I have been trying to make some plans for what to do with the kids during the LONG week of Winter Break. Hoping to catch up with some friends, maybe do some ice skating. And then I found out about this great deal for tickets for Disney on Ice!
The shows are playing at the Wachovia Center and open on December 23rd. If you use the coupon code MOM at www.ComcastTix.com you can get four tickets for $44 for Monday-Friday matinee shows, and $4 off Friday night and weekend shows; any additional weekday tickets are still priced at $11. That's $11 per ticket!! That's less than Monkey Joe's (sorry Joe).
Here's the official description of the show:
Disney On Ice presents Let’s Celebrate! It’s one colossal party on ice, with all your favorite Disney friends! Enjoy a winter wonderland with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, a Halloween haunt with the Disney Villains, a Very Merry Unbirthday Party, a Royal Ball with the Disney Princesses and more in a magical medley of holidays, celebrations and festivals from around the globe.
We are going on December 28th and the kids couldn't be more excited. One day planned...seven more to go!
I wrote this post as part of the Feld Entertainment Activator Program. In return for sharing this (awesome) news I received a free family pack of tickets to the show. Yay!
We went to Maine for the last week in July and stayed in a lovely cottage on the coast near Boothbay Harbor (the area is actually called Ocean Point). Starfish Cottage even has its own Facebook page, so Maine isn't quite as cut-off from civilization as you might think. The cottage even had a wireless network so we were able to check e-mail despite the fact that no one had any cell phone coverage at all!Technical considerations aside, we were in Maine because my parents rented the house and invited my brother and me to bring our families along for the week. Mom's idea. Yay, Mom!It took us a while to get up there - a flight from Philadelphia to Manchester, New Hampshire and then about 2 1/2 hours in the car. But I have to say, I think it was worth it!
Maine is bee-oo-ti-ful! The house had this incredible view of the bay, lighthouse, boats, rocks, wildflowers... stunning.Maine is also rainy and foggy much of the time, leading to quite a bit of in-the-house time. Luckily we had a challenging puzzle, several decks of cards and three kids who haven't played together in a year or so. The novelty of my gorgeous nephew was enough to keep my kids playing nicely almost the whole time!The fog also ensured that we could enjoy the blast of the foghorn every 30 seconds for approximately 5 days straight. Honk.
On the first full day of our vacation, the rain was coming down and the kids spent the entire day in their pajamas building forts in the "bunk room" - where no children wanted to sleep, but they all loved to play.Mid-day we found this note on the door.The guns were made of Lego, so we weren't all that concerned.
Late in the afternoon, the rain stopped and the kids (mine still in their pajamas - but with jackets) went out to explore the rocks and tide pools. They each came back with a bucket of crabs and snails and they were SO happy about it. Check out the smiles!In the morning we found that most of the snails had attempted to make a break for it and were scattered around outside of the buckets. Oops. After we gathered them all up, they were swiftly returned to the ocean.
But our big adventure was a whale-watching boat trip.Tater has some motion-sickness issues, so I was worried about his sea-worthiness and dosed him with Dramamine before the boat trip. He slept part of the way out to sea, but woke up when we got to the whale feeding area, said "A whale!" and scampered off to see.I, on the other hand, took a Dramamine just in case and totally should have taken 2 (or 3 maybe...) Luckily the whales came close enough to the boat that I could see them without standing up. And luckily Mike was taking pictures. Because standing and focusing were so totally not on my list of things to do while out on the open ocean.The next day my parents, my mother-in-law-in-law and all the kids went on another boat tour to see puffins. They really enjoyed it - but I have no pictures since I wasn't there. I was shopping in Freeport, which was very entertaining in its own way!
We set up a badminton net out front and there were several heated tournaments.Three Interesting Badminton Facts:1) I can totally smash the birdie over the head of a 6-year-old.2) Saying shuttlecock is funny no matter how old you are.3) My mom totally rocks at badminton.
Not much story here except how cute are the lobster hats?And Tater lost a tooth while we were away (see the enormous - or as he would say "hue-normous" hole in his smile) AND the tooth fairy TOTALLY found him in his bed in Maine. That is one smart fairy.Because where we were was on a point out into the ocean, there was a west-facing side that looked out over the water. This means a sunset over the water.
