Day 1

Instead of hopping back and forth park to park like we typically do, we spent the entire day today in the Magic Kingdom. You just have to start and end every Disney trip there. We did not try to get there when it opened, but we were there before lunch. Space mountain was going to be our first ride, but it was closed for refurbishing (closed for 8 months). You can check out to see which rides are down on which dates on the DisneyWorld website. You can also check to see the height requirements for the rides. 40" is a magic number, as is 44".

Thunder mountain was one of the boys' favorites. Addison was so excited that I thought he might burst! I sat between them and as we climbed the mountain he yelled, "What comes up... must. go. down!!" Ivey was alert and excited the whole day! There are a lot more baby-friendly rides than you'd think. She rode Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear and more. Pretty much every ride in FantasyLand is baby-friendly! We used our fast-passes wisely. I suggest figuring out which fast pass ride you want to ride most and heading straight for it as soon as you enter the park. Split up. Let one adult hightail it over to grab the passes and meet you back at another ride. Check the time on the fastpass that says when you can get your next FastPass. As soon as you can, grab another one. You'll be glad you did! Jeff and I took turns running across the park getting fast passes. We didn't stay in any line that was longer than about 20 minutes or so.

We used Ivey's highchair cover as a liner for the stroller, so that it wouldn't take up any room in our bag or in the bin under the stroller. This worked out really well making a comfy bed for her to nap in, also. You need that highchair cover for the restaurants! I nursed Ivey often and she stayed nice and hydrated. I don't know how on earth I would have done it if I had to deal with bottles or formula. For me, it was perfectly easy to just nurse her when she needed it while parked in a corner waiting for the guys to ride a ride, while riding a slow boat ride, or even while walking. If you don't have one, get a breastfeeding cover. It makes things much easier and calms the fear of flashing the world. I just thought to myself a) no one cares b) if they do they are idiots and b) they can think I'm European.

This was the first time Jeff and I used the "baby swap" service. Let me tell you how this works... any ride that babies are not able to ride offers 'baby swap'. You go up to the entrance of the line with all family members and say you need to baby swap. They will give a rider swap pass to the parent who is not riding. One parent takes the other kids (or no kids) on the ride while the other parent waits with the smaller children. Once the taller kids and adult come back, the other parent gets to go and jump in the Fast Pass line... with up to 2 other people!!! This means that the taller kids get to ride twice in a row, as if they had two fast passes. Brilliant!

Although the old dining plan was vastly superior to the new one, we enjoyed it and worked it to its fullest. (They took away the dinner appetizer and, more importantly, no longer include the tip into the dining plan... which totally takes away the 'all inclusive' nature of the plan.) On the basic dining plan, you get a snack credit, a counter service credit and a table service credit per person per day. If you want to eat a decent dinner, you MUST make your reservations way in advance. Months in advance if you can. To us, this is non-negotiable. It is what makes the dining plan so great. You can go to the top restaurants and get a $34 fillet Mignon instead of eating hamburgers. Get reservations. If you don't you. will. be. sorry. If you want to know which restaurants are best, search the web. You can find reviews and menus, or let me know and I'll give you some advice! We use our counter service credits for lunch. There are kids meals that offer kid friendly meals. My suggestion, DO NOT GET THEM. The counter service credits are not separated into child or adult.. you just have a lump of counter service credits. What does this mean? It means that you can use ONE credit and get more food than two kids can eat for lunch... and it's better food. One day, the boys split a quarter chicken, black beans and rice, dessert and a drink. Save the extra credit for breakfast- where you can use some snack credits and some of these extra counter credits to fill up for no extra money. I know this may not work for all kids- some may pitch a fit about sharing. But, for our boys (who think that getting their own happy meal at McDonalds only happens on special occasions- the three of us just split a 20 piece nugget and small fry) it works well. Heck, Addison will even say, "I'm not all that thirsty so I'll just have water or a lemonade packet to save money". Let kids know how much things cost... most of the time they don't even realize things cost money at all!

We ate dinner at the Crystal Palace Character Buffet. It wasn't the very very best food at Disney, but we like a good character dinner. It gets those pictures with some characters without having to wait in any line for it. They come table to table for pictures. Brilliant. The boys loved that they could eat as much as they wanted, anything that they wanted. I told them if they ate well, they could have any and as much dessert as they wanted... making it a totally special vacation dinner! They ate two plates of good food and, as I figured, the idea of getting all the dessert they wanted was bigger than their ability to eat it all. Each meal, I fed Ivey using the disposable spoons, jars of food, disposable bibs and disposable table place mat. Was it saving the planet? No. Was it saving our vacation? Yes! Be smart on your expensive vacation and go for happiness.

