Tales From the Minivan

Monday was spent doing a little park hopping. We started out at Disney Hollywood Studios (aka MGM Studios as I’m used to it being called). Disney now has professional photographers all over the place that take photos for you. They give you a little credit card size card with a bar code and each time you get your photo taken by them they scan your card and you can look at the photos online. There you can crop, edit, add borders and other fun things to the photos. Here’s a few from when we first arrived at Hollywood Studios:

Yes we’re all in tie-dyes, and we weren’t the only ones either!

I love that last shot. The photographer told us all to point at that one spot and when told is there’d be a surprise in the pic!

We decided to go grab some Fast Passes for some of the more popular bigger rides like the Tower of Terror and Areosmith’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster. You may be asking, “What is a Fast Pass?” At the majority of the bigger rides, Disney has set up a FastPass Distribution. You put in your Park Pass, and out pops a ticket telling you when to come back to the ride. They normally give you a timeframe of an hour. What this allows you to do and pass by the longer line up and only wait for a few minutes! It was great, I highly recommend using this feature. The most we had to wait for any ride was about 15 minutes, but the wait times listed on the rides were much longer.

After getting our Fast Passes we knew we had about an hour to explore some other parts of the part and happened upon the Star Wars ride called Star Tours. The boys were very excited about this. Ciaran just made the height restriction of 40 inches. I was a little worried about this as I had been reading online that some kids were being turned away when they got to the ride even though they were measuring fine at the first part of the line. Star Tours is a flight simulator ride, where you flying through space and a silly robot, with not a lot of flying skills is at the helm. Ciaran wasn’t too sure about this one! As with most Disney rides, the exit to the ride flies you into a themed giftshop, here’s the boys with there Star Wars Helmets on.

I figured the kids would love the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Play area. On the way there we manged to spot Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable!

Liam was only concerned with getting to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, so wouldn’t get in the photo. Who could blame him, it’s a huge play structure that’s made to look like the movieset, ie. all of the toys, insects and other objects are giant. We figured this would be a good place for them to play, while we decided to utilize our Fast Passes.

Here’s a shot of my Mom and Ciaran

The HUGE Super Soaker

A cool slide that’s a roll of Kodak Film

Ant riding

Worlds Largest Playdough Container

For the majority of the bigger Disney Rides, they also allow you to Baby Swap. Baby Swapping allows both parents and the rest of their party to wait in line together. When it’s their turn to ride, one parents stays back with the baby and rides. When the ride is over they swap the baby to the other parent and their part rides again. We figured that we would take Finn with us and then Katelyn the little daredevil could get to ride twice! In theory this was great but did not work so well. Both the Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster would not let Finn into the lines, so I had to wait back until they were of the ride then get back in line again. It took twice as long to ride because of this! Very frustrating! We did manage to take some photos of the monitors displaying photos taken of us on the ride. Notice my look of sheer panic!

Andrew and Katelyn in the front row

Yes that’s me in the back on the right!

After taking a lot longer than we expected we rushed back to the Kids playset to find out that it was just closed due to a quick shower. We found the rest of the gang just getting ready to have lunch. While we were eating Andrew noticed a co-worker! It was so funny, of all places to run into someone! It really is too small of a world sometimes! We then did the Movie Backlot Tour which really hasn’t changed a bit since I worked there in 1992. Finn decided this would be a great place (and so did I) for him to have a nice little nursing session while on the Backlot Tram.

We then decided to take the boys to see the Playhouse Disney Show and take the bigger girls to the Animation expo. Mackenzie is really interested in computerized animation, so I decided this would be fun to do with her and Katelyn and brought Finn with me. Andrew and the two Nannies took Liam and Ciaran, just as they were looking for the entrance my mom decided to ask a Cast Member (Disney’s name for employee) where it was and he said to them, “Don’t worry about that you guys come right with me!” He made them the Playhouse Disney Family of the show and they got front row seats and a cute little certificate!

