Day 1 at the parks...

I worked it out so that although our favorite park is Magic Kingdom, we would start with Disney Hollywood Studios for our first day.  That way we could end with Magic Kingdom.  Even though we got in late, we were still out the door before 9am.  We were able to get there shortly after 9:30 to head right for Toy Story Mania.  It is always the one that gets the busiest the fastest, and we already had a half hour wait.  But there is one thing about Disney, the line waiting isn't bad at all because they always try to entertain you while you wait.  Trevor enjoyed the ride and tried his best to get a high score.  Gwen didn't care for the 3-d effects but we had already gotten our fast passes for later in the afternoon.  We headed over to the Star Tours but got sidetracked by the Honey I shrunk the Kids playland.  We had an early lunch (for us anyway, being on CST) but with as early as everyone eats, it always works out well for us.  We dined at the Sci-Fi Drive In, and like last time we were there 3 years ago, Trevor was not happy with the entertainment.  Because they show black and white movies with Sci-Fi scenes, we couldn't tear Trevor's eyes off the screen.  They even break the short shows with cartoons with a space theme.  Those, he said were "ok" but he didn't like being there.  Gwen, was not bothered in the least and decided to eat her weight in food.  Hot dog, grapes, french fries (hers and mine), and a chocolate shake.  I knew she didn't get a lot to eat the previous day but I was still a bit surprised. 

So we moved on to Star Tours, Voyage of the Little Mermaid then decided to head on over to the Tower of Terror/Rockin' Roller Coaster.  Gwen again didn't care for Star Tours because of the 3-d effects.  Trevor wasn't impressed about the loud noises and also took off his glasses for some of the parts.  We found out that the Tower of Terror took kids 40" or taller, but the roller coaster had to be 48".  That made the choice easier....Gwen went to the Tower of Terror and Trevor came on the roller coaster with me.  Trevor wasn't exactly happy after we got off of the coaster, but the more we talked about it, the more I could convince him it was a fun ride.  He has been on plenty of coasters before but that one is FAST.  But I have to say, now after going on Space Mountain again, it is so much smoother.  We headed back to our fastpass time for Toy Story Mania, and found out that Gwen didn't exactly have a good time on the Tower of Terror.  It wasn't the ride part, she would take any roller coaster you could put in front of her.  It was the "story" they give you before you actually are on the ride.  I have a hard time believing we will get Trevor to go on that one.  But we have now learned that Gwen just needs to take off her 3-d glasses, so we could see Muppets, ride Toy Story Mania again, and then for the future shows we saw at other places.  After we came off of the Muppet ride, we saw some characters, and wanted to get some pictures, but Gwen fell asleep in Russ's arms.  Actually, she fell asleep in Vicky's arms but Russ had to carry her once we headed out to the exit. 

We had to save Beauty and the Beast for the next time, and try to get into the Jedi Training Academy but other than that, a very successful first park day!

The travel day is always the hard one

I know everyone has been waiting for the big reveal on the morning of our Disney trip.  Well it has been a crazy last 48 hours, but I do need to write it down before it all leaves my mind:

So the clues were hidden, and I wrote a little note to each kid in case one woke up earlier than the other and started to go downstairs.  Apparently the little note was one of the best things... not to say that the whole treasure hunt wasn't fun, it was just one of those things that both kids remembered after it was all done.  And of course, both kids had to be woken up, because Trevor had a hockey event early that morning.  So once the kids were awake, they went from clue to clue....Trevor needed a little help..guess his clues were a bit harder.  Then they uncovered the suitcases, Trevor read the welcome notes, and got this completely puzzled expression on his face, and of course asked, "We are really going to Disney World.....today??"  If I remember correctly, Gwen did a little jump and said Yay!  Yay!  We are going to Disney World...but it took her a few minutes.  No screaming...so I'm sure it won't win us any awards on AFV.  But it was a nice experience to have.  I'm sure the kids will remember it for a long time. 

So Trevor went to his last hockey game of the season, scored a goal in his last shift of the game, and throughout the day would say, "I'm SO excited to be going to Disney World".  Our flight left at 5:50pm so we had a while to wait to just get to the airport.  Gwen is at the age where she really can't understand all the steps that it takes to get to our final destination so she started assuming we were at Disney World after every leg of our trip.  Starting at arriving at the airport.  Then when we finally got there, she assumed we were going to one of the parks. 

Our flight and getting to the hotel was pretty smooth.  Unfortunately, we were the last resort on the bus to be delivered, but we were lucky enough to get right on a bus, so we were in our hotel room before midnight.  We got our food, had a little snack and went to bed.  It was a tough night of sleep but we were up to go to Disney Hollywood Studios shortly after it opened at 9am. 

