Thursday Thirteen: The bare necessities...

Guess what? Today I am in two places. I am guest blogging over at Angie's Spot. About the complete opposite of Disney World. I am there because Angie is IN Disney World right now. So...since I am talking about the opposite of Disney there. I thought we might need a little yin to my yang. A little balance. So...we'll talk about Disney over here. Because I *heart* Disney.I sometimes think that I grew up at Disney World. I was born right outside of Orlando. And my uncle worked at the park. He sold popcorn on Main Street. Back in the day. They closed the park sometimes in the evenings for friends and family of employees. We went often. And I don't think we paid to get into the world until we made a trip there when I was 16. And all our connections had moved on.

We first took the girls in September of 2006. And we traded in our tickets for an annual pass. So, over the course of the next calendar year. We spent a whopping 24 days in the parks. And I thought I might share some of our insights with you.

1. Do your research. Before we went. I found some amazing sites. Places like Allears. Which has in depth information on the parks. On the resorts. On how to deal with special needs. Or you can read personal stories over at the disboards. You can read opinions on resorts. Trip reports. And see an entire thread dedicated to all the food you can eat at the World. But one of the easiest things you can do is pick up the Unofficial Guide to Disney World by Bob Sehlinger.

2. Use fast pass. With the fast pass system...if you think that the wait is too long for a ride, simply get a ticket with a timed return. Go do something else. Ride something with a shorter line. Shop. Eat lunch. Potty break. And then return at the appointed time for a minimal wait. It's a great system. There's no charge. It's available to everyone. But for some reason. Not everyone uses it.

3. Use photo pass photographers. There are uniformed photographers everywhere. They will give you a card with a bar code. And take your picture. They'll even take ones with your camera. Everytime you see one of those photographers, have them take your picture and scan your card. When you get home, you can go online and look at all the pictures. You can order individual ones. Or do what I did...I got all 237 of them burned to a CD for $120. Here are a couple of the pictures from my cd:4. And take your own photos. Of silly things. Like pictures of your whole family wearing 3-D glasses. There is one 3-D show at each of the parks. Here we are at Mickey's Philharmagic.And at It's Tough to be a Bug.And at the Muppet Show. I think the only one we missed was Honey I shrunk the audience.

Or have someone take a picture of you. Pretending you are being attacked by monsters at the Sci-Fi drive in.

And when you are not being silly. Disney is really a beautiful park. With fountains. And lots of details.

5. Get autographs. One of the girls' favorite things to do was to get character autographs.We had a special Disney autograph book. And I covered some of the pages with my own scrapbook paper. After we got home, we scanned the autographs. Shrank them down. And then made really cool books for each of the girls - with their picture and autographs together.

6. Buy ponchos ahead of time. They are about $8 each in the park. Stock up at Tar-jay before you leave. Can't beat 99cents each instead.

7. Pin Trading and Penny Presses. Believe it or not. These are two rather inexpensive things that you can do at the parks. There are hundreds of penny press machines in the world. And if you do a little prep work...you'll be all set. Get one of those m&m plastic tubes. And layer your coins in there. Layer two quarters. And then a penny. Fill the tube. And you'll be all set when you find a machine. Disney sells penny display books for about $6.

Pin trading can be an expensive venture. But. If your kids are like mine. It does not have to be. I bought some pins on ebay before we went. And divided them between the girls. Don't spend a lot. But make sure that they are Disney pins. It doesn't matter what they are, because the whole point is to trade them. My girls would trade with every cast member that they saw. They might even trade the pin they just got from the last person. And when we got back to the room at night, they would look over their pins to see if there were any that they wanted to keep - and those we'd leave in the room. They had a lot of fun with it. And struck up conversations with lots of people over what kinds of pins they had on their lanyards.

8. Make reservations. If you are doing any dining that is not fast food like. You must have a reservation. You can make your reservations 90 days out. And for a lot of places. You MUST make those reservations if you want to get in. And I highly recommend the Whispering Canyon cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. Where. If you want some katsup. You get all the katsup.

9. Speaking of food. Did you know that you can bring food into the parks? Not a cooler or anything. But you can bring bottles of water. Snacks. And the prices at Disney for food. Well...they are not horrible. They are about what you might expect. Except that the food there is rather good. And you get a lot of it. Which makes it easy to share a meal. And. If it's in your budget...add the Disney dining plan. If it's not in your budget. Go in September...when the plan is often added for FREE. We went two Septembers in a row. And did not pay for food the entire time we were there.