Finn the girls and I also had our own little magical moment when we came out of the Animation Presentation. We got to meet Fantasia Mickey! This was Finn’s first Muckey Meeting and the Disney Photographer captures it so well! Here’s a few shots:

That’s it for Part one, I’ll update soon with Part two !!!

Just kidding! Today we spent the day at Disney’s Blizzard Beach! One of the 2 great water parks on site. I don’t have any photos of the girls as they spent most of the day tubing on the Cross Country Creek, Blizzard Beach’s version of a lazy river and playing in Melt Away Bay a huge wave pool as well as the Ski Patrol Training Camp. We spent most of the day with the boys in Tikes Peak an area just the right size for them.

Here’s a few photos:

Finn’s favorite thing to do was climb the chairs! We’d put him down and he’d head straight for them!

Here he is agan and guess what we’re pointing at? Yes a chair! He was totally enamored with these chairs!

Today is one of those days where I really wished I have a waterproof cover for my little digital camera, as we didn’t get to capture too many photos. I would have loved to have got some while we were all on the Cross Country Creek together. I think tomorrow will be a down day, with a little shopping and back to one of the Disney Parks on Monday!

They’re the ones sporting a Sobey’s bag as a fashion accessory! (You may recognize this knee slapper of a joke…I think the older version was “How do you spot a Maritimer in the Toronto Airport? They’re the ones with a Sobey’s bag as their carry-on luggage!)

I know…GROAN! I just had to do it! This bag has come in so handy today! I’ve used it to carry all of our frozen water bottles, and it’s fits perfect in the basket of our Joovy Caboose. I was a little panicked as I realized this morning that I forgot the canopy to the stroller, but there is so many shaded areas at Disney, I made sure when Finn was in the stroller he was in a shaded spot. Otherwise he rode on my back in the Ergo.

We had a fabulous time at the Magic Kingdom! The boys got to meet a couple of characters, but it seemed like we were always arriving just as the characters were leaving. We did manage to get a few shots of the boys with Jiminy Cricket. He was always my favourite to get my photo taken with, since he was always around my size.

We split up a few times as Katelyn and Andrew wanted to ride some of the bigger rides, one being Space Mountain. Liam was adamant that he was going to ride it too and did to my amazement! While they were on Space Mountain we took a back pathway to Mickey’s Toontown Fair. I was hoping that the boys would get to meet Mickey Mouse. Ciaran went into his house, but didn’t want to wait in line, and once the others got back from Space Mountain everyone was hungry, so we forgot to go back and get that Mickey shot! I’m still really disappointed, and I’m hoping we’ll get to see him on our next day at the parks! Finn got to play in a nice little area for toddlers and made friends with a little girl from Ohio.

We grabbed some Fast Passes for Peter’s Pan’s Flight then headed to the Columbia Harbour House for some lunch. Chicken and Fish & Chips were on the menu and hit the spot! We refilled our water bottles before heading back out to Liberty Square to the Haunted Mansion. Just as we were about to park the stroller, we were told that the Haunted Mansion was temporarily unavailable. Liam had a bit of a meltdown, but it was quickly diverted with a duck outside “It’s a Small World” back in Fantasyland. No Disney trip would be complete without a ride on It’s a Small World, so off we went! The kids loved it, but I think Andrew’s Mom loved it the most! Once we got off, we went back to Liberty Square and The Haunted Mansion just reopened as we arrived, so we had no wait at all!! Liam wasn’t impressed and Ciaran held my hand tightly for the entire ride. Supposedly it’s “New and Enhanced”, but it’s the same old HM that I remember! Finn didn’t let the ghosts bother him and he took advantage of the lack of light and fell fast asleep.

