We're Going to Disney World Part 3: The magic of the Magic Kingdom

6:30 a.m. Nicholas plays alarm clock and wakes us all up. I was hoping the kids would get a little more sleep but they're at Disney World and I would expect them to be excited. Heck, I'm excited! I had a wonderful night's sleep last night, probably the best in a week, and I feel awake and ready to hit the Magic Kingdom today!

9:20 a.m. We've breakfasted in our room and are just getting off the bus to the Magic Kingdom. It's another bright, sunny day and I'm already warm in my jacket. I would have liked to get going a little earlier this morning but we do have a long day ahead of us: we have reservations to eat lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table at 2:00 p.m. and then will close the park down with the Spectromagic Parade at 7:00 p.m. and the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular fireworks at 8:00 p.m. And in between we will ride, ride, ride!!

We take our time soaking in the magical sights and sounds around us. The park is decorated for Christmas and Michael is excited when he spots a "hidden Mickey" on one of the lamp posts on Main Street. There are plenty of Photo Pass photographers so of course we have to have our picture taken in front of the castle.

Victoria is a typical princess-obsessed 6-year-old and we have all been anxiously waiting to see her reaction to this giant castle. We are not disappointed. In fact, we are all oohing and ahhing right along with her. It has been 25 years or so since I've been to the Magic Kingdom and I'd forgotten the amount of detail that you see as you walk through the castle to Fantasyland, from mosaics of scenes from Sleeping Beauty to hidden cartoon mice from Cinderella.

Our first stop is the Dumbo ride. Almost every book I read said to go to Dumbo first as it tends to get crowded later in the day. Right now the wait isn't too long, only 15 minutes. When we get up to the front of the line we see some people with large cameras. Turns out, because we are such a large party, they want to film us having fun on the ride, for use internally. Perhaps we'll be on a Disney Vacation DVD or some other promotion. (Keep your eyes open for us and let us know if you see us!!!) And we do have fun too - up and down, around and around. The kids have fun doing the operating for once.

10:15 a.m.: Our next stop is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Mom and Dad take the kids in their honeypot and Jeff and I and Jon and Janet all follow along in ours. It's a very cute and colorful ride, especially if you're a Winnie the Pooh fan.

10:30 a.m.: There's no line at the Mad Tea Party ride, one of my favorites, so we go on this next. Michael, Jeff and my dad ride in one teacup (the slow teacup because Michael doesn't want to spin fast), while Victoria, Nicholas, Jon, and I ride in the "fast" teacup because we want to spin around as fast as we can. And we do! The kids help Jon and I turn the center wheel and pretty soon we're going so fast the outside world is a complete blur. When the ride is done, both kids exclaim that "that was awesome!!" Michael, on the other hand, doesn't feel so good. Even though he was on the slow teacup it was still too much spinning for him.

We next enter Mickey's Toontown Fair. Victoria is especially excited to be here because she will get to meet the fairies at the Toontown Hall of Fame. Our group disbands in small groups as Michael needs a potty break, Nicholas wants to buy some mouse ears, and Victoria needs a snack.

11:00 a.m.: When Nicholas is sufficiently "mouse-eared", we go through Mickey and Minnie's Country House, which are both decorated for Christmas. Then we go through Mickey's garden to the Judge's Tent so we can meet Mickey and Minnie and get their autographs. This is the boys' first real character greeting and they are excited. Nicholas even gets a kiss from Minnie!

When we find our group, we learn that Victoria is in line to see the fairies, which has a fairly long wait of 45 minutes. Nicholas, to my surprise, wants to wait in a shorter line to meet the princesses, so I take him to the Toontown Hall of Fame. Michael isn't interested in either the princesses or the fairies but does want to linger in the gift shop just outside of the Judge's Tent (one thing about Disney: they're not stupid. There's a gift shop after almost every ride, just waiting to snag the souvenir money out of all the young kids!) so Jeff takes him there.

Nicholas and I are only in line for about 5 minutes when we see Victoria in the fairy line. Nicholas decides that he wants to see the fairies with Victoria instead of the princesses, so we head over to their line. And wait. And wait. And wait. Finally we are next. Inside are three fairies: Tinkerbell and two others that I do not recognize (hey, I've got boys, why should I?). Nicholas is pretty shy with Tinkerbell and the next fairy, but by the time we get to the third fairy he is his charming, silly self. Victoria, meanwhile, is having all the fairies sign her fairy purse. I can tell she is just awed by this experience.

12:30 p.m.: We regroup again and discover that in our absence, Michael got his mouse ears and went on Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster two times! The line is short so we all decide to go on this ride. It is indeed a great introductory to roller coasters for young children. All three love it. I'm sure that there will be no problems with them going on Space Mountain later in the day.

We just have enough time to make a round trip on the Walt DisneyWorld Railroad before we have to get ready for our lunch at the castle. It is a good resting opportunity and it cools us off too as it is getting quite warm. I take the time to look at some notes I had printed out about the best place to see the evening parade and fireworks. This is my Achilles heel for it's the only thing I haven't researched to the nines. One tip says to watch the fireworks from the very front of the park so that when they're over you can just leave through the gates and beat the throng of people out of the park. However, I'm not sure what the view will be from that area. Another tip says that you can see the fireworks AND parade well if you're by the circle hub of pathways that are just in front of the castle. At the end of the train ride I'm still not sure what the best course of action will be for us.

2:00 p.m.: Victoria has changed into her princess dress and we've checked in for our reservation. Now we're waiting in line to meet Cinderella. This is the moment Janet, Mom, and I have been waiting for ever since we called 180 days ago to make our reservations. We knew that Victoria would be over the top about going inside the castle and meeting Cinderella, but I wasn't so sure about the boys. I now have hope for Nicholas though, since he was so interested in the fairies in Toontown.

