Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Mother knows best

Ruffians, thugs
Poison ivy, quicksand
Cannibals and snakes
The plague

Your trip is 10 days away. Or at least mine is. It's January. Rates are low. Deals are good. Weather in South Florida is nice. The problem is, it's also sick season. Children are coming back from their Christmas break. They've collected germs from all over the tri-state area, and held on to them. Now that the BCS has finally named their champion, everyone is back at work and school. A little snot and a low grade fever is not nearly enough for keep parents from sending their children back to school. Back where your kids are. The ones who are going to Disney in 10 more sleeps. 10. Diez dias.

What to do?

We still have to go to church, and we still have to go to school. One thing I am doing, minnie-mizing (do you like how I did that?) germ opportunities.

This isn't rocket science.
• We try not to touch as much. Walls, stair rails, door knobs. You get it. It's always good practice to keep our little fingers to ourselves, but inside 2 weeks of WDW, it's mission critical.
• OJ. LaHots of it. I make sure the kids drink all of their juice in the mornings, and drink a lot of anything but sugary things.
• We are staying home more, intentionally. We love play dates at the local quick service spots in town (I did it again, see?). But those are often a breeding spot for the most vicious germs. So we are cutting back on our outings like this, and eating at home. Saves a little cash. Protects from a few germs.

Little things that may or may not be really helping my family stay healthier, but in my mind, they are, and it feels like we are already getting ready for our trip.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

We're going to Disney!

We've kept the secret from our kids for months now. Tonight we finally told them. We are going to Disney, but not only that, we are going with two other families that we are close to, and a few grandparents.

It was great.

We told the kids that our friends were coming over. We explained New Year's Eve, and that we were sort of having a party. It's Disney, so you have to have a theme. I asked the right questions, enough to let my daughter think it was her idea that we have a Disney World theme. That way, I could decorate without any questions.

The decorations.
I am proud to say that I didn't have to buy one thing to decorate for this little shindig. We have the props for a Disney party.



But apparently I didn't take a picture of them all...

The food.
I read through a list of all of the animated movies looking for food ideas from the movies. The best I menu I could come up with was spaghetti, poison apples and hunny. Not so tasty, so in my first act of flexibility concerning this trip, I changed the plan. I give you...

Mickey Pot Pies


This pic was from before I baked them. The ears didn't stay on. I had to put them back on with a toothpick. The kids didn't really pay attention, but I was happy to have my little ears on though. Chef Mickey, call me if you want my recipe.

More themed food.
The army man cupcake toppers I had left over from Handsome Jr.'s 3 year old party. The one we had to cancel because he got sick. And we had to put something in a frying pan, because I just really amused myself with how cute that would be.


The rest was normal potluck: green bean casserole, roasted potatoes, marshmallow fruit salad, and those hip-dwelling cupcakes.

The crew.

We will have 9 children all together. Age 8 months to 7 years. Here are most of them, enjoying their ADR in our living room, on a makeshift table. (Thank you Lord for a more friends than I can fit in my house comfortably, or at least neatly.)


The reveal.

We bought the Hedbanz game, and played our own version of it. We let each child have a turn with a character card on their headband, and ask questions to figure out who it was. This didn't work perfectly, but it was still fun.











For the second round of the game, we gave all of the kids special cards all at once, and told them that they couldn't turn around and look at the others until we said so. Only a few of them can read, so it took a while for them to catch on. But finally, they got it.


Here's what happened.


That's me that gets tackled in the end. So excited!