Fun and sun were had by all!

We had a full week of fun at my parents’ timeshare (thanks, Mom and Dad), complete with hours and hours of swimming by the pool, ice cream eating, and watching cable TV.

We also met the Mouse. If you’ve met the Mouse, you know that it’s an expensive venture. We were on the fence about doing it,  as I’m sure many parents are, because if your kid wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, you may as well have set fire to a couple of  hundred dollar bills and call it a day. (I wrote about the money aspect of our Disney visit at Persephone this week)

Guess what? The kids woke up on the RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED.

We got there in plenty of time to see the welcoming show and see Mickey open the park.

We met thirteen different characters, including three princesses, Mary Poppins, Woody & Jessie. They signed our autograph books and gave hugs and made the kids feel like a million bucks.

We rode fifteen rides, MaM rode three of them twice. There were no lines, the crowds were thin and navigating the park was easy.

We had a sit down lunch, which was perfect for cooling off and taking a  breather during the heat of the day.

We were actually able to stay through until the park’s fireworks finale.

A week later, the kids are still talking about it.

I love vacation.

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A Flashback: FALL 2008 Junior is more likely kick, rather than sit, on a pumpkin these days

Updated 10/23/10: This giveaway is now closed and the winner is Shelby! Thanks for playing, Shelby look for an email from me.

Five is apparently the age where you start understanding that a break from school is an anticipated event. Sunday night I was talking to MaM and she figured it out — “So I go to school for two days and then there’s FIVE at home days? That’s awesome!” And she’s been counting down ever since.

We’ve got some fun things planned — a visit to the Children’s Museum, a visit to Conner Prairie for the Headless Horseman, and a quick getaway to Brown County and the Columbus Children’s Museum. We’re even hoping to squeeze in a trip to a pumpkin patch (this week’s Savvy deal), and then there’s Trunk or Treat at church on Sunday. Phew. Should be fun!

In the spirit of all that is fall, I had the chance to preview a Taking the Scary Out of Halloween Kit by children’s author, Joy Berry. It’s a fun kit that includes glow sticks (one that’s a necklace! with a whistle!),  a fun projection flashlight and book about Halloween. The kids have had a great time with the flashlight (are mine the only ones who are constantly playing in the dark bathroom? what? they are?), and the book is a good one. It’s filled with safety tips and also some good manners lessons that can make Trick or Treating go more smoothly. The book also has fun stickers and Halloween activities.

Want to win a Halloween Safety Kit of your own? Leave a comment here, telling me your fall break plans or a costume idea or whatever you feel is seasonally appropriate  and I’ll randomly choose a winner sometime on Friday!

Happy Fall Break, Everyone!

(Disclosure: Joy Berry Books sent me a Halloween Safety Kit to review. Note: the first flashlight was jostled and broken during shipping, but its replacement arrived undamaged and worked great!)

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Cheerios® is giving you the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, your ultimate family vacation. As part of a paid promotion for their “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, Cheerios® is sponsoring my post today about what my ultimate family vacation would be. Read mine, Enter the Sweepstakes for a chance to actually win your own fantasy family trip or one of a bunch of other great prizes.

I learned early on as a new mom that vacation with kids typically isn’t a vacation — it’s a family trip. A family trip means travel, means family, means fun, means memories, but it’s not a vacation for mom. Suitcases need to be packed, children need to be entertained while traveling, and upon arrival? Oh my — there’s the sleeping away from home issue, the eating away from home issue and the pottying away from home issue. That’s a lot of issues for a 5day/6night adventure. My line of thinking is this — for it to be a real vacation at this point, it needs to be all-inclusive. And there needs to be on-site childcare so that at some point in the trip there is an actual vacation. I’ve concluded then, that our ultimate vacation would be an Alaskan Cruise.

