Toyland // 2011

The first Friday of November Ryan had to travel to Little Rock for a funeral so Chaz, Dane and myself all headed to Bentonville to hang out with my parents. As I was there, I was catching up on my Facebook and discovered the toy vendors were having Toyland at the Bentonville square that afternoon. Really? How the heck did I miss out on this all these years? We will NOT miss another one! It was so much fun.

In standard form we decided to drag the whole family with us--Mom, Dad, Meme, Sandra, Chaz, Dane and me. Dad, Sandra and Dane sat on a bench for some people watching while Meme, Mom, Chaz and I took off for some fun.  There were tons of displays and free toys. Chaz was in heaven!

We saw a ton of "lifesize" characters. If you have see any past posts (Big Red and Chuck E Cheese are the most memorable) you know that Chaz wants nothing to do with these things.  I think we may have figured out why.  When we came across Dora he was not having it--clinging to my mom and giving Dora the stare-down.

And then he said "Look Momma, a person is in there. There is hair. I told you"  Now, to be fair to myself--I have never heard him say that there was a person in there.. But it all makes sense now. He knows there are real people in these things.. it would be a little creepy to know this if you were a kid, right? 

Once we were done traumatizing the kiddo with Dora we kept on checking out the toys!

There were SO many people, kids and toys. You literally had to step over all of the above to get to see anything. And then when you were standing there looking at things you may notice something ramming your foot, like this little remote control guy. I could not get him to leave me alone!

We passed by the basketball goals and Chaz decided he just had to play. And the first four shots--SCORE! Are you kidding me?? I hope he is this good at football because I hate basketball. :)

And then the whole reason we came--The Cares... I actually showed Chaz the picture on my phone when I was telling him about the afternoon plan. He took my phone and showed everyone we came in contact with. Hilarious! We traveled around the square looking at all the booths, rounded the corner and saw the cars. There were a few families taking pictures so we jumped right in the mix.

After taking the pictures, I turned and noticed a line. A LONG line. Oh my, did I just do that?? All these people were standing in line to the picture ops that I just got. Hmmm.. Sorry peeps! You should have come from the right side.

Next up--Ponies!

When we were first entering Toyland, Chaz spotted the ride-on toys and really, really wanted to do them. We told him if he was good we would do it before we left. When we got to them there was a really long line (Yes, I decided to wait in this one and not cut. HA!)  To my amazement this kid stood (Still!) in line for over 40 minutes. I was floored.

He was so happy. He even got the car he wanted!

Before we left Chaz spotted this--Yes, that is the Batcave we have visted at Target, ToysRus and Walmart many, many times. This kid could spot this Batcave from a mile away!

I am sad that Ryan had to miss this fun time as this is really up his alley but I am blessed to have such a great family who helped me man the kiddos and travel to this great event. We will definitely be here next year. Such a good time!!