10. Make t-shirts. Here we all are in the t-shirts that I made. Shocking isn't it? I did a craft. And even more shocking. I am going to tell you how to do it.

You need a cotton t-shirt -- washed and dried without softner or a dryer sheet. Put a piece of cardboard in the shirt (so that the paint and flour mixture does not bleed through).

Combine water and flour to the consistency of mustard and put into a squeeze bottle. Squeeze the mixture onto the t-shirt in a spiral pattern -- making a Mickey head and ears (and be sure that you place the ears in the appropriate spot -- meaning so that they are "high" -- and do not create "spotlights" on your chest! ). Let it dry overnight.

Color your Mickey -- you can use either spray fabric paint -- or you can paint with a paintbrush (which is what I did). Let this dry overnight.

The next day, peel off the dried flour mixture -- and voila -- spiral Mickey's!11. Don't forget the little shows. There is so much to see and do at Disney...that's it's really easy to over look the small things. One of our favorite things to do is to see Miyuki the candy artist. She has a show in the afternoon at the Japan pavilion in Epcot. She starts out with a ball of "dough" that she can shape into practically any animal that you desire. She usually picks quiet, respectful children to request an animal.12. Extra magic hours. Avoid them. If you are staying on site, you have the priviledge of extra hours at the parks. A park might open an hour early. Another might stay open an hour late. Those parks are the busiest of the day. Go elsewhere. Stay away from the crowd. And get around much quicker. And easier.

13. Don't tell anyone if your child loses a tooth in the world. Madalyn lost hers at MGM. In the store at the exit of Star Tours. Where a castmember promptly told her that the tooth fairy doesn't work Disney World. It's Tinkerbelle's camp. And that she always leaves $25.So...what about you? When was the last time you were at Disney? What is your favorite ride? Favorite thing to do? Favorite park? If you haven't been...do you want to go?

Theme song: Elton John - Can you Feel the Love Tonight from "The Lion King." Hey. It goes with my post over at Angie's too. And while I am spreading the love. Did you enter to win the prizes? Only two more days to enter.

My mom's better than your mom

When I am reading blogs, there are so many times that I think to myself "I wish she lived closer." I have found so many amazing connections through blogging. And this weekend, I finally met up with another blogger!

The girls and I headed over to Nissa's house on Saturday. Nissa was hosting a house party for Fisher Price. And even though my girls are long past the Fisher Price stage...Nissa said there would be cupcakes. So, we drove across the universe county for friendship. Connections. And cupcakes.

Those cupcakes were yummy. Shhhh. I had two. Nissa's daughter Melodie thought they were divine. Or great face cream. Or something.

Nissa and I have a lot of things in common. But one place we diverge is in the crafts department. She is a crafty soul. I don't like the mess. She has an etsy store. I just shop. So, when she asked the girls if they would like to make a craft - they eagerly followed her. All the while discussing the absence of this greatest glory from their lives.

Nissa had set up a spot in her dining room for the girls to make friendship bracelets. They picked out 6 pieces of yarn. Got a circle to help with the braid. And made a knot in the yarn.

Katie took a couple of tries to get the hang of it. Madalyn decided that it was waayy too much work. So, guess who completed her craft? Katie had so much fun making these bracelets that she made three. And told me that we needed to buy yarn so that she could make more. Uh-huh. Sure. No problemo.

Before we left, Katie agreed to take our picture. With a lot of caveats. Just faces. No hips. She did great! (I won't share the other photo she took. Of just hips!)

And then Madalyn informed me today that she wished Nissa was her mom. Cause she is sooo cool. After I suggested that if she would jump in the van, I would make her dreams come true. She slightly adjusted her proclamation. And now, Nissa is just the coolest craft mom.

So, what about you? Are you the cool mom? Or do you thank your lucky stars that your kids have a cool mom to hang out with? Have you met any of the friends that live inside your computer?

Theme song: Fountain's of Wayne - Stacy's Mom

MY week in review

Every Friday, I blog about our week. It's usually about what we accomplished homeschooling. Sometimes it takes the form of a mini (okay...sometimes not so mini...picky, picky!) rant. Sometimes I tell you about what all of us accomplished (attempted...thought about...procrastinated...failed to do...). This week...you are just going to hear about me. It's my blog, and I'll pontificate if I want to.

