We went to a character breakfast and ate cupcakes for breakfast.

He made new friends.

Payton got to choose which rides we would go on. On top of the list was the Buzz Lightyear ride, of course!

The kids were even asked to say the Pledge of Allegiance at Disney World’s flag ceremony. I was a little, ok really nervous they might not remember it, they are homeschooled after all and it’s not how we start our school days every morning. But they nailed it! and I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief..  Way to go guys! Dad and I were so proud!

If you will notice we have one child missing here..she was a little shy to get up in front of the crowd.

Payton wanted to have steak for dinner.

He is one cool kid.

When we had gotten back to our room, Payton had a big surprise from Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy!

Happy Birthday Payton! We love you!

Amelia with her very first Coke ever.  Priceless.

Tips,Hints and Our Experience.

So we decided again to skip the whole stroller thing. It still seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. Amelia (3) and Payton (almost 6, not 5 like I said in my previous post..ahem) did perfectly fine walking ALL day on their own. Today we even added the additional burden of their small backpacks. They needed a place to keep a small emergency snack and drink and maybe even a souvenir or two. I didn’t bother carrying a bag, I just dispersed a few things among the kids bags. I felt sorry for parents pushing around those huge strollers loaded down with tons of stuff, while they walk with their child tethered with a leash….

How much stuff can one kid need, anyway?

So my tip number 1 for Disney (or any other theme park, really) : skip the crap and skip the stroller. Carry or have your child carry a very small pack with a snack and a drink (if you don’t want to buy a drink you can refill the water at a fountain!). Like I said in my last post, Amelia just turned 3 (at the end of February) and she has walked it on her own. Brian and I have only had to pick her up a couple of times and she has only been carried a total of about 15 minutes. One of the times she was carried was because she was almost frightened to death by the “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” show. It’s NOT a good one for small children BTW… And the other time was because some girl about the same age as Amelia decided to hit, yes HIT her when Amelia said hello while we stood in line. The mother did nothing, even though she saw it.(Are you KIDDING me!?) And the little bully kept trying to push Amelia around, so I picked Amelia up to keep the other kid away from her.

I don’t think we as parents give our kids nearly enough credit for what they can do. I would have never thought in a million years that they would be able to do all that walking carrying their own stuff. But they DID!

But after all that walking..I am beat. Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios.

Planning a vacation for a family our size that is fun, relaxing and (somewhat) economical can be a challenge. We decided this year to take a more extravagant vacation than our usual and hit Disney. Our children are what I think are the perfect ages, from 3-12 years old. Also, my 3 year old has an unhealthy obsession with Cinderella that I just can’t help but indulge. But I thought as far as Disney being fairly stress free now is the time. I don’t have to worry about nursing, bottles, diaper changes..etc.. nevermind the fact that I am 7 months pregnant…..

Disney Day 1:

It is 11:43 p.m. of our first day of vacation. We just arrived back at our room about 15 minutes ago and the two youngest are completely crashed out.

I decided a few things while planning this trip.

1) I decided we would not bring the stroller. Amelia is 3 and I thought she could walk the majority of the time on her own and my husband and I could take turns giving her legs a rest by carrying her as needed. A stroller is a pain to navigate through crowds. You have to keep up with where you park it. If you bring your own, you have to fold and unfold it as you are getting on and off the bus (or other) transportation to and from the parks. If you decide to rent one, there is the extra cost. Not to mention the amount of room a stroller takes up in the car. We need that room for souvenirs!

2) Because of the size of our family, we have to stay at one of the resorts with larger accommodations which also includes a full kitchen. I thought by cooking and us eating breakfast and dinner in our room that we could save quite a bit of money and eat much healthier. I like to bring my crock pot on vacations where we will be out all day. I can put something in before we head out and like magic dinner is done when we return. Even if we are dead tired we can still have a great meal. It can also be a lot less hassle if the kids are tired and grouching. Hubby and I can still enjoy our dinner …if we are not wrangling rowdy, crying, overtired kids in a restaurant. Lets face it, we are at Disney. There is no way for the kids not to be overtired. overstimulated. and no matter how well I plan, I am pretty sure there is no way I can avoid some of the not-so-fun behavior that might come along with that. anyway….

3) Due to the larger room we also have a laundry room, meaning we could pack lighter! Meaning we had more room in our mini-van for the kids!

How that is working out for us:

1) I am still not sure how wise my decision to not bring a stroller was. Amelia (3) walked on her own all day. But she was absolutely wiped out. And a complete maniac to keep up with. She was ALL OVER the place. It was quite stressful to keep our eyes on her, making sure she was next to us at all times. The only other option is a *gasp* leash, and you will never, ever, in any circumstance see one of those horrible things on one of my kids. The things make me shudder….Back to the stroller. Even my soon-to-be-5-in-3-days son was complaining of tired legs at the end of the day. I am thinking tomorrow we will rent a double stroller and see how that works for us. A full day of walking might be just too much for the both of them.