This was the first trip that we did not use a rental stroller Instead, we borrowed a great stroller (which we will be purchasing one of soon) for Ivey. We brought a carrier for her, which we used when she needed to get out of the stroller, when she was having a hard time napping, or when Addison was too tired to walk and needed to ride. It worked very well. It did change our mode of transportation to the park. We usually took the bus but this time we drove from our hotel to the parks each day. With our stow-and-go seats in the van we had enough room to put the stroller in the van without having to collapse it, so the bottom bin could stay packed. When we had to ride the tram from parking into the park, we had to take the stuff out and fold it down- it wasn't completely simple, but it worked well enough. I even did it all by myself a couple times. You need to explain to the kids that although they may ride on the bus to the park in their own seats, at night when they ride back they will have to sit in your lap to make room for everyone. The buses at night are slammed... and the idea of not getting their own seat causes kids who are exhausted to spin out of control. We witnessed this before we had kids and made a point to explain this to the boys- and avoided all tantrums on each of the three trips.

At about 9:00, Ivey and I headed back to the room while Jeff and the boys stayed out. We had to ride the tram from the park gate to the van, so I had to hold her, fold the stroller and grab the backpack to get on the tram. I'm glad I didn't let this deter us from splitting up. People are nice and will help out. I could *almost* do it myself and just needed someone to help me scoot the stroller across the tram's row. Since this is our third family trip here and I have been down here 2 or 3 times while Jeff was working on their systems, I have gotten very good at following the purple signs around the Disney property. I made it from the park to our hotel and Ivey and I were down for the night. I think Jeff and the boys took the bus to Magic Kingdom and came in at about 11:30.

Day 0

We spent the night in Fayetteville, woke up this morning and continued with the preparations. Roland and I went up to town and got haircuts for the boys... then I was able to scoot around town with Ivey while the guys went to Chick-fil-A. I bought new shoes for Jeff and went back to Target for the things I'd forgotten.

Jeff showed up at around 3:00 and we hit the road. I suggest buying brand new movies for the trip, so the kids will be totally excited about watching them... Jeff picked up Ghost Busters, Gremlins, etc and the boys were anxious to get in the car and watch them! Jeff actually squeezed in between the two carseats in the back and watched Ghost Busters with them on the way down. Another thing that worked is Mom stocked the kids up with a goody bag of coloring sheets, a dry erase board, etc. It kept them happy and entertained. Magically, we made it to Orlando with only one stop for dinner. At dinner, we put the boys in their pj's and it was lights out at 9:00. Ivey woke up and ate a few hours later... and couldn't go back to sleep. She wasn't upset or crying, just wide awake. She watched a baby Einstein movie- twice. Finally she fell asleep at midnight.

After a solid hour of being turned around in Orlando, we finally made it to Pop Century at 12:30am. The purple signs can be a bit confusing... just pay attention. Close attention. I have the hang of them, but it takes a while to be able to maneuver. While Jeff ran in to check us in, everyone in the car woke up. I sat in the floor of the van with Ivey and we all talked about how great tomorrow would be! None of us... none of us... went to sleep until 2:30!

Day -1

What a whirlwind of insanity. Packing for a family of 5 to be gone for 8 days and be at Disneyworld for 6 of them is a major feat. My list was a full page, front and back... to do... to pack... it was unbelievable. Jeff was at work. I was to get ready and leave with the kids to stay at Mom and Rolands for the night- to take an hour and a half off our drive. Thankfully, Kierstin came by to help out with the kids and help me out! I was able to go to Target all on my own! Plus, she cleaned out my car!! Anyone who knows me knows that was an amazing accomplishment all by itself!

The baby made packing a lot more complicated. I took the pack-and-play, some sheets, a baby carrier, borrowed a great stroller, disposable diapers & jars of food, highchair cover, disposable placemats so she won't chew on the nasty tables, disposable bibs, take and toss spoons and bowls with lids, rice cereal and a ton of clothes. At home it's cloth diapers and homemade baby food... but a trip to Disney is no time to save the planet or be excessively frugal. It's all about prepping for the most stress-free happy magical time! I made sure to remember my Disney staples: meal bars, cereal bars, granola bars, little packets of lemonade and Koolaid (a MUST! Fill water bottles at the water fountain and make free drinks for the kids!), a pallet of bottled water (Target for $2!) and the little sippy sports tops that fit vartious sized water bottles. I collect these year round and bring them to make it easier for the boys to drink from the water or juice bottles. Make sure to get the small tops, they fit the water bottles at Disney.