We still had a few minutes left before it was time to use our Fast Passes for Peter Pan, so we stopped for a cool treat. I was a little excited to use our Drip Stiks! These things are so great! I really don’t like the mess that icecream and popsicles make, so normally I avoid them at all costs. If anyone watches the show on TLC, “John & Kate plus Eight” last season they took all of the kids to Disney for the first time, there was a scene in the episode where Kate kind of freaks out when the little kids are getting all sticky and the icecream was melting all over them. I could totally relate with her, and probably have reacted the same way. Anyway after seeing that, I said, I will definitely bring our Drip Stiks with us on vacation. They are really lightweight and fit into our backpack, so when it was time to have an icecream, or popsicle, I would be prepared!

Here’s a shot of the boys enjoying their cool treats, mess free, and a shot of the rest of us with our icecream (you can see Finn asleep on my back).

After a few more rides including Splash Mountain for Andrew and Katelyn and Big Thunder Railroad with myself Liam and Ciaran, and Pirates of the Caribbean for all of us we were off to Epcot and a Monorail ride.

Epcot Center is my old stomping ground. I worked in this “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” for over a year in 1992-1992. Epcot is divided into 2 separate sections, Future World and the World Showcase represented by 11 different countries including Canada. This is where I worked and it was great to be able to bring my kids to see this. Ciaran however fell asleep on the way over and missed the new version of the “O Canada 360 circle vision” movie. It was finally updated last fall, well overdue, seeing it was outdated back when I worked there! We then walked around the World Showcase Lagoon and got to watch the nightly Fireworks and laser light show called “Illuminations”. I sat down and nursed Finn during the show, and munched on a Turkey Leg, while the kids enjoyed some popcorn and smoothies. We took our time leaving the park, knowing that traffic can be quite heavy and it worked out perfectly as our cars were easy to spot when we arrived at “Daisy row 28″.

Here’s a shot of a sleepy Ciaran and Epcot’s infamous “Spaceship Earth”.

Yes, you read that right, not 4 kids, 5 kids! We also picked up another Nannie since my last post! Andrew’s mom decided to come with us as well, and our 5th kid is Mackenzie’s friend and our next-door neighbour Katelyn. Her mother and I conspired on the morning we were leaving and managed to get things pulled together in 4 hours to bring her with us! Mackenzie is just thrilled! Once the girls arrived home from school we broke the news to them then, and headed off to Maine shortly after to stay the night in Bangor.

Travelling with this many is no small feat, there are a lot of logistics that come into play. Car seats for one are very important to me. I knew we were going to be renting a van once we arrived, so I decided to take our own car seats on the plane with us. Finn had his own paid seat so I wouldn’t have to check any of the seats. Everyone was asking, “Why don’t you just check them with your luggage?” There are a few reasons for this, the number one is safety. Kids are much safer in a harnessed seat on the plane. The other reason was that airlines are notorious for not being so gentle with items. I have heard of car seats having a broken base, and I’ve seen things with my own eyes after working for an airline in the past, so checking my $300 car seats was just not an option for me. I had been looking at a special carrier made for car seats and travelling called the GoGo Babyz, but for over $100, I did not think it was a wise investment. Instead I went to a local luggage store and bought 2 rolling luggage racks from the clearance section for $7.99 each (regular $49.99). They worked great! Here’s a photo of me hauling 2 of the 3 carseats behind me outside the Bangor International Airport.

We had a great flight direct flight from Bangor, ME to Sanford (Orlando) FL on Allegiant Air. This is a newer airline servicing Bangor with great flight prices, especially booking a few days in advance. The staff in Bangor were really accommodating to our large group. (Lets hope the return goes as smoothly)

Finn was awake for the first part of the flight and just loved looking out the window, his seat was set-up rear facing so needed to be placed by the window, so he loved the view.

Liam and Ciaran happily sat in their seats for the most part, they were fairly easy to install, Liam was in his Sunshine Kids Radian which folds (the flight attendants that that was just great!), Ciaran was in his Britax Marathon. The only hitch was that I forgot to flip the seatbelt buckle over to make it easy to unbuckle. I panicked for a moment when we landed, that I was never going to get the seat unbuckled!

