Too much caffeine at 5am makes you wake up at 7am & blog about the night before

What a long night!

We had everything packed & ready to go by 11:30 last night.  We were ready to head out to Orlando for the weekend..all we needed was for Future Headache to come back from Busch Gardens Grad Night.  The busses were to roll in between 12:30-12:45 am.  Since being instructed NOT to be late picking her up, we left at midnight & parked & waited.

And waited. (1am)

And waited (1:30am).



Slightly before 2am, I had corralled my very awake & super hyper middle-schooler-for-6-more-weeks.  She informed us of all the night's events which made driving so late at night easy for me ;)  Finally, pulling into our hotel just before 4am, we were checked in, parked, car unpacked and headed to our room.  We were excited, as the hotel has a mini-golf course thru the courtyard, basketball hoops, and our room was facing the pool...the kids were excited.  All we needed now was to get some sleep.

Well, at least I thought we were.

When we tried to unlock the door to our room, the key worked, but the inside latch was locked.  Was someone in that room?  Scared that someone might freak out on us, we pulled the door shut & ran back over by the stairs.  I called the front desk & they asked me to come back to the lobby. Ugh.  If this was a premonition on what the weekend was going to be like, I was not going to be happy.

I drive up there(and yes, left everyone else sitting on the sidewalk with ALL of our stuff) and put on my "Hey, I realize its 4am & I have been in a car since MIDNIGHT, but everyone makes mistakes" smile.  Holy cow did it work.

I asked the man if there was anyway to put me in a room in the same building since we had already unloaded & he looks at me like I am insane.  He then says....

"Ma'am, I have already made you new keys.  We upgraded you to the Tower Suites."

Ummm....ok ;)

Can you say "Be still my heart???"  An upgrade?  A free upgrade??

Needless to say, everyone repacked the car & we set off to find a new parking spot & check out our new room.  Maybe I will get to touch Davy Jones after all this weekend!

Super Family Fun Weekend 2010 pt 1

What a whirlwind weekend!

Itinerary:

Saturday - Future Headache's Football Game, Magic Kingdom, Hotel

Sunday - Space Shuttle Launch, Epcot, Superbowl

If you could define a perfect weekend, this would have been the one. For one thing, my house was clean & everyone was packed (including the car) by Friday night!! That itself is an extreme rarity! (you can read about past OCD issues here).

After Future Headache's phenomenal game(read here), we were off to Magic Kingdom. Granted, after all the trips I make there, a normal person may not be as excited as I was. There was another photo lesson to be taught..this time ACTION! So, after the standard & customary Move It Shake It, the rest of the group & I headed off. It was cold & windy...so we hit Pirates of the Caribbean. For once, we were thankful there was a LINE! After PotC, we met up with the rest of the gang over by the Crystal Palace. Thanks to the refurbs being done at that time, most of the area was blocked off. So, that beautiful little area that overlooks the castle was pretty much dead(think..great spot for fireworks!) We love finding new angles to watch the fireworks from.

So while we held our seats, we just had fun. Princess Peanut ran around the circle area there & sang songs. Patriotic music played in the background with twinkling lights surrounding us.  Later on(we waited for about an hour), I did send some of the troops over for a Waffle Bowl Ice Cream Sundae from the The Plaza Ice Cream Shop. Can you say excited children?? Watching them sit around this one dish of ice cream... and before you can say " 1 bowl?", there was a reason for that....seeing the sharing... laughing... talking... was priceless.

Just before fireworks started, I got a text from a friend, Michelle (<---follow her on twitter!) that I have not seen since 8th grade. Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected with most of my gradeschool friends. She was in the park, too. She & her family made their way over to where we were & watched fireworks with us. It was so neat to reconnect during such a magical moment!! Luckily, they are local (& passholders!) so we will meet up again -next time to ride Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Disney is such a great place ;)

We decided to leave after fireworks, since we were driving over to the Space Coast st 2am. Originally, we were at Epcot, so we had to take the monorail back there for our car. As luck would have it, we boarded at just the right time. By the time the monorail was pulling into Epcot, we rode thru the park on the monorail during Illuminations. I have been wanting to try that for a while! While missing the music, it was still a great sight!

What a great night!

OH! & I found a penny...heads UP!

My Give A Day, Get A Disney Day Adventure

In 2010, Disney will celebrate the efforts of 1 million people by giving away a 1 day park ticket in exchange for a day of volunteer service. Kicking this event off on January 1st, the site was *flooded* by people all looking for volunteer events they could sign up for. I will admit that I was one of those..desperate to find something that my entire family could participate in. Needless to say, I was very disappointed the first few days, not being able to find anything local. Even more disappointing was notes I was reading from others on Twitter, expressing the same frustrations. :( So close to giving up, I decided to wait a week.

Going back to the site a week later, I did some "in-depth" searching & stumbled upon the Gus A Stavros Institute Finance Park & Enterprise Village events. (Enterprise Village is a real-life, job & financial learning experience for 5th graders & Finance Park is geared for 8th graders) Well, just so happens that I have an 8th grader & that I was already signed up to volunteer for this event. Talk about luck!! Granted, this didn't accommodate my whole family, but I was excited to get in!! I called a friend of mine who also wanted to do a volunteer event & we were signed up together.

Having all the kids that I do, I have been to these field trips many times. I was given a group of students and was there to help them budget their finances & buy a house & car and try to experience some of the monthly financial budgeting we have to do as adults. I was lucky enough that Future Headache allowed me to eat lunch with her & even let me get my picture with her! What a lucky mom I am...lol.

There were a few other volunteers there as well, volunteering for Disney tickets :) These people were excited, planning on using their tickets for the Flower & Garden Festival, Star Wars Weekends & just regular visits.

After this, I decided I needed to find a volunteer event for the rest of the family. The Boy was lucky enough that his play group, Actors Reaching Out, signed up to act out The Little Mermaid for an after school care program. The rest of the family is signed up to help clean up after a ADA fundraising race. Of course, I will be participating again, but thats ok. We are just happy to be a part of this experience!

If you have not yet signed up for something, I encourage you to keep looking! It really is a rewarding experience..especially when you can do it together as a family!

My Family

OK, I am ready to get this blog rolling :)

Before I start, since there are so many of us, I should probably introduce everyone. That way, as you follow along, you'll know who I am talking about! 

The Boy-

DS just recently turned 18. Graduated high school & starting to really develop an appreciation for Disney at a deeper level. He holds true to the original concepts of Disney, loves the Mouse, and all history behind it. His all time favorite - Jack Skellington & anything Nightmare :)

Mini-Me-

DD1 is just about 15(in 11 days) and is a carbon copy of me. Do you know what it is like to argue with a teenage version of your current self?? Not so much an adventurist, but more of an appreciative soul, she too loves the parks and can't wait to celebrate her "Fantastic 15th Flip-Floppin' Birthday Fiasco" at the parks. Her fave...Marie from the Aristocats. Quite fitting...lol

Future Headache-

DD2 is 13, almost 14(in December) and is exactly what her name says. She is my adventurer...my free spirit...my little spitfire. While very close to DD1, (almost twin-like) she is totally different. Will ride just about any ride at all... Her favorite...Chip & Dale

Peanut-

DD4 is brand new 2. Also known as Princess Peanut when she feels like wearing her tiara, which is quite often. She also has more than one, so they match whatever she is wearing. She is quite the leader, often dictating which way to go at the parks. Yes, at 2, she has her favorites. Her since-day 1-fave...Piglet.

Well, now you have met our Disney crazed family. I hope this helps.