Snow Day Dance Party

We've been out of school for a full week and indoors for WAY TOO LONG. This called for a late night dance party with 2 of our favorite girls!

Rites of Passage

So it is day 6 of "Snowmageddon" (what the local news channels are calling the blizzard). We're up to about 9 new inches of snow from last night and today. I don't know what this brings the total to ... clearly more than we can handle.

While sledding in the back yard the other day, #1 got tired and stopped paying attention to stopping. He took a running start on our Black Diamond run and promptly smashed into the side of the house, earning himself his first bloody nose. Lots of tears, brushing the snow away, running for tissues ... I plopped down in the snow, put him in my lap and tipped his head back, pinched his nose and tried to downplay the entire thing. Of course I made sure he was OK, but I've learned that the more I react, the more he reacts ... so everything was cool. Somewhere in the middle of "look, it's not bleeding anymore" I said, "every boy gets a bloody nose. It's a rite of passage." And so started the discussion ... "What's a rite of passage, Mommy?" Lord help me when we continue this discussion in his teens ...

Today, while easing the need to climb the walls after his SIXTH day of being mostly inside, #1 builds an airplane/car transformer out of Legos and is running full speed up and down the hallway flying his airplane. ZOOOOOMMMM! RRRRRRRRRRR! ZOOOOOMMMM! RRRRRRRRR! CRASH! and Lego pieces all over the floor. As he's putting the pieces back together I hear this ...

"Are you OK little pilot? Good thing you were wearing your helmet. Your helmet kept your head on your body, so it's a good thing you put it on today. Don't worry about the crash, we'll fix the plane. This crash is a rite of passage."

The Blizzard of 2010

Is just about the greatest thing ever! 20+ inches in the city, ~30" in the suburbs. Nobody has a clue what to do with all of this snow, but while contemplating ... we went sledding in the backyard!

M-I-C ...

... K-E-Y ... M-O-U-S-E!

We survived our first trip to Walt Disney World.

Wow! It was a week. Fun, Fun, Fun! I was a little stressed out prior to leaving because I hadn't "researched" our trip and I only had 1 character meal reservation planned. Apparently, the general public is no longer allowed to show up at "the happiest place on earth" and have a good time. You must have a guide book, meals planned and reserved and have an autograph book for all characters to sign while you are there. I think it is BS.

I have been to Disney a lot, but haven't been in the last 20 years. A lot has changed, but the basics are still the same. It is a place where everyone, regardless of their actual age, is acting somewhere in the 2-10 year old range. Almost everyone is happy and the kids (all zillion of them) are so excited, it is fun to just watch. I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" way to do Disney and for us it was just best to let the boys take the lead. Sometimes we had to use bribery (i.e. if we go on the Haunted Mansion, you can have ice cream after), and other times we did the #2 dance (i.e. ride Dumbo, ride the Carousel, ride the Tea Cups and repeat). But over the course of the week we visited Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Magic Kingdom was the clear favorite and #2 would have stayed there all week if he had his say. #1 also liked Epcot, but only because he was tall enough to ride the really big kid rides. Hollywood Studios was a total bust for us. There is a cool Jedi training thing that kids can do next to the Star Wars ride, but since this family is all testosterone and no princesses there was little interest in Beauty and the Beast ... and the other shows were a little over their heads. The Indiana Jones stunt show was cool for seeing things blow up, but they didn't get that it wasn't real ... way more questions than just watching and enjoying. We were there for 5 days and did shorter trips each day ... next time if we are there for 5 days we will take day 3 OFF. Even "the happiest place on earth" can be WAY overstimulating and the kids were cross-eyed and wild and exhausted by the 3rd day.

Here are some of our highlights...