Victoria is hard to read sometimes but I can tell that she really enjoys meeting Cinderella. She even smiles when she has her picture taken with her. The boys enjoy seeing the knight's armor that is in the entryway of the castle.

Are we having fun yet?

2:45 p.m. We are now waiting to be called into the restaurant. Our group is running out of steam since we are hungry and tired. Finally we hear our name called and make our way up the winding staircase to the top of the castle. When we are seated the boys are given prince swords and Victoria is given a magic wand, which are all instant hits. Soon come the drinks and appetizers and while we wait for our meals, the princesses begin to arrive.

First comes Princess Aurora, or Sleeping Beauty. When she makes her way to our table, she talks with each child while she signs autographs and then poses for pictures. Our food arrives shortly after. The other princesses, Jasmine (Aladdin), Ariel (Little Mermaid), and Belle (Beauty and the Beast) visit throughout the meal. We are pleased with the time each princess takes at our table. They are not hurried, nor do they seem surprised by the antics of Nicholas, who smiles with his mouth full of food for one of the pictures. In fact, Belle is a little sassy with him and puts him in his place! He of course loves every minute of it.

After we finish lunch and are working on desserts, there is an announcement that there will be a wishing ceremony in a few minutes. Our waiter comes by and passes out a blue, plastic wishing star for all three kids. A loud voice booms out over the speakers instructing the children to make their wishes. Nicholas screws his eyes shut as hard as he can and with all the concentration he can muster shouts out, "I wish for a tiger!!!" What?! All of us adults look at each other in confusion. Where did this come from? You never know with this child.

4:15 p.m. After being the last family left in the restaurant we emerge with bellies full and momentum restored. We have a little over two hours before we have to find a spot for the parade. The kids and Jon and Jeff want to go on Space Mountain but we all decide that we need to do something a little less momentous first so our food can settle. There is no wait for Mickey's Philharmagic show in Fantasyland, a 12-minute 3-D cartoon shown on a 150-foot screen, so we grab our 3-D glasses and enter the theater. The show does not disappoint. I was initially hesitant because I'd read where there are some parts that could be scary and Michael gets spooked easily, but he shut his eyes and held my hand during these parts and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the show, as we all did.

Next we head over to Tomorrowland in search of Space Mountain. On the way the kids spot Peter Pan and so we stop so they can get get his autograph. Did you know that Peter Pan really IS light in his loafers?

Janet decides to join us on Space Mountain so we leave the strollers and backpacks outside the ride and enter the attraction. The height limit for this ride is 44 inches. At last measure at home Nicholas was just barely that. I hope that he can ride with us or I am going to have a very disappointed 5-year-old on my hands. Our luck holds - he passes and can ride!!

Speaking of luck, we have been lucky today as there really have been no long waits for any of the rides. In fact, the longest waits have been for the character meet and greets. Space Mountain is no different. We walk all the way through the ride and wait only five minutes or so before we are loaded into our rockets.

The last time I rode this ride I was about 15 so I don't really remember much about it, other than the very long wait (those were the days before Fastpass!). So the darkness of the ride catches me by surprise. I hope that the kids aren't scared. As we speed through one dark tunnel after another I scream and screech like a teenager. The ride is filled with a lot of twists and turns and I wonder how Janet and Michael, the two in our group with the prevalence towards motion sickness, are doing.

Even before we disembark from our rockets I hear Nicholas and Victoria shouting their catch phrase of the trip: "That was awesome!!!". Michael looks a little pale but he is smiling. Janet, on the other hand, looks a little green and is not doing so well. She decides to sit out the next ride, the Astro Orbiter. Mom also decides to sit this one out and go see the Carousel of Progress by herself.

It is now dusk. We have to take an elevator to the boarding area of the Astro Orbiter, and when we get off the elevator we can see that the castle is illuminated. It is a wonderful view. Michael and Victoria want to ride with Grandpa so Nicholas rides with Jeff and I ride with my brother. Our ride is somewhat reminiscent of the last time we rode 15 years ago except for the fact that we are now a whole lot bigger, and back then we rode it with our grandfather, who is no longer with us. I can feel him in spirit though as we fly through the sky.

6:00 p.m.: We have time for just one more ride, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, a ride in which you get to shoot at targets and score points. The evil Zurg even shows up, which delighted my boys. We have the Toy Story Mania Wii game at home and this ride has similar qualities to the game; however, I'm really excited to go to Hollywood Studios tomorrow and ride Toy Storia Mania, which is supposed to be more like the Wii game.

Upon exiting from the ride we see that Buzz Lightyear himself is signing autographs. The kids wait in line while I run back to Janet (who is still recovering from Space Mountain) and get the kids' autograph books. Because of his space suit Buzz is unable to actually sign the books; instead he stamps the books, which the kids think is the coolest thing.

6:30 p.m. OK, now it's the moment of truth. We have to decide where we want to view the parade and fireworks. All eyes are on me and I, for once, don't have a ready answer. The kids want ice cream and we're all tired. I review our options as we walk toward the castle from Tomorrowland. When we see the castle we stop in our tracks. It is covered with white, sparkly christmas lights from top to bottom (even all the spires) and is morphing from dark blue to purple. It is breathtaking. Of course Mom, Janet, and I all stop to take pictures. Then we spot a PhotoPass photographer taking pictures of families with the castle in the background and have to have some taken of our group too.

As we approach Main Street I realize that we should have had Janet and Mom staking out our spot along the street while we finished up in Tomorrowland. The crowd along the parade route is 4 people deep and there are no spots available. I silently curse myself for not figuring this out earlier. The natives are getting restless so Mom, Janet, and I send the men with the kids in search of ice cream and then go search for a spot.