I filled picture orders, paid bills, packed, cleaned house and made it out of the house with the kids and the chickens (taking them to Mom to chicken-sit) before Jeff came home from work! Whew!

We the people...

I'm not homeschooling yet, but today was a great big lesson in US government. I was initially under the dilusion that I would be able to take off and attend the Atlanta TEA Party at the capitol building. Once reality sunk in, I moved to plan B- the TEA party at the Winder courthouse. The boys and I made signs and talked about the constitution, freedom, the importance of taxes, the current problems of huge spending and how wonderful it is to live in a country where we can go speak up about it. I explained that the politicians are supposed to work for us... and that they forget that and have to be reminded. How are the reminded? We have to get lots of people together and get LOUD. We talked about the Boston Tea Party and Addison showed me how well they are inundating the kids with environmental education as he stated that pouring all that tea in the ocean was not being good to the environment. It was a good day, and a good night. I hope it was an experience that they kids will file away in their memories, working to build a foundation of belief that they can get out and make a difference, make themselves heard and speak up for their God given rights.

Or, according to Homeland Security, I am creating a new breed of "right-wing extremists". Defending the constitution... the new extreme.

Hoppy Easter!

We had a great Easter at Mim and Papa's house! Great food, beautiful weather & a whole lot of kids to hunt eggs with!

(and, the Easter dress that I stayed up until 4am making fit like a glove!)

Draining....

(After saving Jeff from a full day of watching all three kids... with Ivey who decided to resist any attempt Jeff made to get her to take a bottle... )

Jeff decided to go out and cut grass. Asa ran after him. Let's flash back to earlier in the season when Jeff tried to crank up his lawn mower only to realize that his battery was dead. Now, Jeff went out with Asa to cut some grass and Asa jumped up on the mower. "I get out here EVERY MORNING and turn your key and pretend to drive your lawn mower!"

Guess Jeff needs to keep his key in another location.

Animal Control

I know it goes without saying, but our boys are quite different. They think differently, they play differently, they have different likes and dislikes. Lately, we have noticed that Asa is constantly asking for us to play with him. Sometimes, we do. But a lot of times adult life gets in the way... or we are just fed up with being told that we are playing with Legos the wrong way. Jeff attributed his requests with a lack of attention from us... but this weekend he decided that Asa's increase in needy-ness is attributed more to his brother's lack of interest than ours. Most of the time, Addison doesn't like to play with Asa. Asa will want to play with Legos or play house or make art projects or play outside... Addison isn't interested. Addison is interested in, well, the number one thing he is interested is electronics- t.v., video games, computer games. We keep a reign on his t.v. and game allowance, which leaves him playing with his army men or running around the house, hiding behind doors, shooting us with nerf guns. Or moping around looking bored. If Asa doesn't want to play Battleship, army, checkers or chess... then Addison would rather sit in a chair by himself than play Asa's games.

While I was at a photo shoot, Jeff worked to get the two playing together. He asked them if they wanted to take turns playing what the other wanted to play. Asa jumped at the idea. No dice. Addison said he would rather just not play. Finally, after a lot of coercing on Jeff's part, they agreed that Asa would play Battleship with Addison and then Addison would play 'house' aka 'kitty' with Asa (basically just any pretend play that allows him to be the kitty in a scenario).

The game of battleship was a frustrating one for Addison, who pays very close attention, marking each of his selections with a peg. Asa, who has a hard time paying attention to games like this... especially ones that he really has no interest in in the first place, kept forgetting to mark Addison's selection, or else he would misread the grids. When I came home from my photo session, Addison's ships were spread out across the board, untouched by red pegs. Asa's board was a different story. He had grouped all of his ships into the lower left corner of the board... and dropped hints to Addison as to their whereabouts. Needless to say, it was like shooting fish in a barrell.

After the game, Addison slumped to go play 'kitty'. After a while, I heard Asa whining, "I don't like the way you play kitty!" I looked in and saw Asa with a blue fuzzy scarf tied around his neck for a leash (because every kitty has a leash) and Addison had in his hand a Lego creation that looked something like the Y of a slingshot. Closer investigation revealed that Addison had made a Lego taser (not knowing that this invention had a name, he called it the electric shocker thing). Addison was using said taser on the unarmed kitty, who was lying helpless on the floor. Sporadically, Addison would have to wait for it to recharge, stating that the longer it charges the more shock the kitty would get.... leading to Asa's whines about the injustice and lack of quality in the 'play' that he was getting from Addison.