And that, in a nutshell, was our first day of travel to Disney.

It's surprise Disney Eve!

Well, we made it so far!  We have the clues hidden, the letter written, the bags mostly packed (our flight doesn't leave until 5pm so we have some time) and no one spilled the beans...as far as I know...and as far as the kids are aware.  Today has been a really hard day for me to get through because I'm so excited about the trip and to see how well the kids enjoy it.  It was 3 years since our last trip, and will probably be another 4 or so years until the next one. 

I have to share a few of the clues that a disney designer made for us.  It isn't fancy, and I know a lot of crafty people could do better, but for me...I was jumping for joy!

Russ says he is a little concerned that the kids won't really get it...or at least it won't sink in..specifically for Gwen.  But with as much as she has looked at our pictures, and had been saying the entire year she was 3...."when I'm 4, I get to go to Disney"...I think she'll get it right away. 

Trevor has a hockey game at 9am...so it will be quickly eating breakfast and going to the game before coming home for a little breather.  Or maybe we'll go out for a brunch....I have no food left in the house....ha!  Good planning on my part! 

But for now...I will try to get some sleep.  This morning I was up a little after 5am.  Oh well...I can get sleep some other time.  For now, I gotta stay awake for this week ;-)

Getting ready

So we are just a few short days away from our trip and it is amazing how the kids don't suspect a thing.  I have had to let just about every adult in their lives know about it, and none of them have let it slip either.  I have been gathering information, even though I would call myself a pretty seasoned veteran.  Not quite a fanatic but I do know my stuff.  We have our grocery order placed, although I'm continuing to add to it while I can think of more stuff.  We have our online check-in completed, although because we are coming in so late, I doubt there will be much of a line.  We have our park tickets bought, we have our eating reservations placed.  We have our Bibbidi bobbiti boutique reservations made...and yes I did book a "knight package" for Trevor as I thought he would be interested in anything that made Gwen the center of attention.  At his school carnival one of the most fun stations for him was the colored hair spray he got which is just what they do for them at the BBB.  Gwen will be getting as much of a make-over as possible and I know she will be just thrilled.  I got her a fancy Aurora gown, sparkly shoes and they will take care of the rest.  We have dining reservations at Cinderella's castle that evening for dinner. 

We have a day off from the parks to hang out by the pool or go to downtown disney.  I've been watching the weather and it looks like the time we are there is going to be remarkably average.  Upper 70s for the high, maybe low 80s but no big rain showers except for the day we get there....but it is late so it isn't a concern. 

I bought the kids pin trading lanyards and got a bunch of pins off of ebay.  I think the social aspect of the trading is what will be fun for them.  We'll see.  If they aren't into it, I'm not crushed because I didn't spend a ton of money on them.  The crowds are due to be minimal the week we are there until the next weekend.  Then they get hairy, but I'm glad we get full days at our three favorite parks with low crowds.  That way it won't be stressful to be back for a second day and feel like we have so much we didn't get to do the first time. 

I heard about an app for wait times on various disney rides.  I got that for my phone, but THEN a new app just came out which includes interactive maps for each of the parks and when you are actually inside the gates of each of the parks, it unlocks wait times for things not just including the rides.  Already got that one downloaded too! 

We are actually heading off this evening to go to Disney on Ice.  It is heavily princess focused, and I thought Trevor might not want to go to see it, but he was not wanting to do anything else if Gwen and I were going. 

Oh, and for those of you wondering, we are doing a treasure hunt with 3 clues for each kid.  I'm not sure of exactly how it will all end up but the ending will be that we have the bags packed under a tarp in our porch.  They will uncover the tarp and their gear and gifts, and possibly a letter of some kind will be there saying we are leaving that evening!  I'm wondering who will be more surprised.....or maybe who will be more excited.  We will do our best to take video of it, as well as many of the other adventures during the trip.  Like last time, I will try to blog about it every day or every other day.  If it is like last time, we should be up pretty early but able to crash somewhat early too.

14 Days and counting!

So we are at 14 days to go to our big trip.  Plans are being made and finalized.  I'm learning a lot of new things as a result of it being 3 years later than our last trip.  We can check in online in 5 days.  I'm not sure what that exactly entails, but I'm good with that.  I'm also continuing to double-guess my dining reservations.  I'm booking new ones and looking for better times with my existing ones.  I've got our food ordered, but I'm continuing to add to it.  I need to get a good inventory of clothes before we head out and I need to keep that on the DL.