We find one just to the left of the castle along Main Street. We would get a spectacular view of the fireworks here and would most likely be able to see the parade here too, but would not have our fast exit out of the park. I'm undecided. I need to see what the view from City Hall at the entrance of the park is, so Mom and I leave Janet to guard the spot and head towards City Hall at breakneck speed.

It is less crowded at City Hall and there are some spots left on the street but the view of the castle is marred by the Christmas decorations hung on wires across the street. It boils down to great view or fast exit. In the end, fast exit with tired children wins so we gather our brood and secure our spot in front of City Hall. We have a few minutes before the parade starts and Victoria decides she wants a balloon, so Jon goes in search of a balloon for her. He returns with three light-up Mickey Mouse helium balloons, one for each kid. They are over the moon for these balloons (as they should be at $15 a pop, no pun intended).

7:00 p.m.: The streetlights dim, we take our spot, and the Spectromagic parade begins. Leading the parade is Tinkerbell riding in a brightly lit float. Next comes a choo-choo train covered in lights. We look closely and see that Goofy is driving the train and Mickey and Minnie are on it too! Following are more Disney characters in lights: Alice in Wonderland on her magic mushroom, Cinderella in her pumpkin carriage, and Peter Pan, to name a few.  I look up at Nicholas who is sitting on Jeff's shoulders. He is grinning from ear to ear, as are Victoria and Michael. Aahh, the magic of Disney!!!

7:45 p.m.: In between the parade and the fireworks Mom and I take turns trying to find the best spot to view them. Our spot isn't so bad but there's a flagpole smack dab in the middle of our view. In the upper level of City Hall the decorations don't mar the view quite so much but there really isn't an open spot. And so we stick with the same spot we were in for the parade.

8:00 p.m.: "Ladies and gentlemen, Disney World is proud to present the Wishes fireworks!" The castle morphs from pink to white to yellow, then blue, purple, and violet. A collective murmur is heard from the crowd as the castle begins to twinkle and then the fireworks begin. Jiminy Cricket is our guide as classic Disney music, including "When you wish upon a star," accompanies the colorful (and loud) pyrotechnics. Wishes is billed as " the biggest, brightest fireworks extravaganza in Magic Kingdom theme park history," but I think it is the biggest and best fireworks show I've ever seen.

Tears come to my eyes at the finale when my mom says, "I feel like I'm eight years old again watching the Mickey Mouse Club," in reference to the classic showing of fireworks at the beginning of the show. What wonderful magic this trip is for everyone young and old(er)!

As the last of the applause fades into the night, we pack the kids into the strollers, grab our backpacks and balloons, and make a beeline out of the park to our bus.

8:30 p.m. We are on the bus headed back to the hotel. Even though this is a wonderful thing I feel regretful that we didn't choose to see the fireworks from our first spot, which would have given us a better view. Oh well, there's always next time!

We're going to Disney World!!! Part 2: Day 1, A Very Long Day Indeed!

Day 1: Sunday, November 14

12:01 a.m.: I'm packed and ready to go and have been in bed since 9:15, but seem unable to sleep. Which is frustrating because I have to get up in less than 5 hours. I haven't slept well all week and having a serious sleep deficit is not the way I wanted to start my vacation.

5:45 a.m: We're on the road to the airport! Our flight leaves at 8:05 a.m. from Flint and I hope we've allowed ourselves enough time to make it. I'm a little anxious, and rightfully so, since the last time my family flew we didn't give ourselves enough time and missed our flight. Even my niece said to me last night, "You guys better not miss the plane this time Auntie Jen!!!"

6:45 a.m.: We've joined the other members of our party and are standing in the ticket line waiting to check our luggage. We did a weight check on our two suitcases last night and both were under 50 pounds (one was 46 and the other was 49), but after stuffing a few last minute items in our large suitcase, it is over the limit and we have to reorganize. Still, we have plenty of time. The beauty of the Flint airport is that it is usually pretty quiet and the security lines are short and fast.

8:15 a.m.: We're airborne and up in the clouds! This is the first flight that Nicholas and Victoria remember and they are very excited. Nicholas is awestruck by the fact that we are above the clouds and parallel with the sun. Michael keeps himself busy with something new - Star Wars Mad Libs.I was hoping that we'd all get some sleep on the plane but only Jeff and Dad manage to get some shut-eye.

10:30 a.m.: We have landed and are on our way to the Disney Magical Express line. From here we'll make our way onto a bus that will take us to our resort. We were unsure about using this free shuttle service because I'd read reviews from people who had spent a long time (up to 2 hours) waiting for their bus to fill and also from people who had been on the bus for an extended period of time because their resort was the last stop. We wanted to get to our hotel as quickly as possible so we could get to Epcot. However, the alternative was to take a limo or van service which, because we had a party of 9, would cost about $100 one way. We decided that money could be better spent in the parks. So we gambled on the Magical Express and hoped it was a relatively quick and positive experience.

12:00 p.m.: Our gamble paid off. The bus filled up quickly, the kids enjoyed the ride, and our resort was not the last stop on the bus route. Here we are at Port Orleans French Quarter! While my mom, dad, Jeff, and Jon check in, the kids watch Disney cartoons in the lobby and trade pins with the hotel staff.

Pin trading is a fun activity that the kids can take part in almost wherever they are in Walt Disney World. This is how it works: kids buy the metal pins at Disney or on-line through the Disney Store, wear them on a lanyard or display them on their shirt, and then they can trade pins with any cast member. The cast member has to make a trade as long as the pin is an official Disney pin (the pin will say so on the back). It's a great way for kids to collect special souvenirs of their trip. However, these pins are not cheap - they cost anywhere from $6 and up per pin!

