Universal Studios / Islands of Adventure Weekend

On Friday night, I just happen to mention to my husband that it'd be great if we just picked up and took the kids for the weekend to Universal Studios to see Barney and go to Seuss Landing in Islands of Adventure - home of The Cat in the Hat and the Grinch! and within 2 hours we were packed up and ready to go. Luckily for us, Orlando is only a four hour drive from where I live. We got there on Saturday around 1am - hit the sack and my kids had us up and ready by 7:30am screaming BARNEY! BARNEY!

After a quick breakfast, we headed out to Universal Studios. The only place where you can see Barney live as he no longer travels from city to city and we were in the front seat and ready by 12pm (the first show). If you don't already know, my son is 100% addicted to Barney so this was very exciting for him. We were able to see Barney, BJ and BabyBop do their thing on stage while my kids danced and sung along to their favorite tunes. We also were able to see and take pictures with Shrek, Princess Fiona and Donkey since Universal Studios is home of the Shrek 4D ride. From there we rode the Jimmy Neutron Blast ride and we were able to joke around and take pictures with Spongebob Squarepants (another one of our favorites). My daughter was super stoked because we also bumped into Shaggy and Scooby-Doo before we rode the E.T. ride (which she absolutely loved and kept begging us to ride again) before heading out to Islands of Adventure.

Here are some of our Universal Studios pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I have the Universal picture from every trip. I don't know why I keep taking it. And of course, the whole familia with SpongeBob.

A Day in the Park with Barney:



They were a bit shy when they first met Barney but they got over that quick enough.

Barney & friends.

This picture was worth the whole trip. My daughter is singing along and look at my son's face... he's amazed and just so happy.

Luckily Islands of Adventure is just across the lake. Although Islands of Adventure is for the older kids, they do have one special Island named Seuss Landing. What is Seuss Landing? Well, as you walk into Seuss Landing you feel as if you are stuck in the pages of one of your Dr. Seuss books. With rides like The Cat and the Hat and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish not to mention all other types of fun areas, restaurants and stores. It is such a funtastical place! I myself was enjoying the place with all it's bright and Seussy names... not to mention all the fun Seussical merchandise - I wanted to buy everything.

Yes, I couldn't help myself, they needed Thing 1 and Thing 2 shirts.

I really wanted those cool blue wigs...





If you're wondering about the roller coaster - that's The Hulk in all it's awesomeness... if you're ever in Islands Adventure you must ride it. It will blow you away.

And of course, we had a meet and greet with The Cat in the Hat

Green Eggs and Ham anyone? My favorite! These were taken from above on a train ride through Seuss Landing.

We didn't really do any of the other Islands throughout the park because my children are still too small for the other rides, but I did want to share one more thing with y'all. It's rather a sneak peak into a magical world that is still in the making.... that's right, Islands of Adventure will be the place where us Muggles can visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter... it's still under construction so I'm not sure what exactly will be there, but I got soooo excited over it that I had to take pictures of what I could see...

Does that look like a moat to you? Hogwarts? I truly hope so.

And there you have it.... my fun weekend. I barely got any reading done but since I went to places like Seuss Landing I figure it's almost the same thing.