First Day at Disneyworld

We are staying at the Art of Animation Resort here, in a "Cars"-themed suite. By "Suite", we mean that there is a bedroom with a queen-sized bed, and in the other room there is a sofa that folds out into another bed, there is a kitchenette, and there is a small table that folds out into a Murphy bed.  So the kids tripled up on the sofabed, Grandma slept on the "table" bed, and I got the master bedroom to myself.

Until about 5:30, when Daniel came into my room and tucked himself into the bed.

I woke up at about 8 and set about doing things - talking to Grandma, heading to the bathroom, taking a shower.  All before the kids stirred even an ounce.  I was just out of the shower when Daniel woke.  He bounced out of bed, super excited.  "Mommy! I slept in my own bed last night!" And before I could correct him, he spun around to show me the bed, stopped, and then asked, "But what happened to Max and Caroline??? THEY DISAPPEARED!"  WHen I explained that he had, in fact, come into my bed in the middle of the night, he laughed and said, "my body did not remember which bed was mine!"  Too cute.

They dressed easily and were excited to get out and head down to meet Boppy in the lobby, after a short detour to visit most of the Cars in our area.

We all converged at the shuttles and were off to Magic Kingdom.  After collecting Boppy's ticket and getting our bags checked, we headed in with our "magic bands", only to discover that Uncle's band had both been keyed to the wrong room and didn't have his park tickets connected to it.  Luckily, he had a card that allowed him in and he was able to correct the matter at "City Hall" just inside Main Street.

And while he did that, we waited in line to meet Pluto (and got to see a little parade while we waited, too).

(These are both my photos and those of the official Disney photographer...so some doubles...)

While we waited, Wendy had gone up the street in search of food.  She found the Main Street Bakery (aka Starbucks) and was dutifully waiting in a monster line.  As we walked up to meet her, we bumped into another Disney Photographer!

Check out Tink!

And then we were off to It's a Small World.  It might not be the most exciting ride, but there's nothing better for your first Disney ride than a classic.  I sat next to Daniel, who was excited every time we moved toward a tunnel that "we're going into a new continent!"  All in all, a rousing success.

And then we moved on to the Fairytale Castle where we were set up for a meet & greet with Rapunzel and Cinderella.  (these are photos by Boppy, me, and the Disney photographers)  Rapunzel had a lovely little banter about horses, asking whether or not Caroline had brought her own with her or if perhaps she needed to borrow Maximus for a ride later.  The boys decided not to meet her, but she waved to them and signed their autograph books.  In fact, when they hid behind me, she teased them about how good they were at hide and seek.

And then it was off to Cinderella, who was all bubbles as she asked after Caroline's carriage, how large it was ("the size of a very large pumpkin?"), and asked if it smelled as much like pumpkin pie as hers did.  The boys didn't meet her either, and hid when she approached, but she just blew kisses to "the little princes" and waved.

The boys now wanted a "boy ride" after having to go see Princesses (I was later accused of "ruining Max's day because he didn't want to see princesses), so we waited in a 45-minute line for Peter Pan while Boppy and Grandma bought lunch and saved a table for us across the way.

After lunch, Wendy got them to sign their wishes into the Blue Fairy's guest book (Jake the Pirate toys, a rainbow fairy, and to ride on a Luke Skywalker ride) and then we were off to the Haunted Mansion, which was a hit, though a little scary for Daniel, especially.

Then back to Main Street for Mouse Ears for everyone. (I know, if you're familiar with the layout, we did not plan this well - hence why my legs are aching.)  I am wearing a reversible Chip n Dale hat which was purchased for Grandma.

At this point, Grandma and Boppy tapped out of the proceedings and we rushed back to Fantasyland for Dumbo and Ariel's Under the Sea.