Luckily I read that you can buy pins on Ebay and they are a lot cheaper. I bought 35 pins for $33 (including shipping), which equals out to just over $1 per pin, a huge savings. These pins most likely aren't going to be the pins with 2010 on them, but we got a decent assortment of characters and the kids were delighted to have 10 pins each to start with.

Meanwhile, Janet and I try to organize our carry-on luggage (our checked luggage will be delivered to our rooms later by the Magical Express people). After we check in and eat lunch we are going to Epcot so we need to transfer our park essentials to our backpacks: autograph books, pen, kids' lanyards with pins, sunglasses, hats, sunscreen, and snacks.

Speaking of snacks, I wonder if the food we ordered from Gardengrocer.com has arrived yet. Even though the Disney Dining Plan is included in our package (which means that we get one breakfast or lunch, one snack, and one sit-down meal per day), we decided that we were going to need to supplement it with breakfast foods and snack foods. We all had packed cereal and a few other snacks in our luggage, but had ordered juice, milk, mini bagels, yogurt drinks, bananas, applesauce, chips/pretzels, and water (which was $6.99 for a flat of 32 bottles vs. the Disney park price of $3.00 per bottle). It seemed like a lot of food but Janet and I always like to have more than we need "just in case", for a hungry kid is an unhappy kid. Our total, including a $12 delivery charge, tax, and tip, was $100 and much cheaper (we figured) than buying food in the parks.

Just as I speak of the food to my husband he gets a text message from the hotel that says they have our food. Perfect timing as our rooms are ready and we can now haul everything up.

1: 30 p.m.: We've checked out our rooms, which are in a great location - right by the pool, playground, restaurant, and lobby; eaten lunch at said restaurant (which has a well-needed rejuvinator); and are on the bus to Epcot!

2:00 p.m.: The kids are enthralled with the "big ball" of Epcot! Michael poses for a picture while Victoria gets an autograph and picture with Daisy Duck. We get a group shot taken by the ball by a PhotoPass photographer. These photographers are strategically located throughout the parks and their sole purpose is to take your picture. You give them a PhotoPass card, they scan it, and take your picture. You can visit various locations throughout the parks to view the pictures or view them on-line. At the end of your visit you can edit the pictures and purchase them individually at $14.97 for two 4X6's or buy a CD of your pictures for $149.95 (nothing is cheap at Disney!). We pre-ordered the CD before we left at a special price of $99.95. Splitting the cost 3 ways made that a little easier to swallow.

Everyone is anxious to start having fun so I glance at my plan for the day. Soarin', one of Epcot Future World's newest and most popular rides, is number one on the list. However, on the way there we see that the wait for it is currently 60 minutes, so I go to Plan B, which is to send everyone to The Seas With Nemo and Friends attraction while my mom and I go get a Fastpass for Soarin'. Fastpasses are the best thing that happened to Disney World. They allow you to return to the attraction at a later time and essentially go to the front of the line.

We're lucky - we get some of the last Fastpasses of the day. Our return time is from 7:20 - 8:20 p.m., which should work well since we can go on it after dinner at 6:15.

There is no wait at The Seas w/Nemo and Friends so we board our clamshells and take a tour through a Nemo-themed adventure, which is basically a 5-minute ride through a giant aquarium full of fish and the Nemo characters from the movie. I thought it was kind of lame and Janet noticed that the story line was out of order, but I think the kids liked it.

After Nemo, we head over to Turtle Talk with Crush, an interactive and highly recommended show in which the Nemo character Crush actually talks with the audience. This show is a hoot! The highlight comes when Crush asks one little boy what it is like to be a human. The boy responds in all seriousness, "Well, first of all, life is full of disappointments."

We are laughing so hard I think we're going to fall off our benches. Crush immediately responds, "Well, little dude, that's how we learn and grow!" What a comeback! Bravo, Crush! Our kids are going to hear that one-liner a lot.

Next on the list is Mission:Space, another new ride at Epcot. Essentially it is a simulation of a rocket mission to Mars. There are two versions - the orange version in which your inital take-off is pretty serious, creating g-force and spinning; and the green version, which is less intense. My mom, dad, and I take the 3 kids on the green version; Jon and Jeff decide to try the orange version; and Janet, who gets motion sickness, decides to sit this one out.

The waiting time for our line is supposed to be 5 minutes but we end up waiting about 20 minutes, while Jon and Jeff speed through their line, which had a supposed waiting time of 20 minutes, so we think Disney got their lines mixed up.

Now I'm a roller coaster junkie, but I have to admit that I am a little nervous about going on this ride. I've never been on anything like it before and am not sure how I, or the kids, will handle the take-off or being enclosed in a tight space. While we are waiting to board we are shown a video in which actor Gary Sinise explains our "mission" to us. When he says that we will go into hyper-sleep for 3 months on the way to Mars, Nicholas pulls on my sleeve and says, "Mom, I don't want to go on this ride!" I reassure him that the ride is just pretend and is not real and he relents, although reluctantly.

Finally, it is our turn. We get into the ride - Mom, Victoria, Nicholas, and I in one "ship" and my dad and Michael in another. The control panel closes in on us and I take a deep breath. Ok, I don't feel too closed in, I can handle this. I try to appear calm because I know that Nicholas is not. Then we take off. It feels like we are going up, but it is not as dramatic as I had envisioned. One glance at Nicholas shows that he is smiling.

