canada. This proved to be a fruitful as we spotted the paint by number art wall. Basically, they provide you color paint and a brush and you locate unpainted numbers that match yours. We all grabbed a different color and headed over to the wall to make our contribution. At the point when we visited the wall was roughly 60%-70% completed. What a fun idea to get the guests involved in a giant art project!
If you have been a reader of Hayesvision you are aware that it doesn’t take long for our family to build up our appetite. Emily, being the studied individual that she is, did her homework and found that there was a new offering at the Refreshment Port that she was interested in trying. Enter into our lives… Poutine, with french fries, cheese curds, and if that weren’t enough, the legendary cheddar cheese soup from Canada. We grabbed a spot outside Le Cellier in Canada to enjoy the gluttonous goodness! The boys got waffle ice cream cones which melted far too fast in the Florida sunshine.
Our appetites were curbed for the time being allowing us to begin our scavenger hunt. We got off to a rocky start in Canada, taking a couple trips through the shops to find our first painting. We marked our maps and were on our way to the UK. En route we ran into our friends the Rowes, who were out enjoying the day as well. Aaron Rowe is actually responsible for setting Emily and I up on our first semi-blind date. After chatting for a bit we continued on our expedition to find more paintings.
Mexico Margarita Madness… Literally
We made pretty quick work of the first half of the World Showcase, stopping at the America pavilion for a much needed mid-game snack… and beer, which hit the spot. The second half of the World Showcase was a bit more difficult to navigate with the growing crowds. Our last stop was Mexico where we quickly found the painting. Emily felt she earned her birthday Maelstrom Margarita from the Tequila bar. I grabbed my spot midway up the ramp with the rest of my alcohol deprived compadres. If you have read my previous Epcot posts you know that I have spent my fair share of time in this line waiting for booze. I have never in my life been so annoyed with the (earmuffs) ass-clowns that were in line. There were a bunch of 20-something drink around the world drunk idiots that I got to share 30 minutes of my life with, that I will never get back. I hung in the line so I could get Emily her favorite birthday drink. (I’m ever so grateful! – Em)
After another twenty minutes of cool down time for me, we headed out of Mexico and made our way to the Towers merchandise shops to exchange our perfectly assembled maps for our prize, pins! The boys each got to pick out their favorite pin and said our goodbyes to the World Showcase. We exited out the front of the park for our return monorail trip back to the Ticket and Transportation Center. Since the evening was continuing to be as beautiful as the day, we decided to stick around the Polynesian Resort and enjoy some dinner at Trader Sam’s.
Trader Sams Dinner & Drinks – Polynesian Resort
Emily ordered us a couple of drinks and appetizers and I went to the quick service location to get the boys a hot dog and chicken nuggets. The evening was perfect, listening to the live Hawaiian ukulele music, enjoying delicious food and picture perfect weather. Emily and I got Tuna Poke, Sticky Wings, and a Thai Chicken Flatbread which was mouth watering. After we had our fill of food and drink, we stopped in at the merchandise shop to pick up a couple items that Emily had her eye on from earlier in the morning.
Port Canaveral Afternoon – Sunday, February 11th
Although it wasn’t a day specifically for Emily, we were ready for an afternoon activity after working around the house. We soon discovered the Disney Wonder was in port, so we took advantage of the beautiful afternoon and drove out to Jetty Park to watch the ships leave. We naturally weren’t the only ones with this idea. Arriving at the park there were cars lining the entire Port Canaveral waterway. We found a parking spot at the very end and got situated with our camera gear. Emily and the boys had to use the bathroom requiring a 10 minute walk to the pavilion. They returned thirty minutes later with snow cones for the boys and a Landshark beer for me. Who could ask for anything more?! (I should mention the bathroom is adjacent to the snack bar.)
The ships started making their way out of the Port, the first one being the Carnival ship, followed shortly by the Disney Wonder. The boys had a blast climbing on the rocks, summoning their bravery as they flirted with the water’s edge. This had Emily on high alert believing that they would inevitably fall in and get sucked out to sea. After the two ships sailed we were getting hungry, unsure when the third and final ship would depart. We left and grabbed some dinner at one of the seafood restaurants along the Port Canaveral waterway, Fishlips. (Be sure to check out more of our fun photos in the slideshow at the end of this post)
Dinner – Fishlips Restaurant Port Canaveral
The restaurant was a five minute drive from where we were at Jetty Park. The location was still hopping from the locals looking to grab a bite while watching the ships depart. We checked in and the seater recommended that we head upstairs to the more casual section of the restaurant. We were able to secure a table outside to enjoy the weather and the view of the port. The food and service were what you would expect from a beach restaurant. As we were leaving we discovered Elon Musk ate at this location after the successful launch of their SpaceX heavy rocket the week before. Hunter was agape at the idea he might have shared seat space with Elon’s rear end.
We packed our full stomachs back into the car, made the 40 minute drive back to Orlando, and called it a day and weekend!
Valentine’s Day – Wednesday, February 14th
Because Valentine’s Day falls so close to Emily’s birthday, it often gets swept up as part of Emily’s birthdayfest. The day of course isn’t just about Emily, but let’s be honest, it really is. Emily had been out with the girls the previous night for Galentine’s day (seriously are we going to create any more holidays, Hallmark?). She arrived home late but still mustered the energy to put out the gifts for the boys. We also affixed the heart attack hearts to the boy’s bedroom doors so they could see them when they awoke.