2) I was so concerned about packing light that even though I felt like I was forgetting something -I kept pushing it to the back of my mind, once we got here, I realized I neglected to pack the crock pot. crap. The pots/pans in the room aren’t even big enough to cook enough food for our family. double crap. I will deal with this tomorrow. I can’t even think of a good solution right now.

As a side note- we found out that we should take advantage of the fact that Disney will deliver your purchases to your room for you. Payton lost his stuffed Nemo souvenir almost immediately. Plus we don’t have to lug them around the parks and keep up with them. Lesson learned.

3) Washing clothes on vacation!? What was I thinking??

So, if you have any great Disney tips for me, I am all ears! I would love to hear them.

Stay tuned for Day 2: Animal Kingdom….

This is a test shot. These are my “littles”. Me: “Oh please oh please don’t smile like that…it looks like you are in pain.., Amelia, look at Mommy”

Scratch that …I will change the camera angle…I bring in the “bigs”. Cute picture but its all blown out..I do some more adjusting..

this one was too dark and I had to do some work to bring it “back” but it still looks terrible but the kids are all looking pretty good.

This is where I started to lose them…

AH!! I can’t take it!

and this is what I was left with… trying to get the “perfect” picture is almost as painful for me as it was for my “littles”.

Go figure..

Off we head to the recital.

Our girls were scheduled in the middle time slots of the recital. We listened to Jingle Bells a few hundred times.  Amelia was chomping at the bit to watch her big sisters play.

“Hey kid, don’t chew on that”

Finally…

Briana played “Joy to the World”. She was very nervous that she would make a mistake, but she didn’t. Maybe next time she will be less nervous and have a little more fun.

Juliana played “Jingle Bells”. She was slightly nervous petrified. But she was determined to get up there and show her stuff.

Adriana played “Go Tell it on a Mountain”. Of all of the girls, I thought she would be the most nervous because she is our introvert, but she wasn’t.

Amelia was so proud of her big sisters.

Here are all the big kids with their lovely music teacher.

We all were very proud. You did a wonderful job girls!

Amelia really, really wants to learn to play the “biolin”.

This is Briana, she is the biggest of the sisters. It’s a really, really good time to have a big sister. A big sister who just happens to know how to play the “biolin”.

A big sister that loves being a big sister. This sweet big sister shows her just how to place her hands.

Briana can show her just how to hold the bow.

It’s really handy to have a big sister that is willing to teach her how to read music.

I love to see big sisters encouraging their little sisters. Imagine having this kind of encouragement with the simple things in life….

The best part of all though, is having someone to play with!

Don’t you think?

The first step is to set a budget. Plan ahead at least a few months ahead and estimate how much money you will be able to save for the trip.

Tip # 1: Finding a place to stay.

There are great deals to be found on lodging. But if you are super picky like we are, this will be your largest cost and will eat up a large portion of your budget. Because of the size of our family we often have to rent more than one hotel room or rent a more expensive suite. We also spend quite a bit of time in our lodging because we have younger children that require naps, but if we  would be spending relatively little time there I would settle with clean.

Word of mouth is a great wind to find good affordable lodging. Lots of people own timeshares, condos, lake homes that are willing to rent them to friends for a discounted rate. You just need to ask around. We even have a friend who offers up his fabulous lake home to us every summer free of charge. It is a huge blessing to our family.

We have been visiting Gatlinburg every Christmas season for years now and have stayed in some really great chalets but we have found that it cost us less money to rent a condo that is close to the main strip. The one we stay at is plenty big enough for our family and it is in walking distance to the places we like to visit so save a little on gas and we also save on parking. It costs about $4. each time we need to park the car and being in walking distance eliminates this. Renting a condo also helps to save money on our next topic.

Tip# 2: Eating on a budget.

With a family of 7 even eating fast food can cost upward of $35 a meal. By renting a condo, we are able to save money by preparing our own food. Of course, it also has the added benefit of being healthier. We do eat out some, but we plan it around our activities and actual travel time. I like to take along my slow cooker and use it. I can start a meal in it right after breakfast, we can leave for the day and not worry about trying to find something to eat or spending all my vacation time in the kitchen. You can do simple breakfasts of cereal and fruit, and simple lunches of sandwiches and soup. I usually pack a few snacks of homemade fruit rolls ups, nuts or whatever is in the pantry and even make a couple of loaves of bread. I make a grocery list and shop when we reach our destination. If you had the food on hand and the room for a cooler you could go that route but we are 7 in a minivan and normally do not have the room. Also packing lighter makes it much more enjoyable for the person who does most of the loading/unloading of the car, my husband.

Tip#3:

Be very careful protective with the money you have budgeted for discretionary use. If you are in a area with lots of tourism, there will be tons of souvenir shops around waiting for you to part with that hard earned cash. We usually set a per person souvenir amount, say $20 max per person. Most of the money is used for fun activities. We often have to remind the kids “we can either buy a bunch of junk and spend all our money or use the money for something better. They always choose the something better.  This year my husbands parents bought us season passes to Dollywood as our Christmas present. In years past we would have bought them ourselves and that would be our fun money spent. This year we are able to use that money to do other things like go to the Dixie Stampede and some other places we haven’t been able to see. Oh, another tip- research some of the things you would like to do on the internet, often you can find discounts on the web by purchasing them in advance or by using coupon codes. You can also just give them a call and ask for a discount. It never hurts to ask!