You would think with everything going on and all the details it would drive a person crazy...not me!  I love all the plans, and it gets me very excited to know that in a few weeks we'll let the kids in on the secret and get to enjoy their happiness and wonderful experiences coming!

I won't say these past few days are without stress.  So the kids have continued to pass around colds...current situation is harder than previous weeks.  Gwen really got knocked out and while I didn't let her go to school on Friday, she seemed in good spirits.  A bad cough, but otherwise ok.  Then last night, she was up multiple times and the last time she complained of ear pain.  So we ran to the doctor, found out she had a double ear infection and then she finally could take a nap without being in extreme pain.  I'm glad we don't have school on Monday so we can have an extra day of recovery.  Get all this sickness out NOW so everyone is healthy for the trip.  If we are on our usual routine, this year should be a good year for trips.  It has been an every-other-year sort of thing for us.  Usually only hitting Trevor.

So while I can't have any control over the sickness, I am hoping to avoid it at all costs.  In the mean time, I probably should keep my mind on making sure all my responsibilities are taken care of before I leave on the trip.  I can't wait to be able to keep track of our festivities while on the trip!

The crazy activities of Trevor

I guess it had to happen at some point.  Hockey can be a little bit crazy when it is the season.  I asked Trevor if he wanted to do the 7 week basketball program at the YMCA and one of those dates, he also had 3 other hockey things at.  Two scrimmages and one practice.  He did all 4 things and didn't fall apart.  We celebrated with a cheers at Baker's Square that evening.   Because of the warm season we have had this winter, most of the outdoor times that the team was supposed to have, have completely fallen apart. 

We had his parent/teacher conference the second week in February.  That was a nice meeting where we came out if it with a few things to work on, but overall, having a kid with a 6th grade reading level, having completed all of the 2nd grade math requirements by mid-year is a definite proud moment for us parents;-)  Thanks Trevor! 

He's quickly moving up in the ranks of chess club.  I'm not really sure how it exactly works, but that he says he is winning more games than he is losing and when he wins a certain amount he gets to move up to a higher group.  He has learned notation, but I know he doesn't care much for it.  I think he likes when games move pretty quickly. 

So, in discussions on facebook, and reading some friends' blogs, it has become very apparent that I have become the parent of two kids...no longer toddlers or babies but kids.  Gwen rarely, but does still have a crying tantrum side that can be easy to remind me that she is a littler kid.  Trevor has not done the tantrum thing in a very long while but has graduated to the arguing.  And the bating.  And does not give up.  He's too smart for his own good.  If' I've had my rest, I can walk away and explain it is not up for argument, but when I'm not well rested enough....he gets me pretty good.  And another side to him growing up is his consciousness of being looked upon as "baby-ish".  He will still talk about Bubba, but is not a natural word for him to use anymore.  He won't use it when he's talking with his friends, and similar to Lightning McQueen and Buzz Lightyear discussions. 

Although I do notice that I can still pull out the little kid Trevor when he isn't influenced by peer pressure.  For example, we got a disney on ice coming up, and I expected that I could convince Trevor to not go based on the fact that it was very princess oriented.  But nope....he wants to come with.  I am so glad that I decided to book a hair spray event for Trevor at the same time Gwen is getting her princess makeover at Disney World.  He may be my young man, but he still is my baby boy.

Holiday Dance Recital

I'm a bit late in writing this as we have had a lot going on.  I also wish I could figure out how to get my video camera to download videos on this computer without having to install archaic software.  Dumb thing is, I'm pretty sure my computer could find something on its own, but I just don't ever get that far in having the camera, cords, time and energy to even try it out. 

So last Saturday was Gwen's Holiday dance recital.  She had her first spring recital last June, and because we started so late last year, I didn't want to jump right in to a recital last year.  Luckily, she got to be Rudolph with the rest of the kids her age this year, and if she is in Kindergarten next year, she will move up to dance to "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".  That group practiced with them for a little bit so she got to watch them dance their dance. 

They had two shows which they were asked to perform in; an afternoon and an evening show.  In order to avoid paying for a ticket to both shows, I figured I would volunteer to help with the afternoon one as a chaperon since none of our family could make it to that show and would be attending the evening show.  Also, because we were staying for the whole first show, she could go on to do a bow as part of the finale and then we could leave at intermission during the evening show. 

The afternoon show seemed to go smooth, although the rehearsal was very bumpy.  We couldn't leave until the group got to practice their song, and they started with the bow.  Four times....three times with music.  I got why they needed to practice that, but I heard that it caused the group to not finish the entire rehearsal until after 10pm.  We started at 6. 