I'm not going to give away the whole ride but when we are done and I ask the kids how they liked it, they all shout, "It was awesome!!!" On the way out Nicholas asks me if we are still up in space. Gotta love the magic of Disney combined with the innocence of a 5-year-old!

Next it is off to Test Track. Here the wait is 60 minutes but we don't need to get a Fastpass this time. We have our own version with us in the form of a GM worker - Jeff. GM employees get to show their business card and take the back way to the beginning of the line, so that's what we do. Janet joins us this time because roller coasters don't usually bother her. I've been on Test Track before but I don't remember getting a "tickle tummy" during the last part when the speed of the car tops 60 mph. When we get off the ride all the kids want to ride it again, speed junkies that they are.

We look at the time and see that it is almost time for dinner, but we have time to squeeze in a few more rides. I'd read positive things about a ride in World Showcase's Norway called The Maelstrom so we head there. In this ride you take a viking ship through old Norway and can even get wet. As it turns out, this ride is very lame! Luckily there is no wait and it is a relatively quick ride. Onto the next thing, which is a ride in Mexico, where we are having dinner.

On the way there, we stop to get pictures and autographs with Donald Duck. By the time the kids (and my dad, a true Donald Duck fan) are done with this they are getting whiny, a sure sign that they are tired and hungry. Actually, I think we all are - it has been a very, very long day. Our dinner reservation is for 6:15 at San Angel Inn, a Mexican restaurant inside a pyramid, but it is only 5:30. Luckily we are able to get a table earlier than our reservation, so we opt not to go on the 3 Caballeros ride.

 I love authentic Mexican food and had chosen this restaurant for our first meal. And the food is really good, albiet a little oniony, as is the ambiance - every so often a volcano in the distance appears to be erupting (Nicholas is worried that it is a real one). However, if I had to do it over again I would have picked a different restaurant for the first night, one that was a little more kid-friendly.

After dinner we are all ready to go back to the hotel but we have one more ride to go on: Soarin'. So we load up the strollers with tired kids and walk back across the Future World to The Land Pavilion, which is where Soarin' is located. We show our Fastpasses and walk right to the front of the line. We still have a bit to wait, which is good since Nicholas decides that he has to go to the bathroom. But the wait is so worth it! Soarin' turns out to be one of our favorite rides! You really do feel like you are flying over different landscapes. We are glad we saved the best for last. There is a lot we didn't get to in Epcot but we did a lot in the time we had.

By the time we get back to the French Quarter it is after 8:30 p.m. and everyone is tired, especially me. Janet, Mom, and Victoria ask if I want to join them in the hot tub but I decline. Tomorrow is a big day - we are going to the Magic Kingdom - and I need to get some R & R. I think I am asleep by 10:00 p.m.

We're Going to Disney World!!!! Part One: Planning the Magic

Some of you may have wondered why I've neglected my blog this year. I've actually had a very good reason. Read on to find out why...

It's Friday, November 19, 2010 at 9:00 p.m. I'm currently on a plane flying somewhere over Tennessee on my way home to Michigan. I'm tired, mentally exhausted, my feet hurt and so does my back, but I'm happy. Why?

To answer that question I'll have to back up a bit to Christmas 2009. It's Christmas day and my family is at my mom and dad's house opening presents with my brother, sister-in-law, and 6-year-old niece. Mom hands the three kids each a small present to open together, and she hands Janet and I a package too. Michael opens a Mickey Mouse figurine, Nicholas opens a Goofy figurine, and Victoria opens a Minnie Mouse figurine. I open a book entitled "The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids 2010" while Janet opens "Birnbaum Guides 2010 Walt Disney World".

"Know what those are for?" Dad asks.

"What?" ask the kids in unison.

"We're going to Disney World!!!" my parents exclaim together.

Yes, it was true, my parents were taking our 9-person clan to Disney World in the fall, the first visit for the kids and for Janet. When Grandma Wurges (my dad's mom) died 2 years ago she left my parents some money and they earmarked a portion so we could take this trip. 2010 seemed like a good year since the kids were tall enough to go on most of the rides and none of them were tied to a nap schedule anymore.

And so began 10 months of extreme planning. I never knew how much information was out there for planning a Disney trip. I also didn't know just how much planning was needed for this trip. After inhaling my guidebook I was rather overwhelmed at just how much we had to do in the 10 or 11 months until our trip: decide where to stay and when and for how many days, figure out if we should rent a car, determine what parks we wanted to visit and in what order, and decide where to eat. Plus, we had to plan around three different families with three different likes and tastes, which would make our planning a bit more difficult. Still, we were bound and determined to make everyone happy.

Accommodations

Being such a large party meant that the logistics of traveling from park to park would be more manageable if we didn't have to rent a car (excuse me, a van). If we stayed on-site we could use Disney transportation and not have to worry about lugging car seats around. Plus, being able to take a bus back to our hotel gave each family the leniency to split off from the group if needed.

Deciding to stay on-site was easy. The hard part was deciding where to stay. Disney is basically divided into three different categories: Value resorts, Moderate resorts, and Deluxe resorts. Since we had a budget to stretch over 9 people which included accommodations, airfare, and park admission, we needed to find a place to stay that would give us the best bang for our buck.

Initially we looked into staying at a resort with a family suite that could accommodate our whole party - something with a kitchen or kitchenette. Our choices were limited to Bay Lake Towers at the Contemporary Resort, the Treehouse Villas at Saratoga Springs, or the cabins at Fort Wilderness Resort.

While staying in one suite sounded good at the time, we soon nixed the idea. The Bay Lake Towers suite only had 2 bedrooms, which meant that one person would have to sleep on the couch bed in the living room and one family wouldn't have a designated area for their belongings. The Treehouse was appealing because it had 3 bedrooms and we could save money by eating in, but after doing some research the resort appeared to be spread out and we would have to walk a long way to the bus stop, which, when you've just walked the park all day long the last thing you want to do is have a long walk from the bus to your room. And the cabins just were too small for our needs.