Of course, that only works if it isn't foggy and/or raining. My Dad went and saw an amazing sunset, but the night that we all went it was pretty much a big cloud with light around it, which was cool anyway.This is our group of grown-ups at the "sunset party" (except Mike, who took the picture). At the moment when the sun disappeared over the horizon, someone fired a cannon (an actual cannon!) before lowering their flag.Cannons are loud, especially when you aren't expecting them.
I am surprised none of us fell off the rock.
Here is the younger set enjoying the sunset - and climbing around on the rocks.I think they enjoyed the rocks as much as they do a sandy beach. With all of the climbing and exploring, they thought it was very exciting!We couldn't really swim near the house since it was freezing cold and so rocky, but we did find a "real" beach about an hour away and went there on our last day.
Here are the sandcastle builders at Reid State Park Beach.The day started out very nicely, but soon after we finished building our sandcastle, the rain started to fall and we had to high-tail it out of there.Hmmm...other highlights of the trip:1) Both kids tried lobster, and of course both liked it. Sprout, who complains bitterly when she is served chicken again, declared it to be "sort of chewy", but she will surely order it again!2) My sister-in-law taught Sprout to play double-solitaire.3) We finished a 1000 piece puzzle that was crazy hard. My brother was utterly obsessed and did most of the work.4) S'mores.
5) More fort building.6) Several highly competitive rounds of Monopoly.7) A giggly game of Rummy 500.8) A more-than-3-mile walk along the more-highwayish-than-we-thought road to the store.9) Lots of smiling.10) Quality time with our far-away people.I have to say I would totally make the Maine coast my go-to summer destination if it wasn't so very far away. The cool weather, beautiful scenery, laid-back atmosphere, smell of the ocean, cute shops...all good stuff. Just have to remember next time - more Dramamine!
It's my birthday today and despite how much I don't want to keep adding the numbers, I wouldn't want to give any of it all up, so I guess I'll keep moving forward!
I ate ice cream today - twice. So that was good. I don't think it counts on your birthday.I will be back soon with tales of what we did in Maine (which was AWESOME).But for now...this is what we found when we got back...and it was AWESOME, too!That whole "growing food from a seed" thing is TRUE!Hope you had a great day, even if it wasn't a double-ice-cream type for you!
By the time you read this, I will be here.
I mean, there.
Where the picture is.
Boothbay Harbor, Maine.I've never been to Maine before. It looks pretty, huh?My mom has decided that we need to take family vacations together again. My brother lives far away (Dallas), and we need to get the whole gang together and vacate.And we do what Mom tells us to do, so we go. We're no dummies.
The last trip was a week in Italy in 2007, which was completely awesome. The kids were just happy to have their cousin there. And a pool. They thought it was sort of amusing that they couldn't understand what people were saying. And Tater enjoyed the Carousel enough to want to go back.
This time we are staying a bit closer to home - at least in the good old USA. Although pretty much as far from Dallas as one can go and still be in the country. I wonder if there is a message in there for my brother...hmmmm. Anyway, in commemoration of this event, we decided to make t-shirts.
We went to the Dollar Store and got plain blue shirts for each child and then we got some of this (fabric paint that doesn't get weird and crunchy...and is washer safe after 72 hours...):
And some of these (letter stamps - from JoAnn Fabrics - $12.99 for the set of two sizes):
We folded the t-shirts carefully and put a piece of cardboard between the front and back to make sure the paint wouldn't bleed through. Then we painted the fabric paint ever so carefully onto the stencils, and we made these.
The kids each did their own and did a great job. They were careful about spacing the letters and making sure they were pointing the right way. Very impressive, I think!I made one for my nephew and the plan is that they will all arrive wearing these tomorrow and surprise my Mom (Nana - in case you didn't guess).
Check out the backs:
Get it? "Maine" event?
My brother is in advertising. He's my go-to tagline guy. Not that I need one that frequently. But when I do, I go to him.I am hoping this isn't one of those things my Mom will look at and say, "I don't get it."
That would suck.
But then, we will be spending the rest of the week hanging out here, so I can probably handle it either way.
Thanks for the trip, Mom! You rock!
