The Friendly Skies

I'm going to ignore the fact that I've been such a slacker at blogging (and at life in general) because, well, these are the lazy days of summer. I'm just moving on to a long-overdue Disney download....

Here are 2 of my basic rules of motherhood:
1. There is nothing so attractive as a mom on the phone or on the computer or in the bathroom.
And,
2. Kids who otherwise fight will play nicely when a) the threat of bedtime looms overhead and/or b) they think they are "getting away" with something (like jumping on the bed).
And now, I have something to add to rule #2: kids will also play nicely... when on a plane to DISNEY!! (The flight back home does not fall under this rule, by the way, but I'm sure you could've surmised that on your own.)
Yup, the kids were so thrilled to be headed to Mouseville that they were willing to share juice, share iPod headphones, the whole kit-and-kaboodle. Apparently though, Keira draws the line at sharing princess stickers.
Anyway, the flight down went better than I thought. This was Quinn's first flight and he was just wide-eyed and full of wonder. I could hear the businessmen behind us getting a chuckle out of his awe....."Mom - we are backing up!.....Oh my gosh, we are going faster.....We're flying! We're flying! This is it!....[calmer voice, head tilted] Aw mom, this is better than I even imagined!" I thought I had my cuteness overload right there and then. And we weren't even out of Indiana farmland yet!

I won't give you the blow by blow of our 8 day vacation. At least not all at one time. But I will share this tidbit: Downtown Disney is not necessarily a good idea on Day 1. See, we got down there Friday afternoon and the rest of the clan wasn't coming until the next day. We weren't going to start using our park pass until everyone arrived, so we headed to DTDisney to eat (Rainforest Cafe "too loud too loud" per Keira....of course, she'd go on to say that same phrase another 1,289 times during the stay, but that's another story) and to look around. Well, if you've ever been to DTD, you'll know that next to eating, pretty much to only other thing to do there is shop. Of course, there is Cirque du Soleil and Pleasure Island and stuff, but we have little ones. Anyway, the shopping. Oh, the shopping. Everything Disney. Everything supremely appealing to the preschool set. And, if you are like us (and another 28 sets of parents I heard along the way), you probably were telling your kids that "We're just looking...there's so much to see...you can look it over and decide what you want and we'll buy something at the end of the trip....blahblahblah..." In preschoolese, this translates to no-no-no-no....which results is whining. Begging. And other assorted undesirable actions.

Of course, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. But I was already tired of saying "Not yet, sweetie; we'll buy something later"...and we hadn't even slept once in Florida! On the upside, it was good practice for the rest of the week, especially since, as I found, Dis seems to love love love having you exit rides smack-dab into the middle of a store. Marketing geniuses they are.

Anyway, the trip was a whole lot of fun. My kiddos were in heaven, which seems to have this formula: grandparents + cousins + sunny Florida + Mickey and friends. Mix well. Enjoy daily.

Oh, and just as Quinn loved flying, Keira loved Disney transportation....no car seat! That was part of her heavenly equation. She always tried to position herself by grandpa and a shiny silver pole. "Kiki hold tight" she'd say, grinning like the Cheshire cat all the while.

And for now, we close with these photos........

Prince Charming with my princess (one of the few characters she'd let get close).

And Cinderella with my prince charming.

If only we could bottle the magic and bring it home. Maybe then I'd have more than 3 things to list under rule #2!