We then started looking into the Value Resort hotels, which were reasonably priced and family oriented. Each hotel has a different theme with larger-than-life decor, which we thought the kids would love.

We had just settled on the All-Star resort when my mom received a deal in the mail for 40% off a 5 night stay in one of the moderate resort hotels, a significant savings that we couldn't pass up. (TIP: If you order Disney's free vacation planning DVD, Disney will then send you frequent deals). Back to the drawing board.

More research and one more family planning meeting later, it was decided that we would stay at the Port Orleans French Quarter resort, a relatively small moderate resort, which meant shorter walks to the bus stop. The resort had other amenities that were appealing to us as well: the pool area had a dragon water slide as well as a hot tub and a kiddie pool, there was a playground for the kids, an arcade, a gift shop, a bar for the adults, and a counter-service restaurant.

Whew! What a relief to finally decide where we were going to stay. Now we had to nail down when we were going to go.

When to Visit

Originally we had planned on visiting Disney during the week of Thanksgiving so we wouldn't have to pull the kids out of school for a whole week. However, that was before we learned that Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest weeks at Disney World.

The week after Thanksgiving is one of the slowest weeks, therefore you can get a cheaper rate, but we didn't want to play Russian roulette with Florida weather in December. I've been to Florida in December before when it snowed and I didn't want to do it again!!

Our initial window was the two weeks after Halloween, but we ended up settling on the week of November 14-19. This meant we would have to pull the kids out of school for the week and miss conferences but we figured that they're young and wouldn't miss much.

Itinerary

Now that we knew when we were going we had to formulate our itinerary. In order to do this we first had to figure out which parks we wanted to visit. We knew that the Magic Kingdom was a must-see on our list and gave ourselves two days in which to take it all in. Epcot had Test Track, Mission: Space, and the new Soarin' ride so that made our list. Hollywood Studios had Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, Rock and Roller Coaster, and the Tower of Terror so it too made the cut. We had to factor a pool day in there also.

Now came the hard part: when to visit each park. In order to schedule each day we had to take several factors into consideration: when were the extra magic hours (EMH)at each park (Disney gives guests who stay on-property a special perk: they open the parks one hour early or leave them open up to 3 hours after the official park closing on a given day), and when could we schedule our dinner reservations. Dinner reservations? Yes, dinner reservations. Since Disney World is so popular, and most guests eat at the park, the waiting times for each restaurant became ridiculous. So they invented the dining reservation system, where you can make your dining reservations for your sit-down meals up to 90 days in advance. In fact, it's recommended that you do so or risk waiting for two hours for dinner when you could be out enjoying the parks. Although it seemed odd to be thinking about where we wanted to be eating three months in advance, this was the most recommended piece of advice that I received.

This part of the trip planning was quite mind-boggling because all three families had to research and agree on five different restaurants. Luckily I discovered that several websites list the restaurants' menus and reviews of the restaurants (www.Allears.net is one of my favorites).

One of our days at the Magic Kingdom had to be scheduled around our meal at Cinderella's Royal Table at Cinderella's Castle, which is probably the most popular dining experience for young children. In addition to being allowed to eat in the castle, young princes and princesses get to meet Cinderella and a variety of other Disney princesses during the meal (depending on if you're there for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. In fact, if you don't call to make your reservation at 7:00 a.m. exactly 180 days from the date you want to eat there, you most likely won't get in. We were lucky since the week we were going was a "slow" week at Disney, and got a lunch reservation for 2:00 p.m. on our first Magic Kingdom day.

And so by June 2010, after 6 months full of research and planning, we had determined the nuts and bolts of our trip. I celebrated by taking the summer off from any further planning, a much needed break. However, as the end of summer approached I began to dig into the more detailed aspects of planning the trip, creating packing lists, creating a touring plan for each day, finding out what attractions will be closed when we're there, and researching just how to make the trip all the more magic for the kids. The clock was ticking, though. I knew that with the onset of school, then Nicholas's birthday and Halloween, the next few months would fly and we'd be on a plane to Disney in no time.

Stay tuned for Part 2, in which you will find out if all of the planning paid off, if Michael got to take part in his Star Wars dream show, if Victoria was transformed into a princess, if Jennifer drove Jon and Jeff crazy with all her schedules, and just what special souvenir Nicholas bought with Grandpa.

Should I stay or should I go?: A Case Against Kindergarten Revisited

After writing "A Case Against Kindergarten" I received a lot of feedback from readers. Numerous parents told me about their decision to put their son or daughter into a young 5 program instead of kindergarten and how it was the best decision they'd made. Many asked what our final decision was. While my husband and I were leaning towards not sending him, my answer to everyone was that we didn't have a final decision yet but our plan was to take the "reserve, wait, and watch approach." This basically means that we reserved a spot for Nicholas in a Pre-Kindergarten class (in case we decided not to send him to K) and to closely watch him in all situations to evaluate how he would handle kindergarten. In the meantime I did more reading and research, in which I received more conflicting advice about what is best for Nicholas. Here is my report.

If you recall, a great part of the dilemma I was having was based on Nicholas's age. Nicholas will not be 5 until October 20 of this year, which, because Michigan has a kindergarten cut-off date of December 1, makes him eligible to attend kindergarten in the fall. This means that he would be one of the youngest in his class and perhaps behind in maturity and social growth when compared to his older peers, some of which could be a full year older than him.