Why Alaska? I don’t need to be paranoid about sunscreen, and I think seeing that part of the country would be amazing. I imagine it would be a National Geographic issue come to life — educational, breath-taking, interesting, and fun all in one swoop. The kids would swoon at the wildlife, I would swoon at the lack of housekeeping and cooking for which I’d be responsible, and I think it would be a win-win all around. The four of us would be able to have a lot of family time exploring what the ship had to offer, as well as swimming, sharing meals, and enjoying entertainment when we weren’t on excursions. I would make no beds. I would make no meals. I might even spring for the housekeeping staff to do our laundry. That, my friends, would be a real vacation! Where would you go??

Don’t forget to enter the “Do What You Love” Sweepstakes, for a chance to win your own ultimate family vacation. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

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Even when the sun isn’t out, there is a terrific glare off the snow. I’m counting that as sunlight for my sanity.

So it’s only natural that summer dreams have been developing this week. Remember summer? Remember warm? Remember sunshine?

The gals at Grown in My Heart have made a plan for summer–we are going to BlogHer ’10 in NYC. We’d like to get a slot in the Room of Their Own program–where we’d be the panel and discuss the delicate nature of sharing your family life and reproductive challenges on the Internet.

If you have two seconds, please click through here, and vote for our proposal: http://www.blogher.com/room-of-your-own-10

You do need a BlogHer account, and once you’ve signed in, please vote for us. We’d appreciate it…..and if you’re going to BlogHer ’10, give a shout out!

Here are few flashbacks to a warmer, gentler time:

It was sooo hot the day we saw Niagra Falls, the plastic ponchos were a bit much!

The water was so warm in the Atlantic this was a sunset splash. SO WARM OUTSIDE!

Look! The Fox is wearing a romper. Not pants. He's wearing sunscreen. He's sitting on this stuff called grass. Haven't seen grass since January...

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I’ve been at my parents’ house since Thursday…a longish visit these days. Besides getting some quality time with family, this time around we’ve been able to be “tourists” and see a slice of Northwest Indiana/Southeastern Michigan that we drive through but never see.

Friday night, we went to Redamak’s and bit into a legend. How good are the burgers? So good that MAM ate her entire cheeseburger, with not prodding from me. That never happens. We also took a long walk around the New Buffalo beach and got our toes wet.

Saturday morning, we visited Ragtops, a small car museum. Car enthusiasts would probably be in awe. As it was, it was fun to walk around, and amazing to see how big some of these cars were (and how so many were lacking in seat belts!)

Saturday afternoon, we visited (and climbed) Mount Baldy, part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It’s gorgeous, clean and so-not crowded. The only downside is that from the water, the bathrooms are basically a 10 minute hike away. Our friends and family all had a ball there–and BgK and I are trying to figure out when, exactly, we can make it back. It’s a three hour drive from home, but so incredibly worth it.

Monday morning, we went to the Washington Park Zoo. All of the above pictures were taken there, at their River Otter exhibit (with a tunnel, so you can crawl under where the otters are swimming, and at the playground, where you can slide like river otter…) For a small zoo, they have an amazing collection of animals, and the exhibits are set up so that even a four year old can see most of them without having to be held up. You are really up close to the animals, which both kids loved. Also, there were no vendors hawking face painting, tattoos, hair braids or anything else as you walked through the zoo. There were no “extra” tickets to purchase, no trains or 3-D movies or carousels to distract from seeing the animals. For young kids, a total gem of a place.

Today we arrived home, and have a few days of normal….then it’s on to the next (and sadly, last) summertime adventure!

(we also celebrated birthdays…but that’s in a post yet to be written)

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So here’s something I’ve noticed about my hubby: he can’t resist being near tourist attractions/sites to see. He loves side trips and detours. We “stopped by” Washington, D.C. on our way home from the Outer Banks last year. We drove around his old Boy Scout campground on the drive up to our honeymoon condo. We stopped at the Mormon city of Nauvoo, IL on our way home from Missouri a few years ago. So it came as no surprise that he had a few places to see on our way home from Atlantic City. 

Monday we left after a lovely breakfast with family. We drove directly to Philly, where we got out of the car to do “the Rocky steps”. You know, the scene in Rocky where he runs up the steps during training? Turns out, it’s the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And we were driving right by it…..