The Things I Can Do

Over the past week, Ivey has been working hard! I guess it's the new tooth that has motivated her to be a big girl. A few days ago she started getting up on her knees. She's working those abs and prepping for a future take off.

As if that weren't enough, she also started sitting up this week! She can hold herself quite well!

Two of the reasons I can't vacuum...

For the past two weeks, if not more, Asa has been working on a train track masterpiece which takes up the majority of the floor in his room. He has created the above-ground system from his Geotracks, large Legos and TinkerToys. It is so impressive that it has won me over and has survived room cleanings. It's like the Wilbur of toy messes... with a little Charolette, uh, Asa, providing the appropriate pull on the heartstrings in order to save it from its demise over and over. Okay, so that was a little dramatic, and unlike Wilbur, this track is going to have to go at some point.

\

In the same respect, Addison has been constructing an elaborate army on the rug in the upstairs foyer. This has been going on for 6 weeks or more (ever since Jeff's coworker gave him 2 huge boxes of leftover figurines from when his buddy closed his Comic Book Shop). Every two weeks or so I have him clean it all up so I can vacuum... and then that afternoon the troops are redeployed. The regular army men have had to call on backup from the random nerdy comic book shop guys and the Star Wars cast. Just like his brother, Addison seems to enjoy the setup more than the actual "play".

Mom may be a bit eggcentric

So, today, frazzled after 2 days of rain and Jeff being out of town, I decided it would be a good idea to teach the boys how to do pysanky. I pulled out containers of materials that they didn't even know existed and learned that mommy did crafts that they had no idea about... that involved FIRE! I taught them the general idea, but it was so hard for them to grasp the fact that the dyes must be done in order of light to dark, and there is no "going back". They would assure me that they did not want yellow only because they were focusing on the part that they wanted to work on RIGHT THEN. In pysanky, you have to think ahead and work in pieces... first, put wax on the areas to be kept white, then dye it a light color, put wax on the places to be kept that color and dye it again, and so on... They did better than I expected! Drawing on an egg with a tiny kistka of wax that you heat over a candle isn't easy even for adults.

Practice, practice, practice

1st Tooth!

Ivey cut her first tooth today! She's been very drooly and gnawing on everything in sight, but no really fussy. I knew she was close, but now you can feel it! Hooray for the big girl!

TGIF? Not really.

If I had known what my weekend would be like, I would have appreciated the week more. I found out yesterday that Jeff was going out of town today... to be gone until Sunday. My initial thought is always to head for the hills and go hang out with friends and parents, but t-ball pictures right in the middle of Saturday afternoon makes that pretty much impossible. So, I will be home on a very very rainy 3 day weekend (did I mention today was a teacher work day?).

The day was dragging on, we had exhausted our tolerance for the Imagination Movers, and the rain slowed to a medium drizzle. It's over 50 degrees out there, so I figured there was no real harm in sending the cooped up boys out for a good puddle-jump. I think it did us all a world of good!

Ivey finds her spaztic brother quite amusing...

To be read in the voice of the Rocky and Bullwinkle narrator: "This is a Stick Up" or "A Load of Bull"

We ate at our regular BBQ joint for dinner tonight. Kids eat free Monday through Wednesday, so that's where we usually end up after a long Tuesday of school, violin, t-ball, and handbells. Tonight, we met the Hannahs (Kaeden's et al.) and the Ordons. The adults talked and the kids talked loudly and made a mess with the ketchup. At one point, Addison looked up at the t.v., which was showing "Cops" on mute.

"Hey! That guy is stuck to the wall!" He yelled.

We looked up to see a man spread out with his hands up on the wall, being frisked.

"He's stuck to the wall and that police man is trying to help him get unstuck!"

~~

Earlier today, Asa was working on his Heart House and was singing the B.I.B.L.E.. The stopped and ran into the living room to tell me that "bible" is a compound word. I explained that it wasn't but he insisted.

"Bull is a word"!

"Yes, but "bi" isn't" I replied.

"umm... yes it is! When you BUY something!"

I guess maybe he should be singing the B.U.Y.B.U.L.L..

