Downtown Disney

On Thursday we went to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.

It was such a fun place to eat! The kids loved the moving animals and the thunderstorm that came around every 30 minutes. Dark skies, thunder, lighting, rain - so cool.

And of course, they were excited to see their cousins.

After lunch we visited the Lego Shop, which was right behind the Rainforest Cafe. The lineup to pay was literally out the door. On the way back to the van Brett said, I had no idea Lego was so popular!

Good-bye, March Break. Hello, Spring!

We arrived home about 3:00 PM today.

While I can't say we're glad to be home from vacation, I think it is safe to say we're glad to be out of the van.

Some hi-lights from the trip:

• Stocking up on Cinnamon Goldfish before leaving the US. Those things are so good! And addictive.
• Finding a great hotel to stay at (with a pool!), despite the weddings, conventions, and soccer tournaments that were going on in the entire area where we needed to stop last night. Scott gets all the credit.
• Stopping at a Game Store to buy two new DS games for the kids that bought us approximately 11 hours of peace on the drive home. Another one of Scott's good ideas.
• Listening to Clara pretend to talk to Grandma on the phone in her carseat.
• Nathan falling asleep less than 15 seconds after laying his tired head down on the pillow last night.
• Starting a new John Grisham novel which really helped the time in the car to fly by.
• Clara answering all of the border guards questions. She just can't comprehend any situation where she isn't the centre of attention.
• Coming home and seeing that the snow had melted and the kids on our street were out playing hockey in their t-shirts. I think Spring may finally be here!

Some not-so-fun parts of the trip:

• Clara throwing up in Arby's in front of a group of 6 couples enjoying a lovely weekend brunch together. They were very nice about it. Clara seemed to be feeling fine within minutes, so I'm pretty sure it was car sickness.

I also want to mention that the restaurant had carpet in the entire eating area. Seriously, I felt horrible about Clara getting sick in there, but carpet? Really??

• When a beautiful, dark grey cat jumped over the median and ran in front of our van. Scott did a good job of keeping us in the lane after the impact, considering there was a bit of traffic around us. But it was heart-breaking for everyone, especially Scott.

More Florida pictures to follow... But now I'm off to read some more Grisham before I fall asleep.

The Magical World of Disney

We took the kids to Disney World on Tuesday.

Here are my personal tips, learned from our one day at the Magic Kingdom:

{Disclaimer: I am the least experienced Disney vacationer ever. So please, if you are looking for real tips on how to experience Disney, I wouldn't make this your number one resource.}

1. Go early.

We arrived in time to see the "Opening Ceremonies" and the rope drop first thing in the morning.

I definitely recommend this, as you can do so much in those first couple of hours before the park gets busy.

2. Get a double stroller.

I thought Scott was overdoing it when he went to rent a double stroller, but it came in handy as Nathan not only didn't want to walk most of the time, but actually ended up falling asleep later in the stroller. And we used it to hold the backpack and cameras too.

Clara was also in a stroller. Unfortunately, she wasn't keen on the falling asleep part... until the drive home. Of course.

She did like this Marching Band that was entertaining us while we waited for the big kids and Scott to come out from a show.

The band was amazing! Which leads me into the next tip...

3. The bands, shows, music, and parade are awesome. The rides may appeal to many, but the shows are my favourite.

As a kid, I remember making fun of my Mom when she thought Space Mountain was scary. And she would never have gone on the ride in the first place, except she was kind of tricked into it.

So this week when I voluntarily took my kids to the same ride, and then proceeded to scream the entire time because I was scared to death, I felt a deep connection to and a new level of understanding for my Mom.

I used to love going on the craziest, highest, most upside-down roller coasters and now I get queasy when I ride on Dumbo the Elephant.

Am I turning into my mother?

Uh, let's just get back to the Disney tips...

4. If you want to be in Nathan's good books, don't spin the wheel too much on the Tea Cup ride.

For the record, I was counter-spinning JD and Samantha's crazy wheel-spinning. (See Tip #3)

5. Get a really good, front row spot to watch the parade.

You might have to save your spot super early, but getting some popsicles and a turkey leg can help to pass the time.

Scott had been waiting for 7 years to try one of these famous Disney Turkey Legs.

6. If you go to Disney during the busy season, you have to wait in long lines to see the Characters, especially the really popular characters.

The lines for rides can be discouraging too. So if you get a chance to go during low season, take it. Don't be like us and go during March Break.

7. Get a family photo.

You can never have to many of these. And your kids might smile and look at the camera better when someone else takes it.

8. Remember that you don't have to see and do everything in one day.

It's about making memories and having fun together as a family.

Driving to Summer

We woke up at 4:30 AM on Friday morning to leave for our drive down to Orlando. The night before we had been hit with yet another snow storm. The snow and ice was so bad that all the school buses were cancelled.

I guess it's great when your March Break starts a whole day early, but the fact that it was due to snow is a little depressing.

But not for us. We were headed to Florida. We were "driving into summer" as Nathan pointed out about halfway through Georgia.

The first day was long but uneventful. Lots of music, movies, ds playing, snacks, bathroom stops, and a little (but not too much) whining; the usual for a family of seven on a road trip.

The hotel we stayed at was a welcome break from the confines of the minivan.

Clara - showing us how she really felt about the 14 hour drive.

The kids were so excited to swim in the pool!

Then it was bath time and pj's.

