Making it to Orlando

The kids have known about our trip to Disneyworld since before Christmas, and while they were pretty good about only mentioning it, say, once a day for quite a while, in the week before we left they became insufferable.  It's like they knew they were going to have to be on their best behavior on vacation so they got all their horrible behavior out in the days leading up to it.

The night before, they were generally OK until bedtime.  At bedtime, they got all riled up and got the idea to ask to sleep on the floor in their Ninja Turtle tent (which fills the floor space but is not big enough for the three of them to sleep in).  I told them no and Caroline dug in - she went into the living room and got it.  I told her to put it back or I'd throw it out.  She didn't.  So I did.  Commence an hour and a half of "I will only be good if you GIVE ME MY TENT."  Joy.

Finally, after letting Uncle and Wendy try to cajole her to bed to no avail, I took her into my room, cuddled her up on my bed, and put my fingers over her eyelids to help her close them.  She was asleep in 45 seconds.

I then went into the living room to tidy up a little bit and generally cool off from the battle.  I watched a little tv and was prepared to head to bed myself when I heard noise coming from the kids' bedroom.  Daniel had apparently awoken and snuck out to get the iPad ("big phone") and was watching in his room.  Max came out to tell me he needed to go to sleep and so I had to go in and coax Daniel into giving the iPad back and trying to sleep.

They slept in until nearly 7 Saturday morning, which is good for them, and we got up and finished their packing and mine.  The Super Shuttle would be coming to get us at 12:40 or so, so obviously we were out in front of the house by 11:30 with all our luggage.  We went next door to talk to the neighbors and then waited for Grandma to arrive.  After she came, we waited as a group for the shuttle and loaded in with Uncle and Wendy.

The ride to the airport was relatively uneventful, save Daniel's whining about not wanting a grown up seat belt.  We checked our bags curbside, collected our boarding passes, and sailed through security.  There was a Burger King just on the other side, so we fortified the kids with lunch and then set off to find our gate, arriving after two exciting moving walkways and just ten minutes before boarding.

Max and Grandma head to the plane

Caroline poses as she heads down the tunnel

Daniel at the door of the plane

Interestingly, Daniel shared my irrational fear of stepping from the jetway onto the actual plane (I swear, you can look right down that seam and see the tarmack waiting for you below...)  When he got on, the flight attendants cheered for him.  We were in the very last row of coach and had explained to the kids that we had six seats split up by an aisle in the middle, but still as Max boarded he settled right into the third row of First Class and said, "Mommy - there's only two seats in THIS row!"

We finally got settled in, me at the window, then the boys, then Uncle and Wendy, with Caroline on the other window.  The first three hours went well, with the kids playing with the puzzles and sticker books and toys they'd packed.  They rotated among the seats freely and Wendy taught them how to make "cootie catchers", which was a big hit.  About 2.5 hours before the end of the flight, Daniel and Max started taking turns wanting it to be just OVER already.  So we pulled out the iPad and phones, but without wifi they were only distracted for so long.

Daniel wanted to give me duck lips...

But we survived the whining and eventually we landed and made our way through the airport to meet Boppy.

Grandma and I headed down to collect the bags and the rest of the party got Dunkin Donuts (at 11:30pm).  A half hour later our "Disney Magic Express" had arrived and we were waiting to check in while the kids and Boppy did some drawings at the easels set up in the lobby.  And then it was a short 9-mile hike (or maybe it just seemed that way) to our room in "Radiator Springs" at the Cars area of the resort.  We passed adorable Cars cars and decorations on the way and the kids took turns using their fancy wrist bands to open the locks on the doors.

They were enamored of it all - definitely a triumph of design if 5-year olds are your target demo (which, let's be honest, they are).  They were over the moon excited running around the suite and it took all we had to get them settled into bed by 2am local time (well past their bed times in all time zones).  I tossed and turned until just after 4.... but I'm sure we'll be in good shape at Magic Kingdom on Sunday!