Tip #4: HAVE FUN!!

As homeschoolers we are tempted to make even family vacation an opportunity for teaching. Of course it is always a great idea to visit historical sites and points of interest around where you are staying. Often they are fun and even free. You can almost never go wrong with a state park. Most of them have some great activities for families planned. Your children will learn from it guaranteed. But try to keep it fun. Don’t turn it into a lesson. (Wait until you get home to do that! …Remember when we went to ____?, let’s talk a little about that…)

I hope this gives you some ideas for a great family trip that doesn’t break the bank.

Here are a few more:

Try finding somewhere within 4 hours drive. Cuts the cost of airline travel, fuel cost is minimal and you don’t have to worry about along the way lodging.

Go in the off-season. You can always get great deals on the off-season.

Pack snacks for the car trip instead of stopping at the gas station for expensive and unhealthy snacks and drinks.

Make use of rest areas. Pack brown bag lunches before you leave home. Most rest areas are very nice with clean rest rooms, have 24 hour security, great picnic areas and even play areas for kids.

Happy Travels!

We met Tom while in Uganda this past summer. His story is amazing. He is now in the states getting an education so that he may go back and help build up and better his home country.

We took him for a drive in the countryside and I took the opportunity to take a few fall snapshots.

This is a bridge along the Natchez Trace Parkway.

It is ginormous. And beautiful.

Even though the peak of fall has passed the colors were still breathtaking.

The kids really enjoyed playing around in all the leaves.

This is my favorite shot. It looks as though she is giving praise to God for our perfect day.

There is also this beautiful stone wall begging to be photographed.

And also begging for little children to walk along the top of ..

This picture was hard to get. No one wanted to stop having fun long enough to get a group photo. See how pitiful my little guy is?

Happy Fall!

Today was our scheduled day to go to the library. And generally we would just jump in the car and head over. But my car is in the shop. And of course the weather has been unusually nice for the last couple of days. So whats a girl to do?  I figure we can ride our bikes, its not very far. And it is very green of us. But the thing is that generally when I ride with the kids, I also have BigDaddy riding with me too, and he pulls the trailer with the 2 little kids in it. I have never had to pull that thing. Which by the way, I have never given him full credit for. I thought he was being a big baby about pulling them around. Umm no, these particular kids together weigh about 70 lbs. We live in a hilly area. very hilly. I found out just how difficult it was to pull that weight around. And the prospect of my 6 year old riding in traffic for the first time was a little nerve-wracking to say the least. And not to mention the fact that my 10 year old is still a little new to the art of clipping in. And there are lots of stops signs between here and there at any of which she has the opportunity to topple over. Which she did.More than once. Shhh. I didn’t tell you that.

I twittered a warning to our towns people to look out because we would be taking the lane. I should have also warned of the glorious opportunity to see me in those oh-so-flattering bike pants. eh hem..There is a Three Feet law that I am hoping to spread the word about. No, not my butt.., the distance from a bicyclist you should pass in a vehicle. Maybe someone will give me some of those nifty stickers to plaster on my rear, you know of the rear of my car.

Let me share with you the experience:

bike check- check, water-check, baby bottle-check (ok she is almost 2 for crying out loud, will she ever give it  helmets- check, extra shoes-check, phone-check, pants to pull on over said bike pants-check.

Without major incident, we made it safely to our local branch.

Does anyone else notice that there is no where to park our environmentally friendlier mode of transportation? Could someone else please tell them to install some bike racks.

I ended up just dropping my bike in the grass.And prayed that no one would steal them. It hurts me. It hurts me bad.

After paying $20 in fines, PDog getting his very first library card that he waited almost an entire year for, renewing 3 expired cards and giving up on trying to renew the other 2, we packed our stuff to roll out.

He is really very proud of that card.

And my 6 year old did great except for swerving right in front of me about 20 times and trying to ride on the wrong side of the road. I am very glad to be home with all of us in one piece. With minimal bruising.

Next stop, the local park.

Here she is sporting her new shoes and pedals:

Safety first:
I took her on a short four mile ride Saturday morning to instruct her in the art of “clipping in” and when and how to change gears and in proper brake usage. She had a couple of spills, she started to get really frustrated when she couldn’t get clipped in. We had to stop and take some deep breaths to keep from tearing up. I played the role of gentle encourager. She got back up and kept on trying. She has some scrapes and bruises. But she didn’t give up. She kept right on trying..my heart is swelling with pride..
But after we got back she rode all day long. I wish she had a GPS on her bike so I could know her exact mileage. I think it was somewhere around 20 miles. On her first day.

Here she is in all of her glory:
A beautiful sight for a biking Momma-

Look out Lance!! This girl is going places!