Yay for Nanafest 2009!!
We just got home from our weekend trip to Washington DC.I promise I will tell you all about it...tomorrow...when I can keep my head up long enough to type the words before my face crashes into the keyboard...rfdgu7fhidfjnogkmhp;,ooops...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Well, no actual pinball - but Skee Ball, and video games!
Today we went to Dave & Buster's at the Plymouth Meeting Mall to meet Mike for lunch and play some games.You are probably familiar with D&Bs, but the PM location is slightly smaller and more kid-friendly than the larger clubs I have been to in Philly and Chicago.
They have a good meal-deal, you can pick one of a selected group of meals and add on a $10 or $20 "play card" for the arcade. Mike had a double-cheeseburger (with very excellent fries) and got the $20 card for a total of $23.99. Not bad.All told, I think we probably went through $40 in credits in the arcade (including some spent by Mike topping his personal best in Galaga) and ended up with about 300 prize tickets per child.
This, of course, resulted in the traditionally painful "cashing in of the tickets". Let me tell you, 300 tickets essentially gets NOTHING but some candy. And yet, my generally intelligent children felt the need to bring me every single item in the shop to see if they could afford it.
Can I get this huge stuffed animal?
Um, no...just candy.
Can I get this cheap radio?
Nope, candy.
How about this shirt?
Candy.How about...?
CANDY...ONLY CANDY!!!
It is not in my nature to encourage the aquisition of candy, but about 15 minutes in I was picking candy up and shoving it into their hands. Please...Just. Take. The. Candy.
We left D&Bs and made our way to the other end of the mall to ride on the double-decker carousel. On our way we saw the Easter Bunny going up one of the escalators - which was sort of surreal.
Tater has been anticipating the carousel for many months, ever since he expressed a desire to return to Italy (we went on vacation a couple of summers ago) so that he could ride the double-decker carousel. When I told him there was one, not only in America, but within driving distance of home, he was ready to GO!!
He enjoyed it, riding on a horse on the top, as did I. Sprout, ever the rebel, sat on a bench. Woo Hoo!
Post carousel, we visited the Dairy Queen for some treats. Gotta love DQ.
So, to get to the point here - the Plymouth Meeting Mall has turned into the boardwalk, but less sandy. Very fun. And we didn't set foot in a single store!
There is also a place called Krazy City, which looked like a knock-off of D&Bs, right next to the carousel. It isn't open yet (according to their website), but looks like it could be fun.
We left the mall around 2:30 and had to make a trip 
over to the Frazer Zoo to visit the puppies. Tater and I went there on Tuesday and met the sweetest little pug/shih-tzu mix puppy and Sprout was quite desperate to check it out.
If you are unfamiliar with the "Zoo" it is a pet shop on Rt 30 in Frazer, right near the DMV. They have a selection of puppies and bunnies and a huge assortment of fish and lizards and things.
It isn't the classiest place, but the kids LOVE to go there to see the puppies.
I know we aren't supposed to encourage the puppy trade, but they are so sweet and love to have visitors (if the tail wagging is any indication).
We have to go in there with pinky-swears and promises that everyone is aware that we are not leaving with any pets. Otherwise things just get ugly.So, we are keeping busy as Spring Break starts to wind down. We have tickets to the Hannah Montana movie for tomorrow and plans for our annual Easter Egg Eggstravaganza with our friends. Egg Hunt Saturday, another one Sunday.It was a good week. I think we might survive the summer!
On Friday night we drove about 2 hours up to the Poconos to spend the night at Great Wolf Lodge, and then on Saturday spent the day playing in their indoor water park. Lots of our friends have gone and we thought that a day of swimming would be an excellent way to celebrate Mike's birthday (which is actually today, but we have been celebrating in various guises for days...and will continue through at least this weekend!)