The next morning we were off early and some of us needed to catch up on sleep.

Everyone travelled really well. Even Clara, who wasn't feeling well before and during the trip. She's doing great now though. The blue skies, sunshine, and warm weather all week really seemed to help.

Preschool - T Day

We hosted preschool this morning. Here's what we did to have some fun with the letter "T".

I had a wall full of T words and each word had an activity to do.

train - We built a train track with Geotrax and all the accessories. We also put together a large train puzzle one the floor.

tower - We built a tall tower with mega blocks.

tent - We turned off all the lights and went on a campout in our tent with some flashlights.

teddy bears - We played a teddy bear toss game, where the basket got further away on each round.

triangles - We made triangle art. We glued different sizes and colours of triangles onto cardstock.

turtle - We painted the back of a paper plate green and made a turtle craft with it. We had buttons or googles for the eyes and green cardstock for the heads, arms, and legs.

We also did some singing, had snack time, and worked on our Workbook sheets (printing and numbers) and that was all the time we had.

Next time we host it will be with the letter "W". If you have any fun ideas for this letter, please send them my way!

Recipe: Cinnamon Buns

I think it's safe to say that Cinnamon Buns are a family favourite around here. I love the smell of cinnamon buns in the oven, and to me they smell every bit as delicious as they taste.

I used to make the dough in the bread machine. Before I baked the buns, I made a delicious brown sugar caramel sauce which baked in the bottom of the pan.

The one drawback to my old cinnamon bun recipe is that it only makes about 12 rolls. They are quite large, so you could make 16-18 small rolls, but I was finding the need to make larger batches.

I knew I needed to ditch the bread machine and make the dough from scratch.

My sister came to the rescue when she gave me Pioneer Woman's Cookbook for Christmas one year.

Included in the cookbook was a recipe that makes 4-5 dozen Cinnamon Buns.

I realize that may sound like a lot. But between Scott and the kids, friends, family, neighbours, my Sunday school class, etc. this is pretty much the amount I need to make every time.

And there are never leftovers.

You can find PW's Recipe here.

And some additional tips from PW here.

For the icing, I use vanilla and extra milk in place of the coffee, since we are not coffee drinkers. This substitution tastes great and the icing really does melt right into the hot rolls.

Try this recipe. You won't regret it.

She Decided to Give Me a Taste of My Own Medicine

Yesterday while I was on the phone with our cable company, Clara found a bottle of Febreeze.

By the time I hung up she had sprayed it all over the hardwood floors, dining chairs and table, cabinets, and laptop cords.

You think with all that spraying, she would have managed to hit some type of fabric, but no.

I put her in a time out and started cleaning up the mess.

Pretty soon I heard Clara disciplining me from her chair:

Mommy! You go to bed right now!

You be grumpy! You go to your crib right now!

Okay?!

You really grumpy and you go to bed. You go to time out!

1... 2... 3!

Okay! You go to time out right now!

Learning to Bake

Samantha is looking forward to being old enough to babysit. Last week she decided she needed to practice by learning how to make cookies.

She made two batches of chocolate chip cookies, one on Friday night and one on Saturday.

I let her make them pretty much on her own, although I helped out with the oven.

Those of you who know me will know how hard it was for me to stand by and watch. I tend to be a teeny-tiny bit controlling in the kitchen.

Okay, I may have scraped down the bowl once or twice.

And I may have watched hawkishly over her shoulder to make sure that no egg shells dropped in by accident.

But I resisted every urge to take over completely and do everything my way.

Samantha was quite proud of her cookies.

Sorry, no photos of the finished product. We were all too busy eating them to go get the camera.

What Happened to Our Skating Rink

Nathan's Week So Far

Nathan hasn't been feeling well.

He must be pretty ill because he hasn't asked to play Super Mario on the Wii all week, which is unheard of around here.

Today as I went to take his temperature, he said to me:

Mom, I have a little fever. I need medicine. Please get me some medicine.

But not too much. Too much medicine will make me die.

Reminds me of the time when he was only one year old and he managed to get his hands on a bottle of Adult Extra Strength Tylenol.

Not only that, but he managed to remove the childproof lid as well.

I found him pretty quickly, as I had heard the bottle shaking from downstairs, but had no way of knowing exactly how much he had ingested. All I could see was a pile of pills dumped out on the carpet and Nathan's hands and mouth covered in white slobber from the whatever medication he had chewed up.

Scott rushed him to the hospital, where they administered charcoal. His diapers were not pretty for a while afterwards. But that was a small price to pay for his safe return home a couple of hours later.

Definitely not one of my better memories. Perhaps I needed a reminder of the precious and fragile nature of life.

I look forward to seeing Nathan back to his cheerful, energetic - if somewhat rambunctious - self very soon.

Kub Kar Rally

Brett had a great time designing and creating his KubKar.

He did everything except for the cutting of the wood.

The Wednesday before the big race, Brett's Cub Pack had their own pre-rally rally. Brett came in 2nd! He also won the award for Best Use of Colour.

Saturday was the city-wide race. Brett did fairly well in each of his 6 heats. He even placed 2nd in one of them. He placed 3rd or 4th in most of the others.

On the way home from the rally he was already planning next year's car.

Nana's Birthday

Nana celebrated her birthday last week. We were happy she had a doctor's appointment at the hospital, so she and Papa had an excuse to come over for dinner and cake.

We love you Nana!