It was nice to be able to sit in the audience for the evening one, although when she came onto stage, she didn't have her costume gloves on.  The chaperons were responsible for making sure the kids costumes were complete.  Then, when I went to get Gwen at the end of the first act, one of her friends had drawn all over her arm with a marker.  I know Gwen did some of it herself, but I was surprised and we were very lucky that this didn't happen before she went on stage because you would have been able to see it. 

Throughout the past week, we have all now had to battle a cold running around the family.  It makes just about everyone either cranky, irritable, or just plain different than normal, and not usually in a good way.  I'm really wondering if Gwen has developed some ear issues when it comes to hearing.  When I brought her in for her preschool screening, she was 3 days off of being diagnosed with an ear infection.  I told the screeners, and she did fail her hearing in that ear, but I wonder if through her different ear issues she has developed some hearing difficulties.  I have been noticing her asking "what" A LOT...and I know some of it could be related to her being sick and congested, but overall, she also talks very loudly, and has to play music and other things loud as well.  Perhaps it could be something as minor as getting something to clean out her ears from time to time, but I don't want her to be missing things at school and such.

***ETA this is much later than I hoped to add to the blog.  I had high hopes of adding pictures into this.  Maybe I will go back and edit to add pictures.  But in the mean time, I need to get a few of these posts going because I have a lot of topics, and not a lot of time!

So far so good

We are in the home stretch of the dreaded month of January.  My parents are coming back within a week, Gwen has her winter dance program, we are starting to hear about summer programs....and it wasn't that horrible of a winter.  Still doesn't mean I wanted to be outdoors at any point within the past 3 months or so.  If I have to put on a jacket, it is too cold.  Hopefully our trip to Florida will be relatively jacket free...and then I would consider it a successful vacation. 

So Trevor has received his first communion meeting schedule and date of his actual first communion.  He also, for the first time, was picked to bring the gifts up to the priest this last Sunday.  Ever since he started going to the Children's Liturgy over a year ago, he wanted to bring the gifts up.  I asked him to wait until I could show him how to do it by watching the other kids do it.  Then I asked him to repeat to me what he would do, making sure he understood to wait for the other kids and bow before coming back to his seat.  Then it took a few weeks before he was picked.  So that brings us to last Sunday.  He was so proud coming back to his seat and when I didn't see him with the other kids I knew he had gotten picked.  It was one of those moments where I'm pretty sure he will remember.  And I know there will be many more times he will bring them up.  It just seems like he has a big year in church. 

This past weekend, we also got to visit with a few out-of-town relatives.  It was Russ's grandma's 80th birthday celebration.  Three of grandma's son's were flown in from out of town and two of them were a surprise to her.  I know she was very surprised and she got to eat her favorite lobster for her birthday.  I do have to chuckle because Russ's cousin is named Quinn and Gwen loved to hang around him.  Whenever I called out to Gwen, and she was usually around Quinn, he couldn't help but do a double-take.  Their names sound very similar when saying them.

Also, Uncle Mike got to stay with us a few nights, and Gwen also became very attached to him.  He was nice enough to leave us with some of his signature crepes which Trevor has been eating as his school snacks and I have been enjoying as a nice snack as well ;-)  Anyway, when he left on Saturday, she pulled the waterworks and I think he was a little shocked that she had already become so attached.  I also think she thought if he would feel bad enough, he would take her with him. 

Trevor started his second session of chess and he has almost graduated to their second quad.  I have no idea what that means, but his friend is a grade ahead of him and he is in the 4th quad.  He is really enjoying it, and I'm glad we tried it out.  I wonder if Gwen will have an interest in it at all.  I guess we shall see.....

The Game of Life

Well most of our activities have started up again, except that this week, the kids have both Monday and Tuesday off of school.  I've been trying to give Trevor a little of a break because from now until Spring Break it is going to be busy and a lot of homework and such.  So today we had a game hour where he picked out a game for us to play.  I was willing to play Life and it is not an old game, so there have been a few updates, but for the most part it is the way I remember it.  I explained to Trevor the rules of the game, namely that you don't actually pick your career, but you draw it, and if you draw on that requires a degree and go around the degree path, you don't get to keep it. 