The room we stayed in was called a "Wolf Den" suite. The kids had bunk beds in a little "log cabin" and were set up with their own TV and game system (which unfortunately didn't work...but that was OK...)We arrived right around 6PM and after unloading our stuff, we checked out the arcade for a bit. The kids love arcades. I am more of a return-on-investment person - I want to have a lot of fun for my money and feeding tokens into games that last 10 seconds doesn't do it for me. Sort of like slot machines - which to me are like broken vending machines - money goes in, nothing comes out.But we enjoyed several rounds of Skee Ball, and the kids had a lot of fun. They each accrued about 200 prize tickets, which wasn't enough for any substantial prize, but respectable.After the playing, we went in search of dinner. After the sticker shock of the buffet, which was the only on-site dinner choice, we loaded back into the car and drove about 2 miles down the road to Friendly's. We returned to the hotel in time for Sprout and Mike to attend "The Great Clocktower Show" in the lobby. Tater opted out, since he isn't a big fan of animatronic creatures, so we went back to the room and read books. Sprout's first response when we asked how the show was was "Awesome" - but later, she said it was really creepy and weird, so apparently we made the right call in boycotting.Then it was bedtime. Tater, as the most mobile sleeper in all the land, was put on the lower bunk for his own safety. Sprout quite triumphantly claimed the top. They had a hard time getting to sleep due to the combination of a) excitement b) away from home-ness and c) children running screaming through the halls until 11PM. Rude.In the morning we passed on the in-house cuisine again in favor of a Dunkin' Donuts run. And around 10 we packed up our stuff and put it out in the car and went to the water park.
We had watched the action through the window the night before, and it was impressive from afar. But wow...it is quite the set-up!There are 6 huge water slides (some of which snake their way outside the building), a wave pool, a hot tub, and a bunch of other stuff! The kids liked the wave pool the best, but eventually warmed up to the slides and really enjoyed them. Over the course of the day, things got more crowded and there were some fairly significant lines for the slides. But they moved pretty quickly so there wasn't too much wait time.All of the big slides ended in shallow pools - the deepest was 3 1/2 feet. And since riders go in big rafts and inner-tubes, strong swimming skills were not required to ride. Lots of inner tubes were available in the wave pool as well, so the kids always felt safe. There are also lots of lifeguards on duty and safety does seem to be a big priority (as it should be!) The picture up there is of the area called Fort Mackenzie, which is a huge complex of sprinklers and buckets and hoses spraying water all over. The highlight is a HUGE bucket that holds 1000 gallons of water (!) and dumps over everything every few minutes. We were standing right under it when it dumped and oh my...that's a lot of water!We played from 10 until about 3, going back and forth between the different pools and activities. Mike took a break to have an adult beverage and watch some basketball at the bar, and the kids and I had a snack break with little corn dogs and fries (such the healthy weekend!) We passed (again) on the "real" food. (I swear I am not completely cheap, but $9 for a sandwich that a kid will probably not eat seems wrong...)When we were good and shriveled, we changed in the locker rooms (well, actually in the bathroom, since the locker rooms were monopolized by people doing a full-on makeover or something) and got ready to hit the road for home.The kids went back to the arcade to cash in their prize tickets - mostly on candy. Then we made a stop in the gift shop, which was not as horrific as those stops usually are. I think all of the waterplay exhausted the kids to the point where they were incapable of begging for every single item in the shop. They each chose a huge lollipop with an itty bitty stuffed wolf. I got a fridge magnet. Big splurge.The kids had hoped we would be able to partake of the MagiQuest game while we were there. This is a scavenger-hunt-like game where participants have electronic wands and a list of clues. The clues lead to items in the hotel and waving the wand in front of those items registers that they have been found. Apparently this is very fun. But we were out of time, so we'll have to save it for next time!We made a stop at a Perkins on the way back and had our lunch (of breakfast food) around 4...so we were quite starving. Yum...pancakes!I am sure we'll go back again. Sprout kept saying "This is the best day of my entire life" and Tater declared it to be "Awesome". I think next time we would go earlier on the first day, so that there would be time for the MagiQuest game. Guests are allowed to participate in activities on-site for the entire day of check-in and check-out - so a one-night stay could get you two solid days of playing.Great Wolf Lodge, to me, had the aura of a kid-appropriate casino. Everything is big and dramatic, you have no idea what time it is, and you rarely run out of things to do. Not cheap, but definitely worth the drive and the investment!
Our final adventure of our Jersey shore vacation was a Pirate Adventure boat trip.