The girls sat directly in front of me, and drew pictures and read magazines. Here’s a shot of them i

We arrived into Sanford and picked up our rental cars, I love how they do it down here! You check in at the counter, then it’s a u-pick lot. They’ll tell you what rows you can pick from and you choose your vehicle. I choose a white Grand Caravan with the Flexfuel option (E85 ethanol blend). The van only has about 4500 miles on it, so I think it’s still in the “breaking-in phase”. The jury is still out whether I like it or not.

We stopped for supper before heading to our resort community called Windsor Palms in Kissimmee. We rented a 3bd/3ba townhouse for the week, in this little gated community about 3 miles from Disney’s main gates. Here’s a shot of the exterior. It has it own little private pool, and another large one on site.

I know I probably need my head examined, but I just booked airfare for the 6 of us and my mom to fly to Orlando 5 days from now!

Why so last minute you ask?  Well, it’s been a really hectic school year for Mackenzie, she’s really had a hard time this year with one of her teachers and really needs a break.  We’re at the point where we may move her to another school because of this conflict, it’s really affecting the overall mood of our house.  My mom really wanted to have some time away too, she’s been missing the kids lately, so I thought what a great Mother’s Day gift! With the long weekend falling next week the kids will only miss 3 days of school so no biggie!

The funny thing is, I’m 75% packed!  When I put away some of the summer clothes last fall, I took out some of the things that Andrew and I wear and the kids wear and packed them in our suitcases!  Just need to throw in our swimsuits and underwear and we should be all set!

I personally prefer to travel more last minute, not only can you save money, but save the over analyzing and stressing over the trip.  The one things I want to accomplish before we go and getting the rest of the house organized, thank goodness for the Clutter Control Club! It has really helped me put things into perspective. For so long I would start one area of the house but never get it completed, then start another only to go back to the first area that was completely destroyed again.  I now have a task that I can complete and love seeing the before and after pics to show what I’ve accomplished!  Check out the CCC Smilebox Gallery for some motivation!

Well I better get busy, I’m off to www.disboards.com to get some tips from the fanatics over there!  Only 6 sleeps to go!

Make a Smilebox postcard

So you just saw my (not so small) dirty little secret!  I’m not sure just how things can get this out of control in the house, but it happens WAY TOO OFTEN!!  The first step they say is admitting you have a problem.  My problem, I hate cleaning, but I hate even more having a mess!  This is not a good combination, because as soon as I see the mess I want to tackle I get frustrated and overwhelmed.  I start the job, but it never gets completed the way I want it to.  Yes, I will admit I have a few distractions in the house (well four of them ) and that doesn’t help, but it doesn’t take long for things to get out of control like that. This needs to stop, I need to start good habits of taking 5 minutes after a meal rather than dealing with the crisis that ensues when I “leave it for later”.  Upbeat music really helps me, and I tackled the kitchen mess to one of my all time favourites, Bob Marley’s- Legend.  This music is truly timeless and I never get sick of these songs, even the kids love them!

One thing I’ve decided to do is to reward myself.   After watching the Kitchen Inspiration Slideshow it has really given me some motivation. I have hated these kitchen counters since we moved into our house almost 6 years ago.  They are an awful dark shade of dusty rose (just like the awful carpet on the entire second floor), I’ve decided I want to reward myself with a mini-kitchen makeover if I can maintain the kitchen until my birthday in June (the 23rd).  I want to replace the countertops and stain the cabinets and island a darker colour.   Wish me luck, and I’ll be sure to post photos, if I reach my goal!

I have been crisis cleaning! When you take a look at my Before & After Smileboxes you will see this crisis, that has been surrounding us.

I will admit, I have let the housework slip lately, but when everyone got sick last week, then I got sick everything went downhill from there. I had started to clear out the closets to put away all of the winter jackets, boots, hats and mitts, then everything got left then scattered all over the entry way! So I will swallow my pride and show you my mess! I even added a suiting song!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Tomorrow! You get to see the horrific Kitchen shots! It’s bad…really bad! Thank goodness for the Clutter Control Club, it arrived just in time for me!