And then Mommy made the first of her mistaken suggestions (well, second, but I didn't know the first one was a mistake, yet).  Instead of steering the kids to Adventureland, where the crowds were small, I suggested the cars at Tomorrowland.  30 minute wait, so Max vetoed and dragged me to the "solar system", which was at the Astro Orbiter rocket ride.  Another 30 minute wait, but we did it and the kids loved the ride.  It was now time to head out to meet Boppy and Grandma and head over to Epcot for dinner (this was the real first mistake - we had had a reservation for dinner at Disney Springs, but we would've had to leave Magic Kingdom around 4 to make it over there, so we switched to a place at Epcot...more about why that was a mistake in a moment).  But as we left, I saw that "Stitch's Great Escape" had no line.  Let's add one more ride, right?

WRONG.

Worst. Ride. Ever.

You sit, pinned into a seat, while the room blacks out and stagnant water is spit at you and weird sounds and motions surround you.  Max and Caroline were very unhappy and Daniel freaked out entirely.  He actually squirmed out of the restraint and climbed on my lap and then past me and into the row behind us to hide.  Caroline asked, through tears, "Why would they even MAKE that ride?"

I don't know, Caroline.

And so I bought everyone Star Wars toys to make up for it.  And we headed to the monorail, and off and onto another monorail.  At this point everyone was DONE.  Grandma and Boppy had walked too much and the kids were too tired.  And, of course, I had made a reservation at the restaurant that is perhaps farthest from the entrance to Epcot.

But we made it through (with Grandma and Boppy arriving on scooters) and back to the hotel and the kids seemed to have had a good time overall.  We came back and settled in - Grandma got right into bed, Caroline got in the bath to wash off the "Stitch Spit", and the boys played while I started writing this.  As they got ready for bed, Caroline complained that she was too squished sleeping with her brothers.  So she got a make-shift bed on the floor using the discarded couch cushion and the extra blankets we'd gotten last night.

Oops - side note I forgot from last night.  The kids were amazed to discover that when you stay in a hotel, you can call someone and ask for extra pillows and blankets.  So when we arrived, I called Housekeeping and Caroline asked, "Can we please have five extra pillows? and Max asked, "and a lot of blankets, like five, or maybe three."  When I got back on the phone, the woman laughed and asked, "now how many of those things do you really need?"  When they arrived, I was in the middle of changing and walked out of the bedroom in my pants and bra just as the kids opened the door.  I ran to the bathroom and from there handed Max some cash for a tip, which he handed to the man, saying, "Here's some money for you."  Gotta work on that one.

And back to the end of the night.  Caroline is asleep on a cushion on the floor, Max is in the sofa bed, Grandma is on the Murphy bed, and I am finishing this up with Daniel snoozing at my side.

Good night.

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!

Cute Anecdotes

And here are some highlights of the kids' antics that I've been posting on Facebook and forgetting to put here:

We made Caroline a paper tiara and she was just on the verge of being majorly disappointed by it when Max said, with no sense of falsehood, "You look beautiful, Caroline!" And she smiled and bounced into the other room to play. And he called after her, "And I really like your tights today, too. You look very beautiful today." Aww.

"Today at school we played 'Rich Boy' In that game we are rich and not afraid of things and we are in HIGH SCHOOL!" - Max

Four people in this house. Why do we have 19 tooth brushes and six types of tooth paste???

We watched the "Riley's First Date" short on the Inside Out DVDs, which features some prominent AC/DC music. Caroline, who has been fighting a cough all week and was home sick all day, got up on the couch, started head banging, and proclaimed, "I just have too much energy from this song!"

Daniel just referred to me as "the Salvatores' mommy"

Mondegreens so far this morning - 
"Slap out of it!" ("Because I don't know how to snap, Mommy")
"You may now kiss the wife"
"CANNONBOB!"

A couple of weeks ago, Caroline asked what the bed bugs were in "don't let the bed bugs bite". Today she asked, "wouldn't it be funny if after the bed bugs came and bit you, if there were DOCTOR bugs who would come and put bandages on you? And then you'd wake up and say, 'why are there little bandages on my cheek?'"