Our friends had done this before and recommended it, and thank goodness they did, because the kids felt this was one of the highlights of our trip!The picture here shows Pirate Megan helping the kids chart a course (This way and down!) to find pirate treasure in the bay near Ocean City, New Jersey. The trip was just over an hour and it was full of fun and excitement, including a lengthy water battle with Pirate Pete (I think) who pulled up next to our boat and doused everyone in reach with buckets of water! Tater took cover after the initial "attack", but Sprout was a full-on participant - soaking wet and loving it!The crew was awesome, the kids were engaged and entertained the whole time. They want to go back again next year! Highly recommended! You need reservations - we called a couple of days ahead, but I am not sure it needs to be that far out. Of course their season ends tomorrow...but a great idea for next year!
We also finally finished the shoebox aquarium. Tater wanted to wait until we got home to use the blue plastic wrap, so we finished it up yesterday. Cool, huh?
A few months ago, my children started asking me when they could go fishing. Where this request came from is a mystery, as neither I, nor my other half, has ever fished (or honestly, wanted to). I think they were remembering that a couple of years ago when we were at the beach (as we are this week) we saw some people fishing. And I guess knowing that we were coming back to the beach made them want to try it out? Who knows.Anyway, I said "We'll see", as I often do. And then I saw these sets of fishing gear for kids at Target. And for that moment it seemed like a fun and do-able thing. All those funky little lures, hooks, rubber fish. Fun! So I bought them, and I stashed them in the closet. And when we were packing for the beach I got them out and brought them along. The rubber hit the road this morning as, for the 5,000th time, Sprout asked when we were going fishing. It was a little chilly out, too windy for the beach. So today it was.We put the rods together, got out the (very scary) hooks - we used the ones that look like little feather bugs. Right for the conditions? Who knows.Bait? Hot dogs. Cut up small-ish. Not in a big hurry to invest in a stash of worms.So we went a couple of blocks over to the bay, where people were lined up fishing. And a little bitty girl had just caught a itty bitty-ish fish. So the kids were all excited. Me, not so much. I have this tendency to anticipate the potential dangerous repercussions of any activity (I worked at DuPont for 5 years - they beat this kind of thinking into you). So putting sharp objects into the hands of children that they will FLING into the air, heart-stoppingly close to other people. Not my idea of a good time.Hot dogs on, and the casting began. Once we figured out what button had to be pushed to let the string (line?) loose, we were good to go. Sprout is a decent caster. Tater wasn't actually allowed to do it himself, but he was a good helper.The little bobber thing kept floating right back over to the dock that we were standing on, so lots of recasting (flying sharp things) was required. Big fun.The fish stole our hot dogs.Then the guy next to us (with the itty bitty fish-catching child) offered us his left-over squid to use as bait. Said the fish liked it.I don't know what I expected when I opened the squid box. Fried calamari rings? But it was squid. Like whole, tentacle-wearing squid. In a box. Horrifying.
I don't even like to touch raw chicken. And I have to rip a chunk off of a squid and stick it on a hook? Luckily I had brought scissors (expecting to have to cut a fish loose if we were lucky enough to catch it). I managed to minimize finger contact with the squid and get it hooked on. I am not sure I will recover from that.
The fish did like the squid. Took it right off the hooks. Yum.
We never caught anything. But the kids are interested in when we can try fishing again. I am thinking when they are old enough to cut up their own squid.
Today we are working on a shoebox aquarium. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a couple of the "ingredients" to the beach, so it won't be done until we return. And I also forgot the USB cable for my camera, so I can't post a picture of the work in progress. Not such a good packer.Anyway - we cut rectangular holes in the top and bottom of a shoe box - leaving a frame of box around both sides. We lined the box with blue tissue paper and hung pieces of green tissue in wavy, seaweedy strips from the top of the box (for seaweed).The fish are all colored on thin cardboard and then cut out and decorated with glitter glue. Kids LOVE glitter glue. Totally addictive. We just glittered the second side and we are waiting for them to dry. Then we are going to hang the fish in the box with embroidery floss (fishing line might be better...we'll see). The final touch is to cover the sides with plastic wrap (preferably blue). I have blue at home, but we might settle on the clear for the sake of closure.Sprout made one hugenormous fish, and one teeny one. Tater made a whole bunch of little ones. Should be cool when it is done.We are also collecting shells for our other craft...but we aren't ready yet!We went to the Cape May County Park & Zoo today. A free zoo which is actually very cool with a bunch of interesting animals.