I actually played the game the way I normally do, which is to go around the college path, and not get insurance.  Trevor drew the "entertainer" career card, and then drew the $100,000 payday card.  Um...sweet....Lucky guy.  I drew the doctor card but then I drew the $60,000 payday card.  Not looking good for me.  So the "entertainer" got through marriage, got a log cabin (so he didn't owe that much to get his house, only $60,000) and twins before I even had my career.  At this point, he said he was getting tired of having the $100,000 bills so he first asked for two $50,000.  Then the next time, he said he wanted three $20,000s and four $10,000s.  It took all my strength not to laugh and remark how much like me he sounded when he said that.  Actually, I'm surprised he didn't fight be to be the banker.  Although maybe that's because when he plays Monopoly or his own game of Life, he always gets to be the banker.

I got a slightly nicer house, and twins myself, but then Trevor got another set of twins.  He made it all the way to retirement without any big hits of payments.  I, of course, got hit with two house events that had I had insurance, I wouldn't have to pay for, and another car accident that I did not have insurance for as well. 

So after waiting for me to finish, and retiring myself, I discovered that at retirement, there wasn't anything remarkable that happens.  When everyone makes it to retirement, you make sure you pay off your loans but then count up your money.  I had thought in the older games you got money for the number of kids you had and such.  Not this game.  Trevor had two sets of twins and I only had one.  Nothing about the kind of house you had or anything.  There are life tiles that need to be counted, but with Trevor's salary, I couldn't catch up.  He won, without much fanfare, gave me the "good game" and we left it at that. 

It was a great time to be able to play a low key game and have some fun with the guy before the long stretch of stuff coming up.     

The new nomal

With the tree coming down before New Years, that meant that there wasn't too much organizing to do in order to get the house back to regular slightly messy but not too unbearable.  A lot of the cleaning came from the gifts from everyone.  So now we are back to school for both kids and there has been a shift in things to be doing as is the case with the introduction to new toys games. 

Gwen doesn't hold back with anything she can play with.  She wants to be a part of all the games, from Trevor's Angry Birds board game to having her own guy that she restarts (exactly like Trevor used to do with Super Mario Galaxy) in order to see Princess Zelda.  She also has been Ms. Creativity with all the coloring, play-dough like crafts, marker drawings, and sticker projects.  I don't know how long the ream of paper is going to last her.  If she keeps this up, it won't be much past the beginning of February.  I'm not even sure what to do with them all!  I would take pictures, and maybe when I get a chance I will, but I'm just enjoying playing "her" toys with her like her Berry Bitty Market (Strawberry Shortcake). 

Music has been a huge increase in our house.  I was tired of the "mix tape" CD's not being able to be played anywhere because the quality isn't the same as the regular CDs.  Russ has an old iPod nano, but I convinced Russ (and used a gift card) to buy a speaker system and a new iPod nano to put the kids music on.  A big hit with the kids is when they get to play Just Dance Kids 2.  We haven't done the first one, but with Gwen and her love to learn a new dance routine, this was just perfect.  It did get all four of us into the groove and of course Russ and Trevor become very competitive.  Gwen wins most of the time and Russ sometimes has to back off in order to make sure Trevor doesn't come in last place all the time.  We did find two new songs to put on the nano:  "Despicable Me" and "Gummy Bear".  They both start dancing to them when they hear the songs. 

Gwen has started her requests that she sees on the Disney Channel like a song from the Pixie Hollow Games and songs from the pre teen shows like A.N.T. Farm, Shake it Up, and a Lemonade Mouth song.  When I was searching through all the songs that Russ had saved onto an old computer, I came across an album I got called Kermit Unpigged - a take off of all the Unplugged albums that came out at the time.  They are all cover songs with at least one Muppet singing along to them.  I had totally forgotten about them, but I put a few of them onto the nano for the kids and Gwen found them.  Do you want to know what her favorite song is of the entire group at the moment? Ozzy Osborne and Miss Piggy singing "Born to be Wild".  I guess I should have seen that coming as she loves Miss Piggy.  But just a few minutes ago she said to me her name was Ozzy Osborne.  Her last name only.  Made me laugh out loud.

Also, Miss Gwen has really picked up her reading.  She has been asking me to point out words in books as I read them but just last night, without anyone reading anything to her, she knew the word Rupee on the Zelda game Trevor was playing.  She doesn't like it when you ask her what words she can read...but I know they are quite a few.  The thing that is really throwing her for a loop now is the difference between a company name and what kind of place of business it is.  Like if we go to the grocery store, she expects Grocery Store to be on sign name.  She knows that we go to Cub Foods, but that's not what I usually say.  Restaurants are easier, but if we go to get a haircut, that is confusing for her too.  Our bank says Wells Fargo, but a nearby one says US Bank. 

*Sigh...kids grow up...what can you do.