Max is an equal opportunity Vader - he's alternating between telling Daniel, "Luke, I am your father," and telling Caroline, "Princess Leia, I am your father."

Daniel is a super hero named "UnderPants Boy". But sometimes he uses his secret identity as "Clothes Man"

Caroline, describing a classmate's Star Wars shirt: You know who it had on it? Darth Vader, Star-3PO, Sabacca, and Boba Fettttt!  (I also loved when they called him 3-PPO)

Max just called me a super villain because I told him we can't have Chanukah in the morning.

Daniel wants to be in middle school because he's "dying to have a locker". The drama!

At our Thanksgiving yesterday, the kids shared what they're thankful for:

Caroline: the whole earf and the streets and the sidewalks

Daniel: all the bonstruction workers who make houses for people to live in

Max: corn and everyone who made all this yummy food.

While Mommy Was in the Shower

I was in the shower.  I wasn't there any longer than normal.  The kids had been busily playing and I didn't hear any major disasters.  Then I walked out of the bathroom and there was Daniel, looking sheepish.  And he said, with his head down and his toe rubbing back and forth on the carpet, "Umm, Mommy? We did something we are not supposed to be doing..."

This is a sentence that can give a mother a premature heart attack.  I asked, "What did you do?" and he took my hand and walked me into their room, where I was greeted with crayon and marker art all over their beds and the walls. (The stickers had been there previously)

Daniel's portrait of the Salvateenies, on his footboard

Max's Masterpiece on the door

Highlights on the wall

Caroline's name backwards on her wall

Caroline's portrait of herself and her brothers, on Daniel's headboard

In the grand scheme of things they're "not supposed to do", I suppose this is not that bad - or at least that's what my art teacher friends keep telling me.  I rationalize that the boys both ratted Caroline out as the ringleader and this will be her bedroom as she grows up, so she'll have to live with it.

Caroline's Rooftop Celebration

Caroline had a scary cough going from the beginning of January - she missed three days of school the first week back and two days the next week.  She went to the doctor a couple of times and was prescribed some inhalers to help her breathe.  On MLK, Jr Day, I took her back to the clinic to see her doctor. 

She was thrilled, as each of them always is, with the one-on-one time and she begged to park on the roof of the parking structure.  After the appointment, she asked for permission to explore the roof and was generally adorable as she ran around.  

And then she dissolved into a coughing fit and we used her inhaler and went home.

Somehow, without having seen any of the Star Wards movies and never really being that interested in the cartoons, the kids were caught in the thrall of the new Episode VII movie.  I blame the ubiquitous marketing, especially as they chanted, in unison, "Star Wars: A Force Awakens, in theaters December 18th"

So, I ordered them the DVDs and Uncle and Wendy came over three nights in a row to watch the original movies.  I quickly saw how silly I had been to worry about them being afraid - "Finding Nemo" is easily ten times scarier than any of the Star Wars movies.  And you truly have not lived until you have been in the dark with three five year olds giggling when they first encounter Yoda in Empire Strikes Back or any time that Ewoks are on screen in Return of the Jedi. 

Then we all got together to go to the neighborhood theater and watch the new one, which awesomely had these cut outs in the lobby for pictures.

They loved the movie and followed along well.

Over the next month, when the kids were bad, I would warn them, "You don't want me to have to use the force on you, do you?" and they would turn to me, grab their throats, and mock choke and fall to the floor.

A fun side-story from our visit to the theater is that I was putting on my make up in the car before we went in and Max asked, "Why are you putting on make up when we're just going to the movies with Grandma and Boppy?" I told him I always like to look pretty and besides, what if I saw someone at the movies and they wanted to ask me out to dinner?  

Max solved this problem, "No, Mommy, if you meet someone you just asked them, "Do you like me? I'm CUTE!"  And lord help us, that is totally going to work for Max one day...