We are going to go looking for a boogie board after dinner. Sprout was the queen of the surf yesterday, on a borrowed board.
Tater feels strongly that he needs another hermit crab. Apparently Hermie is not sufficiently entertaining. Maybe if we had two they would start to salsa dance or something.
We are at the beach. On the border of Avalon and Stone Harbor. Technically Avalon, but much closer to downtown Stone Harbor.Yesterday the kids went swimming in the pool at our condo. Then we went out for pizza, miniature golf, and ice cream. All the good beach stuff!Tater has had his heart set on a hermit crab since our Ocean City adventure last week. He brought some of his birthday money specifically for this purpose. Scoped out the 5 & 10 last night to make sure they had them.When I told him we could go back today to get the crab, he suggested that we could get up to see the sun rise, and then trot right on over to pick up the crab. The reality was that we went after the beach, the pool, and lunch.He picked out one in a blue shell and got three extra shells: one painted to look like a soccer ball, one with a skull and crossbones, and an understated natural tan (for formal occasions, I guess).He didn't have a name picked out. Wanted to "meet" the crab before deciding. The final verdict is that he is Hermie. Never was a little boy happier than Tater bringing Hermie home.I think it might all be downhill from here.Not really, we have lots of big plans - including two beach crafts. I'll keep you posted!
We had a great time in Florida visiting our friends. It was super hot, but we spent lots of time in their beautiful pool!We visited the Myakka River State Park and went on a boat ride to see alligators. Unfortunately, it is too hot in August to actually see any alligators, as they apparently migrate to the bottom of the lake, so we saw the eyeballs of one alligator (which is pretty much enough alligator for me, and yet a little disappointing).We also visited the Mote Aquarium, which is our third visit there. The kids loved seeing the manatees (which are HUGE) and the dolphins.Of course, if you asked what they liked best about either of those trips, they would say the gift shops...where they carefully budgeted out their $5 souvenir fund and came home with all sorts of fun things - slap bracelets with snakes on them, glass animals, paper fans, bouncy balls...they had quite the time unveiling each item for their Daddy this evening!We also spent yesterday on the beach at Siesta Key, which was very fun despite repeated incidents of sand-in-the-eye which caused us to use all of our drinking water rinsing little screaming faces...boo!We highly recommend visiting the Sarasota area - and if you prefer to travel light, you should definitely contact our friends at A to Z Baby and Beach Rentals - they provided us with everything from booster seats to a beach cart and are the nicest people ever! Personal service and great, new equipment!
The kids are off from camp this week, and I haven't made a plan...oh how I wish there was someone who would just provide on for me (see how I plant that idea...subliminal...very clever...)
Our projects for today were in preparation for our trip to Florida. We leave tomorrow morning, so I probably won't be checking back in until Monday.We made "Flats" - Flat Sprout, Flat Tater, and Flat Mommy - to send with our Daddy on his trip to Connecticut. He made us a Flat Daddy to take to Florida. Pictures to come when we return.We also made a LOT of trail mix. Goldfish, pretzels, Wheat Chex, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, M&Ms, raisins and a little Peanut Butter Crunch and Pops thrown in for good measure. This is going to be our on-the-plane snack. We also have a big bag of lollipops and bubble gum (Tater has ear pressure issues). By the time we arrive in Florida, my children will be on turbo.
Our DVD player is charged. The kids have packed about 30 movies (for our 2 hour flight). We have a DS and a GameBoy. Suduko. Books.
Florida here we come!
I have been trying to make some plans for what to do with the kids during the LONG week of Winter Break. Hoping to catch up with some friends, maybe do some ice skating. And then I found out about this great deal for tickets for Disney on Ice!
Disney On Ice presents Let’s Celebrate! It’s one colossal party on ice, with all your favorite Disney friends! Enjoy a winter wonderland with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, a Halloween haunt with the Disney Villains, a Very Merry Unbirthday Party, a Royal Ball with the Disney Princesses and more in a magical medley of holidays, celebrations and festivals from around the globe.
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