I arose early on Valentine’s day so I could run to Starbucks to get Emily her much needed coffee! She would need this to get through her full day of activities. To my surprise, Emily was up at six am ready for the day. She had her own breakfast plan which included making her famous chocolate chip scones, chocolate croissants, and homemade whipped cream. I ran my morning breakfast errands and returned to a house that smelled absolutely amazing!
We all enjoyed our breakfast treats, got the boys off to school, and Emily and I went off to our daily grind. The dinner plan for the evening was our traditional Valentine’s Mexican dinner. In prior years we have driven across the city to go to our old favorite Mexican restaurant, Taquito Jalisco in Winter Garden. Last year we decided to try a Mexican restaurant closer to home called Don Julio’s, and boy were we glad we did. The place is absolutely amazing and we have been going there monthly ever since.
Don Julio’s Mexican Restaurant – Valentine’s Dinner
I left early from work to beat the traffic and make it home in time to beat the restaurant rush. We timed it out perfectly arriving at 5:45 with only a 10 minute wait for a table. We enjoyed our Don Julio’s favorites including the guacamole made table side and their delicious steak tacos! I have no idea what they do to make them taste so amazing, but it is truly heaven on a plate. Hunter got his crispy tacos and Sawyer his cheese rollup. Emily had a margarita the size of a bathtub to wash down her meal, while I got a draft beer the size of a gallon milk jug. It was Valentine’s magic!
We rolled our overfilled bellies out of the restaurant, past the crowd of awaiting patrons, and returned home for the last event of the day, gift opening. Since the boys got their gifts in the morning it was just the adults who got to exchange in the evening. I got Emily an Alex and Ani Disney bracelet and a new iPhone case with the boys’ pictures. Emily got me some clothes (red shirts), a fun canvas print frame, and a book on how to write better blog posts. So if this blog doesn’t get any better, you know who to blame!
Another wonderful Valentine’s day, and we await Queen Emily’s birthday tomorrow!
Queen Emily’s Birthday – Thursday, February 15th
I am glad that we celebrated Emily’s BirthdayFest over the weekend because weekday birthdays aren’t super exciting. Emily’s plan for the day was to drop the boys off at school and go shopping with her mom at Disney Springs. It was a gorgeous day of shopping, capped off with lunch at Emily’s favorite, Wolfgang Puck Express. The servers know her so well they treated her to a piece of birthday cheesecake and sang to her. They stopped by the infamous Sprinkles Cupcake on the way out to get dessert for the evening dinner. Let the record show I offered to pick up the cupcakes but she insisted. (And I know he would just call me to ask about flavors anyway, because he’s too smart to guess. – Em)
Birthday Flamingo
Emily returned home from shopping to find our porch adorned with a four foot tall flamingo planter. Flamingos are her favorite animal and she was in shock and awe. It didn’t take her much sleuthing to figure out it was a surprise from her friend and former roommate, Andrea. It has made the perfect spring addition to our front porch!
Chicken & Pierogi Birthday Dinner
After work and school we met back at Casa Hayes for a birthday dinner with Colonel and Kee. Emily made roast chicken and Colonel made his world famous homemade pierogis from a recipe his aunt passed down to him. Dinner was phenomenal as we couldn’t stop eating all of the wonderful birthday goodness. Following dinner we rolled over to the family room to watch Emily open her birthday gifts and then finished off the evening with Sprinkles cupcakes.
Happy official birthday to my lovely wife. It is hard to top the celebrations that she throws for the rest of the family. She has a gift for finding amazing gifts as well as putting together thoughtful birthday parties for those in her life. Although I try my best, I know my celebrations don’t compare!
Shopping Day with Kee and Emily – Saturday, February 17th
Those of you who know Emily know that BirthdayFest doesn’t end with one’s birthday. (To be fair, my mom’s BirthdayFest starts once mine ends, so the lines get blurred. – Em) Believe it or not, the Queen had more shopping that she wanted to tackle. I offered to take the boys on a guys’ day so she could extend the shopping extravaganza. I whipped up some pancakes and bacon for a weekend breakfast as Emily got ready. She was able to get out the door by 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday, something only shopping has been able to motivate.
The boys and I had a full afternoon of plans. Our first plan of attack was a morning of board games. Sawyer had just received Cars Monopoly, the junior version for his birthday. This game is great, having all the fun of Monopoly without the 112 hour game time. We were able to play three games in the course of one hour. One thing I learned from board game morning, these boys are competitive.
Subway & The Peter Rabbit Movie
Around lunch we got dressed and headed to Subway to grab some sandwiches before the afternoon main event, Peter Rabbit The Movie. We pre-purchased tickets that morning at the local Epic Theater so we were locked into the 1:50 showing. Subway didn’t take nearly as long as I had anticipated which gave us a little time to visit PetCo. The movie was cute and provided some good laughs.
After the movie we headed home to wait for Emily return from her shopping expedition. Our dinner plans were to meet up with Colonel and Kee to at one of our favorites, Piazza Italia. The food and service were spot on as usual as Franco (our server, who just loooooooves Emily) provided for many laughs. Colonel and Kee were gracious enough to take the boys back to their place for a sleepover. This allowed Emily a chance to recover from her long day of shopping and week of Festing.
I believe that today finally concluded Emily’s BirthdayFest, but I have been known to miss a few details here and there. I realized after this birthday that the next time we do this, Emily will be over the hill! (HEY! – Em)