I recently discovered that Michigan is one of three states where the cut-off date is later than the middle of October (California is December 2 and Connecticut is January 1). The rest of the states in the US have adopted a much earlier cut-off date, the earliest being July 1 (Indiana) and the majority being September 1. This means that if we lived elsewhere I wouldn't be having this dilemma because Nicholas wouldn't be eligible for kindergarten this year!

In May I went to a parenting conference in Lake Orion in which I attended a short seminar on Kindergarten Readiness hosted by the director of Early Childhood at Oakland Schools. I was excited about this session because I thought it would give me the latest and greatest information on what they've discovered about when to send children to kindergarten.

The majority of the seminar's attendees were kindergarten or preschool teachers with a smattering of parents like myself thrown in for good measure. At my table sat 3 preschool teachers and myself. We had a few minutes to chat before the seminar started and I mentioned that I had a son with a late-fall birthday who I was thinking of holding back. All of the teachers told me that was the right thing to do, and I was sure that their opinion was going to be echoed by the seminar's presenter.

Boy was I in for a shock. A lot of the material I had read previous to this seminar had given a positive spin to giving late-fall children (especially boys) a year of growth in a pre-kindergarten setting. The message of this speech, however, was to encourage parents to send their child to school when he or she is age eligible, stating that studies are showing that age doesn't impact academic performance past third grade. In other words, in the long run there is no academic difference between a child that was held back and put in Pre-K and a child that was put in Kindergarten (but could have been held back because of age).

This, of course, raised a red flag with me because in order to do well in school you not only have to have good academics but you have to be mature and socially well-adjusted. Where were the studies that were measuring these? And what have other states that have adopted the earlier start date discovered that we Michiganders are not getting? I wasn't getting a clear answer even from the school system!

Meanwhile, Nicholas was really progressing in his preschool program. He had greatly improved socially and academically, recognizing buzz words, counting (in english and spanish), and sounding out words. My husband and I began to wonder if perhaps he would be ready for kindergarten after all.

The Lake Orion School's Early Childhood program offered kindergarten readiness screenings in which a qualified evaluator performs a range of "tests" to evaluate a child's physical, social, academic, and life skills, so I signed Nicholas up, eager to see where he fell in the scheme of things. Some of the tasks Nicholas was asked to do during the screening included counting to ten (he counted to 39), cutting pre-printed lines on paper (he was only successful with the straight line), hopping on one foot (he was mildly successful with this), and drawing a picture (comparable to what a child the age of 3 should be able to do). Meanwhile I filled out a lengthy questionnaire to rate how I, as a parent, would view Nicholas's abilities.

When all was said and done, Nicholas rated right on the edge of what they consider an acceptable score for kindergarten readiness. He scored high on language and rhyming but low on fine motor and gross motor. However, my concerns about his lack of motivation (he could get himself dressed but rarely did because he wanted me to do it for him), his willingness to follow through with a task, and lack of fine motor skills prompted the evaluator to recommend that he be put into a pre-kindergarten program.

Then I asked his preschool teacher to re-evaluate Nicholas: after looking at the kindergarten readiness evaluation results would she change her mind about her recommendation to send him to kindergarten? She told me that if she were just looking at Nicholas's progress reports and his performance in the classroom that she would still recommend him to go to kindergarten. That being said, she mentioned that Nicholas still had a hard time paying attention during circle time, that he would rather socialize and talk with the other children, and that a gift of an extra year of growth and development would certainly not harm him.


And so here we were at the end of the school year with a final decision to make. We knew that based on his intelligence and ability to learn quickly Nicholas would probably do ok if we sent him to kindergarten. However, if we looked at maturity and fine motor skills and ability to stay on task, I feared that he would fall far behind his peers. The research I had uncovered hadn't led me to a clear choice as I had hoped.The issue was incredibly gray.
 
So, because no one truly knows a child like his parent, I went with the feeling in my gut. And it was telling me to put him into the pre-kindergarten program and wait another year for kindergarten. My husband agreed. I don't think we'll be sorry. I haven't heard many parents regret holding their children back but I have heard some regret that they sent them too early. 


Since we made our decision Nicholas has decided to write with both his left and right hands (before it was just the left hand). That alone makes me feel confident that we made the right decision as I can imagine how hard kindergarten would be if he couldn't figure out which hand to choose. Now he has a whole extra year to figure it out.


At the pre-k orientation today Nicholas was pretty shy and quiet and reluctant to leave my side. Later, when I asked him if he was excited to go to pre-k, Nicholas said that he wasn't going to go to school. I told him that he had to go to school. 

"Oh no I don't," he replied. "I can go to homeschool."
 
"What's homeschool?" I asked as (I'm sure that) the color drained from my face.

"It's where the kids stay home and their moms teach them," he said smugly.

I'm going to strangle the child who told my school-hating son about the loophole of homeschooling, I thought to myself.

"Now where did you learn about that?" I asked.


"From my cousin Victoria," he replied.


Ah, the things they learn from the kids in the older grades. Lucky for me I have an extra year to prepare!

Snapshots

One of my favorite pictures of my dad and I is one that was taken when I was about 4 years old. In it my dad and I are at the park on the swings swinging like a spider. I am sitting on my dad's lap facing him, my long legs splayed out opposite his. We are relatively high up in the air and both leaning backwards, our long hair swinging in the breeze. We have laughter on our faces. If a picture really was worth a thousand words then youthful, joyful, happy, loving, and all of their synonyms would be used to describe it. These words would also describe the relationship that my dad and I had then and still have now.