BgK had prepped MAM with a YouTube video, and she reinacted 

the scene with gusto. You can’t really see her in front of the building, but she’s sitting there. The building? Is HUGE. She looked sooo tiny sitting on the tip top step. She climbed down carefully, and then she gave Rocky the statue a big hug!! 

After leaving Philly, we hauled van on the PA Turnpike (as much as one can on the oldest highway ever), and made it close to the state line. 

The next day, we hit the wide open spaces of Ohio (so, so, welcome after the crazy mountains of PA and the narrow highways and the ridiculous tolls), and we stopped of in Dayton to visit the Air Force Museum. 

 BgK and MAM loved all the big airplanes, and Junior and I enjoyed the Bob Hope exhibit/movie while he ate. It was a quick trip–we made it there just an hour before closing time. Admission is free, and it’s only about 2 hours from home, so I think we’ll be returning at some point. 

The last leg of the trip was uneventful, we did have to make a pit stop between Dayton and home, and MAM was thrilled that the truck stop sold bananas at the register. $2 later, we each had a banana (she was asking for fruit, and wanted to share, and hey, it’s not candy….) for the last bit of the drive. 

We pulled in around 8, unloaded the van and returned it to the rental place. I’ve been unpacking, doing laundry, and recovering ever since!

P.S. If you haven’t already, please tell me your wedding song on this post. Inquiring minds want to know, and the comments that are there are fun!

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Our little fall vacation/road trip went swimmingly well, and now we are back home. I had all sorts of good intentions to post on the road (thus the test of blogger mobile), but that sort of fell by the way side as road trip fun took over. 

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Thursday we flew to JFK, had a gut-wrenching car ride (crazy New York drivers!) to 8th Avenue and checked into our midtown hotel. We got an envelope thick with cash for the weekend, and got whisked away for dinner (with the competition, Hallmark, and the promotions company). Everyone involved was down to earth and fun, so it was good time, and the competition wasn’t fierce or anything.

Friday morning was the big dance contest–our friend, Cameron Mathison was there, along with Lonnie Quinn from the CBS Early Show. Now granted, I wasn’t up there shaking my money maker, but I thought the whole thing was a lot of fun. One of the contestants is a ballroom dancing instructor, one is a breakdance instructor,and the third, well, we’re pretty sure he’s someone’s private dancer. BgK told me he started to feel a lot like the girl in “Little Miss Sunshine”.

In the end, BgK came in fourth, but even fourth place came with a mighty big check (literally, and figuratively, if you think that he made that for 1 minute of dancing).

Saturday morning we went down to the live broadcast of the CBS Early Show, and there was a nice segment of all of the winning moves. We also saw a bit on Cirque Dreams, which was awesome, and saw the Manning brothers (who were kind of rude) as well.

We’re supposed to be getting some video of the whole thing–if we do, I’ll be sure to share

Next up: Our evening on Broadway!! (cue the SATC music!)

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Our trip was incredible and fun and went off without a hitch. We had a great time in Orlando, swimming and hanging out at the resort. MAM knows no fear in the water, as long as she’s armed with water wings. We found a pool with a gentle slide–she was thrilled to be able to do it “all by myself! I can do anything!” And yes, that is me, on the internet, in a swim suit. Just in case you were wondering.

Tuesday we headed out to Universal’s Islands of Adventure. The picture to the left is MAM and daddy on the train in Suess Landing.We spent a good portion of our time in Suess Landing, and my favorite part was the Cat in the Hat ride. I’d show you pictures, but big brother was watching, and announced over the speaker to BgK to put away his camera!

Conveniently, the Cat in the Hat ride exits straight into the Cat in the Hat gift shop. High on the spinning and the fun, we bought t-shirts for me, BgK, my dad, and MAM….and a bib for McBaby. My shirt actually says Thing 1 on the front, and Thing 2 on the back.

Next up: our crazy whirlwind weekend in NYC!

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