5 Months Old!

This past weekend, Ivey turned 5 months old! I can't believe we are well on our way to crawling and sitting up and eating food with a spoon. Everyone says it and it's so true- it goes by too fast.

Open for Business

Last week, we had to buy a new hot water heater. It seems that if you buy a hot water heater, you get a huge fabulous cardboard box for FREE! Asa claimed this box and instantly hatched a plan to open a business in it. He decorated it with hearts, wrote Asa's Heart House on top, and went to work for them next week making as many paper hearts as he could. He hired Addison for temporary help, who traded 3 hours of helping make hearts for 3 hours of playing army. There were big hearts, medium hearts, little hearts and skinny hearts, as well as various cards (which happen to already to addressed to and from people, so I think it limits his sales a little).

He had to wait until the snow melted off of the porch before he could paint his box (as his landlord did not allow painting in the house). Three days ago, he painted the inside various shades of Crayola Washable Paint and was ready to open his shop. Now, for the past three days we have had a little boy sitting in a box in the living room sporadically shouting "Open for Business!" I purchased a medium sized heart for the price of 5 pecans (shelled, of course). Jeff bought a small one for 4.

I remember roaming around my grandparents' house digging up weeds and plants and potting them into plastic containers and having a plant sale. I sold plants from my grandmother's yard in pots that I confiscated from her porch back to her. What a deal. I know Asa, like I, has grand plans of making big bucks off of his business.

I won't tell him that dreams of making it rich are no longer acceptable in our country. To make a large profit has been demonized. Perhaps I should explain to him that he needs to aspire to make just enough money to be live comfortably while giving a large portion of his money to his brother, who is sitting on the couch watching Scooby Doo... to make it fair and all. Maybe if Asa didn't have to pay such high business taxes he could hire more heart makers... ya think?

Letting him on to the recent shift would only do two things:

1. make Asa realize that aspiring to make it big isn't worth the negative views of others and higher tax burden and

2. make Addison realize that he can keep on sitting there with his personalized TiVo menu.

Instead, I will just continue on supporting the fresh hope for the American dream and hope that by the time my son is a successful Greeting Card manufacturer this wealth envy socialist ideology will come to an end long before he has to see it. Or, he could always move his Heart House to Ireland.

The Evolution of Birthdays

I have heard a few times today, "Happy Birthday! What are you going to do today?". Each time I gave the same answer... dentist appointment, grocery store, pick up the boys from school, go to violin practice, handbell practice, and then probably go to our usual "kids eat free on Tuesdays" BBQ place. Last night I got very little sleep because Ivey screamed like crazy. I thought she was hungry, no... I got her back to sleep a few times... and it wasn't until 7:00am that I realized the poor girl had pooped (which she NEVER does at night) and it was particularly acidic and gave her an instant horrible rash. In between my various domestic duties today will be a all out diaper rash assault including baking soda soaks, diaper changes on the hour, etc. I will be cleaning my house, which looks particularly rough after 2 days of being snowed in. (Speaking of the snow, I did not leave the house yesterday, which meant that my van was buried under a ton of snow. I mentioned to the boys that I needed to go out and get it off before we can leave for school and Asa informed me that he tried to do just that yesterday... with a shovel... a full sized shovel... an old heavy rusty one with a wooden handle. Luckily, he couldn't get all the way through the snow and only left two large scratches across the hood... it could have been much worse!)

In the old days, birthdays meant a nice dinner, a night out, maybe even a party. These days, parties are left for Thomas the Train cakes or Nemo napkins or a monkey piñata hanging from a tree. I would like to have a little break to celebrate, but it is just not the year for it. Instead, I will think ahead 25 years to a birthday where going to dinner alone with Jeff is commonplace and I beg my very busy children to come along and fill the table with 90 decibles of chatter. This birthday, I get 90 decibles without even asking... to top it off it comes with a baby to hold, a game of Transformer Chess to play, a yard full of snow, and a little boy who would love my help cutting a cardboard box with a butter knife.

Just Like Daddy... Foot in Mouth

Ivey has found her feet! She doesn't even try to get them until they are all exposed and then she is perfectly content working to grab the wiggly things! She also LOVES bath time. We took a video tonight or her kicking like crazy in the water. It's like she is the agitator in the center of the washing machine. I'll have to post it when I have the energy!

I am not quite sure how I'm going to manage this, but in the Spring, Addison will be playing tee-ball, Asa will be in Karate, they will both still be in violin, and Ivey will be... well... eating every few hours. I am hoping to be able to locate some sort of teleportation device before all of these activities commence.