In order to tell you about a week of homeschooling...Katie has to finish her week. We have had so much drama today (ummm...and yesterday...and the day before...ummm...all week) that she didn't finish much. My math genius stood here in the kitchen and said to me (about a simple multiplication problem) "I don't get it." Huh? I gave her a perplexed look, and the tears streamed and streamed. Again, huh?! I believe there has been an attack of hormones. Maybe we'll attempt that week in review over the weekend.

So, instead of Katie's week...you can hear about mine. Because it's endlessly fascinating. Compelling. Enthralling. Tedious?

Monday started with me going to water aerobics. I am not much of an exerciser. I don't even like to walk up the hill to get the mail. I figured that I love the water...I hate to sweat...it would be a good match. I am by far the youngest one in the class. It's interesting doing our "cycling" across the pool and being lapped by a 67 year old. Twice. After the class, I felt fine...but later that day, I could really really tell that I had worked muscles that forgot that they were muscles. They didn't much appreciate the reminder as they were quite looking forward to retirement as fat cells.

Tuesday brought a frenzy of a day. Tuesday is the day the girls have choir with Gwinnett Young Singers. And at the same time, I had to be at a homeschool class fair to "sell my wares" so to speak (get people to sign up for Latin classes for next school year). I had to make a display board and some handouts for people. Yes, I have known about it for a month...and the day of is the best time to do this you know.

I have been teaching Latin to high school homeschoolers for three years. I don't have a degree in it. And actually, I have not studied it at all since high school. It just stuck with me. I can decline and conjugate on command. I should be in a talent show. I took five years of Latin in high school. No, I was not held back. My high school started in 8th grade. Most 8th graders took art...but no, not me. See...my avoidance of crafts has been a life long thing.

So...anyway...on Tuesday...I needed to make a display board. Of course this requires a trip to my happy place. On Tuesday. Did you know that tri-fold boards cost $75? It was a pretty good deal if you ask me. A much better deal than those $400 jar openers. For someone who hates crafts (and creating a tri-fold board is a craft)...I didn't do so bad:

I had 9 students sign up for my class on Tuesday evening -- and I am sure that I will have more when we get closer to the start of the school year. Pretty good. I even stole a student from the Spanish teacher (shhh...don't tell!).

Wednesday brought another morning of water aerobics. There was progress. I was only lapped once. Okay, fine, one and a half times. Picky, picky. In the afternoon, I took Katie to the doctor for a mysterious fever. She registered at normal in the doctor's office. And then 3, count them 3, minutes later, registered at 101.8. Mysterious indeed.

The highlight of my Wednesday was going to see the musical "Avenue Q" at the Fox theatre. What? You haven't heard of this hilarious play? Click on the link to check it out. Basically, it's Sesame street for adults. The main character (err...puppet) just graduated from college...has no money or job...I mean, what can you do with a BA in English? So...he ends up in a run down apartment on "Avenue Q" with Gary Coleman (yes, that Gary Coleman) as the super...Which leads to the first song: "It sucks to be me." The music is hilarious - great songs like "everyone is a little bit racist" or "The internet is for porn." If you feel compelled (and you should!)...go to you tube and look up "Avenue Q" and you can see it in action and hear the songs.

Thursday...pretty uneventful. Because of Katie's mysterious fever we stayed home from homeschool classes so as not to inflict others with mysterious fever disease. Rhea, have you looked that one up on WebMD?

Thursday evening was my book club - and we discussed "Isaac's Storm" by Erik Larson. I am so glad that I read his "Devil in the White City" first. I would never have picked it up if I read "Isaac" first. It's about the Galveston hurrican of 1900 which is the largest natural disaster in the US. It's a compelling story about the hubris of the weather bureau (how they refused to use the word hurricane so that they would not panic people; how they did not allow the Cubans to telegraph weather information because they were easily excitable - and so that they would not "steal" weather forecasts; how they were SURE that no hurricanes could go as far west as Texas - and that hurricanes only move on ONE set path). Compelling, no? But...Erik Larson needed a theasaurus and an editor. I have never read a book that needed charts, pictures, and diagrams as much as this one. I was ready to throw it against the wall...and then I reached page 150...and the human element emerged. It was harrowing to read what happened on that hot and humid day in September of 1900.