My dad was only 21 when I was born, still a child himself. My parents lived in married housing at Eastern Michigan University in an apartment so small that before they had a crib they used to place me in a dresser drawer to sleep. I was not an easy baby, for I had colic and cried a lot. I also cried when my dad held me and am told that I didn't seem to like him when I was younger. Lucky for me I changed my mind and also lucky for me my dad didn't hold it against me.

One of the things I love most about my dad is that he loves to laugh and doesn't take life too seriously, even when the joke's on him, which it is all too often because he is extremely gullible. I have turned out to be his clone ("Like father, like daughter," my mom always says), and am always doing silly things. Because of Dad I have learned to laugh at myself and my life has been much easier (and more joyful) because of it.

Dad tries to inject any situation with joy when warranted. We have a special tree out by Oakland University that we have visited for 35 years (we call it our tree, although I know that many other people probably claim it as theirs too). This giant oak tree stands out in the middle of a field and the only way to reach it is to go down a slight hill and up another. Most people would walk this path, but not Dad and I. We frolic, bounding down that hill in long, high jumps, our elbows and knees making right angles in sync, laughing and giggling the whole way.

My mother may have given me her love of reading, but my father instilled in me his love of music. Music makes my dad and I happy. He and his friends would spend hours making the equivalent of a mixed tape on a reel-to-reel-player, perfecting each song's pitch and tone. I have fond memories of singing along with Aerosmith's Train Kept A-Rolling in the backseat of our car, although my version went like this: "Playin' pepperoni all night long...", or to Chicago's We Can Make It Happen (my version: We Can Make a Napkin). Dad would always quiz me in the car too: "What song is this, Jen?". I got quite good at naming songs and bands, partly because Dad gave me a great incentive: "I'll give you a banana split if you can name this band..." Which reminds me - Dad I think you still owe me about 10 banana splits!

As I grew up and changed from child to teen to adult, the role Dad played in my life changed too. He's played the parts of protector, provider, teacher, equal, and now grandfather. Our relationship hasn't always been roses, for when I was a teenager there was a period in which I went through what my dad calls "The Parents Don't Know Shit" stage and we didn't like each other very much. Thankfully those memories are fleeting and have been superseded by other images:

Snapshot: Riding shotgun with Dad.  It is a sunny summer evening in our old neighborhood, a townhouse complex in Rochester where all the kids run around in packs and the parents don't worry about their safety. Dad and I are on his bike, me in the baby seat behind him. Mom is on her bike in front of us. We glide along with the cool breeze on our faces. I can hardly breathe at times we are going so fast and the speed of it all steals my breath. Then we are at the top of the hill, looking down. Dad says to me, "Ready Co-pilot?" "Ready Pilot," I answer. We both raise our arms to the sky. Then Dad shoots down that hill steering the bike with his knees and we scream with abandon and delight the whole way down.

Snapshot: She can ride with a little help from her dad. I am sitting astride my first two-wheel bike with its banana seat and basket up front. My dad is behind me, holding onto the back of the seat, my cushion of safety. "Ready Pilot?" he asks. "Ready, Copilot," I answer with all the excited courage I can muster. I put my feet on the pedals and off we go, father and daughter wobbling along for several feet until I can manage to straighten out the wheel. Then he lets go of the back of the seat and I continue pedaling on my own. "You're doing it! You're doing it!" he yells to me. "I'm doing it, I'm doing it, I'm riding by myself!" I yell back. I'm so thrilled with myself that I don't notice that the smile on my dad's face is bursting with pride, much like that on my own face.

Snapshot: Piloting together. It's a sunny summer evening, my favorite time of day. Dad and I are on our bikes in the driveway of the house we moved to after I graduated from high school. We are two long and lean figures who closely resemble each other both in looks and in mannerisms. I turn to Dad. "Ready Pilot?" I ask. "Ready Pilot," he answers. And we ride off in tandem, stride matching stride.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, but especially to my own. You have made such a difference in my life, Dad. I love you!!!

On Children

In honor of Mother's Day I'm posting a poem by Kahlil Gibran about children and their relationship with their parents. Enjoy and Happy Mother's Day to all!!

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

          Kahlil Gibran

A group called Sweet Honey In the Rock made a beautiful song out of this poem. Here's the song put to a heartwarming slideshow. Tip: get some Kleenex first!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8154859559953363340#

Michael the Toothless Wonder

Michael became a toothless wonder today. That’s right, he can now sing the song “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”. We were eating dinner when his second top tooth fell out, the tooth that, to me, is the last vestige of babyhood. Gone, just like the baby that slipped into this world silent and observant, now replaced by a 47-inch boy who is no longer silent but still very observant.

I knew this day would come but didn’t realize how much I was dreading it. In addition to the whole my-boy-is-growing-up-and-away-from-me thing, there’s the adult teeth thing. When baby teeth come in they usually come in straight and nice and to me nothing beats a smile from a young child. When adult teeth come in it’s a different story. There are issues of overcrowding and teeth coming in crooked or not at all. Poor Michael has no idea what he’s in store for. Due to the fact that both sides of his family genes carry the bad teeth genome, he is a candidate for all three scenarios.

The Case Against Kindergarten

When I gave birth to my second son Nicholas in late October of 2005, my mom, an early childhood educator, warned me that my husband and I would have a tough choice to make when it was time for him to go to kindergarten. "In my profession we often recommend to parents of children with fall birthdays to wait a year before kindergarten so they have that extra time to mature and grow," she told me.

As I looked down at my newborn I couldn't imagine what he would be like in one year, much less 5 years. That seemed so far away and I said that we'd just have to cross that bridge when we came to it.

Well, now it's almost 5 years later and it is indeed time to cross that bridge. My mom was right: we have a big decision to make - to send Nicholas to kindergarten in the fall or wait a year and send him to a young five or pre-kindergarten program first.