And then there was today. The day of fluctuating hormones. I remained calm. I didn't need a mommy time out. I was on the verge. But I had a moment of Zen and moved on. Tonight the girls had their Spring concert with their choir. There are 4 different levels of choirs...so it made for a long evening -- but what a place to hear the beautiful voices of children.

(Madalyn got a little sleepy by 10pm when she was waiting to sing with all the choirs!)

Our version of crafts

Yesterday we covered my feelings about crafts. They are not my thing. I am not creative. There is this wonderful Einstein quote that says: "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." I like it. When I scrapbooked, we called this the C.A.S.E method (you know, Copy And Steal Everything!) I also am not a fan of the mess that is made when you get crafty...all the little pieces...all the stuff that you drag out...and worse...all the stuff that you then have to put away again! I am very excited about some of the new programs with Creative Memories - I can do my entire album digitally. I can upload my pictures to my computer...and CM has software programs that I can use to be frou-frou if I so choose (all still on my computer)...and then I can upload it to their site where they will print a beautiful book for me. Cheaper than the traditional method...and just as beautiful. Okay...that rant was neither here nor there.

What I wanted to show you was the "doing" of crafts at my house. Madalyn's assignment (err...Mom's assignment) was to make a mailbox to receive her Valentines during her class party on Thursday. Not being crafty, we don't keep things that might have future use in crafts (I don't keep them...I hide them under the rest of the trash so that they can go away with no one the wiser!) - so I had to solicit friends for a shoebox. Then I had to do the Hollywood style of wrapping (you know...on your shows when they get a gift...they just lift the lid off the beautifully wrapped present...no ripping of paper happening on TV).

Then Madalyn did her "craft" - which was to add stickers to the box to call it her own! After being a Creative Memories consultant for lots of years...what I have in my house is an excess of stickers. I am not sure how I became the proud owner of such a money sucking mess...but I am! The kids love to delve into my sticker notebook. But...did I use said notebook for this project? No...I bought stickers. Not sure what I was thinking! Our homeschool group is having a party on Valentine's day...but Katie and I will be in class for most of the party. Katie made some Valentines herself to give to her friends - but nothing as elaborate as our sticker covered Hollywood wrapped mailbox!

So…are you selling this now?

I like having home parties – I like going to them. And I was even a Creative Memories consultant for 9 years. People are always shocked when I tell them that I hate crafts. They say…”but you scrapbook…” Well…yes, I scrapbook. I love taking pictures. And I always have a lot to say (can you tell?!) So…my scrapbook pages are not works of art. They are really simple – lots of pictures, LOTS of words, and a little color (see -- pretty simple!). I sent my kids to pre-school so that I did not have to deal with playdough, glitter, and glue!

Over the years, I have hosted and attended Creative memories classes, and parties for Usborne, Premier jewelry, Pampered Chef, Tastefully simple, Longaberger, Southern Living, and there have probably been some others over the years. Anyway a few months ago I was looking for a pretty paper towel holder for my kitchen. I couldn’t find anything that I liked – but thought I might find something from Southern Living. I ran into a friend of mine who is a consultant with Southern Living and asked her for a catalog. She just happened to mention that January was double hostess points! So…a simple need for a paper towel holder led to a decision to have a party.

I like having parties – but no everyone is as enthusiastic as I am. I have attempted to host parties in the past. I have had to cancel because no one could come. And I have had some really successful parties. I was not sure what this party would bring. I mean, I was having it in January. There is a good reason for it being doubles hostess points month. I sent out my evites; I sent out post card reminders. When I handed some out…some people even asked me if I was now selling Southern Living. What?! Just because I was a consultant before does not mean that I want to be a consultant again!

And then…miracles of miracles…people actually began to RSVP…and in a positive manner. I actually made a call to the consultant to say I had no idea where I was going to fit 21 people in my living room! I actually hoped that not all of them would show up.

On the night of the big event…I had 15 people that came to the house…and lots of outside orders. With the big tally…the party sales were almost $1100! With double hostess points…I got 40% of the party sales in product – and 5 items at half price. That is A LOT of product. And it’s a lot of product that has been delivered to my house. The Fex Ex guy had a lot of comments about all the boxes he brought into the house (they were pretty heavy). And then…I had to sort and bag…so if you came to my party – I have your stuff!! I need to be rescued from all the bags that make it impossible to walk from the kitchen to the laundry room…or maybe that is not such a bad thing...